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Dormant whale awakens after 8 years, moves over $116 million of Ethereum to Kraken

source-logo  crypto.news 19 July 2023 15:20, UTC

An Ethereum wallet address that has been dormant for eight years recently moved its entire stash of 61,216 ETH, valued at $116 million at spot rates as of July 19, to an address on Kraken, a crypto exchange.

Initially worth approximately $20 million during the pre-mine phase, ETH prices have since surged, lifting the entire stash by 8X to roughly $116 million over the years.

💤 💤 💤 💤 💤 💤 💤 💤 💤 💤 A dormant pre-mine address containing 61,216 #ETH (116,396,127 USD) has just been activated after 8.0 years!https://t.co/f79T0fYa7b

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 18, 2023

Money on the move

Etherscan data verified the pre-mined 61,216 ETH movement to a Kraken wallet address on July 18 at 7:30 pm Eastern Time. Surprisingly, the transfer of $116 million worth of ETH incurred $1.5 in transaction fees.

Ethereum Transaction | Source: Etherscan

Before sending, he first sent 0.05 ETH as a test to the Kraken address.

Ethereum USD Price Chart | Source: CoinMarketCap

Coinciding with this big move, ETH prices are down 0.19% in the last day, currently at $1,900.71.

You might also like: Aave deploys DAI stablecoin competitor on Ethereum

In April, there was a significant event where at least four wealthy investors, called “whales,” made large transfers of Bitcoin from their digital wallets to exchanges or other wallets.

Typically, whales hold significant amounts of tokens, which can greatly affect a token’s price and overall perception whenever it is moved.

Making crypto wallets as simple as Ethereum

During his speech at the Ethereum Community Conference (ETHCC) in Paris, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, praised modern account abstraction as a solution that is remarkably elegant.

This upgrade does not require any modifications to the underlying protocol, making the transition seamless and without the need for such changes.

The concept of account abstraction has been in development since 2015, even preceding the launch of Ethereum itself.

It aims to replace Externally Owned Wallets (EOAs) with smart contract-based wallets. If successfully implemented, it could simplify crypto wallet management to the simplicity of an email account.

Read more: Vitalik Buterin shares insights on Ethereum’s account abstraction journey
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