Vitalik Buterin caused uncertainty in the market by transferring $1 million worth of Ethereum to Coinbase
Date: 2023-08-22 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: BUSINESS, IN WORLD
According to the network, a wallet linked to Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin sent 600 Ether worth roughly $1 million to Coinbase earlier today.
The motive behind the deal remains speculative at the time of publication. Typically, transfers to exchange are translated as intent to sell. With the price of Ethereum struggling lately, Buterin’s deal could put more selling pressure on the digital asset.
Meanwhile, network sleuth Lookonchain reported that Vitalik.eth wallet redeemed 251,000 RAI on the DeFi Maker platform and withdrew 1,000 ETH (about $1.67 million) on August 20.
The wallet, known as "vitalik.eth", was created seven years ago and held 3,993 ETH worth $6.5 million at the time of publication. Using the Arkham Intelligence dashboard, confirmed that the wallet belonged to the co-founder of Ethereum. Other digital assets in the wallet include USD Coin (USDC) worth $84,000 and Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) worth $58,000.
This is not the first time that Buterin transfers assets to a crypto exchange. Earlier this year, the Ethereum co-founder sent 200 ETH to Kraken in March. Around the same period, Buterin dumped several unsolicited altcoins (coins) for 439.25 ETH.
ETH price struggles
Buterin's deal follows the sudden collapse of the cryptocurrency market last Thursday. Last week, the price of ETH fell below $1,700 for the first time since June and continued to trade below that mark as of press time.
At the time of writing, ETH is trading at $1,667 after a slight 0.18% decline over the past 24 hours.
However, data from analytics firm Glassnode shows that Ethereum holders are jealously guarding their holdings as they quickly send their holdings off crypto exchanges. According to the data aggregator, the amount of ETH held on exchanges is 14.88 million, which has not been recorded since 2018.
A currency outflow usually indicates a bullish sign that an asset is being held for its long-term benefit. Based on this, this means that ETH holders are less worried about the recent low price performance.
