The transaction was executed using Buterin’s ENS-tagged wallet, vitalik.eth. Reports claimed Buterin has frequently tapped the protocol over the past six months, depositing small amounts of ETH.
According to DefiLlama, Railgun is an EVM dapp that enables privacy features for on-chain lending and token swaps. It employs zk-SNARK, an encryption model based on zero-knowledge technology used to prove that a blockchain participant possesses an asset or data without revealing it.
Since launching on Ethereum in January 2021, the privacy-by-default provider has amassed nearly $35 million in total value locked. Some theorized that Ethereum’s co-founder wanted to speculate on ETH’s ecosystem without being tracked, while others surmised that he had bills to pay.
The cryptocurrency traded for around $1.36 following the price uptick. Shortly after, the protocol’s native crypto ENS rose nearly 40%.