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Vitalik Buterin Sells ETH as Price Drops Below $2,000

Recently, Vitalik Buterin, who helped create Ethereum, sold thousands of ETH as the price of Ether slipped below $2,000. This kind of news comes from looking at public data on the blockchain, which is called on-chain data. On-chain data means information that is saved on the Ethereum network itself, like a public ledger that records every transfer of coins. Lookonchain is one of the groups that watches this data to understand what big holders are doing with their crypto. In simple terms, they track moves that happen on the blockchain so people can see what investors are buying or selling.

Vitalik Buterin is a central figure in the world of Ethereum. For readers who want to learn more about him, you can visit the Wikipedia page about Vitalik Buterin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitalik_Buterin). The same goes for Ethereum itself (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethereum) and the Ethereum Foundation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethereum_Foundation), the nonprofit group that supports Ethereum research and development. There are also important people and projects connected to this story, like Aave (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aave), a popular lending platform in decentralized finance, and its founder Stani Kulechov (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stani_Kulechov). The basics of these terms will be explained later in this article.

Over three days, Lookonchain reported that wallets linked to Buterin sold 2,961 ETH. At that time the sales were worth about $6.6 million. The average price for these sales was around $2,228 per ETH. In less than a day after that first report, Lookonchain added that the three-day total had grown to 6,183 ETH. That amounts to roughly $13.2 million. The average exit price for this period was closer to $2,140 as the price of ETH continued to fall.

Some of the money from these sales did not stay with Buterin. He moved about $500,000 he earned from selling 212 ETH on February 2 to Kanro, a philanthropic fund linked to open-source biomedical research. Kanro Fund confirmed the transfer the same day and said the funds will be used to support projects aimed at fighting airborne diseases and other pandemic-related work. The organization also noted that Buterin has supported similar efforts for nearly three years, including a personal donation of $20 million made in October 2025. The idea here is that top crypto founders often support causes they believe can help people, such as scientific research and health work.

Buterin later spoke about his broader plans in a post on X (the social platform formerly known as Twitter). He said he had withdrawn 16,384 ETH to support work in several areas outside Ethereum’s main technology. He mentioned biotech, secure hardware, privacy-focused software, and other fields. He described this spending as part of a period when the Ethereum Foundation wants to spend less on internal projects and focus more on other ventures. In plain language, he is shifting money away from Ethereum’s core work to support science and technology across different fields.

What was happening in the market around this time? The price of ETH had been under pressure and fell well below a level around $2,100 that many traders saw as a key support area. At the time of writing, ETH was trading near $1,900. This represented a drop of about 7% in the last 24 hours and more than 30% over the past week. On-chain data suggests the selling was not just coming from everyday people. A February 5 report from CryptoQuant showed that U.S. investors were selling ETH at a discount, which pushed the Coinbase Premium Index down to its lowest level since July 2022. The Coinbase Premium Index is a way some traders measure how ETH prices on Coinbase differ from the global market price; when it’s low, it can indicate big buyers are reducing their exposure, or de-risking, during a market correction. In simple terms, institutions and large investors may be stepping back from risk as prices fall.

Other large holders were also active. Lookonchain reported on February 6 that Trend Research sold more than 170,000 ETH in under 10 hours to repay loans. At the same time, Stani Kulechov, the founder of Aave—one of the biggest decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platforms—sold about 4,500 ETH near $1,900. DeFi projects let people lend and borrow crypto, and big wallets sometimes sell to manage their loans or reduce risk when prices move against them.

On the other side of the activity, some well-known investors took positions as prices dipped. 7 Siblings, a group of serial crypto investors, bought 9,000 ETH for a little under $2,000 each. This kind of buying shows that while some sellers are reducing risk, others are taking advantage of lower prices to add to their holdings.

The overall story ends up as a picture of a market in which a few very large holders adjust their portfolios as prices change. Vitalik Buterin, who helped create Ethereum, has sold substantial amounts of ETH and used some proceeds for philanthropic work. At the same time, other big names either sold to pay back loans or bought more ETH as prices fell. This combination of actions is a common pattern in markets where prices are volatile: some people reduce risk, others look for opportunities, and others continue to support research and development in related fields.

The news about this activity originated from CryptoPotato, which reported the post with the headline Vitalik Buterin Increases ETH Selling as Price Falls Below $2K.

Definitions of terms used in this article (for readers who want quick explanations):