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Ethereum Crisis or Excessive FUD? Tom Lee Rejects Funding Concerns

Tom Lee dismisses warnings that Ethereum's core development could face a funding crisis within the next nine months. “There’s no chance” of a crisis occurring, he says.

This statement comes amid increasing pressure on the Ethereum Foundation, with several senior staff leaving and growing concerns about long-term funding. A former contributor who helped build Ethereum’s major external funding vehicle now states that core development requires around US$30 million per year.

What Sparks Ethereum Funding Fears

Trent Van Epps, who coordinated core protocol funding at the Ethereum Foundation for five years, warns that development could gradually enter a crisis in 3 to 9 months.

He highlights two funding sources that are now starting to run low simultaneously:

Client Incentive Program, a four-year initiative providing incentives to client teams from staking rewards, ended in April without a replacement program.
The Foundation also separately cut its annual treasury expenditure from 15% down to a baseline of 5% over five years, following policies set by the Foundation itself in June 2025.
This warning is taken seriously because Van Epps is one of the co-founders of Protocol Guild, the main funding vehicle for core contributors outside the Foundation.

Protocol Guild distributes tokens donated by projects to a list of selected developers, then asks projects to give 1% of their total supply. These funds help finance client teams and network researchers.

Staff Departures at Foundation Worsen Concerns

This situation even occurs at the highest levels. Hsiao-Wei Wang, the author of the treasury policy, resigned as co-executive director on June 18, a few months after his colleague, Tomasz Stańczak, left in February.

“After my leave, I decided to step down from the co-executive director position and the Ethereum Foundation board starting today,” Wang explained.

Both co-director positions have since been filled throughout this year.

At least eight senior staff have left in the past five months, further fueling debates about the Foundation’s direction.

Board member Bastian Aue is now acting interim, while researcher Dankrad Feist attributes staff departures to management issues, not strategy.

“The problem isn’t strategy, but management. And the departure of so many talents is honestly very bearish for Ethereum.”

Why Tom Lee Is Confident There’s No Crisis

Lee is the chairman of BitMine Immersion Technologies, the largest Ethereum treasury holder, controlling over 5 million ETH and targeting a staking rate of 5% of the total supply.

This significant position forms the basis of his argument that stakers seeking profit, not the Foundation, will fund the network’s sustainability. He considers the staff exodus wave as “short-term noise.”

“In my opinion, there’s no chance of this ‘crisis’ happening for $ETH. Zero ‘Secured Funding’”

Optimistic parties also add that independent client teams and Van Epps’s Protocol Guild continue core development without relying on the Foundation.

However, skeptics remain unconvinced. Virtual Bacon investor argues that layer-1 networks rarely die from lack of money, but they stall if builders stop building. He cites EOS and Cosmos as projects that faded after talent left.

“…two co-executive directors leaving plus funding warnings at the same time, not just one person. Cosmos and EOS also have builders, but they stall when the enthusiasm to build disappears. ETH might survive, but no L1 has succeeded so far,” he added.

At the time of publication, Ethereum was trading at around US$1,725, up slightly about 2% in the last 24 hours.