A dormant Ethereum address has roared to life to take advantage of the price surge that has rocked the digital asset in the last day. The wallet, which had not seen any activity in almost a decade, made its first transaction after the price of ETH moved above $3,200. Given that this investor has managed to hold all through these years, are they ready to sell?
On-chain data tracking platform Whale Alert reported in the early hours of Tuesday that a dormant Ethereum address had awakened. The address in question is a pre-mine address, which means that it has been in existence before the official launch of Ethereum.
Looking at the address on-chain, we can see that the address had received 238.75 ETH at Block 0, which is the Genesis block. Now, given that at that time, there was basically no value for ETH, it is possible that this could’ve been a test transaction at the time, only worth a couple of dollars at launch.
💤 A dormant pre-mine address containing 238 #ETH (771,893 USD) has just been activated after 8.6 years!https://t.co/Py2J5EO1T8
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) February 27, 2024
However, as the years have passed, the value of the ETH has ballooned. With the Ethereum price currently above $3,200, the value of the wallet’s holding has risen to more than $770,000 at the time of writing. This increase in price could’ve been the prompt for the wallet owner to re-enter the market.
An initial transaction of 1 ETH was first carried out from this wallet to another “0x785c8E…3e77ED7c” and once that transaction was confirmed, the entirety of the wallet balance was then transferred out to the same wallet. In total, the wallet was dormant for 8.6 years before being reactivated today.
Where Did The ETH End Up? For the investor behind this dormant address, it seems that the end game is indeed to sell, given where the ETH ended up. After transferring the balance to “0x785c8E…3e77ED7c”, which is a brand new wallet, another test transaction of 1 ETH was carried out with the destination being Coinbase. Subsequently, the entirety of the balance was sent to Coinbase as well, leaving the new wallet empty.
Given that the major reason why investors send coins to centralized exchanges such as Coinbase is to sell, it is possible that this investor is looking to sell their coins. In such a case, the coins may have been long sold at the time of this publication.
However, given that the balance of this address was worth less than $1 million, it is unlikely to have any negative effect on the Ethereum price even if the investor is selling their coins. Even now, Ethereum continues to hold strongly above $3,200 as bulls dominate the market.
ETH price bounces above $3,200 | Source: ETHUSD on Tradingview.com Featured image from Forkast News, chart from Tradingview.com
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Scott Matherson Scott Matherson is a leading crypto writer at Bitcoinist, who possesses a sharp analytical mind and a deep understanding of the digital currency landscape. Scott has earned a reputation for delivering thought-provoking and well-researched articles that resonate with both newcomers and seasoned crypto enthusiasts. Outside of his writing, Scott is passionate about promoting crypto literacy and often works to educate the public on the potential of blockchain.