From $13,700 to $148 million: Bitcoin whale moves 2,100 BTC untouched for over 13 years

A bitcoin wallet address moved 2,100 BTC ($147.7 million) on Friday morning that had previously remained untouched for over 13 years, according to onchain data.

The transfer was initiated at 10:27 a.m. UTC, data from blockchain explorer Mempool shows. The transaction appears to consolidate multiple UTXOs into a new output at the same "1NB3Z" address, with a small amount sent to a secondary address, potentially taking advantage of the current low-fee environment.

The address initially received the 2,100 BTC (approximately $13,685 at the time) on Independence Day, July 4, 2012, onchain monitoring platform Whale first noted on X. However, it continued to receive numerous minor transactions in the intervening period.

The 2,100 BTC have not been transferred further so far, and remain unlabeled, according to onchain analytics platform Arkham. Therefore, the reason for the transfers remains unknown, as does the identity of the wallet's ownership.

Starting with a 1, these legacy Pay-to-PubKey-Hash (P2PKH) addresses are the oldest style of Bitcoin addresses. After that came Pay-to-Script-Hash (P2SH) addresses starting with 3, then native SegWit (P2WPKH) addresses starting with bc1q, and finally Taproot (P2TR) addresses starting with bc1p — the most up-to-date format. However, the owner seems content to retain the funds under the older address format.

With bitcoin currently trading for around $70,500, according to The Block’s BTC Price Page, the value of the bitcoin the address transferred has risen more than 10,000 times since the funds were received in 2012.

Increased bitcoin OG whale movements

OG bitcoin wallets have ramped up their activity in recent months, both before and after the foremost cryptocurrency's all-time high of around $126,000 in October 2025.

Last July, Galaxy Digital sold off more than 80,000 BTC, valued at over $9 billion at the time, for a Satoshi-era investor related to the client's estate planning requirements. The funds were moved for the first time in 14 years ahead of the sale.

In September, another bitcoin OG made a significant rotation from BTC to ETH. The wallet, which initially held over $5 billion in bitcoin, amassed nearly $4 billion in ether at the time.

On Wednesday, a bitcoin whale that accumulated 5,000 BTC about 13 years ago resumed selling, offloading another 1,000 BTC, worth roughly $71.6 million. 

Separately, blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain reported that early bitcoin investor Owen Gunden sold another 650 BTC, worth about $46.3 million, on Wednesday. The latest transaction adds to prior disposals totaling roughly 11,000 BTC, or more than $1 billion, according to Arkham data.