Historic ‘Satoshi Era’ Shift: Eight Bitcoin Wallets Move 80,000 BTC

Over $8 Billion in Bitcoin From ‘Satoshi Era’ Moves in Record-Breaking Transfers

On Friday, more than $8 billion worth of bitcoin mined during the network’s early “Satoshi era” shifted wallets, marking the largest known transfer of coins from that historic period.

These bitcoins come from a rare category of assets tied to transactions between 2009 and 2011, when bitcoin’s mysterious founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, was still active in the community.

According to CoinDesk, two wallets that had been inactive for over 14 years each transferred 10,000 BTC to new addresses early Friday. Those bitcoins were originally received on April 3, 2011, when the price of bitcoin was merely $0.78.

At today’s valuation, each of those wallets holds bitcoin now worth over $1.1 billion—a phenomenal rise exceeding 13.9 million percent since the coins were first acquired.

The bitcoins trace back to a wallet labeled “1HqXB…gDwcK,” which distributed 23,377.83 BTC to three separate addresses back in 2011. Two of those addresses—“12tLs…xj2me” and “1KbrS…AWJYm”—retained the majority of those funds until this week, while the third, containing 3,377 BTC, spent its holdings later in 2011.

Later on Friday, blockchain analytics firm Arkham revealed that six more wallets had moved over 10,000 BTC in rapid succession. Altogether, these movements added up to more than $8.6 billion at current market prices.

Arkham’s data indicates that all eight wallets could be controlled by a single entity, although no person or organization has stepped forward to confirm ownership as of early Saturday in Asia.

The recently shifted bitcoins have been placed into new wallets that use modern, lower-fee address formats. None of those fresh wallets has moved the funds further, leaving the identity of the holder—and their intentions—uncertain.

Wallets from the Satoshi era are considered highly valuable and significant in the crypto community. Such wallets rarely see activity and are closely watched by traders, since large transfers or sales could signal shifts in sentiment from some of bitcoin’s earliest adopters.