On May 7, two whales dumped 19,090 ethereum (ETH), valued at approximately $35.7 million, on Uniswap.
The sales came after Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain, and the Ethereum Foundation, sold coins worth roughly $30 million on Kraken, a U.S.-based centralized exchange a few hours earlier.
The panic may have set in when the first whale converted 9,950 ETH for 18.63 million DAI. Shortly after, another whale dumped 9,140 ETH for 17.07 million DAI.
DAI is an algorithmic stablecoin tracking the value of USD. It is issued on Ethereum by MakerDAO, one of the largest decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol.
Following these sales and Buterin’s exiting the market, ethereum prices have been tracking lower according to CoinMarketCap (CMC) data.
The recent actions of Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation have raised questions about whether ETH will sustain the uptrend seen in Q1 2023.
The last time the Ethereum Foundation sold its holdings, ETH slipped into a prolonged bear market. It is yet to be seen whether prices are currently peaking and if sellers will force the coin lower in the sessions ahead.
Vitalik Buterin regularly sells ethereum
Even amid this uncertanity, Buterin regularly sells his stash via his choice exchange, Kraken.
In 2019, Vitalik Buterin transferred 92,000 ETH, worth $11.5 million from a single wallet to the exchange.
Most recently, on-chain data shows Vitalik sold all his free tokens, comprising 50 billion MOPS tokens for 1.25 ETH, roughly $2,000, 500 trillion SHIK for 380 ETH, about $600,000, and 10 billion CULT tokens for 58 ETH, nearly $91,000; netting roughly $700,000
Moreover, the blockchain security company PeckShield revealed that Vitalik sold 3.4 million BITE tokens for 4.9 ETH. Buterin also transferred 214 ETH to an EthDev address.
A wallet believed to be controlled by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sold 3,000 ETH, converting the cryptocurrency into U.S. Dollar-backed stablecoins via the decentralized exchange Uniswap.
In an interview, Buterin revealed he personally orchestrated the sale of 70,000 ETH in 2018, when the coin was trading around its all-time high, receiving $100 million.
