Are you there, Satoshi? $ 26 million of Bitcoin moved from wallet inactive for 9 years

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An address containing over $ 26 million worth of bitcoin has just been activated after being put on hold for just over nine years, sparking wild speculation.

The transaction was spotted earlier this week by Whale Alert, a popular blockchain tracker that tweets and reports significant moves in cryptocurrency wallet activity.

The mystery address contained 740 bitcoins (valued at approximately $ 26,147,621, as of July 15, 2021) and reportedly transferred some 640 bitcoins ($ 21,104,060) to another wallet on July 12, 2021. When this address went Last used around 9.1 years ago, the bitcoin pile would have been worth around $ 10,000.

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While this amount of money may be enticing to most, Whale Alert regularly sees millions of dollars in cryptocurrency transferred here, there, and everywhere. The significance of this activity is that this address has been inactive for just over nine years, just three years after bitcoin’s launch, suggesting that the owner (s) of the address were the first to embrace cryptocurrency.

There have even been ironic suggestions that this activity could be the movements of the enigmatic creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the alleged pseudonymous person (s) who created bitcoin. This or these people have acquired an almost legendary status since the advent of bitcoin. While many have claimed to be Satoshi, most would agree that their identity remains a mystery or at least uncertain. Whoever they are, they are said to be in possession of over a million bitcoins, worth over $ 31.8 billion as of July 15, 2021.

There is, however, no hard evidence to link this recent activity to Satoshi. While this address may have been one of the earliest bitcoin miners, there were a number of people who mined alongside Satoshi during bitcoin’s early years.

Others have joked if this activity was the result of an early bitcoin user remembering their wallet password after years of anxiety and conflict.

The past few months have seen equally mysterious activity on the part of old-school bitcoin whales, especially after the crash earlier this year. In June 2021, another address that has been inactive for almost nine years is said to have shipped around $ 34 million worth of bitcoin to another wallet.

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