Bitcoin miner finds forgotten fortune worth millions

A Bitcoin miner has discovered an old Bitcoin wallet containing a small fortune—worth $8 million.

According to a post on Bitcoin forum BitcoinTalk, a self-proclaimed Bitcoin "newbie" mined some Bitcoin using a personal computer back when it was possible to do so—before massive mining rigs took over. It appears they stumbled across the coin only recently and took to BitcoinTalk to find out what to do with the massive stash.

"I mined some bitcoin for a little bit, a long time ago; back when it was still possible to mine with GPU. I haven't been active here for a long time," they wrote on March 10, adding, "How do I move my BTC to sell?"

Several members of BitcoinTalk gave him some guidance. While the miner didn't specify, later that day a transaction was made moving 1,000 Bitcoin, worth $7.95 million at the time.

BTC

-3.44%$81,922.72

---

24H7D1M1YMAX

Price data by

BTC price

These coins were originally mined on August 24, 2010—suggesting they belonged to this poster. It's rare to see coins that have been stagnant for so long suddenly move.

But the stash was likely even bigger. Since the Bitcoin blockchain has been forked a number of times since 2010, the wallet also contained 1,000 Bitcoin Cash (BCH), 1,000 Bitcoin SV (BSV) and so on. Just these two coins, when combined, add an extra $475,000.

Bitcoin crashes 30 percent as stocks suffer worst day in 30 years

The markets are roiling—both traditional and crypto alike. Bitcoin has continued to slide this afternoon, falling to below $5,600 per coin. It’s now down nearly 30 percent on the day. The top cryptocurrency by market cap initially fell to as low as $5,900 during today’s early morning hours. It recovered to just above $6,000, but is now trending downwards as traders continue to sell. All in all, Bitcoin has lost close to $3,000 in value over the past week. On March 5, BTC was trading for $8,700...

"Thank you all for all the suggestions. It was overall a great return and the best welcome one can get!" he posted two days later.

The miner had pretty good timing. If they did sell the coins on the day, they would have made around $8 million. But if they had waited until earlier today, it would have been worth just half.