Ethereum: ICO whale moves 5,000 ETH after 11 years of silence

A wallet from the early days of Ethereum is returning to service. A participant in the initial ETH sale moved 5,000 ETH in about two hours on October 26, according to on-chain analyst EmberCN. Of these funds, 1,500 ETH joined centralized platforms, with an estimated value of $3.45 million. This holder initially acquired 100,000 ETH for around $31,100, before selling half of his position in 2016.

Key Points

A historic Ethereum investor transferred 5,000 ETH, including 1,500 to centralized platforms.

His initial 100,000 ETH represented an estimated investment of $31,100.

According to EmberCN, he sold 50,000 ETH in 2016 for around $273,500.

The tracked wallet retains 45,000 ETH, or approximately $103.5 million at the price used for these transfers.

Ethereum: A position formed before the launch of the network

The story begins with the public sale of Ethereum in 2014 during which participants bought their future ETH against bitcoins. Tokens became transferable when the network launched on July 30, 2015.

For this investor, EmberCN retains an acquisition price of approximately $0.311 per ETH. The 100,000 tokens received therefore represented a stake close to $31,100.

According to the analyst's reconstruction, the holder sold half of his position in 2016, at a price of around $5.47 per ETH. The 50,000 tokens would have brought in $273,500, or almost nine times the total initial investment. On this half alone, the sale price represented approximately 17.6 times the purchase price.

These amounts remain those of the published analysis: a transfer to a platform does not, in itself, make it possible to verify the price at which the funds were subsequently sold.

The rest of the position was held over a long period of time. However, it is necessary to distinguish detention and absolute immobility: the history provided mentions a move to a linked address in 2017.

1,500 ETH to exchanges, without confirmed sales

The movements of October 26 relate to 10% of the 50,000 ETH retained after the 2016 operation. Of the 5,000 ETH transferred, 1,500 joined centralized platforms. The other 3,500 were sent to other addresses, with no economic destination established in the available information.

A deposit on an exchange can prepare for a sale, but also serve to constitute collateral or manage a position. No recent sales are confirmed by the transfers observed alone. Likewise, moving tokens to a new address does not necessarily mean changing ownership.

The monitored wallet thus retains 45,000 ETH. At the indicative price of $2,300 used to value the deposits, this balance represents $103.5 million. It corresponds to 90% of the stock held before these movements, but to 45% of the initial 100,000 ETH.