Bitcoin: 100 BTC mined in 2010 wake up after 16 years

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Coins have moved away from an early address format that leaves the public key visible on the blockchain. Developers have been following this type of move closely since the quantum threat entered the debate. Two months ago, 600 BTC mined the same year had already resurfaced.

It all happened in just over two minutes. At 4:08 UTC (5:08 a.m. Paris), the first address sent nearly 50 BTC to a new address and 0.01 BTC to another. The second followed with almost 49 BTC on one side and 1 BTC on the other.

According to data from the Mempool explorer relayed by The Block, the two lots come from block rewards mined in September 2010. Whale Alert, which first spotted the transfers, estimates that each reward was then worth about $3.

Each block validated in 2010 brought 50 new bitcoins to its miner, compared to 3,125 today. A simple desktop computer did the trick.

The nest egg now weighs more than 1.1 million times its starting value, with bitcoin around $69,100 this Friday afternoon.

Forty minutes later, 20 BTC from the first shipment and 39 BTC from the second had reached the same address starting with “bc1qj5”. The rest is distributed between three other new addresses, with 30 BTC, 10 BTC and 1 BTC.

Merging two entries in the same transaction requires holding the keys. A single entity therefore controls at least part of the funds today. His identity remains unknown, as does the possible link between the two minors from 2010.

Mempool classifies the two original releases as P2PK (pay-to-public-key), the format from the early months of Bitcoin. He writes the owner's public key in plain text in the blockchain, and has done so for sixteen years for these two lots.

The four destination addresses all start with bc1q. This is native SegWit (P2WPKH), where only a cryptographic fingerprint of the key appears as long as the funds do not move.

The nuance weighs heavily. A powerful enough quantum computer could in theory find a private key from a visible public key. P2PK exits are therefore the first targets. Canadian manager 3iQ cites estimates of more than 1.7 million BTC still housed in this format. A good part would belong to Satoshi Nakamoto.

In April, Jameson Lopp and five co-authors published BIP-361. This project would ultimately freeze funds not migrated to quantum-resistant addresses, after a window of approximately five years. The text remains a draft and still divides the community.

Still keep a cool head on the motive. SegWit is not a post-quantum armor, since the public key reappears as soon as the owner spends his funds. The BIP-360's P2MR format, designed to close this door, is still awaiting activation.

This 2010 minor may have simply modernized his guard. Or prepared a sale. A transfer to a new address does not weigh on the market. Selling pressure only occurs with a deposit on a platform or with an over-the-counter broker.

The scenario has already been seen. In July 2025, five rewards from April 2010 had also joined SegWit addresses after fifteen years of inactivity. They were then worth nearly $30 million.

This awakening falls on a red day for bitcoin. According to CoinGecko, it lost 5.4% in 24 hours and fell back below $70,000. The 600 BTC in September had moved with a price close to $80,000.

Falling down the white rabbit hole in 2017, I went from avid reader to Editor-in-Chief of Journal du Coin until November 2026. I like to get involved behind the scenes of projects to bring my vision of a decentralized future. A lover of beautiful letters, I coordinate our teams to transform technical complexity into human, precise information without unnecessary jargon. Between entrepreneurship and writing, my mission is clear: popularize tomorrow, but do it today.

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Machine-translated from French