Dormant Bitcoin Whales Reactivate, Shifting Over $2B Worth of BTC After 14-Year Silence

Just as a giant whale’s movement stirs waves across the ocean, large on-chain transactions by major bitcoin (BTC) holders — known as crypto whales — often ripple through the market, sparking speculation about possible sell-offs and price swings.

Early Friday, two bitcoin wallets labeled “12tLs…xj2me” and “1KbrS…AWJYm” transferred a total of 20,000 BTC, worth over $2 billion, to new blockchain addresses. The transactions were first highlighted by blockchain tracker Whale Alert and later shared by Lookonchain.

These two addresses originally acquired the bitcoin on April 3, 2011, when BTC was trading for roughly $0.78. At current prices above $109,000 per bitcoin, the holdings have soared more than 140,000 times in value — giving the whales considerable reason to consider cashing out.

Many longtime BTC holders have begun selling portions of their stacks since bitcoin breached the $100,000 level in May.

However, on-chain data reveals that the recent 20,000 BTC movement went into fresh wallets not linked to exchanges and those addresses have remained untouched since receiving the funds. So far, there’s no clear indication that the whales plan to liquidate their holdings anytime soon.

It’s still uncertain whether these movements signal a potential sell-off or if the whales are simply reorganizing their holdings after over a decade of inactivity.