First, several former Ethereum Foundation researchers established an independent non-profit organization, Ethlabs, and received major funding support from key ETH holders such as Bitmine and SharpLink. According to its introduction, Ethlabs’ early work will focus on key requirements for large-scale on-chain deployments by institutions, including faster settlement speeds, native asset issuance, cross-chain transactions based on robust infrastructure, mainnet capacity expansion, and foundational research supporting ETH’s monetary properties.

Soon after, the Ethereum Foundation announced that it had concluded a restructuring process that had lasted for months, cutting 54 jobs, or about 20% of its prior headcount. This adjustment continued the strategic transition of “streamlining Ethereum,” and would re-position the Ethereum Foundation as a lighter protocol governance and maintenance entity rather than the primary core builder.

Between advances and retreats, Ethereum is sending a clear signal: the foundation is proactively stepping back from its role, while ecosystem organizations take on more execution responsibilities. Ethereum is no longer trying to have a centralized non-profit entity handle routing, development, promotion, and building.