An early Ethereum initial coin offering (ICO) participant moved another 4,460 ether — worth about $19 million — to crypto exchange Kraken, blockchain data shows, extending a week-long pattern of heavy deposits from the wallet.
According to Arkham Intelligence, the address beginning with 0x815 has transferred a total of 9,803 ETH (around $43.9 million) to exchanges over the past seven days. The wallet now holds just 197 ETH, valued at roughly $844,000.
On-chain trackers including OnchainLens flagged multiple large transfers from the same address in recent days. These included 2,000 ETH ($8.6 million), 1,162 ETH ($5.2 million), and 1,060 ETH ($5.1 million) sent to trading venues as ether flirted with all-time highs last week.
Large, dormant wallets moving coins onto exchanges are often interpreted as potential sell signals. However, deposits do not necessarily mean that immediate sales have taken place.
A separate early-ICO wallet also became active over the weekend, shifting about $1.5 million in ETH originally bought for just $104. If liquidated at current market prices, the move would represent a 14,000x return. The original wallet had shown no activity since the ICO, which raised $18 million before Ethereum’s official launch in July 2015.
Ethereum’s ICO was one of the most influential token sales in crypto history, attracting more than 11,000 participants worldwide. At the time, ETH was priced at just $0.31 per token, with many early investors holding their coins for years. While some quickly sold during the 2017 bull run, others, like this wallet owner, chose to remain inactive — sometimes due to lost keys, tax reasons, or long-term conviction in Ethereum’s potential.
Ethereum recently marked its tenth anniversary as the world’s second-largest blockchain, trailing only Bitcoin by market value. Ether was trading around $4,426 on Sunday, largely unchanged on the day.
Following its 2022 transition to proof-of-stake through “The Merge,” Ethereum now secures its network through validators rather than miners. Coupled with the upcoming “Danksharding” and scalability upgrades, ETH remains central to decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and layer-2 solutions. Some analysts suggest that old holders may be repositioning ahead of these structural changes.
The reawakening is part of a trend of long-dormant crypto wallets springing back to life. In recent weeks, a Satoshi-era Bitcoin investor moved roughly $9 billion worth of BTC in one of the largest redistributions of old coins to date. That sale, facilitated by Galaxy, had little impact on Bitcoin’s price.
Such movements from early investors often spark speculation about market impacts, but historically, large transfers from dormant wallets do not always translate into immediate sell pressure. In many cases, the funds are simply reorganized into new wallets for security, inheritance, or institutional custody. Still, the resurfacing of “sleeping giants” is closely watched by traders who view them as potential liquidity events.
