Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin Refutes Claims Of Selling Ether For Profit

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has denied allegations that he has been promoting vital quantities of Ether for private acquire. Buterin claimed to have bought his ETH tokens to help varied cryptocurrency initiatives and different charitable endeavors.

Right here’s Why The Ethereum Founder Moved $2 Million In ETH

On Friday, August 30, blockchain knowledge tracker Lookonchain revealed that Buterin transferred 800 ETH (price about $2 million) to a multi-signature (multi-sig) pockets. This recipient tackle then swapped 190 ETH for 477,000 USDC shortly after.

Within the publish on the X platform, Lookonchain additionally famous that Buterin had moved 3,000 ETH (equal to greater than $8 million) to the identical multi-sig tackle on August 9. Such has been the extent of on-chain exercise noticed from the Ethereum co-founder previously few weeks.

This newest switch prompted a crypto neighborhood member on X to accuse Buterin of ignoring the commentary on his latest ETH transfers. Then one other crypto neighborhood replied, saying that it wouldn’t be unsuitable of the Ethereum co-founder to take some revenue by shaving his ETH holdings.

Nonetheless, Buterin responded to this supportive publish on X, claiming to not have bought any ETH for revenue. The crypto founder mentioned:

I haven’t bought and stored the proceeds since 2018. All gross sales have been to help varied initiatives that I feel are precious, both throughout the Ethereum ecosystem or broader charity (e.g. biomedical R&D).

Buterin acquired even higher help from the web crypto neighborhood following this revelation, with some members encouraging the Ethereum co-founder to spend a few of his belongings on luxurious.

How A lot Ether Does Buterin Personal?

In a Reddit publish three years in the past, Buterin disclosed that every one the Ether tokens he owns (11.9 million ETH on the time) come from the pre-mine interval, of which he acquired about 700,000 ETH.

Buterin’s interplay with a Reddit consumer | Supply: Reddit

For context, pre-mining will be likened to preliminary coin choices (ICOs), the place founders, builders, and early buyers are rewarded with a proportion of the tokens.

In keeping with blockchain intelligence agency Arkham, Buterin at present holds about 240,000 ETH (price about $1.06 billion). This present determine is round 423,000 ETH lower than the preliminary tokens acquired by the Ethereum co-founder.

As of this writing, the value of Ethereum has slumped under $2,500, reflecting a 1.9% decline within the final 24 hours. In the meantime, the altcoin’s value is down by greater than 10% previously week, in line with knowledge from CoinGecko.