Ethereum crisis risks are building as the Ethereum Foundation reduces spending and developer funding programs expire, a former staffer said.
Ethereum Foundation funding could enter a slow-burning crisis within months unless the ecosystem builds new institutions to support core development, former coordinator Trent Van Epps said.
Van Epps worked at the Ethereum Foundation from May 2021 to April 2026, focusing on core development coordination, Protocol Guild funding and Ethereum political economy research.
In an X article on Thursday, June 18, Van Epps said Ethereum needs a reset of the “social, political, and economic contracts” between its stakeholders.
Van Epps argued that the foundation has been less clear about what it “won’t or can’t do,” leaving the Ethereum ecosystem slow to build institutions that can take over those responsibilities. He wrote:
“In my view, the policy has been most successful in broadly communicating that the EF is not interested in being the sole center of power, but less successful in specifying the contours of what it won’t or can’t do.”
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Funding Crisis by 2027
As Van Epps explained, the Ethereum Foundation has spent much of its ETH▼$1,694.59 treasury over the past decade to support the ecosystem. Therefore, the organization is now following a plan to reduce annual spending from 15% toward a 5% baseline by 2030. Van Epps wrote:
“From recent conversations across all core development, there is a risk we will enter a slow-burning funding crisis within the next 3-9 months. While it may appear as a one-time episodic gap, I believe it is symptomatic of larger structural issues related to gathering and allocating funding.”
He said the issue may look like a one-time funding gap, but reflects deeper problems around how Ethereum gathers and allocates money for public goods.
Van Epps noted that the funding gap could weaken Ethereum’s ability to keep upgrading and maintaining the network, especially because that work depends on many client, research and coordination teams.
According to his estimations, the network’s maintaining requires “roughly $30mm annually” across increasingly constrained funding sources.
Departure Context Adds Pressure
The warning comes after months of turnover at the Ethereum Foundation. Tomasz Stańczak, a former co-executive director, stepped down in February, while Carl Beek, a researcher, and Julian Ma, a protocol developer, left in May.
On Thursday, June 18, Hsiao-Wei Wang, another co-executive director and board member, also stepped down after a sabbatical, adding to earlier exits or step-backs involving Barnabé Monnot, Tim Beiko, Trent Van Epps and Alex Stokes.
Van Epps tied the risk directly to continuity, warning that without sustained funding Ethereum could lose people who carry years of context and fall behind on scaling or quantum-computing risks.
As Van Epps suggested, Ethereum needs new institutions and neutral funding systems to support its core software, the Ethereum network and ETH, the asset, while treating broad adoption as a priority rather than leaving it as an open gap.
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