After three years of dormancy, a massive ethereum whale that participated in the project’s first token sale, also known as the Genesis initial coin offering (ICO), spent 145,000 ether worth just over $276 million using today’s ethereum exchange rates.
Mega Ethereum Whale distributes 145,000 Ether to 9 different addresses
On August 14, 2022, on-chain data indicates that whales participating in the Ethereum Genesis ICO have moved 145,000 ETH to various addresses. The fund was valued at $276 million using current ETH exchange rates. This was the first time a Genesis ICO participant spent coins since 2019, when 5,000 ETH exited the whale wallet. At the time of writing, the address currently holds $22,4 worth of 0.11177 ETH after the 145,000 Ether has been emptied.
The transfers on Sunday were sent in multiple batches of 5,000 ETH, 10,000 ETH, and 20,000 ETH increments. The whale ended the transfers with a final 10,000 ETH transfer sent at 12:18 a.m. (UTC). The wallet owner also transferred 918.89 canto utility token (CANTO) after sending the final 10,000 ether from the wallet. Statistics show that the address currently has $26,770 worth of ERC20 tokens in the wallet as well. Most of the ERC20 token value ($26,439) is held in omisego (OMG).
The address also contains an Enjin-created “Protocol of Instant Response” non-fungible token (NFT) worth 0.02 ETH or $38. Before sending 145,000 ETH, whales also sent 5,000 ETH on July 31, 2019, when Ether was exchanging hands for $220 per coin. That transaction was approximately $1.1 million in USD value in July 2019. The 145,000 Ether sent on Sunday was sent to nine different blockchain addresses.
None of the nine addresses tied to the 145,000 ethereum have spent the stashes of coins and some of the addresses hold the CANTO token that was sent from the original address. It’s worth noting that the term “spent” in this article, simply means the transfer of ETH from one address to another address. There really is no way of knowing whether or not the coins were “sold” or are “meant to be sold” on the open market.
The so-called ‘sleeping cryptocurrency’ wakes up all the time, and after three years of dormancy, it really isn’t that long in the grand scheme of things. For example, on August 10, 2022, blockchain parser btcparser.com caught 41.55 BTC, up from 11 years ago or since June 19, 2011. Bitcoins officially ‘wake up’ at BTC block height 748,851 when they were spent. Blockchain parsers are always catching ‘sleeping cryptocurrencies’ awake. However, the aforementioned ETH whale is far more massive in size compared to the old bitcoiner who moved 41 BTC since 2011.
