Another long-dormant Ethereum whale has resurfaced after nearly a decade—but instead of selling, the holder has staked their entire fortune.
The wallet contains 40,000 ETH, originally purchased for about $12,000 during Ethereum’s 2015 genesis sale, according to blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain. Today, that stash is valued at roughly $120 million.
Rather than transferring the funds to an exchange, the ICO-era whale committed the full balance to staking, signaling a strong, continued belief in Ethereum’s long-term prospects.
Chatter has been building over the past month about major crypto whales offloading assets, with some analysts linking recent market volatility to their activity.
Two Ether OGs Sell — One Chooses to Stake
One early Ethereum whale who accumulated 254,908 ETH during the ICO began selling on Nov. 26. The wallet offloaded 20,000 ETH in its first transaction, then continued selling in smaller batches until its balance had dwindled to just $9.3 million in ETH as of Saturday.
Meanwhile, another long-time holder who amassed 154,076 ETH starting in 2017 sent 18,000 ETH to Bitstamp. This whale had previously sold 87,824 ETH at an average price of $1,694.
A much larger Ethereum ICO wallet that reactivated in September after eight years of dormancy also shifted strategy—staking part of its holdings. That whale originally acquired 1 million ETH at genesis and moved 150,000 ETH to a new wallet for staking.
Top Ether Whales Continue Accumulating
Despite some OG wallets selling, the largest ETH holders are still accumulating. As of last Wednesday, the top 1% of addresses controlled 97.6% of the Ether supply—up from 96.1% a year earlier, according to Glassnode.
The single biggest holder remains the Eth2 Beacon Deposit Contract, which contains 72.4 million ETH valued at around $203 billion, representing roughly 60% of all Ether in existence, per data from Arkham.
Crypto exchange Binance holds the second-largest amount, with 4 million, and asset manager BlackRock makes up the rest of the top three, with 3.9 million Ether in its stash.
