Vitalik Buterin withdrew 3,500 Ethereum (ETH) worth approximately $6.95 million from Aave, resuming a selling pattern after a two-week pause, according to on-chain trackers Lookonchain and Arkham Intelligence.
The withdrawal brings his total Ethereum sales since Feb. 2 to 7,386 ETH - worth roughly $15.51 million at an average price near $2,100 per coin.
ETH was trading below $2,000 at the time of the latest withdrawal, meaning recent sales have come at prices below Buterin's average for the month.
What the On-Chain Data Shows
Within hours of the Aave withdrawal, Buterin had already sold 571 ETH for $1.13 million, with the remaining 2,929 ETH still pending at the time of initial reporting.
A prior batch sold in early February - 2,961 ETH for approximately $6.6 million over three days - was routed through CoW Protocol using multiple small swaps rather than a single block trade, a method commonly used to reduce visible market impact.
On Feb. 22, Buterin also converted an additional 428.57 ETH into 850,178 GHO, Aave's native stablecoin, according to OnchainLens monitoring, suggesting a portion of proceeds are being held in stablecoin form rather than converted to fiat immediately.
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Why It Matters
Buterin's sales follow a public commitment he made in late January to earmark 16,384 ETH - then worth approximately $43–45 million - for open-source infrastructure, privacy-preserving technology, and open hardware projects.
He has described the move as a personal assumption of funding responsibilities that might otherwise fall to the Ethereum Foundation, which he said was entering a period of "mild austerity."
Buterin currently holds approximately 240,000 ETH, valued at around $467 million, making him the largest accessible individual ETH holder according to Arkham. His February sales represent less than 4% of that balance, though the timing - against a backdrop of ETH sliding below $2,000 - has added pressure to already thin liquidity.
Aave founder Stani Kulechov sold 4,503 ETH in early February under similar market conditions, amplifying the perception of coordinated insider de-risking among some market observers.
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