Overview
- Vitalik Buterin posted his plan on May 24–25 saying the Ethereum Foundation will become a smaller, more selective organization and that his personal influence will decline as the board expands.
- Buterin said the foundation will sell less ETH and use its remaining funds for longevity rather than broad expansion, noting the foundation holds roughly 0.16% of all ETH.
- The foundation will focus on CROPS — censorship and capture resistance, openness, privacy and security — and pursue technical goals such as AI-assisted formal verification, lean consensus, and fewer intermediaries.
- The announcement follows a wave of at least eight to nine senior departures in 2026 and recent treasury moves, including unstaking roughly 21,270 ETH and earlier OTC sales that drew community scrutiny.
- The shift hands more responsibility for promoting ETH, business development and execution to outside actors, a change that could reduce base-layer selling but also risk slower coordination and loss of institutional knowledge if new stewards do not materialize.