The Ethereum Foundation has cut 54 employees, roughly 20% of its staff, in the most concrete austerity measure the organization has taken since pledging to reduce its treasury spending rate.
The Foundation announced the changes Tuesday, saying the cuts conclude a months-long reorganization tied to its updated Mandate and Treasury Management Policy. Vitalik Buterin separately posted on X that the EF is cutting its annual budget by approximately 40% this year, targeting a reduction in annual operating expenses from around 15% of treasury to a long-term baseline of 5% after 2030.
[[embed:tweet url="https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2069428396661051587"]] Arkham Intelligence tracked the EF's ETH holdings at approximately $209 million, a nearly six-year low by dollar value, as The Defiant has reported in this arc.
The Foundation has reorganized into five domains: protocol layer, access layer, user layer, community layer, and institutional layer, plus operations and management clusters. The protocol cluster is focused on advancing the base layer without compromising censorship resistance or self-sovereignty guarantees; the institutional cluster handles enterprise engagement, financial infrastructure, and policy coordination. The EF said the process leaves it with "the structure, activities, and people necessary for execution on the critical tasks ahead." Departing staff receive severance at one month's pay per year of service, or the locally mandated minimum if higher, plus transition grants.
