This is a big shift for Ethereum, and I think it's worth paying attention to.



The Ethereum Foundation just went through its biggest restructuring ever. They cut 54 jobs, which is about 20% of their staff, and reorganized the whole team into five core areas: protocol, access, user, community, and institutional. Vitalik Buterin also said the Foundation is reducing its budget by around 40% this year.

The reason behind it is interesting. The EF used to spend about 15% of its treasury every year. Now they want to bring that down to around 5% by 2030 and move to what they call an endowment model. In simple words, instead of slowly spending all their money, they want to live off the returns so they can support Ethereum for many years no matter what the market does.

So the Foundation is stepping back from being the main builder. It's becoming a leaner body that focuses on protocol governance and maintenance, while independent groups like the newly launched Ethlabs take on more of the building work.

Here is my honest take. Layoffs are never easy, and Vitalik himself admitted a lot of talent is being lost. But long-term thinking matters in crypto. A foundation that can survive years of bear markets is stronger than one that burns through its treasury fast. ETH price is down this year, sitting near $1,660, yet network usage is actually at record highs. That gap tells me the fundamentals are alive even if the price is quiet.

Leaner doesn't always mean weaker. Sometimes it means built to last. 💙💠
$ETH #EthereumFoundationRestructuresForEfficiency
ETH-5.06%
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PurpleMistLily
· 2h ago
The 2030 goal is quite far away. What if there's another deep bear market in between?
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GateUser-c3de680b
· 7h ago
Vitalik’s statement this time is refreshingly genuine, admitting that losing talent is worse than trying to save face.
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0xCandleQuiet
· 7h ago
leaner doesn't mean weaker 这句话可以刻石头上
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GateUser-5578154d
· 7h ago
40% budget cut... Curious which projects were cut
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GateUser-21ddf7c7
· 7h ago
The price is 1660 but on-chain data is at a new high; this divergence will eventually need to be corrected.
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SlowerThanBlock
· 7h ago
💙 No matter how you change it, just make sure the protocol layer doesn't cause any trouble.
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Orange-FlavoredBlock
· 7h ago
Will there be internal conflicts within EF in the future, given that the community and institutions are on separate tracks?
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ProofOfNap
· 7h ago
The endowment model is like a university endowment fund? The idea of sustainable operation is correct.
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