Six Dormant Bitcoin Wallets Move $40M After 14 Years
Bitcoin (BTC)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
decrypt.co reports that six Bitcoin wallets dormant for over a decade moved a combined 553.59 BTC, valued at $40.15 million, between August 16 and August 26. Galaxy Research identified these movements, noting that holders from the 2011 to 2014 era rarely keep control of their original coins. One wallet moved 8.54 BTC after sitting still since June 2011, representing a 461,981% gain on a $14 cost basis.
Another 212 BTC moved from a wallet dormant since August 2012, tagged with the label "Noah Doe #1396 · Salomon Client Dusted." This tag links the address to a New York lawsuit seeking to claim abandoned property, where plaintiffs sent dust transactions to wake addresses. Two additional wallets moved 150 BTC and 132.31 BTC respectively, with the latter splitting across three 2011 addresses.
The sixth wallet moved 40 BTC to Boerse Stuttgart Digital, a German custody bank, achieving a 1,535,911% gain from a $5 cost basis. None of the other five destinations were linked to exchanges, suggesting the coins may remain in cold storage or are one hop from a sale. The activity follows a trend of accelerated wallet movements over the last six months, potentially driven by the Noah Doe case or paranoia following the Coldcard hardware wallet exploit.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for BTC, measured when this story was written up on 26 August 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
Bitcoin is trading at $79,023.75 with a 24-hour buy ratio of 49.9%, indicating a near-even split between buyers and sellers. Short-term pressure shows signs of fading, as the 1-hour buy ratio dropped to 44.7% and the 4-hour ratio fell further to 43.0%. This decline in short-term buying interest is confirmed by negative volume deltas of -$9.6 million over one hour and -$13.5 million over four hours. The cumulative volume delta for the day sits at -$64.5 million, showing that selling pressure has outweighed buying pressure throughout the session. Despite this, the 24-hour volume delta of -$903,088 remains relatively small compared to the $1.15 billion in spot volume, suggesting the sell-off is not yet overwhelming.
The latest daily buy ratio of 46.7% sits at the 18th percentile of the last 322 days, against a median of 49.2% - weaker buying than most days.
Twenty-four hours later
What BTC did over the 24 hours after the story broke. The market moves for its own reasons; this is what happened, not what the story caused.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for BTC, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
This trading day contrasts with the preceding week, where the average buy ratio was 51.6%, indicating that current short-term buying is weaker than the recent trend. Volume today is also subdued, running at just 0.54 times the weekly average, making this an unusually quiet day for BTC trading. While the coin gained 14.0% over the past eight days, today's volume is significantly lower than the weekly norm. The weekly volume delta was positive at $445.7 million, whereas today's session has seen a net outflow, marking a shift from the accumulation seen earlier in the week.