Insider trading: Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin moved $10 million ETH in August 
Cryptocurrency Aug 30, 2024 Share
The Ethereum Foundation recently faced criticism regarding its preparation for a nearly $100 million Ethereum (ETH) sale on Kraken. Meanwhile, Vitalik Buterin moved $10 million worth of ETH to a new crypto wallet in August, partially trading it for USDC.
Lookonchain spotted the activity from Vitalik Buterin’s registered Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain ‘vitalik.eth‘. As posted on X, Ethereum’s creator sent 800 ETH, worth $2.01 million, to a multisig wallet on August 29. These wallets are usually managed by more than one person, requiring multiple signatures before spending their funds.
vitalik.eth(@VitalikButerin) transferred 800 $ETH($2.01M) to a multisig wallet again 40 minutes ago.
The multisig wallet swapped 190 $ETH for 477K $USDC later.
On Aug 9, #Vitalik also transferred 3,000 $ETH($8.04M) to this multisig wallet.https://t.co/81Vf39bvbL pic.twitter.com/6IlwtcqvPg
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 30, 2024
Interestingly, the multisig immediately exchanged 190 wETH for $477,312 in the USDC stablecoin – 18 minutes after receiving the tokens.
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Before that, Buterin had already sent 3,000 ETH, worth $8.04 million, to the same wallet on August 9. Notably, he deposited half of this amount to an Aave (AAVE) contract, likely for liquidity mining, and swapped the rest for wETH, waiting for further activities.
Vitalik Buterin-linked Multisig wallet. Source: Etherscan
Controversy: Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum Foundation
August has been a controversial month for the Ethereum community, driven especially by Vitalik Buterin and the Foundation. Ethereum investors first showed concern about the Ethereum Foundation depositing 35,000 ETH in Kraken.
As reported by Finbold, this amount equals the entity’s yearly budget of $100 million. This is relatively low compared to projects like Ripple (XRP) or Solana (SOL), but the cryptocurrency market still raised criticisms.
Summing up the turmoil, Vitalik Buterin challenged the decentralized finance (DeFi) narrative with a series of comments on X. Later on, the Ethereum creator redeemed himself with more positive – and bullish – posts, like regarding his net worth.
If I did not believe in ETH as SOV I would not hold ∼90% of my net worth in it.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 27, 2024
Ethereum (ETH) price analysis
In this context, Ethereum goes through a challenging moment price-wise, currently trading at $2,521 in a downtrend. Looking at the daily price chart, ETH has shown a ‘descending broadening wedge’ chart pattern since March 2024.
Moreover, the 365-day exponential moving average (365-EMA) now acts as a strong resistance, while the 30-day EMA just crossed it down in a ‘death cross‘ signal, indicating further downside potential.
Ethereum (ETH) daily price chart. Source: TradingView / Finbold
Long-term key support and resistance are at the ‘descending broadening wedge’ range; hence, investors should closely watch these levels.
Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.