80,000 BTC moved: What does this mean?
On July 4, 2025, eight Satoshi-era Bitcoin wallets moved a total of 80,000 BTC. Each wallet contained 10,000 BTC, sparking inevitable turmoil in the cryptocurrency space.
The Satoshi era is generally considered to span the years 2009 to 2011. During that time, Bitcoin could either be transacted or mined with regular computer processors. Eight dormant Bitcoin wallets each sent a transaction of about 10,000 BTC recently. This has led to speculation that threats from quantum computing caused the transfers.
The coins weren’t sent straight to cryptocurrency exchanges. They went to new SegWit addresses, which suggests a security upgrade. SegWit addresses are thought to be securer against quantum threats than older ones. The old addresses use pay-to-public-key (P2PK) or reused P2PK hash (P2PKH), which are more vulnerable.
Some posts on X suggested that the transfer might show a security breach or quantum worries. However, these claims lack evidence and seem speculative.
Between July 14 and July 15, 2025, only 10 days after the large movement, the wallet owner sent a total of 28,600 BTC, now valued at over $3 billion, to Galaxy Digital. So far, 9,000 BTC has been sold, probably triggering a downtrend on July 15, when BTC dropped roughly 5% from its most recent all-time high of $123,000.
Did you know? Bitcoin’s price in 2011 fluctuated between $0.78 and $3.37 when the whale purchased Bitcoin. At an average of $2.45 per Bitcoin, the 80,000 BTC would have cost the whale an initial investment of $197,200. At today’s price of roughly $118,000, the whale’s BTC is worth $9.44 billion, an increase of approximately 4,800,000%.