The crypto market was surprised to find that an 11-year-old Bitcoin wallet from early 2009 – just after the cryptocurrency’s launch – is now moving BTC.
This has sparked a plethora of theories to emerge regarding whether or not it is Satoshi himself – or one of his associates – that is moving the cryptocurrency.
News of this wallet moving its decade-old Bitcoin has also triggered some concerns that the cryptocurrency could soon see a massive torrent of selling pressure placed on it by whoever may own this wallet.
This has caused Bitcoin’s price to see a slight decline, which could be perpetuated if any further BTC is moved from this wallet addresses.
Bitcoin Declines Slightly as a 2009 Wallet Moves 50 BTC
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading down roughly 1% at its current price of $9,600. This marks a slight decline from daily highs of $9,800 that were set just before news of the 50 BTC transaction broke.
The reason why this is concerning to some investors is because it is unclear as to why an original Bitcoin wallet address would be moving BTC now after 10 years of inactivity.
Joseph Young, a popular cryptocurrency analyst and journalist, spoke about the development in a recent tweet, questioning why someone would suddenly be moving this BTC despite there being no notable changes or developments within the market.
“50 BTC from Feb 2009 is moving. That’s just one month after first bitcoin block was mined. There is not a lot of people who can do this, perhaps close associates of Satoshi. My question is why, not who, is sending 50 BTC for the first time in more than 10 years.”
Young further went on to add that there may have been a few Bitcoin miners existing in 2009, with this wallet potentially belonging to one of them.
“Some say that there were a few bitcoin miners back in 2009 as well, and it could be an OG miner sending some BTC around.”
Wallet Owner Splits BTC Into Micro-Transactions
According to on-chain data from Blockchair, it appears that the wallet’s owner split the transaction in two, sending 40 BTC initially followed by another 10 BTC transaction.
Blockchain data and analytics firm Glassnode spoke about the transaction, explaining that they have found that minor amounts of the BTC was sent to Coinbase and CoinPayments.
“According to our information minor amounts of this Bitcoin transaction have moved into to Coinbase (0.004 BTC) and CoinPaymentsNET (0.003 BTC).”
According to our information minor amounts of this #Bitcoin transaction have moved into to @coinbase (0.004 BTC) and @CoinPaymentsNET (0.003 BTC).https://t.co/bJQoZbdSJ9
— glassnode (@glassnode) May 20, 2020
NewsBTC will continue providing regular updates as any new information regarding this wallet emerges.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
