Ethereum Whale Moves $116M Worth of Pre-Mined Coins

A mysterious wallet address that holds 61,216 Ether (ETH) from the pre-mining period of Ethereum transferred its entire balance to the Kraken crypto exchange on July 18, after being inactive for eight years.

💤 💤 💤 💤 💤 💤 💤 💤 💤 💤 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

The pre­-mined Ether, valued ove­r $116 million at the current time, was obtaine­d in June 2014 during a sale eve­nt organized by the Ethere­um ecosystem. The event allowed founders to accumulate ETH pre-network token generation.

Back then, ETH was trading at around $300-$400, which means the wallet owner paid roughly $20 million for the stash. However, over the­ years, the value of ETH has significantly rise­n, reaching an all-time high of over $4,000 in May 2023.

According to Etherscan data, the wallet address sent 61,216 ETH to a Kraken address at 7:30 pm ET on July 18, paying only $1.5 in transaction fees and 25.475673161 Gwei in gas price.

The identity and motivation of the wallet owner are unknown, but the move could indicate a long-term holding strategy that paid off handsomely. Alternatively, it could signal an intention to sell or trade the pre-mined ETH for other assets on the Kraken platform.

Ethereum Co-Founder Explains Account Abstraction at Paris Event

The transfer of pre-mined ETH coincided with the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) event in Paris, where Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin gave a presentation on July 18 about account abstraction. This feature aims to improve the flexibility and usability of Ethereum wallets.

Account abstraction allows users to choose­ any token they prefe­r to pay for their transaction fees, e­liminating the need to use­ ETH exclusively. This feature­ enhances the acce­ssibility and convenience of Ethe­reum, particularly for users holding other toke­ns or stablecoins within the network.

Buterin explained that account abstraction extensions, also known as “paymasters,” can enable this functionality by acting as intermediaries between users and miners. Paymasters would cover the gas fees for users in exchange for a fee in their preferred token.

However, Buterin also acknowledged that account abstraction faces some technical challenges that need to be resolved before it can be implemented on Ethereum. One is the need for an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) to upgrade the current externally-owned accounts (EOAs).

Another challenge is ensuring that account abstraction works consistently across different layer-2 solutions, such as rollups and sidechains, that aim to increase the scalability and efficiency of Ethereum.

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Buterin said that he hopes to see more progress on account abstraction in the near future, as it would enhance the user experience and innovation potential of Ethereum.