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Did Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin Short Ethereum? Unraveling A 70,000 ETH Sale

A video has surfaced on social media where Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin revealed he sold 70,000 ETH tokens during its price all-time high. 

Buterin Acknowledges Shorting Ethereum

Crypto community member, MetaMan X, published a video post on X (formerly Twitter), disclosing a conversation where Ethereum Founder, Vitalik Buterin admitted that he had sold about 70,000 ETH tokens, essentially shorting the cryptocurrency during a major all-time high. 

In the podcast with American hedge fund director, Eric Ross Weinstein, Buterin spoke on the price of Ethereum and Bitcoin in 2017. During Ethereum’s previous all-time high in 2017, when the price of ETH rose as high as $1,600 and Bitcoin’s price was up $20,000, Buterin voiced doubts about whether the significant price surge truly aligned with the crypto market’s modest achievements over the years. 

“The crypto space has reached half a trillion dollars, does it deserve it?” Buterin stated. 

When asked if he had shorted Ethereum during the all-time high, Buterin stated that he had convinced the Ethereum Foundation to sell a considerable amount of ETH tokens, and the result of the decision made a huge impact on the cryptocurrency later.

“I did get the Ethereum Foundation to sell 70,000 ETH like basically at the top, and that’s doubled our runway now, so it was one good decision that had a lot of impact,” Buterin said. 

Ethereum price chart from Tradingview.com

Community Worries Over Buterin’s ETH Sell-Offs

Many crypto community members have raised concerns about the multiple ETH transactions said to be conducted by Ethereum’s founder. Recently, Buterin was spotted making a transfer of 100 ETH, worth about $181,000 to Coinbase, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. 

The motive behind the transaction has sparked curiosity among Ethereum investors and the crypto community. Earlier in August, Buterin was also reported moving 600 ETH worth $1 million to Coinbase. 

However, the Ethereum Founder had publicly clarified in October that he had not sold any ETH tokens for personal gain since 2018. He also stated that most ETH transactions were not him selling, but rather the recipients of his charitable donations selling the ETH tokens. 

The founder has also been caught in controversy over the weekend when Ethereum whistleblower Steven Nerayoff alleged that Buterin was involved in some sort of fraud involving ETH.

Nerayoff says Ethereum is linked to corrupt SEC officials to carry out this fraud which he says is on a larger scale than what happened with FTX. For reference, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been found guilty of fraud charges after the exchange filed for bankruptcy in 2022 with a $9 billion hold in its balance sheet.

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Real Reason Behind Ethereum Founder’s Massive ETH ‘Sales’ Exposed

A crypto wallet owned by the Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has seen a series of transactional activities lately, piquing the interest of crypto community members at a time when Ethereum selling pressures are rising. 

Following this, Buterin has taken the initiative to address the concerns regarding his recent transfer of digital assets to multiple exchanges. 

Ethereum Co-Founder Discloses Truth Behind Multi-Transfers

In a recent post on Warp Cast, a decentralized social network, Russian-Canadian computer programmer and founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin publicized the real reason behind the latest ETH transfers made via his wallet address. 

Buterin explained to the public that the large-scale ETH transactions that were performed using his wallet were not sold by him. He stated that over the years, he has mostly focused on donating large sums of Ethereum funds to charity organizations and other projects. He further solidified his claims saying that he had not sold ETH for personal profits since 2018. 

“If you see an article saying ‘Vitalik sends XXX ETH to [exchange]’, it’s not actually me selling, it’s almost always me donating to some charity or nonprofit or other projects, and the recipient selling because, well, they have to cover expenses,” Buterin stated. 

Buterin is well-known for his philanthropic acts toward charity organizations and medical interventions. The Ethereum co-founder made headlines in 2021, after donating $1 billion worth of SHIB tokens to a COVID-19 relief fund in India. 

Additionally, in February 2023, Buterin donated $150,000 to Anka Relief to fund a crypto aid project that would support Türkiye after its recent earthquake experiences.

