107 Bitcoins worth approximately $8.5 million were transferred by an unknown person or institution to an address that is impossible to spend on the blockchain. As a result, this transfer means that the assets in question are completely removed from circulation.
Bitcoins that remained silent for a long time were burned
In the statement made by Galaxy Research, it was stated that these funds from five Bitcoin wallets in total were transferred. On-chain data shows that the balance has been sitting virtually dormant for approximately 12 years. These assets, purchased at a time when Bitcoin was still trading below $600, experienced a value increase of more than 12,700 percent during the transfer.
Analysts point out that the market follows closely the large movements of balances that have not been touched for many years.
The address to which the BTCs in question are sent is known as a special “close address” starting with “11111”. It is not possible for coins sent to such addresses that do not have a key on the blockchain to enter circulation again.
Mini dictionary: It is a type of address that does not have a burning address, ownership or private key, and the sent coins can never be locked again and never spent on the blockchain. In Bitcoin, burns are used to deliberately remove the coin from circulation.
Total Bitcoin in Close Address Increases
The data shows that there are currently a total of 807 BTC in this burning address; He revealed that this corresponds to a value of approximately 59 million dollars. However, there is no built-in automatic burning mechanism on the Bitcoin blockchain network, as in Ether or BNB. For this reason, burning can only be done by sending to such addresses whose keys are unknown to the users. In previous years, the Stacks project used this address for a similar purpose and burned 40 BTC in 2015.
| Address | Total BTC Burned | Current Value (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 111111…4oLvT2 | 807 | 59,000,000 |
Different Theories About the Cause of Burning
While investigating the possible reasons for this massive burn, Galaxy Research focused on possibilities such as providing a tax advantage, destroying funds of illegal origin or the possibility of a technical error. It was also stated that there was no past connection against the law. Another theory that adds a different dimension to the issue is that an advanced artificial intelligence may have accidentally carried out the transfer. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas similarly suggested that the process could be due to either an AI-related error, tax optimization or another extraordinary situation.
Coinbase Administrator Alleges Error Due to Exchange
Conor Grogan, Coinbase’s director of product operations, commented on the issue and suggested that this burn could be an operational error made during cold wallet management of an exchange.
According to Grogan, as a result of a technical glitch experienced by one of the exchanges during cold wallet transactions, BTCs may have accidentally gone to the address of no return.
So far, the actual owner of the fund or the person or institution that sent it has not been identified. Additionally, no ownership verification was made by either exchanges or other major platforms. It is stated that this transaction attracted the attention of the industry as it is one of the largest Bitcoin burns recorded in 2026.
