An early Ethereum investor has taken profits after holding for nearly 8.5 years. The whale sold a portion of their holdings for a 446x return.
According to the details shared by Ember CN, the investor originally received 16,636 ETH from cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift in February 2016. At the time, each Ethereum token was valued at just $5.23. This means that the whale only spent $87,135 for purchasing 16,636 ETH.
16,636 Ethereum worth over $37.6 million
Now, almost 8.5 years later, the whale’s 16,636 ETH holding value has reached over $37.6 million. This is a 446-fold increase from the initial investment.
After holding onto their Ethereum for several years, the whale transferred their entire holding of 16,636 ETH to a new address. From this new wallet, the whale moved 350 ETH to sell them for $2,340 each.
There have been quite a few notable incidents of large whale movements waking up after years of dormancy. One such transaction happened on July 30, 2024, when an Ethereum ICO participant woke up after 9 years of dormancy.
This investor moved 1,111 ETH to a new wallet in four separate transactions. Earlier in July, Whale Alert notified the community that another dormant wallet address was activated after 9 years of inactivity. The whale reportedly held 977 ETH during that time.
54% of Ethereum holders in profit
Ethereum is currently down considerably from its one month high of $2,820. Data from CoinMarketCap shows that ETH is trading at $2,260 at press time. ETH is also down by over 6.4% in the last 24 hours.
Despite the market correction, IntoTheBlock data shows that ETH holders are mostly making at the current price. According to their data, 54% of the holders are in profit. In addition, 39% of the holders are in loss, while 7% of them are in neutral.
Interestingly, 74% of the ETH holders have held onto their Ethereum for well over a year. Only 23% of holders have held for the duration of 1–12 months, while 3% of the holders have held for less than a month.