A Bitcoin wallet from the time of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, has reactivated after 14 years of dormancy and sent 50 Bitcoin to the Binance crypto exchange.
The period of Satoshi Nakamoto’s activity, known as the Satoshi era, lasted from 2009 to 2011. This wallet, linked to a Bitcoin miner, earned 50 BTC as mining rewards in July 2010. These were some of the earliest mined Bitcoin when the reward per block was 50 BTC. Now, the reward is only 3.125 BTC.
At the time of mining, the value of 50 BTC was just $25, as Bitcoin was trading at around $0.05 and was only a year old. The historical transaction record of the wallet indicates that the miner was able to mine a single block, a rare achievement in today’s world as Bitcoin network hashrates continue to reach new highs.
The movement of cryptocurrency to centralized exchanges is often viewed as a bearish sign, as it is often associated with selling assets. As of the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading just above $61,000, having experienced several drops below the support level in recent days, and is currently down 17% from its all-time high of over $73,750.
Over the past year, many dormant Bitcoin wallets, some of which date back to the time of Satoshi Nakamoto, have been reactivated to either transfer their BTC to a new wallet or sell it on exchanges.
Satoshi Nakamoto initially intended for the public to mine Bitcoin on their home computers. However, as the price of BTC reached new highs and provided significant returns with each halving cycle, Bitcoin mining expanded to include profitable, industrial-scale operations. This led to a significant increase in mining difficulty, with many companies establishing large-scale mining operations using state-of-the-art machines.
The competition to mine Bitcoin has become fierce, with mining difficulty so high that even machines worth thousands of dollars cannot guarantee the successful mining of a single block.
In recent years, Bitcoin has gained the interest of hip hop stars and other celebrities, who see it as a valuable investment and a potential source of income.