Is Vitalik Buterin Selling? $800K Worth of StarkNet (STRK) Moved to CEX

A wallet address linked to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has made a notable move, transferring out 2.09 million StarkNet ($STRK), worth $800,000, to crypto exchange Binance.

StarkNet is a decentralized, permissionless Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution built using zk-rollups. It aims to enhance Ethereum’s scalability and efficiency by processing transactions off-chain and then batching them together for final settlement on the Ethereum mainnet. $STRK is the native token powering the ecosystem. It is used to pay for transaction fees, governance, and participation in StarkNet’s consensus.

Early $STRK Investor 

Buterin invested in the StarkNet seed round in May 2018 and has received $STRK tokens worth $1.5 million in the past five months.

According to on-chain analyst Arkham Intelligence, the tokens were moved across two transactions. First, the address moved 97,152 $STRK (over $36,000) and 2 million $STRK ($763,000) to the crypto exchange. On-chain data shows that he still holds 15,862 $STRK, worth $6,000.

What Next?

While the latest transactions suggested a possible sell-off, other possible reasons could exist.

In recent months, Buterin has donated multiple cryptocurrencies, especially memecoins, to charity organizations. In October, he donated $1.6 million worth of memecoins to charities.

The transaction includes 10 billion $MOODENG ($982,000), 200,000 $MSTR ($231,000), 500 million $EBULL ($183,000), 15 million $POPCAT ($67,200), 31.4 trillion $FWOG ($55,9000), 20 billion $Milo ($51,400), 500,000 $TCATI ($31,800), and 201.9 million $VITALIK ($13,600). Notably, the assets were converted to ether ($ETH).

Before this movement, he had converted $884,00 worth of memecoins to $ETH in nine days and donated them to charity. He donated over $2.78 million worth of $ETH to charities last month.

In a Warpcast post in late 2023, Buterin revealed that he hasn’t sold $ETH for personal gain since 2018. He explained that when people see articles saying:

“Vitalik sends XXX ETH to [exchange],” it’s not actually me selling, it’s almost always me donating to some charity or nonprofit or other project, and the recipient selling because, well, they have to cover expenses.”

$STRK’s did not falter following news of Buterin’s asset movement. The crypto traded at $0.3793 at press time, representing a 10.18% gain on the day.