A dormant Ethereum wallet that received its first ether during the network’s July 2015 genesis block reactivated after more than 11 years, moving approximately $4.6 million in ETH while successfully avoiding an automated address-poisoning attack.
According to Whale Alert and on-chain data, the address beginning with 0x7dDd made its first outgoing transfer at 22:04 UTC on November 9, 2026, sending a small 0.05 ETH test transaction worth roughly $106. The wallet later received another 755 ETH in March 2016, but had no outgoing activity until now.
Within about three minutes, suspicious addresses began sending tiny ETH transfers designed to mimic the legitimate recipient address beginning with 0x1321beb8 and ending in 1A44. One lookalike address reportedly sent 43 dust transfers. Etherscan identified accounts funding the lookalike addresses as associated with phishing activity.
The scam used address poisoning, a technique that exploits abbreviated wallet address displays and attempts to trick users into copying a fraudulent destination from transaction history. In this case, the owner avoided the trap, verified the destination with an additional small transfer, and at 22:42 UTC successfully sent 2,154.94 ETH, worth approximately $4.6 million, to the intended address.
The incident demonstrates how quickly automated blockchain monitoring can target large transfers, but it did not result in any loss of funds or any sign of an immediate sale.
