Dormant pre-mined Ethereum worth $116M resurrects after 8 years

A wallet address containing pre-mined Ethereum worth $116 million moved its entire stash of 61,216 Ether (ETH) to an address in the Kraken crypto exchange after lying dormant for eight years.

In June 2014, the Ethereum ecosystem conducted a sale event, allowing early team members and co-founders to participate and accumulate pre-mined Ether, at a time when the network was unable to generate tokens on its own.

During the pre-mine period, Ether traded at a price range of $300-$400, which would place the wallet’s worth at roughly $20 million at the time. However, eight years later, the tokens in question are worth more than $116 million at the time of writing.

A dormant pre-mine address containing 61,216 #ETH (116,396,127 USD) has just been activated after 8.0 years!https://t.co/f79T0fYa7b

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 18, 2023

Etherscan data confirms that the pre-mined 61,216 ETH were transferred on July 18, at 7:30 pm ET to a Kraken wallet address. Sending $116 million in Ether required a minuscule transaction fee of $1.5 and 25.475673161 Gwei in gas price, as shown in the below screenshot.

Transaction details in relation to the transfer of 61,216 ETH. Source: Etherscan

While the identity of the wallet owner remains unknown, the incident showcases the importance of hodling — an investment strategy that prioritizes the long-term accumulation of crypto tokens.

Two transactions related to the pre-mined Ether transfer. Source: Etherscan

The screenshot above shows that the owner of the 61,216 ETH took a cautious approach to ensure no loss of funds due to human error. Before commencing the whale transaction, they initially confirmed the details by sending a test transaction with 0.05 ETH to the Kraken address.

Related: Ether whale population drops after Shapella — Will ETH price sink too?

On July 18, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared some challenges in implementing the new feature on the blockchain at the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) event in Paris.

Vitalik Buterin on the stage of the EthCC event held in Paris. Source: Cointelegraph

According to Buterin, account abstraction extensions, generally called “paymasters,” can allow users to pay their fees with “whatever coins that they are transferring.”

Along with the potential benefits of account abstraction for users, Buterin also recognized that developers still need to overcome challenges, such as needing an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) to upgrade current Ethereum externally-owned accounts — normal user accounts — into smart contracts and ensuring the protocol works similarly in layer-2 solutions.

Magazine: ‘Account abstraction’ supercharges Ethereum wallets: Dummies guide

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