Ethereum Foundation cuts 40% of budget as Buterin maps lean roadmap

Ethereum Foundation cut its budget by 40% and reduced staff by 20% last week, part of a strategic reset that co-founder Vitalik Buterin framed as the beginning of a "Lean Ethereum" era spanning 2026 through 2029. ETH traded near $1,570 on July 1, close to its lowest point in almost three years, as the market weighed whether the restructuring signals weakness or long-term discipline.

"The foundation is becoming a leaner organization focused on keeping the blockchain secure, scalable, usable, and self-governing," the foundation said in its announcement, adding that it will use artificial intelligence more and organize fewer large conferences.

Buterin's "Lean Ethereum" strawmap, published on Strawmap.org, prioritizes quantum resistance, scalability, and privacy as top technical goals for the remainder of the decade. Quantum safety "has shifted up a LOT in priority," Buterin said on X, calling a quantum-safe solution for blobs "urgent." Privacy was elevated to a "first class goal," with Buterin pushing for a new virtual machine design — similar to leanISA or RISC-V — to support programmable privacy and better scalability.

The restructuring comes as several senior figures departed in recent months, including researchers Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak and protocol contributors Tim Beiko and Barnabé Monnot. The Glamsterdam upgrade will serve as an early test of whether the leaner organization can deliver on its technical roadmap without delays.

The foundation's shift mirrors a broader philosophy of decentralization — the idea that Ethereum should not depend on any single entity. Several prominent community members have already launched Ethlabs, a non-profit dedicated to growing institutional adoption, filling the marketing gap the foundation explicitly said it would no longer fill.

Not everyone is convinced the timeline holds. Dankrad Feist, a researcher behind the payments-focused layer-1 Tempo blockchain, praised the direction but argued the three-to-four-year window is too slow, suggesting AI could help developers ship upgrades within a year. Crypto analyst Ignas Fiodorovas supported the plan but expressed doubt about the Ethereum Foundation's ability to deliver on schedule, citing a history of missed deadlines. Fiodorovas also noted the roadmap omitted improved tokenomics for Ether, which has continued to slide during a broader market downturn.

For ETH holders, the question is whether the foundation's cuts represent a failing ecosystem or a strategic move to support long-term growth. The budget reduction extends the foundation's runway, while the community's rapid adaptation — including the formation of Ethlabs — suggests the ecosystem is maturing beyond reliance on a single organization. The Glamsterdam upgrade, expected in the coming months, will provide the first concrete signal of whether the leaner structure can execute.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.