The idle whale sells 350 ETH, making a massive 446x gain

An early Ethereum (ETH) investor who received 16,636 ETH in 2016 has sold a portion of his holdings, resulting in an extraordinary return on investment.

According to on-chain data shared by EmberCN, the whale originally acquired Ethereum for $5.23 per token, totaling $87,135. As of September 16, 2024, that same amount of ETH is worth over $37.6 million, representing a staggering 446x increase in value.

The sleeping trader makes a profit of $819,000

The investor, who held his Ethereum for almost eight and a half years, transferred all 16,636 ETH to a new wallet before selling 350 ETH at a price of $2,340 per token, making a profit of approximately $819,000.

The selloff came with the ETH price hovering around $2,300, down from its recent one-month high of $2,820. However, despite the decline, the whale’s long-term retention strategy has paid off significantly.

Recently, several large inactive addresses have come back to life, with large amounts of ETH transferred after years of inactivity. For example, on August 7, more than 789,000 ETH, valued at $2 billion, were moved from wallets that had been dormant for 3.3 years. These wallets were linked to the infamous PlusToken Ponzi scheme dismantled by Chinese authorities in November 2020.

The move sparked curiosity in the crypto community, with many speculating whether the Chinese government was contemplating a move similar to Germany when it sold nearly 50,000 seized BTC to criminal enterprises.

In another case, a wallet containing more than 2,000 ETH, last active during Ethereum’s initial coin offering (ICO) in 2014, was reawakened on August 26 after more than nine years of latency Its contents, initially valued at $620, are now valued at more than $5 million.

Long term ETH holders with profit

At the time of writing, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization had seen its price drop by 5.3% in 24 hours.

Over 30 days, the loss is more pronounced, with ETH prices down 11.8% over that period. Also, despite a slight increase of 0.2% over the past seven days, ETH is underperforming the global crypto market, which is up at least 1.30%.

That said, the data shows that most of those holding the cryptocurrency are still making money. According to IntoTheBlock, 54% of coin owners are profitable at the current price, with 74% holding their assets for more than a year.

SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored) Binance Free $600 (Exclusive to CryptoPotato): Use this link to register a new account and receive an exclusive welcome offer of $600 to Binance (full details).

2024 LIMITED OFFER on BYDFi Exchange – Up to $2888 Welcome Reward, Use this link to register and open a 100 USDT-M position for free!