Seven years ago, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin made a tough decision – he sold half of all the bitcoins he had at the time. Vitalik told about this on his Twitter the day before.
The reason for the sale is simple: he really needed money, and selling cryptocurrency was the only way out. In addition, Vitalik feared a collapse in the BTC rate.
As a reminder, we discussed the topic of the estimated state of the creator of Ethereum back in the spring. The material mentioned receiving a Thiel Foundation scholarship in the amount of $ 100,000 in 2014. In addition, there is a mention of the amounts of different cryptocurrencies that the developer has at his disposal. Among the latter there are ethers, bitcoins, ZEC and even the comic cryptocurrency DOGE. The equivalent of funds amounted to tens of millions of dollars.
We checked the latest data on the contents of the well-known wallet of Vitalik Buterin, whose address he published back in 2018. Today there are ethers for $ 194 million and an abundance of various ERC20 tokens for $ 116 thousand.
Note that it makes little sense to study the tokens that are on Vitalik’s wallet. Their presence there does not mean that Buterin bought the coins himself. After all, since the developer’s address is known, anyone can create a cryptocurrency and send it to Vitalik for advertising purposes.
And so they really do. And sometimes Buterin swaps the received crypt to ETH without hesitation.
Vitalik Buterin’s condition
Now Vitalik has no threat of being left penniless: according to some versions, the fortune of the young crypto enthusiast is estimated at at least $ 200 million. However, Buterin’s affairs did not always go so smoothly. Here is his line, in which the famous developer shares facts from the past. The statement is quoted by Decrypt.
Seven years ago – even before the launch of Ethereum – my fortune was only a few thousand dollars. I decided to sell half of my bitcoins so as not to become impoverished in the event the value of the cryptocurrency falls to zero.
That is, Vitalik admits that he feared a large-scale collapse of the BTC rate. Perhaps you can understand him. Yet Bitcoin already in 2013 showed incredible volatility and increased in price tenfold. And where there is a sharp increase, there will also be a noticeable collapse.
For example, the first cryptocurrency reached its local peak in November 2013 – then the rate exceeded the $ 1,100 mark. However, then a bearish trend began, and by the end of 2014, BTC was valued at 310 bucks. Accordingly, the sale of bitcoins in 2013 for Vitalik in the end could become more than the right decision.
For clarity, we present a graph of the BTC rate in 2013-2014.
From Vitalik’s words, we can conclude that at that time he kept most of his money in a crypt. And while it might seem like the 2013 BTC sale is a rash decision against the backdrop of the events of 2017, we believe that Buterin did the right thing. In any situation, an investor or trader must fix at least a part of his profit received from the growth of the asset price.
In addition, the creator of Ethereum strongly discourages people from making large bets on cryptocurrencies. Namely, you should never borrow money just to buy even more ETH or BTC. Here we are forced to agree. Such a tactic will most likely drive novice crypto enthusiasts into large debts, because it is impossible to predict the movement of a certain cryptocurrency rate. Accordingly, it is better not to make such bets, it is too risky.
We believe that Vitalik Buterin’s comments should be a reminder for every trader and investor about the importance of taking profit. Of course, against the backdrop of the 2017 bull run, the sale of bitcoins in 2013 is unprofitable and erroneous, but in comparison with the events of 2014, this decision was correct.
It is important to understand that it is almost impossible to guess the ideal entry into the position and the selling point at the peak, therefore, in this case, it is better to make some kind of profit than to lose money and sit with nothing for years.
So we recommend that you follow this approach and do not forget about earning income. In addition, you should not take loans to invest in the crypt. This idea usually doesn’t end well.
Do you think Buterin did the right thing?
