Key Takeaways:
The famous Genesis Bitcoin wallet, which Satoshi Nakamoto owns, now holds over 100 BTC after someone accidentally transferred $7,211 worth of BTC to it. The wallet, which contains tokens that have never been spent, reportedly holds Bitcoin valued at $6.75 million.
Bitcoin Genesis Wallet Now Contains 100 BTC Valued at Over $6.7 Million
Nakamoto’s wallet that initiated the Bitcoin blockchain has always contained a hardcoded block reward of 50 BTC from the first block that was ever mined. Over the years, the wallet only collected numerous dust transactions.
The wallet, which holds the unique honor of starting the first block on the blockchain has its mining reward of 50 BTC frozen due to not being included in the unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) set.
On the Bitcoin network, spending entails creating a transaction that specifies some UTXOs as inputs. Since the block rewards on the genesis block are absent from the UTXO set, it remains unspendable on the network.
Despite this, the first Bitcoin wallet has been on the receiving end of many “accidental” transfers, including dust transactions and on-chain messages.
Satoshi’s Bitcoin Wallet Received $1.8 Million Worth of Bitcoin in January 2024
Shortly after the 15th anniversary of the launch of the Bitcoin Network earlier this year, an unknown individual accidentally transferred 26.917 BTC, worth approximately $1.8 million, to the Genesis wallet.
The wallet was originally funded in a complex transaction involving funds that were moved from three wallets to 12 other wallets. On-chain intelligence platform Arkham Intelligence reported that the majority of the funds came from a wallet labeled as belonging to Binance.
The sender’s motivation behind the transfer remains a mystery, especially considering the Bitcoins have become non-spendable and are rather a huge amount. Some believe the individual may have intended to influence a shift in market sentiment amidst a bullish phase as the industry was anticipating a decision related to the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
At the time, Conor Grogan, a director at Coinbase, wrote on X that there were only two possibilities for the transaction to occur – either Satoshi themself had woken up, brought 27 BTC from Binance, and then deposited it into their wallet, or “someone just burned a million dollars”.
The transfer that served its purpose as a costly beacon for attention propped up the balance in Nakamoto’s wallet to 99.676 BTC and he has since received additional funds.
Bitcoin Genesis Wallet Received $7.2K Worth BTC on May 17th
Last week, at block height 843,872, another individual accidentally sent 0.107546 BTC, valued at $7,211 to Nakamoto’s wallet. Blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, which was the first to identify the erroneous transfer, stated in an X post that the person had sent 90% of their BTC holdings to the Genesis wallet.
Apparently, the unidentified individual was attempting to sacrifice an Ordinal for Pups Token but ended up mistakenly sending almost their entire wallet balance to Satoshi Nakamoto. The funds will now remain unspendable on the Genesis wallet until Nakamoto himself decides to do something about it, which has no chance of happening.
What is the Bitcoin Genesis Wallet?
The Genesis wallet is the first-ever wallet to be issued on the Bitcoin network, and it was created by the cryptocurrency’s pseudonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto. The entity also mined several other blocks on the network using different wallets in its early days but it’s unclear exactly how many.
Theoretically, Nakamoto could still be holding onto their private keys that give access to these wallets and could either move or return the accidentally sent funds.
However, this is unlikely to happen because the funds associated with Nakamoto, including those held in the Genesis block, have not been moved since Nakamoto’s last appearance in December 2010.
When the father of Bitcoin disappeared from the picture, the Genesis wallet contained only 50 Bitcoins that were mined when it was created. Its balance reached 72 BTC in late 2023, and with the latest transaction, the wallet now holds a balance of 100.425 BTC, valued at over $6.7 million.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $67,168 – up 0.1% in the last 24 hours.
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