Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has denied allegations that he sold significant amounts of Ether for personal use. Buterin claimed that he sold his ETH tokens to support various cryptocurrency projects and other charitable initiatives.
Here’s Why Ethereum Founder Moved $2 Million In ETH
On Friday, August 30, blockchain data tracker Lookonchain revealed that Buterin transferred 800 ETH (worth about $2 million) to a multi-signature (multi-sig) wallet. This recipient address then exchanged 190 ETH for 477,000 USDC shortly after.
In the X platform post, Lookonchain also noted that Buterin moved 3,000 ETH (equivalent to over $8 million) to the same multi-sig address on August 9. This has been the level of on-chain activity seen from the Ethereum co-founder in recent weeks.
This latest transfer prompted a crypto community member on X to accuse Buterin of ignoring comments about his recent ETH transfers. Another crypto community then responded, saying that it wouldn’t be wrong for the Ethereum co-founder to take profits by reducing his ETH holdings.
However, Buterin responded to this message of support on X, claiming that he did not sell any ETH for profit. The cryptocurrency founder said:
I haven’t sold and held the product since 2018. All sales have gone to support various projects that I consider valuable, either within the Ethereum ecosystem or as part of a broader charity (e.g. biomedical R&D).
Buterin received even more support from the online crypto community following the revelation, with some members encouraging the Ethereum co-founder to spend some of his assets on luxury.
How much ether does Buterin have?
In a Reddit post three years ago, Buterin revealed that all of the Ether tokens he owns (11.9 million ETH at the time) come from the pre-mining period, of which he received around 700,000 ETH.
Buterin's interaction with a Reddit user | Source: Reddit
To put things into context, pre-mining can be compared to initial coin offerings (ICOs), where founders, developers, and early investors are rewarded with a percentage of the tokens.
According to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, Buterin currently holds about 240,000 ETH (worth about $1.06 billion). This current figure is about 423,000 ETH less than the initial tokens received by the Ethereum co-founder.
At the time of writing, the price of Ethereum has fallen below $2,500, representing a 1.9% drop in the past 24 hours. At the same time, the altcoin’s price has fallen by more than 10% over the past week, according to data from CoinGecko.
The price of ETH slips below the $2,500 mark on the daily timeframe | Source: ETHUSDT chart on TradingView
Featured image from Getty Images/Michael Ciaglo, chart from TradingView
