This OG Bitcoin Investor Just Turned $120 Into $178M

The user held BTC from when it was worth $0.06 all the way up to $90,000.

A bitcoin (BTC) whale has moved 2,000 BTC, valued at $178 million, to Coinbase after holding their stash since at least 2010, Mempool data shows.

The user first received BTC in 2010, when the asset was valued at a mere $0.06 per coin and had a market capitalization of around $250,000. Trading volume at the time rarely topped $60,000 per day.

Inflows to an exchange usually indicate that the BTC will be liquidated. The transfer comes amid a trend of dormant bitcoin wallets stirring into action in light of the recent market-wide price surge following Donald Trump's U.S. election win earlier this month. According to Glassnode, there has been a recent uptick in wallets that have been inactive for more than five years, with the figure reaching a two-month high.

Bitcoin is currently trading at $88,532 after cooling off from a rally that saw it hit a record high of $93,214 on Wednesday.

This isn't the first time older wallets have woken up as bitcoin has hit new all-time highs this year. There have been at least two instances this year where millions of BTC from a period of late 2009 to 2011 called the "Satoshi Era" were moved from dormant wallets. Whether those bitcoin were sold is hard to gauge, but not impossible given the massive profits the users could reap at current prices.

The trend of more of the older wallets that held bitcoin from its early days coming out of the woodwork could continue, as they might be able to bag massive profits at current price levels. Such moves could limit any additional price upside, even though some traders are still optimistic that bitcoin could reach $100,000—a key psychological level of resistance—by year-end.

However, Chainalysis has estimated that between 3-4 million BTC has been “lost forever” due to irretrievable private keys, meaning some of these "OG" wallets may never be able to cash out.

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