The Foundation is shrinking to survive. But what signal does selling into a downturn send — and can the organization that gave us the EVM still make its next leap?
Date: May 25, 2026 | Reference point: 2026-05-20
1. "A Smaller Ship" — The Foundation Begins to Shrink Itself
On May 24, 2026, Vitalik Buterin publicly declared he would turn the Ethereum Foundation (EF) into a "smaller ship": selling less ETH, prioritizing decentralization, privacy, and censorship resistance over raw speed, and reorganizing the body amid a wave of high-profile departures.
This was not a sudden move but the culmination of a year-and-a-half-long arc. In chronological order:
