The Ethereum Foundation laid off roughly 20% of its workforce on June 23, parting ways with 54 colleagues, and cut its 2026 operating budget by about 40%. The organization is restructuring into five domain-focused clusters — Protocol, Access, User, Community, and Institutional — plus an Operations/Management unit. The moves are part of a broader shift: the Foundation wants to transition from spending around 15% of its treasury assets annually to roughly 5% by 2030.
A leaner Foundation
The new structure assigns single clusters responsibility for specific outcomes, aiming to reduce duplicate efforts. Non-core but valuable functions may be spun out into independent entities that can raise targeted funds. The Foundation is no longer trying to be the primary funder and coordinator for everything Ethereum; instead, it sees itself as a capital steward and standards-setting nucleus, with more execution moving to independent groups.
From funder to steward
The budget cuts and headcount reduction are the most visible signs of this pivot. The Foundation had been spending about 15% of its treasury each year before 2026. The goal is to bring that down to roughly 5% by 2030. That means the organization will hold its capital longer and deploy it more selectively. Grants are getting larger, milestone-driven, and increasingly require co-funding from other foundations, DAOs, or companies.
Grants get tougher
Side projects and education grants have become harder to secure. Core protocol and security spending is ring-fenced, but everything else faces more scrutiny. Institutional outreach, on the other hand, has picked up. Some pilot programs have moved from first call to proof-of-concept in weeks after the Foundation established a proper 'front door' for institutions. The restructuring is meant to make that kind of engagement more systematic.
The Foundation hasn't said when the next round of grant announcements will come, but the new cluster leads are now in place. The question is how quickly the independent groups spun out from non-core functions can raise their own funding — and whether the community will step in where the Foundation steps back.
