What to know:
- Buterin states that the Ethereum Foundation will pursue “longevity over breadth,” reduce ETH sales and narrowly focus on CROPS (censorship resistance, openness, privacy and security).
- Buterin’s influence in the EF will decrease as the board expands. He framed the EF as “one node, with a defined purpose,” not the center of Ethereum.
- Buterin argued that maximizing throughput/speed is a mistake that leads to mediocrity. Instead, Ethereum must strive to be “deeply impressive” in the CROPS dimension.
Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of Ethereum, announced that the Ethereum Foundation will prioritize long-term sustainability over expanding its activities. They plan to sell fewer ETH and concentrate their efforts on five key areas – ensuring the network is resistant to censorship and capture, remains open, protects privacy, and maintains strong security.
Vitalik Buterin recently explained on X (formerly Twitter) that the Ethereum Foundation owns about 0.16% of all Ether (ETH). He pointed out that this is a relatively small amount, much less than the 10-50% often held by the organizations behind other blockchains.
Buterin stated that almost all of his wealth—around 90%—is held in Ethereum (ETH). The remaining $40 million is in traditional currency and is already committed to funding open-source projects in biotechnology, software, and hardware.
As the EF board grows, his power within the organization will naturally lessen, which is what he wants. He was quick to add, though, that this is just his personal opinion and that he doesn’t have any more influence than the other board members.
Buterin described the Ethereum Foundation (EF) as just one part of the larger Ethereum ecosystem, with a specific role, rather than the central authority. He also argued that Ethereum shouldn’t focus on achieving the highest possible transaction speed, as that would be counterproductive.
Simply aiming to be as quick and adaptable as our competitors, with only a slight increase in decentralization, will lead to unremarkable results and ultimately, failure.
Buterin highlighted Ethereum’s goal to be remarkably reliable, specifically in an area he termed “CROPS.” This means ensuring Ethereum is demonstrably free of errors, and he believes AI-powered verification tools could make that achievable.
As an analyst following the Effective Foundation, I’ve observed a significant shift recently. A post just surfaced following the exits – or announced departures – of at least eight senior contributors this year, including five in May alone. This has understandably sparked renewed discussion about the foundation’s future direction and where it’s headed.
Crypto community reacts
Prominent Ethereum voices were supportive of Buterin.
Anthony Sassano, who teaches about Ethereum and invests in early-stage projects, responded to the post and thanked Vitalik Buterin. He also highlighted Buterin’s point that Ether (ETH) is the most valuable thing the Ethereum blockchain produces.
William Mougayar, a writer and one of Ethereum’s first advisors, shared a post suggesting Ethereum has effectively become legally protected, similar to how the Clarity Act shields certain crypto assets. The post described the situation as making Ethereum’s future path very clear and secure.
Developer Suhail Kakar agreed, describing the post as very positive. He noted that it’s extremely unusual for a project to intentionally reduce its own control, and called it one of the most principled things he’d seen in the crypto world in a long time.
Meanwhile, core developers picked at the CROPS framework.
Marius van der Wijden, a developer working on Go-Ethereum, pointed out that security is often overlooked in discussions about CROPS. He believes security is the *most* critical aspect, stating that a secure base layer is essential for everything else to work, and that we’ve become too comfortable assuming Ethereum’s security. He feels the focus is too often on the Confidentiality, Reliability, and Privacy components while the Security component is most important.
Potuz, a developer working on Ethereum’s consensus layer, added that a key benefit of Ethereum is its uninterrupted operation since its creation. They also pointed out that each time the network forks, it creates a significant point of vulnerability.
I was listening to Laura Shin on Unchained, and she hit on a really important point raised in a recent post: how does the Ethereum Foundation actually add new people to its board? Vitalik Buterin didn’t say at the time, which is a bit concerning. It’s interesting because Nick Sawinyh from DeFiPrime pointed out that the Foundation is starting to feel less like a rigid, traditional organization and more like a community-run protocol – which could be a good thing, honestly.
Some have been critical of how Ether has performed recently. Over the past five years, its value has dropped almost 60% compared to Bitcoin, now worth only 0.02738 BTC. In the same timeframe, Bitcoin’s price has nearly doubled, rising from $35,600 to $77,500 (as of today).
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2026-05-25 19:15