- Vitalik Buterin deposited 600 ETH, worth $1 million, onto Coinbase amid cryptocurrency market turmoil.
- Ether faced a 10% weekly decline but showed a slight recovery at $1,700 after sell-offs.
- Cryptocurrency traders suffered $1 billion in losses in liquidations as Bitcoin dropped to a two-month low.
On August 21, Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, placed a deposit of 600 ether (ETH) onto the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange. This action, as reported by Etherscan, the Ethereum blockchain scanning platform, amounted to approximately $1 million in cryptocurrency value.
Amid a broader market downturn that led to traders experiencing $1 billion in liquidations, ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, faced a 10% decline over the past week. However, there was a slight recovery observed on Monday, with ether trading in positive territory over the last 24 hours at a value of $1,700.
According to data from Coinglass, cryptocurrency traders experienced losses of around $1 billion due to liquidations within the last 24 hours. This occurred as the digital asset markets went through one of the most significant sell-offs of the year, causing the price of Bitcoin to drop to its lowest point in two months.
Bitcoin, which is the original and largest cryptocurrency, saw a decline of 7%, reaching approximately $26,900. Earlier in the day, its price had even fallen to nearly $25,000, marking the lowest value since June.
CoinGlass data reveals that approximately $821 million worth of long positions, which are bets placed on price increases, were eradicated as traders rushed to exit the market. Among these losses, Bitcoin (BTC) traders were the hardest hit, facing liquidations of long positions amounting to $472 million, followed by ether (ETH) at $302 million.
Analysis of blockchain data by Lookonchain additionally indicated that vitalik.eth, Vitalik Buterin’s address, settled a debt of 251,000 Rai Reflex Index (RAI) tokens on the Maker platform. Subsequently, 1,000 ETH, which translates to a value of $1.67 million, was withdrawn. These transactions occurred just hours prior to the movement of ETH to Coinbase’s exchange platform.
While the cause behind Buterin’s transaction remains unknown, it coincides with the broader fragility of cryptocurrency markets, which are recovering from a significant downturn during the past weekend. Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a decline to $25,943, marking a decrease, and ETH saw losses of 11% and 8%, respectively.
