An Ethereum whale has re-emerged after a decade of inactivity—however, instead of cashing out, the whale has committed its entire stash to staking.
The Ether (ETH) wallet contains 40,000 tokens, which were purchased for approximately $12,000 during Ethereum’s genesis block launch in July 2015, as per data from blockchain platform Lookonchain. Its current value is around $120 million.
Instead of transferring the assets to a crypto exchange, this ICO-era whale opted to stake their complete ETH portfolio, signaling a strong belief in Ethereum’s future.
Recently, there has been significant discussion about large crypto whales offloading assets, with some analysts linking recent price changes to their trades.
Two additional Ether OGs sold, one staked
Another OG wallet that amassed 254,908 tokens during the Ether ICO began to liquidate their holdings on Nov. 26.
In a first sale, the whale offloaded 20,000 Ether and continued selling until only $9.3 million worth of Ether remained as of Saturday.
Simultaneously, another OG who gathered 154,076 Ether from 2017 sent 18,000 tokens to the online exchange Bitstamp. Previously, this whale sold 87,824 Ether at an average price of $1,694.
Related: CME revives ETH ‘super-cycle’ discussion as Ether futures volume surpasses Bitcoin
A significant Ether ICO wallet that became active after eight years in September also chose to stake a portion of their holdings. This whale purchased 1 million tokens during the Ethereum genesis and moved 150,000 Ether to a new wallet for staking.
Leading Ether holders continue to accumulate
While some original Ether whales may be selling, top-tier addresses are still adding to their holdings. Last Wednesday, the Ether supply held by the top 1% of addresses increased to 97.6%, up from 96.1% a year ago, according to blockchain analytics platform Glassnode.
The Eth2 Beacon Deposit Contract retains the largest Ether amount at 72.4 million, currently worth approximately $203 billion and constituting around 60% of the total supply, according to blockchain intelligence platform Arkham.
Crypto exchange Binance has the second-largest hold, with 4 million, while asset manager BlackRock ranks third with 3.9 million Ether.
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