Breaking! Vitalik sells nearly 20,000 $ETH in a single month. Is the founder "blatantly dumping" due to a collapse of faith or is there another hidden reason?

Market observers have noticed that in February 2026, the price of $ETH continued to decline, recording six consecutive monthly bearish candles, with the largest drop approaching 30%. During this generally bearish market sentiment, addresses associated with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin experienced intense selling activity.

According to on-chain data, this address executed a total of 532 sell transactions throughout February. The final transaction occurred on the evening of February 26. Statistics show that this address sold approximately 19,326 $ETH in total.

This large-scale fund transfer was not without warning. As early as the end of January, Vitalik Buterin himself posted a lengthy message on social media previewing the plan. He stated that he would withdraw 16,384 $ETH from his personal wallet and gradually liquidate it.

He explained that this was his personal response to Ethereum Foundation entering a “moderate tightening” phase. The foundation plans to reduce its annual operating expenses from 15% to 5% of its funds over the next five years, focusing more on core protocol development. Vitalik aimed to share some of this responsibility through his personal actions.

In that public statement, he also detailed the intended use of the proceeds from the sales. The funds would support various open-source projects and public goods, including privacy tech, secure hardware, verifiable computing, encrypted communication, open-source operating systems, biotech and public health tools, and governance coordination mechanisms. He emphasized that these areas, which might be marginalized after the foundation’s tightening, are still vital.

The entire selling process maintained a high level of transparency. Vitalik used a single address and conducted batch small- to medium-sized trades via the CoW Swap protocol, aiming to minimize market impact. All transactions are traceable and verifiable on-chain.

However, there was a slight deviation from the initial forecast in actual execution. The final amount of $ETH sold was about 19,326, exceeding the predicted 16,384 by roughly 2,942. The sale started on February 3, paused for about ten days, then resumed on February 22, accelerating in the final days, with nearly 6,300 $ETH sold on February 26 alone.

The reason for the actual sale exceeding the forecast remains unclear—whether the forecast was only a rough target or if plans changed during execution. Vitalik has not provided further explanation. He has previously stated multiple times that since 2018, his $ETH sales have not been for personal wealth accumulation; most proceeds have been donated, used for project funding, or charity.

Objectively, compared to those who quietly dump tokens causing project failures or trust crises, this transparent approach appears healthier—at least in terms of openness and declared non-profit motives.

Nevertheless, it’s undeniable that during a period of falling prices and market attempts to find rebound points, the founder’s accelerated selling could undermine community and investor confidence. This fragile sentiment might be amplified, and combined with the overall bear market pressure, could push $ETH prices further down. In the short term, this may increase holders’ selling tendency, affecting $ETH’s rebound potential and ecosystem stability.

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