Photo: 401(K) 2012 / Flickr
There’s an interesting revelation by Alex Sunnarborg, a founding partner of the crypto hedge fund Tetra Capital, who states that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin cashed out $40 million worth of ETH tokens between June 2017 and February 2018. Note that Ethereum (ETH) was trading at its all-time high during Jan-Feb 2019.
Sunnarborg found these details after digging into the historical account data of Vitalik Buterin. Buterin is reportedly holding 350,000 ETH in his main wallet address.
A Sneak Peek Into Buterin’s ETH Holding History
Today, the total worth of ETH tokens in Vitalik Buterin’s account is $50 million. However, during its all-time high in January 2018, his net worth crosses over $500 million.
3b/ Vitalik’s historical ETH balance and major receipts & sends can be seen below: pic.twitter.com/iTAc1do31f
— Alex Sunnarborg (@alexsunnarborg) March 19, 2019
Since 2015, Buterin has converted 544,998 ETH tokens to fiat, according to the report by Etherscan. Thus the total amount cashed out until now is $49 million out of which $40 million was moved only during the above mentioned period.
4/ His net worth from this ETH balance alone exceeded $500,000,000 at the peak: pic.twitter.com/nLVRemAmqH
— Alex Sunnarborg (@alexsunnarborg) March 19, 2019
Later, Sunnarborg also clarified with Buterin to confirm his calculations. Responding to it, Buterin clarified that he has never cashed-out over the $915 levels. Hence, his cashed-out fiat currencies are currently below $30 million. Buterin was smart to remind Sunnarborg that he has also allocated nearly $8 million funds in donations until now.
My fiat holdings are well under $30m. You likely overestimated due to (1) all prices generally being on the high side, eg. I definitely never cashed out anywhere close to the $915 level, (2) forgetting charity donations (~$8m I believe)
— Vitalik Non-giver of Ether (@VitalikButerin) March 19, 2019
There’s no doubt that Buterin has been generous enough when it comes to donating for a social cause. Buterin has donated at several charitable events and also provided funds for tech developments. Non-profit organization Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) received donations worth $763,970 worth of ETH to address the hazards associated with AI.
Similarly, in February 2018, he donated $2.4 million in ETH to SENS Research Foundation (SRF) for research of disease associated with aging. Last year, Buterin also donated 1000 ETH each to three startups involved with the development of Ethereum 2.0 platform. These three startups include Sigma Prime, Prysmatic Labs, and ChainSafe Systems.
Although it might interest crypto enthusiasts into looking at Buterin’s account details, the Ethereum co-founder has always stayed transparent regarding his ETH holdings.
Vitalik Buterin Opens Up on Ethereum Price
During his recent podcast interview, Buterin talked about how higher price can ensure better network security.
“I can tell you what things are clearly important about why the price is higher rather than lower is good. One of them is obviously security. If the price is zero, then the network can’t be secure. That’s true in proof-of-work and proof-of-stake,” explained Vitalik.
Buterin also talked about the importance of ICOs and how Ethereum network has proved to be a successful launchpad for revolutionizing this fundraising industry.
Earlier this month, Ethereum also got a green signal from the U.S. SEC chairman Jay Clayton. Clayton said that after thorough assessment, they found that Ethereum doesn’t qualify to be a Security. Thus, it won’t be subjected to any security laws or regulatory scrutiny.
