Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined a significant restructuring at the Ethereum Foundation (EF), including a sharp reduction in its operating budget and workforce. The changes reflect a deliberate shift toward long-term financial sustainability and a narrower focus on core protocol priorities.
On June 23, 2026, Buterin announced that the EF is cutting its annual budget by roughly 40% this year. This adjustment forms part of a broader transition to an endowment-style model designed for greater longevity.
The organization previously spent around 15% of its remaining treasury assets each year; the new target is to lower that rate to approximately 5% annually after 2030.
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
Buterin described the process as involving tough choices but necessary to align spending with a more restrained, enduring approach rather than short-term expansion.
The budget measures coincide with a parallel operational overhaul. The EF confirmed it is eliminating 54 positions, equivalent to about 20% of its staff.
These reductions stem from a months-long reorganization tied to the foundation’s updated mandate and treasury management policy.
The resulting structure reorganizes the nonprofit into five primary domain-focused clusters—Protocol, Access, User, Community, and Institutional—alongside operations and management support teams.
Officials stated the changes leave the EF “leaner and more focused” on executing critical long-term work without excessive vulnerability to market fluctuations.
Buterin emphasized transparency about the trade-offs involved. He noted that while some work will shift to contributors outside the EF, not all gaps can be filled externally.
Specific adjustments include evolving the multi-client strategy from primarily redundancy-based security toward greater specialization and increased reliance on AI-assisted formal verification for certain protocol components.
The Privacy and Scaling Explorations (PSE) unit is winding down, with efforts redirecting toward direct implementation of zero-knowledge proof technologies in the protocol and access layers.
Devcon events are expected to scale back in size and cost over time, and the foundation plans fewer large-scale projects beyond core Ethereum development.
Institutional activities will narrow to creating targeted, replicable examples of deployments aligned with self-sovereignty principles.
These steps support ambitious protocol upgrades under the “Strawmap” roadmap, which aims to enhance nearly every layer of Ethereum—including consensus, proofs, privacy, account models, and state management.
Buterin framed the overall direction as prioritizing depth over breadth, aiming for a “soft lean-and-done” phase once major upgrades conclude, with a higher threshold for new features to maintain the protocol’s resilience and resistance to capture.
The announcements follow recent leadership transitions at the EF, including the resignation of co-Executive Director Hsiao-Wei Wang.
Departing staff will receive severance packages and transition support, with many expected to continue contributing to the broader Ethereum ecosystem.
Buterin expressed confidence in Ethereum’s position despite recent challenges, highlighting adaptation both inside and outside the foundation. The reset is positioned as a maturation step that strengthens focus on Ethereum’s foundational strengths while promoting fiscal discipline for the long haul.