On May 5th, it was reported that Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, sold nearly half a million dollars worth of Ethereum (ETH) to a major exchange, followed by the Ethereum Foundation transferring a much larger amount – nearly $30 million worth of ETH – to the same platform. This news comes as ETH is trading at the $1,960 level and on the cusp of breaking above $2,000.
The transfers were tracked by @lookonchain, an analytics platform that monitors large crypto transactions and “smart money” wallets. The vitalik.eth wallet was the first to move 200 ETH (worth about $400,000) to the U.S.-based Kraken exchange, followed by the Ethereum Foundation transferring 15,000 ETH to Kraken as well. These transactions combined make for a total of $40,000,000 USD in fiat.
This isn’t the first time that Vitalik Buterin has sold ETH; he has been known to do so periodically, often in similar amounts. In February, he sold 210 ETH for roughly $325,000 in the USDC stablecoin, and in March he moved another 200 ETH to Kraken, selling it at the price of $1,656 per coin.
Santiment reported on May 4th that ETH had reached an eight-month high in flows to crypto exchanges, which may be a sign of an upcoming increase in volatility. The team believes that ETH is showing signs of decoupling from BTC and may be about to break above the $2,000 level. Additionally, a record amount of ETH was burned at the end of the week, due to the meme coin season unwrapping at the moment, with the majority of meme coins running on Ethereum and being actively moved with high ETH fees, providing a great opportunity to burn ETH and decrease the circulating supply.
Overall, the news of Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation selling large amounts of ETH has caused some speculation among crypto enthusiasts about the potential impact on ETH’s price. However, it’s important to remember that cryptocurrency markets are notoriously volatile and unpredictable, and it remains to be seen how these developments will affect ETH’s value in the long term.