Ethereum Foundation Sells 10,000 ETH to BitMine

The Ethereum Foundation completed a third over-the-counter sale, selling 10,000 ETH to BitMine Immersion Technologies at an average price of $2,292 per coin, for roughly $22.9 million. The Foundation wrote on X that the proceeds will support protocol research and development, ecosystem development and community grants.

The trade followed a nearly identical 10,000-ETH sale one week earlier that averaged $2,387 per coin. Those two transactions total about $46.8 million. The Foundation also sold 5,000 ETH in March at about $2,043 per coin, bringing the three sales to roughly $57.0 million in ETH sold to BitMine since March.

The sales came after the Foundation unstaked 17,035 ETH the prior week, an amount estimated at about $40 million. The unstaking appeared to alter an earlier public target of keeping 70,000 ETH staked.

BitMine, chaired by Tom Lee, reported adding 101,901 ETH in its largest weekly purchase of the year and now holds nearly 5 million ETH. The firm has increased the share of its holdings placed in staking contracts: about 83% of its cumulative ETH, roughly 4.19 million coins, were staked as of Thursday, up from about 70% the previous week, according to BitMine’s public figures.

The Foundation’s repeated sales have drawn criticism from parts of the community. A user on X responded to the announcement: “Why do you need $46 million in 2 weeks?! How much are you guys burning and what for? Why is no one from the devs taking ETH directly as payment?!”

Market data showed ETH trading near $2,303 at the time of the announcement, roughly flat over 24 hours and down more than 53% from its all-time high of $4,953 recorded in August last year.

The Foundation presented the OTC sales as operational funding for its core activities. BitMine’s disclosures outline its growing institutional holdings and increased staking. Public posts from both organizations provided the primary details on amounts and prices involved.