Whale Alert crypto tracker has shared that a large Ethereum wallet has awakened after staying dormant for 7.7 years – since the time close to Ethereum ICO.
The wallet transferred 7,900 ETH worth $16,376,842, likely moving it to an exchange to be sold.
In the comment thread, users began making jokes, such as “Vitalik’s sister creating a local top”, Finally found my keys”, etc.
This transfer happened a few days after the activation of the much-expected Shapella upgrade on the Ethereum chain took place. The rollout of Shapella propelled ETH to jump to a local $2,000 high not seen since last year.
💤 💤 A dormant pre-mine address containing 7,900 #ETH (16,376,842 USD) has just been activated after 7.7 years!https://t.co/7xk0FLOYei
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) April 14, 2023
Shapella upgrade allows ETH withdrawals but many began to deposit ETH
Shapella included Shangai and Capella integrations. The first one allows stakers to finally remove their Ethereum from the Beacon Chain deposit contract. The second has helped the Ethereum chain to complete its transition to the Proof-of-Stake consensus protocol. The latter began with the activation of The Merge upgrade in mid-September last year.
As reported by U.Today earlier, according to the data shared by IntoTheBlock on-chain data company, the volume of large Ethereum transfers this week has surged from before Shapella until after it was rolled out. At the start of the week, the largest transfer carried 708,000 ETH. On Thursday, the largest amount of Ethereum moved by whales soared to 2.2 million coins.
Overall, immediately after the upgrade activation, over $100 million in ETH was withdrawn from the deposit contract. Many whales, however, began to deposit Ethereum to Beacon Chain, despite others beginning to withdraw.