Ethereum ICO Whale Moves $120 Million in $ETH from Dormancy to Staking

Last updated on December 18th, 2025 at 08:04 am

Quick Breakdown

An Ethereum whale wallet, dormant since the 2015 Initial Coin Offering (ICO), has moved its entire 40,000 $ETH holding to a new address.
The tokens were worth approximately $12,000 at the time of purchase and are now valued at $120 million.
In a move that defies expectations of a sell-off, the holder has begun staking the entire stash, reinforcing their long-term bullish stance on the Ethereum network.

Ethereum ICO Whale secures $120 Million stash in staking

According to Lookonchain analysis, a wallet linked to the Ethereum Initial Coin Offering (ICO) that had been dormant for over a decade suddenly became active, moving its entire 40,000 $ETH holding, worth approximately $120 million, to a new address and immediately deploying the assets into staking.

The original wallet, which acquired the tokens during Ethereum’s genesis block launch in July 2015 for an initial cost of about $12,000, transferred the funds earlier this week. This action is a powerful sign of long-term conviction, as the holder chose to lock up the significant sum to secure the network rather than sell the tokens, which is often the expected behaviour when a whale wallet wakes from such a long period of inactivity.

The decision to stake the entire $120 million is a major endorsement of Ethereum’s Proof-of-Stake mechanism and its long-term financial viability. The move suggests the whale is committed to actively participating in the network’s decentralized governance and earning staking rewards, which is a bullish indicator for the ecosystem. This incident comes amid considerable market attention on the movements of other large crypto holders, with some analysts linking recent price fluctuations to the selling activity of older wallets.

Ethereum ICO wallet (0x2dCA) with 40,000 $ETH($120M) woke up after 10+ years of dormancy — and instead of selling, he staked the $ETH.https://t.co/AreBCXNG4T https://t.co/OWpE8REjVw pic.twitter.com/pPZVwkkB1A
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 1, 2025

Contrasting institutional commitment and market sentiment

The whale’s decision to stake contrasts sharply with the actions of other early Ethereum holders who have recently opted to liquidate portions of their long-held tokens. For example, another ICO-era wallet with 254,908 $ETH began selling its assets in late November, steadily reducing its holdings.

Furthermore, a different large holder, who began accumulating $ETH in 2017, transferred 18,000 tokens to the exchange Bitstamp, having previously sold a significant amount at an average price of $1,694.

This split in behaviour highlights a dichotomy in the sentiment of early participants: some are realizing life-changing gains, while others are doubling down on their investment thesis by securing their assets to the network’s long-term infrastructure. The action of the $120 million whale aligns with the overall trend of top $ETH addresses continuing to accumulate, with the supply held by the top 1% of addresses rising to 97.6% over the last year.

In another development, Nasdaq-listed BitMine Immersion Technologies has shifted its focus from Bitcoin mining to becoming a major institutional holder of Ethereum. The company recently completed a $44 million acquisition, boosting its ETH reserves to approximately 3% of the total circulating supply. This substantial accumulation, coupled with the company’s plans for large-scale staking, leads analysts to believe that similar corporate interest could potentially trigger an Ethereum “supercycle.”

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