Ethereum Co-Founder Selling These Meme Coins To Help Tornado Cash Developers

As per the latest on-chain data, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has offloaded some of the popular meme coins like MOODENG and NEIRO from his holdings. The data shows that Buterin has swapped these meme coins to Ethereum (ETH) and donated all of the proceeds to the “Free Alexey & Roman” campaign, which seeks to help the two Tornado Cash developers who are currently serving prison time.

Ethereum Co-Founders Vitalik Buterin Swaps Meme Coins

The latest on-chain data shows that Vitalik Buterin sold some of the recently popular meme coins like MOODENG, DEGEN, NEIRO and KOBASU. Last week, the NEIRO price surged by 215% amid strong whale activity registered by the meme coin. It is already up by a staggering 1685% on a monthly chart.

Similarly, MOODENG has been one of the top-performing meme coins recently and is currently trading around $0.15. By September, the MOODENG price had surged all the way to $0.35 amid a mega-bullish wave. As reported by CoinGape, a MOODENG trader minted $12.4 million in profits within just 17 days with an investment of just $1.3K. Even as of today’s price, this Solana meme coin is trading at 350% gains on the monthly chart. Here’s the list of top meme coins for the year 2024.

On-chain data provider SpotonChain stated that the Ethereum co-founder swapped his massive meme coin holdings for a total of 140.7 Ethereum (ETH) coins. In a related move, Buterin also donated 100 ETH (worth approximately $242,000) to the “Free Alexey & Roman” campaign, which is raising funds for the legal defense of TornadoCash developers Alexey Pertsev and Roman Storm.

The developers are currently facing legal action for their roles in the creation of the privacy-focused cryptocurrency mixer. In December this year, the Tornado Cash developers will be facing a trial in the New York District Court.

Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) just sold $341K worth of meme-coins #MOODENG, $DEGEN, $NEIRO, $KABOSU, and stablecoin $USDT for 140.67 $ETH in the past 30 minutes.

At the same time, he also sent 100 $ETH ($242K) to the “Free Alexey & Roman” campaign, supporting the legal… pic.twitter.com/XYjf2ZVI8g

— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) October 5, 2024

Tornado Cash Involved in Money Laundering?

The recent report from Certik shows that hackers have been leveraging Tornado Cash for several high-profile money-laundering cases during the third quarter of 2024. Crypto mixer Tordano Cash offers privacy by making transactions anonymous on the Ethereum blockchain. Launched with the goal of offering greater user privacy, it has become a go-to platform for cybercriminals to launder money.

#CertiKInsight 🚨

In Q3 2024, in 30 out of the 156 incidents we recorded, @TornadoCash was the sole method used for laundering, accounting for ~$287M of stolen funds.

In 66 of the incidents stolen funds have yet to be laundered or returned. pic.twitter.com/a7cgSyRttA

— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) October 4, 2024

However, crypto veterans like Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin have advocated the use of crypto privacy tools in order to manage their assets. In the past, he has also called out against the unlawful arrest of the Tornado Cash developers. Also, this is not the first time that Buterin has been donating to the “Free Alexey & Roman” campaign. Earlier this year in May, he donated over $100,000.