TLDR
- Ethereum Foundation cut 54 employees in its latest restructuring.
- The staff reduction represents about 20% of the foundation’s workforce.
- EF reorganized into five clusters covering protocol, access, users, community and institutions.
- Vitalik Buterin said EF is also cutting its budget by roughly 40%.
- Ethlabs launched as a new nonprofit R&D group focused on Ethereum and ETH.
The Ethereum Foundation has reduced its workforce by 54 employees, representing about 20% of its staff, as part of a months-long restructuring tied to its updated mandate and treasury management policy.
The foundation announced the reorganization in a Tuesday blog post, saying the changes leave it with a leaner operating structure focused on work it considers critical to Ethereum’s long-term development. Departing employees will receive severance and transition support as they leave the organization.
The staff reduction comes during a period of leadership changes at the foundation. Co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang recently stepped down after a sabbatical, following the earlier departure of co-executive director Tomasz Stańczak. Other senior figures have also left or moved into different roles over recent months.
Ethereum Foundation Moves Into Five-Cluster Structure
The Ethereum Foundation said its new model is organized around five main work clusters: protocol layer, access layer, user layer, community layer and institutional layer. Two additional clusters will support operations and management.
The protocol layer will focus on Ethereum’s core technical development, including protocol hardening, scaling, privacy, security and censorship resistance. The foundation said this group will work on safe fork delivery, reducing unnecessary complexity, limiting trusted dependencies and advancing long-term research such as zkEVM and post-quantum security.
The access layer will focus on how users read the chain, transact, prove activity, delegate authority and exit systems without depending on intermediaries. The foundation said this work is linked to Ethereum’s goal of keeping credible self-custody and non-custodial pathways available.
The user layer will study user needs, use cases, education and impact measurement. The community layer will manage the foundation’s public presence and relationships across Ethereum, open-source technology, privacy research and public-interest technology communities.
Staff Cuts Follow Leadership Turnover
The institutional layer will handle the foundation’s work with financial institutions, enterprises, governments, universities and nonprofit groups. The foundation said this cluster will focus on practical Ethereum integrations, standards, reference architectures and policy engagement.
The restructuring follows broader debate over the Ethereum Foundation’s role as the ecosystem becomes more distributed. Some work that previously sat inside the foundation may now be carried forward by external organizations, new research groups and application-focused teams.
Vitalik Buterin said the foundation is also reducing its budget by roughly 40% this year as it shifts toward a long-term endowment-based model. He said the foundation is moving from its earlier pattern of spending about 15% of remaining funds annually toward a post-2030 target of about 5% per year.
Buterin said the reductions involve real losses and acknowledged the contributions of departing employees, including engineers who worked on Ethereum protocol development for many years. He said many may continue contributing to Ethereum from outside the foundation.
Ethlabs Launch Adds External Ethereum Research Effort
The restructuring comes as new ecosystem organizations emerge around Ethereum development and institutional adoption. Ethlabs, a nonprofit research and development lab focused on Ethereum and ETH, was announced this week with support from major Ethereum treasury firms and Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin.
BitMine Immersion Technologies and SharpLink Gaming, two large public Ethereum treasury companies, were named among the supporters of Ethlabs. The group is expected to focus on Ethereum’s technical roadmap and institutional adoption, adding another research structure outside the foundation.
Other ecosystem groups have also formed, including the Ethereum Applications Guild, Ethereum Economic Zone and Argot Collective. The Ethereum Foundation said stewardship of Ethereum should be shared with organizations committed to building infrastructure for self-sovereignty.
The foundation said employees leaving under the restructuring will receive severance equal to the higher of one month’s pay per year worked or the amount required by local law. Transition support will also include help finding new roles in the Ethereum ecosystem and a small grant for transition-related expenses.
