Vitalik Buterin Sells 17,000 ETH as Ether Falls 37% in February

Vitalik Buterin reduced his ETH holdings to 224,000 ETH in February after earmarking 16,384 ETH for privacy and open hardware; Ether fell 37% month-over-month.

Rich by Coin

2026-02-25

Vitalik Buterin earmarked 17,000 ether, worth about $43 million, for privacy projects in January. A month later, his wallet balance is down by roughly that amount, and the token he’s selling has lost more than a third of its value. Arkham Intelligence data shows Buterin’s attributed wallets held about 241,000 ETH at the start of February. That figure now sits at 224,000 ETH after a steady series of outflows through the month, including $6.6 million over three days earlier in February and roughly another $7 million in the past three days alone.

The sales were executed through decentralized exchange aggregator CoW Protocol, broken into numerous smaller swaps rather than single large transactions. Ether has dropped 37% over the past month, according to CoinDesk market data, trading near $1,900 on Wednesday. More than 30% of ETH supply remains locked in staking, but yields have compressed to around 2.8%, making the lock-up less attractive relative to risk-free alternatives.

Buterin announced the $43 million allocation in January, saying he had set aside 16,384 ETH to fund privacy-preserving technologies, open hardware, and secure software systems. The capital, he said, would be deployed gradually over several years.