According to blockchain data firm Arkham Intelligence, an ancient Bitcoin whale has sold a total of $9.7 million worth of Bitcoin.
The whale started mining Bitcoin shortly after the creation of the genesis block, the very first block on the blockchain.
Even after the significant selling spree, the whale still has a total of $72 million worth of BTC left.
Alex DovbnyaThe miner had spent two months moving BTC to the Kraken exchange, according to earlier reports made by Arkham.
Back in 2009, the very first Bitcoin adopters could mine the cryptocurrency by simply using their computers. The number of blocks that a personal computer could mine would depend on many factors, but it was possible for an individual miner to generate 3,000 BTC per day since the mining difficulty was 1. Before the first halving event, the block reward was set at 50 BTC.
In 2010, more miners joined the network, which resulted in a substantial increase in mining difficulty. This made it more challenging to mine Bitcoin with a personal computer.
Ancient whale addresses dating back all the way to 2009 are extremely rare, which is why there is always some speculation about whether Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of Bitcoin, could be behind the recent activity.
Arman Shirinyan
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin