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Long Dormant Bitcoin Whales Are Waking Up: What Is Going On?

On-chain data provider Arkham Intelligence flagged movements of early Bitcoin BTC/USD whales, who remained dormant for years.

What Happened: The data firm shows a Bitcoin whale who had been inactive for almost a decade and holds bitcoin worth $77 million, mined in the initial two months of the network’s existence transferring 5 BTC to Kraken. The whale continues to hold 1,215 BTC in his address.

The Bitcoin was mined back in February and March 2009, just a month after Bitcoin's launch. After several movements between 2011-2014, Bitcoin was held dormant for nearly 10 years, during which its value surged from $474,000 to over $80 million.

This whale became active approximately three weeks ago and has so far moved 10 BTC to Kraken in three separate transactions. This activity comes shortly after another early Bitcoin whale, who mined his Bitcoin around the same time, woke up after 15 years of dormancy to move 250 BTC, worth $15.95 million. The Bitcoin was moved from five addresses that were active in January 2009, the first month of its existence.

Why It Matters: There is no explanation to the sudden movement among Bitcoin whale wallets, adding to the intrigue and speculation surrounding these early investors.

One reason for such movements could be the expected potential bullish momentum for Bitcoin. Trader Crypto Vikings predicts bullish momentum for the next few months, with a target of $90,000 before the end of 2024.

For the short term, the trader expects a revisit of major trendline support, which would be the $62,000 level.

$BTC Update

I am bullish for next few months and believe we could reach 90k$ per bitcoin before end of this year.

Short term, we could revisit major trendline support at worst case which would be the 62k$ level else we may directly go up from here too so position accordingly. pic.twitter.com/cnfKd4NcjL — Crypto Vikings (@CryptoVikings07) September 25, 2024

What’s Next: The influence of Bitcoin as an institutional asset class is expected to be thoroughly explored at Benzinga’s upcoming Future of Digital Assets event on Nov. 19.