The Ethereum Foundation will slash its budget by 40% and cut 54 jobs, approximately one-fifth of its workforce, co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced June 23. The move targets a shift toward an endowment-style model, reducing annual spending from 15% of its treasury to roughly 5% by 2030. The cuts follow nine senior departures since January 2026, including co-directors Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stanczak. The foundation will reorganize into five operational clusters, wind down its Privacy and Scaling Explorations unit, and hold smaller Devcon conferences going forward.
In-Depth:
The Ethereum Foundation will cut its budreceive by 40% and slash 54 jobs as Vitalik Buterin pushes a leaner, concludeowment-style model.
Ethereum News
The Ethereum Foundation will cut its budreceive by roughly 40% this year, Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced in a blog post published June 23.
Buterin stated the cuts are part of a shift toward a leaner, concludeowment-style operating model. The foundation wants to reduce annual spconcludeing from about 15% of its remaining treasury to roughly 5% per year by 2030.
A Year of Senior Departures
The layoffs follow the resignation of Co-Executive Director Hsiao-Wei Wang earlier this month. Her departure brings the total number of senior Ethereum Foundation figures who have left since January 2026 to nine.
Wang’s exit followed the February 2026 departure of fellow co-director Tomasz Stanczak. Board member Bastian Aue has since taken on expanded responsibilities overseeing the foundation’s day-to-day operations during the transition.
Researcher Dankrad Feist also left the foundation last year to work on Stripe’s stablecoin blockchain, Tempo. Buterin acknowledged the losses directly in his post.
Five New Operating Clusters
The restructuring splits the foundation’s work into five clusters. These cover the protocol layer, access layer, applyr layer, community layer, and institutional layer, along with two additional clusters for operations and management.
The protocol layer will handle scaling and hardening the Ethereum mainnet. The access layer will focus on transacting, reading, and delegating on-chain. The institutional layer will manage enterprise engagement, financial infrastructure, and policy coordination.
The modifys follow the foundation’s March 2026 publication of its “Mandate,” a 38-page document described as part constitution and part manifesto, along with a new treasury policy. Other modifys include winding down the Privacy and Scaling Explorations unit, holding compacter Devcon conferences, and shifting toward specialized client teams supported by AI-assisted formal verification.
While the foundation shrinks, a separate Ethereum effort is expanding. On June 22, BitMine Immersion Technologies and SharpLink Gaming, two of the largest publicly traded Ethereum treasury companies, announced support for Ethlabs alongside Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin. Ethlabs is a new nonprofit research organization founded by former Ethereum Foundation researchers, focapplyd on improving the connection between institutions and Ethereum.
This article contains links to third-party websites or other content for information purposes only (“Third-Party Sites”). The Third-Party Sites are not under the control of CoinMarketCap, and CoinMarketCap is not responsible for the content of any Third-Party Site, including without limitation any link contained in a Third-Party Site, or any modifys or updates to a Third-Party Site. CoinMarketCap is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply concludeorsement, approval or recommconcludeation by CoinMarketCap of the site or any association with its operators. This article is intconcludeed to be applyd and must be applyd for informational purposes only. It is important to do your own research and analysis before building any material decisions related to any of the products or services described. This article is not intconcludeed as, and shall not be construed as, financial advice. The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s [company’s] own and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinMarketCap.
