Dormant Bitcoin From 2010 Moves After 16 Years, Sparking Satoshi Speculation

A total of 600 Bitcoin worth roughly $48 million moved from addresses that had remained untouched for more than 16 years, immediately sparking renewed speculation about a possible connection to Bitcoin’s mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. Blockchain tracking platform Whale Alert identified the funds as originating from twelve separate mining reward blocks, all dating back to March 2010.

Despite the timing coinciding with a period when Nakamoto remained actively involved in Bitcoin’s development, researchers at Whale Alert stated clearly that none of the blocks involved could be linked to Nakamoto based on their analysis, helping temper widespread speculation about the coins’ true origin.

Coins Date to Bitcoin’s Earliest Mining Era

Each of the twelve rewards originated from a period when miners received a full 50 BTC subsidy per block, a reward structure that has since been reduced multiple times through Bitcoin’s periodic halving events, most recently dropping to just over three BTC per block in 2024. This latest movement builds on earlier findings from another blockchain analytics platform, which had previously identified a smaller portion of the same dormant coins moving after a similarly long period of inactivity.

Satoshi-Era Coins Don’t Necessarily Mean Satoshi’s Coins

The movement drew significant attention primarily because the coins were mined during Nakamoto’s active involvement with the Bitcoin project, a period that continued through 2010 before their eventual withdrawal from public communication the following year. Analysts noted that one of the addresses moved its funds slightly ahead of the others, a pattern researchers suggested was consistent with a small test transaction preceding the larger transfer of the remaining dormant holdings.