Ethereum: They Swear It Wasn’t Them 🤷

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So, it seems someone was having a bit of a clear-out, moving a considerable chunk of Ether (a digital whatsit, for the uninitiated) from an old wallet. Naturally, all fingers pointed at the Ethereum Foundation. They, however, are having none of it. “Not us!” they declared, with the sort of emphatic denial usually reserved for accidentally eating the last biscuit. 🍪

  • Apparently, the Ethereum Foundation didn’t sell 2,975 ETH from a wallet that looked suspiciously like theirs.
  • A co-executive director insists the wallet is now as independent as a particularly stubborn houseplant. 🪴
  • Corporate wallets are now hoarding over $14 billion in ETH, because apparently, that’s a sensible thing to do.

Hsiao-Wei Wang, a co-Executive Director who clearly has better things to do than explain wallet ownership, took to X (formerly known as Twitter, or that place where people shout into the void) to state, in no uncertain terms, that this particular $12.8 million sell-off wasn’t their operation. Which is reassuring. Mostly. 🤔

Wang’s disclaimer arrived hot on the heels of on-chain detectives noticing this wallet, previously linked to the Foundation, parting ways with its 2,975 ETH in a two-part transaction. A perfectly normal way to spend a Monday, obviously.

It was not the Ethereum Foundation’s operation.

Fun fact: Back in the 2014 ICO, ~9% of the ETH supply was allocated to the EF; now EF holds under 0.3% of the total supply. So you can probably find tons of addresses linked to EF after ten years.

– hww.eth | Hsiao-Wei Wang (@hwwonx) August 13, 2025

The wallet in question, it turns out, once received ETH way back in 2017 – a clear indication of its past life as a Foundation associate. But, argues Ms. Wang, it’s now gone rogue. They used to hold a significant 9% of all ETH but now account for a measly 0.3%! It’s like watching a once-vast empire slowly but surely… becoming less vast.

The team’s historical tendency for occasional “ETH dumps” (a rather dramatic term, really) understandably put everyone on edge. This latest sell-off smelled suspiciously familiar. But now, it seems, they’re merely shrinking their financial footprint, probably to blend in better. 🕵️

ETH Foundation Relaxes While Corporations Pounce

Over the last few months, the Foundation has been strategically… reducing things. Selling. Letting go. Including a substantial 10,000 ETH sale to SharpLink Gaming, a publicly traded company that is now rather thrilled with its newly acquired position as the second-largest corporate ETH holder. The whole thing was done “on-chain,” which sounds complicated. And possibly involves lasers. 💥

This coincides with a rather alarming trend: corporations are now collecting ETH like they’re going out of fashion. Over $14 billion worth, in fact, concentrating a worrying amount of the network’s supply in the hands of… well, shareholders. That’s a whole new level of decentralized, isn’t it?

Vitalik Buterin, one of Ethereum’s founders (and a man who clearly foresees doom around every corner), isn’t overly impressed with this development. He describes it as a ‘double-edged sword’, which is a polite way of saying things could go horribly wrong. He worries that companies might borrow money against their ETH holdings… which sounds like a very bad idea.

A downturn could trigger a cascade of frantic selling, causing market chaos and generally ruining everyone’s day. Apparently, it’s all a bit like financial Jenga, except with more numbers and considerably less wood. 🧱

Meanwhile, Ethereum itself is having a surprisingly good time, currently trading at $4,776 – up a whopping 30% this week, and tantalizingly close to its all-time high. It’s a bit like finding a five-dollar bill in your old trousers. Unexpected, but welcome. 🥳

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2025-08-14 11:35