Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin received 6.29 million STRK tokens on October 9, 2025, from an airdrop unlock, valued at approximately $1.01 million at the time. The tokens were unlocked one year after their initial allocation, stemming from Buterin's participation as an individual investor in Starknet's early seed round in January 2018, which secured $6 million for the project's development.
According to on-chain data from blockchain analyst Ai Yi and Arkham Intelligence, STRK now represents the second-largest holding in Buterin's wallet, behind his Ethereum stash of around 240,000 ETH worth $1.06 billion. The STRK token is currently priced at about $0.16, marking a nearly 60% decline from its all-time high of $4.41 in February 2024, as per CoinGecko data.
Buterin has maintained consistent support for Starknet, a zero-knowledge rollup Layer 2 solution on Ethereum, praising its technical improvements like data efficiency and reduced gas costs. Over the past year, he has moved STRK tokens across wallets and exchanges, including deposits to Binance, with previous unlocks in May 2024 (2.11 million STRK worth $1.07 million) and a withdrawal in September 2024 (1.26 million STRK), indicating ongoing management for custody or privacy reasons.
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