Satoshi-Era Bitcoin Worth $8.3 Million Moves After 16 Years of Dormancy
Key Takeaways
- •The 100.02 BTC were mined in late July 2010, when the entire stash was worth roughly $29, and its value has grown more than a millionfold since then.
- •The transaction was confirmed in block 970,379, sending 10 BTC to one new address and 90.02 BTC to another, both in the modern bc1q format, for a fee of about $1.22.
- •Galaxy Research stated that these specific coins had not moved since 2010, although the address itself spent other coins in 2015, 2017, and 2018.
- •The transfer fits a broader pattern of Satoshi-era coins waking up, including six dormant wallets that moved 553.59 BTC, valued at about $40 million, between August 16 and 26.
- •Two of the August wallets carried tags tied to a New York lawsuit seeking a court declaration that 39,069 dormant addresses are abandoned property.
A stash of 100.02 BTC mined in July 2010 moved on October 7 for the first time in 16 years, with the coins worth about $8.3 million at the time of the transfer at roughly $83,000 per Bitcoin.
The coins, from the period commonly known as the Satoshi era, were split into two outputs of 10 BTC and 90.02 BTC and sent to two new addresses. Both outputs were unspent as of Thursday, and nothing on-chain identifies the owner or indicates a sale.
The transfer follows a stretch of activity among long-dormant wallets, including six wallets that shifted a combined 553.59 BTC between August 16 and 26.
A 16-year sleep ends with a $1.22 fee
The transaction was confirmed at 18:52 UTC in block 970,379—one of the batches of transactions that Bitcoin's network stamps onto its public ledger roughly every 10 minutes. It sent 10 BTC to one new address and 90.02 BTC to another. An address functions like an account number, a string of characters that can receive and hold coins.
The holder paid a fee of 1,467 satoshis—a satoshi is one hundred-millionth of a bitcoin—amounting to about $1.22 to move $8.3 million. Fees on Bitcoin are set by the sender rather than fixed by the network, and they rise and fall with demand for block space. Both destinations are modern bc1q addresses, a format that did not exist when the coins were mined. Nothing in the transaction identifies the owner, and moving coins between addresses is not the same as selling them.
The two pieces of the stash were mined days apart: 50.02 BTC in block 70,522 on July 26, 2010, and 50 BTC in block 70,748 on July 28. The payouts were merged into a single transaction on July 30, 2010, landing in the address that just moved them. Based on Bitbo's highest registered price of BTC in 2010, the stash was worth around $29 when it was mined.
2010 in hindsight
Nobody knew it at the time, but 2010 turned out to be a landmark year for Bitcoin. That was when Florida programmer Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, a bill of about $41. The stash in question has grown in value more than a millionfold since it was mined.
Bitcoin's mining reward has been cut in half four times since, most recently to 3.125 BTC in the April 2024 halving, a scheduled event that repeats roughly every four years. A block mined today pays one-sixteenth of what those two 2010 blocks did.
The address has been active, but not these coins
While the coins sat untouched, the address itself has not been idle. It sent out 100 BTC twice on August 8, 2015, 100 BTC in December 2017, and 249 BTC in March 2018. Those were other coins: Bitcoin tracks money as individual chunks, a bit like bills, so an address can spend some funds while others sit untouched.
Galaxy Research tracks the coins rather than the address, and said these particular coins had not moved since 2010.
We maintain a complete ledger of every single UTXO and all their historical movements (about 1.7 terabytes). This address has been somewhat active in the past but these specific coins have not moved since 2010. We track the coins.
— Galaxy Research (@glxyresearch) October 8, 2026
Satoshi-era coins keep waking up
Coins from Bitcoin's first years are called Satoshi-era coins, after the network's pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, and they have tended to move in clusters.
In February 2025, a 50 BTC batch valued at $0.10 per coin when mined moved after about 15 years, by then worth roughly $5 million. That holder skipped a test transaction—the small trial transfer people usually send first to make sure the destination works.
In August, 49.97 BTC first received in July 2011, when Bitcoin traded under $15, moved after about 15 years and went on to a wallet that Arkham, a blockchain analytics platform, labeled as FalconX, a prime broker serving trading firms. The label alone does not confirm a sale.
Between August 16 and 26, six wallets dormant since 2011, 2012, or 2014 moved 553.59 BTC, about $40 million. Two carried tags tied to a New York lawsuit that asks a court to declare 39,069 dormant addresses abandoned property.
As of Thursday, the 10 BTC and 90.02 BTC outputs remained in their new addresses, with nothing sent onward. Any further movement will be publicly visible on the blockchain, though the ledger records transfers, not intentions. The owner, in other words, has moved the coins—but has not sold them.
