Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin refutes asset dumping claims

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin has dismissed recent speculations that he is dumping his ETH bag, saying that he hasn’t sold the digital asset for personal gain since 2018.

“I haven’t “sold” ETH for personal gain since 2018,” Buterin said.

Several media outlets have recently reported how wallets connected to Buterin have sent Ethers to exchanges, suggesting that he was dumping the cryptocurrency.

For context, CryptoSlate reported that a wallet linked to the Ethereum co-founder sent over 1,000 ETH to exchanges, unknown addresses, and a Gnosis Safe Proxy wallet during a seven-day period in September.

Those transactions followed a similar trend of others performed in August and March, prompting speculations from the crypto community that Buterin was quietly divesting his holdings.

ETH transfers are donations

However, in an Oct. 17 post on Warpcast, Buterin clarified that the reported transactions were donations to “charity or nonprofit or other project.”

Buterin said this was not him directly selling the asset but the “recipients selling” because “they have to cover expenses.” He said:

“If you see an article saying ‘Vitalik sends XXX ETH to [exchange]’, it’s not actually me selling, it’s almost always me donating to some charity or nonprofit or other project, and the recipient selling because, well, they have to cover expenses.”

This statement aligns with recent transactions performed by one of the charities associated with Buterin, Kanro—a charity focused on researching global solutions for pandemics.

CryptoSlate, using Arkham Intelligence data, confirmed that Kanro sent over $15 million worth of USDC stablecoin to a multi-signature wallet in the past week. The wallet would later transfer $500,000 to Coinbase in two transactions and $14.93 million to Gemini.

Meanwhile, Buterin remains an ETH whale, per Arkham’s intelligence data. He holds nearly 250,000 Ether units worth $390 million in his address.

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