Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, has refuted claims that he has been profiting by selling large amounts of Ether. He noted that any sales of his ETH tokens have been for supporting various projects in the cryptocurrency space as well as charitable causes.
The Reason Behind Buterin’s $2 Million ETH Transfer
On Friday, August 30, the blockchain data tracking service Lookonchain reported that Buterin sent 800 ETH, valued at around $2 million, to a multi-signature wallet. Shortly after, this wallet exchanged 190 ETH for 477,000 USDC.
Lookonchain pointed out that earlier, on August 9, Buterin had also transferred 3,000 ETH, worth over $8 million, to the same multi-sig wallet. This highlights his recent activity involving Ethereum on the blockchain.
This latest transaction led to some members of the crypto community on X questioning Buterin’s transparency regarding his recent movements with ETH. Others countered that it would not be inappropriate for him to realize some profits by reducing his ETH holdings.
In response to a supportive comment on X, Buterin stated that he has not sold any ETH for personal gain. He mentioned:
I haven’t sold and kept the proceeds since 2018. All sales have been to support various projects I consider valuable, whether within the Ethereum ecosystem or for charitable purposes (e.g., biomedical research and development).
Following this statement, Buterin received additional encouragement from the online crypto community, with some urging him to indulge in some luxury purchases.
What is Buterin’s Ether Holdings?
In a Reddit discussion three years ago, Buterin revealed that all his Ether tokens (which totaled 11.9 million ETH at that time) originated from the pre-mine phase, during which he received around 700,000 ETH.
To provide context, pre-mining is similar to initial coin offerings (ICOs), where founders, developers, and early investors receive a portion of the tokens.
As per blockchain analytics firm Arkham, Buterin currently possesses approximately 240,000 ETH (valued at around $1.06 billion). This amount is about 423,000 ETH less than what he originally received.
At the time of writing, Ethereum’s price has fallen below $2,500, which indicates a 1.9% decrease over the last 24 hours. Additionally, the price has dropped by more than 10% in the past week, based on data from CoinGecko.
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