Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published a lengthy post on X addressing months of turbulence at the Ethereum Foundation, outlining the organization's strategic direction amid significant departures. According to reports from The Block, Buterin framed the post as his personal perspective rather than an official board statement, noting that interim co-Executive Director Bastian Aue is executing much of the transition. The Ethereum Foundation currently holds approximately 0.16% of all ETH, significantly less than many individual holders and well below the 10% to 50% common at other blockchain foundations. Buterin emphasized that the board is 'in the process of expanding' and his own power within the organization 'will continue to decrease, which is honestly what I want.'
The post comes amid a wave of departures that has reignited debate over the foundation's direction. As reported by The Block, at least eight senior EF contributors have left or announced plans to leave in 2026, including five in May alone. Former EF developer Dankrad Feist, who left his full-time role for Tempo last year, this week proposed raising $1 billion for a separate Ethereum advocacy organization that would be more economically aligned with ETH the asset. Tomasz Stanczak separately stepped down as co-executive director, while Alex Stokes is on sabbatical. Buterin acknowledged he had been 'regularly' hearing from community members who have felt the foundation's actions don't match the rhetoric of decentralization, privacy, and 'sanctuary technology' that he and the foundation have publicly championed.
Buterin announced that the EF is choosing 'longevity over breadth,' selling less ETH and focusing exclusively on Ethereum's 'CROPS' properties of censorship/capture resistance, open source, privacy, and security. According to The Block, he emphasized that the foundation will now focus only on activities critical to Ethereum's resilience that 'would not happen otherwise.' This strategic shift means some respected contributors and projects will sit outside the EF, which Buterin described as 'in fact necessary if we want important tasks to be able to attract outside capital.' He noted that the foundation's original charter was 'to complete the work outlined in Ethereum's pre-launch documents, a task he said was finished in 2022.'
Buterin outlined three technical priorities for Ethereum's next phase: 'provably bug-free Ethereum' via AI-assisted formal verification, 'available chain consensus' which Ethereum already offers, and intermediary minimization through ongoing work on FOCIL, EIP-8141, EIP-7701, and the EF's Kohaku wallet framework. As reported by The Block, he explicitly rejected the argument that Ethereum should compete on speed alone, stating that 'Being as fast and as scalable as possible, and only a small epsilon more decentralized than the others, is a route to mediocrity.' He noted that his stated goals are 'compatible with high TPS,' but emphasized that 'it is not OK for ethereum to rely on social consensus and hard forks to rescue ethereum from 34% of nodes going offline.'
ETH was trading at approximately $2,100 as of 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, up about 2% over the past 24 hours, according to The Block's Ethereum Price page. Buterin closed by stating that the EF will be 'a smaller ship than in previous years, a more opinionated one, in some cases more opinionated in ways that might be difficult to comprehend, but a longer-lasting one.' He noted that the foundation's new long-term form should 'stabilize over the next few months.' The post acknowledged community criticism about the foundation's actions not matching rhetoric of decentralization and privacy, with Buterin stating that 'It's not OK for ethereum to rely on social consensus and hard forks to rescue ethereum from 34% of nodes going offline.' He emphasized that the EF should be understood as 'one node, with a defined purpose, alongside other nodes' rather than the center of Ethereum.
