Satoshi-Era Bitcoin Miner Moves Coins for First Time in 15 Years

Some of the very first Bitcoins ever mined are seeing signs of life more than 15 years after entering circulation, on-chain data shows.

Since early Friday, at least 5 separate Bitcoin block rewards moved to new addresses for the first time since being mined as part of a new Bitcoin block. A closer look at those transactions reveals several of those rewards were generated in late January 2009—the same month the Bitcoin network first went live.

For example, one transaction at 02:30 ET on Friday came from the address 0430a, whose only previous coins were received in a block reward transaction on January 29, 2009. Another transaction sent at 02:49 on Friday was from 04f49, which first mined its coins on January 30, 2009.

Each of these early rewards was attached to blocks 2247 and 2401, respectively. Like other blocks from this era, they contained no other transactional activity besides the mining reward, reflecting how small Bitcoin’s user base was at the time.

Collectively, the transactions added up to 250 Bitcoin, or just shy of $16 million worth—and despite the close proximity of the moves, there's no proof that all the wallets are controlled by the same person(s).

Naturally, some onlookers suspected that the early miner's movements might be a sign that the anonymous and missing Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto has mysteriously returned in 2024. However, on-chain analysis suggests that the early blocks involved were not part of the infamous “Patoshi Pattern” used to identify blocks mined by a single early miner that many suspect was Satoshi himself.

“It's possible these movements might have been in reaction to ZachXBT's thread, where someone had their private keys coins leaked from a Bitcoin Core wallet,” tweeted pseudonymous analyst Pledditor on Friday, referring to a recently exposed $230 million BTC hack from a Bitcoin Core wallet user.

“The owner of these coins may have just been switching to a more secure setup,” he speculated.

Back in 2009, Bitcoin block rewards came in at 50 BTC apiece, worth $3.1 million at today’s prices. Due to multiple quadrennial "halving" events since then, each of which cuts the block reward in half, miners today receive just 3.125 BTC—or about $196,000 worth.

Edited by Andrew Hayward