Vitalik Buterin Sells Over $6M in ETH as Holdings Dip Below 225,000

Ethereum’s ETH slid nearly 3% over 48 hours to a 20-day low of US$1,820 (AU$2.6K) on Monday, extending a decline that has lasted since the token peaked above US$4,900 (AU$7.2K) in August last year.

And as the price drops, Lookonchain shows the blockchain’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, reduced his ETH exposure again. Buterin pulled 3,500 ETH from Aave over two days and then swapped 1,869 out of that amount for stablecoins on Cow Swap. That’s about US$3.67 million (AU$5.6 million).

Related: XRP Sees Biggest Realised Loss Spike Since 2022: Capitulation or Turning Point? 

The latest move follows an earlier transfer valued at roughly US$29 million (AU$43 million). From that amount, about US$2.3 million (AU$3.2 million) was directed to support Ethereum Foundation-related work.

New Buyers

Despite the sales, Buterin remains one of the largest known ETH holders. All of his related addresses hold together just over 224,000 ETH, worth about US$426 million (AU$651 million) at current prices.

However, Lookonchain suggests the supply being sold has found new buyers, as transactions tied to purchases included wallets linked to ShapeShift founder Erik Voorhees and a large investor associated with crypto services provider Matrixport.

Buterin has been pressing for clearer technical priorities. He has said Ethereum’s mainnet needs an updated plan for how it should integrate with layer-2 networks, which move most transaction execution off the base chain and settle results back to it. 

He has also backed a planned upgrade, FOCIL, focused on stronger censorship resistance, framing the current stage of development as an effort to push Ethereum closer to a “cyberphunk” direction.

Read more: Bitcoin Lightning Network Surpasses US$1 Billion in Monthly Volume Despite Price Slump