Too late to sell! A whale dumped ETH to cash out $27.4 million, but selling earlier could have earned $150 million.

Four Ethereum wallets that had been dormant for nearly eight years suddenly awoke, selling off their holdings in a short period of time and successfully cashing out. Although the actual realized profit was about $27.4 million, it was a full five times less than the peak during the bull market.

Amid the ongoing downturn in the cryptocurrency market, four Ethereum wallets that had been dormant for nearly eight years suddenly awoke and massively sold off their holdings. Although they successfully cashed out about $10k, it was a full five times less than the unrealized profit of over $150 million during the bull market, leaving the market puzzled and regretful.

On-chain analytics platform Lookonchain, citing Arkham data, pointed out that these four wallets originally acquired 37,602 ETH in 2018 at an average price of $830 per coin.

Image source: X/@lookonchain

After a long period of silence lasting nearly eight years, these wallets began to wake up last Friday. Within just four hours, they gradually sold 33,623 ETH at an average price of about $1,560 per coin, cashing out approximately $52.5 million. After deducting the cost of holding the coins, the realized profit was about $27.4 million.

However, what truly caught the market's attention was not the whale's dumping, but the potential profits they missed.

According to on-chain analysts, during the bull markets of 2021 and 2025, the "unrealized profit (paper gain)" on these ETH once exceeded $150 million. In other words, if they had chosen to take profits at that time, the gains would have been more than five times the actual amount they pocketed this time.

According to market data, ETH hit an all-time high of approximately $4,946 in August 2025, and then fluctuated downward. As of last Friday, the price had fallen below $1,560.

The four wallet addresses that sold ETH this time are:

• 0x71B…D412f
• 0x92a…ae49D
• 0x6C7…5C327
• 0xffd…5BeE5

On-chain records show that these addresses had almost no fund movements in the past nearly eight years, only restarting transactions and selling holdings last week.

Notably, this is not the only case of an ancient Ethereum whale awakening recently.

In March this year, an early investor who had held Ethereum for ten years sold about $31 million worth of ETH through Coinbase, drawing market attention. In April, another early investor who participated in the Ethereum ICO transferred 10k ETH to a new wallet address after being dormant for over ten years.

As the market continues to correct, more and more long-dormant ancient wallets are beginning to wake up and adjust their positions, causing the market to keep watching whether more early holders will choose to take profits gradually in this bear market cycle.

• This article is republished with authorization from: "BlockKe"
• Original title: "Unrealized Profit Once Reached $150 Million! Whale Dumps 33k ETH, Cashes Out $27.4 Million"
• Original author: Mel (BlockMei)