Vitalik Organizes Wallet, Foundation Transfers ETH — Routine Move or Another Market Top Escape?
On May 17th, the Ethereum Foundation transferred over 35,000 ETH to exchanges. At ETH's price of $3,520.19 at the time, this transfer was worth approximately $123 million. Just two days later, the crypto market experienced its steepest crash since 3·12. BTC dropped from an intraday high of $43,816.30 to as low as $29,000.00, a decline of 34%, while ETH fell from $3,464.18 to a low of $1,764.50, a maximum drawdown of 49%. As of press time, ETH was trading at $2,768.80, still 21.35% below the $3,520.19 price when the Ethereum Foundation transferred to exchanges.
The "transfer + crash" combination reminded the community of the December 2017 story where Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin convinced the Ethereum Foundation to sell 70,000 ETH at the market top.
A week before the Ethereum Foundation's transfer, Vitalik had just organized his wallet, first moving 325,001 ETH from his main wallet to a contract address, then dumping multiple meme coins including SHIB and AKITA, before sending some tokens and ETH to charitable or non-profit organizations.
Given the status and prominence of Vitalik and the Ethereum Foundation in the space, these operations naturally sparked considerable discussion. Beyond them, there are many other well-known addresses in the crypto world whose every move is closely watched and interpreted as "buy/sell" signals — such as addresses used by Satoshi Nakamoto in the early days, the Dogecoin whale address believed to belong to Elon Musk, and the Ethereum address of Yearn Finance's founder, to name a few. Today, let's take an online look at these famous wallets.
Ethereum Foundation Transfers ETH at Highs; Vitalik's Wallet Reorganization Shakes the Market
As mentioned above, on May 17th the Ethereum Foundation address transferred 35,053 ETH to exchanges, worth approximately $123 million. At ETH's price of $2,768.80 on May 27th, the value had shrunk to $97.0547 million. If the Ethereum Foundation had sold all 35,000+ ETH transferred to exchanges on May 17th, this action would have added $26.3388 million in operating funds for the Ethereum Foundation.
Since the crypto market crashed just two days after the transfer, this operation was seen as another instance of the Ethereum Foundation escaping near the top, which rekindled community discussion about the Foundation's past actions.
It is reported that during the previous bull market when ETH peaked, the Ethereum Foundation sold 70,000 ETH. In hindsight, this was a very wise decision, as the crypto market gradually entered a bear market from that point, with Ethereum declining as much as 90% from its highs. All of this was thanks to Vitalik Buterin. He himself publicly stated that he did convince the Ethereum Foundation to sell approximately 70,000 ETH at essentially the very peak, which doubled their operating funds — so it was a great decision with significant impact.
It is entirely normal for foundations to sell tokens to fund their own operations. However, given that the current market is extremely fragile and sensitive — especially as BTC broke below the daily MA120 and MA200 within half a month with weak rebounds, and the market has begun to waver and question "Is the bull market still on?" — this news was naturally amplified. Many believed this may signal that the Ethereum Foundation, or even Vitalik himself, is not optimistic about Ethereum's future price trajectory.
In fact, since 2018, the Ethereum Foundation has made four transfers exceeding 10,000 ETH to exchanges: June 3, 2019 (30,000 ETH), December 18, 2020 (100,000 ETH), March 12, 2021 (28,000 ETH), and the recent 35,000+ ETH.
If we plot the prices and transfer amounts on a chart, we find that these transfers are more about the Ethereum Foundation's normal operational needs rather than being strongly correlated with price levels.
As of May 27th, OK Link data shows the Ethereum Foundation's ETH balance was 394,487 ETH.
Beyond the Ethereum Foundation's actions sparking discussion, Vitalik's earlier "wallet organization" also brought his wallet addresses back into the spotlight.
The address starting with 0xab5801 was disclosed by Vitalik in October 2018 as his main address. Previously, this wallet held over 325,000 ETH. Vitalik made this wallet public to address Professor Nouriel Roubini of NYU Stern School of Business's questions about Ethereum's degree of decentralization and claims that Vitalik and others pre-mined ETH to accumulate billions in assets. Unexpectedly, this address is now filled with various known and unknown altcoins.
There is an important point to address here — the anonymity of blockchain. Many in the industry believe that most blockchains should not be described as "anonymous" but rather as "pseudonymous." Anonymous means that each person's identity cannot be known at all, while pseudonymity means that each person has a virtual identity on the blockchain unrelated to their real identity, but every action of this virtual identity is transparent and traceable.
Due to the public and transparent nature of blockchain networks, on-chain balances and transfer records are clearly searchable. Once a person's real-world identity is linked to their wallet address, especially if that person is a highly influential figure in the space, their every move is exposed under the spotlight.
