Recently, the activity in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum whales draws attention. A long-dormant Ethereum address that participated in the initial coin offering or ICO of the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain has woken up after 7.7 years.
Ethereum (ETH) ICO Participant Awakens After 7.7 Years of Sleep
This address transferred an Ethereum to a new address in block 17110898, which was timestamped more than 10 hours ago. Some speculation suggests that this is a test run. This was the wallet's first transaction sent.
According to the on-chain analytics account Lookonchain, the wallet in question received 2,365 Ethereums worth about $4.42 million today at the birth of Ethereum.
During Ethereum's ICO, one Ethereum cost around $0.31. Today's Ethereum price is currently $1860.
After a long dormant period, Ethereum ICO participant activity follows a pair of similar transactions from former Bitcoin whale addresses.
On April 21, a bitcoin whale, which has been inactive for ten years, transferred 279 Bitcoins, worth $7.8 million at the time of the transaction, to three new addresses.
This transaction comes a day after another long-inactive Bitcoin whale transferred 2,071.5 BTC worth $60.7 million after nine years of inactivity.
While the specific reasons for the moves are unknown, there has been speculation that some long-time crypto users are moving old funds to new wallets amid an alleged purge operation targeting old wallets. However, these have not been confirmed so far.
*Not investment advice.