Ethereum's Divergent Moves: Founders Sell as Institutions Accumulate

Despite Vitalik Buterin's ETH sales, institutional whale holdings surge from 6M to 24M ETH, supporting price. Staking and the 2026 Glamsterdam upgrade fuel market optimism.

The Ethereum ecosystem is witnessing a fascinating divergence in strategy between its founding figures and major market participants. As key insiders adjust their holdings, institutional investors are demonstrating robust confidence through significant accumulation, creating a complex narrative for market observers.

Institutional Demand Offsets Insider Sales

Market data reveals a striking contrast in behavior. While Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin reduced his personal holdings by approximately 17,000 ETH in February 2026—bringing his wallet balance down from around 241,000 to 224,000 ETH—a much larger wave of buying has emerged from major investors. Blockchain analytics indicate that addresses classified as "whales" have aggressively expanded their positions, growing collective balances from under 6 million ETH in 2023 to more than 24 million ETH by early 2026.

This institutional appetite appears to be providing substantial market support. Ethereum's price recently showed notable resilience, advancing by 7.61% in a single day to reach $1,994.81. Analysts point to this sustained buying pressure from large-scale investors, including entities like BitMine, as a primary factor behind the asset's stability despite the founder's sales. Buterin's transactions, executed in smaller increments likely to minimize market disruption, were reportedly directed toward funding open-source initiatives and privacy-focused projects.

Strategic Foundations and Network Dynamics

Concurrently, the Ethereum Foundation is implementing a long-term financial strategy. The organization is allocating 70,000 ETH into network staking mechanisms. The objective is to utilize the staking yields—currently around 2.8%—to fund ongoing research and development costs. This move serves a dual purpose: securing a sustainable revenue stream while also promoting network decentralization through the use of specific software tools named Dirk and Vouch.

The supply dynamics for Ethereum are being further tightened by staking activity industry-wide. Approximately 30% of all circulating Ether is now locked in staking contracts, effectively removing it from the available trading supply and contributing to a constricted market liquidity environment that can amplify price movements.

The "Glamsterdam" Catalyst

A fundamental driver underpinning investor optimism is the anticipated "Glamsterdam" upgrade, scheduled for the first half of 2026. This technical improvement aims to address fragmentation among Layer-2 scaling solutions by introducing parallel transaction processing and increasing the network's gas limit. A successful implementation is expected to significantly boost overall network efficiency, potentially providing a technical foundation that justifies the current accumulation phase observed among large-scale investors.

The market now weighs these opposing signals: strategic sales by a foundational figure against a backdrop of deepening institutional ownership and transformative network upgrades on the horizon.