Not a day goes by in the cryptocurrency world without some dubious developments. In the case of Ethereum, a lot of eyes are on the ETH price right now, which is not looking all that healthy by any means. The bigger concern is how the genesis block balance has suddenly been moved to a new address over the past three weeks.
Emptying the Ethereum Genesis Block Wallet
Most people tend to forget when the Ethereum Genesis block was first created. According to Etherscan, this happened 1,208 days ago from the time of writing. That means Ethereum is almost four years old. While the project has come a very long way, some of its initial key problems still persist in 2018. Scaling remains a big problem, and it seems the number of use cases for Ethereum is still in question.
To date, Ethereum is mainly known for facilitating the creation of tokens which are sold through initial coin offerings. Although that is only one facet of what Ethereum is effectively capable of, the mainstream people don’t know about much else when it comes to Ethereum. Its blockchain technology will soon be featured in a PlayStation 4 game, although most players will never even realize what they are dealing with exactly.
Putting all of that aside for a moment, it does not explain why someone is moving funds from the Ethereum genesis block wallet at this time. An initial transfer of 227,929 Ether was made seventeen days ago. Last night, a second transfer for 152,071 ETH was made to the same address as the previous address. Some of the received funds have moved on to a different wallet address already.
Unlike what some people may assume at first, this new wallet does not belong to an exchange or other trading service provider, by the look of things. It has no official label, yet the wallet has been active for some time now as a lot of ETH is being accumulated. At this time, it holds over 454,547 Ether and counting, which is worth roughly $58m at current prices. That is a lot of money waiting to be liquidated if need be.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect is how this “new wallet” moved the 227,929 ETH transfer to a third wallet shortly after receiving the funds. These funds have not moved outside of the third wallet since it was received, which seem to confirm it will not be liquidated anytime soon. Even so, this behavior is all rather unusual, although there does not appear to be any nefarious intent in the slightest.
For the time being, it remains to be seen why this money was moved to new accounts. There is no specific reason for doing so, as none of the new addresses adheres to a different standard compared to the initial wallet. Even so, there will be a reason for moving the money around. It just happens at a very crucial time when all cryptocurrency markets get battered, which makes any large transfer look suspicious first and foremost.
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