Dormant Ethereum Whale Awakens, Sells $5.2M After Nearly a Decade

An Ethereum ICO-era whale sold 2,000 ETH (US$5.2M) after nearly a decade of dormancy, netting an 8,367x return on an original US$622 investment.
Another long-dormant wallet sold 500 ETH (US$1.29M) after two years inactive, echoing a 2023 pattern where the same address offloaded US$7M in ETH before going quiet.
Additionally, ETH exchange reserves have dropped to 18.6M from 30M in 2022, a growing trend toward cold storage and staking.

A long-dormant Ethereum whale woke up to sell over 2,000 ETH, worth over US$5.2M (AU$8M), to Binance after nearly a decade of silence.

This wallet is so old that it’s tied to Ethereum’s Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and has held the tokens untouched since 2015.

This was reported by Onchain Lens, stating that the move reflects a 8,367x gain on the original outlay of just US$622 (AU$961). A prior test transaction of 0.002 ETH suggested the wallet was being reawakened in phases.

Related: Saylor Gets Ready for Yet Another Bitcoin Buy while Metaplanet Makes Large Purchase

More Whales Selling ETH

Another dormant Ethereum whale joined the selloff this week, offloading nearly 500 ETH after two years of silence.

Data from Lookonchain shows the wallet began with a 1 ETH test transfer before pushing 500 ETH, worth roughly US$1.29M (AU$1.99M) onto the market. The on-chain platform flagged it as the same address that previously sold several millions worth of ETH back in 2023, around US$7M (AU$10.8M) in 2023 shortly before going dormant.