1. Home
  2. shitcoin

shitcoin

‘I anti-endorse these projects’ — Buterin’s shitcoin war sees him sent another 250K

Earlier this week, the Ethereum co-founder sold $700,000 worth of “shitcoins.”

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s latest salvo against “shitcoins” has ended up with him simply being sent more of it.

Only days ago, the Ethereum developer made moves to sell over $700,000 of tokens previously airdropped to him, causing the price of these tokens to fall. 

Buterin has since continued his war on apparent “shitcoins.” In a March 9 post on a small subreddit, Buterin labeled crypto token Bite (BITE) and most of the other coins discussed on the r/Testingtesting62831 subreddit as “shitcoins” that have “no redeeming cultural or moral value, and will probably lose you most of the money you put into them.”

“I anti-endorse these projects to the greatest extent.”
Vitalik Buterin's full post on the Testingtesting62831 subreddit. Source: Reddit

BITE was one of the tokens Buterin sold in his shitcoin selling spree on March 7, selling 3.4 million BITE for around $9,250, according to PeckShield. 

Buterin’s post was also likely prompted by the huge number of posts pushing the BITE token on the subreddit, which he created back in July 2020 and still moderates.

The post set him up for a wave of trolling, however, with other members of the subreddit doubling down on their shilling and creating a number of memes.

One of the posts purportedly trolling the Ethereum co-founder. Source: Reddit

Buterin was even sent 250,000 BITE soon after making the post. The token doesn't appear to be listed on many mainstream crypto price tracking sites, but blockchain records show sales hover around $0.011 per token, making the 250,000 sent to Buterin worth approximately $2,750.

A screenshot of transactions associated with one of Buterin’s wallets. Source: Etherscan

Meanwhile, several Twitter accounts claiming to be affiliated with the BITE token and its community have called the mention by Buterin “BULLISH.”

Related: Vitalik Buterin's philanthropic fund donates 15M USDC to UC San Diego

The Ethereum co-founder had gone on a shitcoin selling spree just two days prior, offloading some $700,000 worth of tokens that were airdropped to him and exchanging them for Ether (ETH).

Buterin initiated a similar offload in May 2021, selling tokens such as Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogelon Mars (ELON), causing their prices to tank by 40% and 90%, respectively.

Fake crypto liquidity pools: How to spot and avoid them

Altcoin SNM’s 4,000% Price Surge in 24 Hours Fuels Pump and Dump Claims

Altcoin SNM’s 4,000% Price Surge in 24 Hours Fuels Pump and Dump ClaimsThe trading price of the altcoin SNM suddenly rose by over 4,000% to $10.91 on Nov. 20, 5:30 a.m. (ET), while the coin’s 24-hour trade volume stood at just over $720 million. The altcoin’s abrupt price surge has fueled speculation that the altcoin is being targeted by a pump-and-dump group. Binance Dominates the Altcoin’s Trade […]

Fake crypto liquidity pools: How to spot and avoid them

3 reasons why Bitcoin is regaining its crypto market dominance

Hint: Many altcoins—not just LUNA—are down over 80% from their all-time highs in 2022.

Bitcoin (BTC) is regaining its lost crypto market dominance even as it trades nearly 60% below its record highs.

Bitcoin dominance at 6-month highs

The Bitcoin Market Dominance (BTC.D) index, a metric that weighs BTC's market capitalization against the rest of the cryptocurrency market, jumped to around 47% on May 27, its highest since October 2021.

Bitcoin Market Dominance daily chart. Source: TradingView

The dominance index swelled despite the drop in Bitcoin's market cap in the last six months from $1.3 trillion in November 2021 to nearly $550 billion in May 2022, suggesting that traders were more comfortable selling altcoins. 

Let's look at three likely reasons why traders have been rotating out of the altcoin market to seek safety in Bitcoin.

Ethereum "Merge" narrative is cooling down

Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH), the largest alternative cryptocurrency by market cap, has witnessed consistent declines in its market dominance in the last five months—from 22.38% in December 2021 to 17.86% in May 2022.

Ethereum Market Dominance daily chart. Source: TradingView

The plunge comes after two years of a sustained uptrend, with ETH/BTC rising more than 200% between September 2019 and December 2021.

As Cointelegraph reported, Ether outperformed Bitcoin in recent years, largely due to the hype surrounding its long-awaited protocol upgrade, called "the Merge," which hopes to make Ethereum more scalable and less expensive.

But the upgrade, which aims to transition Ethereum's blockchain from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake—a counterpart known as Beacon Chain—has faced repeated delays in its launch.

Only recently, Martin Köppelmann, the co-founder of the Ethereum Virtual Machine- (EVM)-compatible Gnosis chain, highlighted a seven-block reorganization on the Beacon Chain, meaning that the chain got briefly "forked" in its testing phase.

Ether dropped by nearly 13.5% against the U.S. dollar following the reveal on May 25 while ETH/BTC plunged to 0.059, the lowest in six months. 

ETH/BTC daily price chart featuring key support level. Source: TradingView

Ethereum lacks narratives to drive ETH's price upward after undergoing the Merge upgrade, noted OxHamZ, an independent market analyst, saying that investors have already "priced in" the network upgrade hype. 

LUNA to zero

Bitcoin's renewed crypto market strength also appears due to the Terra (LUNA) market's collapse.

LUNA/BTC, a financial instrument that traces the Terra token's strength against Bitcoin, fell by 99.99% to 0.00000004 in May, which made it practically worthless.

Meanwhile, LUNA declined similarly against the dollar, raising anticipations that traders dumped the token to seek safety in BTC and cash.

LUNA/BTC daily price chart. Source: TradingView

LUNA's market cap before the May's deadly crash was $40.88 billion.

Related: Crypto funds under management drop to a low not seen since July 2021

Altszn ded 

On the whole, the altcoin market, containing everything from large-cap blockchain projects to sketchy crypto assets, has fallen by nearly 65% six months after topping out near $1.7 trillion.

Altcoin market cap daily chart. Source: TradingView

A deeper look into some tokens shows that — unlike Bitcoin — most are down over 80% from their all-time highs, hinting at an overall investor exit from altcoins and into cash, stablecoins or BTC.

DeFi projects and their downside retracement from record highs. Source: Messari
Some dead crypto projects so far in 2022. Source: Messari

That is primarily because Bitcoin isn't only the oldest blockchain, but stands on its own without any central authority.

Historically, Bitcoin's dominance drops during crypto bull markets as waves of new tokens spring up during the mania phase.

For instance, the duration of the infamous initial coin offering (ICO) pump coincided with BTC.D dropping from nearly 96% in January 2017 to 35% in January 2018.

BTC.D daily price chart. Source: TradingView

Then the March 2020 crash was the beginning of the DeFi and nonfungible token (NFT) hype, boosted further by the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing. 

Therefore, if Bitcoin's market dominance has indeed bottomed out, it could once again align with a macro bottom in Bitcoin price, and possibly the beginning of a new bull market phase in the coming months.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Fake crypto liquidity pools: How to spot and avoid them