Ether ICO Whale Moves 5K ETH to Exchanges, Bringing Monthly Total to $154M

A whale who received 1 million ether (ETH) tokens from participating in the network’s initial coin offering in 2014 deposited 5,000 ETH, worth $13.2 million to crypto exchange OKX earlier on Monday.

The whale has deposited 48,500 ETH, worth over $154 million, to OKX at an average price of $3,176 in the past 35 days, blockchain data shows. They had acquired the ETH at a price of $0.31 per token in the ICO.

The user has deposited funds into OKX deposit address “0x6eb6ae5f1027e190adcc7b66d3aa8f14a7677faf,” using a GnosisSafe wallet address, which had originally received funds, on-chain tracking tool AMLBot confirmed to CoinDesk in a message earlier Monday.

The owner of the wallet is unknown. It continues to hold over 15,600 ETH, worth $41 million, in the GnosisSafe wallet.

Such large movements from early participants are typically uncommon – but could mean the holder is preparing to sell tokens, stake on an exchange, or diversify their holdings for other tokens.

These investors are colloquially known as "whales" because they hold large amounts of tokens in their digital wallets – which can influence the price or sentiment around a token because of the size of their holdings.

ETH prices are down 14% in the past 30 days, CoinGecko data shows, compared to bitcoin’s 3% rise in the same period.

(Oliver Knight contributed reporting.)