Vitalik Buterin, ethereum’s co-founder, has moved about $47 million worth of eth to a new address.
This is the second movement from his main account which now has 250,000 eth, down from 320,000 last year.
He has made only two transfers since sending his funds to this multi-sig, the first one being in May 2022 for 30,000 eth.
That was sent to the same address the 40,000 eth was sent on Thursday, with it now containing 64,000 eth ($74 million) rather than 70,000.
So Buterin has actually moved only 6,000 eth and that was about two weeks ago, all of it to another new address.
That new address still has 2,700 eth, but about 3,000 eth has been turned into $4 million worth of USDc.
Vitalik Buterin therefore has sold at least $4 million worth of eth, but in theory it can also be $83 million worth if the 70,000 transfer to the new address is actually an Over the Counter (OTC) sale.
There is no clear indication that is the case, but it is not clear either why he is moving funds from the multisig contract to a plain address.
Alternatively the 6,000 move could be an OTC sale, but even if all these moves were to his own addresses, he still Uniswaped at least $4 million eth.
These four million dollars, traded about two weeks ago, are still in the address. They have not been cashed out for actual spending.
Buterin therefore has been price speculating as the transfer coincides with the collapse of FTX.
Buterin either thought that will lower the price, or got scared when eth plunged and capitulated at the bottom.
Which means in theory Buterin has $4 million worth of tokenized usd waiting to go back into crypto, unless he cashes out, with that story likely shared up and down across the crypto land.
Like other cryptonians, Buterin might also feel poorer now that he is worth only a quarter of a billion, especially since he briefly tasted being a billionaire last year.
The movement of the 30,000 eth coincides with him becoming half a billionaire in May and now this 40,000 movement may be ‘celebrating’ the quarter billionaire.
He previously cashed out about $50 million worth of eth, though just how much of that still remains is unclear, with Buterin being conservative this bull presuming these transfers are not OTC sales.
