The Ethereum Foundation (EF) said it has finalized the sale of 5,000 ether (ETH) in an over-the-counter transaction with a leading cryptocurrency treasury firm, Bitmine Immersion Technologies.
The sale was authorized at an average price of $2,042.96 per ETH, the Foundation said, putting the value of the transaction at approximately $10.2 million.
The nonprofit, established in 2014 to support the Ethereum blockchain and its ecosystem, said the funds will support its core operations, including protocol research and development, ecosystem growth, and community grants.
The transactions, it said, are in line with the policy governing its reserve management. The framework aims to strike a balance between holding ETH and holding enough fiat or similar assets to cover operating costs. Currently, EF aims to keep annual operating expenses close to 15% of treasury value with a 2.5-year operating cushion, a strategy that determines how frequently it sells ETH.
The sale comes less than a month after the Ethereum Foundation began staking up to 70,000 ETH to support its operations and deepen its role in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Bitmine, led by Fundstrat’s Tom Lee, was the counterparty in the deal and is the largest publicly traded ether treasury firm, currently holding around 4.53 million ETH, worth more than $9.4 billion.
The company’s portfolio is almost entirely ether. The company also holds around 195 BTC and more than $1 billion in cash, as well as equity stakes. These bets also include a share of Beast Industries, the company behind YouTube creator MrBeast, after a $200 million investment, along with a 7% stake in worldcoin treasury firm Eightco.
Read more: ‘Mini crypto winter’ is almost over, says Tom Lee as Bitmine accelerates pace of ether acquisition
