The Ethereum Foundation cut 54 staff positions and reduced its annual budget by roughly 40%, according to an official announcement and statements from co-founder Vitalik Buterin published on
The Ethereum Foundation cut 54 staff positions and reduced its annual budget by roughly 40%, according to an official announcement and statements from co-founder Vitalik Buterin published on June 23, 2026. The moves follow a months-long reorganization that the foundation framed as a deliberate shift toward an endowment-style operating model.
The foundation said in a blog post that its reorganization left it with 54 fewer colleagues, amounting to roughly 20% of the organization. For related coverage, see Spot XRP ETFs Hold Over 1.4% of Token Supply, Report Says.
Ethereum Foundation restructuring 54 The official June 23, 2026 post says the foundation had 54 fewer colleagues after the reorganization.The same post described the reduction as roughly one-fifth of the workforce, a figure that aligns with earlier reporting on the Ethereum Foundation’s staffing changes.
Ethereum Foundation restructuring 20% The Ethereum Foundation said the 54-position reduction amounted to roughly 20% of the organization.Under the new structure, the foundation grouped its work into five clusters covering the protocol, access, user, community, and institutional layers, plus operations and management-support functions.
Vitalik Buterin confirmed the budget side of the restructuring in an X post on the same day.
This year, the EF is decreasing its budget by roughly 40%, which entails some difficult decisions. The goal of the decreases was set out in the Treasury Management Policy last year: the EF is transitioning into being a long-term-oriented endowment-based organization, shifting…
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) June 23, 2026
Source: @VitalikButerin on X
The budget reduction is not a one-off response to market conditions. It follows a treasury management policy published in June 2025 that set the foundation’s current annual operating expenditure target at 15% of its treasury, with a 2.5-year opex buffer.
That same policy outlined a plan to reduce annual spending roughly linearly over five years to a long-term 5% baseline, a level typical of endowment-based organizations. The 40% budget cut announced this week represents a significant step along that glide path.
The combined approach, cutting both headcount and spending simultaneously, signals that the foundation views the restructuring as a permanent operating reset rather than a temporary belt-tightening. The new five-cluster organizational design suggests the foundation has decided which functions to keep in-house and which to deprioritize.
According to unconfirmed reports from secondary outlets, nine senior Ethereum Foundation figures have left since January 2026. If accurate, the leadership departures would add further context to the scale of the organizational overhaul.
The Ethereum Foundation occupies a unique position in the ecosystem. It funds core protocol research, coordinates upgrades, and supports developer tooling. A 40% spending reduction will inevitably change the scope of that support, even if protocol development continues through independent client teams.
The announcement comes at a time when the Ethereum network has been posting record on-chain user numbers, suggesting that ecosystem activity is growing even as the foundation shrinks its direct footprint.
ETH traded at $1,608.78 at the time of this writing, down 3.3% over the prior 24 hours. The broader crypto market sentiment has been cautious, with the Fear & Greed Index at 17, classified as Extreme Fear.
Institutional interest in Ethereum-related products continues to develop separately from foundation operations. Morgan Stanley recently filed for Ethereum and Solana ETFs, underscoring that Wall Street engagement with the network is not contingent on the foundation’s internal budget decisions.
The foundation’s pivot to an endowment model, if sustained, would make it more comparable to university endowments or nonprofit foundations that spend a fixed percentage of assets annually. Whether that structure can adequately fund the coordination needs of a rapidly evolving blockchain remains an open question that the Ethereum community will be watching closely in the months ahead.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making decisions.
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