Dormant Bitcoin Moves After a Decade as Market Sees Drop in Sending Activity

• Over 1,054 BTC was transferred after 7 to 10 years, indicating that the long-term holders might be selling their tokens.
• The price of Bitcoin has reached below $82,000, and the number of active sending addresses has dropped sharply.
• The on-chain data still depicts weak network activity, and traders are waiting for a price action.

Over 1,050 Bitcoin ($BTC) that had remained untouched for seven to ten years have just been moved, according to CryptoQuant. This transfer signals long-term holders’ accumulation for a large sale during a period of time when network activity and price have appeared to be under pressure.

1,057 Bitcoin that hadn’t moved in 7–10 years just woke up.

Long-term holders may be preparing to sell. https://t.co/A6I7Mo3ljX

— CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) April 3, 2025

Historically, the revival of dead coins is associated with the movements in the market in the near future, which may indicate the desire of early investors to sell the cryptocurrency. These movements normally occur during highly volatile or over-heated market situations.

Recent network data supports the concern. This is evident from the chart provided by CryptoQuant, which reveals that active sending addresses on the Bitcoin blockchain have decreased significantly. The daily usage frequency has decreased from more than 950K in mid-2023 to less than 700K in recent weeks.

The daily active addresses trend indicates this to be generally declining, with only short spikes at high volatility. Data from Glassnode also supports this claim and reveals that the number of sending addresses has stagnated since the end of 2021.

Price Slips Below $82K as Network Usage Slows

Bitcoin is currently about $81,887 after experiencing a slight decline of 3.28% in the last 24 hours, as per CoinMarketCap. This came after the price had touched an intraday high of about $85K earlier in the day before a sharp drop.

This comes as sending activity declines along with a market capitalization slump of 3.27% or $1.62 trillion. Although the correction is still visible, the trading volume has nearly doubled, signalling short-term transactions where traders actively respond to the price swings.

The current 3.38% volume-to-market-cap ratio can be attributed to short-term factors, such as panic selling or repositioning, rather than indicators of long-term beliefs. This means that on-chain activity is reduced during price drops, which is considered bearish since it is seen as user engagement diminishing. Currently, it has a total of 19.84 million BTC, and the maximum that it can support is 21 million BTC. 

Holder Behavior Shifts as Market Uncertainty Grows

The selling off of large amounts of Bitcoin raises suspicion over the recent behaviours of long-term investors. These addresses are largely dormant and have probably been offline for almost a decade, making most of them belong to early adopters or institutions. Their activation during price slowdown may signal impending distribution.

Previous similar wallet movements took place before key correction steep. In previous bull runs, comparable awakenings were accompanied by multi-week pullbacks as well. Although not necessarily favourable, such occurrences influence trading activities among analysts who anticipate whales’ movements to determine the best time to trade.

At the same time, the number of unique sending addresses does not demonstrate a clear tendency for constant growth. Other on-chain metrics by Glassnode also depict that total sending addresses are still below previous cycle highs. However, the increase in the market cap and a rise in BTC prices demonstrate inefficient sending activity and cautious usage.