Ethereum ICO Whale Moves 500 ETH After 7 Years of Hibernation

A pre-mine Ethereum address with 500 $ETH, worth approximately $631,500 at the time of writing, has apparently been activated, according to data provided by Whale Alerts. The wallet had been dormant for more than seven years.

It is unknown why the address was activated after all these years. The crypto community was quick to make jokes about the development, with some stating co-founder Vitalik Buterin might have discovered an old wallet under his bed. On a more serious note, the funds in question purportedly went to William Sutanto, the chief technical officer of the Indonesian exchange indodax.

Recent times have seen the reactivation of a number of pre-mine wallets. Just last month, another pre-mine period wallet was reported by Whale alert to have moved 200 $ETH, worth $282,115 at the time of the transfer.

Simultaneously, the on-chain analysis platform Santiment disclosed an $ETH wallet that had been dormant for six years, having transferred 15,000 $ETH (then valued at around $22.2 million) to an empty wallet.

Over $18 million in pre-launch token sales financed the development of Ethereum at launch. In 2015, the $ETH token began trading on the crypto exchange Kraken for just $2.77. This cryptocurrency reached its all-time high of $4,878 in 2021.

As the market has slumped to lows seen over a year ago, Ethereum whale activity has seen an uptick. Last week, an Ethereum whale was spotted transferring 22,300 $ETH off the crypto exchange Bitstamp. Exchange outflows are typically considered bullish, as whales tend to move funds out of exchanges when they plan on holding their assets for extended periods.

Santiment reports that approximately 657,390 $ETH have been acquired by Ethereum “whales” over the previous weeks. At press time, the second largest cryptocurrency was trading at $1270, up 0.7% in the last 24 hours. As the price has just entered oversold territory, analysts believe the positive pressure will soon resume.