Ethereum's Bullish Momentum Continues With Awakening Of Genesis-ICO Whale As Merge's Completion Nears

A colossal Ethereum whale that once took part in the genesis initial coin offering (ICO) and accumulated around 150,000 ETH eight years ago has awakened after several years of dormancy, eliciting varying reactions from industry watchers, investors and analysts.

In a very rare occurrence, the genesis-era Ethereum whale moved 145,000 ETH to various wallets Sunday as Ethereum's price skyrocketed to over $2,000 in a new three-month high. The total value of transactions amounted to more than $280 million, with the wallet left with only 0.107 ETH after being drained of balance.

The transfers were moved in several batches of 5,000 ETH, 10,000 ETH and 20,000 ETH increments with the last 10,000 ETH transfer taking place at 12 a.m. UTC. There was also a noticeable transfer of 918.89 CANTO.

It is worth noting that accounts referred to as "sleeping cryptocurrencies" wake up after staying dormant for several years. The whale's three-year dormancy is not that long when looking at it in the grand scheme of things.

The colossal whale's movement has since captured the attention of investors, with some speculating that it could be dumped before The Merge — the blockchain's transition from proof-of-work to the proof-of-stake mechanism. However, industry watchers think $250 million is not that significant to pressure a market dump.

Analysts at Bitfinex, one of the largest crypto exchange platforms in the world, have a different view of the latest movement of the genesis-ICO whale, however. "This move could enable the whale to stake its ETH to grow and become a validator of the POS community and generate passive revenue. Additionally, we also believe that the move signals support for The Merge," analysts told International Business Times via email.

The analysts also attributed Ethereum's latest feat of achieving a three-month high to the optimism surrounding The Merge. "Bullish momentum continues as optimism surrounding The Ethereum Merge helped propel the second biggest cryptocurrency to a three-month high," they said.

Additionally, they attributed the "summer optimism" of Bitcoin and other crypto assets to the lower CPI report and the possibility of the government intervening to blunt the sharp clutches of inflation. "Bitcoin and the wider digital token economy remain in the green as a mood of summer optimism seemingly engulfs the space," the analysts noted.

"The market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market has risen to $1.12 trillion while volumes are also up by 71.22 percent to $70.6 billion. These gains may also be attributed to the lower U.S. Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) report, signaling that the Fed may not take such severe measures to curb inflation," they added.

Meanwhile, the analysts are optimistic about The Merge, which is scheduled to take place on Sept. 15. "We are living through a once-in-a-lifetime moment and are watching technical evolution happen before our eyes. We look forward to welcoming a new Ethereum, an Ethereum that consumes less energy and brings long-term scalability, and security to the community," they said.

Ethereum had an interesting trading performance last week and is expected to continue this way in the current week. ETH reached a new high of $2,006.45, but as of 2:25 a.m. ET Tuesday, Ethereum was trading down 2.73% at $1,878.54 with a 24-hour volume of $19,600,468,183, based on the latest data from CoinMarketCap.