U.Today – Andrew Howard, CBO at Samson Mow-led Jan3, criticized founder Vitalik Buterin for dumping nearly $100 million worth of ETH on the market six years ago when the ETH price was at an all-time high.
Several Bitcoiners, including major community figure Erik Voorhees, stood up to Howard to defend Buterin.
Howard jabs Buterin, Erik Voorhees defends Buterin
In his tweet, Andrew Howard recalled that Vitalik Buterin admitted to publicly selling 70,000 ETH in 2018, when the second-largest cryptocurrency reached an all-time high of $1,119.
At this price, the amount of ETH sold by Buterin comprised a whopping $95,550,000. Howard noted that Buterin “put it on ETH holders.” He compared Buterin to mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto, stating that “Satoshi still hasn’t sold a single Bitcoin. Whenever.”
Bitcoin maximalist and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange ShapShift has jumped in to defend Vitalik Buterin. The Bitcoin trader reminded Howard that Buterin created $400 billion in value by investing $18 million, and now “maxis is mad that he gained 0.025% of it.”
The cryptocurrency community is engaging in a heated debate
In the comments thread, the crypto community began a lively discussion about Howard’s tweet. Many called Ethereum centralized, accusing Buterin of having sole control over the total supply of ETH and calling Ethereum an unregistered security.
However, one user X assumed that it was unknown whether Satoshi Nakamoto actually kept all his Bitcoins unsold and did not profit from it.
Ethereum ETFs got the green delicate from the SEC
Earlier this week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission gave approval to Ethereum-traded funds based on several applications filed earlier in the year.
Wall Street companies that have applied for Ethereum ETFs include BlackRock (NYSE:), VanEck, Grayscale and Ark Invest. Broadly speaking, the same companies that approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in mid-January then filed to launch similar products based on the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum.
This decision came unexpectedly because many experts did not believe that the SEC would take so little time to approve these products. However, ahead of the announcement, several funds updated their filings to remove ETH staking, as Coinbase (NASDAQ:) and Kraken were recently sued by the SEC for launching cryptocurrency staking services.
