A mysterious cryptocurrency whale that has been dormant for over eight years has recently resurfaced after seeing the value of the Ethereum ($ETH) holdings surge more than 44,000% to now stand at $39 million.

According to data from Ethereum blockchain explorer Etherscan, first shared by EmberCN on the microblogging platform X (formerly known as Twitter), the whale bought 16,636 ETH on decentralized exchange ShapeShift at $5.23 per token back in February 2016.

The whale has kept their holdings unmoved for over eight years, and has now recently sold 350 ETH at an average price of $2,340 per token. The whale at the time spent around $87,000 to buy their ETH.

一个在 2016 年 2 月以 $5.23 的单价从 @ShapeShift 接收到 16,636 枚 ETH 的远古鲸鱼，时隔 8 年半后开始出售这些 ETH。他在收到这些 ETH 后一直持有，直到 4 小时前将这 16,636 ETH ($39.62M) 转移到 0xe3e…566 地址，然后以 $2,340 的价格出售了 350 枚 ETH。他当时收到这 16,636 枚 ETH… pic.twitter.com/F0uljalb7l

— 余烬 (@EmberCN) September 16, 2024

Notably, Ethereum’s largest token holders have been steadily accumulating more of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, effectively increasing their dominance as they do so.

According to data shared by on-chain analysis firm IntoTheBlock, Ethereum whales’ accumulation has been consistent since 2019 and accelerated in early 2023 after the network’s Shanghai upgrade, which started allowing staked Ether to be withdrawn.

The data shows that these whale addresses now control over 43% of Ethereum’s circulating supply and are approaching the 48% retail investors control.

The whale’s sale notably comes at a time in which Ethereum has been significantly underperforming the flagship cryptocurrency, with the ETH/BTC trading pair seeing a drop of more than 36% over the last 12 months, and more than 22.9% in the last six-month period.

While Bitcoin soared to a new all-time high earlier this year after the launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States, the impact of the launch of spot Ether ETFs in the country was relatively muted.

Featured image via Unsplash.