Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently sent 200 ETH (roughly $350,000 at current valuations) to an address belonging to crypto exchange Kraken and 500 ETH (over $875,000) to the DeFi Reflexer protocol. He deposited the 500 ETH to mint 150,000 RAI tokens, exchanging the majority for USDC.
The stablecoin went through some turmoil lately, decoupling from its target after Circle revealed a whopping $3.3 billion exposure to Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Since then, the peg has been restored.
Buterin’s recent move
As revealed by the analytics platform – Etherscan – Buterin transferred 200 ETH to a wallet belonging to Kraken. As of this writing, it is unclear why he made that transaction.
On the other hand, it seems that he sent the 500 ETH to accumulate stablecoins. Blockchain security company PeckShield described that the computer programmer used the Ether stash as collateral on Reflexer to mint 150,000 RAI tokens. He later exchanged 132,500 RAI for 378,500 USDC and 17,500 RAI for 50,000 DAI.
#PeckShieldAlert The address with the Vitalik label has deposited 500 $ETH in Reflexer to mint 150k $RAIand exchanged 132.5k $RAI for 378.5k $USDC. Also, they exchanged 17.5k $RAI for 50k $DAI in the last 3 hourshttps://t.co/dM1pheTW0x pic.twitter.com/camCgl1fsk
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 11, 2023
Initially, Buterin transferred 200 ETH to the DeFi protocol, and then sent the remaining amount. Etherscan data reveals that he paid more than $200 to settle the transactions.
The USDC roller coaster
The second largest stablecoin has been in the spotlight recently after briefly falling to $0.87 (data feed from CoinGecko) late last week. Back then, Circle, the company issuing the asset, revealed a massive $3.3 billion exposure to the failed Silicon Valley Bank. Despite the problems, the Boston-based firm assured that it continues with the normal course of its operations:
“…Circle, as required by law and stored-value money transmission regulation, will support USDC and cover any shortfalls using corporate resources, involving outside capital if necessary.”
USDC valuation has stabilized in the following days and is currently hovering around the dollar (exactly what your price target should be).
At the moment, the stablecoin has a market capitalization of almost $40 billion, making it the fifth largest digital currency.
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