Ancient’ Bitcoin Whale Who Mined Millions Just After Genesis Moves BTC to Exchange

In the beginning, Satoshi created Bitcoin, and it was good… but nobody used it. That’s why it’s especially strange that someone who mined a huge stash of Bitcoin only one month after it was created just moved a large chunk of it to a crypto exchange, after not having touched it for over a decade.

The “ancient” Bitcoin whale, first identified by crypto analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, moved nearly $3.6 million worth of Bitcoin to crypto exchange Kraken, according to blockchain data.  The mysterious holder has over 1,189 Bitcoins worth close to $77 million at today’s prices, according to Arkham.

Arkham first pointed out the whale on X (formerly Twitter) when the whale started moving their Bitcoin to Kraken last month after leaving it idle for 10 years. They again on Thursday sent another chunk of five Bitcoins to the exchange, Arkham said. Kraken is one of America’s biggest crypto exchanges. 

The coins were minted during what is known as the “Satoshi-era” of Bitcoin, just after the network went live in January 2009 when the first “genesis” block was mined by Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

A whale in crypto jargon refers to a person or entity sitting on huge amounts of Bitcoin. It’s often the case that such investors don’t move their cryptocy for years.  Whales like the one Arkham pointed out today sit on astronomical gains: the price of Bitcoin held by this particular holder has risen over 16,700% in 10 years. 

Big whale movements can spook investors who sometimes interpret that the holder is about to cash in on their gains. Bitcoin is still an illiquid market by traditional finance standards, and a big sale of the cryptocy can have significant downward pressure on the price of Bitcoin.