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Vitalik Buterin-named wallet makes headlines with $700k RAI stablecoin purchase

TL;DR Breakdown

A wallet labeled after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sent 500 ether, worth approximately $700,000, to mint the lesser-known RAI stablecoin over the weekend.
Over the weekend, the U.S. Dollar Coin (USDC) experienced a depegging and dropped to 89 cents before an Ethereum wallet associated with Vitalik Buterin was seen buying up the dip.

A wallet labeled after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sent 500 ether, worth approximately $700,000, to mint the lesser-known RAI stablecoin over the weekend. The funds were then used to purchase USD Coin (USDC), trading below its $1 peg. Registered under the name vitalik.eth in the Ethereum Names Service (ENS) domain, the wallet contained more than 5,360 ether as of Tuesday. According to blockchain analytics firm PeckShield, the address exchanged 132.5k $RAI for 378.5k $USDC and 17.5k $RAI for 50k $DAI within the last 3 hours.

#PeckShieldAlert Vitalik-labeled address has deposited 500 $ETH in Reflexer to mint 150k $RAI, and swapped 132.5k $RAI for 378.5k $USDC. Additionally, they swapped 17.5k $RAI for 50k $DAI within the last 3 hourshttps://t.co/dM1pheTW0x pic.twitter.com/camCgl1fsk
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 11, 2023

Over the weekend, USDC depegged after a collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) caused a cryptocurrency marketwide drop on Friday. As a result, companies like U.S.-based stablecoin issuer Circle – which held some of the reserves for its USDC stablecoin at Silicon Valley Bank as of January 17th – were affected. However, USDC regained its peg on Monday night, resulting in a 10% gain for buyers of the stablecoin within 48 hours. This follows Vitalik Buterin’s recognition of Reflexer Finance-issued RAI in a blog post – an alternate stablecoin not pegged to any fiat currency but backed by ether, with each RAI redeemable for $2.7 worth of ether as of Tuesday.

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Damilola Lawrence

Damilola is a crypto enthusiast, content writer, and journalist. When he is not writing, he spends most of his time reading and keeping tabs on exciting projects in the blockchain space. He also studies the ramifications of Web3 and blockchain development to have a stake in the future economy.