By
Svetlana Soroka
June 14th, 2024
Over the years, TruthLabs also highlighted that the Ethereum team used the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange to dump their holdings into the secondary market.
The Ethereum (ETH) network has grown significantly in the past few years and is now in a major transition period that could lead to faster mass adoption. After the Hong Kong regulator approved spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) earlier last month, the United States government is also preparing to approve a dozen similar products ahead.
However, questions of how well the Ethereum network is decentralized have lingered in most regulators and investors. Moreover, the highly debated crypto FIT21 bill regards a blockchain to be decentralized if no single entity holds more than 20 percent of the voting power.
How was Ethereum ICO Funded?
According to the information provided by a popular on-chain sleuth TruthLabs, the Ethereum network was established on money traced back to the famous Silk Road darknet marketplace. Specifically, TruthLabs highlighted that Ethereum’s initial coin offering (ICO) wallets on the Bitcoin network and the My Ether Wallet (MEW) Founders were funded by the same Silk Road address that led to the Mt.Gox exploiter.
“Ethereum, The Blockchain that’s been ridden with Theft, Fraud, and Money Laundering on a scale never seen before, was originally funded from Bitcoin from the Very Same Silk Road Address that Ross Ulbricht stole from. I’ve shared before how many of the exploits, including the DAO hack, were carried out by some of Ethereum’s core Team,” TruthLabs noted.
The TruthLabs’ sleuth indicated that the Ethereum network is highly centralized from its ICO, as founders received heft mining rewards. The investigator noted that the Ethereum team secretively accumulated more Ether from 9 different mining pools.
Specifically, TruthLabs mentioned that Vitalik Buterin, Joseph Lubin, ConsenSys, and the entire Ethereum team received more than 2.5 million Ether before 2018. Over the years, TruthLabs highlighted that the Ethereum team used the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange to dump their holdings into the secondary market.
🚨Part 3: Lubin, Vitalik, Consensys, and the Ethereum Team's network of ICO Wallets, also received over 2.5M ETH in Mining rewards prior to 2018!
There are of course way more address' in which this Team received Mining Rewards. However, the address' below, show you the network… https://t.co/InMMfXycP9 pic.twitter.com/maLczmKpeE
— TruthLabs 🫡 (@BoringSleuth) May 22, 2024
Market Implication
Ethereum price has rallied more than 30 percent in the past seven days to above $3,900 on Thursday, during the early New York session. The prospects of spot Ethereum ETF approval in the United States have rejuvenated the altcoin’s bullish outlook.
Furthermore, most regulators in the United States have argued that Ethereum has evolved over the years to a decentralized protocol enabling mass adoption of digital assets. The large-cap altcoin, with nearly half a trillion dollars in market capitalization, has attracted more than 92 million holders, who have facilitated over 2.3 billion transactions.
The Ethereum network provides liquidity to the majority of the altcoin industry and more institutional investors are using it to tokenize real-work assets.