Due to Vitalik's brand influence, many projects, either for fun or viewing it as an advertising space for their cryptocurrency, deposit various altcoins into Vitalik's wallet address. In a sense, these tokens do not actually belong to Vitalik, because when projects send tokens, it is implicitly understood that this is equivalent to sending them to a black hole for destruction. If Vitalik were to liquidate these tokens, it would not only damage his personal reputation but also have a massive impact on the crypto market. Therefore, how to handle this enormous sum of funds became a challenge for him. Charitable donations and supporting Ethereum's on-chain ecosystem became the solutions he found for these substantial assets.
Vitalik has three publicly disclosed addresses, as follows:
0xab5801a7d398351b8be11c439e05c5b3259aec9b; 0x1db3439a222c519ab44bb1144fc28167b4fa6ee6; 0x220866b1a2219f40e72f5c628b65d54268ca3a9d;
Counting only ETH assets, the first address holds 1,366.63 ETH, the second holds 962.12 ETH, and the third holds 325,000 ETH — totaling 327,300 ETH, worth approximately $895 million. In addition to the first wallet becoming a "disaster zone" for various altcoin airdrops, the contract address Vitalik created two weeks ago also seems to have once again become a target for projects dropping tokens.
What is Vitalik's net worth? We cannot give a definitive answer at this time. Available data shows his ETH balance on July 17, 2019 was 352,000 ETH, with fiat assets under $30 million. Three years later, his wallet has decreased by 24,700 ETH.
Incidents Involving Those Notable Wallet Addresses
The reason Vitalik's wallet address is watched so closely is that his actions are interpreted by many as a "signal." If he sells ETH, it triggers speculation such as "Has the short-term ETH price topped out?" And during Christmas 2019, a false alarm actually occurred.
On December 25, 2019, an unknown wallet transferred a total of 92,000 ETH to exchanges. Prior to the transfer, this wallet held over 300,000 ETH, with most of the funds originating from Vitalik's wallet. As a result, many analysts believed this anonymous whale was Vitalik himself, and talk of "Vitalik dumping" ran rampant. However, Vitalik quickly denied this on Twitter. The address was subsequently marked as belonging to Ethereum co-founder Jeffrey Wilcke, who also acknowledged on Twitter that the address was his and that he needed the funds to develop a game.
Beyond this incident, the suspected "Satoshi Nakamoto address selling Bitcoin" following Bitcoin's third halving was also one of the top false alarm events in the industry. On May 20, 2020 — the 8th day after Bitcoin's halving — an early address became active, making its first transfer in 11 years and moving all 50 mined Bitcoin at the time.
OK Link data shows that the Bitcoin in this address was mined on February 10, 2009 at block height 3,654 — just one month after the Bitcoin genesis block was created (January 3, 2009). It was indeed a very early address, earning it the moniker "Satoshi address."
Although it was an ordinary trade, with the "Satoshi Nakamoto" label attached, the market panicked and Bitcoin's price instantly crashed from a high of $9,799.00 to a low of $9,313.00, closing at $9,412.20, a decline of approximately 3.95%.
Soon experts in the space came forward stating that this address did not exhibit the "Patoshi pattern" and was not among the known Satoshi Nakamoto addresses. According to Hal Finney's account, he participated in Bitcoin mining at block 70 of the entire network, meaning many miners were already involved on Bitcoin's very first day.
Satoshi Nakamoto's mining activities during Bitcoin's early days have long been a research focus for Bitcoin enthusiasts. The "Patoshi pattern" is a term coined by independent researcher and cryptographer Sergio Demian Lerner to identify Satoshi's block-mining behavior. In a 2013 research report, he noted that the vast majority of Bitcoin's initial mining was done by a single miner. Lerner precisely calculated that this miner mined 1,814,400 Bitcoin, of which 1.1 million had never been spent. Six years later, Lerner visualized the mining pattern he identified for the 1.1 million Bitcoin mined in 2009–2010. The blue line represents the "Patoshi pattern" and the green line represents "other miners' patterns." This data can be viewed at satoshiblocks.info.
1.1 million Bitcoin, valued at the current price of $39,100, is worth $43 billion. If these were ever moved, it would absolutely trigger a massive industry shock — making it naturally a key focus of the community.
Earlier, when writing about Dogecoin, we mentioned that netizens uncovered Dogecoin's largest address — holding 36.7 billion Dogecoin — is believed to belong to Elon Musk, while the fourth-largest address belongs to his mother. The largest holder's address was created in 2019, when Musk was humorously appointed "CEO of Dogecoin" by the internet community. The fourth-largest address was created on Mother's Day this year, likely a gift from Musk to his mother.
