Something unusual is happening on the blockchain. A bitcoin wallet, untouched since 2012, just woke up. It moved its entire holding of 232.16 BTC. That’s a lot of bitcoin, and it hadn’t budged in over a decade.

But here’s the thing—it wasn’t alone.

A Flurry of Activity

According to data from btcparser.com, a handful of other long-dormant wallets decided it was time to move. All within the past few days. On September 11th, two tiny transactions, almost like digital dust, were sent from wallets that had been silent since 2012. We’re talking minuscule amounts—0.00000550 BTC and 0.00000600 BTC.

The strange part? Those tiny moves came from wallets holding enormous value. One holds 300 BTC, worth over $34 million. The other moved 200 BTC. As of now, the 300 BTC stash is still sitting there. But after those dust transactions, a wallet from 2013 jumped in, moving 100 BTC.

A Curious Pattern

What’s interesting is how they’re moving the coins. That 2012 wallet with 200 BTC split its money into two fresh Pay-to-Script-Hash (P2SH) addresses. The 2013 wallet did the exact same thing with its 100 BTC. It’s a pattern.

The activity didn’t stop there. More wallets from 2017 woke up, moving 10, 12.42, and 51.84 BTC. Then on Thursday, we saw a 2015 wallet move 25 BTC and a 2014 wallet move 14.07 BTC—both for the very first time.

Then came the big one. That original 2012 wallet moved its 232.16 BTC. And guess what? It followed the same script, splitting the coins into two P2SH wallets. Even with this clear method, the transaction got a middling privacy score of 75 out of 100. Go figure.

Why Now?

All told, September 11th was a surprisingly busy day for ancient bitcoin. After a quiet couple of days, roughly 645.49 BTC from dormant wallets suddenly moved. The streak even continued into September 12th with two more 2017-era wallets moving funds.

So what’s going on? Well, bitcoin’s price is holding strong well above $100,000. That’s probably a big part of it. Some of these old coins are likely being cashed out. But that splitting pattern tells another story.

Many of these large holders, or “whales,” aren’t just spending. They seem to be shifting their fortunes into newer, more modern address formats. There’s talk, you know, about quantum computing. It’s a distant threat for now, but perhaps it’s making some big players nervous. They’re not taking any chances, moving their decade-old savings into what they see as safer digital houses. It makes you wonder what they know, or what they’re preparing for.