On March 14, the Ethereum Foundation, the non-profit organization behind the blockchain network, revealed that it finalized the sale of 5,000 ETH to BitMiner through an over-the-counter transaction.
Notably, the Foundation had come under market scrutiny in the past over its ETH sales.
Ethereum Foundation Fuels BitMiner’s Push for 5% Supply Control
The Foundation said it sold the tokens at an average price of $2,042.96 to fund its core operations, including protocol research and development.
However, the choice of BitMine as the direct counterparty has drawn immediate scrutiny.
BitMine currently stands as the largest corporate holder of Ethereum, controlling more than 4.47 million tokens valued at approximately $9.07 billion.
This is because the Tom Lee-led firm has aggressively acquired the cryptocurrency over the past year and has publicly outlined its intent to capture 5% of the total circulating supply.
In a proof-of-stake network, voting power and consensus influence are directly tied to token holdings. Consequently, facilitating the concentration of assets in a single corporate entity clashes with the foundation’s historical emphasis on network decentralization and anti-monopoly principles.
Meanwhile, the transaction underscores a broader, fundamental strategic pivot for the foundation. Following the sale, the organization now holds just over 200,000 ETH, worth roughly $424 million.
Facing a shrinking treasury runway, the foundation recently abandoned its long-standing policy of keeping its assets idle. This stance was originally taken to avoid influencing network consensus.
Last month, it staked 70,000 tokens to generate yield. This is designed to redirect staking rewards toward ecosystem development and community grants.
Simultaneously, the foundation released a new governance manifesto that ties it to strict ideological standards.
The new mandate aligns the Foundation and its workers with decentralization and an open-source ethos. It explicitly filters out protocols deemed “surveillance-friendly” or “centralization-dependent.”
These sweeping financial and policy changes coincide with a recent leadership shake-up at the organization. Earlier this month, Co-Executive Director Tomasz Stańczak abruptly stepped down, with Bastian Aue appointed as the interim replacement.
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