Today (11th) in the morning, a transfer of 1,210 ETH, equivalent to approximately $3.496 million, triggered market speculation about the Ethereum Foundation selling assets during an ETH price increase. Within a few hours, the Foundation's joint executive director Wang Xiaowei clarified through the X platform that the address belongs to the independent development organization Argot Collective, not directly operated by the Foundation.
Background
Today, on-chain data revealed that an address similar to the Foundation's label exchanged 1,210 ETH for 349.6 million USDC. Over the past month, the Foundation had transferred 21,000 ETH to an address starting with 0xc06, which then transferred 7,000 ETH to a 0x247 address six days ago, leading the market to quickly associate this with potential "position adjustment" by the Foundation.
Wang Xiaowei immediately posted an explanation: "The selling address belongs to Argot Collective," clarifying ownership and preventing community dissatisfaction.
Argot Collective: The Engineering Force Behind Solidity
Argot Collective was established by several former Foundation members, specifically responsible for Solidity language research and development and other critical open-source infrastructure. The Foundation promised three years of operational funding, allowing the team to focus on language security and functional upgrades. The independent legal entity structure enables Argot to flexibly manage its own funds, and this USDC exchange is a normal operation to maintain development and daily expenses, unrelated to Foundation divestment.
Currently, the Ethereum Foundation holds approximately 243,000 ETH. By allocating part of its reserves to independent entities and allowing them to convert as needed to stablecoins, the Foundation separates financial risks from project execution responsibilities, demonstrating a "distributed but collaborative" governance approach.
