Atomicals community raises rug pull fears after dormant BTC wallet moves funds

Early supporters of the Atomicals protocol are nursing fresh fears of a rug pull after a dormant account holding 5.91980561 of the project’s BTC suddenly became active. 

The Atomicals protocol wallet, which has been dormant since 2024 and contains donations from community members, suddenly made a 1.521212 BTC transfer to an external address.

The movement has reignited “soft rug” fears regarding the protocol’s anonymous founder, known as Arthur, who has been largely inactive despite previous technical promises.

Is the Atomicals founder preparing for a final exit?

The Bitcoin ecosystem is on high alert today after reports surfaced that 1.521212 BTC, approximately $120,000 at current market rates, was transferred out of a wallet belonging to the Atomicals protocol.

This wallet previously held a total of 5.91980561 BTC that were donated by community members to support the long-term development of the Atomicals ecosystem. Until today, the balance has remained untouched since the early months of 2024.

The news was first highlighted by crypto influencers and verified by on-chain data trackers like BlockBeats.

Atomicals (ARC-20) was famous for being a “halal” protocol, meaning it had no venture capital (VC) backing, no pre-mine, and focused strictly on technical innovation. However, the founder of the project, Arthur, remained anonymous throughout the process.

Bitcoin’s price currently sits in a range between $75,000 and $80,000, and the sudden movement of funds by Atomicals has set off warning bells for investors.

Atomicals blew hot in the beginning, promising development plans and ambitious features like Realm names and DMINT improvements. But these goals never happened. Instead, Arthur stopped communicating regularly with the public, leading to what many call a “soft rug pull.”

How does the wallet movement affect other Bitcoin protocols?

Despite bull case predictions calling Bitcoin as high as $180,000, the protocols built on top of it, like ARC-20, are suffering from “founder fatigue.”

If the Atomicals’ 1.5 BTC is sold on the open market, it could create sell pressure for the native $ATOM token, which has already lost users to more active Layer 2 solutions.

This event serves as a harsh lesson for the wider “BTCFi” (Bitcoin Finance) community. In early 2026, the Bitcoin ecosystem is more crowded than ever. New protocols like the Merlin Chain and the latest updates to the Runes standard are fighting for the same users that Atomicals once had.

Bitcoin’s potential rise to $180,000 by the end of the year is dependent mostly on its growth in institutional sectors and regulated ETFs.

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