2010-Era Miner Wallet Suddenly Moves Large Bitcoin Stash

A group of early Bitcoin miner wallets suddenly came back to life on Thursday, transferring a total of 250 BTC — worth nearly $29.6 million at current prices — after remaining untouched for more than 15 years.

According to data from Arkham, the five wallets, each holding 50 BTC from block rewards mined in April 2010, sent all their coins to new addresses using the SegWit-enabled “bc1q” format. The original addresses used the legacy “1” prefix — a signature of Bitcoin’s early mining days when block rewards were still 50 BTC and the asset traded for only fractions of a cent.

Analysts from Lookonchain and Spotonchain flagged the unusual transactions on social media platform X, suggesting that the move to newer wallet formats could indicate a shift to more secure storage or asset consolidation.

Back in 2010, when those coins were mined, BTC was worth about $0.003, making a 50 BTC payout worth just around 15 cents. Mining costs were minimal — mostly limited to electricity and the use of basic CPUs. According to U.S. energy data from that year, the power cost of mining a single block likely didn’t exceed $1.