Sleeping Ethereum Whale Wakes Up to $39M Worth of ETH After 8.5 Years

An Ethereum whale dormant for 8.5 years has awakened to an ETH bag worth approximately $39 million, marking a 446x increase from their initial holdings. According to on-chain analyst Ember CN, these early Ethereum investors received 16,636 ETH from the cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift in February 2016. At the time, 1 ETH was priced at just $5.23. This means the 16,636 ETH initially received was worth only $87,135 that year.

From $87K to $39M

Fast-forward to today, the 16,636 ETH is now worth $39 million, marking a remarkable 446-fold increase over the years. This underscores the Ethereum ecosystem’s impressive growth over the years.

On-chain data shows that the whale made noticeable movements on September 15. Several hours into press time, the whale transferred their holdings, 16,636 ETH, to a new address. Subsequently, they sold 350 ETH for $2,340, making the 350 ETH sale worth $819,000. 

This means the whale only sold a mild 2.10% of their holdings. With the current sale, the investor still holds $38.181 million worth of ETH. Market participants will continue to monitor the whale’s movement in the coming days, as large sales from whales tend to have a short-term impact on the price of a digital asset.

Long-Term Holders Always Win

The latest developments indicate that long-term holders always win. There have been cases of ancient Ethereum wallets waking up from dormancy into life-changing balances. In late July, Lookonchain revealed that an Ethereum ICO participant woke up to an Ethereum wallet worth 2,000 ETH ($6.67M) after nine years of inactivity. ETH’s ICO price was just $0.31. They transferred 1,111 ETH ($3.7M) to a new wallet across multiple transactions.

In a similar development, CoinTab reported in August that a dormant Ethereum address containing 2,000 ETH (worth approx. $5.47 million) reactivated after over 9 years. The 2,000 ETH, initially received in 2014, was worth only $620.

Meanwhile, the latest development comes as ETH is facing major price corrections. ETH’s value against BTC dropped below 0.04, the lowest since April 2021. At the time of writing, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency was trading at $2,297, representing a 4.6% decrease on the day.