At this moment, the Ethereum network faces a major identity crisis with its most well-known co-founder in the middle of the storm. Critics have been calling for an increase in attention on tokens and their value to users while Buterin has remained committed to ensuring the network is treated fairly and will endure for years after the current economic conditions normalize. The ETH price has experienced recent selling pressure from both core members of the Ethereum community as well as frustrated investors; many are directing that effort towards the Ethereum Foundation. Critics want the non-profit organization to take a much more aggressive approach to marketing and price defense, but Buterin is forcefully pushing back against these demands, firmly recommitting the foundation to its original principles.
A Shift Toward Core Values Over Marketing
According to Buterin, the Ethereum Foundation was never designed to act as a corporate marketing department. Instead of obsessing over daily price charts or trying to aggressively scale the network to millions of transactions per second, he insists the organization must focus exclusively on fundamental development. Moving forward, the foundation will prioritize what insiders call core values—censorship resistance, openness, privacy, and security. In Buterin’s view, he sees this foundation as just an additional operating node on the huge global network; he does not see the foundation as being the central location for all of the ecosystem.
The Original Sin of Tokenomics
With all of the continual technical adjustments which are occurring on the Ethereum platform; This has made many investors very frustrated. Laura Shin has been noted as a cryptocurrency journalist who is saying that this sense of discontentness amongst investors comes from the fact that the Ethereum Foundation has not provided financial incentives for those who want to develop applications for the ETH platform. As noted by Laura, the lack of this type of incentive has created a ‘original sin’ for Ethereum. The Dencun upgrade that was completed as of March of 2024, many view it as an important example of the continued level of frustration from investors. This upgrade was able to reduce transaction costs on the secondary layer of Ethereum, but it severely reduced the amount of revenue that flowed into the base layer of Ethereum. For everyday investors seeking tangible financial victories, this ideological focus on cheap data over sustainable network revenue feels like a massive misstep.
Selling Less and Stretching Resources
To understand Buterin’s conservative approach, one must look at the foundation’s actual war chest. Despite its massive cultural influence, the Ethereum Foundation is surprisingly cash-poor relative to the network’s overall size. Buterin recently revealed that the organization holds a mere 0.16 percent of the circulating token supply. In stark contrast, the foundations governing competing digital networks routinely hoard anywhere from 10 to 50 percent of their native tokens. To ensure the organization survives for decades, Buterin announced the foundation will prioritize financial longevity, planning to sell significantly less of its holdings moving forward.
Managing the Treasury Amidst Falling Prices
This highly conservative financial strategy is already visible in recent treasury maneuvers. In May, the foundation quietly withdrew over 21,000 tokens from the Lido liquid staking platform. The removal of these assets causes them to cease generating passive income for the organisation, however, it does not indicate an almost assuredly forthcoming (imminent) market liquidation. Effective management of treasury asset holdings is extremely important at the current time. The digital asset is currently trading around the $2,094 mark, which represents a painful 50 percent drop from its all-time high approaching $5,000 recorded in August 2025.
Embracing a Decentralized Future
The ongoing internal shakeups and high-profile staff departures have led some community members to demand the creation of a brand new, heavily funded entity explicitly designed to pump the token’s price. However, Buterin remains completely unmoved by the short-term panic. He believes that in an era dominated by rapid technological acceleration, Ethereum must stand apart as a resilient sanctuary. The Ethereum Foundation’s commitment to remaining neutral and minimizing impact allows the continued function of Ethereum as a globally decentralized utility, and not just as another speculative instrument that seeks to replicate, or build off of, Bitcoin’s recent rise in value.
