An old address that had been dormant for ten years suddenly awakens, not to cash out, but to send money into a black hole.

Written by: Liu Jiaolian

Upon waking up, BTC has retraced to above 75k.

On May 26, on-chain analyst SaniExp captured five unusual transactions.

An anonymous address transferred 107 BTC into the famous burn address: 1111111111111111111114oLvT2 in five separate transactions.

Calculating BTC at 76k, this amount is equivalent to over 8 million US dollars.

The public key of this address is all zeros, with no corresponding private key. According to current cryptographic assumptions, any BTC transferred in can never be retrieved.

This does not seem like an ordinary transfer mistake.

In an instant, there were various speculations and opinions.

Even more puzzling is the source of the funds.

The sending address comes from a dormant wallet created between 2014 and 2015, over ten years ago.

An old address that had been dormant for ten years suddenly awakens, not to cash out, but to send money into a black hole.

All five transactions were set with locktime, precisely waiting for specific block heights to unlock.

The fees were above average to ensure the transactions could be packaged in a timely manner.

A person continuously entering the wrong address five times has a probability close to zero.

This seems very intentional.

Blockstream CEO Adam Back also responded to this matter on X.

He replied: accidental quantum bounty?

What he means is that the public key of this burn address can be mathematically derived from its address structure. Theoretically, a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could potentially reverse-engineer the corresponding private key in the future to claim the funds.

This means the sender might be deliberately creating a honeypot, waiting for the day quantum technology matures, to see who can crack it and take away this money.

Adam Back publicly stated in April this year that Bitcoin should prepare for optional quantum-resistant upgrades, rather than forcibly freezing old wallets. He believes the network should be ready for the post-quantum era without harming the interests of existing holders.

Researchers at Caltech recently discovered that the number of qubits required to crack Bitcoin might be much lower than earlier models estimated. ARK Invest also listed five stages of quantum risks that Bitcoin faces, with the early stages already beginning to affect institutional holding strategies.

From this perspective, these 107 BTC are not a destruction but a bounty on quantum computing... or a provocation?

A provocation means those who promote quantum computing shouldn't just talk big; if you have the ability, come and crack this black hole address and take away this few hundred million dollars' worth of BTC?

These 107 BTC are just the tip of the iceberg.

This 1111-prefixed black hole address has received over 380,000 UTXOs since it appeared in August 2010. Currently, it holds the "remains" of 807.238 BTC, worth over 62 million US dollars.

Between 2014 and 2015, the balance climbed from zero to three or four dozen. By 2016, it reached fifty or sixty. From 2020 to 2021, it surged from 80 to 150-175. From 2022 to 2023, it climbed to over 500.

Each increase represents money sent into the black hole.

And this time, the 107 coins are the largest single batch.

The most puzzling aspect of this matter is why the sender chose to wait ten years.

Ten years ago, the cost of these bitcoins might have been just a few hundred dollars.

If he simply wanted to express some concept, why not destroy them back then? Why wait until today?

Perhaps this itself is a manifestation of long-termism. Holding for ten years is not to sell at a high point but to utilize this money at a suitable moment for greater significance than liquidation.

Destruction, sometimes, is precisely for the sake of creation.

Destruction ten years ago and destruction today involve the same BTC, but the dollar value of the destruction is different.

The higher the unit price of BTC, the greater the dollar value of the destruction, and the stronger the provocative effect regarding quantum computing.

As for the truth behind this event, perhaps no one will ever know.

References:

[1] SaniExp, "Someone just broadcasted 5 transactions totaling 107 BTC to the Bitcoin 'burn address' 1111111111111111111114oLvT2", X, May 26, 2026. [Link](https://x.com/SaniExp/status/2059212284140888375)