On Monday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin defended the Ethereum Foundation (EF) against allegations of deliberate ETH dumping via the social media platform, X (formerly Twitter). The heated discussions came up after Lookonchain reported that the foundation had sold Ethereum for the second time this month. According to the blockchain analytics platform, the Ethereum Foundation sold 100 ETH, valued at approximately $336,000 today. The transaction formed a part of a total of 4,666 ETH sold since January 2. Critics are now pointing fingers at the company, saying that its transactions have contributed to Ethereum’s price slump during the Trump rally, where Bitcoin and other memecoins have seen exponential price upticks of more than two times their values. Dumping allegations sparked by Ethereum sales The latest conversation started when one X user, going by the pseudonym DCinvestor, criticized the foundation for being “neutral” by not using ETH to pay employees or handle operational costs. the EF uses Ethereum all the time, for instance to (1) swap ETH for stables (usually @CoWSwap ) and (2) to pay people (grantees, team members) in stables and ETH, on mainnet and L2s. Events we run (like Devcon and Devconnect) take onchain payments and use onchain ID for tickets. — Josh Stark (@0xstark) January 20, 2025 An Ethereum Foundation staff member attempted to clarify the situation, saying the foundation uses the coin in several instances: when swapping ETH for stablecoins through the decentralized exchange CoWswap and to pay employees, sometimes in stablecoins. They also pointed out that events carried out by the company, like Devcon and Devconnect, use on-chain payments for ticketing. However, the explanation failed to placate some naysayers. They argue that it’s ironic for staff members to claim they use Ethereum, while the first example they gave was swapping it for other assets. They added that Ethereum Foundation could use its DeFi platforms to pay up most of its operational costs. "The EF uses the chain, actually our number 1 use case is dumping ETH" Actually insane EF could easily stake ETH and use DeFi to cover most if not all of their internal budget This is getting extremely tough to defend https://t.co/3q4kiRvk9e — eric.eth (@econoar) January 20, 2025 On the same thread, co-founder Vitalik Buterin argued that there were regulatory concerns with staking ETH, which could also inadvertently force the organization to take sides during potential future contentious hard forks. Another X user quoted Buterin, insisting that the regulatory concern was a “non-issue,” given that president-elect Trump recently launched memecoins, insinuating that no scrutiny would fall on the organization if it decided to directly stake ETH. Since last year, Buterin has refuted Ethereum Foundation profit-taking allegations on multiple occasions, even going as far as outlining its financial fair play initiatives and contributions to the crypto industry. bro the ETH foundation is paying researchers and devs that are responsible for (i) ethereum not bleeding 5M ETH/year to proof of work (ii) your fees being low today (iii) your txs getting included in show some respect — vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) October 26, 2024 However, critics persist that large sales during politically volatile periods, such as the Trump rally, have exacerbated price declines. Ethereum’s market performance still steady Ethereum ’s price action has been shown mixed signals since the start of 2025. On the daily chart, the crypto is trading within a falling channel pattern but has strong support at the 50% Fibonacci retracement level of $3,158. This has provided a cushion for the second-largest crypto, helping it maintain levels above $3,346, an intraday gain of 0.3% from the opening price of $3,212. ETH daily chart. Source: TradingView Lower price rejections in daily trading candles suggest a potential double-bottom reversal near the 50% Fibonacci level. The daily Relative Strength Index (RSI) also indicates a bullish divergence, hinting at a possible upward trajectory. However, increased selling pressure has led to a bearish crossover between the 20-day and 50-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMA), as bears build defensive formations to thwart any upside movement beyond $3,500. Land a High-Paying Web3 Job in 90 Days: The Ultimate Roadmap
