Vitalik Buterin Abruptly Sends 500 ETH to Little-Known DeFi Protocol

Ethereum (ETH) founder Vitalik Buterin is catching the attention of crypto sleuths after moving 500 ETH to an under-the-radar decentralized finance (DeFi) project.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield first spotted the transaction and revealed that a wallet controlled by Buterin transferred the ETH stack to DeFi protocol Reflexer.

Reflexer is a platform designed to enable users to mint stablecoins by using their crypto as collateral.

The protocol issues RAI, a crypto asset backed by Ethereum that aims to maintain a stable value in order to protect holders from the volatility of the markets.

According to PeckShield, Buterin used the 500 ETH to accumulate stablecoins.

The blockchain security firm shows that the Ethereum founder used the ETH trove as collateral on Reflexer to mint 150,000 RAI tokens. Buterin subsquently exchanged 132,500 RAI for 378,500 USD Coin (USDC). The remaining 17,500 RAI was swapped for 50,000 Dai (DAI).

PeckShield says that the conversion of ETH to stablecoins USDC and DAI all took place within three hours.

#PeckShieldAlert Vitalik-labeled address has deposited 500 $ETH in Reflexer to mint 150k $RAI, and swapped 132.5k $RAI for 378.5k $USDC. Additionally, they swapped 17.5k $RAI for 50k $DAI within the last 3 hourshttps://t.co/dM1pheTW0xpic.twitter.com/camCgl1fsk
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 11, 2023

Blockchain-tracking service Etherscan also witnessed the transactions. According to Etherscan, Buterin initially transferred 200 ETH to Reflexer to mint 100,0000 RAI. Immediately after, Buterin sent 300 ETH to Reflexer to mint 50,000 RAI.

Etherscan reveals that Buterin paid more than $200 to process both transactions.

At time of writing, Ethereum is trading for $1,596, up over 10% in the last 24 hours.