Key Highlights
A dormant Ethereum ICO wallet has stirred the crypto community after attempting a transaction for the first time in over a decade. The wallet, identified as 0xcBfa, tried to send 1 ETH to Gemini but failed due to insufficient gas fees.
This wallet originally invested $443 in the 2014 Ethereum ICO and received 1,430 ETH, which is now valued at roughly $2.81 million. The move highlights the potential of early crypto investments and the enduring challenges of Ethereum transactions.
The Ethereum ICO, conducted between July and August 2014, sold ETH at around $0.30 per token. Early investors took substantial risks as the network had not yet launched. “The participant invested only $443 to buy 1,430 $ETH, which is now worth $2.8M – an estimated 6,316x return,” noted Onchain Lens on X.
Over a decade and a half, the wallet remained untouched, surviving the 2017 bull run, the 2018 crash, the DeFi boom, and the 2022 bear market. The long-term holding strategy has reignited conversations about how a patient strategy can turn a small bet into a multi-million-dollar position, a feat rare among early participants.
It is uncommon for dormant ICO wallets to come back to life, as many investors tend to lose access to their keys or sell their assets too early. The attempt by this wallet to come back to life seemed to be a test transaction, which is common among people who have returned to the crypto space. The transaction, however, failed, and this is a reminder that gas prices are still a basic concern for even the richest investors.
Ethereum has also seen a lot of big-money activity lately. Blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain reported that a major investor moved 19,820 ETH (about $40 million) out of Binance and OKX. Another whale swapped 9,156 ETH (around $18.5 million) for gold-backed PAXG tokens.
At the same time, Garrett Jin, known as BitcoinOG1011short, deposited a massive 261,024 ETH (roughly $543 million) into Binance. These moves show that Ethereum is still a hotspot for wealthy investors managing huge portfolios.
So far, the ETH2 Beacon Deposit Contract holds more than 76.3 million ETH, worth around $240 billion, making it the biggest ETH holder. Other major holders include Binance with 4.1 million ETH ($13 billion), BlackRock with 3.4 million ETH ($11 billion), and BitMine with 2.9 million ETH ($9 billion). Among individuals, early investor Rain Lohmus owns 250K ETH ($786 million) in a wallet he can’t access, while Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin controls 240K ETH ($754 million) that he can still use.
Traders on Ethereum are also very optimistic. As per CoinGlass data, on Binance, normal accounts have close to three times as many long positions as shorts, and the top traders are even more optimistic with a ratio of 3.35. On OKX, the ratio is also similar at 2.86. The market volatility is also evident, as in the last 24 hours, $106.64 million in positions have been liquidated, with most of them being long positions.
As of writing, according to CoinMarketCap, Ethereum was trading at $1,971 down 5.64% in the past 24 hours.
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