Ethereum Foundation Offloads $23M in ETH to BitMine for Third Time in Two Months

The Ethereum Foundation has completed a third over-the-counter (OTC) sale of ETH to BitMine Immersion Technologies, offloading another 10,000 ETH at an average price of $2,292 per coin, worth roughly $22.9 million.

“This sale funds the Ethereum Foundation’s core operations and activities, including protocol R&D, ecosystem development, community grant funding and more,” the Foundation wrote in a Friday post on X.

The sale follows a nearly identical 10,000 ETH transaction completed just one week earlier at $2,387 per coin. The Foundation’s first sale to BitMine came in March, when it sold 5,000 ETH at around $2,043. Combined, the Foundation has sold approximately $47 million worth of ETH to BitMine in the past week alone.

Ethereum Foundation sells 10,000 ETH. Source: Ethereum Foundation

The move also comes after the foundation unstaked 17,035 ETH worth roughly $40 million last week, apparently dropping its stated goal of 70,000 staked ETH.

Related: These 3 Ethereum metrics favor an ETH price rally to $6K

EF under scrutiny over ETH sales

The repeated sales have drawn criticism from the community. “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?!” one user wrote in response to the announcement.

The Foundation has faced scrutiny over its ETH sales before, and at one point last year said it planned to limit them. It has since moved to offset some of that pressure by staking a portion of its holdings.

ETH is currently trading at around $2,303, largely flat over the past day, according to data from CoinMarketCap. However, the token is down by more than 53% compared to its all-time high of $4,953 registered in August last year.

Related: Ether treasuries need liquid staking edge to beat ETFs, says Lido exec

BitMine nears 5 million ETH

BitMine, chaired by Tom Lee, is the largest Ethereum treasury company by holdings, with nearly 5 million ETH on its books. The milestone was reached after the firm added 101,901 ETH in its biggest weekly purchase of the year.

The company has also been aggressively staking its holdings, with 83% of its cumulative ETH, around 4.19 million coins worth roughly $9.5 billion, now staked as of Thursday, up from about 70% the previous week.

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