According to WhaleAlert, a blockchain tracking tool that analyzes transactions across different blockchains, a dormant address containing $115.4 million worth of Bitcoin was brought back to life for the first time in more than a decade on Saturday.
Bitcoin was trading at just $440 ten years ago, meaning that the whales saw their wealth skyrocketing by more than 15,600%. At press time, the largest cryptocurrency is changing hands at $69,331 on the Bitstamp exchange, according to CoinGecko data.
The recently reactivated whale address has attracted significant interest from the cryptocurrency community, with crypto enthusiasts speculating about the possible reasons behind its sudden reawakening. Some argue that it could be a Bitcoin investor with a strong level of conviction (diamond hands). Others believe that the investor simply lost and then somehow managed to discover the keys to the Bitcoin fortune.
Notably, the activation of the $115 million Bitcoin address took place just days before the upcoming halving event which is going to reduce the block subsidy reward to 3.125 BTC. It is not clear whether these two events are somehow related. However, some social media users speculated that the whale might go on a selling spree before the halving event.
It is worth mentioning that the world has not heard from Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, since 2014. Back then, he quickly reappeared to debunk a Newsweek article about Dorian Nakamoto, a Japanese American who was falsely identified as the creator of Bitcoin.
There have been several large Bitcoin transactions that involve addresses from the Satoshi era. For instance, in 2022, a whale from 2013 moved more than $100 million worth of Bitcoin.