Ethereum Co-founder Vitalik Buterin Transfers $1 Million Worth of ETH To Coinbase – What’s Going On?

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has transferred 600 Ether (ETH) worth around $1 million to Coinbase as market uncertainty looms.

According to on-chain data from Etherscan, a wallet controlled by Buterin Vitalik.eth transferred the assets on Aug 21. At press time, the wallet still holds 3,900 ETH worth approximately $6.5 million. 

JUST IN: #Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin transfers 600 $ETH ($1,000,000) to Coinbase.

— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) August 21, 2023

Buterin has made a series of transactions amid the recent market downturn that has been flagged by several crypto observers. On Sunday, he repaid 251,000 Rai Reflex tokens on Maker and subsequently liquidated 1,000 worth around $1.6 million according to data from lookonchain. 

vitalik.eth repaid 251K $RAI on #Maker and withdrew 1,000 $ETH($1.67M) yesterday.

Then deposited 600 $ETH($1M) to #Coinbase 5 hrs ago.https://t.co/pw8ekIYSs1 pic.twitter.com/rkJo42OSlq

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 21, 2023

While it is not clear why Buterin moved the assets to Coinbase, the transaction has sparked a debate around social media circles with some users speculating a sale of the asset as the market continues to slide into the red zone.

The crypto market has worn a bearish outlook through the weekend as top assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and ETH recorded losses of 11% and 8% respectively.

The speculation of a sell-off is made worse by the declining prices of BTC and ETH in the past seven days. The price of ETH stands at $1,660 below the $1,800 resistance level and down 10.35% in the last seven days.

BTC on the other hand trades at $26,000 with bears and analysts speculating a much lower price for the leading asset. 

Buterin’s latest transaction was also preceded by a test transaction of 0.1 ETH made two days ago.

Not to worry? Buterin made similar transactions 

Vitalik Buterin has admitted to selling parts of his ETH portfolio over the past five years although most of those transactions have been to Kraken. 

Since the start of the year, Buterin has moved $3.6 million worth of assets to Gemini and Kraken with this recent transaction to Coinbase raising the figure to $4.6 million. 

Data from CoinGecko shows that the aftermath of Buterin’s last transaction on June 7 led to a 14% drop in the asset although similar transactions have not led to a significant drop. 

Aside from Buterin’s transaction, an Ethereum whale that participated in the assets Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in 2014 moved around $320,000 worth of ETH on Aug 20.

The receiver of the assets from the dormant address purchased around $15,000 worth of UNIBOT tokens and $15,300 worth of APE tokens before making a subsequent transfer of 15.8 ETH to the HitBTC exchange.