Ethereum Foundation Unstakes $50M ETH From Lido After Months of Aggressive Staking

Highlights:

• Ethereum Foundation unstaked 21,270 ETH worth nearly $50 million from Lido on Monday.
• The latest withdrawal reduced the Foundation’s staked ETH balance to about 52,965 ETH.
• Arkham Intelligence has linked the move to treasury funding and development costs.

The Ethereum Foundation unstaked 21,270 ETH worth nearly $50 million from decentralized liquid staking protocol Lido on Monday. Blockchain analytics platform Arkham tracked the transfers through an Ethereum Foundation-linked wallet. The non-profit organization moved the 21,270 ETH into Ethereum’s withdrawal process after increasing its staking balance throughout this year.

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The Ethereum Foundation has unstaked 21,270 $ETH, worth nearly $50 million, from Lido.

Is this simply a move to fund development, or a sign of caution toward third party liquid staking protocols?

Whatever the reason, it still has a negative impact on $ETH sentiment. pic.twitter.com/tOE1h7Hze5

— Deep Sea (@Deepseaio_) May 12, 2026

Blockchain data showed the Foundation divided the unstaking into several transfers, with each batch carrying nearly $2.3 million in ETH. Each transaction transferred roughly 811 wstETH from Lido into the unstETH withdrawal contract. The withdrawal returned nearly $50 million in ETH to the Ethereum Foundation’s liquid treasury wallet. The Ethereum Foundation cannot access the unstaked ETH until Lido completes the withdrawal queue process and releases liquid ETH.

The latest withdrawal reduced the Ethereum Foundation’s staked ETH holdings from nearly 70,000 ETH to about 52,965 ETH. Earlier in April, the Foundation unstaked another 17,000 ETH before selling 10,000 ETH to Bitmine through an over-the-counter transaction on May 1. The Foundation’s May 1 sale of 10,000 ETH to Bitmine increased market concerns about possible future ETH treasury liquidations.

Arkham stated that the Ethereum Foundation may use the unstaked ETH to support grants, protocol development, or operational funding. Arkham linked the withdrawal to growing concerns about third-party staking security after recent protocol exploits. Those concerns increased after the $293 million Kelp DAO exploit affected the broader staking sector.

Why Is The Ethereum Foundation Unstaking $50M ETH?

The Ethereum Foundation just unstaked 21,270 ETH from Lido. Our research team investigated the possible reasons behind the move, from growing DeFi security concerns to funding Ethereum development.

Check it out below: pic.twitter.com/MPCi0TTrv7

— Arkham (@arkham) May 12, 2026

Ethereum Foundation Unstakes During Treasury Rebalancing Phase

The Ethereum Foundation increased its staking balance from just above 2,000 ETH in February to nearly 70,000 ETH before Monday’s withdrawal. The Ethereum Foundation held slightly above 2,000 staked ETH in February before adding larger staking positions in March and April. The Foundation later added 22,517 ETH in March and staked more than 45,000 ETH in early April. The Foundation’s March and April staking additions increased the total staked balance to nearly 70,000 ETH before the latest withdrawal.

The Foundation updated its treasury policy last June to increase ETH staking and fund protocol development through staking rewards. The policy also stated that the Foundation plans to reduce direct ETH sales after earlier community criticism. The latest unstaking revived community discussions about whether the Foundation should fund operations through staking rewards instead of ETH sales.

Ethereum exchange reserves fell toward multi-year lows as the Foundation carried out the latest unstaking activity. Blockchain data showed centralized exchanges currently hold about 14.5 million ETH, marking one of the lowest reserve levels in years. On-chain data shows that investors withdrew more than 2.3 million ETH from exchanges since January despite the Foundation’s treasury movements. The decline in exchange reserves has continued to support long-term Ethereum accumulation trends across the market.

Network Upgrade Push Expands Alongside Treasury Changes

The foundation completed the latest unstaking as Ethereum developers advanced the upcoming Glamsterdam network upgrade. Ethereum developers launched the multi-client Glamsterdam development network to test scalability and interoperability upgrades. Developers advanced the latest testing sessions during a recent engineering event in Svalbard, Norway.

✅ Ethereum Foundation Finalizes 'Glamsterdam' Milestones, Names New Leads

The Ethereum Foundation has set a new gas limit floor and finalized an improvement proposal for its "Glamsterdam" upgrade, according to Cointelegraph. The upgrade is expected to go live in Q3 2026.

— Crynet (@crynetio) May 12, 2026

The Glamsterdam upgrade includes enshrined proposer-builder separation and EIP-8037 integration for Ethereum infrastructure improvements. The Ethereum Foundation also confirmed a new 200 million gas limit floor for the upcoming upgrade.

Meanwhile, ETH is trading at $2,285, representing a 2.07% decrease over the past 24 hours. The market cap stands at $275.86 billion, while the trading volume has decreased by 26.6% to $15.91 billion.

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