Galaxy Research: Significant activity in Bitcoin wallets that have been dormant since 2012

The chart shared by Galaxy Research reveals how much Bitcoin has moved again in different age groups every year since 2012. The year 2026 stands out in particular in the data. Although the year has not yet ended, there is a significant increase in the transfers of Bitcoins, which have been dormant for more than 10 years, compared to most of the past years.

This activity has accelerated in recent weeks. According to Galaxy's data, a total of 553.59 BTC was transferred between August 16-26 from six wallets that had not been used since 2011, 2012 and 2014. The total value of the Bitcoins in question was calculated as approximately 40.15 million dollars.

212 BTC moved after 14 years

One of the activated addresses transferred 212 BTC, which had remained untouched since August 2012. It is stated that Bitcoins, worth approximately 13.66 million dollars, gained approximately 557 thousand percent in value, considering that the BTC price was around 12 dollars at that time.

From another wallet, 10.74 BTC, which had not moved since June 2011, was transferred with a value of approximately 692 thousand dollars.

In one of the transactions with the highest return, 40 BTC, which had been kept at the same address since May 2012, was sent to the German custody institution Boerse Stuttgart Digital. It was calculated that the increase in value of these Bitcoins compared to their cost price exceeded 1.5 million percent.

Such movements in wallets from the first years of Bitcoin are closely followed by the market. The most important reason for this is that the number of wallets from those periods whose private keys are still accessible is very limited.

However, on-chain data alone does not show whether the moved Bitcoins have been sold or not. Coins may be sent to exchanges for sale, or they may be moved to a different custody service or combined in a single wallet. It seems that in a significant part of the recent transactions, Bitcoins are directed not directly to the market, but to professional custody infrastructures.

There may be two reasons behind the mobility

According to Galaxy Research, there are two important developments behind the activity in old wallets.

Some of the active addresses have the “Salomon Client Dusted” tag associated with the Noah Doe case. In the lawsuit filed in New York, it is requested that approximately 39 thousand 69 dormant Bitcoin addresses be considered as unclaimed property. After the court stopped the process in June, regular movements began to be seen in some of the wallets mentioned in the case.

Another factor was the security vulnerability in the Coldcard hardware wallet. It is stated that following the incident, approximately 233 thousand BTC was removed from the wallets of long-term investors and users moved their assets to wallets they thought were safer.