The Ethereum Foundation has recently unstaked 21,270 ETH, representing nearly $50 million in value, from its staking positions via Lido. According to on-chain data from Arkham Intelligence, an Ethereum Foundation-tagged wallet initiated the withdrawal on Monday, moving the funds out of Lido's liquid staking system and into Ethereum's withdrawal queue where staked ETH remains locked until the unstaking process is completed. This unstaking activity reduced the foundation's total staked holdings from nearly the top of its reported internal cap of 70,000 ETH to roughly 52,965 ETH. The timeline shows the foundation began staking the first treasury tranche in February 2026, with foundation wallets first staking 2,016 ETH, followed by 22,517 ETH in March, and more than 45,000 ETH during early April, lifting the total staked balance to around 69,500 ETH before the first major withdrawal took place. As per Arkham Intelligence, the transfers were not necessarily due to an immediate market sale but rather related to treasury rebalancing to ensure a liquid environment for ecosystem development and grant and operational costs.
Questions around treasury activity intensified after the nonprofit later sold 10,000 ETH to BitMine in an over-the-counter transaction completed on May 1, with the deal priced at an average of $2,292 per ETH. The sale followed two previous OTC sales to BitMine in March and April, bringing total recent sales to 25,000 ETH. In a statement accompanying the May transaction, the Ethereum Foundation said the sale would fund "core operations and activities," including protocol research, ecosystem development, and community grants. Following criticism over past ETH sales, the foundation revised its treasury policy in June 2025 and said increased staking participation would help support long-term development funding while reducing dependence on direct market sales. The foundation has continued directing grants toward protocol infrastructure, zero-knowledge research, validator security, and developer tooling, with its Q1 2026 allocation report including support for execution clients such as Geth and Erigon, upgrades tied to the Lighthouse consensus client, and validator security systems including Vero.
Despite the treasury unstaking, Ethereum whale wallets have shown continued accumulation during recent market corrections, with the latest data showing whales bought $832 million in ETH during the recent price decline. According to on-chain data, whale wallets excluding exchanges increased holdings from roughly 124.69 million ETH to nearly 125.05 million ETH during the breakdown phase, representing an accumulation of approximately 360,000 ETH. The timing of this whale accumulation is particularly significant, as the breakdown that started May 10 took ETH down 3.6% in two days, yet whales added to their positions rather than reducing exposure. This behavior usually signals confidence that the chart's bearish pattern will not resolve to the downside, with whales rarely accumulating into a setup they expect to break lower.
The derivatives market provides crucial insights into the current market sentiment, with Ethereum open interest in perpetual futures dropping from $12.46 billion on May 7 to $11.98 billion on May 12, representing a decline of roughly $480 million. Simultaneously, the funding rate has remained elevated at around 0.012%, up from 0.010% on May 7. This combination of falling open interest with elevated funding suggests that shorts closed positions rather than new longs adding leverage, creating a conservative optimism backdrop that whales prefer. The thin leverage stack means an external shock will not trigger a cascading flush, while the absence of large stacks of fresh long bets waiting to be liquidated reduces downside risk.
The native Ethereum token has shown resilience despite the significant treasury activity, with immediate price reaction characterized as range-bound consolidation between $2,300 and $2,400. According to technical analysis, ETH has failed to rise above $2,400 once again, with the level acting as firm resistance that has formed the upper trendline of a descending channel. The $2,300 level has emerged as critical support, with technical indicators showing the stochastic RSI cooling off from higher levels and the MACD flattening, reflecting a loss of strength in recent upward momentum. The market's thin liquidity, with only $1,022 in order book depth needed to move prices by five points, amplifies the impact of any significant moves. Recent developments show Ethereum trading around $2,311 on the daily chart, down 1.2% on the day, with whale support keeping the price above $2,298 - the 0.5 Fibonacci retracement level. A clean daily close below $2,298 exposes $2,269 as the next floor, representing just a 2% drop from current levels.
