Ethereum Foundation Sells 5,000 ETH Despite Its Staking Program

TLDR:

The Ethereum Foundation converted 5,000 ETH worth roughly $11.1M to stablecoins via CoWSwap on April 8.
A March OTC sale of 5,000 ETH to BitMine at $2,042.96 shows selling ran alongside staking for weeks.
Annual staking yield from 70,000 ETH equals only about 33% of EF’s first-quarter 2025 grant spending.
EF’s fiat-denominated reserve target means weaker ETH prices could force more monetization, not less.

Ethereum Foundation ETH sales have continued alongside its 70,000 ETH staking program, contradicting a widely held market belief that staking had ended direct treasury offloads. 

On April 8, the foundation converted 5,000 ETH, worth approximately $11.1 million, into stablecoins via CoWSwap. The move reopened a broader debate about whether staking rewards and DeFi borrowing can ever fully replace the need to sell ETH.

Staking Never Replaced Direct ETH Sales

Ethereum Foundation ETH sales returned to focus after the foundation announced a 5,000 ETH conversion to stablecoins on April 8. The transaction was executed through CoWSwap’s TWAP feature to fund research, grants, and donations. 

At an ETH price near $2,220.76, the conversion equaled approximately $11.1 million. The announcement followed a separate 5,000 ETH OTC sale to BitMine on March 14, at an average price of $2,042.96. 

By April 3, on-chain data showed the staking total had reached roughly 69,500 ETH, close to the 70,000 ETH target. Selling and staking had therefore been operating side by side for weeks before the April announcement.

A Reddit post in early April argued the foundation was “no longer selling,” with commenters treating the staking shift as a positive change. The April 8 conversion arrived shortly after, directly countering that view. 

Market expectations had moved well beyond what the foundation’s own written treasury policy had ever promised.

The foundation’s staking program generates an estimated 1,912 to 2,102 ETH annually, based on early April reference rates of 2.73% to 3.00%. At current prices, that equals roughly $4.25 million to $4.67 million per year. 

A single 5,000 ETH sale equals approximately 2.4 to 2.6 times that entire annual yield.

Treasury Framework Keeps Monetization on the Table

EF’s own data recorded $32.6 million in grants for the first quarter of 2025 alone. At current ETH prices, that figure equals roughly 14,700 ETH. 

The April 8 conversion covers only about 33% of that quarter’s grant total, excluding research, staffing, and broader operational costs.

The foundation’s June 2025 treasury framework set annual operating expenses at 15% of treasury and an operating buffer equivalent to 2.5 years of spending. Applied to the October 2024 treasury snapshot of $970.2 million, the implied fiat reserve target stood at roughly $363.8 million. 

Staking rewards and DeFi borrowing improve flexibility but remain well below the scale needed to replace periodic ETH sales.

The broader treasury approach has combined DeFi deployment, stablecoin borrowing, staking, and direct ETH sales since early 2025. On February 13, EF deployed 45,000 ETH across Spark, Aave Prime, Aave Core, and Compound. 

In May, it borrowed $2 million in GHO against its Aave position to raise working capital without selling spot ETH at the time.

That structure means a falling ETH price can increase pressure to sell more coins, not fewer. The reserve target remains denominated in fiat terms, so price weakness widens the funding gap faster than staking yield can offset it. 

The April 8 conversion brought that reality back into view, confirming that periodic monetization remains a core part of the foundation’s treasury toolkit.