Ethereum Foundation Wallet Transfers Over $290 Million in ETH After 7 Years

A wallet associated with the Ethereum Foundation has transferred 92,500 ETH, worth $294.9 million, after being inactive for nearly 6.6 years.

According to Lookonchain, these tokens have been held at the same address since 2017.

The Transfer Details

On-chain data indicates that the ETH was originally received from the Ethereum Foundation on September 1, 2015. The transfer, recorded on July 25, occurred just minutes after a smaller transaction of 1 ETH from the same wallet.

Before the transaction, the only other one from this address in the past seven years was a negligible movement of 0.000513 ETH 30 days ago.

An #EthereumFoundation-related wallet transferred 92,500 $ETH($294.9M) to a new wallet 9 hours ago after being dormant for 6.6 years.

Through on-chain tracking, it was found that these $ETH were received from the #EthereumFoundation on Sept 1, 2015.https://t.co/FKGsNCrBAT pic.twitter.com/vPOAMq4ccK

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 26, 2024

At writing time, Etherscan shows that the funds remain in the new wallet. The reasons behind this transfer are still unknown, and the Ethereum Foundation has not commented on the situation.

Before this, the organization had not engaged in any major selling activity in the current market cycle, causing speculation about a potential change in strategy.

Analysts noted that, historically, the Foundation had strategically sold large amounts of ETH during each bull market, often timing these sales with market peaks. The absence of significant sales in the current cycle had raised questions about whether the market peak was still ahead or if the Foundation had altered its approach.

On July 25, the price of ETH dropped by 10% as spot Ethereum ETFs experienced $133 million in outflows on their second day. The asset fell from nearly $3,500 to a multi-day low of $3,130. At the time of writing, the token is trading at $3,266, having increased by 3% in the last 24 hours.

Previous Ethereum Foundation Transfers

Earlier in July, other wallets linked to the Ethereum Foundation made some transfers. On July 17, according to on-chain analytics firm SpotOnChain, an Ethereum Foundation wallet and another connected to an Ethereum initial coin offering (ICO) participant transferred $12.5 million and $9 million worth of ETH, respectively, to Kraken.

Two #Ethereum Foundation/ICO-related wallets deposited 3,631 $ETH ($12.5M) to #Kraken in the past 2 days as the market rebounded:

1️⃣ Wallet 0xdb3 unloaded 2,631 $ETH ($9.01M).

• It received $ETH from the Ethereum Foundation and Ethereum ICO participant 0xAb0.

• Since June 8,… pic.twitter.com/rpEC1Fe4jj

— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) July 17, 2024

Since early June, these two wallets have deposited a total of 17,886 ETH, valued at around $65 million, to the centralized cryptocurrency trading platform, suggesting a possible sell-off.

In January, Arkham Intelligence identified a blockchain address associated with the Ethereum Foundation that sold $1.6 million worth of ETH.

Then, in April, Peckshield Alert reported that the Foundation had converted part of its ETH holdings into stablecoins, exchanging 100 ETH for 354,000 DAI during a time when ETH was trading above $3,600.