An unidentified Bitcoin user transferred 26.9 Bitcoin (BTC) valued at $1.17 million to the Genesis wallet — the first-ever wallet on the Bitcoin network. 

The Bitcoin transaction occurred on Jan. 5 at 1:52 am ET. The amount was sent from an emptied wallet to the Genesis wallet, accompanied by a transaction fee of $100, notably higher than the average.

The wallet’s initial funding involved a complex transaction, moving funds from three wallets to 12 others. Most of the funds originated from a wallet associated with Binance on Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analytics platform.

The Genesis wallet is the first wallet ever created on the Bitcoin network. Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, established it. This wallet represents the starting point of the Bitcoin blockchain.

Conor Grogan, a director at Coinbase, posted on the X platform that it’s either Satoshi who woke up and purchased 27 Bitcoin (BTC) from Binance and deposited them into their wallet, or someone essentially burned a million dollars.

Grogan also suggested that the anonymous Bitcoin (BTC) transfer could be some sort of weird ETF marketing scheme.

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No movement of funds from Nakamoto-associated wallets, including the genesis block, has occurred since Nakamoto disappeared in December 2010. In theory, Nakamoto could retain the private keys for these wallets and control the funds, but most believe this is unlikely.

The Genesis wallet initially held the 50 mined Bitcoin when Nakamoto vanished. On Bitcoin’s 14th birthday, Bitcoin users from around the world celebrated in various ways, with some opting to send BTC to the address containing the rewards for mining its genesis block. The token gifts increased the wallet’s balance to 72 Bitcoin (BTC) by late 2023.

The recent transaction raised the current balance to 99.67 Bitcoin (BTC), valued at $4.3 million.

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