The Ethereum Foundation (EF) said it completed the sale of 5,000 ether (ETH) in an over-the-counter transaction with one of the top crypto-tax companies Bitmine Immersion Technologies.
The sale was approved at an average price of $2,042.96 per ETH, the Foundation said, placing the value of the transaction at about $10.2 million.
The non-profit organization, which was established in 2014 to support the Ethereum blockchain and its ecosystem, said the funds will support its core activities, 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 maintaining sufficient fiat or fiat-like assets to cover operating costs. EF currently aims to keep annual operating expenses close to 15% of equity with a 2.5-year operating buffer, a strategy that determines how often 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, managed by Fundstrat’s Tom Lee, was the counterparty in the deal and is the largest listed ether tax company, 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 about 195 BTC and more than $1 billion in cash along with equity stakes. These stakes also include a stake in Beast Industries, the company behind YouTube creator MrBeast, following a $200 million investment in it, along with a 7% stake in worldcoin tax company Eightco.
Read more: ‘Mini Crypto Winter’ Almost Over, Says Tom Lee as Bitmine Increases Pace of Ether Purchases
