Are Early Bitcoin Holders Starting To Sell?
Six Bitcoin wallets that had remained untouched for more than a decade moved a combined 553.59 BTC worth about $40 million between Aug. 16 and Aug. 26, reviving questions over whether some of the cryptocurrency’s earliest holders are beginning to cash out.
The wallets were last active between 2011 and 2014, when Bitcoin traded at a fraction of its current price. One had not moved any coins in more than 15 years, making the transactions particularly visible to traders who monitor dormant supply for potential selling pressure.
The headline numbers, however, provide limited evidence of an actual liquidation. Five of the six wallets sent their Bitcoin to addresses with no known links to cryptocurrency exchanges. Only one transferred 40 BTC to Boerse Stuttgart Digital, a German crypto custody and trading provider.
An onchain transfer can show that Bitcoin has changed addresses, but it cannot usually determine whether the owner sold the coins, moved them into a new wallet, transferred them to a custodian or reorganized their holdings for security reasons.
That distinction matters because large transfers from old wallets are often interpreted as bearish before their destination or purpose is known. Unless coins move directly to an exchange or another identifiable trading venue, the immediate impact on available market supply remains uncertain.
Is Dormant Bitcoin Activity Actually Increasing?
Despite the recent cluster of decade-old wallets waking up, the wider trend points in the opposite direction. The amount of dormant Bitcoin moving onchain fell during the second quarter to its lowest level since the third quarter of 2022, according to Galaxy Research.
Galaxy defines dormant Bitcoin as coins that have remained at the same address for at least one year. By that measure, 2026 is currently on pace to record less than half the dormant coin movement seen during 2025.
That follows two unusually active years. Old Bitcoin moved during 2024 and 2025 at levels previously rivaled mainly by the 2017 bull market, when early holders sitting on substantial gains began moving or spending long-held coins. Galaxy described the more recent period as a “great distribution.”
The slowdown changes the interpretation of individual whale transactions. A 10- or 15-year-old wallet becoming active can attract attention because of its age, but isolated transfers do not necessarily indicate that early Bitcoin holders are abandoning the market as a group.
Investor Takeaway
Old Bitcoin moving is not the same as old Bitcoin being sold. With five of the six recent wallets avoiding known exchanges and overall dormant activity running below 2024 and 2025 levels, traders should distinguish visible onchain movement from confirmed new selling pressure.
Why Are Decade-Old Bitcoin Wallets Moving Now?
There may be several explanations, and not all of them relate to profit-taking. Two of the six wallets carry labels connecting them to a New York lawsuit in which a pseudonymous plaintiff known as Noah Doe is seeking control of Bitcoin held across 39,069 dormant addresses under the state’s lost-property laws.
The plaintiffs sent tiny amounts of Bitcoin to the addresses together with onchain legal notices, arguing that the holdings could potentially be treated as abandoned property if nobody established ownership. At least one address targeted by the case previously moved 35.55 BTC after remaining untouched since March 2011.
Security concerns have also prompted long-term holders to reorganize their Bitcoin. After a flaw affecting certain Coldcard hardware wallets was disclosed in late July, roughly 210,000 BTC left wallets classified by Glassnode as belonging to long-term holders during a single week.
The flaw increased the risk surrounding poorly generated wallet keys, encouraging some users to move Bitcoin into newly created wallets or regulated custody even when their holdings were not directly exposed.
Could Security Concerns Drive More Old Bitcoin Onchain?
Another long-term issue is quantum computing. Bitcoin wallets whose public keys have already been exposed could eventually face additional risk if quantum computers become powerful enough to break the cryptography protecting current digital signatures. Roughly 6.9 million BTC could potentially fall into that category under such a scenario.
Quantum concerns have therefore become one explanation offered whenever very old coins move, although Galaxy Digital research head Alex Thorn has pushed back against linking current whale activity directly to that risk.
“We work with a lot of whales and none has mentioned quantum as a reason for selling,” Thorn wrote in July. He said some institutional investors had instead raised quantum concerns as a reason not to buy Bitcoin.
For the market, destination data remains more useful than wallet age alone. Transfers into exchanges can increase the probability that coins are being prepared for sale, while moves into unidentified addresses may simply represent custody changes. The latest $40 million wave is notable because of how long the wallets remained inactive, but so far it offers little evidence of a broad exit by Bitcoin’s earliest holders.