TL;DR:
The Ethereum Foundation formalized the sale of 10,000 ETH to Bitmine Immersion Technologies in an over-the-counter (OTC) transaction at an average price of $2,387 per unit, totaling nearly $24 million. The operation was confirmed by the foundation itself in a post on X, where it specified that the funds will be used to finance its core activities, including protocol research and development, ecosystem growth, and community funding programs.
Bitmine, the digital asset treasury chaired by Tom Lee, is the largest institutional holder of Ethereum in the world. Earlier this week, the company reported that it holds approximately 4,976,485 ETH, equivalent to 4.12% of the total ETH circulating supply, after incorporating 101,627 additional tokens in a recent purchase.
This is not the first direct transaction between both organizations. The previous month, Bitmine acquired 5,000 ETH from the Ethereum Foundation in a similar operation valued at approximately $10 million. The latest sale also comes just weeks after the foundation converted around $11 million in ETH to stablecoins to cover its operational and development expenses.
The Ethereum Foundation has been heavily criticized for its periodic ETH sales to fund its operations, flagged as a source of pressure on the token’s price. In response, the organization announced measures last year to reduce its reliance on these liquidations, including the deployment of capital into DeFi protocols and the generation of income through staking. In January 2025, it injected its DeFi Ecosystem wallet with 50,000 ETH as part of that diversification strategy.
Bitmine has placed a long-term bet on the value of the Ethereum protocol. The foundation, for its part, seeks to balance its funding needs with a more controlled impact on the market.
