Bitcoin Whale Turned $120 Into $179 Million—All It Took Was HODLing for 14 Years

When people talk of Bitcoin being a store of value asset, they’re talking about examples like this one: A whale on Thursday moved 2,000 Bitcoin—worth $179 million—after not touching the stash for 14 years. 

Blockchain data shows that the whale—a crypto investor with huge holdings—received the coins in 2010 when they were worth $0.06 a piece. In total, they held $120 worth of orange coins back then. 

The whale moved the “digital gold” to American crypto exchange Coinbase late Thursday after watching their holdings appreciate by nearly 150,000,000%—presumably to sell. Journalist Pete Rizzo first flagged the movements on Twitter (aka X).

Bitcoin is now priced at $89,538, according to data from CoinGecko. It touched an all-time high of over $93,000 on Wednesday after surging by about $20,000 since Election Day.

In the crypto world, whales are investors who hoard large amounts of digital coins and sit on them for years, watching their value skyrocket. A lot of Bitcoin whales are likely groups of people or companies who were involved in mining the asset during its early days.

Although the oldest and biggest cryptocurrency sees short-term volatility, over the long-term, it typically appreciates more than most other assets—bringing “HODLers” huge returns.

Bitcoin has risen quickly following the election of Donald Trump earlier this month. The Republican president-elect has said he will be light on regulation—especially with the crypto sphere. 

Edited by Andrew Hayward