It shouldn't really be a surprise. @dan wrote this almost 3 years ago:

I'll be straight up, we are planning on selling a large amount of our STEEM until our own stake falls to 25% or less.
We also plan to give a way a large amount of our STEEM.

Edited to add:

Not sure I agree with this:

Every action of steemit tells me that they are giving up and cashing out. Selling their steem one way or another.

With the addition of advertising, it seems to me that maybe they're making the shift from one mode of operation to another. Coupling that with Dan's comments from 3 years ago, I'm now actually inclined to give them credit for a longer-term vision than I previously did.