Vitalik Buterin Explains Why He Sold ETH, Puts Stricter Criteria for L2 Mentions

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently revealed the reason behind his current ETH sell-off addressing growing concerns within the community. Reports yesterday suggested that the Ethereum co-founder sold a total of $190 ETH for $441,971 for the USDC stablecoins.

Vitalik Buterin Clears Doubts Over ETH Sell-Off

Vitalik.eth, a wallet associated with Vitalik Buterin, has continued selling Ether sparking concerns over the current liquidations. This wallet has received a total of 3,800 Ether worth around $10 million from Buterin and has sold 950 Ethereum (worth $2.28 million) at an average price of $2,396. Along with Buterin, the Ethereum Foundation is also selling its ETH.

The latest on-chain development suggests that the vitalik.eth address has further moved USDC obtained from ETH liquidation to the Aave platform. As per the latest on-chain data, Vitalik Buterin moved a total of 2,851 worth $6.73 million to the Aave platform.

Additional ETH sales conducted by the Metalpha group have sparked concerns of an Ethereum price dip under $2,000.

vitalik.eth(@VitalikButerin) deposited the 2.27M $USDC obtained from selling 950 $ETH in the past 2 weeks into #Aave 3 hours ago.#Vitalik also deposited 2,851 $ETH($6.73M) into #Aave.https://t.co/UEX85tYFwW pic.twitter.com/7SVFHjnAOT

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 12, 2024

In a recent post, Vitalik Buterin spoke about having stricter L2 mentions. However, his followers interrupted him asking why is he selling ETH recently in big numbers. Responding to this, Buterin said:

“That sale from yesterday (by a bio-defense group I fund) was triggered by an automatic cowswap twap order that was set up way back on Aug 29. That was the last one”.

Ethereum to Have Stricter Criteria for L2 Mentions

The Ethereum co-founder recently stated that from 2025, he would only publicly mention Layer 2 (L2) solutions that have reached “stage 1” or higher in development. He further stressed that the criteria will apply universally regardless of any personal investments or connections with the project. Here’s a list of some of the top L2 projects of 2024.

Furthermore, in his statement, Buterin revealed that several Zero-Knowledge (ZK) rollup teams are working to achieve Stage 1 by the end of this year.

The Ethereum co-founder showed enthusiasm regarding the progress made but stressed the importance of maintaining security measures. Furthermore, he cautioned against removing “training wheels” until proof systems are fully reliable.

Vitalik Buterin said that Stage 1 is a key milestone where a 75% council threshold is essential to override the proof system and that at least 26% of the council should be independent of the roll-up team.

He also said that all the multisigs that he’s involved with haven’t experienced failures in years. Thus, he remains confident regarding the transition from multisig governance to cryptographic trust.

I take this seriously. Starting next year, I plan to only publicly mention (in blogs, talks, etc) L2s that are stage 1+, with *maybe a short grace period* for new genuinely interesting projects.

It doesn't matter if I invested, or if you're my friend; stage 1 or bust.

Multiple… pic.twitter.com/4cGxgsfmUc

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 12, 2024