$65M Ethereum Moved By ICO-Era Whale Ahead Of Shapella Upgrade

An Ethereum ETH/USD ICO-era whale transferred ETH worth $65 million on Sunday, ahead of the key Shapella blockchain upgrade that kicked in on Monday evening.

What Happened: Lookonchain, an on-chain data analytics platform reported that an Ethereum Whale which received 560,000 ETH in 2015 recently moved 40,000 ETH to mint DAI DAI/USD stablecoin worth an estimated $11 million.

For the uninitiated, validators in the new Proof-of-Stake Ethereum Beacon chain had to stake a certain amount of ETH to a deposit smart contract which was locked in with the contract even after the Merge happened.

Now, with the Shapella Upgrade, validators may be able to "unstake" their ETH tokens and release them from the lock-in. 

The Shapella upgrade aims to test full and partial withdrawal for validators.

The data analytics platform was responding to Coinbase COIN Director Conor Gragon's discovery that an Ethereum ICO participant who holds 250,000 ETH has not accessed their wallet since the launch. 

See More: Top Indian Apps That Give Bitcoin, NFT Rewards

“This is the only untouched ICO whale wallet I could find. Imagine the mental fortitude of holding through multiple bull and bear markets. Though the far more likely outcome is they lost their keys,” Gragon said in a tweet on Monday.

This is the only untouched ICO whale wallet I could find

Imagine the mental fortitude of holding through multiple bull and bear markets. Though the far more likely outcome is they lost their keys https://t.co/emWdt2DL0h

0x51923d87c096dfEF7962b97A9c315e147302e1e9

— Conor (@jconorgrogan) February 26, 2023

Price Action: At the time of writing, ETH was trading at $1,633, down 0.49% in the last 24 hours, according to Benzinga Pro.

Read More: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin Fall Amid Regulatory Jitters: Analyst Says 'Things Could Get Ugly Again' If Apex Crypto Rejects $23K