News

Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin Transfers $14.9M USDC to Gemini Exchange: ETH Price in Danger

Adekunle Joshua

Key Insights

  • Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has been transferring large amounts of ETH and stablecoins to and from centralized exchanges in recent months.
  • Buterin recently transferred $14.93 million in USDC to the Gemini exchange.
  • This transfer is the latest in a series of large transactions from Buterin's wallets.
  • Buterin's transfer history has been a source of speculation in the crypto community.
  • Buterin's transfer coincides with a surge in the price of Bitcoin, but Ethereum's price has remained mostly stagnant.

Ethereum founder, Vitalik Buterin has been in the news a lot, as of late.

Over the last two months Buterin has been transferring huge amounts of ETH and stablecoins to and from centralized exchanges.

Even more interesting is how the Ethereum pioneer is making no attempt to hide these transfers.

According to a recent report from PeckShield, however, Buterin has recently transferred an amount of ETH worth several times the previous ones into a well-known centralized exchange, raising questions about his motives.

Buterin Transfers $15 Million To Gemini

On 17 October 2023, blockchain analytics firm PeckShield sent out a tweet.

According to this tweet, a wallet, yet again associated with Buterin had transferred another $14.93 million in USDC into Gemini, another well-known crypto exchange.

Buterin's 15 million transfer to gemini

This transfer is the latest in line, following another separate transaction two days before, in which Buterin received the same amount of USDC from Kanro.

Now, Kanro is a charity that supports causes like global health, education and research and has links to Vitalik Buterin.

Kanro was first announced in February 2023, when Buterin deposited 10 million in USDC to the charity. Since then, several members of the crypto community have sent in additional donations to the charity.

Buterin's Deposit History

Buterin's transfer history has been a source of endless debate in the crypto community.

While some bits of speculation are slightly pessimistic, and suggest that the Ethereum co-founder is selling off his Ethereum stake;

Others suggest that Buterin is either using these funds as donations to charity, or to support an ongoing project.

A day before Buterin received the $15 million fund from Kanro and three days before sending it to Coinbase, he also transferred nearly $500,000 in USDC to Coinbase on October 13, 2023.

These transactions come after several other ETH deposits to centralized exchanges over the past few months, with the total transfers out of Buterin's wallets for September, being nearly $4 million.

Buterin's Transfer Coincides with Bitcoin Surge

Here's an interesting coincidence:

Bitcoin also surged massively over the last 24 hours, and even hit $30,000 recently (after a false report of a Bitcoin ETF being approved).

It also happens that Buterin's ETH transfer almost coincides with this Bitcoin surge.

It is interesting, however, that despite the crypto market's upsurge over the last day, Ethereum's price has remained mostly stagnant.

Ethereum's price

Despite the recent launch of a new Ethereum futures-based ETF (as opposed to Bitcoin's spot applications), institutional interest in Ethereum has remained unimpressive, according to a new report from Coinshares.

Ethereum loses 7.4 Million

Ethereum, so far, saw outflows of about $7.4 million last week, and has recorded a loss of all the inflows it enjoyed a week prior.

Ethereum's Price Action

Ethereum has been oscillating between $1,507 and $1,740 since mid-August, as shown below:

Eth's price

Ethereum rallied along with the rest of the market over the last day, to a high of $1,640.

However, the cryptocurrency promptly declined from here and is now retesting the $1,585 support.

If this support fails to hold, we may see Ethereum inevitably decline for another retest of $1,507.

However, if the $1,585  holds, we may indeed see a rebound, a retest of  $1,740 and a possible break above to form another higher high.

Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information, but it will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.