Ether declined as a wallet associated with Vitalik Buterin moved 600 ETH to U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

The world's second largest digital asset was changing hands for $1,660 at 12:25 p.m. ET, declining 0.5% over the past day. It's declined more than 10% over the past week, according to CoinGecko.

According to analysis from Lookonchain, the Ethereum co-founder repaid a loan of 251,000 RAI on the Maker protocol and followed by withdrawing 1,000 ETH.

"He then deposited 600 ETH ($1 million) to Coinbase 5 hrs ago," Lookonchain tweeted on Monday. Etherscan shows that Buterin's ENS domain, called Vitalik.eth, made the transactions approximately 11 hours ago.

Vitalik's Ether sell strategy

Onchain data suggests the majority of market participants are not following Vitalik's actions.

CryptoQuant metrics show that Ethereum exchange reserves have dropped by 2.5 million ETH to a total of 14.9 million ETH since August 7. A decline in the total number of coins held on global exchanges signals traders are removing ether to cold-storage and can be interpreted as a sentiment to hold the digital asset, possibly until the climate improves and a positive catalyst manifests.

According to Glassnode data, the amount of ETH held on exchanges is now at its lowest level since 2018.

It is not clear why the Ethereum co-founder transferred the ether to Coinbase. The last time he transferred a significant portion of the digital asset to a centralized exchange was in May when onchain data from Lookonchain claimed his ENS address sent 200 ETH, worth $396,000 at that time, to Kraken.

On the same day, the Ethereum Foundation also transferred 15,000 ETH, worth $29.7 million, to the same exchange.

After Vitalik's maneuvers in May, crypto-sector observers interpreted it as the co-founder telegraphing his view of an impending market downturn.