Ethereum ICO Whale Reawakens After 8 Years of Dormancy, Moves $116 Million
An ancient Ether wallet, dormant for eight years, suddenly transfers $116 million worth of pre-mined ETH to Kraken exchange, sparking intrigue and speculation.
Key Points
- An ancient Ether wallet, dormant for eight years, reawakens and transfers $116 million worth of pre-mined ETH to Kraken exchange.
- The tokens were purchased during an Ethereum sale event in June 2014, with an initial investment of $20 million, now valued over $116 million.
- The wallet’s owner remains unknown, showcasing a long-term “hodling” strategy popular in the crypto community.
- Dormant wallets resurfacing can impact the market and investor sentiment, making the ripple effects of this transaction interesting to watch.
An extremely old Ether wallet that had been dormant for eight years suddenly came back to life, transferring pre-mined ETH worth $116 million to a Kraken wallet address. These tokens were accumulated during a sale event in June 2014 and have significantly increased in value over the years.
An Ethereum ICO participant woke up after 7.7 years of dormancy and transferred 1 $ETH to a new address.
He received 2,365 $ETH($4.42M currently) at Ethereum Genesis, the ETH ICO price is ~$0.31.https://t.co/hOfBSyml19 pic.twitter.com/yoMoB6vE9n
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) April 24, 2023
Ethereum ICO Participant Wakes From 8-Year Slumber
According to Etherscan data, a wallet containing pre-mining era Ether worth $116 million was observed moving on July 18 after being inactive for eight years. The wallet transferred all 61,216 ETH to an address on the Kraken exchange. On the same day, the owner cautiously initiated a transfer of 0.05 ETH to the Kraken address, followed by the large-scale transfer.
What’s interesting is that the transfer of $116 million worth of ETH only incurred a transaction fee of $1.68 and 25.475673161 Gwei in gas price.
The Ethereum network conducted a sale event in June 2014, allowing co-founders and early participants to purchase pre-mined Ether. At that time, the Ethereum ecosystem couldn’t generate tokens independently and lacked real-world use cases.
During the pre-mining period, the 61,216 Ether was purchased at a price ranging between $300 and $400, resulting in an initial investment of approximately $20 million. With the current price of ETH at $1,908, the value of these tokens has surged to over $116 million within eight years.
The identity of the wallet’s owner remains unknown. However, the fact that the tokens were held for such a long duration demonstrates a “hodling” investment strategy, which is popular in the crypto community and emphasizes long-term accumulation of cryptocurrency tokens.
Dormant wallets containing significant amounts of crypto assets can resurface for various reasons. Sometimes, owners decide to cash in on significant price increases, while other times, their accounts may have been compromised. Nevertheless, the actions of dormant whales can have a substantial impact on the market and investor sentiment. Monitoring the potential ripple effects of this multi-million-dollar transaction will be intriguing.
