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Ethereum Foundation cuts 54 staff and plans about 40% budget reduction

Ethereum Foundation cuts 54 staff and plans about 40% budget reduction

The nonprofit reorganized into five clusters, eliminated about 20% of roles, and is reshaping operations and spending after a series of senior leadership departures.

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Fact Check
The official Ethereum Foundation blog post 'The EF's new structure' (blog.ethereum.org, June 23, 2026) directly confirms the claim: a months-long reorganization reduced staff by 54 (~20%) and established five domain-specific clusters (Protocol, Access, User, Community, Institutional Layers). The Crypto Briefing article corroborates these figures and explicitly cites the official blog. The claim's framing of 'protocol, access, user, community and institutional functions' precisely matches the five layers named in the primary source.
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Summary

The Ethereum Foundation said it completed a months-long reorganization into five domain clusters — Protocol, Access, User, Community and Institutional — plus operations and management support teams, eliminating 54 roles, or about 20% of staff. The nonprofit said the overhaul is meant to support “scaling self-sovereignty” while making the organization leaner and more focused. Separately, Vitalik Buterin said the foundation plans to cut its budget by about 40% this year and shift from spending about 15% of remaining funds annually toward a target of around 5% after 2030 under its treasury plan. The changes come after a stretch of senior leadership departures at the foundation.

Terms & Concepts
  • self-sovereignty: User control over assets, identity and participation without centralized intermediaries.
  • multi-client approach: Using multiple software clients for resilience rather than depending on a single implementation.
  • zero-knowledge proofs: Cryptographic methods that let systems verify information without revealing the underlying data.