representing approximately 20% of its staff, as part of a months-long reorganization that is transforming the nonprofit into five thematic clusters.

The restructuring, which the Foundation describes as the completion of a process related to its updated mandate and treasury management policies, divides the organization into protocol, access, user, community, and institutional layers, as well as operational and governance clusters.

"We emerge from this process with the structure, operations, and people needed to fulfill our critical missions, but with 54 smaller colleagues—approximately 20% of EF—many of whom will find ways to contribute to Ethereum's development beyond EF in the coming weeks," the Foundation's official blog stated.

Co-founder Vitalik Buterin described the cuts as financially necessary and strategically sound. According to him, the Foundation is reducing its overall budget by approximately 40% this year as part of its transition to an endowment-based operating model. The current annual spending rate, which represents approximately 15% of remaining funds, is planned to be reduced to approximately 5% per year after 2030, allowing the organization to operate indefinitely without depleting the treasury. Buterin acknowledged the gravity of the decisions made: among those laid off are talented engineers who worked on the Ethereum protocol for nearly a decade, and the remaining organization, he said, will not be able to fully replace all that was eliminated.

The restructuring concludes an 18-month transformation marked by significant leadership changes. Since the process began, approximately nine high-ranking employees have left the organization, including both co-chairs of the board of directors: Tomasz Stańczak, who left in February 2026, and Xiao-Wei Wang, who stepped down earlier this month, CoinDesk reports. Protocol team leaders Tim Beiko and Barnabé Monnot have also left the organization. The Privacy and Scaling Explorations division is being dismantled as a separate team, and its research priorities will either be absorbed into other structures or closed.

The departing employees will receive a severance package equal to one month's salary for each year of service or the statutory minimum, whichever is greater, as well as assistance with finding a job within the ecosystem and a small transition grant.

The new structure signals a deliberate narrowing of the Foundation's mandate. Its protocol cluster, according to the organization's statement, "exists to ensure the base protocol continues to evolve without compromising sovereignty guarantees" and is clearly not intended to make Ethereum "more marketable" or serve short-term interests. The cluster's long-term research priorities include post-quantum security, zkEVM, and L1 privacy. The new Institutional Layer will target financial institutions, businesses, governments, universities, and non-profits as potential users of Ethereum, while the Access Layer introduces a "zero-option" principle, requiring a reliable, unintermediated path for every product or service on the network.

The announcement comes amid challenging price conditions for Ethereum. The token is trading well below its 52-week high of $4,955.90 and near its 52-week low of $1,388.12, reflecting the worst performance of any major digital asset in 2026, according to an Investing.com analysis published on June 16. Ether is down approximately 60% from its peak in August 2025, compared to Bitcoin's decline of approximately 48% over the same period.