Although there have been many proofs of Buterin’s propensity to donate to multiple charities, the crypto community has remained skeptical and vigilant, relentlessly monitoring the Ethereum founder’s cryptocurrency activities, as well as these recent high-value ETH transactions. 

Ethereum price chart from Tradingview.com (ETH founder Vitalik Buterin)

Spokesperson Reveals $15 Million ETH Transfer From Kanro Charity

According to data from PeckShield Alert, a blockchain security and auditing firm, Vitalik Buterin recently made a large-scale transaction of $15 million USDC to the Gemini Exchange. 

This transaction in question is among the list of recent transfers associated with the Ethereum founder. These movements have prompted both curiosity and concern in the crypto community, as observers attempt to determine the underlying motive behind Buterin’s transactions.

A report from Cointelegraph said an Ethereum Foundation Spokesperson has clarified the details behind the lofty transaction. According to the Spokesperson, the $15 million USDC transfer was only executed under Buterin’s Ethereum Name Service (ENS) and not from his wallet address. 

The spokesperson also supposedly confirmed that the funds were from a transfer made by a charity multi-sig wallet, Kanro, which is closely linked to Buterin to sponsor a grant.

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Crypto Drug Cartel Ties: On-chain Investigator Drags Ethereum Into The Mess

An on-chain crypto investigator took to social media to expose the supposed black truth behind Justin Sun’s Tron but has thrown Ethereum in the mix, alleging that the cryptocurrency is backed by the CCP and may harbor crypto wallet addresses by Fentanyl traffickers. 

On-Chain Detective Unveils Potential Tron Ponzi Scheme

An X (formerly Twitter) user going by the username @BoringSleuth has gained the attention of the crypto community after uncovering potential evidence of Tron allegedly being a Ponzi scheme governed by one of the world’s largest crypto criminal drug cartels. 

“I showed and told the World that Tron $TRX was a massive Ponzi, run by a part of the largest criminal Cartel in the World, and connected to the CCP,” BoringSleuth said.

BoringSleuth disclosed that the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has sanctioned eight Chinese Communist Party (CCP) companies for allegedly operating a clandestine drug production and distribution sales network around Fentanyl. 

The crypto investigator revealed that more than half of the wallets owned by these companies were traced back to Tron and the remainder allegedly being on the Ethereum blockchain. 

After analyzing the original sales of the TRX token, BoringSleuth stated that he had reviewed the top 20 cryptocurrency wallets in Tron’s original token sale list to decipher the owners of the wallets and how much TRX supply these wallets have acquired.

According to the investigator, out of the 20 wallets, 17 were created and owned by the infamous criminal organization disguised to represent genuine investors. He revealed that the criminal organization was connected to the CCP, and 98% of Tron’s total token supply was received by these 17 wallets.

The on-chain investigator also mentioned that cryptocurrency exchanges like Huobi Global, and cryptocurrencies like Shiba Inu may also be linked to the CCP and Wanxiang, a Chinese multinational conglomerate and the team that funded Ethereum Foundation wallets and Ethereum’s Founder, Vitalik Buterin. 

Ethereum price chart from Tradingview.com (Crypto drug cartel)

Investigations Cast Shadows On Ethereum

The crypto industry has experienced a series of Ponzi schemes and rug pulls for years now, causing investors and regulators to be wary of crypto exchanges and organizations in the space. 

While Tron is faced with speculations of being a well-orchestrated Ponzi scheme and having connections with the CCP, the revelation that Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency may be backed by the CCP and connected to companies involved in drug trafficking has left the crypto community in a paradox. 

According to BoringSleuth, the CCP is allegedly supporting Ethereum and other blockchains as well as multiple Decentralized Exchanges (DEX) and Centralized Exchanges (CEX) in the crypto space. 

The crypto investigator utilized a previous transaction that saw the CCP receiving 133,700 ether on a single Genesis Block address owned by the party, as a reference to a connection between Ethereum and the CCP.

