Vitalik Buterin said in a lengthy post on X that the Ethereum Foundation is reshaping itself into a smaller and more focused organization as it moves away from acting like the center of the Ethereum ecosystem.
Some of my perspective on where the @ethereumfndn is going.
First of all, this is only my own view. The board is not just me, and I have no extra special powers on the board that the other board members do not. @aerugoettinea is the one executing much of this transition. My…
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) May 24, 2026
The Ethereum cofounder said the foundation should operate as one node among many rather than as Ethereum’s central authority, arguing that its limited resources should be directed toward the parts of Ethereum that would not happen otherwise.
The comments follow a wave of high profile departures from the Ethereum Foundation that has intensified scrutiny over its internal restructuring. Carl Beek and Julian Ma announced their exits last week, adding to a broader group of departing or stepping back contributors that includes Barnabé Monnot, Tim Beiko, Trent Van Epps and Alex Stokes.
Buterin said the foundation is choosing longevity over breadth, meaning it will prioritize activities tied to Ethereum’s long term role as a censorship and capture resistant, open, private, and secure system. He said this shift may require some respected teams and contributors to operate outside the foundation so important work can attract outside capital.
The comments come as the foundation continues a transition that Buterin said should stabilize over the next few months. He said his own influence inside the organization will continue to decrease as the board expands, adding that much of the transition is being executed by other foundation leaders.
Buterin framed the change as a response to criticism that the foundation’s actions did not always reflect Ethereum’s ideals around decentralization, privacy, and what he described as sanctuary technology. He compared the situation to large technology companies that began with idealistic missions but later drifted toward mainstream corporate incentives.
He said Ethereum should not compete by simply chasing the fastest block times or highest throughput. Instead, he argued that Ethereum should become impressive in areas such as formal verification, resilient consensus, intermediary minimization, privacy, and user sovereignty.
Buterin said Ethereum should push toward systems that are provably bug free, reduce reliance on intermediaries for transaction inclusion, and improve wallet infrastructure so users do not have to depend on third party servers. He said these goals are compatible with scaling and lower slot times, especially through ongoing research and specialized layer 2 networks.
The Ethereum Foundation holds about 0.16% of all ETH, according to Buterin, far below the share held by some foundations behind other blockchains. He said the foundation was originally created to complete a defined technical scope that was effectively finished in 2022, not to remain Ethereum’s permanent steward.
Buterin also said ETH remains Ethereum’s most financially valuable product, with the network securing about $250 billion in ETH. He said properties such as security, decentralization, and censorship resistance are directly beneficial to ETH as an asset, while noting that some necessary support for ETH falls outside the foundation’s scope.