Key Takeaways
- The Ethereum Foundation-linked wallet 0x5CBC sold 5,000 ETH for about $9.92M between Nov. 10 and Nov. 14.
- Ether fell between 7.7% and 10.4% after prior foundation sales on Oct. 12, Oct. 26 and Nov. 10.
- The wallet still holds about 10,000 ETH, roughly $19M, per analysts.
Another 1,000 ETH Swapped for Stablecoins
The Ethereum Foundation is still holding strong in its pattern of offloading ETH, with onchain sleuths reporting earlier today that a foundation-linked wallet beginning 0x5CBC dumped another 1,000 ether, worth about $1.9 million.
Over the past five days, the wallet has sold 5,000 ETH for roughly $9.92 million at an average price of $1,983.5.
Analytics account Onchain Lens added more context on how the sales were carried out. The foundation swapped the 1,000 ETH for USDS, Sky’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, through Cowswap (a decentralized exchange aggregator). It also moved 7.79 million USDS to a multisignature (multisig) Safe wallet within the hour. The full history is visible on the wallet’s Etherscan page.
Lastly, popular blockchain analyst ai 9684xtpa, said the wallet has sold 7,785 ETH since Oct. 26, worth about $16.35 million at an average price of $2,100. About 10,000 ETH, worth roughly $19 million, remains in the wallet.
A Pattern That Hasn’t Gone Unnoticed
From the outside looking in, foundation-related sales have become a market signal of sorts, and on Friday, Lookonchain laid out the pattern, saying that every time Ethereum Foundation-linked wallets dump ETH, the asset’s price drops. It listed declines of 9% after an Oct. 12 sale, 7.7% after Oct. 26, and 10.4% after Nov. 10.
Correlation isn’t causation, though, and $9.92 million is small next to ether’s daily trading volume. The foundation has also said in the past that it sells ETH to fund grants, research and operating costs, so steady sales are expected. But the optics are hard to ignore when the organization at the center of ethereum keeps selling (especially as its price falls).
The foundation is also dealing with other headlines, with Bitcoin.com News reporting earlier this week that the organization and Vitalik Buterin had been sued over an employee firing.
Ether Under Pressure
Ether traded as low as $1,898 early Saturday, down about 15.4% over seven days and 19.5% over 30 days. It sits roughly 61.6% below its $4,946 all-time high from August 2025 and trackers reported over $330 million in crypto liquidations in two hours as ETH broke below $1,900 alongside bitcoin, XRP and SOL.
The decline is squeezing big ether holders, with Bitmine, the ETH treasury company chaired by Tom Lee, reporting a $6.3 billion net loss for its fiscal year, and Whale Insider estimating its unrealized losses at $8.6 billion.
Who’s on the Other Side
Not every large holder is heading for the exit because the same day the foundation dumped its stack, Shapeshift founder Erik Voorhees bought 2,504 ETH for $4.75 million at $1,896. Crash-buying whale 7 Siblings also added 9,766 ETH worth $18.88 million after a $22 million buy earlier in the week.
That leaves ether caught between two groups, i.e. long-term buyers stepping into the dip, and a foundation-linked wallet that keeps converting ETH into stablecoins. Traders will watch whether the remaining 10,000 ETH in the 0x5CBC wallet also gets sold because if it does (and the past pattern holds), the foundation’s next move could again line up with a leg lower in ether’s price.
