Vitalik Buterin Sells $7M in Ethereum as ETH Falls 30%

Lookonchain reported that on February 22 Vitalik Buterin withdrew 3,500 ETH from the DeFi protocol Aave, valued at about $6.95 million, and sold 571 of those tokens for $1.13 million within hours. The move stands in contrast to his January 30 announcement that the Ethereum Foundation would enter a period of “mild austerity” after withdrawing 16,384 ETH to support the foundation and deploy tokens over the next few years.

Since February 2, Buterin has sold more than 7,380 ETH for roughly $15.5 million at an average price of $2,100, and with the February 22 transactions has liquidated over half of that austerity reserve in under a month. The concentrated selling arrives as ETH has tumbled 30% over the past month, trading just below the $2,000 level.

Institutional investors and market participants frequently view heavy founder liquidations during steep drawdowns as a bearish indicator. Some on-chain analytics firms see a different signal.

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