New reports reveal that an on-chain investigator has raised allegations connecting Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, to the $500 million Gatecoin hack in 2016. According to the crypto sleuth, Buterin’s Ethereum Foundation was allegedly transferring funds to the Gatecoin hackers’ primary wallet.
Buterin Accused Of Contributing To Gatecoin Hack
TruthLabs, a popular crypto investigator and sleuth on X (formerly Twitter), has accused Buterin of being directly involved in Ethereum’s first hack in 2016, which led to the loss of tokens worth over $500 million today. The crypto analyst disclosed that the wallet funding the Gatecoin hacker had received ETH from only three wallet sources.
The Gatecoin hacker’s original crypto wallet was allegedly funded by a wallet owned by the Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports the ETH blockchain. The second funding wallet originated from Ethereum’s Genesis Block 0 account. This wallet interacted with two primary addresses—a user-controlled Poloniex wallet and a contract set up by Buterin.
TruthLabs also revealed that the third and final wallet that funded the Gatecoin hackers was similarly generated from a Genesis 0 block. The crypto investigator alleged that the anonymous third wallet was directly linked to the core Ethereum developer, Vlad Zamfir.
Based on these newfound developments, TruthLabs disclosed that an immutable ledger currently indicates that Buterin and members of the Ethereum Foundation were allegedly involved in the $0.5 billion Gatecoin hack. He declared that the Gatecoin exploit most likely occurred 30 days before the Foundation was scheduled to run out of money. Moreover, this timeline precedes the DAO exploit, which saw millions of dollars lost just a few weeks after the Gatecoin hack.
As of now, there has been no official response from Buterin or the Ethereum Foundation regarding the allegations made by TruthLabs. The crypto community also awaits further clarification and confirmation of Buterin’s involvement as the story unfolds.
Silk Road Bitcoin Put In The Spotlight
While he accuses Buterin of being connected to the 2016 Gatecoin hack, TruthLabs also shared insights into the recent developments involving Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. According to the crypto investigators’ claims, the Bitcoin seized from Silk Road’s wallet helped fund Ethereum’s 2014 ICO project and BTC wallets.
The analyst alleged that Ross’s incarceration had funded the creation of the Ethereum foundation, as the BTC from Silk Road and Mt. Gox had aided in developing the foundation. TruthLabs also called out Buterin for failing to show support for Ulbricht’s release after he was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole in 2015.
Criticizing the Founder, TruthLabs described him as a “stain on the word integrity”, accusing Buterin of shirking his moral responsibilities. The on-chain investigator claimes that Buterin built the Ethereum foundation using Silk Road’s Bitcoin but failed to publicly advocate for Ulbritch’s release — a cause widely championed within the crypto community.
Featured image from Medium, chart from Tradingview.com
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