According to on-chain monitoring by Onchain Lens, as reported by ChainCatcher, an Ethereum whale address that had been dormant for approximately three years — specifically since around 2023 — has suddenly resumed activity. The address had shown virtually no transactions over the past three years, yet recently made a large move into the DeFi lending protocol Aave V3, executing a series of leveraged long trades on ETH.
In the operation, the whale took 20,000 ETH from its holdings, worth roughly $33.28 million at the time, and deposited them as collateral into Aave V3. Using this collateral, it borrowed 30 million USDT. Immediately afterward, it swapped the entire 30 million USDT for ETH at an average price of $1,683 per token, acquiring approximately 17,826 ETH. This sequence of actions forms a classic leveraged loop: by collateralizing ETH to borrow stablecoins and then using those stablecoins to purchase more ETH, the whale amplified its ETH exposure without injecting new external capital.
As a result of these transactions, the address's total ETH holdings surged from 38,554 ETH to 56,380 ETH, an increase of over 46%. At current market prices, the total value of the position is approximately $94.04 million. The sudden leveraging after years of dormancy is seen by some market participants as a strategic bet by large capital on the near-term performance of Ethereum.