What’s Behind the Record-Breaking 270K BTC Movement This Year?

2025 sets a new record as dormant Bitcoin over seven years awakens.

2025 is shaping up as a record-breaking year for the movement of long-dormant Bitcoin. New data revealed BTC inactive for seven or more years, showing significant activity. So far this year, 270,000 BTC have been transformed, which is a new all-time high.

This figure has already surpassed 2024’s 255,000 BTC and far exceeded 2023’s 59,000 BTC, with two months still remaining.

2025 Becomes Year of the Awakening

CryptoQuant explained that Bitcoin’s surge in long-dormant coin movements may stem from several factors, such as old miners relocating long-held reserves, transferring funds to fresh cold wallets for enhanced security, and partial liquidations as elevated prices present lucrative opportunities.

At the current pace, 2025 could see more than 300,000 BTC with 7+ years of dormancy being moved.

Adding to the trend, a tweet from on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain highlighted a miner wallet 18eY9o, which has been dormant for 14 years and holding 4,000 BTC mined in 2009 and consolidated in 2011, recently became active. The wallet holder transferred 150 BTC, which is worth roughly $16.59 million.

This move is part of the broader pattern of early-era coins resurfacing, suggesting both strategic repositioning by miners and renewed liquidity from historically inactive addresses.

Bitcoin noted a modest 2.1% surge in the past day as it trades at $111,178. With more long-held coins potentially entering circulation, it would be interesting to see how these dormant Bitcoin awakenings could influence price trends and investor behavior in the final months of the year.

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Dormant Bitcoins Awakening

In September, a 12-year-old miner-era wallet transferred 400.08 BTC, valued at roughly $44 million, to multiple new addresses. The coins were originally mined 15 years ago. A humorous X post even noted the generational wealth unlocked by awakening a decade-old wallet.

Earlier, in July, a 14-year-dormant wallet containing over 80,000 BTC moved 20,000 BTC worth $2.4 billion, with billions more sent to institutional custodian Galaxy Digital. The reactivation of multiple wallets, some funneling funds to exchanges like Binance and Bybit, drew immediate comparisons to the Mt. Gox trustee sell-offs of 2024 and raised fears of a market correction.