Vitalik Buterin transfers $1.05M in ETH to crypto mixer Railgun

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has moved 400 ETH, worthy astir $1.05 million, to Railgun, a well-known crypto mixer, according to on-chain data from the Arkham Intelligence dashboard.

The transaction, which took spot connected Aug. 19, was corroborated by Web3 investigation level SpotOnChain, which stated that Buterin had transferred 662 ETH, astir $1.91 million, to Railgun successful the past 10 months.

Railgun

Railgun functions similar the sanctioned Tornado Cash protocol by helping to obfuscate its users’ transactions. However, it employs the Privacy Pool protocol, a conception from an world insubstantial by Buterin.

The Privacy Pools let users to make cryptographic proofs verifying their funds’ morganatic origins portion maintaining privacy. So, if honorable users make these proofs, lone atrocious actors specified arsenic the North Korea-backed hackers Lazarus Group volition deficiency them, and this differentiation could assistance instrumentality enforcement place and exclude these illicit participants.

Buterin said:

“Railgun uses the privateness pools protocol which makes it overmuch harder for atrocious actors to articulation the excavation without compromising users’ privacy.”

Railgun Users and Volume (Source: Dune Analytics)

Thanks to Buterin’s continued usage, Railgun’s popularity has surged. It present boasts astir 10,000 unsocial users connected the Ethereum blockchain, and it has processed a full of $1.6 cardinal successful transactions, according to the Dune Analytics dashboard.

Another donation?

The circumstantial crushed down Buterin’s caller transportation remains unclear. However, immoderate assemblage members speculate it could beryllium linked to charitable donations.

Indeed, Buterin has a past of important crypto donations. In 2021, helium contributed implicit $1 cardinal successful the Shiba Inu memecoin to the Indian Covid-Crypto Relief Fund.

More recently, helium donated 200 ETH, valued astatine implicit $500,000, to an Animal Welfare Charity fund. Buterin stated that these funds were generated from selling assorted animal-themed tokens portion urging the coin issuers to allocate them to charities straight successful the future.

The station Vitalik Buterin transfers $1.05M successful ETH to crypto mixer Railgun appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.