Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has just received a fresh batch of tokens and it’s worth a cool $1.01 million.
On-chain analysts recently discovered that Buterin’s wallet received 6.29 million STRK tokens following an airdrop unlock from Starknet, one of Ethereum’s leading Layer-2 scaling projects. The unlock marks the release of tokens that had been locked for a year after being distributed to early supporters of the network.
According to data shared by blockchain analyst Ai Yi on October 9, the airdrop likely dates back to Starknet’s early fundraising period in January 2018, when Buterin personally backed the project during its seed round. That round brought in about $6 million, helping Starknet establish itself as a zero-knowledge rollup solution for Ethereum focused on scalability and lower transaction costs.
Interestingly, Buterin had previously received these tokens a year ago, but they remained locked until now. Once unlocked, the tokens were deposited into Binance, likely for custody or liquidity reasons.
At current market prices of around $0.16 per STRK, Buterin’s newly unlocked holdings amount to $1.01 million, making STRK the second-largest asset in his crypto portfolio, right after Ethereum itself. Data from Arkham Intelligence shows that Buterin currently holds roughly 240,000 ETH, valued at around $1.06 billion.
However, STRK hasn’t had the best year. Since reaching an all-time high of $4.41 in February 2024, the token has lost about 60% of its value. Despite that drop, Buterin’s early support for Starknet continues to pay off both financially and in terms of the project’s ongoing development.
Over the years, Buterin has openly praised Starknet’s technical milestones. In 2024, he highlighted the team’s work on improving data efficiency through updates like v0.13.3, which significantly reduced “blob” gas costs a major bottleneck for L2 scalability.
This isn’t the first time Buterin has received STRK unlocks.
- In May 2024, he unlocked 2.11 million STRK worth around $1.07 million.
- In September 2024, another 1.26 million STRK were released, pushing his total holdings above 2.11 million tokens at the time.
With this latest unlock, Buterin’s long-standing relationship with Starknet continues to be both historic and profitable showcasing how early support for promising Ethereum-based projects can yield significant returns over time.
