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- A batch of 100.02 Bitcoin mined in July 2010 moved on Oct. 7 after remaining untouched for more than 16 years.
- The transaction split the coins between two new addresses without identifying the owner or showing that the Bitcoin was sold.
- Galaxy Research identified the movement as involving unspent transaction outputs confirmed in Bitcoin block 970,379.
A batch of 100.02 Bitcoin mined in July 2010 moved on Oct. 7 after remaining untouched for more than 16 years. The coins were worth about $8.3 million around the time of the transfer, compared with only a few dollars when they were originally mined.
The transaction does not identify the owner or show that the Bitcoin was sold. Instead, the coins were split between two new addresses, with 10 BTC sent to one and about 90.02 BTC to the other.
Coins Had Remained Untouched Since 2010
The transfer was confirmed at 18:52 UTC in Bitcoin block 970,379. Galaxy Research identified the movement as involving unspent transaction outputs, or UTXOs, that had not moved since July 30, 2010.
“100.02 BTC ($8.55M) of UTXOs untouched since first received 2010-07-30 [. . .] just moved in block 970379.”
The Bitcoin can be traced back to two early mining rewards: 50.02 BTC originating from block 70,522 on July 26, 2010, and another 50 BTC from block 70,748 two days later. The dormant UTXOs themselves were later received on July 30.
Address Activity Does Not Change Coin Dormancy
The address associated with the dormant UTXOs was not completely inactive during the intervening years, although the specific 100.02 BTC remained unspent. Other Bitcoin linked to the address moved between 2015 and 2018.
Bitcoin tracks individual UTXOs rather than a single account balance. An address can therefore move some Bitcoin while leaving older coins untouched for years.
The latest transfer also does not provide evidence of liquidation. The two destination addresses had not sent the Bitcoin onward as of the latest available blockchain observations.
“Satoshi-Era” Does Not Mean Satoshi-Owned
The term Satoshi-era generally refers to Bitcoin mined during the network’s earliest years, when pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto was still active. It does not establish that Nakamoto mined or controlled these particular coins.
Bitcoin mining rewards were 50 BTC per block in 2010, compared with 3.125 BTC today following four halvings. The latest movement shows that coins created under that early reward structure can still become active more than a decade later without revealing who controls them or why they were transferred.
