On January 20, 2025, Ethereum Foundation's (EF) approach to handling staking rewards came under scrutiny after a tweet from Spot On Chain highlighted the potential benefits of over-the-counter (OTC) trades over on-chain dumps. The tweet, posted at 10:45 AM UTC, stated, "Don’t you still receive $ETH as the staking reward and still need to sell it? What’s the difference compared to the current approach? We believe the key point is that you should consider OTC trades instead of on-chain dumps. While a few million dollars a year may not be a significant amount, it will certainly provide a better impression to the community by selling via OTC. Nobody wants to see the EF continuously dumping ETH on them." (Spot On Chain, 2025). The Ethereum price at the time of the tweet was $3,450, reflecting a slight dip of 1.2% from the previous day's close of $3,490 (CoinMarketCap, 2025). The trading volume for ETH/USD on major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase showed an increase of 5.5% to 15.8 million ETH traded within the 24-hour period ending at 11:00 AM UTC (CryptoCompare, 2025). Additionally, the ETH/BTC trading pair saw a volume surge of 3.2% to 4.5 million ETH traded (CoinGecko, 2025). On-chain metrics from Glassnode indicated that the number of active addresses on the Ethereum network increased by 2.5% to 650,000, suggesting heightened interest and activity around the network following the tweet (Glassnode, 2025).

The trading implications of the EF's potential shift to OTC sales are significant. At 11:15 AM UTC on January 20, 2025, the ETH/USD pair experienced increased volatility, with the price fluctuating between $3,440 and $3,460 within a 15-minute window (TradingView, 2025). This volatility can be attributed to market reactions to the possibility of reduced on-chain selling pressure from the EF. The 24-hour trading volume for ETH/USD on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) like Uniswap saw a 7% increase to 2.3 million ETH, indicating a shift towards decentralized trading platforms as traders sought to capitalize on potential price movements (DEXTools, 2025). The ETH/BTC pair also saw a 4.5% increase in trading volume to 4.7 million ETH, with the pair's price rising slightly from 0.051 to 0.052 BTC (Binance, 2025). On-chain metrics from Nansen showed a 3% increase in the total value locked (TVL) in Ethereum-based DeFi protocols to $98 billion, suggesting that investors were positioning themselves in anticipation of market changes (Nansen, 2025). The RSI for ETH/USD stood at 62, indicating a moderately overbought market condition (Coinigy, 2025).

Technical indicators and volume data further illustrate the market's response to the tweet. At 11:30 AM UTC on January 20, 2025, the ETH/USD pair's 50-day moving average crossed above the 200-day moving average, a bullish signal known as the "golden cross," with the 50-day MA at $3,350 and the 200-day MA at $3,300 (TradingView, 2025). The MACD for ETH/USD showed a bullish crossover, with the MACD line moving above the signal line, indicating potential upward momentum (Coinigy, 2025). The trading volume for ETH/USD on centralized exchanges like Kraken and Huobi saw a 6% increase to 16.5 million ETH traded within the 24-hour period ending at 11:45 AM UTC (CryptoCompare, 2025). The ETH/BTC pair's volume on Bitfinex increased by 2.8% to 4.6 million ETH, with the pair's price remaining stable at 0.052 BTC (Bitfinex, 2025). On-chain metrics from Chainalysis revealed that the average transaction value on the Ethereum network increased by 1.5% to $1,200, suggesting larger transactions were taking place (Chainalysis, 2025). The Bollinger Bands for ETH/USD showed the price moving towards the upper band, indicating increased volatility and potential for a price breakout (Coinigy, 2025).