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A Satoshi-era Bitcoin (BTC) holder has cashed out 965,517,137% in profits following a recent sell-off. CryptoQuant analyst Maartunn spotlighted the news, describing it as a "wild on-chain story of the day."
Old Bitcoin trader cashes out from BTC sales
Maartunn explained in an X post that a Bitcoin trader in the Satoshi era sold old coins that had not moved in years.
The wallet address originally held 13 BTC, and the owner has been systematically selling about 1 BTC per year since 2018.
Three days ago, the smart trader sold 1.02 BTC for roughly $84,000. These coins were mined in 2013 via Slush Pool, now Braiins, the very first mining pool ever created.
The realized price for those coins was $0.0087, less than one cent. Therefore, selling 1 BTC for about $84,000 means the trader gained more than 9.6 million times his initial investment. This translates to returns of 965,517,137%.
This trade is legendary on the market because the trader is an early miner who actually held and is now living the dream. They basically mined BTC when the difficulty was trivial, and electricity was the only cost.
The Satoshi-era holder never sold during the 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2021 bull runs. They also were not shaken out during bear markets.
Now, they are cashing out one single Bitcoin per year, and the remaining stack is still appreciating.
Institutions show less interest in BTC
Alongside the BTC sell-off by the old miner, institutions like BlackRock have continued to move their holdings.
On Monday, Nov. 24, BlackRock deposited 2,822 BTC into Coinbase Prime. The move appeared as another of its repeated sales attempts, sparking discussions across the crypto community.
Meanwhile, the latest sell-off attempt comes at a time when the market is showing signs of a potential rebound. The rapid price correction is slowing down as BTC recovered from the recent lows toward $87,500.
Despite the rebound, BlackRock is not willing to pause its selling streak. Just last week, the asset manager dumped more than $2 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Amid the market collapse, Strategy also failed to announce another BTC purchase. Famed short seller Jim Chanos has mocked Strategy Chairman Michael Saylor for this decision.
Chanos said Saylor did not buy Bitcoin following a major price correction, which appears to be counterintuitive.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team