Ethereum Foundation sold $48.9M ETH

The Ethereum Foundation sold 10,000 ether to BitMine on April 24, then started unstaking another roughly $48.9 million in ETH two days later. (coindesk.com) (blockonomi.com) BitMine said it agreed to buy the 10,000 ETH in an over-the-counter transaction for about $23.8 million, or $2,387 per coin, with settlement through the Foundation’s Safe multisig wallet. (coindesk.com) (cryptobriefing.com) The Ethereum Foundation said the proceeds will fund core operations, including protocol research and development, ecosystem work, and community grants. Its Ecosystem Support Program says it backed 677 projects with $44.4 million in 2024. (cryptobriefing.com) (esp.ethereum.foundation) On April 26, Arkham-tracked wallets tied to the Foundation moved wrapped staked ether into Lido’s unstaking system, a step that turns yield-bearing tokens back into liquid ETH after the withdrawal queue clears. (blockonomi.com) (broadchain.info) Blockonomi reported the unstaking involved 271 batched transactions and about 21,000 ETH at then-current prices, which is where the $48.9 million figure came from. (blockonomi.com) The two transactions are separate. One was a completed sale to BitMine for cash; the other was an on-chain withdrawal request that made staked ETH liquid but did not by itself prove an immediate sale. (coindesk.com) (blockonomi.com) BitMine had already bought 5,000 ETH from the Ethereum Foundation in March, so the April purchase marked a second direct treasury sale to the same buyer in about a month. (cryptobriefing.com) (msn.com) The Foundation’s June 2025 treasury policy, as cited by MSN’s summary of reporting from Cryptopolitan, targets annual spending at 15% of reserves and a 2.5-year runway. The same report said the Foundation held about 92,538 ETH after the April sale. (msn.com) That left traders parsing whether the Foundation was simply rebalancing a treasury that now mixes staked and liquid ETH, or preparing more coins for sale after the BitMine deal. (blockonomi.com) (cryptobriefing.com) For now, the clearest fact is narrower than the chatter: the Foundation confirmed one $23.87 million OTC sale, and on-chain data showed a much larger unstaking request still working its way through Lido. (cryptobriefing.com) (blockonomi.com)