Ethereum Foundation Attacked? Ether Slumps As Non-Profit Organization Moves Millions In ETH

Ether saw a price decline after non-profit organization Ethereum Foundation moved millions in ETH, and though it has not offered any explanation for its recent action, it appears to have a very good reason for doing it.

While the broader crypto market was already trading in the sea of red, traders particularly reacted to the recent move by the Ethereum Foundation with Ether (ETH), which extended its losses to 1.8% at $1,614.

The Ethereum Foundation periodically sells crypto assets to cover costs, and it usually triggers a momentary sell-off event in the market.

Ethereum Foundation-linked wallet 0x9eE457023bB3De16D51A003a247BaEaD7fce313D swapped more than 1,700 ETH Monday. It was worth approximately $2.7 million, as per the prevailing market price based on the data from blockchain firm Arkham Intelligence.

The wallet labeled "Grant Provider" on blockchain tracker Etherscan held $3.687 million worth of tokens as of Monday morning. It included 240.68 ETH, 3.238 million USDC, 49,700 DAI and 10,000 ARB.

But while the non-profit organization has been mum on the reason behind its latest move, data from token flow-oriented data platform EigenPhi revealed that when it sold 1,700 ETH via Uniswap v3, it came under a Sandwich attack by MEV Bot (0x00...6B40).

The said attack cost the Ethereum Foundation $9,101 and gave the MEV Bot a $4,060 profit (after cost), as pointed out by Chinese crypto journalist Collin Wu.

It is worth noting that this is not the first large-scale ETH transaction of the Ethereum Foundation that aligned with the fluctuation in Ethereum price.

In May 2021, the foundation transferred more than 35,000 ETH (worth approximately $123 million), which triggered a massive nosedive in the value of ETH from over $3,500 to just around $1,825.

In November of the same year, the foundation also transferred 20,000 ETH (worth $95 million) while Ether was at its peak, trading at around $4,700.

In May 2023, the Ethereum Foundation moved 15,000 ETH, pulling the price of ETH, which was at its local peak at the time.

Ether, the world's second-largest crypto asset by market capitalization, was trading down at $1,590.73 as of 4:36 a.m. ET on Tuesday, with a 24-hour trading volume up by 1107.83% at $7,198,930,817, representing a 1.58% decrease in the last 24 hours and a 4.34% loss over the past seven days.

ETH's circulating supply stands at 120,250,55 ETH, with its value down by 1.60% at a $191,264,820,475 market cap, data from CoinMarketCap showed.