Ethereum co-founder Buterin denies Roubini’s claims of fraud

MOSCOW, Oct 12 (PRIME) -- Co-founder of cryptocurrency Ethereum Vitalik Buterin has denied accusations of fraud during pre-mining of its cryptocurrency, according to his statement in Twitter, seen by PRIME on Friday.

Buterin said in response to accusations made by New York professor Nouriel Roubini that he personally has never held more than 0.9% of the whole Ethereum, and the size of his fortune has never approached U.S. $1 billion. He said he is sure that there is no criminal punishment for pre-mining.

Pre-mining is mining tokens by developers prior to the official launch of a cryptocurrency.

Roubini said that Buterin with Ethereum’s other co-founder Joseph Lubin are allegedly heads of a criminal pre-mining fraud, which resulted in the creation of Ethereum. The professor said the businessmen could have stolen 75% of the cryptocurrency and became owners of a great fortune.

Buterin responded that his fund, Ethereum Foundation, dedicated to support of creation of projects on the Ethereum technology, has owned 3 million tokens of Ethereum at most, or about $500 million, and now its capital stands at 660,000 tokens, or about $130 million.

Forbes earlier put Buterin on the 17th place of the richest cryptocurrency tycoons with afortune of $400-500 million.

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