August has turned into a 'waking from the grave' for long-dormant bitcoins: coins untouched for over a decade suddenly appear on the network. Much of this activity stems from wallets created in 2014. However, something older happened on Tuesday: the site btcparser.com flagged a bitcoin address created 14 years and 8 days ago, from which a total of 212 $BTC were moved.
On Tuesday, at the current price of $64,761 per $BTC at the time of writing, the value of this hoard was $13.72 million. Back then, a single coin cost just $11.07 per unit, meaning this stash was valued at $2,346. Thus, if sold today, the owner would realize a profit of 584,725%.
Coldcard Vulnerability Opened the Door
This month has seen a steady stream of spends from dormant bitcoins, with significant batches of old coins 'waking up' almost daily.
One highly likely catalyst is the Coldcard vulnerability, which led to the theft of almost 2,000 $BTC from owners of hardware wallets using Coldcard devices and firmware. The wallets that suddenly started moving do not necessarily belong to those affected by the theft, and the August wave of activity may not be entirely due to alarmed 'old-timers' rushing to secure their coins.
$13.7 Million in Bitcoin Remains Consolidated for Now
This particular batch of 212 $BTC was moved from an outdated P2PKH (Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash) wallet, first created on August 10, 2012. The coins were then redirected to an unmarked Bitcoin Bech32 wallet. Currently, the $BTC is at this new Bech32 address after arriving in several batches. No blockchain explorer, including Arkham Intelligence and others, has linked this address to any known entity.
Until these coins reach an exchange or are moved again, the transfer of 212 $BTC serves as yet another reminder that the oldest bitcoin wallets are suddenly becoming active again.
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