Vitalik Buterin Outlines 40% Budget Reduction in Broad Ethereum Foundation Revamp

The announcement comes alongside confirmation of a 20% workforce reduction and follows the resignation of co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang. Her exit raises the total number of senior Ethereum Foundation leaders who have departed since January to nine, highlighting the scale of the organization’s ongoing reset.

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) plans to reduce its budget by around 40% this year as it transitions toward a leaner, endowment-style operating model, according to a blog post published Tuesday by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

Buterin said the goal is to bring annual spending down from roughly 15% of the Foundation’s treasury before 2026 to a long-term level of about 5% per year after 2030.

“I respect my EF colleagues far too much to pretend that there was not much that is lost,” Buterin wrote, acknowledging the difficult decisions involved, including the departure of long-serving engineers who have helped shape Ethereum’s development.

Even as it cuts costs, the Foundation intends to continue supporting Ethereum’s long-term roadmap—described by Buterin as the protocol’s “third iteration” following the Merge—while scaling back spending in other areas. Planned changes include winding down the Privacy and Scaling Explorations (PSE) unit, holding smaller and more cost-efficient Devcon events, narrowing its institutional strategy, and shifting toward specialized client teams supported by AI-assisted formal verification.

Buterin also reiterated his vision of a “lean-and-done” Ethereum once the current roadmap is completed, with future development focused mainly on security improvements and a limited set of high-impact upgrades rather than continuous expansion.

The move comes as Ethereum faces growing competition from rival blockchains, alongside ongoing leadership turnover and a broader effort to redefine the Foundation’s role within the ecosystem.