The decision comes alongside the Foundation’s confirmation of a 20% workforce reduction and follows the resignation of co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang. Her exit brings the number of senior Ethereum Foundation leaders who have stepped down since January to nine, highlighting the scale of the organization’s ongoing restructuring.
The Ethereum Foundation (EF) will reduce its budget by approximately 40% this year as it transitions toward a leaner, endowment-style operating model, according to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in a blog post published Tuesday.
Buterin said the move is intended to gradually lower annual spending from around 15% of the Foundation’s treasury before 2026 to a long-term target of roughly 5% per year after 2030.
“I respect my EF colleagues far too much to pretend that there was not much that is lost,” Buterin wrote, acknowledging the difficult trade-offs involved, including the departure of experienced engineers who have contributed to Ethereum’s development for years.
Despite the cuts, the Foundation aims to preserve funding for Ethereum’s ambitious roadmap—described by Buterin as the protocol’s “third iteration” following the Merge—while trimming expenses elsewhere. Planned adjustments include winding down the Privacy and Scaling Explorations (PSE) unit, scaling back Devcon events to make them smaller and more cost-efficient, narrowing its institutional strategy, and shifting toward specialized client teams supported by AI-assisted formal verification.
Buterin also reiterated his long-term vision of a “lean-and-done” Ethereum once its current roadmap is complete, with future development focused primarily on security improvements and a limited set of high-impact upgrades rather than continuous feature expansion.
The changes come as Ethereum faces rising competition from rival blockchains, alongside internal leadership turnover and a broader effort to redefine the Foundation’s role within the ecosystem.
