Satoshi

Satoshi Nakamoto

Thomas

Bitcoin

Wallets belonging to early Bitcoin miners who received coins as rewards shortly after the blockchain’s launch by its pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, have recently been observed moving their BTC.
On Sept. 20, five miner wallets that received 50 Bitcoin (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">BTC</a>) each as block rewards in 2009 <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/lookonchain/status/1837031861819674881" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">started</a> to move their funds. Blockchain data <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/btc/1C4rE41Kox3jZbdJT9yatyh4H2fMxP8qmD" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">shows</a> that one wallet received the mining reward on Jan. 29, 2009, while three <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/btc/18E5d2wQdAfutcXgziHZR71izLRyjSzGSX" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">received</a> block rewards on Jan. 31, 2009. The last wallet received a block reward on Feb. 2, 2009.
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 <img alt="Bitcoin miner wallets awaken after over 15 years — Is this Satoshi?" name="" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-09/01920eaa-0660-7f59-921a-b7db7232cd55">
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 One of the Bitcoin wallets seen moving mined BTC. Source: Blockchain.com
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The Bitcoin blockchain went live on Jan. 3, 2009, when Nakamoto <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/satoshi-nakamoto-bitcoin-emergence-financial-crisis" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">mined</a> the genesis block and embedded a message referencing a headline published by The Times newspaper in the United Kingdom. On Jan. 9, 2009, the Bitcoin creator explained the protocol’s basics, including how to mine and send coins.&nbsp;
Given the BTC was mined only weeks after the launch of the Bitcoin blockchain, the wallets likely belonged to people present at its inception.
<h2 id="mined-bitcoin-goes-from-0-to-15-9-million">Mined Bitcoin goes from $0 to $15.9 million&nbsp;</h2>
When the 250 BTC in the wallets was first mined, it wasn’t worth much, if anything. However, Bitcoin reached $1 in 2011 on the <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/tags/mt-gox" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/tags/mt-gox">now-defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox</a>, and months later, Nakamoto bid farewell to the crypto space and expressed a desire to move on to other projects.&nbsp;
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 <img alt="Bitcoin miner wallets awaken after over 15 years — Is this Satoshi?" name="" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-09/01920eac-171c-71dd-96fb-3471ab8c470b">
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 Bitcoin’s price movements in the last seven days. Source: CoinGecko
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Fast forward to 2024, the tokens are now worth about $15.9 million, with BTC trading at roughly $63,000 per token, according to CoinGecko.
Related: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/watch-these-btc-price-levels-bitcoin-taps-64k" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Watch these BTC price levels as Bitcoin taps $64K</a> 
<h2 id="crypto-community-reacts-to-btc-movements">Crypto community reacts to BTC movements</h2>
As the BTC movements were flagged, community members speculated who was moving the tokens. One X user <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/Justa_Guy907/status/1837034534954807401" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" text="null" title="https://x.com/Justa_Guy907/status/1837034534954807401">said</a> that someone could have “found their old hard drive” and hit the lottery after seeing the Bitcoin, while another user <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/Kachwills/status/1837034792510017897" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" text="null" title="https://x.com/Kachwills/status/1837034792510017897">suggested</a> that it could be someone who was in a “coma” and woke up as a millionaire.&nbsp;
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 <img alt="Bitcoin miner wallets awaken after over 15 years — Is this Satoshi?" name="" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-09/01920ead-dfca-798f-bd65-1dc8098e1068">
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 Source: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/kay_myg/status/1837032814849437854" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://x.com/kay_myg/status/1837032814849437854">kaymyg</a>
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Meanwhile, some users think the wallets may belong to Nakamoto or the American software developer Hal Finney. The world’s first Bitcoin transaction took place on Jan. 12, 2009, when the creator of Bitcoin sent 10 BTC to Finney, one of the earliest adopters of Bitcoin.
Magazine: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/bitcoin-price-ethereum-etf-thomas-fahrer/" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">X Hall of Flame: Bitcoin $500K prediction, spot Ether ETF ‘staking issue’— Thomas Fahrer</a>

Bitcoin miner wallets awaken after over 15 years — Is this Satoshi?

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