Bitcoin wallet dormant for six years moves all 4,582 BTC to five new addresses

A bitcoin address that had held 4,582 BTC for more than six years and seven months moved its entire balance early on Oct. 13. According to bitcoin blockchain records, the address "18VmXv" (18VmXvkF4cgLi35RtMiHHDpvMjUCyVpQ9x) sent 4,581.94 BTC to five new addresses in a transaction included in block 971,126 at 3:37 a.m. KST on Oct. 13. At the Binance price just before the move, about $82,400, the coins were worth roughly $378 million.

Held since March 3, 2020

The coins arrived at the address on March 3, 2020. Another address (17VX1B…) split its 5,081.95 BTC that day, sending 4,581.95 BTC here and the remaining 500 BTC to two other addresses in lots of 250. Bitcoin closed at $8,760 on Binance that day, putting the coins' value at about $40.1 million. The address's history since then:

1. March 3, 20204,581.95 BTC received
2. March 13, 2020Bitcoin fell as low as $3,782 on Binance in the COVID crash; the coins stayed put
3. Aug. 8, 2024First outgoing transaction: 0.009 BTC sent to another address, the rest returned to the same address
4. Oct. 13, 2026, 03:37 KSTAll 4,581.94 BTC moved to five new addresses

The August 2024 transaction sent out only 0.009 BTC. Since then the address has received a number of tiny deposits of around 546 satoshis (0.00000546 BTC) from other people, but the Oct. 13 transfer was only the second outgoing transaction from the address.

Tracing the coins back leads to July 20, 2019 (KST). That day, the address 17VX1B… received 5,081.95 BTC in a single transaction and held them for seven and a half months before splitting them three ways on March 3, 2020. The two addresses that received 250 BTC each did not hold for long. One sent all its coins on to other addresses three days later, on March 6, and the other on April 25. Of the coins split that day, only the 4,582 BTC stayed in one place for more than six years, until this week.

Every bitcoin transaction is public on the blockchain, so anyone can view an address's deposits and withdrawals. The records do not, however, show who owns an address. When long-dormant coins move, the market tends to focus on whether the owner is preparing to sell or simply changing how the coins are stored.

Four lots of 1,000 and one of 582

The transaction had one input and five outputs. Four new addresses received exactly 1,000 BTC each, and one received 581.94 BTC. There was no change output back to the original address, leaving its bitcoin balance at effectively zero. The transaction fee was 732 satoshis, less than $1.

All five receiving addresses begin with "bc1q," the SegWit format. These addresses use SegWit, a bitcoin upgrade introduced in 2017, and typically carry lower transaction fees than the original addresses starting with the number 1. None of the five addresses had been used before this transaction. The blockchain records alone do not show whether they are exchange deposit addresses or new wallets created by the same owner.

The five addresses have not moved the coins

As of 5:30 p.m. KST on Oct. 13, all five addresses still held the coins they received, with no pending transactions. Compared with their value on arrival in March 2020, the coins are worth about 9.4 times as much. The owner of the address has never been publicly identified. If any of the five addresses sends coins to an exchange deposit address, that transfer will also be recorded on the blockchain.

In the 3 a.m. hour on Oct. 13, when the coins moved, bitcoin traded between $82,312 and $82,554 on Binance's hourly chart. Later that day it fell as low as $81,033 in the 9 a.m. hour before climbing to $83,600 in the noon hour.

113.39 million won on Upbit, kimchi premium at 1.27%

At 5:30 p.m. KST on Oct. 13, bitcoin traded at 113,385,000 won on Upbit's Korean won market and 113,409,000 won on Bithumb. At the Upbit price, the 4,581.94 BTC moved this week are worth about 519.5 billion won. Binance's price at the same time was $83,950, and Upbit was about 1.27% more expensive than the Binance price converted into won (about 111.97 million won). This difference, which shows how much higher prices are on Korean exchanges than on global markets, is known as the kimchi premium.

The funding rate on Binance's bitcoin perpetual futures (a fee exchanged between long and short positions to keep futures prices in line with spot) was 0.0081% per eight hours, meaning longs were paying a small amount to shorts.