Vitalik Buterin sold about 17,000 ETH this month, a sum valued in the article at roughly $43 million. Over the same stretch, ether dropped 37%, with CoinDesk market data showing the token trading near $1,900 on Wednesday.
Attributed wallet holdings fell from 241,000 ETH to 224,000 ETH
Data from Arkham Intelligence shows wallets attributed to Buterin held around 241,000 ETH at the start of February. That figure has since declined to about 224,000 ETH. The outflows were spread across the month, including about $6.6 million over three days earlier in February and roughly another $7 million in the most recent three-day period.
The sales were routed through decentralized exchange aggregator CoW Protocol and split into many smaller swaps instead of one large transaction. That is a common way to limit slippage on size. It also means the market saw a steady stream of selling rather than a single disposal.
Funds had been set aside for privacy and security work
Buterin had already outlined the purpose of the allocation in January. He said he had earmarked 16,384 ETH to support privacy-preserving technologies, open hardware and secure software systems, and said he would personally lead the effort.
He described the move as taking place while the Ethereum Foundation was operating through a period of “mild austerity,” while still keeping its technical roadmap in place. The capital, he said, would be deployed gradually over a period of several years.
Lower staking yield adds pressure on ETH holders
The decline in ether has also increased pressure on other holders. The report says more than 30% of ETH supply remains locked in staking, but yields have compressed to around 2.8%, reducing the appeal of lockups compared with risk-free alternatives.
On the corporate side, Bitmine Immersion Technologies was cited as one of the larger ETH holders. According to the report, after ether fell about 60% over the past six months, the company is estimated to be sitting on billions of dollars in unrealized losses, with the token now well below its average purchase price.