- The amount was originally received in the Ethereum initial coin offering 8 years ago
- The owner of the wallet remains anonymous
A wallet believed to belong to Kraken crypto exchange received over 61,000 ether (ETH) on Wednesday, CoinDesk reported, citing blockchain data. The amount was originally received in the Ethereum initial coin offering (ICO) eight years ago.
It was purchased for 31 cents during the ICO
At current rates, the ether is worth over $116 million. The whale bought it for 31 cents a token during the ICO.
Wallet 0x8b transferred the tokens to another wallet before the Kraken-tagged one. The owner of the wallet remains anonymous. This is the second movement; the wallet received ether from the genesis contract after the launch of the second-biggest crypto by market cap.
What do large movements mean?
Such big movements from early adopters are usually not common. They can mean the holder is preparing to stake or sell their tokens or diversify their assets. They have not been rare so far this year, though. This latest movement is one of many. Quite a few old wallets moved bitcoin and ether to crypto exchanges.
A few wallets moved bitcoin worth millions to other wallets or to exchanges in April 2023. Such holders are known as "whale" investors because of how many tokens they hold in their digital wallets.
The impact of crypto whale activity on the market
Whale movements can impact the price or sentiment around a coin. The 100 biggest Bitcoin wallets currently hold over 15% of all bitcoin in circulation, Investopedia writes. Fourteen Dogecoin addresses held 70 billion DOGE in June, which is almost 75% of all DOGE in circulation.
While achieving whale status is subjective in the cryptocurrency space, the community tends to agree that whales are investors who own a large amount of circulating crypto.
It can be a good idea to follow whale movements if you want to make a profit. Check out what new coins whales find most promising in 2023.
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