2025: The Year of the Awakening
The year 2025 is emerging as a period of unprecedented activity for long-dormant Bitcoin reserves. New data indicates a significant surge in the movement of BTC that has been inactive for seven or more years. Thus far in 2025, an impressive 270,000 BTC have been transferred, setting a new all-time high for such movements.
This figure has already surpassed the 255,000 BTC moved in 2024 and significantly exceeds the 59,000 BTC moved in 2023. With two months still remaining in the year, the total is expected to climb even higher.
CryptoQuant, in an analysis, explained that several factors may be contributing to the surge in long-dormant coin movements. These include old miners relocating their long-held reserves, transferring funds to new cold wallets for enhanced security, and engaging in partial liquidations as elevated prices present lucrative selling opportunities.
If the current pace continues, 2025 could witness the movement of over 300,000 BTC that have been dormant for more than seven years.
Further highlighting this trend, on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain shared information about a miner wallet identified as 18eY9o. This wallet, dormant for 14 years, held 4,000 BTC mined in 2009 and consolidated in 2011. It recently became active, with the wallet holder transferring 150 BTC, valued at approximately $16.59 million.
This particular move is part of a broader pattern of early-era coins resurfacing, suggesting both strategic repositioning by miners and renewed liquidity from historically inactive addresses.
Bitcoin experienced a modest 2.1% surge in the past day, trading at $111,178. As more long-held coins potentially enter circulation, it will be interesting to observe how these dormant Bitcoin awakenings might influence price trends and investor behavior in the remaining months of the year.
Dormant Bitcoins Resurface
In September, a miner-era wallet that had been dormant for 12 years transferred 400.08 BTC, worth approximately $44 million, to multiple new addresses. These coins were originally mined 15 years ago. A notable social media post humorously pointed out the generational wealth unlocked by the reactivation of a decade-old wallet.
Earlier, in July, a wallet dormant for 14 years, containing over 80,000 BTC, moved 20,000 BTC, valued at $2.4 billion. Billions more were subsequently sent to the institutional custodian Galaxy Digital. The reactivation of multiple wallets, with some funneling funds to exchanges like Binance and Bybit, immediately drew comparisons to the Mt. Gox trustee sell-offs of 2024 and raised concerns about a potential market correction.