According to data provided by Lookonchain, a whale from the initial coin offering (ICO) era recently woke up from hibernation after 10 years of inactivity.
The whale in question secured a profit of 787,000%, turning $310 into a whopping $2.44 million.
The long-dormant address finally came to life on Sunday with a relatively small transfer of 1 ETH.
During the ICO era, the cost of a single ETH token ranged between $0.30 and $0.40. Early participants received 2,000 ETH per one Bitcoin. At that time, ETH was valued at approximately $0.31. The rate decreased gradually to 1,337 ETH per BTC, which brought the price closer to $0.40 by the end.
Ethereum (ETH) is currently changing hands at $107,490, according to CoinGecko data. The cryptocurrency is down by 1% over the past 24 hours.
In the meantime, as reported by U.Today, Ethereum accumulation just reached a new high of the current cycle.
However, the fact that more ICO-era whales are now emerging from hibernation can be interpreted as a potentially alarming signal. As reported by U.Today, another ancient whale made a $12 million ETH transfer to Kraken earlier this week.
The flagship altcoin is still down by more than 49% from the record peak that was recorded in late 2021. Earlier this year, Ethereum's dramatic underperformance against Bitcoin became one of the biggest crypto stories.
The market share of the largest cryptocurrency continues to increase at a steady pace, with altcoins falling to revive their mojo.
In March, Standard Chartered reduced its 2025 Ethereum price target to $4,000. However, at this point, even this relatively modest prediction appears to be overly optimistic.
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team