From Wu Jihan liquidating Bitcoin to Vitalik Buterin selling off ETH—what does the current crypto market indicate?

The two industry giants are exiting: Wu Jihan has fully divested from Bitcoin, while V神 has sold over 10,723 ETH. Is this a retreat or an attack? When believers start to exit, it’s either because winter is too cold, or spring is near.

On February 24, 2026, the crypto world was struck by a double shock. On one side, the world’s largest mining company, Bitdeer, liquidated all its Bitcoin holdings, personally severing its 15-year relationship with digital gold. On the other side, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin was monitored to have accelerated ETH sales over the past three weeks, cashing out over $20 million. Two industry leaders—one known as the “Bitcoin evangelist,” the other as the “Father of Ethereum”—both exited simultaneously, causing market sentiment to tighten sharply. Is this a sign of a major retreat, or the prelude to a new strategic deployment?

01 Someone else’s kid, the “battle-hardened warrior” of the crypto world
Speaking of Wu Jihan, one cannot ignore Li Xiaolai’s evaluation: “He is a wounded and bloodied warrior in the blockchain industry, an opponent he cannot beat himself.” This praise is no exaggeration. Wu Jihan has carried the “someone else’s kid” halo since childhood, entering Nankai High School with excellent grades at age 19, then attending Peking University. After graduation, he entered venture capital, becoming a young investor. In 2011, he first encountered Bitcoin and was immediately captivated by this new phenomenon. He joined Bitcoin Talk forum, became the Chinese moderator, and raised 100,000 yuan from friends and family to buy 900 BTC. At that time, Bitcoin was still a niche toy among tech geeks. Later that year, he co-founded the earliest Bitcoin community in China—BaiduBit with fellow sci-fi novelist Chang Jian. In August, he published his first article on BaiduBit, sharing his experience of buying things in China with Bitcoin. By year’s end, he translated Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” earning the title “Bitcoin evangelist.”

02 From “roasted cat” to Bitmain: the rise of the mining overlord
In August 2012, Wu Jihan invested in Roasted Cat, acquiring 15,000 shares. By December, Roasted Cat successfully developed the world’s first Bitcoin mining chip, marking the shift from PC-based mining to professional mining hardware. By July 2013, Roasted Cat’s mining farm could produce nearly 40,000 BTC per month. Wu Jihan earned his first 10 million yuan. But his ambitions didn’t stop there. After leaving Roasted Cat, he teamed up with tech expert Zhang Juntuan to establish Bitmain. In July 2013, Bitmain launched its first product, the AntMiner S1, which gained quick success thanks to low power consumption. In 2015, as Bitcoin prices rebounded, Bitmain released the fifth-generation AntMiner S5, becoming the most competitive miner on the market, with a net profit of 334 million yuan that year. They then launched S7 and S9 models, dominating the industry. In early 2017, Bitcoin broke $1,500, and network congestion became prominent. Wu Jihan supported a hard fork, believing it would defend Satoshi’s vision of decentralization. On August 1, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was born from a hard fork, earning Wu Jihan the title “Father of BCH.” At that time, AntMiner held 70% of the market share, and Bitmain’s ASIC chips accounted for nearly 80% of the market, controlling about 30% of the total hash power. Wu Jihan truly became a “mining overlord.”

03 The moment of zero: a $63 million decision
Fast forward to February 2026. Bitdeer announced its latest holdings: Bitcoin holdings dropped to zero. All 189.8 newly mined BTC were sold within a week, along with the remaining 943.1 BTC, which were also cleared out. At the then-price of $67,000, this amounted to about $63 million in cash. More intriguingly, two days before the liquidation, Bitdeer announced a $300 million issuance of convertible preferred notes to expand data centers, develop AI cloud services, and R&D new miners. While liquidating Bitcoin, they also made a large investment in AI—this is not a retreat, but a carefully planned asset transfer. Wu Jihan’s response confirmed this: “Holding zero now doesn’t mean it will stay that way forever.” The implication: this is just a phase adjustment, not the end.

04 Beyond zero: V神 also selling—10723 ETH exit
While Wu Jihan liquidated his holdings, another industry leader’s selling activity was also tracked on-chain. According to the latest data up to February 24, V神 has sold a total of 10,723 ETH since February 2, worth about $21.74 million, with an average sale price of around $2,027 per ETH. Notably, the selling has accelerated in recent days:
- Past 2.5 days: sold 3,765 ETH, worth about $7.08 million
- Past 3 days: addresses associated with V神, vitalik.eth, sold 3,788.57 ETH
- Last 48 hours: after withdrawing 3,500 ETH from Aave, the selling pace quickened again. During the week of February 23, over 7,000 ETH were confirmed sold. This is not small change—V神 still holds over 224,000 ETH, valued at about $429 million, but around 7,350 ETH have been transferred to exchanges, potentially creating supply pressure.
This selling isn’t accidental. On January 30, V神 publicly stated he would withdraw and sell 16,384 ETH from his Kanro entity (worth about $45 million at the time) to fund ecosystem development, open-source projects, public health research, and other long-term initiatives, in response to Ethereum Foundation’s “mild tightening” period. The February sales are part of this plan.

