Today, I’m sitting down to re-share a truly shocking piece of news in the crypto world from the past few days, which is the story of the Ethereum Foundation (EF) going through a serious "storm." I’ll summarize the main points briefly, clearly, and simply so everyone can understand the situation:

What’s happening with the Ethereum Foundation?
• Launched 20% of staff: EF officially announced parting ways with 54 employees (accounting for 1/5 of the team). They explained this was an extremely difficult decision but necessary to streamline the organization. All affected employees were fully supported with benefits and assistance in finding new jobs.
• Tightening belts, cutting 40% of the budget: Vitalik Buterin (the founder) also announced a 40% reduction in operational costs this year. The goal is that by 2030, they will only spend a maximum of 5% of the remaining funds annually to sustain long-term operations.
• Treasury visibly depleted: Currently, EF’s fund is only about $200 million worth of ETH, down 78% from $950 million in September last year. The reason is they have to continuously sell ETH to cover expenses, plus ETH prices have been steadily dropping lately. This is the lowest asset level since 2020.
Internal crisis, top executives leaving
• This round of layoffs is like the last drop after half a year of internal turmoil at EF:
• Both newly appointed CEOs last year, Tomasz Stanczak and Hsaio-Wei Wang, have resigned.
• A series of senior engineers and core network members (like Tim Beiko, Alex Stokes, Péter Szilágyi…) also resigned en masse. Rumor has it that it’s due to exhausted funds, no longer enough to comfortably finance development projects like before.
What’s the future direction?
• To sum up: EF will reorganize into five main departments managing five areas: protocol, access, users, community, and organization.
• The emergence of "rescue team" Ethlabs: The core team members who left EF didn’t quit the industry; they regrouped, with funding from major players like SharpLink, Bitmine, and Joe Lubin, to establish Ethlabs. This is a new non-profit organization taking on some R&D work to "save" Ethereum.
In short, the reality is: the Ethereum Foundation is now shrinking to survive and reduce ETH sales on the market. Going forward, ecosystem development will likely rely on independent organizations outside, like Ethlabs. What do you think about this situation—good or bad? Leave your thoughts and let me know!