Vitalik Buterin allocated 17,000 ether, worth approximately $43 million, to privacy projects in January. A month later, his wallet balance has decreased by approximately that amount and the token he is selling has lost more than a third of its value.
Data from Arkham Intelligence shows that wallets attributed to Buterin held approximately 241,000 ETH as of early February. This figure now stands at 224,000 ETH after a steady series of outflows during the month, including $6.6 million over three days earlier in February and around $7 million more in the last three days alone.
The sales were executed through decentralized exchange aggregator CoW Protocol, broken into many smaller swaps rather than large single transactions.
This approach is standard practice to minimize size discrepancies, but it also means that the sale was a slow, steady process rather than a one-off event.
The timing is uncomfortable. Ether has fallen 37% over the past month, according to CoinDesk market data, trading near $1,900 on Wednesday, and Buterin’s ongoing sales add media pressure to an already struggling token for a narrative.
More than 30% of ETH supply remains locked in staking, but yields have compressed to around 2.8%, making staking less attractive compared to risk-free alternatives.
Buterin announced the $43 million allocation in January, saying it had set aside 16,384 ETH to fund privacy-preserving technologies, open hardware, and secure software systems.
He described the effort as something he would personally lead as the Ethereum Foundation entered a period of “light austerity” while maintaining its technical roadmap. The capital, he said, would be deployed gradually over several years.
The sale of Ether has added to the suffering of companies holding ETH. Bitmine Immersion Technologies, one of the largest, is estimated to be posting billions in unrealized losses after ether fell around 60% in six months, well below its average purchase price.
