This week, after Bitcoin briefly surged to a new high of $69,000, it quickly plummeted by nearly $10,000, causing leveraged investors to lose all their investments. Surprisingly, the trigger for this was an ancient miner.
In the midst of market speculation about the cause of this crash, the community discovered that according to data from CryptoQuant, around $69 million worth of 1,000 bitcoins were transferred from an address that had been dormant for 14 years to Coinbase, seemingly related to a miner.
Generally, when tokens that have been dormant for a long time are transferred to large cryptocurrency exchanges, it usually indicates the beginning of a sell-off. Bradley Park, an analyst at CryptoQuant, stated in a report, “Considering that the order book shows 5-10 bitcoins moving for every $100 change in price, selling 1,000 bitcoins could likely trigger a significant price drop.”
According to the transaction records of the address, it has been active since 2010 and has gone through several cycles over the past 14 years without any outgoing transactions, until Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of $69,000, which prompted the address to become active again.
Although there is no evidence to indicate that these bitcoins transferred to Coinbase have been sold, this mysterious address has sparked various speculations.
Some speculate that the owner of this address may have lost their mnemonic phrase and keys, forcing them to “hibernate.” After all, it is highly unlikely for most people to hold onto bitcoins from zero to $70,000 through multiple cycles.
Others speculate that before the sell-off, the address may have used leverage to short Bitcoin and then profit from selling a large amount of bitcoins at once. However, this speculation is less likely, considering the enormous market value of Bitcoin today and the wide range of interests and factors involved.
Interestingly, the community also speculates that this address may be one of the addresses belonging to the United States National Security Agency. It has been rumored that the U.S. government holds a significant amount of bitcoins through confiscation, leading to the belief that they chose to “unload their baggage” at the peak, which is a reasonable guess.
In addition, there is a striking speculation that this sale may also involve Satoshi Nakamoto himself. Although Satoshi Nakamoto’s true identity remains a mystery, the transactions of this Bitcoin OG have sparked speculation about whether Satoshi Nakamoto might sell bitcoins. After all, Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity has always been highly mysterious, and the movement of his addresses is one of the most dangerous “black swan events” in a bull market.
Apart from these speculations, the most common viewpoint and attitude expressed by the community regarding this address is to pay tribute to the Bitcoin OG.
“In a few years, this incident may be talked about like the Bitcoin pizza story.” Clearly influenced by the OG, the crypto industry still has great confidence in the price of Bitcoin. This firm belief and extraordinary patience are truly inspiring.
“Although I personally don’t advocate selling Bitcoin, this elder deserves our respect because he has experienced the entire journey of Bitcoin, including every market cycle, every bear market decline, and all the panic and massive fluctuations in wealth.” This is what a member of the Bitcoin community said.
More importantly, compared to the strategies of making quick money in the crypto industry today, the fact that “someone can hold onto Bitcoin from zero to $70,000 for 14 years” is more like a faith. Only with a solid belief in Bitcoin can we ultimately free Bitcoin from the troubles of centralization and distribute it more widely among the people. It is hard not to pay tribute to those who have experienced FUD and market cycle storms.
And if we go through four market cycles, perhaps we will also become tomorrow’s Bitcoin OGs. We are still early.
Related reports:
Reason for Bitcoin’s sharp drop? Dormant “Satoshi Nakamoto miner” sells 1000 BTC, making a profit of 240,000 times.
After 12 years of dormancy, “Satoshi Nakamoto miner” mines a thousand bitcoins in two weeks, increasing the value of BTC by 22,560 times.
Is Satoshi Nakamoto awake? Spending £1.17 million to purchase “26.9 BTC” from Binance and transfer it to the Bitcoin Genesis Wallet.