A large early investor in Ethereum, regarded as the "_OG_," reactivated a wallet after about nine years of inactivity and began to realize profits as this quarter's rally approached its peak.
According to the on-chain analysis and tracking institution Lookonchain, this address purchased 3,000 units of ETH in 2017 at an average price of $18.8 per unit, and subsequently withdrew these tokens from Gemini. The initial total investment was only $56,500.
This week, the wallet owner transferred another 1,000 units of ETH to one of the recharge addresses for Kraken, worth $2.68 million. To date, this investor has sold 2,000 units of ETH at an average price of $3,096, earning a total of $6.19 million.
The report states that the net profit from the sold portion reached 8.8 million US dollars, which represents a return of 156 times; there are still 1,000 ETH held in the wallet, valued at approximately 2.67 million US dollars according to the figures mentioned in the text.
Ethereum recorded its strongest third quarter on record, and early investors have begun to cash out.
This round of profit-taking occurred against an unusual historical backdrop. According to the quarterly data from CryptoRank, the third quarter of 2026 has been the strongest quarter for Ethereum to date, with a return rate of 72.7%. Prior to this surge, Ethereum had seen a decline of 29.1% in the first quarter and 25.3% in the second quarter.
Historically, the third quarter has always been the weakest and most volatile quarter for Ethereum, with an average return rate of only 9.11% and a median return rate of 4.55%. This quarter's increase even surpassed the 59.2% seen in the third quarter of 2020, making the current price an attractive point for long-term holders to realize their gains.
Other large investors are also closing their profits. According to the article, in the last week of September 2026, an investor who had been building a position since 2023 transferred over 112,000 ETH to Bitfinex, worth approximately $300 million; in addition, there was also an over-the-counter (OTC) transaction on the market where 42,005 ETH were sold for $111.9 million.
On the Bitcoin network, two wallets that had been inactive for over four years each transferred approximately 4,500 BTC to new addresses for internal balance consolidation. The article states that the total value of these transfers is about 380 million US dollars.
Despite the actions taken by these long-term holders, the market has still maintained its resilience. Institutional capital inflows continue to absorb selling pressure.
According to the data from SoSoValue and Farside Investors, the regulated spot Ethereum ETF has recorded net inflows for seven consecutive days.
