$161 Million in Decade-Old Bitcoin Has Moved in Just Two Weeks
Four ancient wallets moved 1,971 BTC between Sept. 6 and Sept. 22, including a 600 BTC transfer worth $51.9 million just hours ago, with three of the four carrying "Noah Doe" lawsuit tags.
Add Decrypt as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.
In brief
Four long-dormant Bitcoin wallets moved a combined 1,971.03 BTC (~$161 million) over the past two weeks, per Galaxy Research, led by a 1,260.78 BTC stash (~$100.63 million) untouched since 2016.
The oldest coins posted staggering gains—one 2011-era wallet was up more than 8.38 million percent—while the most recent, a 600 BTC (~$51.9 million) transfer dormant since 2012, moved early Tuesday.
Three of the four carried "Noah Doe" tags tied to a New York abandoned-property lawsuit, extending a 2026 trend of decade-old wallets reactivating.
The steady procession of long-dormant Bitcoin wallets springing back to life is showing no sign of slowing, with four more ancient stashes moving a combined $161 million over the past two weeks.
According to Galaxy Research's blockchain monitoring, the awakened wallets moved 1,971.03 BTC in all between Sept. 6 and Sept. 22. The largest, holding 1,260.78 BTC worth about $100.63 million, had sat untouched since July 2016, more than 10 years, potentially delivering a gain of roughly 12,122% on a cost basis near $652.
The oldest coins carried even larger returns in terms of percentage gains. A wallet dormant since March 2011, holding 10.25 BTC now worth about $792,000, notched a gain of more than 8.38 million percent from an average cost around $1. Another 100 BTC, untouched since November 2011 and worth about $8.09 million, was up roughly 2.49 million percent.
The most recent stirred just hours ago. Early Tuesday, a wallet holding 600 BTC, worth about $51.9 million, moved coins that had been dormant since July 2012, a 14.2-year slumber that could have yielded a gain of more than 1 million percent.
Three of the four wallets carried a "Noah Doe" sender tag, a reference to a New York lawsuit that seeks to have thousands of dormant Bitcoin addresses declared abandoned property. Named wallets tied to that case have been stirring regularly since a judge paused the proceedings in June.
Such movements draw scrutiny because so few holders from Bitcoin's earliest days still control their private keys, making each awakening a potential signal of long-lost supply returning to circulation.
A transfer alone doesn't reveal whether an owner is selling, consolidating or shifting to new custody, and the recipient of the latest 600 BTC transfer was not identified on-chain.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.