Vitalik Buterin Sells $1.2M ETH as Ethereum Price Turns Critical

Key Takeaways:

• Vitalik Buterin sold roughly $1.2M worth of ETH, sparking market anxiety during an already fragile period.
• The funds were partly redirected to Kanro, a biotech charity Buterin founded in 2023.
• Large ETH sales don’t signal capitulation, but they amplify fears as price trades near a critical zone.
• Ethereum price is testing the $2,100–$2,300 range, a level that has historically acted as major support.
• Traders argue the recent drop was driven by forced liquidations, not a loss of confidence in Ethereum.

Moves like this tend to rattle the market, especially when sentiment is already fragile.

On-chain analysts at Lookonchain reported that Buterin sold 493 Ethereum (ETH), worth roughly $1.16 million at the time of the transaction.

The wallet, believed to be linked to Buterin, executed several sell-related transactions. The first sale involved 211.84 ETH. Shortly after, the wallet transferred $500,000 in USDC to Kanro, a biotech charity founded by Buterin in 2023. The organization focuses on research related to COVID and future pandemics.

Why Is Vitalik Buterin Selling ETH?

Since the start of 2026, Buterin has been more vocal about Ethereum’s direction and long-term priorities. Not long ago, he also moved a much larger amount of ETH. In total, 16,384 ETH were withdrawn, worth around $38.5 million at current prices ($2,347 per ETH).

According to Buterin, the funds were allocated to support the Ethereum ecosystem. One of the reasons he cited was the need to “deliver on an aggressive roadmap”:

Deliver on an aggressive roadmap that ensures Ethereum’s status as a performant and scalable world computer that does not compromise on robustness, sustainability and decentralization.

In that sense, Buterin’s actions can be seen as constructive rather than bearish. Several experts told Cryptonews that 2026 could be a decisive year for Ethereum. Some even argue that ETH could outperform Bitcoin this cycle.

Still, large ETH sales tend to unsettle investors. Especially during a fresh wave of market weakness, with Ethereum price now close to levels last seen in the summer of 2025.

Ethereum Price ‘Hits the Floor’

It’s important to note that Buterin’s sales do not suggest capitulation. Nor do they signal a loss of faith in Ethereum’s future. If anything, he continues to act as a long-term steward of the project. The real issue lies elsewhere.

Ethereum’s on-chain metrics and its token price have been moving in opposite directions for years. Network activity keeps growing. Price performance does not. That gap is becoming harder to ignore.

As one active Ethereum community member put it:

Every Ethereum metric is at all-time highs. TVL, transactions, stablecoins, active users. When does price catch up?

At the same time, Ethereum price has entered a critical zone between $2,100 and $2,300. The last time ETH traded here was in June 2025, shortly before a strong rebound and a new all-time high.

Earlier, between February and May, Ethereum price lost this range and quickly dropped toward $1,400 before recovering again.

This zone has acted as a key level in the past. The same pattern played out in August and September 2024, when Ethereum price dipped to around $2,100 and bounced shortly after.

Now, however, conditions look more fragile. Negative sentiment, ongoing geopolitical tension, and investor fatigue after months of drawdowns since October 2025 all raise the risk of this level breaking. Still, historical price action suggests ETH has often found support here. For now, both scenarios remain on the table.

Trader Axel Bitblaze described the recent ETH sell-off as unusual. In his view, “this isn’t normal selling.”

He argues that Ethereum’s sharp drop from around $3,000 to $2,200 was driven by forced liquidations, not a shift in fundamentals or sentiment:

Clearly someone big got carried out. This isn’t normal selling. RSI is at levels you only see when something breaks. Forced unwinds. Not people suddenly hating Ethereum. $3k to $2.2k that fast didn’t happen because people changed their mind on Ethereum.

Bitblaze adds that historically, Ethereum has tended to stabilize after moves like this:

It happened because a large leveraged position had to go, and there wasn’t enough liquidity to absorb it. Momentum is already stretched now. Historically, when ETH sits in these zones, downside doesn’t extend much unless there’s a fresh shock. Most of the damage feels done. The body already hit the floor. From here, it’s less about more downside and more about time.

Disclaimer: Crypto is a high-risk asset class. This article is provided for informational purposes and does not constitute investment advice.