Ethereum Foundation Sells 10,000 ETH to Tom Lee’s Bitmine in $24 Million OTC Deal

• The Ethereum Foundation sold 10,000 ETH to Bitmine in an over-the-counter transaction at an average price of $2,387.
• Bitmine, chaired by Tom Lee, used the purchase to expand its Ethereum treasury as the foundation raised funds for operations and development.

The Ethereum Foundation has sold a fresh block of Ether, this time through a direct over-the-counter deal with Bitmine Immersion Technologies, the digital asset treasury company chaired by Tom Lee. In a statement on Friday, the foundation said it had finalized the sale of 10,000 ETH at an average price of $2,387, valuing the transaction at just under $24 million. The buyer was Bitmine, which has been steadily building out its ETH stockpile and is increasingly positioning itself as a treasury vehicle centered on digital assets rather than a traditional operating company. The Ethereum Foundation is selling ETH to fund core work The foundation said the proceeds from the sale will be used to support its core operations and activities, including protocol research and development, ecosystem development, and community grant funding. That explanation is familiar, though still closely watched each time it appears. Sales by the Ethereum Foundation tend to draw more attention than ordinary treasury moves because they sit at the intersection of governance, ecosystem signaling and market sentiment. When the foundation sells ETH, even for operational reasons, traders often read it for clues about timing and internal confidence, whether that interpretation is fair or not. In this case, the structure may matter as much as the sale itself. An OTC deal avoids the optics and market friction of open-market selling, which helps reduce immediate pressure on exchange order books. Bitmine keeps adding to its Ether treasury For Bitmine, the purchase marks another step in a broader accumulation strategy. The company said it had added to its ETH treasury, suggesting the deal was not opportunistic so much as part of an ongoing balance-sheet buildout. That fits the model Bitmine has been leaning into. Firms like this increasingly want to become publicly visible proxies for crypto exposure, using treasury accumulation to give investors indirect access to the asset class through equity. So while the seller here was the Ethereum Foundation and the stated purpose was funding development, the other side of the transaction is just as telling. Institutional-style buyers are still willing to absorb large ETH blocks directly, and that says something about where demand continues to sit even when the source of supply is one of the ecosystem’s most closely watched wallets.