600 BTC From 12 March-2010 Blocks Wakes After 16 Years, No Satoshi Link Found

Twelve Bitcoin addresses holding a combined 600 BTC, worth roughly $48 million at current prices, moved coins over the weekend after more than 16 years of complete inactivity. Whale Alert, the on-chain tracking platform that identified the transfers, traced every one of the 12 rewards to blocks mined in March 2010 and said its research found no link to Satoshi Nakamoto.

Sourcing note: The core fact, that a batch of March-2010 mining rewards moved after 16-plus years of dormancy, is confirmed by two independent trackers, Whale Alert and Lookonchain. The exact size of the batch differs between an earlier, smaller finding and the fuller one that followed within roughly a day.

What Whale Alert Actually Verified

Whale Alert says all 12 dormant rewards trace to Bitcoin blocks mined in March 2010, when the network still paid a 50 BTC subsidy per block. That subsidy has since been halved four times, most recently in April 2024, when it dropped from 6.25 BTC to the current 3.125 BTC.

A Whale Alert spokesperson told Cointelegraph: “None of the blocks can be connected to Satoshi based on our research.” That is a direct, attributed rebuttal of the speculation that tends to attach itself to any coin dated to Bitcoin’s first year.

Why the Count Went From 7 to 12

Lookonchain first flagged seven wallets, each holding a single 50 BTC block reward, moving a combined 350 BTC worth about $28 million after roughly 16.5 years of silence. Whale Alert’s own initial post, shared on X, covered the same seven blocks and reached the same conclusion: not Nakamoto’s coins.

Whale Alert’s later, fuller analysis added five more addresses, bringing the total to 12 blocks and 600 BTC. This is not a case of a wrong initial number. It reflects a tracker expanding its dataset as it worked through the surrounding blocks mined in the same March 2010 window, then publishing the complete tally once the additional wallets were confirmed on-chain.

What Remains Unverified

Neither tracker has published the specific block heights or a full methodology showing how they ruled out Nakamoto’s involvement, beyond the general statement that the blocks do not match known Nakamoto-associated addresses. That leaves the “no connection” finding as a credible, attributed claim from a single research source rather than an independently reproduced result.

A separate claim, that the market saw a notable rise in selling pressure tied to this movement as Bitcoin traded close to $80,000, appeared in only one of the two reports reviewed for this story. It has not been corroborated by a second source and should be treated as a single-outlet observation rather than a confirmed market effect.

The Numbers That Matter

At the time of the movement, Bitcoin traded near $79,900 to $80,000 across the sources reviewed. Each of the twelve 50 BTC rewards is worth close to $4 million at that price, and the full 600 BTC batch sits at roughly $48 million. The coins were mined less than 15 months after Bitcoin’s January 2009 launch, when Nakamoto was still visibly active in the project’s development and communications.

Dormant-wallet movements of this age are rare enough that any single one draws attention within hours. This one drew two independent trackers, a consistent origin story in March 2010, and one attributed denial of a Satoshi connection. Whether more blocks from the same batch surface in the coming days is the open question worth watching next.

Sources

• cointelegraph.com
• u.today