Two large Ethereum transactions containing 8,510 ETH worth $21.9 million were reported by blockchain analytics firm Spot on Chain. One of the wallets dates back to the Ethereum ICO era. Why these accounts are making these moves at this time could be a concern for the crypto community. Let’s explore these wallets and the transactions they are making.
Ethereum ICO Whales Are On The Move
A wallet (0xB1E5…E2be) has moved 3,510 Ethereum Tokens in the past 12 hours in 2 transactions. Just one hour apart, the two transactions involved 10 and 3,500 Ethereum respectively. Both transactions, worth $9.04 million in Ethereum, were sent to 0xb44D…A7fa, which “Spot on Chain” identifies as a Kraken wallet. Interestingly, this whale received 150,000 Tokens during the 2015 Ethereum ICO at $0.31 per Token. This whale spent a total of $46.6k to participate in the ICO.
To date, the ICO whale has sold a total of 18,510 ETH to Kraken and Bitfinex since July 31, 2019 at an average price of $2,461. Of this, 10,000 ETH was moved between June 16 and 18, 2024, right before the ETH price plummeted. The whale still holds 135,940 ETH worth around $350 million in 8 different wallets.
Genesis Bán Ethereum?
Cryptocurrency lending company Genesis filed for bankruptcy in January 2023. They had to pay back around $3 billion to investors. The company collapsed amid the FTX crash and the bear market. They moved a total of $3 billion in Bitcoin (32,256 BTC) and Ethereum (256,775 ETH) in August of this year. The company moved 143,379 ETH to wallet 0xC62c…46C4, which distributed various amounts of Ethereum to different accounts. This transaction pattern looks like Genesis is paying back its creditors. The same wallet transferred 114,502.54 ETH to wallet 0x999E…946E on August 2. This wallet then transferred 5,000 ETH to FalconX via another wallet 0xf4F0…E99c, about 6 hours ago.
What's Going On?
Although these transactions are huge and it seems that this move has created a small fluctuation in the price of Ethereum. The price has dropped by 1% but that is not a big deal for the industry. It is clear from the transactions that the ICO whales are taking systematic profits after waiting for 9 years and Genesis is paying off its creditors. In the eyes of analysts, both these transactions are legitimate and important for the community.
