Over the previous weekend, 3000 ETH were sold, amounting to $3.75 million. Initially, many thought that the sale was triggered by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. The sale was made hours after FTX and its affiliates filed for chapter-11 bankruptcy in the US. Many suspected Buterin because the wallet received many transactions from a doxxed address belonging to the programmer.
The 3,000 ETH were exchanged in various sums for USDC, USDT, DAI, and wrapped Bitcoin, but all of it was ultimately converted to USDC.
However, Evan Van Ness, a long-time Ethereum developer, took to Twitter and said that Buterin is not the owner of the address. Van Ness called the development “fake news.”
Van Ness further stated that either he is lying or Buterin is. If he was a liar, Buterin could easily disprove him with a tweet. On the other hand, if Buterin was a liar, it would be the “dumbest thing in the world to lie about.”
Van Ness continued by saying that it is disgusting to waste time spying on every person Vitalik has ever connected with onchain.
So who sold the Ethereum?
Well, now that the Buterin angle has been dealt with, this brings the question of who sold the $3.75 million worth of ETH. Well, the answer to that question is rather ambiguous. The FTX situation may have scared investors into wanting to get out of crypto.
Furthermore, Morgan Stanley stated that “it has been mainly institutions who have been selling.” Therefore the wallet could belong to a retail investor who has given up on the industry. Regardless of whom the ETH belonged to, one thing is clear: the markets are engulfed in fear.
At press time, Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $1,276.15, up by 1.2% in the last 24 hours. However, ETH is down by 18.7% over the last week.