Vitalik Buterin’s Ethereum Wallet Sends $1 Million Worth of ETH to Coinbase Amidst Price Struggles
Based on on-chain data, a wallet linked to Vitalik Buterin, one of Ethereum’s co-founders, executed a transaction today by sending 600 Ether, approximately valued at $1 million, to the Coinbase exchange.
The reason for this transaction is still uncertain at the time of this report. Typically, transfers to exchanges are interpreted as potential intentions to sell. Given Ethereum’s recent struggles in terms of its price, Buterin’s transaction could potentially add more selling pressure to the digital asset.
In a separate observation by on-chain investigator Lookonchain, it was noted that the “Vitalik.eth” wallet settled a debt of 251,000 RAI on the Maker DeFi platform and simultaneously withdrew 1,000 ETH, equivalent to about $1.67 million, on August 20th.
The wallet, bearing the moniker “vitalik.eth,” was established seven years ago and held a balance of 3,993 ETH, valued at $6.5 million as of the current time. Verification through the Arkham Intelligence dashboard by CryptoSlate confirmed the wallet’s ownership by the co-founder of Ethereum. Additional digital assets in the wallet encompassed $84,000 worth of USD Coin (USDC) and $58,000 worth of Wrapped Ethereum (WETH).
This occurrence marks not the first instance of Buterin transferring assets to a cryptocurrency exchange. In an earlier incident this year, he sent 200 ETH to Kraken in March. During a similar timeframe, Buterin divested various unsolicited alternative coins (often referred to as “sh*tcoins”) in exchange for 439.25 ETH.
The timing of Buterin’s transaction coincides with the recent crypto market flash crash that transpired last Thursday. Over the past week, Ethereum’s price plummeted below the $1700 mark, a level not seen since June, and continued to remain below this threshold at the time of this report.
According to CryptoSlate’s data, the value of ETH stood at $1667 during the time of writing, following a slight decrease of 0.18% over the last 24 hours.
Nevertheless, data obtained from blockchain analytics firm Glassnode reveals that Ethereum holders are diligently safeguarding their holdings by swiftly transferring their assets away from cryptocurrency exchanges. As indicated by this data aggregator, the quantity of ETH held on exchanges currently stands at 14.88 million, a quantity last witnessed in 2018.
The trend of outflows from exchanges typically indicates a positive signal, suggesting that investors are retaining their assets for the long term despite the recent underperformance of Ethereum’s price.
