Vitalik Buterin Transfers $1.05 Million in ETH to Railgun Mixer

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has transferred 400 ETH, valued at $1.05 million, to the mixing service Railgun, as noted by SpotOnChain.

Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) just transferred another 400 $ETH ($1.05M) into the mixer #Railgun.

Vitalik previously mentioned that Railgun is an effective way to safeguard user’s privacy ?

And over the past 10 months, he has continuously transferred 662 $ETH ($1.91M) in… https://t.co/YtfNBIjIEK pic.twitter.com/V7NUReaat9

— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) August 19, 2024

Prior to this, the programmer likely conducted a test transaction of 1 ETH. These operations are confirmed by data from the platform Arkham Intelligence.

SpotOnChain experts noted that over the past 10 months, Buterin sent 662 ETH to Railgun, totaling $1.91 million.

In April, journalist Colin Wu, commenting on the Ethereum co-founder’s transactions, highlighted that the service is used by North Korean hackers Lazarus Group. In 2022, Elliptic specialists classified Railgun as a popular alternative to the US-sanctioned Tornado Cash protocol.

Buterin responded to Wu, stating that “privacy is normal.”

The protocol developer known as bill commented on SpotOnChain’s message:

“For future reference, it’s not accurate to call Railgun a mixer. It’s a private address system where tokens are controlled by a private key, like in any wallet.”

Good job on the detailed explanation.

For future ref, it’s not accurate to call Railgun a mixer. It’s a private address system and all tokens are private key controlled just like any other wallet.

Privacy comes from using this address, not mixing or moving tokens. Here, Vitalik…

— bill ?️? (@metamaskhe1p) August 19, 2024

He emphasized that transaction privacy in the solution is achieved not through token mixing, but by the absence of public on-chain data.

According to the dashboard on Dune, Railgun’s key metrics showed significant growth in April-May amid discussions of the protocol by Buterin. Weekly transaction volume peaked at $47 million. In the following months, the figure adjusted.

Back on August 9, a wallet associated with Buterin moved 3000 ETH (~$7.9 million at the time). In October 2023, the programmer explained that any transfers from his addresses are “almost always some kind of donation.”