Culper Research Discloses Short Position in Ether, Cites Fusaka Upgrade Economics and Vitalik Buterin's 19,300+ ETH Sales

Culper Research disclosed it is short Ether (ETH) and ETH-linked securities including BMNR, arguing Ethereum's post-Fusaka economics have weakened enough to pressure the token, according to a thread on X. The firm said the December 2025 Fusaka upgrade's L1 scaling changes—including a gas limit increase from 45 million to 60 million and an expected 10% to 30% fee drop attributed to Vitalik Buterin and PTG—instead caused gas fees to fall by about 90%, cutting validator tips per gas by 40–50% and reducing staking incentives. Culper argued that post-Fusaka growth in active addresses and transactions, cited by ETH bull Tom Lee as proof of rising utility and institutional adoption, is largely driven by low-value address poisoning and wallet dusting: 95% of new wallet growth is explained by newly-created dusting wallets, poisoning attacks have more than tripled, account for over 50% of ETH transaction growth, and now make up 22.5% of all ETH transactions. Linking this to Vitalik Buterin's activity, Culper noted that after he preannounced on January 30 he would sell 16,384 ETH to fund the Ethereum Foundation's austerity period, he has sold more than 19,300 ETH, and the firm concluded ETH is losing ground to Solana and Ethereum's own L2s, with ETH trading at $2,080 at press time.