$125 Million in Bitcoin Awakens After 8 Years in Digital Slumber

On Tuesday, with bitcoin sitting comfortably above $110,000, holding at $113,850 by 4 p.m. Eastern time, a long-time holder moved 1,100 BTC — worth $125.23 million — for the first time in more than eight years.

Long-Dormant Bitcoin Fortune Reappears

Following last month’s record spends, dormant bitcoins are still stirring in August. On Aug. 5, btcparser.com discovered a once-quiet whale holding coins obtained on Jan. 17, 2017, Jan. 22, 2017, and June 24, 2017, that activated 11 wallets containing 100 BTC each. The legacy Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash (P2PKH) wallets sent the coins to 11 brand new Pay-to-Witness-Public-Key-Hash (P2WPKH) addresses.

Source: Btcparser.com As of this writing, the funds worth $125.23 million remain untouched in those new wallets. Notably, the owner had already moved the related bitcoin cash ( BCH) linked to these bitcoins back on Jan. 17, 2018, when the entity transferred roughly 3,000 BCH at that time. The newly created P2WPKH addresses discovered on Aug. 5, 2025, each hold about $11.37 million, or exactly 100 BTC.

Source: Blockchair.com On Jan. 17, 2017, BTC was priced around $899.66 apiece, and by late June 2017, it mostly hovered between $2,400 and $2,700. By the end of that month, the owner’s stash of 1,100 coins was worth about $2.97 million — a stark contrast to today’s $125.23 million. By leaving the coins untouched for more than eight years, the holder has seen a 42-fold jump in value, or a 4,117% climb, against the U.S. dollar.

Last month’s wave of dormant bitcoin activity was massive, with at least 80,000 coins sold on the open market. Still, many transfers — and possibly this 1,100 BTC move on Tuesday between blocks 908768 and 908773 — appear to be about consolidating funds into wallets using newer address formats. These updated formats are thought to offer advanced features and stronger security, including enhanced signatures and defenses against transaction malleability.

Buzzworthy headlines about potential quantum computing advances may be adding fuel to this shift.