It is foreseeable that if these two addresses' Dogecoin were moved, especially transferred to exchanges, it would deal a significant blow to Dogecoin's price.
Beyond Satoshi and Vitalik, the actions of prominent blockchain figures such as Yearn Finance founder Andre Cronje are also closely watched. For example, many users enjoy tracking the smart contracts of new tokens that Andre Cronje's verified address has interacted with. One user once set a record of earning nearly 1,000 ETH from just 10 ETH in just 4 hours. This illustrates how blockchain browsers including OK Link are evolving from data query tools to functions such as investment analysis and on-chain tracking. Beyond satisfying people's voyeuristic curiosity about peeking into celebrity wallets, the public and transparent nature of blockchain networks also holds many investment or speculative signals waiting to be discovered.
Disclaimer
This article may contain product content that does not apply to your region. This article is provided for general informational purposes only and we make no representation as to the accuracy or completeness of any information contained herein. The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not represent the views of OKX . This article is not intended to provide, and you should not rely upon it as, providing any advice, including, without limitation: (i) investment advice or investment recommendations; (ii) offers or solicitations to buy, sell or hold digital assets; or (iii) financial, accounting, legal or tax advice. Holding digital assets (including stablecoins) carries a high degree of risk and their value may fluctuate significantly or even become worthless. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is appropriate for you in light of your financial circumstances. For questions regarding your specific situation, please consult your legal/tax/investment professional. The information contained in this article (including market data and statistics, if applicable) is provided for general reference purposes only. While reasonable precautions have been taken in preparing this data and these charts, we make no representation as to the accuracy or completeness of any information expressed herein and accept no liability for any errors or omissions. © 2025 OKX. This article may be reproduced or distributed in its entirety, or used in excerpts of 100 words or less, provided such use is for non-commercial purposes. Any reproduction or distribution of the entire article must prominently state: "This article is copyrighted © 2025 OKX, used with permission." Permitted excerpts must cite the article title and include the source, for example "Article Title, [Author Name (if applicable)], © 2025 OKX." Some content may be generated or assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Derivative works and other uses of this article are not permitted.
Show More
Recommended Reading
OKX Pay: Ushering in a New Era of Next-Gen Crypto Payments
The preferred choice of tens of millions of users. Register with OKX to enjoy an exceptional trading experience and a wide range of wealth management products. A letter from OKX CEO Star: Today, we officially launch the first version of OKX Pay for over 100 million global users. As the industry's first truly non-custodial and compliant payment application, OKX Pay will be embedded directly within the OKX App, currently available in select markets with a full global rollout expected within months.
March 22, 2026
A New Chapter: Building the Next Generation of Financial Infrastructure Together
The partnership between OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) represents a significant milestone for OKX — and is equally meaningful for the evolution of the entire digital assets market. ICE builds and operates the world's most critical financial infrastructure, including the New York Stock Exchange and global derivatives and clearing platforms. ICE's strategic investment in OKX through ICE Select and its joining of our board reflects our shared conviction that digital assets technology will play a transformative role in the financial markets.
March 10, 2026
To Another Year of Building
As CEO of OKX and a builder who stays true to his roots, I take great pride in reflecting on the remarkable growth and progress OKX has achieved this year. Despite the challenges we faced, 2024 was a year defined by focus, innovation, and resilience. We not only expanded and optimized our products, but also made significant strides in launching transparent and regulation-aligned localized businesses, while further strengthening our global management team. It is worth noting that after navigating through challenging times,
January 29, 2026
2025: Steady Progress Toward Financial Freedom
— An End-of-Year Letter to Global Users from Star, Founder & CEO of OKX "Financial freedom" is often misunderstood. It does not mean an absence of rules, but rather having the freedom to choose even when rules exist — and moreover, knowing that the system remains reliable and effective when truly put to the test. This has been our unwavering focus throughout 2025. First and foremost, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to our global customers, partners, and regulators.
January 16, 2026
OKX Officially Launches in Germany and Poland
By Erald Ghoos, CEO of OKX Europe. Today is a significant day for OKX — and for crypto users across Europe. We have officially launched a fully compliant centralized cryptocurrency trading platform in Germany and Poland! For us, this is more than just geographic expansion — it is a commitment to building the future of cryptocurrency the right way: safe, transparent, and tailored to local needs. If you are in Germany
October 21, 2025
Partnership Upgrade! OKX and Standard Chartered Join Forces to Expand Into Europe
On October 15th, Erald Ghoos, CEO of OKX Europe, announced that OKX is expanding its strategic partnership with Standard Chartered to the European Economic Area (EEA). Earlier this year, OKX first partnered with Standard Chartered in the UAE, launching a collateral mirroring initiative — which
October 15, 2025
