Early Ethereum Investors Move $45 Million to Exchanges

In the past week, participants of the 2014 Ethereum ICO have moved coins totaling $45 million. Analysts from Lookonchain and Onchain Lens noted this activity.

On August 16, for the first time in nine years, a whale with the address 0x61b9 transferred 334.7 ETH (~$1.5 million) to a new wallet. The investor acquired these assets for $104 in 2014, yielding a return of 14,269x.

An #Ethereum ICO participant “0x61b9” just transferred all 334.7 $ETH($1.48M) out today after 10+ years of dormancy.

He invested only $104 in the ICO and received 334.7 $ETH — now worth $1.48M, a 14,269x return!https://t.co/JJEGgmYmvz pic.twitter.com/5sUF8a0DkH

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 16, 2025

On August 18, another early investor sent 4,460 ETH (~$19 million) to the Kraken exchange. According to experts, the address 0x815C5 transferred 9,803 ETH (~$43.9 million) to trading platforms over the week.

The #Ethereum ICO participant has further sent 4,460 $ETH, worth $19.85M, into #Kraken.

In total, the participant has deposited 9,803 $ETH, worth $43.88M, in the past 7 days.

Address: 0x815C53bF36a3BC8B066715Da459B365e6ce6c3eD

Data @nansen_ai https://t.co/7gQhYEx7ZP pic.twitter.com/s0ym1HKwmz

— Onchain Lens (@OnchainLens) August 18, 2025

According to Arkham, 197 ETH (~$843,900) remained in the balance at the time of writing.

Potential Profit-Taking

Data from CryptoQuant indicates a sharp increase in Ethereum inflows to exchanges in mid-August. Daily transfers to trading platforms several times exceeded 2 million ETH, peaking at 2.6 million. In comparison, volumes in July rarely rose above 1.5 million coins per day.

According to an anonymous analyst under the pseudonym XWIN Research Japan, this trend could be attributed to several factors:

• profit-taking by early investors;
• preparation for potential volatility amid macroeconomic events or changes in the Ethereum ecosystem;
• active trading by whales using exchanges for portfolio rebalancing.

In the past 24 hours, the price of Ether has decreased by 5.4%, according to CoinGecko. At the time of writing, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is trading at $4,294.

Back on August 13, Ethereum tested the $4,700 mark, nearing its all-time high. The primary driver of the asset’s growth was record inflows into ETFs.