Vitalik Buterin Defends Ethereum Foundation’s ETH Selling Spree

• Vitalik Buterin has explained why the Ethereum Foundation has been selling ETH.
• The foundation has sold nearly $10M worth of ETH since the beginning of the year.
• Based on Buterin’s comment, the foundation might sell more Ether.

Vitalik Buterin has set the record straight on the Ethereum Foundation’s recent Ether sell-offs, assuring community members of the organization’s commitment to improving user experience on the largest Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain.

Buterin’s comment came after crypto smart money tracker Lookonchain reported in September that the foundation had sold nearly 3,466 ETH ($9.67 million at the time) since the beginning of the year. According to Lookonchain, this averaged one sale every 11 days, with each sale dumping an average of 151 ETH ($421,000).

Vitalik’s Response

While clarifying that he hadn’t sold any Ether in the past month, a user on X challenged Buterin to explain why the Ethereum Foundation was continuously offloading the blockchain’s native asset despite market concerns.

The Ethereum co-founder said the foundation uses funds from these sales to pay researchers and developers responsible for ensuring the blockchain doesn’t “bleed” five million ETH per year to the proof of work consensus, low gas fees, and faster transactions.

Buterin also clarified why the Ethereum Foundation doesn’t stake all of its ETH holdings or use revenues from this strategy to foot its expenses.

“One internal reason why has been that we don't want to be in the situation of being forced to make an "official choice" in the event of a contentious hard fork.” Buterin wrote . “One interesting idea around this that is being considered is giving some grants in the form of "you can stake our ETH, you choose how as long as it's ethical, and keep the upside".”

Per Buterin, another way of resolving this challenge would be to spread Ethereum’s legitimacy and resources “so there’s multiple orgs viewed in people’s eyes as credibly representing Ethereum.” The Ethereum co-founder asserted that the network is currently more prepared to implement this than it was two years ago.

Read how Vitalik vowed not to sell Ether again:
Vitalik on Ethereum Sales: “That Was the Last One”

Stay updated on Vitalik’s proposal to reduce Ethereum’s data bloat and complexity:
Vitalik Buterin Shares Plan to Reduce Ethereum’s Bloat and Complexity