A long-dormant Bitcoin holder moved 26.96 BTC on Aug. 10, pulling funds from a wallet untouched for over 12 years. Galaxy Research detected the transfer at 07:03 UTC in block #961845. The holdings are now valued at $1.76 million.
The wallet — identified as 14vMECU9ta5sUrBhbUUnPmDjtx8Vqm6Eum — first acquired its Bitcoin in Jan. 2014, when BTC traded at roughly $803 per coin. That puts the original buy-in at approximately $21,650.
The 26.96 BTC grew to $1.76 million, yielding an unrealized profit of $1.73 million — a return of approximately 7,975 percent over the 12-year hold.
Blockchain data shows the investor moved funds from a Legacy address, which begins with "1", to a Nested SegWit format, starting with "3". That migration points to a wallet security upgrade, not an immediate intent to sell.
SegWit (Segregated Witness) enables more efficient transactions on the Bitcoin network. Moving to a Nested SegWit address — also known as P2SH (Pay-to-Script-Hash) — cuts transaction fees 20 to 40 percent compared to Legacy addresses while maintaining compatibility with older wallet services.
The transaction cost 0.00000176 BTC, roughly $0.11 at current prices — a reminder of how cheaply Bitcoin moves large value on-chain.
This activation follows a security breach involving Coldcard hardware wallets, where hackers exploited a vulnerability to drain over $116 million from thousands of addresses. That incident rattled long-term holders and pushed many to reassess their storage setups.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $80 million in net inflows over the last four trading sessions as investors moved toward regulated custody options.
This is not an isolated move. Earlier this month, a 2011 Bitcoin wallet moved 49.97 BTC. A separate 500 BTC wallet — valued at $31.3 million — came back online after 12.7 years. Another wallet holding funds worth $44 million moved on Sunday after 12 years of inactivity.
The 26.96 BTC now sit at 3B5sQNx7xoXpZGhU2DizZSXH6HWtjrh1wp. Any transfer from that address to an exchange would be worth watching for short-term price impact. Bitcoin trades at $63,968.
