Dormant Bitcoin wallets move 100 BTC as 2010 mining rewards resurface

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Dormant Bitcoin wallets move 2010 rewards

Highlights

Two dormant Bitcoin wallets moved 100 BTC mined in September 2010, worth over $6.9 million at current prices, after over 13 years of inactivity.
Both wallets used legacy P2PK format for the transfer, consolidating 59 BTC to a new 'bc1qj5' SegWit address, indicating a shift to updated wallet structures.
Similar movement of early-mined coins has occurred recently, including a March 2024 transfer of 2,000 BTC from 2010 rewards valued at nearly $140 million.

Transfer pattern and wallet activity

As first reported by The Block, citing Whale Alert, the two addresses moved their funds just over two minutes apart, with each transfer splitting coins across two destination addresses before part of the balances were later consolidated. The first address sent nearly 50 BTC to one address and 0.01 BTC to another at 4:08 a.m. UTC, while the second sent nearly 49 BTC to one address and 1 BTC to another shortly after.

Data from blockchain explorer Mempool shows both sets of coins originated from 50 BTC block rewards mined in September 2010. By 4:48 a.m. UTC, around 20 BTC from the first transfer and 39 BTC from the second had been combined at a new address beginning with "bc1qj5", while about 30 BTC remained at another new address starting "bc1qqs", 10 BTC at "bc1qds", and 1 BTC at "bc1qce".

The motive for the transactions, the identity of the wallet owners, and whether both original outputs belong to the same holder remain unclear. At roughly $69,000 per bitcoin, the transferred holdings have appreciated more than 1.15 million times from their estimated value in 2010.

Shift to newer address formats

Mempool labels both 50 BTC inputs as pay-to-public-key, or P2PK, an older transaction format used in Bitcoin's early years. The recipient wallets created on Friday all begin with "bc1q", indicating newer native SegWit, or P2WPKH, addresses, a pattern often associated with holders moving legacy coins into updated wallet structures.

Older Bitcoin address formats also include pay-to-public-key-hash addresses starting with "1" and pay-to-script-hash addresses starting with "3", while the latest Taproot format begins with "bc1p". Similar transfers have appeared before, including five 50 BTC block rewards mined in April 2010 that moved to two SegWit addresses in July 2025 after roughly 15 years of inactivity, and a March 2024 transaction that combined 40 mining rewards from 2010 totaling 2,000 BTC worth nearly $140 million.

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