Railgun price soared more than 10% on June 4, 2025 amid upside pressure, with the cryptocurrency surging after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sent $1.83 million worth of Ethereum tokens to the protocol.
Railgun (RAIL), the native token of zero knowledge proof powered privacy solution Railgun Protocol, rose sharply on Wednesday, jumping from lows of $0.78 to hit highs of $0.89. The double digit spike for RAIL happened amid a notable increase in trading volume, with data showing the Ethereum (ETH)-based privacy coin’s daily volume rose 36% to over $432k.
Gains saw bulls attempt to reverse the downtrend that has seen Railgun trade lower since rejecting from above $10.3 on May 29. This bullish flip for the small cap token notably aligns with one of the most eye-catchy transactions involving the privacy-focused platform.
On-chain data showed that on June 4, an address linked to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sent 693.9 ETH tokens to Railgun. The transaction, which attracted market attention, was valued at around $1.83 million at the time of the transfer.
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Lookonchain also shared details that showed Buterin transferred $341k in USDC (USDC) to the privacy protocol.
vitalik.eth(@VitalikButerin) bought 296.4 $ETH($783K), then transferred 693.9 $ETH($1.83M) and 341K $USDC to Railgun ~30 minutes ago.https://t.co/KDBjc5H3in pic.twitter.com/4BfEBIhJlu
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) June 4, 2025
There’s been no commentary on why the Ethereum co-founder transferred the ETH to the platform. However, Buterin has previously moved funds to the protocol. Notably, he sent over $1.05 million in ETH to the protocol in August 2024 and another $505k in March 2025.
Buterin has also previously lauded Railgun’s solution, citing the privacy protocol’s help in preventing a hacker from laundering hacked zkLend funds.
Railgun’s increasing use within the decentralized finance space comes amid calls from across the ecosystem that privacy matters.
This is the view Buterin holds and one the broader crypto industry continues to champion in the wake of the spotlight on privacy coins. Events around crypto mixers such as tornado Cash also serve to bring the privacy debate to the fore.
Railgun traded above $1 in May, but is down 10% in the past week and well off the all-time high price of $8.37 reached in November 2021.
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