The wave of long-dormant Bitcoin wallets coming back to life shows no sign of slowing, with at least four more old reserves moving in recent days, one of them apparently headed for sale.
According to blockchain monitoring by Galaxy Research, the wallets that awoke moved a combined total of 202.84 BTC, valued at around $15.73 million, between 29 August and 4 September.
The largest, holding 146.06 BTC, or roughly $11.31 million, had sat untouched since November 2013, for almost 12.8 years, generating a gain of about 12,902% on a cost basis close to $595.
Next, a 40 BTC wallet dormant since November 2011 was moved, worth around $3.09 million and showing a striking 2,571,899% increase over an average cost of roughly $3. That means this patient “hodler” managed to turn about $120 in BTC into more than $3 million — simply by holding for almost 15 years, as shown in this transaction.
Two smaller wallets rounded out the batch: 10 BTC untouched since June 2011, worth around $777,000, and 6.78 BTC, last active in February 2011, valued at around $551,000. The older coins showed astronomical theoretical gains, with the 2011-era holdings up more than 2,000% and, in one case, more than 500,000% on their original cost.
The latest wave extends a trend that accelerated over the summer. Recent data from Galaxy's chart shows that the oldest cohort of Bitcoin — coins untouched for a decade or more — is moving at a pace rarely seen in 2026. An earlier wave saw six wallets move around $40 million in a single 10-day span in August.
Most of these movements leave the fate of the coins ambiguous, since a transfer alone does not reveal whether an owner is selling, consolidating, or moving to new custody. This time, one wallet offered a clearer signal.
Galaxy attributed the 6.78 BTC transfer to a recipient at Coinbase, indicating that the decade-old coins were sent to the exchange, a move typically associated with intent to sell rather than mere reallocation of funds.
Several of the reactivated wallets also carried “Noah Doe” sender tags, a reference to the New York court case seeking to have thousands of dormant addresses declared abandoned property. The named wallets tied to that case have been moving regularly since a judge suspended proceedings in June.
Why so many old holders are moving now remains unclear, but each awakening revives questions about long-lost supply returning to circulation.
* Translated and edited with permission from Decrypt.
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