Vitalik Buterin Cashed Out Large Sums of ETH During 2017 Crypto Frenzy

Ethereum mastermind Vitalik Buterin, who holds 350,000 ETH in his main wallet address, allegedly cashed out $40 million worth of ETH between June 2017 and February 2018. The findings came to light by Alex Sunnarborg, a founding partner of the crypto hedge fund Tetra Capital, who dug into Vitalik’s historical account data.

According to Etherscan, Buterin has converted 544,998 ETH to fiat currencies since 2015. This amount equals to almost $49 million, $40 million of which he moved during the period mentioned above. While today the balance of Vitalik’s main address is worth $50 million, its net worth reached $500 million when Ethereum exceeded $1,300 in December 2017.

Sunnarborg followed up with Buterin to confirm his calculations, who clarified he has never cashed out around the $915 price level. Thus, his holdings in fiat currencies were below $30 million, reminding him that he had allocated around $8 million in donations. Seveal times has Buterin demonstrated his eagerness to contribute to charitable events, NPOs, and the funding of tech ventures. He donated $763,970 worth of ETH to Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), a non-profit focused on addressing the hazards associated with artificial intelligence (AI).

In February 2018, SENS Research Foundation (SRF) received a $2.4 million (in ETH) donation from Buterin for the research and development of diseases associated with aging. A few days later, he sent 100 ETH to The Pineapple Fund for the support of the Internet Archive digital library. Later in March, he contributed $1 million to GiveDirectly, a charitable organization for refugees in East Africa, with the Ethereum-based OmiseGO payment network.

In the same year, he donated 3,000 ETH tokens ($324,000) to three startups operating in the Ethereum ecosystem. Prysmatic Labs, Sigma Prime, and ChainSafe Systems received 1,000 ETH each to push the development of Ethereum 2.0.

Vitalik Buterin Cashed Out Large Sums of ETH During 2017 Crypto Frenzy, CCN, Mar 21