In the quiet world of dormant wallets, a giant has stirred. On July 25, at precisely 23:39 UTC+8, an Ethereum wallet linked to the Ethereum Foundation moved 92,500 ETH worth $290 million to a new address. This action marked the first activity from this wallet in seven years.
The transfer originated from the address 0x0d…ecf4 and moved to a new address 0xe4…328C. Blockchain surveillance platform Lookonchain and Chinese reporter Colin Wu confirmed the transfer, identifying the sending address as related to the Ethereum Foundation.
This whale transfer traces back to the address 0xe9…1e94. Arkham also links this address to the Ethereum Foundation. The recipient address first saw activity on December 21, 2017, when it received 92,401 ETH, valued at $75.11 million then. A small subsequent deposit brought the total to 92,499 ETH.
The 92,499 ETH, now valued at approximately $283.5 million, represents a profit of over $215 million since 2017. This substantial gain highlights the volatile yet potentially lucrative nature of cryptocurrency holdings.
Profit and Loss Trends With Ethereum Holdings
Analyzing the Profit and Loss (PnL) trends for the address 0x0d…ecf4 reveals significant fluctuations. From 2019 to 2020, the PnL remained relatively stable with minor fluctuations. However, an upward trend began in late 2020, showing significant gains. The year 2021 saw the first peak in cumulative PnL, followed by a correction. Another peak in 2022 reflected market volatility. Late 2022 to early 2023 showed recovery and stabilization, with moderate gains. In 2023-2024, there was a substantial rise in cumulative PnL, reaching new highs before a slight correction in mid-2024 when the address decided to withdraw.
Contextualizing this whale activity requires examining the ETH holdings distribution. As of July 8, 2024, 122.34 million addresses held ETH, but only five held more than 1 million ETH. This whale’s transfer likely places it in the 10k – 100k ETH category, which consists of only 1.01k addresses. This substantial transfer reduces the number of holders in this range.
Adding context, on July 17, two Foundation and ICO-related wallets transferred 3,631 ETH valued at $12.5 million to Kraken. One wallet offloaded 2,631 ETH ($9.01 million), having deposited 17,886 ETH ($65 million) since June 8. Another transferred 1,000 ETH ($3.46 million) to Kraken from an ICO participant who received 100,000 ETH at Ethereum’s genesis in 2015. Despite these transactions, the ICO participant still holds 49,000 ETH valued at $171 million across four wallets.
