Approximately 100 bitcoin BTC$82,470.75 acquired when the cryptocurrency was worth mere cents shifted late Wednesday following more than 16 years of inactivity, reaching an approximate value of $8.5 million based on current rates.
The 100.02 BTC reached a destination address on July 30, 2010, staying put until a transfer achieved confirmation at 18:52 UTC Wednesday, according to CoinDesk’s examination of Bitcoin transactions. Galaxy Research, the analytics division belonging to digital asset financial institution Galaxy Digital, initially highlighted the transfer via X.
Bitcoin traded close to 6 cents when the wallet acquired the digital tokens, establishing a worth of about $6 back then, based on historical pricing figures from StatMuse. That contrast illustrates their growth instead of what the owner originally spent or generated through a disposal.
Dormant reserves draw scrutiny because tokens absent from trading for a long time can become liquid once more. Certain holdings might have been presumed lost since no one spent them over the course of years. A successful movement proves an individual still maintains the capacity to spend them, although public ledgers fail to disclose whether that party represents the initial proprietor or plans to liquidate.
Precedents exist for substantially larger stashes entering the open market. Galaxy verified in July 2025 that it disposed of more than 80,000 BTC on behalf of a legacy investor as part of an asset-management framework. Wednesday’s transaction remains considerably smaller, and its associated logs do not confirm any liquidation.
Vintage coins, active wallet
The notification triggered online inquiries because the wallet had spent other bitcoin across the 2011 to 2018 timeframe.
Bitcoin protocols log incoming transfers independently, permitting a wallet to spend a specific deposit while keeping another untouched. Such unspent deposits are designated as UTXOs. Consequently, an address can stay operational while specific portions of its tokens remain stationary for years, exactly as occurred here.
The wallet spent 200 BTC through a pair of transfers during August 2015, another 100 BTC in December 2017, alongside 249 BTC in March 2018. The separate 100.02 BTC transfer originating from July 2010 stayed unspent throughout.
“This wallet has demonstrated some activity previously, yet these specific coins have remained stationary since 2010. We track the coins,” Galaxy Research mentioned on X.
CoinDesk traced that specific transfer directly to a pair of mining payouts generated in July 2010, with one valued at 50 BTC and the additional 50.02 BTC inclusive of fees. Miners, representing the computing nodes vying to append transactions onto Bitcoin, obtained 50 newly minted coins per block during that period.
The digital assets originate from the “Satoshi era,” when Bitcoin’s anonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto remained engaged. Their timeline does not establish any association with Nakamoto.
Wednesday’s transaction merged the legacy stash alongside six minimal subsequent deposits, routing 10 BTC to a single destination and roughly 90.02 BTC to another. Both reserves remained unspent when CoinDesk checked Thursday morning.
Read More: Bitcoin wallets untouched for 10 years moved $40 million worth of coins
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2026/10/08/bitcoin-mined-for-pennies-in-2010-moves-after-16-years-now-worth-usd8-5-million.
