Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has quietly redirected part of his growing on-chain privacy activity toward the encrypted-messaging space, donating a total of 256 ETH to SimpleX Chat and Session via the Railgun privacy protocol.

Onchain analytics firm Arkham first flagged the move, noting “VITALIK JUST SENT $2.9M $ETH TO RAILGUN. Vitalik holds over $700 MILLION of ETH, and just sent $2.9M into Railgun. What is he cooking?”

VITALIK JUST SENT $2.9M $ETH TO RAILGUN

Vitalik holds over $700 MILLION of ETH, and just sent $2.9M into Railgun.

What is he cooking? pic.twitter.com/2HvDFRDqi2

— Arkham (@arkham) November 26, 2025

Buterin Backs SimpleX And Session

Shortly after, Buterin confirmed the donations from his vitalik.eth account and framed them explicitly as a bet on the next fro

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