A mega Ethereum whale who participated in the Ethereum initial coin offering (ICO) in 2014 made massive moves recently, with a sizable quantity of ETH transferred to an exchange.

The whale address, which has been offloading ETH worth millions of dollars over the past month, deposited an additional 5,000 ETH to the crypto exchange OKX today.

The wallet owner’s identity, as well as their reason for moving the funds, remain unknown, but the latter could be because the holder is preparing to sell the tokens.

Whale Continues Month-Long Deposit Spree

An extremely old wallet that participated in Ethereum’s public crowdsale in 2014, with the owner acquiring 1 million ETH at an ICO price of $0.311 per token, transferred 5,000 ETH, equivalent to $13.2 million, to the OKX exchange earlier Monday.

The latest deposit follows a string of deposits from the Ether whale to the centralized exchange. As revealed by Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain, the unknown entity deposited 48,500 ETH — worth approximately $154 million — to OKX in the past 35 days. The ETH funds were deposited at an average price of $3,176.

A whale who received 1M $ETH in #Ethereum ICO at a price of $0.31 deposited 5,000 $ETH($13.2M) to #OKX again 12 hours ago.This whale has deposited 48,500 $ETH($154M) to #OKX at an average price of $3,176 in the past month.https://t.co/4AN8voWrFEhttps://t.co/u1zjZ01Ez4 pic.twitter.com/ZDsFCcFiTk

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 12, 2024

This whale’s movements have caught the attention of the crypto community — not only due to the sheer size of the holdings but also because of the potential market implications for the ETH price.

Large transactions by such early participants can influence market sentiment and price dynamics, especially when the transfer is to a notable exchange like OKX. It’s often the case that someone transfers to an exchange because they’re preparing to liquidate. Such movements can exert selling pressure on the market. Ethereum’s price may retrace as the market absorbs the extra supply.

The whale in question still holds 15,600 ETH, worth around $47 million, in its GnosisSafe wallet address.

Another Whale Snaps Up 5,000 ETH On Same Day

As the ICO-era whale sent their ETH stash to OKX, others were busy scooping up tokens. Data indicates that another whale added 5,000 ETH (worth nearly $13 million) to their portfolio on the same day. 

The last time this particular whale bought the dip was when Ether briefly slipped to the $2,100 level before rebounding above $3K, as per a Monday post by Scopescan on the X platform.