A whale awakened after seven years: selling 27,585 ETH brought in $44.8 million, but the missed profit is colossal.
The Ethereum market witnessed a rare event: an old wallet that had remained silent for over seven years suddenly activated and began a massive sell-off. Over the past two days, 27,585 ETH worth approximately $44.84 million were sold from the address 0x0965. The average sale price was $1,625 per coin. The net profit from this operation exceeded $39 million, but the investor clearly missed the opportunity for maximum gain.
Seven Years of Silence and an Exit Strategy
On-chain analysis shows that the cryptocurrency arrived at the original address 0xaE5d3d during the era of the decentralized exchange EtherDelta, when the value of these assets was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Two weeks ago, the whale consolidated its funds, transferring 27,586 ETH (worth about $46.5 million) to wallet 0x0965, from which the active sales phase began.
To minimize price slippage during the large-volume sale, the CoW Protocol infrastructure was used. The assets were first converted into WETH via the Wrapped Ether smart contract and then exchanged for the stablecoin USDS. Transactions were broken down into portions ranging from 100 to 2,304 ETH per operation — a standard practice for whales seeking to avoid a sharp market crash.
Missed Opportunity: The Cost of Patience
The most notable aspect of this story is the colossal gap between peak and actual profit. At the market peak, the paper profit on this portfolio exceeded $130 million. This means that, having bought the assets near their minimum values, the investor held them for too long, missing the chance to lock in nearly triple the gain. The final sale at $1,625 per ETH is far from historical highs, highlighting the risks of passive long-term holding without active position management.
Analyst's Comment: Such awakenings of "sleeping" whales are an important signal for the market. They often indicate a shift in sentiment among long-term holders. However, in this case, we see not so much a panic sell-off as a tactical exit with an awareness of missed super-profits. This is a clear lesson: even the most patient investor should periodically review their profit-taking strategies, especially in volatile markets.