Bitcoin Whale Moves $1.2 Million After 13 Years of Inactivity

More than $1.2 million in Bitcoin that had not budged for over 13 years just moved. 

A whale transferred the stash—50 BTC in total—to another wallet on Thursday, according to blockchain data. 

The coins were mined back in June 2010 and had been sitting still ever since. 

Previously untouched Bitcoin has been making movements lately: In April, a holder who hadn’t touched their coins for a decade moved $7.8 million-worth of Bitcoin to new wallets.

Just days later, another long-term investor (or investors) moved $11 million in so-called digital gold after 11 years of inactivity. 

Bitcoin “whales” are investors who hoard huge amounts of cryptocurrency, many of whom don’t touch it for years. It is not clear from blockchain data whether they are individuals, companies, or other entities. 

Kirill Kretov, a developer of tools for automated trading, told Decrypt that Bitcoin mined back in 2009-2010 was mainly “IT geeks” but added that it was also possible “some commercial entity acquired those wallets from individuals in some later years, preserving the status of those addresses in blockchain.”

Long-term “HODLers” are the most successful investors, while inexperienced retail investors who buy and sell crypto in the short-term largely lose out, according to research.

This is because over the long-term, Bitcoin—despite its volatility—has significantly increased in value. A decade ago, the asset was priced at under $100 per coin. 

If you’re a short-term investor, Bitcoin has taken a beating today—it’s priced at $25,028 per coin, down 3.7% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko, and nearly 7% in the past week. The asset has taken the rest of the crypto market with it and major altcoins like Ethereum and Cardano have plunged in price as investors weigh up what to do with the Federal Reserve’s latest decision to not hike interest rates. 

But the biggest cryptocurrency by market cap is still up nearly 25,000% in 10 years, making the long-term hold strategy a winner for investors.