Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sends $15M of USDC to Gemini

Blockchain sleuths have zeroed in on a recent transaction from a wallet associated with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, where he transferred $14.9 million worth of USD Coin (USDC) to the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini.
According to an Oct. 17 post from blockchain analytics firm PeckShield on X, Buterin’s wallet “Vitalik.eth” transferred $14.93 million to Gemini on Oct. 16.
The transaction was independently verified by Cointelegraph on Etherscan.

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

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) October 17, 2023

Vitalik received the original sum of 14.93 million USDC from Kanro, a charity affiliated with Vitalik on Oct. 14.
Separate analysis from crypto data provider Lookonchain found that Buterin had also recently 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.

Related: Ethereum losing streak vs. Bitcoin hits 15 months — Can ETH price reverse course?
Buterin’s most recent transaction is the latest in a spate of ETH deposits to centralized exchanges over the past 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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