The move coincides with the Foundation’s confirmation of a 20% staff reduction and follows the resignation of co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang. Her departure brings the number of senior Ethereum Foundation figures to exit since January to nine, underscoring the depth of the organization’s ongoing transition.

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) will cut its budget by roughly 40% this year as it shifts toward a leaner, endowment-style operating model, according to a blog post published Tuesday by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

Buterin said the changes are aimed at reducing annual spending from about 15% of the Foundation’s treasury before 2026 to a long-term target near 5% per year after 2030.

“I respect my EF colleagues far too much to pretend that there was not much that is lost,” Buterin wrote, acknowledging the difficult trade-offs, including the departure of experienced engineers who have contributed to Ethereum for years.

While scaling back overall spending, the Foundation intends to preserve funding for Ethereum’s long-term roadmap—what Buterin described as the protocol’s “third iteration” following the Merge—while cutting costs in other areas. Planned adjustments include winding down the Privacy and Scaling Explorations (PSE) unit, hosting smaller and more cost-efficient Devcon events, narrowing its institutional strategy, and shifting toward specialized client teams supported by AI-assisted formal verification.

Buterin also reiterated his vision of a “lean-and-done” Ethereum once its current roadmap is complete, with development efforts focused primarily on security upgrades and a limited number of high-impact improvements rather than continuous feature expansion.

The shift comes as Ethereum faces intensifying competition from rival blockchains, alongside ongoing leadership turnover and a broader effort to redefine the Foundation’s role within the ecosystem.