After years of inactivity, a crypto wallet containing millions of dollars in Bitcoin has reawakened. Whale Alert, which tracks the movement of huge cryptos, announced the activation of a wallet address that had been dormant since 2010.
The wallet which has been activated after more than 11 years contains 489 BTC, worth over $20 million dollars today. The last time the wallet saw some activity was in 2010, when the value of the Bitcoins contained was a mere $50. This is an increase of a whopping 40,484,400%!
Old Bitcoin wallets coming back to life?
While community members speculated over the sudden activation of the address, it wasn’t the first time that old hodlers brought their wallets back to life.
Whale Alert recently announced the activation of a wallet address that has been inactive since 2013. This battered wallet held 407 bitcoins, which were valued more than $15 million at the time of writing. In comparison to its worth in 2013, this was a nearly 4,000% increase in just eight years.
Although the holder’s identity was kept hidden, it didn’t stop the community from speculating. Given the wallet’s age, conspiracy theories about its origins become increasingly powerful. Some speculated that it belonged to Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s founder.
In addition to Bitcoin (BTC), in February, we saw an old Ethereum (ETH) wallet with almost $5 million worth of ETH being activated.
Now as to why these old wallets are springing back to life remains a mystery. It could be speculated that recent global developments, such as the Russia-Ukraine war, Joe Biden’s Executive Order on cryptocurrencies, global adoption, etc. could have pushed the wallet holder/holders into activity. However, one can never know in entirety. One thing that is for sure, is the fact that the wallet saw incredible gains over the decade. It sure does prove that hodling is the way to wealth.