BoringSleuth has also stated a potential connection between Ethereum’s Founders and the CCP, which he said he would be revealing in detail soon. 

The allegations faced by Tron and Ethereum come amid the increasing scrutiny of China’s role in the cryptocurrency landscape. Although the crypto X community is presently reeling from the on-chain investigator’s hypothesis, no concrete evidence linking Ethereum to the CCP has emerged, leaving the allegations in the realm of speculation.

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Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin Reveals The Challenges Of The Network

The Ethereum blockchain is notable for its smart contract functionality and various other things. However, many might not be conversant with the challenges the network encounters. In a recent interview, Ethereum’s founder, Vitalik Buterin, revealed the biggest of them all.

Ethereum’s Biggest Challenge

Speaking with CNBC, Buterin mentioned that the biggest challenge that the “Ethereum ecosystem” faces is ensuring that it builds products that provide value to its users. According to him, the last decade was test-running, but now Ethereum needs to provide utility.  

Ethereum is known to host some of the biggest decentralized applications (dApps), including prominent decentralized exchanges (DEXs) like Uniswap, Curve Finance, and Sushiswap. The network has also grown massively to the extent that several Ethereum layer-2 networks have sprung up in a bid to scale the network.

Despite this, it seems that Buterin believes that there is more to be done, even as Ethereum has asserted itself as the go-to network for dApps and other decentralized solutions. Meanwhile, ETH, its native token, is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. 

Buterin also spoke about how cryptocurrencies enjoy greater use in less-developed countries as people use crypto tokens to make payments and for savings. 

Cryptocurrencies have long been touted as a hedge against inflation, and it would seem that crypto is being put to use where it is needed most. A recent report by Chainalysis showed that the highest-ranked countries for crypto adoption are being plagued with a devaluing fiat currency.  

The Ethereum founder also stated that centralized entities like Binance need to take a back seat for crypto adoption to move forward. While he appreciates these entities’ role in growing the crypto industry, he believes crypto needs to become more decentralized. 

His reason for saying this isn’t far-fetched as he noted that these entities are vulnerable to “both pressure from the outside and to themselves being corrupted.” Truly, centralized entities have taken many hits this past year, which has had far-reaching consequences on the industry. 

Last year, one of the biggest crypto exchanges, FTX, collapsed, which had several ripple effects on the crypto industry and market. Meanwhile, the two largest crypto exchanges by trading volume, Binance, and Coinbase, are currently embroiled in legal battles against the SEC.

Ethereum price chart from Tradingview.com (Vitalik Buterin)

The Future Of Ethereum

Last year, Ethereum transitioned from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake following the Merge. Buterin stated this move has made the network more decentralized as it is “harder to shut down” than a proof-of-work network. 

He also banished the idea that the network was heavily reliant on him, which many had identified as a weakness as the government could easily go after him to clamp down on the network. 

Related Reading: What The Drop In Spot And Derivatives Volumes Means For The Price Of Bitcoin

According to him, Ethereum has grown to become independent of him and the Ethereum Foundation. He points out how several independent applications on the blockchain have taken the workload off him and made the network more autonomous.  

As to Ethereum’s future plans and projects, he said that the network is focused on privacy and scaling with the help of zero-knowledge (ZK) rollups. ZK rollups are layer-2 scaling solutions that help scale the Ethereum network by moving computation off-chain, thereby reducing the computing workload on the network. It also promotes privacy, as one can verify transactions without knowing what it is about. 

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Is Vitalik Buterin Selling His ETH Stash? Let’s Take A Look At His Transactions

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has multiple public wallets that carry a significant amount of ETH and these wallets are religiously tracked by on-chain sleuths. This is why whenever the founder makes a withdrawal, the destination of the ETH being sent is closely followed and recent reports reveal that Buterin has been sending significant amounts of ETH out to different wallets.

