Opinion: Beware of Misjudging Ethereum Foundation Address Ownership; Incorrect Wallet Labeling May Exacerbate Market Panic

BlockBeats news, November 15 - On-chain analyst Specter stated that recent market claims of "the Ethereum Foundation is selling off ETH" lack sufficient evidence for the attribution labels of some related wallets. Citing a wallet labeled as associated with the Foundation, Specter pointed out that although its early fund flows can be traced back to Foundation-related addresses, the funds passed through transfers by multiple independent entities in between. This wallet has participated in DeFi activities such as the BAT ICO, Compound, and Maker, with cumulative transactions exceeding 3,400, which is more consistent with the characteristics of an independent investor long involved in ICOs and DeFi, and it cannot be identified as an Ethereum Foundation wallet solely based on early fund associations.

Early ETH allocations may have been payments to engineers or team members, or may involve private transactions or OTC 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 enterprises, so the relevant funds may also come from such transactions. Historical transaction associations cannot prove that two addresses are held or controlled by the same entity, and directly labeling all wallets that have had fund flows with Foundation addresses as team wallets lacks sufficient basis and may even trigger unnecessary market panic. Reliable wallet attribution judgments should combine on-chain tracing with independent off-chain evidence.