12.5 years later and still no "sell": another OG Bitcoin whale wakes up richer than ever 🐋

A Bitcoin wallet inactive since January 31, 2014 moved its entire balance of 26.96 BTC on August 10 in block 961845 at 07:03 UTC, sweeping the funds to a fresh address in a transaction flagged by Galaxy Research on X. At the time of acquisition BTC traded well under $1,000, with an average basis near $803 per coin. Based on the value of the moved coins, the transfer represents an unrealized gain of about $1.73 million, or roughly 7,975%. The wallet, beginning "14vMEC," last received BTC on 2014-01-31 and remained untouched for 12.5 years before the single sweep. Galaxy Research reported the move in an August 10, 2026 post on X but did not flag a sale, and the transfer alone does not confirm the coins reached a market venue.

The activation follows a separate awakening a week earlier, when a wallet holding 49.97 BTC since July 16, 2011, acquired near $10 a coin, moved funds after 14 years of inactivity. That address subsequently sent funds to a FalconX-labeled wallet, according to Arkham Intelligence data, raising similar questions about whether older supply is being pre-positioned for sale, consolidation, or use as collateral. Together the two moves fit a broader pattern of reactivations among long-dormant Bitcoin addresses over the past two years. In January 2024 a cluster of wallets dormant since 2013 moved $2 billion in BTC in a single session, and during the same stretch a separate whale relocated 3,000 BTC worth more than $349 million after a decade of silence, part of a period in which one holder sold more than 80,000 BTC within a month.

Separately, an attacker drained more than $8 million from crypto platform Coinsbuy across the Tron and Ethereum networks on Sunday before moving most of the stolen funds, according to an analysis by blockchain investigator BlockWatchdog. In a report posted on X, BlockWatchdog said the attack began on Tron with a 5 USDT test transaction, after which more than 6 million USDT was drained from eight Coinsbuy wallets. On Ethereum, an additional 1.89 million USDT and 77 ETH were taken from three wallets. The firm traced the subsequent movement of the bulk of the proceeds after the initial theft.

In unrelated corporate treasury news, Ethereum treasury company Bitmine Immersion Technologies said Monday it bought 7,391 ETH over the past week, worth about $14 million, bringing its holdings to 5,805,238 ETH as of Friday evening. The company reported it had purchased 10,399 ETH the week prior.