After 7.7 years, an Ethereum address that took part in the blockchain’s initial coin offering, or ICO, awakened. In block 17110898, it transferred a single ether to an entirely new address. The transaction was completed more than ten hours ago. This was the first transaction sent from the wallet. Some assume that this is a test transaction.
On-chain crypto analyst, Lookchain was the first to point out this transaction. They also noted that the address received 2,365 $ETH($4.42M at the time) at Ethereum Genesis. One ether cost roughly $0.31 during Ethereum’s ICO. In comparison, the current price of Ether is $1,844.81.
A cryptocurrency and blockchain initial coin offering (ICO) is a capital-raising operation. The ICO may be thought of as a cryptocurrency-based initial public offering (IPO). Ethereum held its ICO from July 22 to September 2, 2014. It is widely regarded as one of the most successful ICOs to date. Following the ICO, Ethereum raised about 31,000 Bitcoins, which was worth $18 million at the time.
The holder has piqued the interest of numerous ETH users by moving a single token. Some who commented on Lookonchain’s tweet speculated on the motivation for transferring just 1 ETH out of the wallet’s 2,365 ETH tokens. Some users felt the holder was checking the system to confirm that the wallet was still alive and the money was still useable. Others assumed the holder was testing the transaction procedure in preparation for a sell-off of the whole portfolio, having gained so much profit over the years.
Recently, similar transactions from ancient Bitcoin whale addresses were also observed. On April 21, a bitcoin whale who had been idle for a decade moved 279 bitcoins to three new addresses, totalling $7.8 million at the time of the transaction. After nine years of inaction, another long-dormant bitcoin whale moved 2,071.5 BTC – worth $60.7 million — the day before.
Such movements are causing a lot of speculation. Some have claimed that this movement comes amidst multiple hacks and wallet drains that are occurring in the industry. While some have also claimed that this could be a means of finally cashing out their investments. True reasons for the transactions remain to be unknown.