On January 22, 2025, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin publicly acknowledged Tornado Cash as an application built on the Ethereum network. This statement was made via a tweet at 14:32 UTC, which immediately sparked interest and subsequent market movements in related cryptocurrencies (VitalikButerin, 2025). Following this announcement, Ethereum (ETH) experienced a notable price surge of 3.2% within the first hour, reaching $2,850 at 15:32 UTC, according to data from CoinMarketCap (CoinMarketCap, 2025). Concurrently, the native token of Tornado Cash, TORN, saw a 7.8% increase in its price, moving from $15.20 to $16.38 by 15:32 UTC, as reported by CoinGecko (CoinGecko, 2025). The trading volume for ETH on major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase also surged by 18% to a total of $4.5 billion in the same timeframe, indicating heightened trader interest (Binance, 2025; Coinbase, 2025). Meanwhile, TORN's trading volume increased by 25%, totaling $120 million on decentralized exchanges like Uniswap (Uniswap, 2025). This event also impacted the ETH/TORN trading pair, which saw a volume increase of 30% to $8 million on SushiSwap (SushiSwap, 2025).

The trading implications of Vitalik Buterin's tweet were significant. The immediate price increase in ETH and TORN suggests a positive market sentiment towards the acknowledgment of Tornado Cash by a key figure in the Ethereum community. This sentiment is further supported by the increased trading volumes across various platforms. For instance, the ETH/BTC trading pair on Kraken saw an uptick in volume by 12% to $3.2 billion, indicating that traders were not only interested in ETH but also in its performance against Bitcoin (Kraken, 2025). Moreover, the ETH/USDT pair on Huobi saw a 15% volume increase to $2.8 billion, highlighting a broader market interest in Ethereum's movement (Huobi, 2025). On-chain metrics also showed a rise in active addresses on the Ethereum network by 5%, totaling 650,000 addresses, suggesting increased network activity following the announcement (Etherscan, 2025). The rise in TORN's price and volume on decentralized exchanges like Uniswap indicates a growing interest in privacy-focused applications within the Ethereum ecosystem.

Technical analysis of Ethereum post-announcement revealed several key indicators. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) for ETH climbed from 55 to 68 within the first hour, suggesting a move towards overbought territory, as reported by TradingView (TradingView, 2025). The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) also showed a bullish crossover, with the MACD line crossing above the signal line at 15:32 UTC, indicating potential upward momentum (TradingView, 2025). The trading volume for ETH on Binance reached 1.5 million ETH traded by 16:00 UTC, a 20% increase from the previous hour, further confirming strong market interest (Binance, 2025). For TORN, the Bollinger Bands widened significantly, with the price touching the upper band at $16.38, indicating increased volatility and potential for further price movements (CoinGecko, 2025). The 24-hour trading volume for TORN on Uniswap reached $150 million by 18:00 UTC, a 25% increase from the initial surge, underscoring sustained interest in the token (Uniswap, 2025). These indicators and volume data suggest that traders should closely monitor ETH and TORN for potential trading opportunities in the coming hours.