Journalist
Posted:
- The stock transferred was worth over a million at the time of writing.
- Buterin’s previous claims that transfers were related to charity began to circulate.
Ethereum [ETH] co-founder Vitalik Buterin moved 500 ETH, worth $1.08 million at the time of writing, to crypto exchange Coinbase, fueling speculation in the crypto community about the intent of the transfer.
AMBCrypto scanned data about the chain and noticed a movement of 500 ETH from the address labeled “vitalik.eth” to a Coinbase custodial wallet on December 19.
Inbound sales pressure or just charity?
Generally, influential investors or whales who move a large portion of their stock to exchanges create fear among participants.
This is due to the dominant belief that they are likely to be sold, putting downward pressure on the asset. However, this is not always true.
In the current scenario, Buterin could use Coinbase’s institutional custody services to safeguard his assets or leverage them to collect rewards.
Amid the tension surrounding the real intentions behind the moves, an earlier clarification from Buterin also began making the rounds.
In a discussion on the decentralized social app Warpast about two months ago, he said:
“If you see an article that says ‘Vitalik sends XXX ETH to [exchange]”, it’s not really me selling, it’s almost always me donating to a charity, non-profit or other project, and the recipient sells because, well, he has to cover the costs.”
Buterin’s statement came in response to intense speculation that followed major moves of his Ethereum holdings to centralized exchanges at the time.
Have whales liquidated their assets?
However, ETH holders’ concerns were not unfounded. At the time of writing, ETH was exchanging hands at $2,209 per CoinMarketCapwith a 24-hour loss of 1.49%.
Ethereum whales have been active for the past two days. This became apparent when transactions worth over $1 million spiked, according to AMBCrypto’s observation of Santiment data.
Read ETH’s price forecast 2023-24
Moreover. the amount of ETH moving to exchanges also increased during the same time.
When the two indicators were examined together, it was found that ETH whales were guilty of profit-taking, resulting in some selling pressure on the asset.
Source: Santiment