Ether Whale Holding $26.4 Million Emerges From 8-Year Hibernation As Pundit Hints At Imminent $5,000 ETH Milestone

Ancient digital money is on the move per on-chain data.

A wallet containing pre-mined Ethereum (ETH) has reawakened after an eight-year slumber, moving the long-dormant coins to a new address. The move has sparked speculation about its potential price impact. 

Dormant Pre-Mined ETH Resurrects

Crypto tracking platform Whale Alert detected a long-dead wallet holding 11,640 ETH coins suddenly awakened, having previously sat there unmoved for 8.4 years. This means the said wallet address was last used in late 2014.

The Ethereum network famously carried out a sale event back in June 2014, which let early team members and co-founders participate and stash pre-mined ETH when the network could not generate tokens on its own.

During the pre-mine period, Ether traded for $0.31 per token, placing the wallet’s worth at roughly 3,608. However, eight years later, the tokens were worth around $26,489,720 million at the time of publication.

The dormant whale has so far moved 500 ETH to a new address. The motive for the transfer is unknown. However, some in the crypto community have speculated that the owner may have forgotten about the wallet and upon its re-discovery, decided that it’s perhaps a great time to sell.

Arthur Hayes Thinks ETH To $5,000 Is Very Likely

Ether has surged over 85% since January 2023, and crypto pioneer Arthur Hayes is convinced the second-largest crypto is primed to continue its steady climb. ETH is now trading for $2,298.46, according to CoinGecko.

Hayes recently opined in a post on X that he received guidance from a higher power, subsequently dumping his Solana (SOL) cache and acquiring an undisclosed amount of ETH coins.

The former BitMEX CEO also revealed that he foresees a bullish move that would drive ether to the impressive $5,000 threshold, though he did not specify when this will happen.

This prediction follows Hayes’ price call earlier this month for Solana to hit $100 during a bullish period for the altcoin, a prognosis that was on point, with SOL recently topping $100.