• Vitalik Buterin defended himself after his recent ETH sales
• Exec claimed that he uses the sales for valuable projects only

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation (EF) have been criticized by the community for allegedly selling their holdings and dragging ETH prices down. On Friday, Buterin sold over $2 million worth of ETH, which didn’t sit well with some ETH holders and traders. 

One such critic, crypto trader CoinMamba, castigated the founder for selling his holdings just days after bull posting that “Ethereum is good.” This, while he avoided addressing the community about it. 

“Vitalik once again talking about random technical stuff and ignoring all the talk about him selling ETH.”

Buterin takes the stand

Ethereum’s founder, however, defended himself against the criticism, stating that his ETH sales are only for valuable projects. 

“I haven’t sold and kept the proceeds since 2018. All sales have been to support various projects that I think are valuable, either within the Ethereum ecosystem or broader charity (eg. biomedical R&D).”

According to Arkham data, Buterin held about 240k ETH, at the time of writing – Worth about $600 million. The founder reportedly disclosed that he received about 700k ETH from pre-mine three years ago. 

Given his current 240k ETH balance, the community is speculating that Buterin sold a considerable chunk and continues to do so. By doing so, they claim he’s denting ETH’s value and its sentiment.

For his part, crypto analyst Ansem defended Buterin’s sell-off and claimed that he should take some profit. 

“He created the 2nd most important project in crypto’s history. I think it’s ok for him to take some profit.”

That being said, the Ethereum Foundation recently disclosed its expenditure report after facing similar criticism for selling 35k ETH. Some thought leaders soon after also called for its dissolution. 

The aforementioned clarifications could help fight the FUD (fear, uncertainty, and disinformation) that has weighed on the altcoin’s sentiment lately.

Meanwhile, demand interest for U.S spot ETH ETFs has tapered out. In fact, according to crypto analyst Luke Martin, ETH ETF flows have dropped to nearly zero. 

“The $ETH ETF flows chart is wild. No major outflown. No major inflows. Flows have dwindled down to virtually zero and it’s only been one month since launch.”

At the time of writing, ETH was trading near $2.5k, a level it has consolidated around for four days. This, after retracing from its recent high of $2.8k on the charts.