Vitalik Buterin is selling around 3,000 ETH in a series of small on-chain swaps
Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin sold about 2,961 ether worth $6.6 million in a three-day period after plans to sell off some of his holdings.
Blockchain tracker Lookonchain said in a Thursday X post that the transactions took place at an average price of about $2,228 in Ether (ETH). Ethereum's native cryptocurrency was trading at around $2,130, down more than 5% from the previous day at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap.
Arkham Intelligence's data shows that ETH sales have moved through the CoW protocol, making multiple small exchanges rather than a single block trade. Such transactions are commonly used to reduce the impact on the market.
Related: XRP Traders More Optimistic As BTC, ETH Sentiment Turns Sour: Santiment
Buterin allocated 45 million dollars in ETH to push privacy and open infrastructure
Last week, Buterin said it allocated 16,384 ether, about $45 million, from its private holdings to support privacy-preserving technologies, open hardware and secure, verifiable software. He added that the Ethereum Foundation will continue to follow its technical roadmap while entering a period of what he described as “mild austerity” and that the currency will deploy gradually over the coming years.
Buterin said he is personally taking on responsibilities that may fall under specific foundation projects, focusing on building open, secure and verifiable technology stack software and hardware.
“In particular, we want to have open source, secure and verifiable software and hardware that can protect our privacy and our public environment.”
The Ethereum Foundation previously faced criticism for selling ETH to fund operations, but has since explored alternative strategies, including crowdfunding and decentralized approaches.
Related: Crypto wallet provider Payy launches Ethereum L2 with built-in transaction privacy.
Market sensitivity increases in uncertainty
The sale comes at a time of heightened sensitivity for large shareholders. The decline in ETH prices has prompted ether whales to unload assets to pay off loans, adding to selling pressure.
Matt Hogan, chief investment officer of Bitwise, said on XPost on Tuesday that the crypto market is in a “completely frozen winter” starting in January 2025.
Magazine: Bitgate's Gracie Chen wants ‘entrepreneurs, not entrepreneurs'.
