Ethereum Foundation Cuts 20% of Workforce as Part of Reorganization

The EF's published an outline of the changes on its official blog on 23 Jun, saying the restructuring would provide "the structure, activities, and people necessary for... critical tasks ahead." 

The cuts affect 54 employees, representing roughly 20% of the foundation's workforce. The staff departing will receive severance equal to the higher of one month's pay per year of service or the locally mandated amount, alongside transition grants, the foundation said.

The new EF structure will consist of five operational "clusters" as well as management and a leadership board, resembling a more corporate framework than their previous approach. 

Leaner foundation

The workforce reduction forms part of a broader effort to shrink the foundation's spending. In a post on X, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the foundation is cutting its budget by roughly 40% this year as it transitions to a more sustainable, endowment-style funding model. The goal is to reduce annual spending from about 15% of remaining assets before 2026 to around 5% after 2030.

Buterin acknowledged the restructuring would result in the loss of talented contributors but said the foundation was making a deliberate trade-off, narrowing its focus to core protocol development while expecting more work to be carried out by independent teams across the Ethereum ecosystem.

Months of turmoil

The restructuring caps a turbulent period that began in early 2025, when long-time executive director Aya Miyaguchi stepped into the role of president at the Ethereum Foundation. 

Miyaguchi transition came amid mounting pressure from parts of the Ethereum community, which accused the foundation of being out of touch with developers, too passive in promoting Ethereum's growth and insufficiently transparent about its priorities. The criticism coincided with a period of relative underperformance for the network's native token, Ether (ETH), adding to calls for leadership and strategic changes. The appointment of Tomasz Stańczak as co-executive director that year did little to stabilize the organization. 

Stańczak departed later in February 2026, followed by key contributors Josh Stark and Trent Van Epps. Co-director Hsiao-Wei Wang also stepped down last week, extending a period of senior leadership turnover. 

The recent departures drew pointed criticism from within the ecosystem. Former Ethereum researcher Dankrad Feist argued on X that the exits reflected management problems rather than strategic disagreement, writing that the exodus of talent "is truly bearish for Ethereum."

The debate spilled into the foundation's finances. Van Epps also identified a funding shortfall within the foundation that could slow development – a claim that Bitmine chair, Tom Lee, promptly dismissed. Lee has been adding millions of dollars of ETH to Bitmine’s treasury. 

Buterin points to a leaner future

In May, Buterin hinted at the new structure in a post on X, describing the foundation's future form as "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."

The foundation will operate with a more targeted focus on developing CROPS (censorship resistance, capture resistance, openness, privacy and security) for the Ethereum ecosystem, he noted at the time, highlighting that this focus will mean spending less ETH. "The EF is choosing to use its remaining resources to pursue longevity over breadth," he said.