Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has addressed a recent wave of criticism over the Ethereum Foundation’s role within the ecosystem. Amid calls for the foundation to prioritize ETH’s price and adopt stronger marketing efforts, Buterin stressed that the organization’s main mission remains focused on censorship resistance, open-source development, long-term research, cybersecurity, and maintaining decentralization at the protocol level.
Core mission holds firm
Referring to the foundation’s official mandate published in March 2026, Buterin reiterated that the Ethereum Foundation would stay true to its established course. He dismissed ambitions to engage in a “race” against high-speed blockchains or to transform Ethereum into a network capable of one million transactions per second, emphasizing instead the goal of strengthening core code, improving cybersecurity, and ensuring the network’s longevity.
“We are stepping up now not to become a central actor in the future, but to ensure the infrastructure gets stronger,” Buterin clarified, outlining both the institution’s vision and the expectations of the wider community.
Foundation faces mounting criticism and major liquidations
Recent months have seen significant departures from the Ethereum Foundation, with key members leaving and large ETH investors selling nearly all their holdings. Currently trading near $2,094, ETH remains below half of its all-time high of around $5,000 in August 2025. Furthermore, the foundation now controls just 0.16% of total ETH supply, a stark contrast to many other foundations that retain 10% to 50% of their respective tokens as reserves. Buterin highlighted these industry comparisons.
Crypto journalist Laura Shin captured the current sentiment: “Most investors struggle to believe in something whose value isn’t clearly rising.”
Dencun upgrade slashes fees, hits revenue
In March 2024, the Ethereum network underwent the Dencun upgrade—a major turning point. This protocol update significantly lowered transaction fees for layer-2 operations but also sharply reduced network infrastructure revenues as a result.
Glossary: The Dencun upgrade, integrated into the Ethereum network in March 2024, is a comprehensive protocol overhaul that notably lowered transaction fees for layer-2 solutions. While this has lowered costs for users, it has also reduced primary chain revenues.
| Update | Network transaction fee | Main revenue impact |
|---|---|---|
| Before | High | Revenue high |
| After Dencun | Low | Revenue dropped |
Foundation’s ETH sale strategy and staking changes
To bolster its financial reserves and allocate more resources for research, the Ethereum Foundation has shifted strategy. Buterin mentioned that future ETH sales by the foundation would likely decrease, aiming instead to extend the sustainability of current holdings.
Most recently, in May, the foundation withdrew 21,270 ETH from the Lido liquid staking platform. This means those holdings will no longer generate staking rewards for the foundation; however, there is no clear evidence yet that these ETH will be immediately sold off.
Despite growing market- and price-driven criticism, the Ethereum Foundation appears intent on maintaining its protocol-centric approach and long-term priorities. The balance between the foundation’s token holdings and ETH’s current market performance remains at the heart of ecosystem debates.
