Breaking! V God sells nearly 20,000 $ETH in a month, with the founder leading the dump. Is this the last straw breaking the bear market confidence?

Market observers have noted that in February 2026, the price of $ETH continued to decline, with the monthly candlestick closing in the red for six consecutive months, during which the largest drop approached 30%. During this sensitive period, an on-chain address associated with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin executed over 500 sell transactions.

According to publicly available blockchain data, this address completed its last transaction on the evening of February 26. Throughout February, the address sold approximately 19,326 $ETH. This amount exceeds the total he announced a month earlier by nearly 3,000 tokens.

This fund movement was not without warning. As early as the end of January, Vitalik himself posted a lengthy message on social media, announcing that he would withdraw 16,384 $ETH from his personal wallet and gradually cash out, worth about $44 million at the time.

He explained that this move was a personal response to the Ethereum Foundation entering a “moderate contraction” phase. The foundation plans to reduce its annual expenses from 15% to 5% of its funds over the next five years, focusing more on core protocol development. The proceeds from Vitalik’s sales would be used to support areas that might be marginalized due to the foundation’s tightening, but are still critical, such as privacy technology, security hardware, verifiable computing, open-source operating systems, biotech, and public health tools. He emphasized that this was a personal decision aimed at sharing the foundation’s responsibilities. The entire sale was conducted in batches via a single address and specific decentralized trading protocols, designed to minimize direct market impact and remain fully on-chain verifiable.

However, there was a slight deviation between the plan and execution. The actual sale of 19,326 $ETH exceeded the initially announced 16,384 by about 2,942 tokens. The selling activity started on February 3, paused for about ten days, then resumed on the 22nd, accelerating in the final days, with nearly 6,300 $ETH sold on February 26 alone. The reason for exceeding the announced amount has not been further explained.

Vitalik has publicly stated that since 2018, his sales of $ETH have not been for personal wealth accumulation; the proceeds are mainly used for donations, project funding, or charity. Compared to some project teams secretly dumping tokens, which can damage trust, this transparent approach is indeed more commendable.

Objectively, in a time when the token price is continuously falling and the market is trying to find a rebound point, the founder’s accelerated selling acts as a test of community confidence. Market sentiment is like a frightened bird—such actions can amplify fear, uncertainty, and doubt, adding to the overall bear market pressure and pushing $ETH prices further downward. In the short term, this may increase holders’ selling tendencies, affecting $ETH’s rebound potential and ecosystem stability.

Follow me for more real-time analysis and insights into the crypto market! $BTC $ETH $SOL

#Celebrating New Year at Gate Plaza

#CryptoMarketRebound