Ethereum ICO-era Whale Address Transfer 145,000 ETH Weeks Before Merger

The high number of ETH transfers just a month before the merger sparked community curiosity, with some claiming it was acts as a dump while others believe it could be made for staking.

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An Ethereum (ETH) whale wallet that participated in the Genesis Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and obtained approximately 150,000 ETH in 2014 was reactivated on August 14 after three years of inactivity.

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The whale address moved 145,000 ETH to multiple wallets as Ether price hit a new 3-month high of over $2,000. The transfers were made in a batch of 5,000 ETH per transaction and a few transfers over 10,000 ETH. The total value of ETH transferred is over $280 million and the wallet address currently has a balance of 0.107 ETH.

Ethereum ICO era wallet transactions Source: Etherscan

The transfer of 145,000 ETH was only the second instance after the ICO when the whale wallet was activated, the first in July 2019 when the wallet sent 5,000 ETH to the Bitfinex3 exchange with an exchange of ETH at $219, and the value of the entire transaction was just over $1 million.

The movement of such a large amount of ETH has drawn community reactions, with many saying it could be a possible pre-merger dump, the official transition of the current blockchain based on the Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) one. However, it is important to note that most transactions are to unknown wallets rather than an exchange.

Even if the whale ultimately decides to dump its 145,000 ETH, selling pressure of $250 million is not considered significant enough to trigger a market dump. A few others think the whale might be trying to stake their ETH to become a validator on the PoS network and generate passive income.

Maybe sell 5000th to open 5000 future nodes?

— Gary R (@bucko4...