On Tuesday, as the price of Bitcoin was comfortably above $110,000, holding at $113,850 at 4 PM Eastern Time, a long-time holder transferred 1,100 BTC - worth $125.23 million - for the first time in over eight years.
Long-Dormant Bitcoin Assets Resurface
After last month's record spending, the dormant Bitcoin is continuing to stir in August. On August 5, btcparser.com discovered a once-silent 'whale' holding coins purchased on January 17, 2017, January 22, 2017, and June 24, 2017, activated 11 wallets containing 100 BTC each. The old Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash (P2PKH) wallets sent this amount to 11 completely new Pay-to-Witness-Public-Key-Hash (P2WPKH) addresses.
As of the time of writing this article, the amount worth $125.23 million remains intact in these new wallets. Notably, the owner transferred the related Bitcoin Cash (BCH) back on January 17, 2018, when this entity moved approximately 3,000 BCH at that time. The new P2WPKH addresses created were discovered on August 5, 2025, each holding approximately $11.37 million, equivalent to exactly 100 BTC.
On January 17, 2017, the price of BTC was around $899.66 per coin, and by the end of June 2017, its price mostly fluctuated between $2,400 and $2,700. By the end of that month, the owner's 1,100 coins were worth about $2.97 million — a stark contrast to the current figure of $125.23 million. By holding this amount for over eight years, the holder's value has increased 42 times, equivalent to a 4,117% increase compared to the US dollar.
The wave of Bitcoin trading that surged last month was significant, with at least 80,000 coins sold in the open market. However, many transactions — possibly the 1,100 BTC transaction on Tuesday between blocks 908768 and 908773 — appeared to be about consolidating funds into wallets using the new address format. These updated formats are said to provide enhanced features and stronger security, including improved signatures and defenses against transaction malleability.
Eye-catching headlines about potential advancements in quantum computing may further drive this change.