Selling millions of dollars of ETH for personal gain? Ethereum founder responds

Source: Blockchain Knight

Recently, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin responded to speculation and rumors about the sale of millions of dollars in ETH Crypto assets for profit.

In his response, Buterin emphasized that he sold his ETH holdings only to support various Crypto asset projects and charity projects.

On August 30, an X user posted a post accusing Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin of selling more than $2 million worth of ETH shortly after sharing an optimistic post.

In fact, the on-chain analysis company Lookonchain revealed that Buterin transferred 800 ETH worth $2.01 million to a multi-signature wallet that day. The recipient then exchanged 190 ETH for 477,000 USDC.

Lookonchain also reported that the Ethereum founder transferred 3,000 ETH (worth $8.04 million) to the same multi-signature address on August 9.

These transfers have led to speculation that he has been selling off his ETH inventory to realize profits, especially since the second-largest Crypto asset on the market has risen more than 175% since its cyclical low of $880 in 2022.

Another Crypto asset community member believes that Buterin should sell a large portion of the ETH tokens he has accumulated over the past seven years to profit.

However, Buterin insists that he has not sold any ETH for personal gain since 2018. Instead, he has diverted any sales proceeds to multiple projects that he believes are valuable.

Vitalik Buterin posted on X on August 31: "I have never sold and kept the proceeds. All sales have been used to support various projects that I believe are valuable, both within the Ethereum ecosystem and broader charitable projects such as biomedical research and development projects."

Buterin received overwhelming support from the Crypto world after responding to the matter, with some members encouraging him to use part of his Ethereum assets for lavish consumption.

“No need to justify yourself, you deserve a yacht too,” one X-user suggested.

Buterin revealed three years ago that his entire ETH stash came from his time mining Ethereum.

Of that, 11.9 million ETH (roughly 10% of the network’s total supply) was generated during the genesis period, reserved for early project contributors to the Ethereum network. Those early contributors included Ethereum’s Buterin, who received 700,000 ETH as compensation for his work.

According to blockchain data tracker Arkham Intelligence, Buterin currently holds around 240,000 ETH (worth around $1.06 billion), 460,000 less than his initial stash.