Another bitcoin wallet containing millions of dollars worth of BTC has come out of dormancy. As time goes on, more and more of these wallets are being reactivated by their owners who have, for one reason or another, not transacted using these wallets for years despite having what is considered life-changing money in them. This one has not had any activity on it in over nine years and has now activated after a long stretch of dormancy.
Whale Wallet Activates
Whale Alert, a service that posts activity from wallets with large holdings, reported on Sunday that a dormant bitcoin wallet had reactivated. This wallet contained a total of 235 BTC, amounting to $11,114,901. The wallet had not seen any activity for 9.1 years and was reactivated in 2021. The wallet had moved a total of 100 BTC in a $4.7 million transaction.
💤 A dormant address containing 235 #BTC (11,114,901 USD) has just been activated after 9.1 years!https://t.co/TWnFkwIWfr
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) December 19, 2021
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The wallet which had sat for almost a decade without any activity had promptly gone on to carry out multiple transactions. In the next couple of hours, the wallet holder performed a couple of transactions that emptied out the balance of the wallet into another wallet and the balance now sits at zero.
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How Do Bitcoin Wallets Go Dormant?
There are a number of reasons why a bitcoin wallet would go dormant. One of those is in the event of the wallet holder losing the keys to the wallet. This can happen when a holder forgets that they have bitcoin or may be stored the keys somewhere they can no longer access it. It could take a while for a wallet holder to recover their keys and access said wallet.
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About 20% of all bitcoins are estimated to have already been lost due to users who have lost their keys or have died. There is also the speculation of people who have gone to jail may have had to wait till they got out to access their coins.
Finally, there are the super holders who have held out for years. These diamond hands got in early and have held their bitcoin through all of the ups and downs of the market. Now, they are reaping the rewards of their patience as they finally move their BTC after all these years.
Featured image from Nairametrics, chart from TradingView.com