Specter: Beware of misjudgments regarding the ownership of Ethereum Foundation addresses; incorrect wallet tagging may exacerbate market panic

On-chain analyst Specter stated that there have been frequent claims in the market recently that "the Ethereum Foundation is selling ETH," but there is insufficient evidence regarding the ownership of some related wallets.

Specter pointed out an example of a wallet marked as associated with the foundation, noting that although its early fund flows can be traced back to foundation-related addresses, it underwent transfers through multiple independent entities in between. This wallet has participated in DeFi activities such as BAT ICO, Compound, and Maker, with a total of over 3,400 transactions, which aligns more with the characteristics of independent investors who have long participated in ICOs and DeFi, and cannot simply be classified as an Ethereum Foundation wallet based solely on early fund associations.

The early ETH allocation may have been compensation for engineers or team members, or it may involve private transactions or over-the-counter purchases by investors. The Ethereum Foundation disclosed in January 2016 that it conducted a private sale of ETH worth approximately $650,000 to individuals and companies, so the related funds may also come from such transactions.

Historical transaction associations do not prove that two addresses are held or controlled by the same entity. Directly labeling all wallets that have had financial interactions with foundation addresses as team wallets lacks sufficient basis and may even trigger unnecessary market panic. Reliable wallet ownership judgments should combine on-chain tracking with independent off-chain evidence.