The simultaneous exit of two major bulls speaks volumes. Wu Jihan’s Bitcoin liquidation and V神’s accelerated ETH sales are widely seen as the prelude to the last dip. The likely trigger is the mid-month Federal Reserve meeting—no rate cuts expected, and historically, markets tend to crash after such meetings.

05 The mining survival rule is being rewritten
Why is Wu Jihan doing this? The answer lies in the 2024 Bitcoin halving. After that halving, block rewards dropped from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC, halving mining revenue under the same hash power. According to a JPMorgan report, Bitcoin’s network hash rate has recently declined sharply, with difficulty experiencing the largest adjustment since China’s mining ban in 2021—down 15% this year. This means many high-cost miners have been forced out. The survival rules for miners have changed dramatically. Early miners were the most loyal hodlers, reluctant to sell mined coins, only selling a little to cover electricity costs. Now, most mining companies are publicly listed, accountable to shareholders, and cannot sustain paper losses indefinitely. Plus, with all capital tied up in Bitcoin, they can’t diversify into other opportunities. Bitdeer’s complete liquidation is the most extreme risk control—cutting the direct link to Bitcoin’s price volatility and reallocating funds into higher-return sectors like AI.
This reminds us of MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, an extreme holder who refuses to sell, treating Bitcoin as faith. Wu Jihan, on the other hand, is more pragmatic—treating Bitcoin as a tool, adjusting strategies flexibly based on market conditions.

06 Cross-industry transformation under the AI wave
Transforming mining farms into AI data centers is logical. Mining farms already require cheap electricity, good cooling, and stable networks—exactly what AI data centers need. By investing in GPU servers, upgrading software, and training operations teams, they can shift from Bitcoin mining to providing computing power for AI. CoreWeave has fully transitioned into an AI infrastructure company, and MARA has expanded through acquisitions of computing infrastructure firms. Bitdeer’s recent $300 million funding aims to follow the trail of pioneers—transforming from a single Bitcoin mining company into a diversified computing power service provider.

07 After zero, where to go?
Wu Jihan’s liquidation, Bitdeer’s transformation, and V神’s sales reveal a fundamental truth: cryptocurrencies are moving away from wild growth into a phase of rationality and pragmatism. Today’s miners are no longer the stubborn bulls of the past. They are now asset allocators, weighing whether holding Bitcoin or investing in AI has better prospects. Project founders are no longer just believers—they need to raise funds for ecosystem development and respond to market cycles. Wu Jihan’s words serve as a reminder: “Holding zero now doesn’t mean it will stay that way forever.” Zero isn’t the end, but a new beginning.
V神’s sales are the same—cash-out isn’t about leaving, but about injecting new vitality into the ecosystem.

08 Final words: Bull markets make money, bear markets make coins
What about Bitcoin and Ethereum’s future? The answer has long been known.
Looking back over a decade of blockchain development, we’ve seen explosive growth in 2013, winter in 2015; witnessed madness in 2017, survived the 2018 mining crisis; enjoyed the feast of 2021, and endured the crash of 2022. Cycles of bull and bear continue, but the underlying blockchain technology never stops evolving. Every bear market is a process of bubble bursting and a sedimentation of truly valuable things. Bitcoin fell from hundreds to dozens of dollars, then rose again to $126,000; Ethereum dropped from $1,400 to $80, then hit a new high of $4,900. History repeatedly proves: as long as blockchain exists, cycles will continue; as long as cycles exist, opportunities will not be absent.

Wu Jihan’s Bitcoin liquidation isn’t about pessimism for the future, but about reallocating funds into the new battlefield of AI. V神’s ETH sales aren’t about leaving, but about injecting new vitality into the ecosystem. Their choices differ, but the logic is the same—when change is coming, having cash on hand allows you to seize the next opportunity. So for small and medium investors, current market volatility might be frightening, but it could also be the start of a new opportunity. Keep cash, be patient. Wait for market sentiment to stabilize, for the Federal Reserve’s decision to land, and for truly valuable assets to fall out of the golden pit. When others panic and sell, having bullets in your pocket means you can smile brightest in the next bull run.
Blockchain is an inevitable trend of the future, and that has never changed. Bulls and bears alternate, tides rise and fall—your only job is to preserve your principal when the tide recedes, and seize opportunities when it comes again.
Wu Jihan said: “Holding zero now doesn’t mean it will stay that way forever.” This applies to you and me as well. Believers leaving isn’t faith collapsing, but faith upgrading.
When mining overlords put down their machines, and V神 sells ETH, they’re not fleeing—they’re waiting for the next spring!