Dormant Whale Sells 350 ETH, Makes Massive 446x Gain

An early Ethereum (ETH) investor who received 16,636 ETH in 2016 has sold some of his holdings, marking an extraordinary return on investment.

According to on-chain data shared by EmberCN, the whale initially acquired the Ethereum for $5.23 per token, or a total of $87,135. As of September 16, 2024, that same amount of ETH is worth over $37.6 million, representing an astonishing 446x increase in value.

Sleeping Trader Makes $819,000 Profit

The investor, who held onto his Ethereum for nearly eight and a half years, transferred all 16,636 ETH to a new wallet before selling 350 ETH at $2,340 per token, netting a profit of around $819,000.

The sale came as the price of ETH was hovering around $2,300, down from its recent one-month high of $2,820. However, despite the drop, the whale’s long-term holding strategy paid off considerably. Their transaction follows a series of notable Ethereum movements from other dormant wallets.

Recently, several large inactive addresses have come back to life, with huge amounts of ETH transferred after years of inactivity. For example, on August 7, over 789,000 ETH, valued at $2 billion, were transferred from wallets that had been dormant for 3.3 years. These wallets were linked to the infamous PlusToken Ponzi scheme that was taken down by Chinese authorities in November 2020.

The move has sparked curiosity within the crypto community, with many wondering if the Chinese government is considering a move similar to Germany’s when it sold nearly 50,000 confiscated BTC to criminal enterprises.

In another case, a wallet containing over 2,000 ETH, last active during Ethereum’s initial coin offering (ICO) in 2014, woke up on August 26 after more than nine years of inactivity. Its contents, originally worth $620, are now valued at over $5 million.

Long-term ETH holders benefit

At the time of writing, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has seen its price drop by 5.3% in 24 hours.

Over the 30-day period, the loss is more pronounced, with the price of ETH suffering an 11.8% decline during this period. Moreover, despite a slight increase of 0.2% over the last seven days, ETH is underperforming the global cryptocurrency market, which has increased by at least 1.30%.

That being said, data shows that a majority of those holding cryptocurrency are still making money. According to IntoTheBlock, 54% of cryptocurrency owners are making a profit at the current price, and 74% of them have held their assets for over a year.