Early Ethereum Holder Partially Exits $353M Position, Sends $31M to Exchange
A wallet that accumulated 172,700 ETH in 2016 moved a portion of that position to Coinbase earlier today in a transfer worth just under $31 million at current prices. The wallet had been dormant for close to a year before the transaction, according to Lookonchain data.
Transfers to exchange addresses are not confirmation of a sale, coins can be moved to Coinbase for custody, OTC settlement, or other purposes, but exchange deposits by long-dormant wallets are widely tracked by market participants as a potential leading indicator of selling pressure.
The numbers behind the position are quite noteworthy. The original 172,700 ETH was acquired in 2016 at approximately $12.83 per token, giving the full stack a cost basis of around $2.2 million. At Monday’s price of approximately $2,063, that stash is worth roughly $353 million, an estimated return of approximately 17,680% over roughly a decade.
The 15,002 ETH transferred on Monday represents about 8.7% of the original position. If sold at prevailing prices, the realised proceeds of ~$30.97 million would represent approximately 14 times the original cost of the entire holding.
Context: Where ETH Is in This Cycle
The transfer landed on a down day for Ethereum. ETH was trading around $2,051 at the time of the transaction, down 1.6% over the prior 24 hours and down more than 58% from its all-time high of approximately $4,900 in August 2025.
The wallet’s owner, whose identity is unknown; the “OG” label on Arkham is based on the address’s transaction history, not a verified real-world identity. The address retains a position of 14,814 ETH worth approximately $30.6 million. Whether Monday’s transfer was a planned exit, a partial profit take, or a custody move cannot be determined from onchain data alone.
The Second Large Sale
The same session produced a separate notable move. Lookonchain flagged a second wallet selling 5,000 ETH, worth roughly $10.3 million at $2,063 per token, specifically to repay part of an active borrowing position on Aave, the decentralised lending protocol where users can borrow against crypto collateral without selling it outright.
That wallet still holds approximately 126,000 ETH, or around $257 million, deposited as collateral on Aave, with approximately $122 million in outstanding loans remaining. The sale reduces the holder’s loan-to-value ratio, the proportion of borrowings relative to collateral value, which provides a buffer against forced liquidation if ETH’s price continues to fall. The move is consistent with de-risking rather than a full exit, and the position remains one of the largest individual ETH exposures visible on-chain.
