Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has denied claims that he sold significant amounts of Ether for personal gain. Buterin has claimed that he sold his ETH tokens to support various cryptocurrency projects and other charitable causes.
Here’s Why Ethereum’s Founder Moved $2 Million Worth of ETH
On Friday, August 30, blockchain data tracker Lookonchain reported that Buterin transferred 800 ETH (worth about $2 million) to a multi-signature wallet. The recipient address then exchanged 190 ETH for 477,000 USDC.
In a post on the X platform, Lookonchain noted that Buterin moved 3,000 ETH (over $8 million) to the same multisig address on August 9. This was the highest level of on-chain activity the Ethereum co-founder has seen in the past few weeks.
This recent transfer has led to one member of the X crypto community accusing Buterin of ignoring comments regarding the recent ETH transfer. Others in the crypto community have responded, stating that it is not wrong for the Ethereum co-founder to slash his ETH stake and take a profit.
Buterin, however, responded to this post in support of X, insisting that he had never sold any ETH for profit. The cryptocurrency founder said:
I have not sold anything since 2018 and have kept the proceeds. All sales have been used to support various projects that I believe are worthwhile, either within the Ethereum ecosystem or for broader philanthropic endeavors (e.g. biomedical R&D).
After these revelations came to light, Buterin gained more support from the online cryptocurrency community, with some community members urging the Ethereum co-founder to spend some of his wealth on luxury items.
How much Ether does Buterin own?
In a Reddit post three years ago, Buterin revealed that all of his Ether tokens (11.9 million ETH at the time) came from the pre-mining period, and that he received around 700,000 ETH.
Buterin's interaction with a Reddit user | Source: Reddit
In context, pre-mining is similar to an initial coin offering (ICO), where a certain percentage of tokens are given to founders, developers, and early investors as a reward.
According to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, Buterin currently holds around 240,000 ETH (worth around $1.06 billion), which is around 423,000 ETH less than the initial tokens received by the Ethereum co-founder.
At the time of writing, the Ethereum price has crashed below $2,500, reflecting a 1.9% drop in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, 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 by Getty Images/Michael Ciaglo, charts by TradingView