Early Ethereum wallets move 8,680 ETH after 11 years

On Aug. 11 a genesis-era Ethereum wallet transferred 2,680 ETH, valued at about $5.03 million based on the ether price at the time. The wallet had been inactive for roughly 11 years. The coins were acquired in Ethereum’s early days when the initial crowdsale price was about $0.31 per token.

Across July and August 2026 four genesis-era wallets moved a combined 8,680 ETH. Two transfers of 2,000 ETH each were recorded on July 20 and July 26. A separate 2,000 ETH transfer occurred on Aug. 8, and the 2,680 ETH transfer occurred on Aug. 11. Onchain monitoring services logged the activity and tracked where portions of the coins were sent.

Analysis of blockchain records shows that the Aug. 8 transfer ultimately reached an account at Coinbase. One of the July transfers was received by Australia-based exchange Coinjar. The other July transfer was split and sent to multiple addresses.

Genesis ETH refers to ether tied to the network launch and the 2014 crowdsale. At launch developers pre-mined roughly 72 million ETH. About 60 million of those tokens were allocated to buyers during the 42-day crowdsale, which raised about 31,591 BTC. The remaining roughly 12 million ETH were split between founders and early contributors and the Ethereum Foundation, about 6 million each.

Onchain trackers and blockchain explorers show several long-dormant wallets from the network’s earliest era have been sending coins to exchanges and to new addresses in 2026. Observers have suggested possible reasons for these movements include estate transfers, changes in custody arrangements, or long-time holders selling portions of their holdings.

The transfers return previously inactive supply to active addresses and exchanges. Onchain data firms and exchange records will continue to monitor any further movements from genesis-era addresses as they occur.