Ethereum News: 7 Siblings Sell ETH as SharpLink Adds $91M to Staking

Ethereum News: ETh Launches $1M Challenge as ETH Whales Sell Millions

Ethereum is seeing a mix of major technological developments, whale activity, institutional staking, and security concerns today. The Ethereum Foundation has launched its Better Codes challenge, offering participants a chance to compete for a share of the $1 million Proximity Prize to advance post-quantum research. 

Meanwhile, ETH whales are taking profits after the recent rally, SharpLink Gaming has added millions in ETH to staking, and a Tornado Cash phishing incident has raised fresh security concerns.

ETH Price Today on 21 August 2026 at 4 AM UTC surges 4.4% and now stands at $2351.90, with a market cap of $283.87B and a 24-hour trading volume of $24.96 B.

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Key Ethereum Developments Today: At a Glance

Ethereum Foundation Launches $1 Million Post-Quantum Research Challenge

The Foundation has kicked off a new research initiative called Better Codes, aimed at pushing forward post-quantum security for the network. The program invites researchers to use AI agents and automated toolchains to search for stronger mathematical proofs behind hash-based SNARKs, a technology that underpins much of Ethereum's proof infrastructure. 

Winning submissions can earn a share of the Foundation's $1 million Proximity Prize. The effort is being run jointly with ZK Security, EigenLabs, and Yukon Research, and the platform went live on better.codes this week.

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What Is Better Codes and How Does the Ethereum Research Challenge Work?

Better Codes takes a single, well-defined problem from the Proximity Prize research program and turns it into an open competition. The target is a Reed–Solomon proximity problem known as koalaIRS12. Solvers connect their own AI models and research tools to chip away at raising the "proven" soundness bound of this problem toward a 128-bit security target, with progress tracked on a public leaderboard.

Every submission has to be formally verified. Participants sign in with GitHub, clone the challenge repository, and submit proofs that must exactly match a pinned theorem statement. A Lean 4 proof checker then confirms the math holds up before anything is accepted. Successful proofs, along with any new techniques or lemmas discovered along the way, get published openly so other solvers can build on them rather than repeating the same work.

Why Post-Quantum Security Matters for Ethereum

The push behind Better Codes comes down to a gap between what cryptographers believe about certain security guarantees and what has actually been mathematically proven. 

Hash-based SNARKs are already central to systems like zkRollups and zkVMs, and they're expected to play an even bigger role as Ethereum builds out its long-term, quantum-resistant roadmap. Closing the distance between "probably secure" and "provably secure" is meant to give developers and users more confidence in the cryptographic foundations that scaling solutions increasingly depend on.

7 Siblings and Other ETH Whales Take Profits After Ethereum's Rally

Not everyone is holding through the recent price action. On-chain trackers have flagged a wallet nicknamed "7 Siblings" that follows a fairly consistent pattern: buying after sharp short-term drops and selling into sharp short-term rallies. 

The wallet reportedly bought tokens during dips in February and June, with its June entry priced around $1,789. After a rally that pushed tokens up more than 20% in roughly a day and a half, the same wallet has been selling heavily, offloading thousands of tokens at prices near $2,338–$2,346, taking in tens of millions of dollars in the process.

It isn't the only large holder trimming positions. Another wallet, tracked as 0xFD10, has reportedly sold a mix of staked ETH and regular ETH worth tens of millions of dollars as well, suggesting profit-taking is fairly broad among some big holders right now.

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SharpLink Gaming Stakes Another 39,319 ETH Worth $91 Million

At the same time, not all large players are selling. Gaming company SharpLink Gaming reportedly added over 39,000 ETH to its staking position, a move worth roughly $91 million. The contrast is notable: while some whales are cashing out after the rally, at least one institutional holder is adding to its long-term staked position, underscoring how mixed sentiment currently is among major ETH holders.

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Tornado Cash Phishing Attack Reportedly Drains 1,010 ETH

A costly reminder of crypto security risks also surfaced this week. According to community reports, a user clicked an old, saved link pointing to Tornado Cash's original domain, which had expired after the team was unable to renew it under sanctions-related constraints. 

Attackers reportedly took over the abandoned domain and built a fake front end to harvest deposit credentials, draining roughly 1,010 ETH within about 12 hours. Trackers believe the same group may be linked to nearly 4,000 ETH in similar thefts over the past year.

Interestingly, on-chain analyst Specter has raised questions about the victim themselves, pointing to prior mixer activity and ties to hacking-related channels — suggesting this may be a case of one bad actor targeting another rather than a straightforward theft from an innocent user.

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ETH Whale Shorts Face Liquidation as Bitcoin and Ethereum Rally

Elsewhere, aggressive derivatives bets have backfired. A trader identified as 0x004E reportedly opened around $81.6 million in combined BTC and ETH short positions. As prices rallied, the BTC leg of that trade was fully liquidated, and the trader is said to have lost roughly $3.28 million across eight failed short attempts over just two days.

What's Next for Ethereum and ETH Price?

Taken together, this stretch of Ethereum news shows an ecosystem moving in several directions at once. Long-term technical development continues through initiatives like Better Codes, institutional players like SharpLink are still building staked positions, and yet short-term traders are actively taking profits and, in some cases, getting burned on leveraged bets. Security incidents like the Tornado Cash phishing case are also a reminder that infrastructure risks remain even for experienced users. 

None of this points to a single clear price direction, but it does paint a picture of an active, maturing market with development, capital flows, and risk all playing out simultaneously.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. Cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile, and readers should conduct their own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.