Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin leveraged his profound technical knowledge of the network’s design to secure a notable profit on the decentralized prediction market, Polymarket. Buterin revealed he earned approximately $70,000 by placing a series of bets against the activation of a highly pessimistic scenario referred to as ‘Crazy Mode.’
The market in question was established in the run-up to the pivotal Shanghai (Shapella) upgrade in April 2023, which enabled withdrawals for staked Ether (ETH). ‘Crazy Mode’ represented an extreme stress test scenario, defined as the moment when the Ethereum validator exit queue would exceed 150,000 validators. This condition implied a catastrophic and sustained lack of confidence or a critical technical bottleneck following the enablement of withdrawals, potentially leading to mass exits from staking.
Buterin, confident in the economic stabilizing mechanisms and the built-in throttling design of Ethereum’s proof-of-stake system—which limits the rate at which validators can exit—placed a significant wager betting that the network would successfully manage the withdrawal process without reaching the ‘Crazy Mode’ threshold.
As the Shanghai upgrade proceeded smoothly and the withdrawal queue remained well managed, the market resolved in Buterin’s favor. His successful speculative activity not only netted a substantial financial gain but also served as a tangible expression of technical conviction, reinforcing the confidence in Ethereum’s robustness and scalability following one of its most critical upgrades.
Source: Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin Made $70K Betting Against ‘Crazy Mode’ on Polymarket
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