Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently puzzled the community with another substantial transfer.
Earlier today, the Canadian programmer sent roughly $1.06 million worth of ETH to a new address, according to data provided by Arkham Intelligence.
These funds were then deposited into the Raligun cryptocurrency mixer, which enables private transactions in decentralized finance with the help of zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography.
Raligun gained prominence following Buterin’s much-coveted endorsement earlier this year. The cryptocurrency luminary sent 100 ETH through the coin mixer in April in order to show his support for the project.
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After the move stirred some buzz in the cryptocurrency community, Buterin defended his choice, arguing that “privacy is normal.”
Notably, Raligun allows users to prove that their coins are legitimately sourced without sacrificing their privacy.
Coin mixers are known for being used by some bad actors. In 2023, the FBI claimed that the privacy protocol was used by North Korean hackers in order to launder ill-gotten crypto. However, Raligun denied this damning allegation. It claimed that Lazarus Group, a hacker group that is allegedly run by the North Korean government, was actually blocked from using the protocol with the help of the Private Proofs of Innocence tool that prevents transactions from undesirable actors.
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Buterin has long been a strong advocate for enhancing privacy in the crypto space, showing support for projects like Zcash. However, privacy-focused projects have attracted scrutiny from regulators since they can be misused by bad actors.
