3,500 'Sleeping Bitcoins' From 2011 Worth Over $60 Million Wake up After 11 Years of Slumber

On Nov. 11, amid the confusion concerning troubled crypto companies like FTX and Blockfi, 3,500 ‘sleeping bitcoins’ from a wallet created on Oct. 7, 2011, moved for the first time in over 11 years.

$60 Million Worth of 11-Year-Old Bitcoins Move Amid the Crypto Market Rout

A large string of so-called ‘sleeping bitcoins’ moved on Friday morning (ET) after remaining idle for more than 11 years. The 3,500 BTC worth over $60 million stemmed from seven different BTC addresses created on Oct. 7, 2011. It is the first large string of decade-old sleeping bitcoins to wake up in months.

The 3,500 bitcoins from 2011 were caught by Btcparser.com, and the owner of the seven different addresses did not spend any of the corresponding bitcoin cash (BCH) or bitcoinsv (BSV) tokens associated with the bitcoins.

The first 500 bitcoins from the batch of 3,500 derived from the address “1roet,” and it was confirmed at block height 762,676. The BTC address “1ueNd” also saw a 500 BTC transfer that was confirmed at block height 762,676. 500 bitcoin from “14x5C” got confirmed at block height 762,679, as did “1Es8m,” “1Hfpr,” and “1JziG.”

Not too long after that, the owner moved another 500 bitcoin from “17gTy,” which was confirmed at block height 762,684. Every address from the 3,500 BTC stash was created 4,053 days ago on Oct. 7, 2011. BTC was trading for just over $4 per unit on that day and closed the month at $3.27 per unit on Oct. 31, 2011. When the addresses were first created, the stash of 3,500 BTC was only worth $14,000.

We have no idea why the owner of the 3,500 BTC spent the coins 11 years later at BTC’s lowest value in two years. However, just because the bitcoins were spent doesn’t mean the coins were sold. In fact, all the coins moved from pay-to-pubkey-hash (P2PKH) to pay-to-script-hash (P2SH) and the bitcoins remain in single addresses.

In addition to the 3,500 bitcoins moved on Nov. 11, approximately 50 BTC from a wallet created on May 21, 2010, was moved for the first time in well over a decade. It’s the first 2010 block subsidy spent since August 2022. The owner of the 50 BTC from 2010 also did not spend any of the corresponding BCH and BSV attached to the coins.