Andrew Howard, CBO at Jan3 company spearheaded by Samson Mow, has sent a critique against Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin for dumping almost $100 million worth of ETH on the market six years ago, when the ETH price reached an all-time high.
Several Bitcoiners, including major figure in the community Erik Voorhees, have stood up to Howard to defend Buterin.
Howard jabs Buterin, Erik Voorhees defends Buterin
In his tweet, Andrew Howard recalled that Vitalik Buterin had admitted to public selling of 70,000 ETH back in 2018, when the second largest cryptocurrency reached a historic price peak of $1,119.
At that price, the amount of ETH sold by Buterin comprised a massive $95,550,000. Howard pointed out that Buterin “dumped it on ETH holders.” He compared Buterin to the mysterious Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, stating that “Satoshi still hasn’t sold one single Bitcoin. Ever.”
Kid creates $400b with investment of $18m and maxis mad that he profited 0.025%
— Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) May 25, 2024
Bitcoin maximalist and CEO of the ShapShift crypto exchange stepped in to defend Vitalik Buterin. The Bitcoin entrepreneur reminded Howard that Buterin had created $400 billion value using an investment of $18 million, and now “maxis mad that he profited 0.025%” of it.
Crypto community engages in heated debate
In the comment thread, the crypto community started an agitated discussion of Howard’s tweet. Many called Ethereum centralized, accusing Buterin of holding single-handed control over the total ETH supply, and calling Ethereum an unregistered security.
One X user, however, assumed that it is unknown whether Satoshi Nakamoto indeed kept all his Bitcoin unsold and did not profit on it.
Ethereum ETFs green-lit by SEC
Earlier this week, the American Securities and Exchange Commission issued approval for spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds on several filings submitted at the start of the year.
Among the Wall Street companies that filed for Ethereum ETFs were BlackRock, VanEck, Grayscale and Ark Invest. Overall, the same companies that got spot Bitcoin ETFs approved in mid-January then filed for launching similar products based on the second biggest crypto, Ethereum.
This decision came out unexpectedly, since many experts did not believe that the SEC would take so little time to approve these products. However, prior to the announcement, several funds updated their filings by removing ETH staking from them, since recently Coinbase and Kraken were sued by the SEC for launching crypto staking services.
