On-chain data shows an ancient Ethereum wallet containing 2,000 ETH that had been inactive for nearly 11 years has suddenly come back to life.
Ethereum OG Wallet Has Turned $620 Into $4.2 Million
According to data from cryptocurrency transaction tracker service Whale Alert, an old Ethereum wallet has just broken a 10.8-year phase of dormancy. The address in question held a total of 2,000 ETH, worth $620 back in 2015.
The wallet is so old that Whale Alert classifies it as a pre-mine address. In the context of ETH, a “pre-mine address” refers to one that received its tokens before mining began on the network with its public launch in 2015. Such wallets were allocated these coins because they belonged to early contributors and participants of the presale in 2014.
Interestingly, despite getting in early on the cryptocurrency, this particular investor just never participated in activity, with their only transaction in over 10 years being the deposit that they received at the blockchain’s genesis.
Now, the pre-mine address has suddenly been reactivated. Below are the details related to the transaction that broke the long spell of dormancy for the wallet.
Looks like the investor moved a small amount with this transfer | Source: Whale Alert
As is visible, the move involved a sum of just 1 ETH, suggesting that it was likely a test transaction. After this transfer, the wallet followed up with a few more transactions, including a 1,997.9 ETH shift that nearly completely emptied out its balance. So far, these coins haven’t made their way to a centralized exchange, so it’s hard to say whether the investor is looking to sell them.
As mentioned before, the Ethereum stack held by the address was worth just $620 back in 2015. Today, the same amount converts to more than $4.2 million, representing a gain of nearly 630,000%.
What could be the reason behind the OG making a sudden return? Well, the answer to that would lie in what happened to the wallet after it fell silent. Often, addresses that are this old get to their age not via resolute HODLing, but by being lost or forgotten. As such, it’s possible that this address was simply inaccessible during its dormancy and just recently had its keys rediscovered.
A less probable, but not impossible, scenario is that the Ethereum balance indeed reached its age by long-term holding. If so, the investor would be among the most stalwart of diamonds in the digital asset sector.
ETH Price
Ethereum declined toward the $2,000 level a few days ago, but the cryptocurrency has managed to claw its way back up as its price is now trading around $2,130.
The price of the coin seems to have overall been following a sideways trajectory in recent days | Source: ETHUSDT on TradingView
Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com
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