Bitcoin rewards mined in March 2010—now moving after more than 16 years from long-dormant wallets—have triggered fresh debate over whether the earliest coins could be tied to Satoshi Nakamoto. On Saturday, multiple addresses that together held about 600 BTC (worth roughly $48 million) transferred funds after an inactivity stretch spanning well over a decade and a half, according to onchain data reviewed by Cointelegraph.
The latest movement is getting attention because it falls within the period when Nakamoto was still active in Bitcoin’s early development. But blockchain sleuthing by Whale Alert points to a different conclusion: the company says it found no link between these specific mining blocks and Nakamoto.
Key takeaways
- About 600 BTC moved from dormant Bitcoin addresses after more than 16 years, with Cointelegraph tracing the activity to onchain monitoring reports.
- Whale Alert attributes the funds to block rewards from March 2010, when the per-block subsidy was 50 BTC.
- Whale Alert says its research cannot connect any of the 12 relevant mining blocks to Satoshi Nakamoto.
- The same incident builds on Whale Alert’s earlier work that covered seven of the rewards, now expanded to all 12.
- Lookonchain previously identified seven miner wallets tied to the March 2010 mining period, reinforcing the timeline.
Whale Alert expands its mapping of the March 2010 rewards
Whale Alert’s follow-up research, as reported to Cointelegraph, identifies all 12 reward events behind the dormant funds. The transfers originate from Bitcoin blocks mined in March 2010, when each mined block paid a 50 BTC subsidy. Over time, that subsidy has been reduced through Bitcoin’s scheduled halving process.
Most recently, the subsidy fell in April 2024, when Bitcoin’s block reward decreased from 6.25 BTC to the current 3.125 BTC per block, following Bitcoin’s 2024 halving. While that historical note doesn’t change the origin story of the dormant coins, it helps contextualize why coins mined in early 2010 were so much larger per block than today’s issuance.
Whale Alert previously analyzed only seven of the rewards and said in an X post that those blocks were not mined by Nakamoto. This latest work extends the company’s tracing to the full set of 12 reward blocks connected to Saturday’s wallet activity.
Where the “Satoshi” speculation comes from—and why Whale Alert disputes it
Speculation intensified because the moved coins are “Satoshi-era” rewards—mined while Nakamoto was still participating in Bitcoin communications and development. Nakamoto’s involvement didn’t end abruptly; the individual continued to be present in the project through 2010 and then gradually withdrew. Cointelegraph previously reported that the last known communication dates to April 2011.
However, Whale Alert argues that timing alone is not enough to claim a link to Nakamoto. A Whale Alert spokesperson told Cointelegraph that none of the blocks tied to the 12 rewards can be connected to Satoshi based on its research. In other words, although the coins are old enough to keep the mythic connection alive, Whale Alert’s mapping does not support the origin claim.
For traders and long-term holders, the practical takeaway is that “old coins” and “Satoshi-era” are not the same as “Satoshi coins.” The distinction matters because narratives about Nakamoto-linked holdings often feed into heightened speculation, even when the underlying evidence is absent or inconclusive.
Inactivity broke: test-transaction pattern and wallet behavior
Whale Alert also provided interpretive context for how the transfers unfolded. The company noted that one of the 12 reward payments moved several blocks before most of the others. Whale Alert suggested this sequencing resembles a test transaction—followed by later transfers from the remaining related addresses—rather than a single coordinated sweep.
That behavioral detail matters because it influences how observers read the motive behind dormant-wallet activity. A test transaction implies the sender may have been verifying rules or pathways before moving larger amounts, whereas a single immediate consolidation typically points to a different kind of operational intent. Without access to private keys or additional offchain context, onchain pattern analysis is the closest available lens.
Cointelegraph also notes that Lookonchain previously identified seven miner wallets that moved 350 BTC after about 16.5 years of inactivity, attributing those wallets to March 2010 mining. Taken together, the overlap in timing supports that the dormant activity is tied to the early mining subsidy period, even if the participants remain anonymous.
What to watch next as “early coins” come back online
These movements are a reminder that Bitcoin’s early distribution still occasionally reappears on public ledgers—sometimes after extraordinary inactivity. Even when those events are not linked to Nakamoto, they can still matter: large-value transfers from long-dormant addresses can shift sentiment around supply dynamics and may drive short-term speculation about whether more old holdings will move.
For now, the key uncertainty is whether additional related wallets—connected to other early mining outputs—will remain silent or follow this pattern. Investors and traders should watch for follow-on transactions from adjacent early-era addresses and for further onchain attribution work that either corroborates or refines the “which blocks were mined by whom” questions.
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