A wallet that had not moved a single coin since 2013 sprang back to life on Monday, August 3, transferring 500 BTC worth roughly $31.3 million. The wallet, identified as 18TExP, held coins worth only about $500,000 when they were last touched 12.7 years ago, according to a transaction first flagged by Whale Alert.
It wasn't an isolated event. On-chain data compiled by CryptoQuant shows a broader wave of long-idle bitcoin moving in recent days, coinciding with growing unease in the wake of the Coldcard hardware wallet hack.
Old Coins Are Moving in Bulk
CryptoQuant figures cited by CoinDesk show 935 BTC that had sat dormant for 10 or more years changed hands on August 3 — the largest single-day total for that cohort since March 20. A separate spike hit coins dormant between five and seven years, with 6,388 BTC moving on July 31 alone.
The timing lines up closely with the disclosure of the Coldcard hack, which Galaxy researchers say began on July 30 and has now been linked to roughly $130 million in stolen bitcoin, traced back to a vulnerability in wallet-generation code dating to March 2021.
Security Fears Driving the Exodus
A Lookonchain analyst quoted by CoinDesk offered a direct read on the motive: the owner of the 2013 wallet
may have moved funds due to security concerns following the Coldcard hack
. That theory fits a pattern CoinDesk describes across the weekend, with self-custody holders shifting coins after losing confidence in wallets that may share exposure to the same flaw.
The report also notes an uptick in bitcoin flowing into exchanges over the same period, a common signal that holders are either selling or moving assets somewhere they consider safer than the hardware they'd been using.
A Reminder of Bitcoin's Aging Supply
Wallets untouched for a decade or more resurface periodically, often prompting speculation about early miners or long-term holders cashing out. This time, the pattern looks less like profit-taking and more like a security-driven scramble, with holders of old coins reassessing whether their storage setup is still trustworthy in the aftermath of one of the year's larger hardware wallet incidents.
Bitcoin itself was trading modestly higher during the period, up 1.68% to $63,815.72, suggesting the wave of dormant-coin movement has not yet translated into meaningful selling pressure on price.
