Ethereum Whale From 2021 Moves $37M Worth of ETH to OKX at a Loss

The Transfers, Timestamped

Analysis firm Lookonchain first flagged the deposits and said the two addresses possibly belong to the same whale. The transaction history supports that as both wallets were funded by the same address in 2021, and both emptied into the same OKX deposit address within about 85 minutes on Sept. 14. The details of the moves are as follows:

• Wallet 0x8155 received 5,000 ETH on Aug. 19, 2021, then sent 1 ETH, 999 ETH and 4,000 ETH to the deposit address yesterday.
• Wallet 0x49f1 received 9,700 ETH on Oct. 25, 2021, then sent 100 ETH, 4,900 ETH and 4,700 ETH over the same time period.

The 1 ETH and 100 ETH transfers seem to be the kind of test runs large holders send before the real amount.

Where Does the $20 Million Loss Figure Come From

Onchain data can show what the coins were worth on the day they arrived. ETH closed near $3,184 on Aug. 19, 2021, and near $4,220 on Oct. 25, 2021. At those prices, the 14,700 ETH was worth about $56.9 million on arrival, compared with about $36.9 million at deposit. That is a gap of roughly $20 million, or about 35%.

Onchain analyst EmberCN went further, saying the entity behind the wallets built a position of more than 20,000 ETH during the last bull market with an average cost above the current price, and made these deposits at an average of $2,517 per ETH.

In any case, the coins did not sit untouched the whole time because in 2024, both wallets sent thousands of ETH into a batch-deposit contract used to spin up Ethereum validators, including three separate 3,220 ETH deposits from the larger wallet on June 19, 2024. The ETH later flowed back to the wallets, consistent with validator exits, before the last movement this week.

That changes the loss picture slightly given that the staking rewards would have added to the stack over two years, but not nearly enough to offset a drop of that size in the price of ether.

Not the Only 2021 Wallet Heading for the Door

EmberCN also tracked wallet 0x08E8, which received 1,500 ETH on Sept. 24, 2021. It sent 1,250 ETH to MAX Exchange on Sept. 14, a deposit that would lock in a loss of more than 20% if sold, and onchain data shows the remaining 249.99 ETH followed early on Sept. 15.

Bitcoin.com News itself tracked a mystery whale that routed 167,855 ETH to exchanges between late August and early September, and Genesis-era wallets that had been dormant for over a decade began moving coins this summer.

Lastly, it bears mentioning that ETH is trading near $2,465 today, down about 16% from its Jan. opening of $2,970 and roughly 49% below its record of $4,946 set during Aug. last year. The price of bitcoin has held up a little better this year, sitting about 11% below its own January pace of $87,650.