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The anonymous Bitcoin whale is up over 600,000% from their 2011 purchase of BTC at $4.92.
A dormant Bitcoin (BTC) wallet holding over 1,037 Bitcoin — worth $31 million at current prices — has suddenly awoken after an 11-year slumber, transferring out its entire stash.
The 1037 BTC was transferred amid a Bitcoin price of $29,956 and took effect at block height 799701 — approximately 10:51 am UTC on July 22, according to BitInfoCharts.
The long-dormant address obtained the 1,037 BTC on April 11, 2012, when BTC's price was only $4.92, on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain stated on July 22. This means at the time, the stash was only worth around $5,108.
A BTC whale that has been dormant for 11 years transferred all 1,037.42 $BTC($37.8M) to a new address"bc1qtl" an hour ago.
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 22, 2023
The whale received 1,037.42 $BTC($5,107 at that time) on Apr 11, 2012, when the price was $4.92.https://t.co/k8ZmO5vc8X pic.twitter.com/xBaw2dQfY8
Data from blockchain aggregator Blockchair shows that wallet address “bc1qt180…” — which appears to be a fresh wallet — was the recipient of the $31 million.
The balance of the original Bitcoin wallet peaked at $71.6 million when BTC reached its all-time high price of $69,044 on November 10, according to cryptocurrency price platform CoinGecko.
The United States government has been one of the biggest BTC movers of late, having transferred out nearly 10,000 BTC — worth $299 million — out in a series of transactions on July 12 in relation to the Silk Road seizure.
It isn’t clear whether the transactions were sent to cryptocurrency exchanges or if it remains in the custody of the Justice Department.
On June 11, another mysterious Bitcoin whale moved 1,400 BTC — worth $36 million at the time — to a Pay-to-Taproot (P2TR) address. CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju believes the motive behind this transaction may have been to enhance privacy.
Earlier in April, another Bitcoin address transferred 2,071 BTC — worth $60 million — nearly 10 years after catching BTC at $663, according to Lookonchain.
Three months earlier, a massive $250 million transfer of 26,056 BTC was made by another Bitcoin address. At BTC’s all-time high, the wallet was worth more than $1 billion.
Related: Bitcoin’s dull price action ignites buying interest in LINK, FIL, SNX and THETA
Despite a few high-value transfers, over 55% of BTC hasn’t moved in over two years, according to a chart by on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, which was shared by cryptocurrency researcher Will Clemente:
Dormant Bitcoin is the best #Bitcoin
— Miklos Denkler (@MiklosDenkler) July 23, 2023
By @WClementeIII
https://t.co/RwcCWOdIod
BTC is currently priced at 30,082. While Bitcoin's price has increased 81.8% in 2023, it is still down 56.4% from its all-time high in November 2021, according to CoinGecko.
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The report by Glassnode also revealed that up to 60% of the transaction volume is in what it calls “profit dominance”, and long-term holders are the most likely to be in the green.
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has been on the decline again recently, but new insights from blockchain analytics firm Glassnode show that up to 75% of Bitcoin addresses are in profit.
In its Week-On Chain report published on Monday, April 11, Glassnode analyzed the number of Bitcoin wallets that are in profit and found that around 70% to 75% of addresses are seeing an unrealized profit, much higher than the 45% to 50% of addresses during the 2018 bear market.
Commenting on the findings, the Glassnode analysts added that the current bear market is nowhere near as bad as previous ones:
“The current bear market is not as severe as the worst phases of all prior cycles, with just 25% to 30% of the market being at an unrealized loss. It remains to be seen if further sell-side pressure will drive the market lower, and thus pull more of the market into an unrealized loss like prior cycles.”
The report further revealed that long-term holders of Bitcoin, those who have held for over 155 days, were the least likely to be at a loss. More than 67.5% of long-term holders are at an unrealized profit, whereas short-term holders, those who have held for less than 155 days, have seen only 7.88% make any gains.
Currently, the Bitcoin price is below $40,000 and dipped close to $39,000 in the last 24 hours, which has placed the asset back into bear market territory. The direction in which Bitcoin will head has some speculating a drop to $30,000, whilst other data shows traders attempting to push the price to $50,000.
The report also detailed that 58% of the volume on the Bitcoin network is in what it terms “profit dominance”, a metric that hasn’t been strongly observed since December 2021.
Glassnode added that bear markets typically see long periods of transaction volume that make a loss, and this reversal to profit dominance could be a sign that sentiment is shifting, with demand for Bitcoin able to buy the sell-side.
However, Glassnode writes, “given prices continue to struggle, it does suggest that the demand side remains somewhat lackluster and that investors are taking profits into whatever market strength can be found.”
The analysts added that the market has seen daily realized profits of around 13,300 BTC since mid-February whilst daily realized losses declined from around 20,000 BTC in January, to around 8,300 BTC last week.
Related: Bitcoin price dip to $39.2K places BTC back in 'bear market' territory
Whilst a large proportion of addresses and transactions see a profit, overall the amount of users on the Bitcoin network, and subsequently, the amount of transactions, is continuing to “languish” according to the analysts.
Transactions on the network are at around 225,000 daily transactions, a number similar to the 2018 to 2019 bear market. Transactions have climbed from mid-2021 but the analysts noted that “it is a far cry from the hype cycle observed during bull markets.”