Ethereum Foundation's Exodus Gathers Pace as Core Development Funding Comes Under Scrutiny
Published on 06/21/2026 at 04:34 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
Ethereum has been sliding since the start of the year, with the token touching $1,709.60 over the weekend — a 43% loss since January. The sell-off has been compounded by a deepening leadership crisis at the Ethereum Foundation that is raising hard questions about the network’s future development.
The foundation is now without a permanent chief after the departure of its second co-executive director in five months. Hsiao-Wei Wang, who had been a researcher since 2017 and took the co-director role only in March 2025, left on 18 June. She followed Tomasz Sta?czak, who stepped down in February. Board member Bastian Aue has stepped in as interim executive director, but the command void is unsettling an already jittery market.
Wang’s exit was the eighth high-profile departure this year and part of a broader exodus. Since January, 19 staff members have left the organisation, a loss that has shaved roughly a quarter off the core development team. Eight of those departures were senior researchers specialising in protocol design and consensus mechanisms — the engineers who keep the network running.
The personnel drain coincides with a quiet but growing financial crunch. Trent Van Epps, a former foundation employee who left earlier this year, has warned of a “creeping” funding crisis. The core development budget runs at roughly $30 million annually, and that gap could become acute within three to nine months, according to his analysis. The programme that supported client development ended in April, and the foundation has been forced to raid its treasury to stay afloat.
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Treasury management has been anything but passive. The foundation unstaked 17,000 ETH in April and another 21,270 ETH in May, then sold 10,000 ETH to Bitmine in a private transaction. At the same time, it has pivoted to a longer-term staking strategy, now locking 70,000 ETH to generate yield. The goal is to cut annual spending from 15% of reserves to just 5% by 2030 — a steep adjustment that critics say could slow upgrade cycles and increase systemic risk.
Bitmine’s chief, Tom Lee, has downplayed the danger, pointing to private investors and alternative funding sources propping up the ecosystem. But the market remains unconvinced. Ethereum traded below both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages over the weekend, with the relative strength index at 38.6 — flirting with oversold territory. Volatility remains elevated.
Vitalik Buterin, the network’s co-founder, has also added to the selling pressure. On-chain data shows he offloaded nearly 1,900 ETH in recent days, bringing his total sales since February to more than 8,000 tokens. He still holds over 224,000 ETH, but the steady drip has unnerved some traders.
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Attention is now split between the foundation’s internal turmoil and two external events that could shift sentiment. The “Glamsterdam” upgrade, a major technical milestone, is entering its final test phase. A smooth rollout would restore some developer confidence. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley filed paperwork on 19 June for a spot Ethereum ETF with a fee of just 0.14%, signalling the start of a price war among issuers. Yet capital has been flowing the other way: the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust, iShares Ethereum Trust and 21Shares Ethereum ETF all saw withdrawals on 18 June.
For the Ethereum Foundation, the next few weeks will determine whether it can stabilise its leadership and finances in time to keep the network on track. The staking strategy may buy breathing room, but the clock is ticking on both the funding gap and the need to fill the top job.
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