Two 2010-era Bitcoin addresses move 100 BTC after 16 years of silence

Two Bitcoin addresses that had held mining rewards untouched since September 2010 moved 100 BTC on Friday morning, worth roughly $6.89 million, according to onchain data reported by The Block. Each address had received 50 BTC in block rewards more than 16 years ago, worth about $3 at the time per onchain monitor Whale Alert — a paper gain of more than 1.15 million times at bitcoin's current price near $69,000.

The two transfers landed just over two minutes apart. At 4:08 a.m. UTC, the first address sent nearly 50 BTC to one destination and 0.01 BTC to another. Roughly two minutes later, the second address sent nearly 49 BTC to one address and 1 BTC to another. Blockchain explorer Mempool labels both original 50 BTC inputs as pay-to-public-key (P2PK), an early output type, and shows the four receiving addresses all using the newer native SegWit (bc1q) format.

By 4:48 a.m. UTC the coins had been reshuffled: about 20 BTC from the first transfer and 39 BTC from the second were consolidated into a single new address beginning "bc1qj5." At the time of The Block's report, roughly 30 BTC sat at "bc1qqs," 10 BTC at "bc1qds," and 1 BTC at "bc1qce."

Who owns the wallets, why the coins moved now, and whether both original 2010 outputs share a single owner are all unknown.

Key facts

• 100 BTC moved, worth ~$6.89 million on Nov. 13, 2026 — onchain data via The Block.
• Two addresses, 50 BTC each, funded by September 2010 block rewards; worth ~$3 each at the time — Whale Alert, via The Block.
• Transfers ~2 minutes apart, starting 4:08 a.m. UTC; partial consolidation into new SegWit addresses by 4:48 a.m. UTC — Mempool, via The Block.
• Original inputs labeled P2PK; receiving addresses are bc1q (native SegWit) — Mempool.
• Bitcoin trading around $69,000 at the time — The Block prices page.

The real-world read

A dormant-wallet awakening is a recurring crypto-press staple, and the honest version is short: nobody reporting it knows who did it or why. The coordinated timing — two sibling transfers two minutes apart, then a merge into one address — suggests a single operator rather than two unrelated holders waking up at once, but that's an inference, not confirmation; The Block explicitly flags the common-ownership question as open. The migration from P2PK to SegWit addresses is routine housekeeping for old coins and isn't, by itself, evidence of a sale. The "$6 to $6.9 million" framing is arithmetically true but is a price-appreciation headline, not news of a transaction's purpose. This is one secondary source reading a public ledger; treat the mechanics as solid and everything about motive as unknown.

Not financial advice.

Sources

• The Block (Nov. 13, 2026) — primary writeup; transaction sizes, timestamps, address prefixes, consolidation details, and current bitcoin price. Cites Mempool for onchain labels and Whale Alert for the 2010 valuation.