ETH Foundation clarifies $15M transfer came from Buterin-linked charity wallet

Disclaimer: This article has been updated to reflect clarification from Ethereum Foundation that Buterin was a signer on a separate multisig wallet transfer and did not directly send funds to Gemini.

The Ethereum Foundation has shed light on a recent $15 million USD Coin (USDC) transaction involving Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin which garnered the attention of several blockchain tracking platforms. 

An Oct. 17 post from blockchain analytics firm PeckShield on X claimed that Buterin’s wallet, known as “vitalik.eth” transferred $14.93 million to Gemini crypto exchange on Oct. 16.

However, an Ethereum Foundation spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the transfer was nothing more than Buterin’s Ethereum Name Service (ENS) signing off on a transfer from a charity multisig wallet, and that funds never actually left Buterin’s wallet.

#PeckShieldAlert #vitalik.eth haas transferred ~15M $USDC (Multisig Contract 0xf207…D5a3) to #Gemini pic.twitter.com/6FZGKLKg9Z

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) October 17, 2023

Buterin received the original sum of 14.93 million USDC from Kanro, a charity affiliated with Buterin, on Oct. 14, and later signed off on a transfer of the same amount to a new multisig wallet. Kanro is a bio-tech charity funded by Buterin that aims to address Covid and other pandemic-related issues. 

This will be done under my entity Kanro with its multisighttps://t.co/qloGu4a4vK

where @CryptoRelief_ and I are going to disburse the funds to.

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) June 8, 2023

Separate analysis from crypto data provider Lookonchain found that Buterin had also reportedly transferred nearly $500,000 to Coinbase three days prior.

vitalik.eth received 14.93M $USDC from #Kanro 4 days ago and then deposited it into #Gemini yesterday before the first surge of $BTC.#Vitalik also deposited 500K $USDC into #Coinbase 2 days ago.

What did he do with the $USDC?https://t.co/o3u5JjjapUhttps://t.co/Z69WG0xuNP pic.twitter.com/dwTt7tzHp8

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) October 17, 2023

The price of Ethereum’s native currency, Ether (ETH), held steady following news of the transfer, falling just 0.68% in the past four hours, according to price data from CoinGecko.

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Buterin’s most recent transaction is the latest in a spate of transfers over the last few months, with the total transfers from Buterin’s wallets totalling more than $3.9 million in September.

On Sept. 24, Buterin transferred 400 ETH — worth $600,000 at the time — to Coinbase. Cointelegraph previously reported a 600-ETH ($1 million) transaction from the vitalik.eth address on Aug. 21, which was also identified by on-chain monitoring platforms.

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Update (8:45am Oct. 17): This article has been corrected to reflect that USDC was transferred to a seperate multi-signature wallet address and not directly to Gemini.