Vitalik Moves More ETH — And ETH Still Can’t Reclaim $2,000
Ethereum is already trading on thin confidence below $2,000, and now the market has another narrative to digest: Vitalik Buterin has pulled more ETH from DeFi and started selling again.
On Feb 22, on-chain trackers Arkham and Lookonchain flagged a 3,500 ETH withdrawal from Aave (roughly $6.95–$7M) that appeared positioned for sale. Not long after, about 571 ETH (around $1.13M) was reported as already sold.
This isn’t a one-off. Earlier in February, Lookonchain tracked ~2,961 ETH sold over three days, and by the next day total selling over that window reportedly reached 6,183 ETH (about $13.2M) at an average exit near $2,140.
The detail most people miss: even after these sales, Vitalik’s known holdings are still massive — Arkham research has pegged his ETH stack at roughly ~224k ETH (often rounded in reports to “240k”), valued around $467M at the time of that estimate. So these sales are meaningful for sentiment, but still a fraction of his total position.
Price action is doing exactly what nervous markets do: failing to reclaim key levels cleanly. ETH bounced off the January/early-February weakness, but it’s still struggling to decisively take back $2,000 — which keeps every rally feeling fragile.
Technically, traders are watching downside risk too. Analyst Ali Martinez recently warned about an “inverted bullish flag” framing that could keep ETH vulnerable, with talk of potential levels below $1,400 if momentum breaks the wrong way.
Bottom line: maybe this is normal personal treasury management. Maybe it’s nothing. But in a market already sensitive under $2K, timing becomes the story — and traders will treat it like a pressure test until ETH proves it can reclaim strength.
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