Story Highlights
- A dormant Bitcoin whale shifted $250M after eight years of inaction.
- The BTC was first purchased in 2016, when prices were about $1,000.
- Experts worry if Bitcoin’s four-year market cycle is sustainable.
A Bitcoin wallet long inactive has resurfaced with a vengeance, transferring more than $250 million in BTC after lying dormant for eight years. The whale conducted several transactions in the last 16 hours, says blockchain analysis firm Arkham Intelligence.
The wallet first bought Bitcoin back in 2016 when prices were at $1,000. The holdings have since then increased exponentially, mirroring Bitcoin’s huge price appreciation over the years. Various wallets logged the transactions, with addresses bearing the “250M BTC Whale” label, and each transaction involved about 3,000 BTC worth around $252 million per batch.
Bitcoin Whale Awakens After Years of Silence
The Bitcoin is trading at $85,279, having experienced volatility against the backdrop of changing market mood. Throughout the volatility, long-term growth in Bitcoin has been kind to patient owners such as this whale, whose initial investment of approximately $3 million swelled to a quarter of a billion dollars.
These scarce wallet activations are a glimpse into the enormous fortunes generated from early adopters who had maintained their Bitcoin across several market cycles. As some investors continue to amass BTC, others are discussing the viability of its historical four-year cycle.
Tomas Greif, Braiins’ Chief of Product & Strategy, recently wondered if Bitcoin’s halvings will keep affecting the supply in the same manner as in the past. He posited that whereas previous cycles tend to repeat owing to expectations from the market, the real influence of halvings on the scarcity of Bitcoin is diminishing since the majority of the total BTC supply has already been extracted.
Bitcoin halving periods, which decrease mining rewards every four years, have traditionally initiated bull runs. Nevertheless, as each halving loses its effect, some experts hold that future cycles will be less predictable. Regardless, economic rewards for miners continue to remain essential to the security and ongoing use of the network.
As increasing numbers of long-dormant wallets wake up, the market is waiting to see if these early adopters will keep holding or start cashing out their enormous profits.
