Jeffrey Wilcke is a software developer and blockchain pioneer. He is best known as one of the co-founders of Ethereum, a decentralized platform that enables the creation of decentralized applications (dApps). He is best known for his work as one of the original developers of the Ethereum blockchain platform, where he played a key role in the development of its infrastructure and core technology. ^{[1] [2]}

Wilcke has been involved in the development of Ethereum since its early days and has been instrumental in its growth and success. Prior to his work in blockchain technology, he worked as a software developer and was involved in several other open-source software projects. ^[1]

Education 

From 2003 to 2006, Wilcke attended Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht (HKU). ^[1]

Career

From February 2007 to July 2011, Jeffrey Wilcke worked as a Programmer at Noxa. ^[1]

He then co-founded Agile Pandas in October 2010 and served as a Founder until January 2013. Concurrently, from February 2011 to January 2013, he held the position of Founder at StudyFlow, focusing on educational tools and platforms. ^[1]

In December 2013, Wilcke co-founded Ethereum and played a key role until March 2018. Since January 2018, he has been involved as a Founder at Grid Games, contributing to coding, game design, and various operational tasks. ^[1]

Ethereum

In 2014, Jeffrey Wilcke co-founded Ethereum and played a significant role in the development of the software implementation known as Go Ethereum (Geth), one of the major Ethereum clients for interacting with the Ethereum blockchain. ^[2][3]

Jeffrey Moves 20,000 ETH

In November 2024, Ethereum co-founder Wilcke moved 20,000 ETH, valued at approximately $72.5 million, to the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange. The transfer occurred shortly after Ethereum hit a high of $3,600 according to data from Arkham Intelligence. ^[4]

Wilcke has since sold a good chunk of the initial allocation his Ethereum received with launch in 2016. Before the 2021 bull market, he made his first big deposit of 290,505 ETH, averaging $190. In the past year, Wilcke stopped buying and sold over 63,000 ETH after the summer of 2023. ^[5]

Jeffrey Transfers $262M in ETH

In May 2025, Jeffrey Wilcke transferred $262 million worth of ETH to the Kraken exchange, sparking speculation within the community. This transfer, noted for its substantial size, led to discussions about potential market impacts and Wilcke's intentions. The transaction involved moving 105,737 ETH, which was suspected to be a liquidation move, causing further speculation about the reasons behind such a significant transfer. ^{[6] [7] [8]}

According to data from Arkham Intelligence, this amounted to the last 105,737 ETH in Wilcke's holdings.

The Defiant reported that Wilcke has been moving ETH to Kraken since 2016, totaling 394,000 ETH with an average selling price of $1,295, resulting in approximately $510 million in total cash-out. ^[8]

However, BeInCrypto noted that several hours after the initial concerns, the fears of a massive sell-off seemed largely overblown. ^[7]

Lookonchain proposed that Wilcke might have transferred the ETH to other wallets rather than intending to sell. Eight newly created wallets withdrew 105,736 ETH from Kraken after Wilcke's deposit, leading to speculation that it was merely a transfer of funds. ^[7]