Ethereum ICO wallet moves $120M after a decade, throws it into staking

Another Ethereum whale has just woken from dormancy after a decade of silence — but rather than sell, the whale has deployed its entire stash into staking.

The Ether wallet holds 40,000 tokens, which the holder paid around $12,000 for during Ethereum’s genesis block launch in July 2015, according to blockchain data platform Lookonchain. It is now worth $120 million.

However, rather than move the funds to a cryptocurrency exchange deposit address, the ICO-era whale has instead staked their entire ETH holding, suggesting the whale is doubling down on their conviction in Ethereum.

Source: Lookonchain

There has been considerable chatter over the last month about large crypto whales selling, with some analysts attributing recent crypto price fluctuations to their actions.

Two other Ether OGs sold, one staked

Another OG wallet, which stacked 254,908 tokens during the Ether ICO, started selling their holdings on Nov. 26.

In an initial sale, the whale sold 20,000 Ether, then steadily chipped away until they had just $9.3 million in Ether left as of Saturday.

At the same time, another OG who had accumulated 154,076 Ether, starting in 2017, sent 18,000 tokens to the web-based crypto exchange Bitstamp. Previously, the whale had sold off 87,824 Ether at an average price of $1,694.

A larger Ether ICO wallet that woke up after eight years in September also opted to stake some of their stash. The whale snapped up 1 million tokens during Ethereum’s genesis and moved 150,000 Ether to a new wallet for staking.

Top Ether holders still accumulating

While some OG Ether whales might be selling, the top addresses are still accumulating. Last Wednesday, the supply of Ether held by the top 1% addresses rose to 97.6%, up from a year ago, when they only had 96.1%, according to blockchain data platform Glassnode.

The Eth2 Beacon Deposit Contract holds the most Ether, with 72.4 million, worth around $203 billion, and represents around 60% of the total supply, according to blockchain intelligence platform Arkham.

The Eth2 Beacon Deposit Contract holds the most Ether. Source: 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.

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