Ethereum Whales Takes $378.3M Profit after 6 Years of Dormancy

Two Ethereum wallets dormant for six years suddenly transferred a substantial quantity of ETH to the Bitfinex exchange just eight hours before the crash to cash in a profit of $378.3 million.

The transfer comprised 135,548 ETH, valued at approximately $399 million at the time of the transaction. The striking aspect of this event lies in the wallets’ history.

Whales On-Chain Previous Movement

Originally, these same wallets withdrew their ETH holdings on January 5th, 2019, at $153.65 per ETH. This initial withdrawal represented a total value of $20.8 million.

Notably, if these wallets had indeed bought ETH then and only recently sold their entire holdings upon depositing the ETH into Bitfinex, they netted a staggering profit. A sale at the pre-crash price would have yielded a profit of approximately $378.3 million, representing an astounding 1,817% return on investment.

While confirmation of a complete sale remains pending, the timing of the transfer raises significant speculation regarding the investors’ prescience and market manipulation.

This event was not an isolated incident within the broader context of the market crash. Data from IntoTheBlock reveals a 72.35% surge in large Ether transactions exceeding $100,000 in the 24 hours leading up to the crash.

Furthermore, a net influx of over $320 million worth of Ether into exchanges was observed, almost triple the previous day’s volume. This significant increase in deposits strongly suggests a wave of sell-offs contributing to the market’s decline.

Ethereum (ETH) Price Action

Ethereum plummeted to a near three-month low. At the time of writing, Ethereum was trading at $2,600.97, reflecting a 15.46% decrease in the preceding 24 hours, according to Coingecko data.

The resulting liquidations totaled over $2 billion within 24 hours, marking the largest single-day liquidation event in recent market history.

Notably, between January 24th and 25th, the Ethereum network saw a remarkable surge in activity. Santiment data shows the creation of 206,290 new addresses, the highest daily increase since October 8th, 2022.

Despite that, ETH hasn’t initiated a major price rally. Sluggish large transaction volumes, compared to previous bull cycles, may explain ETH’s underperformance.

Historically, a surge in large transaction volume has often preceded significant price growth, as seen in 2017 and 2021. In this cycle, however, only small spikes in whale activity occur, failing to signal a parabolic move. A rise in large transaction volume will enable ETH to rebound strongly toward key resistance levels.