A long-abandoned Ethereum stash, untouched for nearly a decade, has sprung to life with a multimillion-dollar transaction.

A dormant ethereum genesis address holding 790 $ETH since block zero was activated on Wednesday, moving roughly $1.78 million after more than a decade of complete inactivity.

Key Takeaways:

An Ethereum Genesis Address holding 790 $ETH transferred $1.78M on May 13, 2026, after sitting untouched since 2015.

The 7,300x return on a $244 investment signals ongoing awakening of early Ethereum ICO wallets in 2026.

Whale Alert flagged the move to a fresh wallet, with no exchange deposits detected yet, keeping sell pressure unclear.

Dormant Ethereum Genesis Address Moves 790 $ETH Worth $1.78M After 10.8 Years of Inactivity

The address, labeled on Etherscan as a “Genesis Address” and identified by the string 0xed41e1a28f5caa843880ef4e8b08bd6c33141edf, received 790.174 $ETH directly at Ethereum’s genesis block on July 30, 2015.

That allocation came from the project’s pre-mine and initial coin offering ( ICO) distribution. At the time, $ETH traded around $0.31 during the 2014 crowdsale, putting the initial value of the wallet at approximately $244.

The address recorded zero outgoing or incoming transactions from 2015 through May 12, 2026. That stretch covers roughly 3,940 days, or 10.8 years. Around 21:47 UTC on May 13, 2026, the wallet became active. It first executed nine small test transactions, including dust amounts near 0.0000001 $ETH.

The holder then moved approximately 790.1739 $ETH across two transfers, 1 $ETH followed by 789.17388714 $ETH, to a brand-new receiving address identified as 0x0b9bcde72cd4390a9f91f5f52a29e0535e695942. That destination wallet had zero prior history and was created for this transfer.

At approximately $2,257 per $ETH at the time of the move, the transferred balance carried a value near $1,782,979. Whale Alert was the first major onchain monitoring account to flag the transfer publicly. The math on the return is straightforward. A $244 entry at genesis pricing grew to roughly $1.783 million at the time of the move.

That represents approximately a 7,300-fold return over 10.8 years. Had the holder moved during $ETH’s all-time high near $4,878, the same stack would have been worth over $3.85 million. The original address retains a small residual balance near 0.000024 $ETH along with negligible legacy token holdings, including minor amounts of LPT and OMG from early decentralized finance experiments.

Those positions carry minimal dollar value. No signs currently point to an imminent exchange deposit or market sale. Moving funds to a fresh wallet is a common pattern among long-term holders from this era. It can signal custody updates, preparation for over-the-counter (OTC) deals, or simple consolidation ahead of future activity.

Last Genesis Pre-Mine Move Was 10,000 $ETH

The last time this happened, on April 28, a different Ethereum ICO wallet holding 10,000 $ETH transferred its full balance, worth approximately $22.88 million to $23.1 million at the time, to a new address beginning with 0xCD59.

That address also received its $ETH during Ethereum’s genesis-era distribution in July 2015, when the stake was worth roughly $3,110. Several onchain analytics firms flagged that April move, including Whale Alert, noting a return in the range of 7,381 to 7,465 times the original cost.

Both events fit a pattern that has been building across 2025 and 2026. Early Ethereum ICO wallets have been waking up at a higher rate than in prior years. Each activation draws attention from onchain trackers because the amounts involved, and the holding periods, stand apart from typical wallet activity.

No public identity is connected to either address. Anonymous participation was standard for $ETH’s 2015-era ICO allocation. Onchain analysts work from funding timestamps and distribution patterns rather than personal data when labeling these wallets as ICO participants.

If the new receiving address shows further movement, including transfers toward known exchange deposit addresses or staking contracts, onchain feeds and parsers will register it quickly. As of the time of this report, the funds remain in the fresh wallet with no additional outbound activity recorded.