14-Year Old Dormant Bitcoin Wallet Wakes Up To Crash BTC Price

The Bitcoin foray past its previous all-time high into new territory was short-lived as the crypto dipped in the hours after. On-chain data has shown an interesting scenario that contributed to selling pressure leading to the crash. According to Spot On Chain, a dormant Bitcoin address holding $67.1 million worth of Bitcoin recently came to life after 14 years of inactivity to sell all of its large holdings.

Bitcoin recorded a new all-time high of $69,200 during the week to surpass the previous record set in November 2021. This long-awaited Bitcoin milestone ignited a strong feeling of euphoria among crypto traders as it marked the first step to a six-digit Bitcoin price. However, this euphoria was short-lived as the new all-time high caused a wave of profit-taking among investors, which resulted in Bitcoin falling to $61,200 in the hours that followed.

On-chain data from Spot On Chain indicates that this crash was further exacerbated by a long-dormant Bitcoin whale. The whale address, which had remained inactive since 2010, woke up after the new Bitcoin all-time high to sell all of its holdings. 

According to Spot On Chain, the whale minted 1,000 BTC back in 2010 when the price was below $0.28. That would mean the Bitcoins were worth $280 at the time they were acquired. By the time they were sold on the crypto exchange Coinbase, the Bitcoins were worth $67,116 per coin, suggesting that the whale might have profited over $60 million.  

A dormant whale woke up after 14 years to deposit all 1,000 $BTC ($67.1M) to #Coinbase at $67,116 ~20 hours ago, allegedly contributing to the recent market crash!

The whale minted those $BTC in 2010 when the price was below $0.28, suggesting that the whale might just have taken… pic.twitter.com/VBj6VvzAuH

— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) March 6, 2024

The Bitcoin blockchain is home to many active and dormant whale addresses. The reactivation of old, dormant wallets containing massive amounts of BTC like this one tends to attract the interest of investors about who owns them. The reactivation of dormant addresses is impossible to predict, and not all of them indicate profit-taking. 

Bitcoin’s pullback after setting a new all-time high was anticipated by some expert traders. The crypto has since regained its footing after the dip and is now trading at $66,915. 

Most of the recent spike can be attributed to massive accumulation from traders and institutional inflow into Spot Bitcoin ETFs. Despite outflows from Grayscale’s ETF, the total net flow into the ETFs was $332 million yesterday. The total net flow since January 11 has now crossed over $8.895 billion. At the same time, Bitcoin whale transactions worth at least $100,000 now stand at $187 billion in the past seven days.