Ethereum's governing body poised for strategic downsizing under Buterin's vision

Table of Contents Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared a detailed update on the future direction of the Ethereum Foundation and its long-term priorities. He said the organization plans to reduce its central role while focusing more heavily on decentralization, privacy, and censorship resistance. The comments appeared as Ethereum continued facing weak price performance against several major crypto assets. The discussion also resurfaced broader debates around Ethereum’s technical roadmap and institutional role inside the crypto market. Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation does not serve as the center of Ethereum. Instead, he described it as one participant among many across the ecosystem. He explained that the foundation plans to become smaller and more selective over time. According to his post, the board is also expanding while his own influence inside the organization decreases. Some of my perspective on where the @ethereumfndn is going. First of all, this is only my own view. The board is not just me, and I have no extra special powers on the board that the other board members do not. @aerugoettinea is the one executing much of this transition. My… — vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) May 24, 2026 Buterin credited Aya Miyaguchi for executing much of the organizational transition. He also noted that most of his recent involvement focused on technical questions. The Ethereum co-founder said earlier operational problems inside the foundation had already improved during 2025. He added that the remaining concern involved whether the foundation’s actions matched Ethereum’s stated principles. His comments focused heavily on decentralization, privacy, and resistance to censorship or external control. He argued Ethereum should avoid becoming another blockchain optimized only for speed and transaction throughput. Buterin also discussed Ethereum’s long-term technical direction. He pointed to AI-assisted formal verification as a path toward bug-free blockchain infrastructure and stronger network security. The post further highlighted efforts around public mempools, intermediary minimization, and lean consensus systems. He described those areas as central to Ethereum’s identity and technical differentiation. According to Buterin, the Ethereum Foundation currently holds roughly 0.16% of total ETH supply. He contrasted that figure with other blockchain foundations that reportedly control much larger allocations. The Ethereum discussion spread quickly across crypto social media following Buterin’s statement. Many traders linked the comments to Ethereum’s recent market performance. Crypto trader Michaël van de Poppe argued that weak sentiment around Ethereum could create accumulation opportunities. His comments focused on capital rotation away from short-term outperforming assets. People are saying that #Ethereum is dead and are rotating out of it. That's the actual recipe to be looking for positions into it. It has been underperforming in terms of price action, but rotating from Ethereum into the hot-runners of the day? That's not the right strategy.… — Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) May 24, 2026 Van de Poppe said many traders were moving away from Ethereum after months of weaker price action. He suggested some investors now viewed current ETH valuations differently from high-momentum tokens. Buterin also addressed Ethereum’s scaling direction during the post. He said Ethereum should not compete purely on maximum throughput or extremely low latency. Instead, he emphasized security, censorship resistance, and open infrastructure. He described those goals as more important than matching the fastest blockchain networks. The post additionally referenced Ethereum layer-2 systems and specialized scaling networks. Buterin said properly designed L2s could still support higher transaction capacity without weakening Ethereum’s core principles. He also noted that most of his personal net worth remains allocated to ETH. According to the statement, the rest mainly supports open-source biotech, software, and hardware initiatives.