During a relatively stable second quarter, Bitcoin and Ethereum have expanded their shares to over 70% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization for the first time since April 2021

According to on-chain data, a wallet associated with Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin sent 600 Ether worth roughly $1 million to Coinbase earlier today.

The motive behind the transaction remains speculative as of press time. Usually, transfers to exchange are translated to mean an intention to sell. With Ethereum’s price recently struggling, Buterin’s transaction could further exert more selling pressure on the digital asset.

Meanwhile, on-chain sleuth Lookonchain reported that Vitalik.eth wallet repaid 251,000 RAI on DeFi platform Maker and withdrew 1,000 ETH (around $1.67 million) on Aug. 20.

The wallet known as “vitalik.eth” was created seven years ago and contained 3,993 ETH, worth $6.5 million as of press time. CryptoSlate, using the Arkham Intelligence dashboard, confirmed that the wallet belonged to the Ethereum co-founder. Other digital assets in the wallet include $84,000 worth of USD Coin (USDC) and $58,000 worth of Wrapped Ethereum (WETH).

This is not the first time Buterin would transfer assets to a crypto exchange. Earlier in the year, the Ethereum co-founder sent 200 ETH to Kraken in March. Around the same period, Buterin dumped several unsolicited altcoins (sh*tcoins) for 439.25 ETH.

ETH price struggling

Buterin’s transaction is coming on the heels of last Thursday’s crypto market flash crash. Last week, ETH’s price fell below $1700 for the first time since June and continued to trade under the mark as of press time.

According to CryptoSlate’s data, ETH traded at $1667 at the time of writing after a slight decline of 0.18% in the last 24 hours.

However, data from blockchain analytical firm Glassnode shows that Ethereum holders are jealously guarding their holdings as they rapidly send their assets off crypto exchanges. According to the data aggregator, the amount of ETH held on exchanges is 14.88 million, a level not recorded since 2018.

Friend Tech (FT), the web3 social token platform that saw a resurgence in user activity recently, has seen an increase in “sniper bots,” which have been causing significant shifts in share prices.

According to a detailed analysis performed by  X user @unexployed_ of Castle Capital, these bots, beyond their normally expected functionality, are deploying a technique of ‘sniping’ to gain control over high-value profile shares.

In the case of DappRadar’s recent registration on FT, Unexployed revealed that the share prices started at an unusually high point of 0.26 ETH. This was not triggered by a registered account but seemingly by a sniping address interacting directly with the smart contracts, demonstrating the influence of these bots on the market.

Digging deeper into basescan.org, Unexployed was able to trace the chronological order of buyers and sellers. Within the first four blocks, there were already 65 shares on the market. And DappRadar was not alone. Other entities, such as Moonshilla and Rektdiomedes, also faced a similar situation where snipers gained immediate control over their FT supply.

The primary sniper, identified as 0x081…951, executed over 20,000 transactions to acquire the shares. The first 46 transactions failed with the error “Fail with error ‘Insufficient payment” and were reverted, according to Basescan.

A CryptoSlate analysis of the transactions revealed that the account attempted to purchase the shares before the owner of the account had purchased the first share (a requirement of FT.) The transaction log states Fail with the error, “Only the shares’; subject can buy the first share”

According to on-chain data, a Bitcoin user spent a staggering 19 BTC, around $510,000, in transaction fees for transferring a mere 0.074 BTC, valued at less than $2,000, on Sept. 10.

The average transaction fee on the blockchain network was $2.176 as of press time, per data from ycharts.com. Per mempool, the user overpaid more than 480,000 times for the transaction, making the fee the highest ever recorded on the Bitcoin network.

Jameson Lopp, the co-founder of CasaHODL, who analyzed the incident, noted that the fat finger error might be due to buggy software from an exchange or payment processor address.

According to Lopp, the address has received and sent more than 60,000 transactions and likely miscalculated the change output, causing transaction fee errors.

“The address in question that made the fee calculation error has the characteristics of a withdraw-only hot wallet from an enterprise. It looks like it only receives deposits from one address to top up its balance now and then,” Lopp added.