1,000 Bitcoin From 2010 Worth $68M — Mystery Whale Returns Moving a String of 20 Decade-Old BTC Block Rewards

154 days ago, a mystery bitcoin mining entity spent a string of 20 block rewards from 2010 that sat idle for well over a decade. Our newsdesk has been investigating this bitcoin whale’s actions since catching the entity in 2020. Now after the June 9th appearance, on November 10, the mystery whale returned once again to spend another 1,000 bitcoin stemming from 20 block rewards mined more than ten years ago.

1,000 ‘Sleeping Bitcoins’ Worth $68 Million From 2010 Wake After a Decade of Hibernation

Last year, following the market carnage on March 12, 2020, otherwise known as ‘Black Thursday,’ Bitcoin.com News discovered a large whale spending 20 consecutive block rewards in a row stemming from blocks mined way back in 2010. From here, similar to Herman Melville’s Captain Ahab, our investigation led our newsdesk to discover a myriad of whale sightings, as large quantities of 2010 bitcoin (BTC) block reward strings were spent in 2020 and 2021 as well.

According to our timeline, the entity spent 20 decade-old bitcoin block rewards on March 12, 2020, October 11, 2020, November 7, 2020, November 8, 2020, December 27, 2020, January 3, 2021 (Bitcoin’s 12th anniversary), January 10, 2021, January 25, 2021, February 28, 2021, March 23, 2021, and June 9, 2021. Now, five months later, on November 10, 2021, the mystery whale has once again transferred 20 decade-old bitcoin block rewards, spending 1,000 BTC at block height 709,029.

The 1,000 bitcoins from 2010 transferred on November 10 were discovered by a Bitcoin blockchain parsing tool Bitcoin.com News leverages called Btcparser.com. The 20-block-reward spend took place on early Wednesday morning at a touch after 1:30 a.m. (ET). The transfer of the 1,000 so-called ‘sleeping bitcoins’ also followed the exact same patterns as the whale’s previous spends indicating that it is likely the same bitcoin mining entity.

These particular block rewards were mined in 2010 during the months of August, September, and October. Another similarity is the fact that this miner has spent the corresponding bitcoin cash (BCH) tied to the original 2010 bitcoin (BTC) addresses. The 1,000 BCH was transferred at Bitcoin Cash block height 713,430. The BCH was spent roughly an hour after the BTC was transferred and the bitcoinsv (BSV) tied to the coins remain idle. The mystery 2010 mining whale has followed this routine during every single 20-block-reward string spend.

Whale Is Possibly Transferring to an Escrow Account or Coins Could Be Held as ‘Virgin Bitcoins’ for VIP Exchange Clients

Furthermore, the whale then consolidated the 1,000 BTC into one address (just like all the times before) and the coins are then distributed into wallets with 10 BTC each. The whale also consolidated the 1,000 BCH and then the coins were split into batches of 50 BCH per wallet. Speaking with Bitcoin.com News, the creator of Btcparser.com believes the coins might be going to an escrow account. “That P2SH address looks like an escrow account,” he said. “When bitcoins are received, the previous owner gets paid and later the new owner begins his distribution among many 10 BTC wallets,” the onchain researcher added.

The distribution also looks like the coins could have been transferred to an exchange. On January 27, 2021, Bitcoin.com News and other onchain researchers assumed it was possible that Coinbase was the final receiver of these ‘forgotten bitcoins’ from 2010. Essentially, the batches of 10 BTC could be held by an exchange and referred to as “pockets for withdrawal.”

The coins could possibly be held for the crypto exchange’s VIP user base as the coins are considered ‘virgin bitcoins.’ There’s been a longstanding rumor that ‘virgin bitcoins’ can fetch a premium of more than 20% above the spot price. ‘Virgin bitcoins’ are coins that have been mined but have never been associated with other transactions and bitcoins tethered to unfavorable actions.

The cryptocurrency community has no idea who the 2010 miner is but it is quite clear the entity mined a great quantity of bitcoin in the early days. Today’s transaction of 1,000 so-called ‘sleeping bitcoins’ was worth $68.4 million at the time of transfer and the bitcoin cash (BCH) spend was worth $712,070.

It’s also worth noting that the terms “spent” or “spend” in this article, do not necessarily mean that the bitcoins were “sold” to a third party for fiat or another crypto asset. The string of 20 block rewards and the 1,000 bitcoins sifted into wallets with 10 BTC per wallet could very well still belong to the original owner.