Vitalik Buterin’s 100 ETH Railgun deposit sparks discourse

Crypto community members speculated on X regarding why Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin deposited $330,000 in crypto into Railgun’s privacy protocol. 

On April 15, blockchain monitoring tool Scopescan noted that Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin transferred 100 Ether (ETH) to the defi platform Railgun. The transaction was executed using Buterin’s ENS-tagged wallet, vitalik.eth.

Reports claimed Buterin has frequently tapped the protocol over the past six months, depositing small amounts of ETH. 

According to DefiLlama, Railgun is an EVM dapp that enables privacy features for on-chain lending and token swaps. It employs zk-SNARK, an encryption model based on zero-knowledge technology used to prove that a blockchain participant possesses an asset or data without revealing it. 

Since launching on Ethereum in January 2021, the privacy-by-default provider has amassed nearly $35 million in total value locked. 

Railgun jumps over 147% on Vitalik Buterin backing

Blockchain developer Vitalik Buterin cleared the air on his Railgun use as crypto proponents on social media debated the reasons behind his deposit. Some theorized that Ethereum’s co-founder wanted to speculate on ETH’s ecosystem without being tracked, while others surmised that he had bills to pay.

Vitalik Buterin’s response read “Privacy is normal”, and explained that Railgun supported anonymity without compromising security. 

Following Buterin’s post, Railgun’s native token RAIL surged more than 140% per CoinGecko. The cryptocurrency traded for around $1.36 following the price uptick.

This is not the first time an Ethereum-based token has jumped in price after Buterin endorsed its underlying protocol on X or in a blog post. In January, Buterin mentioned the Ethereum Name Service in advocacy for more trustless, Merkle-proof-based solutions. Shortly after, the protocol’s native crypto ENS rose nearly 40%.