Dormant Bitcoin Mining Wallets Suddenly Awaken—Raking in $29M After 15-Year Crypto Coma

Talk about a delayed payday. Five Bitcoin wallets—left for dead since the early days of mining—just woke up and cashed out a combined $29 million. The crypto equivalent of finding a lottery ticket in your 2010 jeans.

From Obscurity to Lamborghini Showrooms

These wallets hadn’t moved a satoshi since Bitcoin was a niche experiment. Whoever’s behind them either forgot, lost the keys, or played the ultimate HODL game—turning pocket change into generational wealth.

Timing Is Everything (Except When It’s Not)

Ironically, if they’d sold at 2021’s bull run peak, the haul would’ve been triple. But hey, $29 million beats a sharp stick in the eye—and most hedge fund returns this decade.

The Punchline?

While Wall Street funds pay analysts millions to underperform Bitcoin, some anonymous miner just outdid them all… by doing absolutely nothing for 15 years. Crypto wins again.

Can You Still Make a Profit From Mining Bitcoin?

The short answer is yes, you can still make a profit from mining Bitcoin (BTC). However, the mining landscape has drastically changed since 2010.

Back in 2010, BTC’s network difficulty was extremely low. The figure was somewhere close to 1. The low network difficulty meant that miners could secure blocks using simple CPUs using a standard desktop or laptop. According to Blockchain’s BTC data, BTC’s network difficulty sits at 127 trillion today. The massive rise in difficulty means that a regular CPU will just not cut it. Modern miners use specialized mining machines to mine BTC. ASIC mining machines are purpose-built for BTC mining.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) block rewards have also substantially diminished since 2010. In 2010, not a single BTC halving event had occurred. Miners would receive 50 BTC for each block verified on the network. Fast forward to 2025, we have experienced four bitcoin halving events: in 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024. The 50 BTC reward has been halved four times. Today, miners receive 3.125 BTC per block. While the value of BTC has grown, the amount of coins received per block has diminished, maintaining a balance.

While Bitcoin miners can still make a profit, the amount of competition has increased exponentially. Mining farms, large corporations, and big money have all entered the crypto arena. Getting into BTC mining is a lot more cumbersome today than it ever was.