The Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit organization supporting the Ethereum cryptocurrency, made headlines recently by selling 1,700 ETH on October 9, 2023, through the Uniswap exchange. They exchanged this ETH for 2.7 million USD Coin (USDC) at a rate of $1,611 per coin.
Interestingly, the sale of ETH by the Ethereum Foundation had an impact on the price of Ethereum. After the sale, the price of ETH fell by 1.45%, with the cryptocurrency experiencing an overall drop of nearly 3% on that day.
This sale also drew attention because it was targeted by a “Sandwich Attack” executed by a Miner Extractable Value (MEV) Bot during the transaction on Uniswap V3. This attack resulted in a loss of $9,101 for the Ethereum Foundation, while the MEV Bot secured a profit of $4,060. The details of this attack are laid out in this article by Bitcoinist.
A little over a month prior to this sale, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin sold $1 million worth of ETH on Coinbase. His sale, along with the Ethereum Foundation’s transaction, has led to questions about the reasons behind these moves.
X (formerly Twitter) user provided an in-depth look at possible reasons for the Ethereum Foundations sale.
According to data from DeFiLlama, the Ethereum Foundation’s current total holdings are approximately 316,488 ETH. So, the Ethereum Foundation sold approximately 0.536% of their total ETH holdings when they sold 1,700 ETH.
In summary, the Ethereum Foundation’s recent sale of 1,700 ETH on Uniswap caused ripples in the crypto market, with a Sandwich Attack during the transaction adding to the intrigue. The Ethereum Foundation’s past large transactions have also affected the market, leaving observers curious about the motives behind these transactions.