Bitcoin whale that sat through March 2020 crash moves $377.6M
A wallet that received 4,582 BTC days before the Covid crash just sent coins to five addresses. None have moved yet.
A long-dormant bitcoin whale moved about 4,582 BTC worth $377.6 million on Monday after holding through the 2020 Covid crash; the coins haven't moved further.
The whale awakens
A bitcoin wallet that received 4,582 BTC on March 3, 2020—nine days before Covid panic sent bitcoin crashing below $4,000—finally stirred. On Monday, the address 18VmXvkF4cgLi35RtMiHHDpvMjUCyVpQ9x sent the coins, now worth $377.6 million, to five addresses, according to blockchain data from Arkham and mempool.space.
Four of those addresses took exactly 1,000 BTC each. The fifth took about 582 BTC. As of writing, none of the recipients has moved the coins.
The coins arrived from address 17VX1BEjYVyBMi2vw6nXDrpwMvCSweHZot and were worth about $40.8 million at the time. That means the transfer value has risen roughly ninefold. The wallet sat silent for more than four years, with only a dust-size 0.009 BTC outgoing transaction in August 2024 that returned the rest to the same wallet.
Why it matters
Long-dormant whales moving coins can stir nerves. CryptoQuant data shows sudden surges in metrics like Coin Days Destroyed and older Spent Output Age Bands often precede price corrections or high volatility. But it's not always sell pressure—such moves can simply be routine security shuffles between wallets controlled by the same owner.
The purpose of this transfer remains unclear. The movement comes not long after addresses linked to the US government moved at least $1.5 billion in bitcoin, also with no clarity on whether those were internal or for sale.
The takeaway: A whale that held through a historic crash just shuffled $377.6 million in bitcoin—and nobody knows why yet.
Summary written by Oh Cannot from the original report by CoinDesk. Not financial advice.
