Bitcoin wallet inactive for 13 years moves US$53 million

• Inactive wallet transfers 479 BTC after almost 13 years
• Balance was worth US$4.400 in 2012 and today US$53 million
• Old address still holds 398 unmoved BTC

A Bitcoin wallet that remained dormant for nearly 13 years began recording activity again this Thursday, drawing the attention of the crypto community. The address, identified as "16fXT," contained 479,69 BTC, currently valued at approximately $53,2 million, and made its first transfer since November 2012.

According to a on-chain data , between 2:36 AM and 9:29 AM UTC, five transfers totaling approximately 81,25 BTC, equivalent to US$9 million, were made. The last time the address was used was on November 13, 2012, when only 4 BTC were transferred, valued at approximately US$44 at the time.

💤 💤 💤 💤 💤 💤 A dormant address containing 479 #BTC (53,683,598) has just been activated after 12.8 years!

- Whale Alert (@whale_alert) September 4, 2025

After this transaction, the wallet continued receiving small deposits in the following months, eventually accumulating an additional 81 BTC. Interestingly, this amount is practically the same amount withdrawn in this new transaction. The majority of the balance, approximately 398,44 BTC—equivalent to US$44,2 million—still remains at the original address.

The recent transfers sent the bitcoins to native SegWit addresses in the "bc1q" format, while the initial wallet remains a legacy wallet, known as Pay-to-PubKey-Hash (P2PKH), one of the network's earliest standards. This type of migration typically indicates a security update or fund reorganization, but the identity of the holder and the true motive remain unknown.

With BTC trading around $111.000, the wallet's value has increased more than 10.000-fold since its last move. The change was initially detected by Whale Alert, which monitors large blockchain transactions.

The emergence of legacy wallets, known as OG whales, has become more frequent in recent months. In July, Galaxy Digital brokered the sale of over 80.000 BTC, valued at $9 billion, belonging to a Satoshi-era investor. More recently, another legacy wallet converted a significant portion of its balance to ether, accumulating nearly $4 billion in ETH.

This type of movement highlights the importance of old addresses, which hold significant fractions of the bitcoin supply and, when active, attract immediate market attention.