Founder’s actions spark heated discussion: Vitalik continues to reduce ETH holdings, with funds flowing into biotechnology and open-source research.
Reduction details: On February 5, 2026, the latest on-chain data shows that Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin (vitalik.eth) sold 2,779 ETH in batches through CowSwap over the past 3 days, with an average selling price of approximately $2,238, totaling about $6.22 million.
Where the funds go:
Kanro donation: About $500,000 has been transferred to the charity organization Kanro he founded. This organization focuses on scientific research related to COVID-19 and future pandemics.
Ecosystem support: This reduction is part of his “Personal Donation Plan” announced on January 30. Vitalik previously stated that he would withdraw 16,384 ETH from personal holdings for charitable and ecological goals in the coming years to reduce the psychological pressure on the market caused by direct sales from the Ethereum Foundation (EF).
Market signals and reflections:
Roadmap shift: In conjunction with the sell-off, Vitalik recently stated that Ethereum’s original “Rollup-centric L2 scaling solution” has become obsolete as of 2026, shifting focus to the scaling capabilities of L1 itself, which sparked intense discussions in the community about the value capture abilities of L2s like Base and Arbitrum.
Price trend: Under the dual influence of the sell-off and narrative shift, ETH prices quickly fell from around $3,000 to about $2,200 in early February, setting a new low against BTC's exchange rate since 2021.
Expert comments: Analyst Ai noted that although Vitalik’s sell-offs are mostly for charitable purposes, in the current market environment with weak liquidity, such frequent on-chain actions can easily trigger “follow-sell” actions from quantitative funds.
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