In the past few days, the Ethereum community and on-chain data enthusiasts have exploded: the multi-signature wallet associated with Vitalik Buterin has successively sold thousands of ETH, selling about 2960–2972 coins in the last three days, with an average transaction price in the range of $2200–2300, cashing out a total of $660–690 million. The price of ETH was already fluctuating at a low level, so this wave of founder-level selling was naturally interpreted as various versions of FUD - 'V God has run away', 'Ethereum is going to fail', 'The founder himself does not have confidence'...
But if you extend the timeline a bit and combine it with Vitalik's public statement on January 30 and the subsequent on-chain flow, you will find: this is not a sudden emotional decision, nor a bearish signal, but a well-planned, multi-year 'personal financial execution'.
1. The starting point: The Ethereum Foundation's 'mild austerity'
By the end of 2025 and early 2026, the Ethereum Foundation entered a public 'financial slimming' phase. The core logic is: Over the past few years of bear and bull markets, the foundation's reserves have been significantly depleted, and over the next five years, it needs to substantially cut non-core protocol expenditures and focus resources more on upgrades to L1 itself (such as scalability, privacy, decentralization, etc.).
Vitalik repeatedly mentioned in several tweets: The foundation cannot and should not always be a 'charity machine' that takes on everything. Many 'border projects' (AI safety, biosafety, open-source hardware, privacy tools, public goods funding) that originally relied on the foundation to cover must now have someone step up to fill the gaps.
And the way he chooses is: to use his holdings to fill the gap.
On January 30, he withdrew 16,384 ETH (approximately $45 million at that time) from his personal address, transferred it to a multi-signature address, and clearly stated: This money will gradually be liquidated over the next few years to support 'open-source, verifiable hardware and software full-stack systems', with key areas including AI×security, biological risk defense, privacy protection, etc. It will also fill part of the public goods gap left after the foundation's contraction.
2. The real destination of selling coins: Most of it does not go into his own pocket.
On-chain tracking shows that the majority of the sold ETH has the following path:
- ETH → WETH → Stablecoin (USDC / GHO / LUSD / EUROC, etc.)
- Stablecoin → Transfer to Kanro (the biotechnology charity organization established by V in 2023)
- Kanro is used to fund open-source pandemic research, biosafety projects, and long-tail public health initiatives.
Confirmed examples:
- Multiple small transfers have cumulatively sent over 50 ETH equivalent funds to Kanro.
- A relatively large single transaction is 211.84 ETH exchanged for $500,000 USDC, directly sent to Kanro.
- Some funds continue to remain in stablecoin status, preparing for subsequent batch donations/funding.
This is consistent with V's behavior over many years: he regularly sells small amounts of coins for donations (Ukrainian aid, scientific funding, meme coin liquidation donations to Kanro, etc.), but this time the scale is slightly larger and the rhythm is more concentrated, corresponding to the structural fill-in after the foundation's 'slimming'.
3. Why is the market still in a panic? The triple resonance of amplified emotions
Although the logic is clear, the short-term market still interprets this as a negative signal, mainly for three overlapping reasons:
1. Timing sensitive: ETH has significantly pulled back from last year's peak and is currently in a low and volatile range; any large sell-off is easily interpreted as 'the last straw that broke the camel's back.'
2. Founder action natural magnifying glass: V's news headlines about selling coins always write 'Vitalik dumps millions', rarely writing 'Vitalik executes planned multi-year philanthropy from personal stack'.
3. Bear market path dependence: Many people in the past few years have gotten used to equating founders/teams selling coins with the narrative that the project is going to fail, and this time it naturally applies.
But rationally speaking:
- He still holds several hundred million dollars worth, and the amount sold this time is very small.
- Almost all funds from the sale remain in the crypto ecosystem (stablecoin → donations/funding), not withdrawn as fiat currency to run away.
- During the same period, he also published long articles discussing the future of L1, ZK, the focus on decentralization, and opposition to 'copypasta EVM chains'; these represent his true 'attitude table' towards Ethereum.
4. Insights for ordinary holders.
If you are:
- Long-termists: can basically treat it as noise. This wave of selling actually indirectly confirms that V is still all-in on the long-term vision, just shifting from 'holding' to 'spending wisely'. The value of ETH has never been supported by V not selling coins, but by the continuous progress of L1 itself, the depth of the ecosystem, and real-world adoption.
- Short-term traders: indeed will exacerbate volatility and FUD, especially now when emotions are fragile. It is recommended to focus on key support levels (such as the 1800–2000 range) and subsequent on-chain donation flows, rather than just watching V's wallet.
- For those who have faith in the ecosystem: this is actually a positive signal - when the foundation chooses 'strategic contraction', the founder is willing to use personal wealth to maintain the continuity of public goods, which is healthier and more sustainable than the foundation printing money indefinitely.
V's selling of coins this time is not a bearish signal for ETH, but rather an action to say: The future of Ethereum cannot rely solely on the foundation, nor can it rely only on holding; it needs more people to truly invest resources in the places that need it most.
The market will be emotional in the short term, but in the long run, stories like 'founders reinvesting their personal wealth back into the ecosystem' are often the most steadfast annotations of faith.
(Data sourced from Etherscan, Arkham, Lookonchain, and other publicly available on-chain tracking, as well as V's own statements on X. If there are any updates, feel free to leave comments for discussion.)
