Vitalik Buterin Commits $43M to Ethereum Foundation's 'Mild Austerity' Plan

Key Insights:

• In recent Ethereum news, Vitalik Buterin said that the Ethereum Foundation is entering a period of “mild austerity,” with a focus on long-term sustainability.
• Buterin said Ethereum remains central to a push for self-sovereignty and trustlessness in 2026.
• However, the ETH price has come under severe selling pressure, crashing over 6% and moving to $5,700.

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum blockchain, disclosed transferring 16,384 ETH, worth about $45 million at current prices. Buterin said the move coincides with the Ethereum Foundation entering what he described as a “period of mild austerity.” He added that these funds will support several open-source security and public technology initiatives.

In a post on Jan 30. Vitalik Buterin noted that the Ethereum foundation is entering a “mild austerity” period. He added that this move will help to ensure long-term sustainability, and also maintain roadmap development.

Buterin also confirmed that he had allocated $45 million as his share of austerity. Buterin added that he would assume responsibility for projects previously treated as foundation “special projects.”

Buterin said the funds will support the development of an “open-source, secure, and verifiable full stack.” This will span across both – software and hardware. The planned scope includes finance, communications, governance, operating systems, secure hardware, and biotechnology applications related to personal and public health.

The Ethereum co-founder said that ETH will be deployed toward these efforts over the next several years. He also said that he’s exploring decentralized staking options to channel future staking rewards into long-term project funding.

In his message on X platform, Vitalik Buterin said that Ethereum remains central to this broader vision of openness and verifiability. He added that the Ethereum Foundation will continue to focus on core protocol development. Thus, they would prioritize “Ethereum for people who need it” rather than “Ethereum everywhere.”

This funding decision follows Buterin’s recent public comments, in which he said his top priority for 2026 is to boost the Ethereum ecosystem. On Jan. 16, he said the coming year would be about reclaiming “lost ground in terms of self-sovereignty and trustlessness.”

Vitalik Buterin has highlighted initiatives such as the foundation’s Kohaku wallet framework to improve on-chain privacy and user experience. This includes private payments with usability comparable to public transactions. He has also pointed to tools like the Helios light client as a way to give users greater control over data verification.

Separately, Buterin said he plans to re-engage fully with decentralized social media in 2026 following Mask Network’s acquisition of Lens Protocol. He described decentralization as critical for competition in social media. The Ethereum co-founder has also advocated for shared data layers that allow multiple clients to operate on the same network.

Amid this announcement from Vitalik Buterin, the ETH price crashed over 6% and is currently trading close to $2,700 levels. Brandt noted that Ethereum’s price action shows a bearish technical setup, citing a symmetrical triangle pattern on the 24-hour chart.

Brandt said the pattern has broken to the downside, a move he described as a classic bearish signal that could point to further weakness ahead. He warned that sustained selling pressure may drag the total crypto market capitalization down to around $2.41 trillion. This implies a potential 15%–20% decline from current levels.

On the other hand, the spot Ethereum ETFs registered major outflows on Jan. 29 trading session. The net outflows across all ETFs yesterday were $155 million, with BlackRock’s ETHA and Fidelity’s FETH each clocking over $55 million in outflows.

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