Ethereum Whale Awakens After 10 Years Moving $1.48M in ETH

Ethereum Whale Moves, ETF Inflows and Upgrades Shape ETH Price

A 10-year-long sleeping ICO Era Ethereum Whale wallet has awakened. The wallet, "0x61b9," transferred 334.7 ETH, valued approximately at $1.48 million, all at once, as reported by the Lookonchain data. 

Source: X (previously Twitter)

In 2014, the wallet owner only spent $104 during the ICO. That tiny amount has now grown to become a whopping 14,269x return.

Nevertheless, in perspective to today's huge crypto market, this whale's 334 ETH is small in number.

Overall value of this crypto currently sits at over $535 billion, so such actions are not as potent as they were in the past.

Ethereum Whale Moves vs Institutional Buying 

Several traders monitor Ethereum Whale wallets for potential price fluctuations, but now large money is institutional.

• U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs alone brought in an estimated $1.72 billion in August, with assets overall over $22 billion.

• BlackRock’s ETHA ETF alone holds 540,000 ETH, while funds like Abu Dhabi’s SWF have added hundreds of millions of dollars. Bitmine is another name for accumulating ETH.

• Experts explain that every $1 billion going into ETFs takes away about 225,000 ETH from the market. 

• With staking rewards between 4–6%, institutions now see this crypto asset as both a store of value and a source of steady yield.

Ethereum Upgrades and Roadmap

The network is also upgrading. The Fusaka upgrade later in November 2025 has 11 significant improvements. 

There are improvements such as handling data better with PeerDAS and increasing the gas limit to 150M.

These should make the network quicker and less expensive for users.

The Pectra upgrade earlier this year ramped up transactions to 1.875 million daily (CoinMarketCap data).

Future releases, such as the 2026 Glamsterdam fork, should further build it's deflationary model and increase its use in DeFi and real-world assets.

Ethereum Whale Activity and Market Pressure

Big whales purchased around 221,000 of this crypto worth $940 million during August, and exchange reserves fell to a four-year low of 10.2 million.

That leaves fewer coins to sell on exchanges and creates potential supply pressure.

But dangers persist. One dormant 2014 wallet still contains $1.18 billion worth of this digital currency that would trigger market shocks if it were ever unloaded.

Only 0.2% of wallets contain more than 41 million ETH, leaving whales with a significant amount of power over price action.

If it breaks $5,000, almost $2 billion of short bets would be erased, triggering a rally higher. Analysts believe upgrades and ETF inflows combined could propel ETH to new heights.

Source: CoinMarketCap 

Currently the coin is trading at $4,435 with a decrease of 4.37% within the last 24 hours as per the CoinMarketCap. 

Conclusion

Reminding the market how much the early investors profited is the wake-up call of an old Ethereum Whale wallet. But now, the institutions and Ethereum's upgrades hold the reins.

With ETF flows increasing and the Fusaka upgrade on the horizon, ETH's next action could be massive. The most important level to keep an eye on now is the $4,300–$4,800 range, which could determine whether this cryptocurrency sees new highs.