 
 
A long-dormant Bitcoin whale holding 445 BTC has woken up and transferred funds for the first time on Thursday morning after being dormant for 13 years — a period known as the Satoshi era after the pseudonymous Bitcoin creator.
Ancient Whale Stirs With 638,000% Profit
An outbound transaction, totaling around 137.03 BTC (worth $15.6 million), was started at 11.27 a.m. UTC, according to data from Mempool. The unknown whale moved roughly 132 BTC to a new wallet address and transferred 5 BTC to a Kraken deposit address, data from blockchain monitoring platform Arkham shows.
The remaining 307.79 BTC, valued at $35.1 million, are still in the original “1Q397” address, on-chain data shows.
The said whale received 312 BTC in 2012, at an average price of $12.22 per coin. At that time, the stash was worth just over $5,400. At today’s market rate, the same coins are valued at over $35 million.
The reason for the transfers remains unknown, as does the identity of the wallet’s ownership, though the smaller crypto exchange transfer could be indicative of selling.
 
Satoshi-era bitcoin whales are closely monitored by traders for market signals, particularly when the BTC in their wallets has not moved for a number of years.
The Satoshi era refers to a loose period between 2009 and 2011 when Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, was active in the community and BTC was generally priced in cents.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency was currently trading hands for around $114,403, according to CoinGecko data. The value of the Bitcoin belonging to the whale has grown significantly. From the under $6,000 invested in 2012, the wallet now boasts a multi-million-dollar stash — marking a profit of over 638,000%.
Dormant whales have been making big waves this year as the Bitcoin price has rocketed to new record highs after new record highs. The most notable movement happened in July after Galaxy Digital facilitated the sale of approximately 80,000 BTC for a Satoshi-era investor related to the client’s estate planning strategy. Though it was one of the largest notional BTC transactions ever, the liquidated crypto was quickly absorbed by the market.