Bitcoin miner from 2009 sends BTC to Kraken

A Bitcoin wallet containing coins mined just two months after Bitcoin’s launch has become active again after over a decade of dormancy. On September 24, blockchain intelligence firm Arkham reported that this whale wallet, which mined Bitcoin in February and March 2009, has moved five bitcoins to the crypto exchange Kraken.

This wallet is significant as it dates back to the early days of Bitcoin, when the cryptocurrency was virtually worthless. After making initial transactions in its first few years, the wallet remained inactive until now.

Currently, the wallet holds 1,215 BTC, valued at over $77 million. Remarkably, when the owner last moved the coins in 2014, the total value was around $474,000. The dramatic increase in Bitcoin’s price over the past decade has significantly boosted the wallet’s worth, illustrating the remarkable rise of BTC from its nascent stages to a substantial asset today.

Interestingly, this whale has been active for about three weeks, transferring a total of 10 BTC to Kraken through three separate transactions. This wallet, like others from Bitcoin’s early days, was created while Satoshi Nakamoto was still actively mining and participating in the ecosystem, making its activity particularly captivating for the BTC community.

Just last week, another Satoshi-era wallet became active, transferring nearly $16 million in BTC after being dormant for over 15 years. This follows a pattern of long-dormant wallets awakening: in August 2024, a wallet from 2014 moved over $10.2 million in BTC, and in June, a wallet inactive since 2010 transferred $3 million to the crypto exchange Binance.

These recent movements from historic wallets continue to spark intrigue and speculation within the Bitcoin community, as they highlight the long-term potential of early-mined coins and their evolving value over time.