Whale That Bought 100,000 ETH for $0.31 Each Just Sent $2.4M to Kraken

The Sale

Onchain sleuths picked up on the move earlier today, highlighting that an Ethereum OG who bought 100,000 $ETH at $0.31 each during the ICO has now sold 1,000 $ETH. Blockscout records show the wallet sent the coins on Oct. 23 at 19:29 UTC to an intermediate address, which forwarded all 1,000 $ETH to a Kraken hot wallet three minutes later.

With ether trading near $2,377, that batch is worth about $2.38 million and at ICO rates the gain now stands at over 7,600x.

The Wallet’s 12-Year Diary

The coins trace back to the Ethereum crowdsale during the summer of 2014, when buyers could get up to 2,000 $ETH per $BTC, equal to roughly $0.31 per ether with bitcoin near $400 at the time. The sale ran for 42 days, from July 20 to Sept. 2, and sold almost 60 million $ETH for 31,529 $BTC, or about $18 million. In other words, this one buyer took home roughly 0.17% of everything sold.

Here is how the wallet has behaved since, based on its transaction history:

• 2016: The original genesis address moved more than 100,000 $ETH out in August. The main wallet Lookonchain linked to the buyer received about 120,657 $ETH that December.
• Late 2017 to May 2018: The wallet sent out roughly 92,000 $ETH across the 2017 bull run and its aftermath.
• June to December 2018: About 73,000 $ETH flowed back in during the bear market.
• 2020 to 2021: Another wave of transfers, roughly 81,000 $ETH, as ether ran to record highs.
• 2023 to 2025: Smaller sales, mostly in batches of a few hundred to 2,500 $ETH.
• 2026: 106 $ETH on Sept. 30, then the 1,000 $ETH that went to Kraken on Oct. 23.

The main wallet still holds about 11,349 $ETH, worth roughly $27 million at current prices. The pattern doesn’t look like a panic move but more like someone who has been taking profits into strength for nearly a decade.

The OG’s Continue Their Exodus

Just twenty-four hours ago, Bitcoin.com News reported on an Ethereum OG who bought 3,000 $ETH at $18.83 nine years ago and cashed out $7.23 million, a 128x return. However, the sales come at an awkward moment for ether, given that the broader market is under pressure, with bitcoin’s price slipping below its 50-day moving average and $318 million in long positions liquidated in 24 hours.

Corporate demand may also be peaking, with Bitmine chair Tom Lee saying the company will stop buying once it owns 5% of $ETH supply.

That said, what makes these whale movements worth watching is who is selling because when several of these entities move at the same time, traders can read the transfers as early holders decifing the current range if good enough.

Ethereum developers have their own headaches, after delaying Glamsterdam testing over contract concerns, but for the time being, the 2014 buyer still has more than 11,000 $ETH left, and the market will be curious to see the next transfer to Kraken (or any other centralized venue).