Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sold approximately 2,961 Ether worth $6.6 million in three days, after previously announcing plans to withdraw some of his holdings.
Blockchain tracker Lookonchain said in Thursday’s X issue post that the transactions were completed at an average price of approximately $2,228 per Ether (ETH). According to CoinMarketCap, Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency is trading at around $2,130 at the time of writing, down more than 5% over the past day.
Arkham Intelligence Data can be seen that the ETH sale was routed via the CoW protocol, with many compact swaps rather than a single block trade. Such transactions are commonly used to limit market impact.
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Buterin is committing $45 million to ETH to protect privacy and support open infrastructure
Last week, Buterin said he had committed 16,384 Ether from his personal holdings, worth about $45 million, to support privacy-preserving technologies, open hardware and secure, verifiable software. He added that the funds would be rolled out gradually over the coming years as the Ethereum Foundation enters what he described as a period of “soft austerity” while continuing to execute its technical roadmap.
Buterin said he is personally taking on responsibilities that might otherwise fall under special core projects, focusing on building an open, secure and verifiable technology stack across software and hardware.
“Specifically, we are looking for the existence of a secure and verifiable full stack of open source software and hardware that can protect both our personal lives and our public environments.”
The Ethereum Foundation previously faced criticism for selling ETH to fund operations, but has since explored alternative strategies, including staking and decentralized finance approaches.
Related: Cryptocurrency wallet provider Payy launches Ethereum L2 with built-in transaction privacy
Market sensitivity increases in the face of uncertainty
The sell-off comes at a time of heightened sensitivity to immense holders. Falling ETH prices prompted ether whales to release assets to repay loans, increasing selling pressure.
In Tuesday’s post on X, Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan he said that the cryptocurrency market has been in “full crypto winter” since January 2025. “It is likely that we are closer to the end than the beginning,” Hougan said.
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