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Bitcoin, the first and largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is up nearly 22% in the last seven days after a major rally took it from a low of $62,679 on August 17 to a high of $81,265 on Tuesday.
Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin stash has also increased in tandem with the price increase, adding as much as $15 billion.
Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto is believed to have mined a substantial amount of Bitcoin in its early days. Satoshi Nakamoto holds about 1.096 million Bitcoin across roughly 22,000 addresses mapped by Arkham Intelligence, although the exact figure remains uncertain.
According to Arkham data, the current worth of these holdings is given as $85.82 billion at Bitcoin's current price of $78,280, up from an earlier figure of $71 billion before Bitcoin started rising and slightly down from yesterday's peak of $87 billion when Bitcoin surpassed $81,000.
The coins have remained untouched over the years, making Satoshi one of the largest potential individual Bitcoin holders.
Satoshi-era Bitcoin continues to move
Recent weeks have seen the awakening of long-dormant Bitcoin wallets, some dating back to the time the Bitcoin creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, was last active in the community.
In the most recent move, a 40 BTC holding that has been untouched since it was first received in May 2012 has just moved.
Galaxy Research reported that the wallet received its 40 BTC on May 28, 2012, and had not moved the coins for roughly 14.2 years. Galaxy identified the recipient as German crypto custody services provider Boerse Stuttgart Digital, while no sender attribution was available in its database.
At around $5 per coin, the 40 BTC would have represented only about $200 when initially acquired. Following Bitcoin's subsequent rise, the coins were worth about $3.14 million at the time of the transfer.
Galaxy Research estimated the realized profit at roughly $3.16 million, representing an impressive 1,535,911% gain.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
