An Ethereum (ETH) wallet that has been dormant since the Initial Coin Offering in 2015 has suddenly reawakened to move 8,000 ETH. According to the data shared, all these Ethereum tokens were transferred to a different wallet address within two minutes. Prior to transferring the tokens, the owner began with a precautionary transfer of 1 Ethereum token to a new wallet. A minute later, the remaining 7,999 tokens were transferred to the same address.
The activity surrounding the previously dormant account was noticed by Lookonchain, which later tweeted about the situation. Within the comments section of the tweet, many speculated the exact reason for the sudden transfer. People argued that the owner had recently been released from prison, whereas another mentioned how the owner transferred funds from an old Ledger, a remark about Ledger’s controversial new update.
An Ethereum ICO participant who has been dormant for 8 years woke up today.
He transferred all 8000 $ETH($14.7M) to a new address.https://t.co/1griKB9Te9 pic.twitter.com/1bvQh3zsqY
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) May 28, 2023
Furthermore, the 8,000 Ethereum tokens were purchased at a price of $0.31 each back then, which totals up to an initial investment of approximately $2,500. At the time of writing, Ethereum surged by an impressive 3.35%, and the increase has pushed the trading price to $1,909. Similarly, the total market cap of Ethereum is currently $229 billion. With the current trading price in mind, the entirety of the Ethereum stash is worth almost $15 million. At the same time, this represents a whopping unrealized gain of 590,000% for the owner.
Ethereum (ETH) Wallets Continue to Reawaken
Furthermore, this is not the only wallet from the ICO days that has reawakened recently. Back in April, another wallet that received almost 2,365 Ethereum tokens, made its first transaction after eight years where the owner transferred 2,360 ETH tokens to a new wallet. Similarly, in March, another wallet transferred 10,226 ETH tokens after staying inactive for five years.
Dormant wallets that hold a considerable sum of crypto can get active again for several reasons. In some situations, it might be as a result of a hack. Otherwise, it is simply a case of rediscovery after forgetting about them.
Furthermore, the Ethereum ICO took place in two distinctive stages. The first stage was the pre-sale in 2014 which managed to generate a sum of $18 million. The second stage revolved around the launch of the Ethereum blockchain in 2015. This suggests that a number of investors had to wait a year to be able to redeem and use their ETH tokens.
