Dormant Bitcoin Wallets Show Restraint

From Oct. 1 to Oct. 31, 2024, a total of 1,970.401 BTC was spent from vintage wallets originally created between 2010 and 2017

Bitcoin (BTC) prices rose by 10.76% throughout October 2024. As the prices climbed, a total of 1,970.401 BTC — valued at around $137 million — were shifted to fresh addresses, hinting at possible sales. According to the latest metrics from btcparser.com, 64 such transactions occurred.

Most of the sum originated from addresses dating back to 2011. Seven legacy Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash (P2PKH) addresses from that year spent a combined 442.76 BTC. Notably, only one transaction popped up from 2010, with a single party moving 50 BTC from a wallet created on July 12.

Interestingly, the transactions from 2011 and 2012 appeared linked, possibly pointing to the same entity cashing out funds via Bitstamp. Furthermore, two bitcoin transactions surfaced from 2012, one of them moving 399 BTC — valued at $27.7 million at the time.

Legacy addresses from 2013 showed ten transactions, but only 108.42 BTC changed hands. Sleeping bitcoin wallets from 2014 woke up to transfer 249.21 BTC over eight separate transactions. In 2015, there were just four notable transactions, modestly moving 80.001 BTC.

As far as wallets from 2016, October saw 13 transactions, shifting 188.27 dormant bitcoins. Meanwhile, 2017 ranked second last month for BTC spending, with 440.73 BTC moved across 19 unique transactions.

Overall, the data suggests that early bitcoin adopters are slowly cashing out their holdings as BTC prices rise. However, they seem to be exercising restraint, hinting at their belief in the cryptocurrency's potential for further appreciation.