On August 16, for the first time in nine years, a whale with the address 0x61b9 moved 334.7 ETH (about $1.5 million) to a new wallet. This investor originally purchased the coins in 2014 for $104. The return on that investment now stands at 14,269x.

Two days later, on August 18, another early investor sent 4,460 ETH (around $19 million) to Kraken. Analysts note that within a week, the address 0x815C5 transferred a total of 9,803 ETH (~$43.9 million) to trading platforms. According to Arkham, the wallet still holds 197 ETH (~$843,900) at the time of writing.

Possible Profit-Taking

Data from CryptoQuant shows that mid-August saw a sharp increase in Ethereum inflows to exchanges. On several days, transfers exceeded 2 million ETH, peaking at 2.6 million. For comparison, daily flows in July rarely went above 1.5 million coins.

Possible Profit-TakingSource:  CryptoQuant  

Analyst XWIN Research Japan suggested multiple reasons behind the activity:

  • profit-taking by early holders,
  • hedging against possible volatility from macroeconomic factors or Ethereum network changes,
  • portfolio rebalancing by whales using exchanges as intermediaries.

Over the last 24 hours, Ethereum’s price has dropped by 5.4%, according to CoinGecko. The asset is currently trading at $4,294, making it the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Ethereum’s price

Binance ETH/USD Hourly Chart. Source: TradingView

Earlier, the FORECK.INFO editorial team reported on which altcoins investors refuse to sell under any circumstances — and now Solana leads the losers with a 6% drop, while Monero shines with a 5% gain. Read more here.