ICO-era wallet with 1 million ETH comes alive after 8 years. What’s going on?

A whale wallet with a million ETH from the ICO era has suddenly become active after eight years, attracting attention in the cryptosphere.

According to a tweet on 5 September, the wallet belongs to a whale that bought one million ETH during the ICO for just $310, 0000, and is worth roughly $4.3 billion at current price. 

After reactivating the wallet, the whale has moved 150,000 ETH worth about $645M to a new wallet for staking, onchain data shows. 

Bullish action

The whale activity has been the subject of discussion in the crypto space in the last 24 hours, with many X users commending the decision to not sell the tokens.

Rather than sell the ETH which would have been devastating for ETH holders, the whale decided to stake a part of his stash while still holding the balance.

This suggests that the wallet owner has not given up on ETH and in fact, believes the price can go higher. 

To many in the crypto space, this reflects a general bullish sentiment that whales have towards the second largest crypto asset by market cap.

Meanwhile, several other whales like this have become suddenly active on the Ethereum network, carrying out many transactions. 

Some are just entering the crypto space, but investing massively in the token. For example, one new wallet has recently purchased $51 million worth of ETH.

With this trend, not only whales but also retail investors will be emboldened to enter the space expecting better days ahead.

Rate cuts could increase bullish sentiment

Investors are clearly bullish about ETH, but what could be driving this sentiment? While there is no obvious reason, one of them may be the rate cuts that are widely anticipated.

This is because rate cuts historically boost investors’ confidence to invest in crypto, which makes prices surge. 

If the Fed eventually announces rate cuts before the year runs out, ETH and indeed the entire market may see more good days ahead.