A large Ethereum ($ETH) whale that had been dormant for six years until October of last year, has recently moved over 32,000 $ETH ahead of the network’s upcoming Shanghai upgrade, which is set to allow validators to withdraw their staked Ether.

According to a tweet shared by blockchain analysis service Lookonchain with its nearly 100,000 followers on the microblogging platform, the whale had been dormant until October, when it moved nearly 49,000 $ETH to stake the funds on the Beacon Chain.

The whale now moved 32,015 $ETH, worth over $53 million, to a new address. Crypto community members speculated the whale isn’t going to be divesting its funds, but rather that it may be getting ready to stake more.

The Ethereum whale received 120,00 $ETH, at the time of writing worth nearly $200 million, at the cryptocurrency’s genesis initial coin offering (ICO) via three different addresses. They remained inactive until October 2022, when they started moving ETH to stake it.

Staked ETH and rewards accrued through it are locked on the blockchain until the network’s Shanghai upgrade is released. Ever since the Beacon Chain was launched, Ethereum token holders have been able to stake their $ETH on the network in return for fees, awarded to them for validating transactions on the network Shanghai is the next major upgrade following the Merge, which moved Ethereum from a Proof-of-Work to a Proof-of-Stake network.

As CryptoGlobe reported, Ethereum’s core developers have set March 2023 as the provisional date for Shanghai, meaning Ethereum stakers could soon be able to withdraw their staked assets on the network.

Notably, with Shanghai approaching and Ethereum’s price rising, on-chain data has shown that shark addresses have been “aggressively” accumulating the cryptocurrency.

Data from on-chain analytics firm Santiment shows that wallets with between 100 and 10,000 $ETH, equivalent to $162,000 to $16.2 million at the time of writing, have been accumulating the cryptocurrency since early November, to the point around 3,000 new shark addresses were created.

Per the firm, a total of 48,556 shark addresses now exist, marking the highest level recorded since February 2021. Shark addresses, it’s worth noting, are associated with large holders, with the largest cohort being known as the whale cohort.

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