Ethereum Foundation Overhauls Structure, Reduces Staff by 20% and Budget by 40%

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) said it has completed a restructuring effort that began months ago and has moved to a new organizational setup. EF's updated structure centers on five core work clusters spanning the protocol, access, user, community, and institutional layers. The organization will also include an operations unit and management support teams under the new chart. As part of the changes, 54 employees will leave the foundation, representing roughly 20% of EF's workforce. EF said impacted staff will receive severance and transition support. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said EF has cut its budget by about 40% this year, describing the move as difficult but aligned with a shift toward a long-term, donation-based operating model. He said EF is currently spending roughly 15% of its remaining funds per year through 2026 and is targeting a reduction to about 5% annually after 2030, consistent with the treasury management policy outlined last year. Buterin emphasized that the departures should not be framed simply as a "productivity increase," noting that those leaving include highly qualified engineers who have contributed to the Ethereum protocol and ecosystem for years. EF also referenced a broader long-term technical roadmap it calls the "Strawmap." Buterin said the plan aims to overhaul foundational parts of Ethereum, including consensus, proof-of-work systems, privacy, the account model, and the state structure. He described it as Ethereum's third major evolution after the Merge. Additional shifts are under consideration. EF expects the multi-client model to move from a redundancy-first approach toward more specialized implementations. The foundation is also evaluating expanded use of AI-powered formal verification methods within certain security strategies. Looking ahead, Buterin said EF supports a "lean and complete" long-term approach. Once Strawmap is finalized, he said the emphasis should move to security fixes and small, high-value protocol improvements, a strategy he argues can preserve Ethereum's decentralized and compromise-resistant design without requiring large budgets. Buterin added that EF plans to allocate fewer resources to large initiatives outside of ETH. While he said he may personally fund some external projects, he expects the foundation's corporate activities to become more limited and more focused. This is not investment advice.