Ethereum Foundation to Reduce ETH Sales and Narrow Focus to CROPS

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation will choose longevity over breadth, reduce ETH sales and narrow its focus to CROPS: censorship resistance, capture resistance, openness, privacy and security. 16 percent of all ETH. He said this stake is below the 10 to 50 percent range common for central foundations of other blockchains.

Buterin said his influence within the foundation will decrease as the board expands. He added that nearly 90 percent of his own net worth is in ETH, with the remaining roughly $40 million in on-chain fiat already allocated to open-source biotech, software and hardware initiatives.

Buterin described the foundation as one node with a defined purpose alongside other nodes, not the center of Ethereum. He stated the board is not just him and that he has no extra powers beyond other board members.

Buterin argued that maximizing throughput and speed would lead to mediocrity. He said Ethereum should instead aim to be deeply impressive in the CROPS areas, including making the network provably bug-free through AI-powered verification. The post followed the departure of at least eight senior foundation contributors in 2026, five of them in May.