Vitalik Buterin nears completion of recent ETH sales

Vitalik Buterin may be done with selling ETH for the purposes of financing through the Ethereum Foundation. Most of the sales happened in the price range of around $2,000 per ETH. 

Vitalik Buterin may be almost done with selling a portion of his ETH holdings. The funds are earmarked for the Ethereum Foundation, which will move forward with more careful financing for new projects. 

As Cryptopolitan reported, the Ethereum Foundation was supposed to enter a period of austerity, setting aside funds for staking, as well as an additional 16,420 ETH from Vitalik Buterin. 

Buterin has been selling ETH for the past month, raising more questions about the founder’s duty to hold the token. Over the years, Buterin was generous with ETH donations and sales, shrinking his allocation from 700K ETH down to 224K. 

Buterin extends WETH sales, charity transfers

On-chain data shows Buterin sold 16,420 ETH for the Foundation’s needs, a little higher than the intended 16,384 ETH. 

Vitalik (@VitalikButerin) has now sold 16,420 $ETH for $32.84M at $2,000, exceeding the originally planned 16,384 $ETH.

The move aligns with the Ethereum Foundation’s “mild austerity” strategy – redirecting funds toward security, privacy, core R&D, and long-term ecosystem… https://t.co/Xqa3KIv1FH pic.twitter.com/8pVroM76ZZ

— Onchain Lens (@OnchainLens) February 26, 2026

Along with the establishment of funds for the Foundation, Buterin also sold ETH on multiple occasions in February. Other sources claim Buterin already sold 17,196 ETH. One of the known wallets of Buterin keeps sending WETH through Cow Protocol, exchanging for various stablecoins, including USDTB, GHO, PYUSD, and EUROC.

The wallet now accrues reserves in those various stablecoins, while also holding wrapped ETH in DeFi protocols like Aave. Buterin also uses several wallets, with some specifically created for charity. 

Buterin’s own decisions are not constrained by the Foundation, and can lead to more unpredictable selling. 

The Ethereum Foundation is also sitting on around 172K ETH, while still providing smaller grants to its affiliated projects. 

ETH has recovered to $2,059.05, as the crypto market regained its optimism in the past days. The selling from Buterin’s wallets is not enough to sway the market, but it remains closely watched for the future of the ecosystem. 

Ethereum Foundation releases new roadmap

The Ethereum Foundation announced the creation of a new, detailed roadmap targeting developers and in-depth experts in the Ethereum ecosystem. Strawmap, as the project is called, contains a detailed list of upcoming protocol changes. 

The roadmap is technically dense, but features five main points. The first objective is a faster L1 with finality in seconds. The Gigagas feature aims for 10K transactions per second through Zk EVMs and real-time proving. The teragas feature will allow for 10M transactions via data availability sampling. 

Ethereum will also focus on quantum-proofing the L1 and offering shielded ETH transfers through privacy. Ethereum may evolve far beyond its early days to compete with faster networks like Solana. 

The Strawman roadmap originated in January 2026, motivated by a plan to make Ethereum leaner and accelerate adoption of a potentially faster network. Most of the features are still in the discussion stage, but may fit the general plan of the Ethereum Foundation for a faster L1.

If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.