Ethereum Foundation Sell-Off Sparks Fears as Institutions Turn Bearish on ETH

  • The Ethereum Foundation’s recent sale of 200 ETH, coupled with substantial institutional withdrawals, has fueled bearish sentiment and raised questions about Ethereum’s future.
  • Despite the Ethereum Foundation sell-off, ETH has managed to defy the bearish sentiment and showcase resilience.

This year has seen Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation go on a sell-off spree. Now, the Ethereum Foundation’s recent sell-off, which saw 200 ETH being offloaded, has reignited fears among investors. According to Onchain data, the transaction, which took place on Monday, highlighted the overarching bearish narrative gripping the second-largest digital asset.  

Diving deep, on September 23rd, Etherescan data show that the Ethereum Foundation unloaded 200 ETH for 27,989 DAI, which, in fact, is a stablecoin. This recent sale brought the total number of 1,150 ETH throughout September, accounting for approximately $2.8 million. These consecutive sales, as we have earlier reported, have drawn attention as investors wonder about the motivation behind them, putting into keen consideration the already weak market for Ethereum. 

Focusing closely on the wallet address responsible for the transactions, registered as “0xd77,” this wallet has recently seen several offloading activities. While the Ethereum Foundation is known for periodically withdrawing assets to fund development and development projects surrounding the ecosystem, this consistent sale at once has created a lot of buzz. Investors fear that the foundation’s actions may add to the negative sentiment that is already brewing.

That’s not it; Ethereum is in the middle of a rough storm. Coinshare’s data has shown that Ethereum’s struggles aren’t limited to just the foundation’s sell-off. During the past week, the cryptocurrency saw outflows of $28.5 million, and the month-to-date figure now stands at $145.7 million. 

This level of institutional exodus indicates that large investors are growing increasingly skeptical about Ethereum’s future performance, even considering events such as the Federal Reserve’s recent rate cut, which have seemingly offered a boost to cryptocurrencies.

On the other hand, following the Federal Reserve cut-rate, Bitcoin has recovered, in fact Bitcoin rose to a month high on Monday. Additionally, Bitcoin has undergone inflows totaling to $284 million for the past week and $76 million month-to-date. 

ETH Price Performance

Despite Ethereum’s bleed-off, ETH has managed to defy the bearish sentiment and showcase resilience. At the time of press, Ethereum’s ETH is changing wallets with $2,668.44, representing a 3.73%  and a 16.38% surge in the past 24 hours and past week, respectively. In light of this, ETH is still 3.23% short of its past month.

On top of that, ETH’s 24-hour trading volume has undergone a 65.11% surge, stopping at $18.9 billion, not forfeiting a 3.89% surge in its market cap, which currently stands at $321.6 Billion.

Additionally, data from Coinglass shows that futures open interest in Ethereum rose by 0.69% to $12.09 billion today, while derivatives volume surged by 77.12% to $28.37 billion. These numbers reflect traders’ degree of optimism despite the growing supply of Ethereum on the exchange.