Did Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin Short Ethereum? Unraveling A 70,000 ETH Sale
A video surfaced on social media in which Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin revealed that he sold 70,000 ETH tokens during its all-time high price.
Buterin admits to having short-circuited Ethereum
Crypto community member MetaMan X (formerly Twitter), disclosing a conversation where Ethereum Founder, Vitalik Buterin admitted to selling around 70,000 ETH tokens, essentially selling the cryptocurrency at an all-time high.
In the podcast with US hedge fund manager Eric Ross Weinstein, Buterin talked about the price of Ethereum and Bitcoin in 2017. During Ethereum’s previous high in 2017, when the ETH price reached $1,600 and the price of Bitcoin rose by $20,000, Buterin expressed doubts whether the significant price rise actually corresponded to the crypto market’s modest achievements over the years.
“The crypto space has reached half a trillion dollars, does it deserve it? » said Buterin.
When asked if he shorted Ethereum during the all-time high, Buterin said he convinced the Ethereum Foundation to sell a considerable amount of ETH tokens, and the outcome of the decision had a huge impact on the cryptocurrency afterwards.
“I managed to convince the Ethereum Foundation to sell 70,000 ETH, like at the peak, and that doubled our runway now, so it was a good decision that had a lot of impact,” Buterin said.
ETH price at $1,886 | Source: ETHUSD on Tradingview.com
Community concerned about Buterin’s ETH sales
Many members of the crypto community have raised concerns regarding the multiple ETH Transactions which would have been led by the founder of Ethereum. Recently, Buterin was spotted doing a transfer of 100 ETHworth around $181,000 to Coinbase, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world.
The motive behind the transaction sparked curiosity among Ethereum investors and the crypto community. Earlier in August, Buterin also allegedly transferred 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 use since 2018. He also said that most ETH transactions were not him selling, but rather the recipients of his charitable donations selling the ETH tokens.
The founder was also caught up in controversy this weekend when Ethereum Whistleblower Steven Nerayoff alleged that Buterin was involved in some sort of fraud involving ETH.
Nerayoff claims that Ethereum is linked to corrupt SEC officials to carry out this fraud which he claims is on a larger scale than what happened with FTX. For reference, founder of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud after the exchange filed for bankruptcy in 2022 with a $9 billion hold on its balance sheet.
Featured image from Crypto News, chart from Tradingview.com
