Bitcoins 12th Anniversary Sees 1000 Dormant BTC Moved

It has been an exciting 30 days for Bitcoin evangelists and investors. The ongoing story that has grabbed headlines has been the virtual currency’s phoenix-like rise from the ashes of its previous success to reach a new all-time high.

 Rising from the Ashes

Bitcoin (BTC) rose from relative obscurity, launching in 2008 with no fanfare, to become one of the hottest financial stories of all time by December 2017.

The cryptocurrency peaked at that time with a valuation of $19,783.06. A mind-blowing feat for a currency that had no country and no resources to back its value, all it had was the interest and support of the investors.

Unsurprisingly the price dropped not long after this initial rally. When the Bitcoin bubble burst many naysayers called the coin an anomaly, a “flash in the pan”, yet the story had drawn mainstream attention to the untapped potential of blockchain technology and digital currencies.

A mere three years later in December 2020 a far more mature Bitcoin once again made headlines as it surpassed its previous high to reach an astounding high of more than $29,000. However far from dropping off the coin has continued its bullish trend into 2021 reaching a record high of $34,800 per BTC.

 Happy 12th Anniversary Bitcoin

An interesting development that has become of great interest in the world of cryptocurrencies is the Zombie Coin phenomena. This is where virtual coins are purchased but never traded or even moved.

As we discussed previously when Bitcoin hits its December 2020 high an anonymous Holder moved several blocks originally mined in 2010 for the first time. A transaction valued at more than $27 million at the time.

As though to celebrate Bitcoin’s 12th anniversary, another anonymous Satoshi-era miner moved 1000 Bitcoin which had been dormant for more than a decade. A report by Bitcoin set the value of this set of transactions just over $33.9 million.

An interesting pattern that has been noted when it comes to these Zombie Coin sales has been that the miner will spend any corresponding Bitcoin Cash (BCH) that they own during these transactions, however, they do not cash in their Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) coins.

Barely Scratching the Surface

While these recent transactions may grab headlines thanks to their values being in the tens of millions of dollars each, in terms of dormant crypto-coins in the wild they are a mere fraction.

Both the December 2020 and January 2021 dormant coin activations represent around 2000 BTC however crypt-industry analyst Glassnode reported that an estimated 1.78 million BTC are categorised as being dormant, with nearly 95% of these not having moved in over 10 years.

There are bullish BTC evangelists who have been predicting that the seminal crypto-coin will reach $100,000 or more by the end of 2021 as a response to the current global economic instability.

It will be interesting to see what part the reactivation, and hopefully sale, of these dormant coins will play in driving investment and interest in the coinage – and if it will help or hinder its climb to the legendary $100,000 milestone.