Ethereum Foundation to reduce ecosystem influence, sell less ETH

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined a new direction for the Ethereum Foundation, stating that the organization will reduce its influence within the broader ecosystem, sell less of its ETH holdings, and focus on a narrower set of technical priorities centered on decentralization, privacy, and censorship resistance. In a detailed public post, Buterin described the foundation not as the central coordinator of Ethereum but as “one node, with a defined purpose, alongside other nodes.” He said the board is expanding to dilute individual influence, including his own, which he said he wants to continue to shrink.

Buterin acknowledged community criticism that the foundation’s actions have not always matched the principles it publicly champions. He noted that the foundation holds roughly 0.16 percent of the total ETH supply, a relatively small stake compared to other blockchain foundations that often control 10 to 50 percent of their native tokens. He argued that the health of the token does not depend on the foundation’s balance sheet alone but on the long-term research and development work it funds.

The foundation will now focus on what Buterin called the CROPS dimension:...