Vitalik Buterin offloads $1.16m of ether

Vitalik Buterin sold 493 ETH for $1.16m, sending part to his biotech charity Kanro.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sold 493 ETH worth about $1.16m and sent part of the proceeds to a biotech charity, analysts at Lookonchain noted.

vitalik.eth(@VitalikButerin) continues to sell $ETH, having sold 493 $ETH($1.16M) in the past 8 hours.https://t.co/pMvkZHjIyDhttps://t.co/3X1cQ1v4HL pic.twitter.com/TxL2xTi8jf

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) February 2, 2026

According to Arkham, the developer executed several transactions over the past 24 hours:

• first sold 211.84 ETH;
• then sent USDC worth $500,000 to the wallet of Kanro — a charitable organisation founded by Buterin in 2023 to research COVID-19 and future pandemics.

In January, the Ethereum co-founder withdrew 16,384 ETH (about $38.5m). He directed the funds to support the ecosystem of the second-largest cryptocurrency, including executing an “aggressive roadmap” to turn the network into a “high-performance and scalable world computer” that does not sacrifice reliability, resilience and decentralisation.

Ether’s price action

The sale came amid broad market weakness: ETH neared levels last seen in the summer of 2025.

At the time of writing, the leading altcoin traded around $2,200, down more than 20% over the past week.

MN Trading founder Michaël van de Poppe drew attention to the Ethereum-to-bitcoin (ETH/BTC) chart. According to the analyst, it now shows a pattern observed before the start of the last bull run.

The last time Gold topped, the following happened:

— $ETH bottomed 9 months prior.
— $ETH crashed by 30-40%.

This time;
— $ETH bottomed 9 months prior
— $ETH is down 31% already.

What happened after that?

A rise of 300%+ against #Bitcoin for Ethereum and the bull market… pic.twitter.com/CH8SRjyZm7

— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) February 1, 2026

In the previous cycle the altcoin bottomed against the first cryptocurrency roughly nine months before gold peaked, then endured a further 30–40% drop.

Many at the time spoke of a trend break. Yet that correction proved to be the bottom.

As gold cooled and defensive positioning faded, capital returned to higher-beta cryptoassets, lifting Ethereum’s price by 300% versus bitcoin.

The structure now looks similar but not identical. ETH’s decline against BTC bottomed roughly nine months before the metal’s recent high, and the current drawdown is about 31%.

Van de Poppe also noted that Ethereum’s market-cap ratio versus silver has hit an all-time low on the RSI indicator.

The valuation of $ETH vs. Silver has hit the lowest RSI ever.

The lowest!

The previous times we’ve hit this level were:
— The low in 2022.
— The low in 2018.

History shows where we are in the cycle. pic.twitter.com/uHqIOLtgRp

— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) February 3, 2026

Such levels were seen only at the bottoms in 2018 and 2022, the expert stressed.

An attractive opportunity

Fundstrat’s head of research, Tom Lee, said Ethereum’s pullback should be viewed as an “attractive opportunity”. The network’s fundamentals remain strong.

He linked the price decline to a lack of leverage and an outflow of capital into precious metals.

5/
Regarding $ETH prices:
Said Thomas “Tom” Lee, Executive Chairman of Bitmine:
“ETH prices have dropped sharply in the past month from ~$3,000 to ~$2,300. This occurred while Ethereum daily transactions hit an all-time high (ATH) of 2.5mm (per https://t.co/2yTDfINcsQ) and active… pic.twitter.com/ztBkHfTAkn

— Bitmine (NYSE-BMNR) $ETH (@BitMNR) February 2, 2026

In mid-January, daily transactions on Ethereum hit a record of 2.8m. The number of daily active addresses topped 1m.

During the crypto winters of 2018 and 2022, activity fell. That is “the opposite of what we have seen over the past 12 months”, Lee noted.

In November, the expert predicted that Ethereum would repeat bitcoin’s “supercycle”. Earlier, he forecast the coin rising to $15,000.