Vitalik said he has never sold ETH for personal gain, and we took stock of his personal and charitable wallets
Even if Vitalik Buterin occasionally sells off some ETH, it will not have a significant impact on the long-term development of the Ethereum ecosystem.Original Title: Vitalik Buterin says he hasn't sold ether for personal gain since 2018
Author: The Block, Yogita Khatri
Translation: Jordan, PANews
As a co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin's every move is always under scrutiny, and the dynamics of his wallet address have become a "reference" for crypto investors to gauge industry trends, sometimes even triggering market reactions and affecting cryptocurrency prices.
On October 18, Vitalik Buterin clarified on social media: "If you see an article saying 'Vitalik sent *** ETH to a certain exchange,' then it is not me selling. I have made donations to certain charities, non-profit organizations, or other projects, and these sales transactions are made by the recipients of the donations because they need to pay some fees. However, I have not sold ETH for personal gain since 2018."
However, Vitalik Buterin did not disclose which charities, non-profit organizations, or other projects sold the ETH he donated, but he does have his own charity called Kanro (Vitalik Charity). To avoid misunderstandings in the crypto community that Vitalik Buterin is "cashing out" through his charity, we looked up the wallet address of Kanro to investigate.
How much money is in Kanro (Vitalik Charity)? Has it sold ETH?
In June of this year, Vitalik Buterin revealed his charitable entity Kanro on social media, aimed at contributing to the fight against Covid-19 and other epidemics. At that time, he announced that he would invest $100 million into Covid-19-related research projects through this charity and also publicly disclosed the wallet address of Kanro.
On-chain data analysis platform Arkham's tracking data shows that approximately $100 million worth of cryptocurrency was indeed transferred to the Kanro address about four months ago (which coincides with the timing of Vitalik Buterin's $100 million donation commitment), as shown in the image below, including:
- Approximately 90 million USDC
- 3.724 million MVRS
- 777 LKT
- 1000 MTV
According to on-chain transaction records, Vitalik Buterin did transfer ETH to Kanro, but it was only 0.01 ETH, likely for testing or other purposes, and Kanro subsequently transferred the 0.01 ETH back to Vitalik Buterin.
However, just a week ago, the Kanro wallet address experienced outflows, transferring over 15 million USDC to a Gnosis Safe multi-signature wallet address starting with "0xf20" through three transactions.
Subsequently, the USDC was transferred to three addresses on the cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Gemini, as shown below:
- Transferred to Coinbase (0x572) 248,900 USDC
- Transferred to Coinbase (0x060) 249,990 USDC
- Transferred to Gemini (0xf67) 14,934,000 USDC
Currently, the total value of the remaining crypto assets under Kanro (Vitalik Charity) is approximately $75 million, including about 74.567 million USDC, 1000 MTV, and 3.724 million MVRS, but the amount of ETH held by this charity entity shows as zero, as shown below:
Therefore, technically speaking, it is indeed as Vitalik Buterin said, he "has not sold ETH for personal gain."
How much ETH does Vitalik Buterin currently own?
Vitalik Buterin co-founded Ethereum in 2015. In October 2018, he publicly disclosed his ETH holdings on social media, stating that he did not hold the 900,000 ETH claimed by outsiders, and his personal net worth had never reached $1 billion, but he did own 0.9% of the total ETH supply at that time, which was about 75 million ETH, meaning Vitalik Buterin personally held approximately 675,000 ETH.
According to Simon Cousaert, data director at blockchain media The Block, based on estimates from Vitalik Buterin's publicly available wallet addresses, he should currently hold about 250,000 ETH, which would be worth approximately $390 million at the latest prices. Simon Cousaert added that over the past few years, Vitalik Buterin has sent about 205,000 ETH to exchanges through these public addresses, but it should be noted that there are likely ETH stored in wallet addresses that Vitalik Buterin has not made public or sent to other parties.
According to the analysis from The Block Pro shown in the image above, as of now, Vitalik Buterin has sent about 30% of his total ETH holdings—approximately 208,000 ETH—to exchanges, which he claims are all for donation and other purposes.
As a co-founder of Ethereum, although Vitalik Buterin holds a large amount of ETH, he is unlikely to "dump" it in a short period for cashing out like Rug Pull project parties. On the other hand, Vitalik Buterin's role in the entire Ethereum ecosystem is also gradually becoming "decentralized," as the development and innovation of Ethereum have begun to be maintained and promoted by many developers, contributors, supporters, and users in the community. Therefore, even if Vitalik Buterin occasionally sells some ETH, it will not have a significant impact on the long-term development of the Ethereum ecosystem.
