Vitalik Buterin Secretly Sells Meme Coins, What Impact Does It Have On The Crypto Market?

Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum. (Photo; Doc. CoinColik)

JAKARTA - The founder of Ethereum (ETH), Vitalik Buterin, recently caused a commotion among the crypto community. The reason is, he was caught selling a number of meme coins or coin memes in large quantities. Vitalik's meme coin, Doberman (DOBE) and DOJO.

This sale was revealed from data tracked by PeckShild Alert, a blockchain security firm. This sale raises various speculations about the motives and impacts on the crypto market.

Coins of coin or coin memes are a type of cryptocurrency inspired by the characters, animals, or funny things that are popular on the internet. Some examples of well-known coin memes are Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and Bonk. Meme coins are usually of low value, but can rise sharply due to the virality factor and community support.

Buterin is known as one of the biggest coin meme owners, as his wallet often receives tokens from coin meme developers. Their goal is to increase the credibility and popularity of their project by linking it to Buterin's name. As a result, Buterin's wallet is filled with various kinds of coin memes with a value of millions of dollars.

On December 19, 2023, Buterin sold 100,000,000,000.111.11 DOBE and 1,858,140,000,000 DOJO through the Uniswap V2 platform, a decentralized crypto exchange protocol. He exchanged the coin meme with Wrapped Ethereum (WETH), the ERC-20 version of Ether (ETH), the original cryptocurrency of Ethereum. The total transaction value reaches around $40,000 (IDR 618.4 million).

This sale is one of many major transactions made by Buterin in recent months. In September, he moved 2,000 ETH worth about $3.1 million (IDR 47.8 billion) to the Bitstamp exchange. In November, he denied allegations of selling 3.000 ETH, claiming that it was part of a donation for research projects.

Buterin himself has not provided an official explanation of the reasons for selling his latest coin memes. However, there are several possibilities to consider. First, he may want to clear his wallet of unwanted or useless assets. Second, he may want to reduce the risk of market volatility that could erode the value of his assets. Third, he may want to allocate funds for other purposes, such as the development of Ethereum or philanthropy.

Whatever the motive, Buterin's selling of coin memes certainly has an impact on the crypto market considering meme coins are very sensitive to market sentiment, so Buterin's actions can trigger chain reactions from crypto traders and investors.