Did Vitalik Buterin's Tweet Pump Solana Price 40%?

At about the same time that the technology department of the famed New York Times awarded him for the Merge (the transition of Ethereum coin founded by Vitalik Buterin from proof of work to proof of stake), the famed Crypto founder made a statement that pushed a competing currency 40% higher in a matter of days. Crypto Twitter is on fire and conspiracy theories are rife.

Good tech

While New York Times journalist Kevin Roose (who wrote the genius book Futureproof) explained that he realized that awarding a prize (good tech in 2022) to crypto in 2022 was somewhat controversial given the decline in digital coin prices, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin said he regretted the demise of cryptocurrency Solana, a rival blockchain.

Kevin stated that: Putting a crypto project in a “good tech” list in 2022 feels like putting credit default swaps in a “cool financial innovations” list in 2008.

Meanwhile Vitalik tweeted that:

Some smart people tell me there is an earnest smart developer community in Solana, and now that the awful opportunistic money people have been washed out, the chain has a bright future. Hard for me to tell from outside, but I hope the community gets its fair chance to thrive.

Some smart people tell me there is an earnest smart developer community in Solana, and now that the awful opportunistic money people have been washed out, the chain has a bright future.

Hard for me to tell from outside, but I hope the community gets its fair chance to thrive🦾🦾

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) December 29, 2022

We also talked about Solana’s crash around that time and the publication of Cryptotips article seems to have crossed Vitalik’s tweet, because that $8 was the (temporary) bottom. After Vitalik stated that he thought the project was commendable, it jumped back to about $13 in a week’s time. So a ‘pump’ of about 40% to even 50%.

$SOL pumps 20% in 1 minute.

The hourly volume on Binance was over 2.8M SOL.

A similar action was triggered by Vitalik’s tweet about Solana.

Was $8 the bottom for SOL?#Solana #SOL pic.twitter.com/FhNTvm252V

— Shiva Research (@shivaresearch5) January 2, 2023

Some on Crypto Twitter are now claiming that Vitalik’s tweet was very well timed and that you didn’t hear him when the coin (which is seen as a competitor to Ethereum) traded at $260 last year.

I myself think that Vitalik certainly did not mean it badly and probably hopes that the few good projects left over after a terrible 2022 for crypto will get a fair chance in 2023.