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Ethereum Foundation has reportedly initiated an unstaking of 17,035.326 ETH, worth roughly $40 million, according to Arkham data. The transaction reportedly involved depositing wrapped staked ETH (wstETH) into Lido’s unstETH contract, with the underlying ETH expected to be returned after the withdrawal queue completes.
In Ethereum, unstaking is the process of withdrawing ETH that was previously locked to help secure the network through validators. When ETH is staked, it is deposited into the Ethereum Beacon Chain, where it remains locked while earning rewards. To unstake, a withdrawal request is initiated, and the funds enter a queue period before they are released.
The Ethereum Foundation has not yet disclosed why it unstaked about 17,000 ETH, and some users have speculated it could be preparing to sell. One user wrote: “The biggest seller of ETH continues to be the people who created ETH.”
Separately, the foundation’s staking activity has been expanding. After updating its policy in June 2025, the foundation said staking and decentralized finance participation would help fund protocol research, development, and ecosystem grants. Since February, it has steadily increased its position, staking 2,016 ETH initially, followed by 22,517 ETH in March. Earlier this month, it staked more than 45,000 ETH, bringing the total to around 69,500 ETH, just below its internal 70,000 ETH staking target.
Despite the expansion, concerns have been raised about governance risks. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has cautioned that large-scale staking by the foundation could complicate neutrality during potential contentious hard forks, where competing chains may emerge.
In a separate development, decentralized finance protocols have reportedly joined forces to stabilize rsETH following a $293 million exploit on the Kelp restaking platform that triggered market disruption. The incident involved hackers stealing over 116,000 restaked ETH tokens and using them as collateral to borrow funds, leaving roughly $195 million in bad debt on Aave and straining the broader DeFi lending market.
Backers have pledged over 43,500 ETH (around $101 million) in a coordinated “DeFi United” effort led by Aave, with participation from Lido DAO, Golem Foundation, and major contributions from EtherFi Foundation and Mantle.
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