Two Vitalik Buterin Transactions Spark Speculations

In the early hours of Monday, the on-chain data tracking platform PeckShieldAlert took to X (formerly Twitter) to share some interesting movements that have been taking place in wallets said to belong to Buterin. This time around, the tracker flagged a single transaction carrying 3,000 ETH.

The 3,000 ETH, worth roughly $4.95 million at the time of the transfer was sent out from the well-known Vitalik.eth wallet to another wallet identified publicly as Vb2. This brought the latter’s balance to 3,017 ETH, worth a little over $4.95 million.

The speculations of whether the Ethereum founder is offloading some of his stash come in relation to an earlier transaction made by him. The transaction which was also reported by PeckShield alert showed that Buterin had sent 600 ETH worth around $1 million at the time to the Coinbase crypto exchange.

For many, however, this transaction was insignificant in the grand scheme of things and did not lead to a cause for alarm. The most recent transaction also follows in the same vein since it looks like the billionaire founder is just redistributing his assets to other wallets.

Ethereum (ETH) price chart from Tradingview.com (Vitalik Buterin)

Is This Why ETH’s Price Is Struggling?

So far, there is no indication that Buterin’s wallet movements have anything to do with the ETH price decline. As already mentioned above, the ETH liquidity is too deep for a $1 million sell to trigger such a decline, which would suggest something else is behind the coin’s struggles.

The most obvious factor is that the broader crypto market has been taking a hit and ETH has not been left out. Bitcoin fell from $28,000 to below $26,000, taking the majority of the market down with it. As a result, investor sentiment swung far into the negative which is preventing new money from coming into the market.

With the bear market waxing strong, there could be more decline to come for the digital asset until investor sentiment improves and the market starts to recover once more. For now, ETH is still ranging above $1,640 as bears and bulls are locked in a tug-of-war for control.

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SOL Jumps 15% In 24 Hours As Solana Receives Support From Ethereum Founder

Solana (SOL) has been completely engulfed in FUD since the FTX crash. This invariably resulted in the price of the token declining much faster than the rest of the market, and last week, SOL touched single-digit values for the first time in almost two years. However, there seems to be a turn in the tide for the digital asset as it receives support from Vitalik Buterin.

Vitalik Buterin Offers Support To Solana 

Taking to Twitter, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin expressed support for Solana for the first time. Solana which had been the fiercest competitor of Ethereum had been unable to keep up given its ties to FTX crypto exchange, its sister company Alameda Research, and its disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried, but Buterin is not pleased that the competitor is essentially crumbling.

In the tweet, the Ethereum founder explained that “some smart people” had told it that there was still a good developer community on the blockchain who are earnest and smart. Furthermore, they added that since the opportunistic people trying to make a quick buck had now been pushed out, they expect the network to have a bright future.

Buterin himself explains that he couldn’t tell if this was true looking in from the outside but said that he hoped that “the community gets its fair chance to thrive. This tweet was made about four days ago and it had an incredibly positive impact on Solana.

SOL Price Rallies On Buterin Comments

The price of SOL saw an upward trend following the tweets from the Ethereum founder. Although Solana remains a long way from its glory days, Buterin’s tweets had given the bulls just the morale boost they needed and by Monday, SOL’s price had surged as high as $12 before correcting back down.

Solana (SOL) price chart from TradingView.com

Presently, the price of the digital asset is sitting above $11, rising over 15% in the last 24 hours. This recovery has also helped to wipe out most of the losses recorded over the last week, and now, it is down only 1.81% in the last 7 days compared to over 20% losses being recorded last week.

This recovery also puts the digital asset close to the top of the list of gainers for the day. It sits only behind Lido DAO which is up over 16% in the last hours.

As for whether SOL will be able to maintain current prices and go higher, it depends on the momentum in the market. The cryptocurrency is still subject to intense FUD and community morale remains low but the $13 level remains within sights as long as buy pressure keeps up.