In an unexpected turn of events, a dormant wallet holding pre-mined Ethereum worth a whopping $116 million has sprung to life, moving its entire 61,216 Ether stash to an address on the Kraken crypto exchange.
The Tale of the Dormant Wallet
Back in June 2014, during the Ethereum ecosystem’s sale event, early team members and co-founders had the opportunity to accumulate pre-mined Ether. At that time, the Ethereum network was unable to generate tokens independently. During the pre-mine period, Ether was traded between $300 and $400, which put the value of this specific wallet at an estimated $20 million. Fast forward to eight years later, and these tokens have skyrocketed in value to over $116 million.
The Long-Awaited Transfer
Data from Etherscan confirms that the pre-mined 61,216 ETH was transferred to a Kraken wallet address on July 18, at 7:30 pm Eastern Time. The transfer of $116 million in Ether necessitated a small transaction fee of $1.5 and 25.475673161 gwei in gas price. The identity of the wallet’s owner is still a mystery. However, the event underscores the effectiveness of the hodling investment strategy, which involves the long-term accumulation of crypto tokens.
A Cautious Approach
Interestingly, the owner of the 61,216 ETH took a prudent approach to minimize the risk of fund loss due to human error. They performed a test transaction of 0.05 ETH to the Kraken address before executing the mega transaction.
The Ethereum Community Conference and Future Developments
Meanwhile, during the Ethereum Community Conference held in Paris on July 18, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin discussed some issues related to implementing a new feature on the Ethereum blockchain. Buterin referred to account abstraction extensions, often called “paymasters,” which could enable users to pay their fees using the coins they’re transferring. Despite the possible advantages of account abstraction, developers must overcome certain challenges, including the need for an Ethereum Improvement Proposal to upgrade the current Ethereum externally-owned accounts into smart contracts. This would ensure the protocol operates similarly in layer-2 solutions.
