<p>A long-dormant Ethereum <a href="https://etherscan.io/address/0x825309a7d45d1812f51e6e8df5a7b96f6c908887">address</a> that participated in the blockchain's initial coin offering, or ICO, awoke after 7.7 years.</p> <p>It transferred one ether to a new address — which some speculate indicates a test transaction — in block 17110898, timestamped more than 10 hours ago. This was the wallet's first sent transaction.</p> <p>The wallet in question received 2,365 ether — worth approximately $4.42 million today — at Ethereum's genesis, on-chain analysis account Lookonchain <a href="https://twitter.com/lookonchain/status/1650336537496920064?s=46&amp;t=yoL7WJcO9vZ3TjSE2j6FRQ">noted</a>.</p> <p>One ether cost roughly $0.31 during Ethereum's ICO. Today's ether price is currently $1860.</p> <div id="attachment_227836"class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="max-width: 2687px;"><img class="has-caption wp-image-227836 size-full" src="https://www.tbstat.com/wp/uploads/2023/04/Screenshot-2023-04-24-at-7.40.27.png" alt="etherscan data showing an ethereum ico participant's activity (or lack there of)" width="2677" height="366" /><p class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">The Ethereum ICO participant was inactive for more than 2823 days. Source: Etherscan</span></p></div> <h2>Old crypto addresses are waking up</h2> <p>After a lengthy dormancy, the Ethereum ICO participant's activity follows a pair of similar transactions from old bitcoin whale addresses.</p> <p>On April 21, a bitcoin whale that had been inactive for a decade <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/227581/bitcoin-whale-awakes">transferred</a> 279 bitcoins — worth $7.8 million at the time of the transaction — to three new addresses.</p> <p>That transaction came a day after another long-dormant bitcoin whale <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/227275/dormant-bitcoin-whale-60-million-9-years" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transferred</a> 2,071.5 BTC — worth $60.7 million — after nine years of inactivity.</p> <p>While the specific reasons for the moves remain unknown, speculation exists that some long-time crypto users are moving old funds to new wallets amid a claimed wallet-draining operation allegedly <a href="https://twitter.com/tayvano_/status/1648187031468781568" target="_blank" rel="noopener">targeting</a> old wallets — though substantiated details remain scarce.</p> <p><i>This story has been updated with information about other recent transactions from old crypto addresses.</i></p><br /><span class="copyright"><p>© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.</p> </span>