Crypto Market Tumbles As Vitalik Buterin, Justin Sun Join WETH Insolvency Joke

Big names including Justin Sun and Vitalik Buterin contributing to WETH insolvency joke caused a market-wide selloff in the crypto market.
By Varinder Singh
Updated August 1, 2025
btc and eth

Tron founder Justin Sun on Monday said he and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin will invest $2 billion into the WEF to recover the funds lost as wrapped Ethereum depegs with Ethereum. However, not many people realized that it is part of a joke about WETH going insolvent. Big names including Vitalik contributing to it caused a market-wide selloff in the crypto market.

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WETH Insolvency Joke Tanks Crypto Market

After wrapped Ethereum (WETH) jokes goes viral, big names including Vitalik Butern, Ethereum influencer Anthony Sassano, Gnosis co-founder Martin Köppelmann, and others join the inside joke.

Tron founder Justin Sun also tweeted on November 28 that he had a discussion with Vitalik Buterin and has decided to invest $2 billion into “WEF”. Sun cited the Twitter account which joked that WETH lost its peg and CEO of The Wrapped Ethereum Foundation (WEF) raising $2 billion to fix it. The WEF link is actually the World Economic Forum.

“As a humble member of the crypto industry, I personally have discussed with my BFF Vitalik Buterin and together we will invest $2b into WEF to recover all the funds. Stay SAFU! Stay strong!”

Vitalik Buterin also jokingly said how WETH and WEF sound so similar. When a Twitter user asked him if we’re buying $WEF coin, Buterin says “isn’t that just Ethereum.”

“Personally I’m more surprised that no one has yet noticed how WETH and WEF sound so similar. Use WETH, eat the bugs!”

With the wETH insolvency FUD continuing to spread, Crypto Twitter working hard to explain that WETH cannot ever go insolvent and that it will always be swappable 1:1 with ETH. The WETH insolvency joke has indeed affected the crypto market.

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Massive Selloff Across the Market

The crypto market saw a massive selloff amid the WETH insolvency FUD. Top cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum dropped by over 3% and 4%, respectively. BTC price breaks $16.5k support and is trading at $16,203. Whereas, ETH price fall below $1,200, currently trading at $1,172.

Top altcoins including BNB, XRP, DOGE, ADA, and others plunged by 3-4% in the last 24 hours.

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Varinder Singh
Varinder has over 10 years of experience and is known as a seasoned leader for his involvement in the fintech sector. With over 5 years dedicated to blockchain, crypto, and Web3 developments, he has experienced two Bitcoin halving events making him key opinion leader in the space. At CoinGape Media, Varinder leads the editorial decisions, spearheading the news team to cover latest updates, markets trends and developments within the crypto industry. The company was recognized as Best Crypto Media Company 2024 for high impact and quality reporting. Being a Master of Technology degree holder, analytics thinker, technology enthusiast, Varinder has shared his knowledge of disruptive technologies in over 5000+ news, articles, and papers.
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