The Ethereum Foundation promotes DeFi and establishes the "DeFipunk" team, but V God has been continuously selling off tens of thousands of ETH.

Ethereum Foundation (EF) announces the establishment of a new DeFi team under the App Relations department, appointing former DELV CEO Charles St. Louis as DeFi Protocol Expert and Gearbox Protocol co-founder Ivan (ivangbi) as DeFi Coordinator. The team will promote the “DeFipunk” spirit, emphasizing permissionless access, censorship resistance, and privacy-first principles. Meanwhile, on-chain data shows that Vitalik Buterin has sold a total of 10,723 ETH since February 2, realizing approximately $21.74 million.
(Background: Vitalik sold $1.4 million worth of ETH in the past 24 hours! Are 5,000 ETH about to be dumped?)
(Additional context: The Ethereum Foundation announced five major reforms to its finances: reducing ETH expenses to 5% by 2030 and strengthening staking and DeFi deployment.)

Table of Contents

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• What is “DeFipunk”? EF defines the core spirit of DeFi
• Focus: Security, Privacy, and Standardization
• The other side: V God sold over 10,000 ETH in 23 days
• EF’s increased investment vs. V God’s continued selling

On February 23, the Ethereum Foundation officially announced on its blog the formation of a DeFi team within the App Relations department, appointing two veteran DeFi figures to key roles: Charles St. Louis, who founded DELV (formerly Element Finance) and led the development of fixed-rate yield protocols, as “DeFi Protocol Expert”; and Ivan (ivangbi), co-founder of the modular leverage lending protocol Gearbox Protocol in 2021, as “DeFi Coordinator.”

Before founding DELV, Charles St. Louis was deeply involved in building the DAI stablecoin system and shaping MakerDAO governance, with earlier work in the security token space (2018). Ivan started his journey with the LobsterDAO community in 2018, experienced the DeFi Summer, and ultimately created one of the most resilient protocols in the Ethereum ecosystem.

What is “DeFipunk”? EF defines the core spirit of DeFi

The foundation explicitly states the “DeFipunk” philosophy, defining it as “a financial system that can only exist on Ethereum,” not just marginal improvements to traditional finance. The core principles of DeFipunk include five elements:

• Permissionless: Open to everyone without approval
• Censorship Resistant: Cannot be shut down or restricted by a single entity
• Privacy-First: Privacy as a fundamental infrastructure, not optional
• Self-Custodial: Users have full control over their assets
• Open Source: Code that is auditable, composable, and forkable

Ivan states that these values strike a balance between “cryptopunk spirit and market growth.”

Focus: Security, Privacy, and Standardization

The new DeFi team will focus on multiple areas:

• Building Developer Relations: Connecting DeFi teams with the foundation and fostering collaboration
• Security: Addressing interface, oracle, upgrade, and multisig vulnerabilities
• Decentralized Standards: Promoting open-source, auditable, and composable code standards
• Privacy Infrastructure: Supporting privacy protocols for payments, trading, and lending
• Standardization: Establishing consistent risk frameworks and disclosure formats
• Research & Publications: Publishing research on mechanisms and beginner guides

The team will also work closely with the Privacy Cluster restructured last year, prioritizing privacy as a foundational infrastructure—starting with encrypted payments and gradually advancing to complex trading and lending scenarios.

The foundation also revealed several forward-looking exploration directions, including DAO governance via futarchy mechanisms, privacy-preserving low-collateralized lending using ZK reputation systems, and market solutions enhanced by AI to hedge future expenditure risks.

These directions align with the foundation’s earlier 2026 roadmap for the dAI team, which positions ERC-8004 and x402 protocols as key pillars for decentralized AI agents.

The other side: V God sold over 10,000 ETH in 23 days

Meanwhile, on-chain data reveals a contrasting picture. According to Onchain Lens, Vitalik Buterin sold about 3,765 ETH worth approximately $7.08 million in the past 2.5 days. Since February 2, V God has sold a total of 10,723 ETH for about $21.74 million, averaging around $2,027 per ETH. On-chain records show that Vitalik mainly converted ETH to WETH via Cow Protocol and then gradually exchanged for GHO stablecoin in batches of about 70 ETH each, to avoid large market impacts from a single dump.

However, this ongoing selling has sparked significant community attention and discussion regarding the intentions of large holders.

EF’s increased investment vs. V God’s continued selling

While the Ethereum Foundation actively promotes its new DeFi team and the DeFipunk ethos, its co-founder continues to sell tokens amid ETH’s low price.

Although V God has repeatedly emphasized that his ETH sales are not for personal profit but to fund public projects and research, the recent decline of over 20% in ETH price and prevailing market fears have caused some investors to feel uneasy.

The market will continue to watch whether EF’s DeFi initiatives can bring tangible progress to the Ethereum ecosystem and whether V God’s selling behavior will further undermine market confidence.