An early Ethereum investor moved 2,680 ether tokens worth $5.05 million to new wallet addresses on Wednesday, August 12, according to blockchain analytics company Lookonchain. The investor transferred the entire holding in a single transaction after leaving the coins untouched for 11 years.
The unknown trader acquired the assets during Ethereum's initial coin offering in 2015, paying $830 for the 2,680 tokens. Ethereum is a public blockchain platform, and ether is its native digital currency.
If the investor sells the coins soon, the trade will yield a profit of more than $5 million. That return represents a total gain of over 608,000 percent and an average annual return exceeding 55,000 percent.
Lookonchain noted that moving assets to new wallets does not necessarily indicate an immediate sale or market exit. Investors often transfer crypto to diversify portfolios or protect funds in safer storage.
Recent whale transactions
The transfer comes as major cryptocurrency holders, known as whales, step up sales of bitcoin and ether. On Tuesday, August 11, a large investor with an address starting with bc1qdj sold 1,274 bitcoins worth $81.5 million through Cumberland, FalconX, and Galaxy Digital.
A day earlier, another large trader disposed of 1,019 bitcoins valued at $66.4 million. Over the last three weeks, that investor sold 7,513 bitcoins worth $486.9 million. Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
On Monday, August 10, another early 2015 Ethereum ICO participant who accumulated 40,000 ether transferred 3,510.42 MKR tokens worth about $4.41 million for the first time in seven years.
Earlier crypto liquidations
That investor accumulated 7,020.84 MKR tokens between September 2018 and May 2019. MKR is the utility token for MakerDAO, a decentralized platform on the Ethereum blockchain.
Large holders also executed major sales earlier in the summer. At the end of June, four wallets inactive for about eight years sold 33,623 ether tokens worth $52.5 million within a few hours.
The owners of those four addresses locked in a total profit of $27.4 million from the sale.
