Bitcoin mined in 2010 moved from long-dormant addresses after more than 16 years, reviving speculation about whether the coins could be tied to Satoshi Nakamoto. Onchain data reviewed by Cointelegraph showed that 12 addresses holding a combined 600 BTC, worth about $48 million, moved the funds on Saturday.
Whale Alert, a blockchain transaction tracking platform, said the 600 BTC came from rewards mined across 12 Bitcoin blocks. The company said its research found no connection to Nakamoto. A Whale Alert spokesperson told Cointelegraph, "None of the blocks can be connected to Satoshi based on our research."
Whale Alert traced the 12 rewards to March 2010 blocks
According to Whale Alert, all 12 rewards were tied to Bitcoin blocks mined in March 2010, when each block carried a 50 BTC subsidy. That subsidy has since been halved four times. The most recent cut came in April 2024, when it fell from 6.25 BTC to the current 3.125 BTC per block.
The firm said the new findings built on its earlier analysis of seven of the rewards. In a post on X on Sunday, Whale Alert said those seven rewards came from blocks it had determined were not mined by Nakamoto.
Lookonchain, another onchain analytics platform, had also initially identified seven miner wallets that moved 350 BTC after 16.5 years of inactivity. It said those wallets had earned the coins through mining in March 2010.
Satoshi-era coins are not the same as Satoshi’s coins
The transfers drew attention in part because the coins date to a period when Nakamoto was still actively involved with Bitcoin.
Nakamoto remained engaged in Bitcoin development and communications through 2010 before gradually stepping away from the project. Nakamoto’s last known communication dates to April 2011.
One of the 12 addresses received a 50 BTC mining reward on March 5, 2010, and moved the coins to a new address on Sept. 5, 2026, according to the report. Whale Alert also said one reward moved several blocks ahead of most of the others, a pattern it described as consistent with a test transaction before the rest of the transfers.