2 ‘Sleeping Bitcoin’ Block Rewards From 2010 Wake up After Sitting Idle for More Than a Decade

During the last week bitcoin’s USD value has shed close to 9% as it slipped from $44,239 per unit two days ago, to below the $40K range on Friday. Meanwhile, in the last 24 hours, two sleeping bitcoin block rewards from 2010 woke up after more than a decade of sitting idle. The 100 bitcoins minted in the early days were sent with little concern for privacy, and were worth more than $4 million at the time of transfer.

Blockchain Parsers Catch 2 Block Rewards From 2010 Move 100 Bitcoin

• In the last 24 hours, two bitcoin (BTC) block subsidies stemming from 2010 were caught by blockchain parsers, after the addresses transferred 100 bitcoin. At the time of the transfers, BTC was swapping hands for roughly $40K per unit.
• The first transaction caught by btcparser.com was a 50 BTC coinbase reward that was minted on July 14, 2010, or over 11 years ago. The transaction was transferred to an empty address that now holds 49.99000615 BTC, and was confirmed at block height 723,812. The transfer was parsed by btcparser.com on February 17, 2022, at 10:01 p.m. (UTC).

The red circled yellow dots represent the two block rewards from 2010 that were transferred on Thursday and Friday.

• Metrics from blockchair.com gave the first transaction, a privacy score of 0, which is a “critical” privacy rating. Blockchair.com says the transfer had “four vulnerabilities discovered for the privacy involved in this address.” For instance, “matched addresses” were identified in the BTC transaction.
• The next block reward worth 50 BTC was also caught by btcparser.com on February 18, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. (UTC). Privacy on this particular transfer was a bit higher, as it scored a 45 according to Blockchair.com’s privacy meter. “Three vulnerabilities [were] discovered for the privacy involved in this address” including “matched addresses.”
• Both BTC block subsidies for 50 bitcoin per reward were both minted within two days of each other. While the first transaction spent on Thursday was minted on July 14, 2010, the transfer on Friday was a block reward minted two days later on July 16, 2010.

• There haven’t been that many 2010 BTC block subsidies spent in 2022. There was one 50 BTC block reward from 2010 spent last month on January 22, and the funds transferred at block height 719,822. So far, the two spent on Thursday and on Friday this week were the only two 2010 block rewards transferred this month. The total since the first of the year equates to approximately three block rewards from 2010 spent in 2022.
• 2022 has not seen the mystery whale from 2010 that has transferred thousands upon thousands of old block rewards minted that year.
• In addition to the two block rewards from 2010 spent on February 17 and 18, btcparser.com caught 100 BTC from June 21, 2011, transfer to another wallet after more than a decade at block height 723,909.

What do you think about the two 2010 bitcoin block rewards waking up and the 100 bitcoin from this era transferred during the last 24 hours? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons