A year of shakeups at the Ethereum Foundation
The past year has brought major changes to the Ethereum Foundation as the organization sought to refocus its mission and adapt to the evolving ecosystem. Nine senior team members left, including the co-executive directors Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak, and the workforce was reduced by 20%. These changes were part of a broader effort to redefine the foundation's role within the Ethereum community.
The shakeups weren't just about personnel changes. The foundation also published its first formal mandate and launched spinouts like EthLabs, Ethereum Systems, and Ethereum Institutional. These new entities are designed to take on specific responsibilities in the ecosystem, reflecting a shift in how the foundation is choosing to operate.
The changes came after a growing sense of frustration from developers, investors, and members of the Ethereum community. Many felt the foundation was moving too slowly and becoming too inward-focused. This pressure led to a comprehensive redefinition of the organization’s structure and mission.
CROPS: A new operating framework
In March, the Ethereum Foundation introduced CROPS as its new guiding framework. CROPS stands for Censorship Resistance, Open Source, Privacy and Security. These principles are meant to shape every decision the foundation makes, both technically and organizationally.
The CROPS framework also includes a key shift in how the foundation measures success. According to the mandate, the foundation's long-term success should be judged by its ability to reduce its own influence over Ethereum. This reflects a belief that the ecosystem should be increasingly independent, not reliant on a single organization.
This change in mindset has already influenced how the foundation operates. The emergence of new independent entities — like EthLabs, Ethereum Systems, and Ethereum Institutional — is a concrete example of this strategy. These groups take on key responsibilities once managed by the foundation itself.
Ethereum’s technical and institutional progress
Despite the internal restructuring, Ethereum continued to make significant technical progress. The activation of the Fusaka upgrade demonstrated the network’s ability to keep improving. The upgrade introduced PeerDAS, a major advancement in data availability that helps make layer-2 networks more efficient.
While Fusaka didn't receive the same level of public attention as the Merge, it is a meaningful step forward in Ethereum’s scaling journey. It shows the network remains resilient and capable of executing on its technical roadmap, even during a period of organizational change.
On the institutional side, Ethereum has made major strides in traditional finance. BlackRock has expanded its presence in Ethereum-based DeFi and launched staked ether ETFs. JPMorgan also increased its work on blockchain-based settlement systems. These developments highlight how Ethereum is becoming a foundational layer not just for decentralized finance, but for traditional financial systems as well.
The inflow of institutional capital has also been significant. U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs have seen over $11.23 billion in cumulative inflows. This growing interest from major asset management firms shows that Ethereum is being integrated into mainstream financial systems, not just the crypto community.
Ethereum launched in 2015 with a vision to become a decentralized world computer. Eleven years later, it has evolved into a network that supports billions of dollars in tokenized assets and serves as the settlement layer for much of the decentralized finance ecosystem. As Ethereum enters its second decade, the focus is no longer solely on the network itself, but also on the institutions that have helped shape it and how they continue to evolve.