Vitalik Buterin says Ethereum Foundation will sell less ETH under leaner plan

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation will use its remaining resources with more focus on long-term survival, not wider expansion. 

He said this means the foundation will sell less ETH going forward. Buterin made the comments in a long post on X, where he described the foundation as one part of Ethereum, not the center of the network. He said his own power inside the organization will keep falling as the board expands.

Ethereum Foundation shifts toward longevity

Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation has limited funds, staff, and organizational capacity. He said the foundation holds about 0.16% of all ETH, which is far smaller than the central foundations behind many other blockchains.

He wrote that the foundation is choosing “longevity over breadth” and added that this means it will sell less ETH. His post described a narrower mission around censorship resistance, openness, privacy, and security.

The statement builds on the foundation’s treasury policy from June 2025. That policy said ETH sales depend on operating needs and reserve targets, while the foundation also planned to reduce annual operating costs over five years.

Vitalik says Ethereum Foundation is not Ethereum’s center

Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation should act as one node in the wider Ethereum system. He said it should not behave as Ethereum’s parent, main company, or permanent steward.

He also said the transition is still underway and should settle over the next few months. According to him, the foundation will become smaller and more opinionated in its work.

Buterin said Ethereum must be “impressive” in areas tied to security, privacy, openness, and censorship resistance. He named goals such as bug-free Ethereum, stronger consensus, and fewer intermediaries in transaction inclusion.

ETH sales follow months of treasury attention

Related reports show the comment comes after several Ethereum Foundation treasury moves. On May 12, the foundation withdrew 21,270 ETH from Lido staking after earlier unstaking activity and OTC sales linked to operating funding.

The same report said the foundation sold 10,000 ETH to BitMine on May 1 at an average price of $2,292 per ETH. That followed two earlier OTC sales to BitMine in March and April, bringing recent sales to 25,000 ETH.

Earlier reports also noted that the foundation began staking 70,000 ETH from its treasury in February. The move was framed as a way to help secure Ethereum while funding core operations, grants, and protocol research without relying only on ETH sales.

Privacy and protocol work stay in focus

Buterin’s new comments match recent Ethereum roadmap work. Related coverage said he outlined a three-step privacy plan covering account abstraction, FOCIL, keyed nonces, and access-layer privacy tools.

The Ethereum Foundation has also kept funding core research. Its Q1 2026 allocation report said it awarded $9.86 million across areas such as cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs, security, protocol research, wallets, clients, and user experience.

Roadmap work has also continued through Ethereum’s Strawmap and later upgrade planning. Related coverage said the Strawmap targets faster slots, stronger finality, privacy, post-quantum security, and formal verification through future forks.

Buterin’s post places those efforts inside a tighter foundation strategy. The foundation plans to keep backing work that may not attract enough outside capital but remains central to Ethereum’s long-term technical goals.