A dormant Ethereum address housing a treasure of pre-mined Ether worth $116 million has sprung to life.
The address, which held 61,216 ETH, remained inactive for eight years before the colossal transfer to Kraken, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges.
Ethereum’s 2014 pre-mine
The pre-mine was a process by which a certain number of ETH were allocated to the Ethereum Foundation and other early contributors to the project.
Eight years ago, in June 2014, the Ethereum ecosystem held a sale event. This allowed early team members and co-founders to accumulate pre-mined Ether at a time when the network started it’s development.
Ether was valued back then at approximately $18,976.However, with the continued growth and adoption of Ethereum, the same tokens are now worth over $116 million.
As reported by Lookonchain, a Twitter account that tracks large cryptocurrency transactions, the address “has just been activated after 8.0 years.”
An Ethereum ICO participant woke up after 8 years of dormaancy and deposited all 61,216 $ETH($116M) to #Kraken 2 hrs ago.
He received 61,216 $ETH($116M currently) at Ethereum Genesis, the ETH ICO price is ~$0.31.https://t.co/HLSXvqyBDb pic.twitter.com/YWVlIcxN99
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 19, 2023
This transfer, confirmed by Etherscan data, took place on July 18 at 7:30 pm Eastern Time.
Notably, moving such an enormous sum in Ether entailed a surprisingly minor transaction fee of just $1.5, with a gas price of 25.475673161 gwei.
The owner of this massive wealth remains shrouded in mystery. Nonetheless, the address owner’s actions provide a remarkable testament to the ‘hodling’ investment strategy – long-term accumulation of cryptocurrency tokens.
Safeguarding a $116 million Ether transfer
The careful planning behind this transaction is evident in the owner’s meticulous approach to safeguard the funds against any potential loss from human error, by conducting a test transfer of 0.05 ETH to the Kraken address prior to executing the full transfer.
