A major ether owner who participated in the 2015 Ethereum initial coin offering (ICO) has moved some of his assets after 9.4 years of inactivity, Lookonchain said.

Lookonchain analysts wrote in X that the crypto whale transferred 0.01 ETH to an unknown address. Considering that ETH is currently trading at approximately $3,394, this transaction was worth $33.94. In total, the whale moved 1042.22 ETH worth $3.53 million to different cryptocurrency addresses. There are 897.77 coins left at the address of the anonymous owner of the ethers, which are valued at $3.04 million.

These were the first transactions made from the address since its owner received 1,940 ETH during the Ethereum ICO. According to Lookonchain, these ethers were then valued at $601. Nearly a decade later, their value has skyrocketed to a staggering $6.56 million.

The sudden awakening of the dormant address prompted speculation that its owner may have regained access to the wallet by finding the lost private key. Meanwhile, the movement of “sleeping ethers” is not an isolated case. By
data SpotOnChain, on December 25, another “ether whale” transferred 4,160 ETH worth $14.5 million to the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange. He received 20,000 ETH in an ICO nine years ago, and has moved over 5,000 ETH in local peaks since September 2024.

This year, large cryptocurrency holders who have not been active for many years have moved other coins. In July, 1,000 bitcoins were transferred from a cryptocurrency address that had been dormant for 11 years and 9 months to another address.