Vitalik Buterin, one of the founders of Ethereum, has responded directly to the increasing criticism of the Ethereum Foundation’s role in the ecosystem in recent days. In particular, to the calls for the foundation to provide more support to Ethereum’s token price and marketing, Buterin emphasized that the main purpose of the foundation is still to ensure resistance to censorship, open source software, long-term research, cyber security and decentralization at the protocol level.
Core objectives remain unchanged
Referring to the official authorization text published in March 2026, Buterin said that the Ethereum Foundation will continue to move forward within the framework it has drawn so far. He stated that very ambitious scaling targets, such as competing with high-speed blockchains or creating a network that can process 1 million transactions per second, were not on the agenda. He noted that the main goal is to strengthen Ethereum’s core codes and cyber security and to take steps that will keep the network alive for many years.
“We are taking action now because we want to ensure that the infrastructure is strengthened, rather than being a central actor of the future,” said Buterin, clarifying both the institution’s vision and the community expectation.
Foundation criticisms and big breakthroughs
In the past period, the departure of some important names from the Ethereum Foundation and the sale of almost all of the assets of large-scale ETH investors increased the pressure on the foundation. Currently trading around $2,094, ETH is still less than half of the peak of around $5,000 it reached in August 2025. Additionally, the foundation’s share in the total ETH supply is limited to only 0.16%. Buterin reminded that many similar foundations have reserves of 10-50 percent of their token supply.
“Most investors have a hard time believing in something that isn’t clearly increasing in value,” crypto journalist Laura Shin summed up the current sentiment.
Dencun update and decrease in fees
The Ethereum network went through a serious turning point with the Dencun update in March 2024. This release significantly reduced commission fees for layer-2 transactions, resulting in infrastructure revenue falling sharply.
Mini dictionary: The Dencun upgrade is a comprehensive protocol update that was integrated into the Ethereum network in March 2024 and noticeably reduces transaction fees, especially in layer-2 solutions. In this way, while user costs on the network have decreased, the revenue of the main chain has also decreased significantly.
| Update | Network transaction fee | Basic income effect |
|---|---|---|
| Pre | High | Income is high |
| post dencun | Low | Income fell |
Foundation ETH sales strategy and staking move
Ethereum Foundation has recently highlighted its strategy of preserving its financial reserves and allocating resources for research. Buterin stated that the foundation aims to reduce ETH sales in the future and work with the assets owned for longer periods of time.
In May, the foundation withdrew 21,270 ETH from the liquid staking platform called Lido. This transaction means that the assets in question will no longer generate income for the foundation; but it does not provide an indication that the foundation will definitely sell these ETHs.
The Ethereum Foundation appears to maintain its protocol-focused approach and long-term goals in the face of market and price-focused criticism. The balance between the total amount of tokens held by the foundation and the current market performance continues to be at the center of discussions in the ecosystem.
