About 100 bitcoin mined when the cryptocurrency traded for pennies moved late Wednesday after sitting untouched for more than 16 years, carrying a value of roughly $8.5 million at current prices.
The 100.02 BTC arrived at an address on July 30, 2010, and remained there until a transaction confirmed at 18:52 UTC Wednesday, according to CoinDesk’s review of Bitcoin transactions. Galaxy Research, the research arm of cryptocurrency financial services firm Galaxy Digital, first flagged the movement on X.
Bitcoin traded around 6 cents when the address received the coins, putting their market value at approximately $6 at the time, according to historical pricing data from StatMuse. That comparison describes their appreciation, rather than what the holder paid or earned from a sale.
Old holdings attract attention because coins long absent from trading can become available to sell again. Some may have been treated as lost because nobody had spent them for years. A successful transfer shows someone still has access to spend them — although the public record does not reveal whether that person is the original owner or intends to cash out.
There is precedent for much larger holdings reaching the market. Galaxy confirmed in July 2025 that it sold more than 80,000 BTC for an early investor as part of an estate-planning strategy. Wednesday’s transfer is far smaller, and its records do not establish a sale.
The alert prompted questions online because the address had spent other bitcoin between 2011 and 2018.
Bitcoin records incoming payments separately, allowing a wallet to spend one payment while leaving another untouched.
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