A Bitcoin Investor Who Last Traded the Asset in 2014 When It Was Worth Just $374 Is Cashing Out

Over the past two months the unknown investor, whose Bitcoin holdings total some $75 million, has routinely sent portions of their stash to crypto exchanges

A Bitcoin investor who last traded the asset in 2014 when it was worth just $374 is cashing out.

Over the past two months the unknown investor, whose Bitcoin holdings total some $75 million, has routinely sent portions of their stash to crypto exchanges, according to Arkham Intelligence, the crypto data platform.

The investor's latest move saw them send another $630,000 worth of Bitcoin to Kraken. That brings the total sent to exchanges to $5.5 million.

Ancient 2009 whale now sold $5.47M BTC

The ancient Bitcoin whale we've been tracking, who mined BTC 5 days after Bitcoin's first block (13th January 2009), has just moved another $630K BTC to Kraken - totalling $5.47M in the past 2 months.

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Sending funds to a centralised crypto exchange usually indicates a holder is selling.

Over the years, several heavyweight Bitcoin investors have made a splash in the market, from early adopters such as the Winklevoss twins, to more recent bulls like MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor.

But many have held tight to their Bitcoin despite its extreme volatility and played the long game with an eye on outsized returns.

Saylor, for one, has predicted the Bitcoin price could hit $13 million by 2045.

So it's odd that one of Bitcoin's earliest holders, who started accumulating it mere days after its launch, has suddenly started selling.

The Bitcoin investor exhibits some strange behaviour. They have routinely moved their stash to new wallets several times since they started offloading.

The fact that the investor started mining Bitcoin just five days after the network was launched in 2009 adds another layer of intrigue.

It wouldn't be a surprise if the investor was part of the cypherpunk movement that was a sounding board for Satoshi Nakamoto during the development of Bitcoin.

Another clue to the investor's identity stems from the fact that they were inactive for 10 years between 2014 and 2024.

The investor isn't the only one to wake up after a long period of inactivity, either. Several old wallets have started moving around their holdings this year.

In any event, the mystery investor's stash pales in comparison to other large holders.

Wallets believed to belong to Satoshi Nakamoto, for example, hold a combined 1.1 million coins worth some $72 billion.

Tim Craig is DL News' Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.