Ethereum Foundation Faces Leadership Overhaul as Vitalik Buterin Sets New Goals

Key Takeaways

• Vitalik Buterin confirmed a leadership shakeup at the Ethereum Foundation.
• Buterin outlined new goals focusing on ecosystem growth and technical expertise.
• Ethereum Foundation will explore new staking options amid ongoing criticism over ETH sales.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has confirmed a major leadership overhaul within the Ethereum Foundation (EF), setting new goals to guide the organization in the coming year.

In a post on X, Buterin acknowledged that the changes have been in the works for nearly a year as the foundation seeks to better align itself with the evolving needs of the ecosystem.

Fresh Focus for 2025

Buterin laid out several priorities for the Ethereum Foundation in 2025, emphasizing a push to enhance technical expertise within its leadership.

The goal is to create stronger connections between the foundation and the broader Ethereum community. By bringing in new talent, EF aims to improve its execution speed and overall effectiveness.

Key objectives include bolstering support for developers, particularly in scalability and privacy, which remain central to Ethereum’s ethos.

The foundation also plans to increase its focus on decentralized technologies, particularly in payments and treasury management.

Tackling Criticism and Exploring New Staking Options

The leadership overhaul comes amid growing criticism of EF, especially regarding its ETH sales.

In 2024, the Ethereum Foundation sold multiple batches of 100 ETH, drawing concern from holders about the foundation’s reliance on selling its native token to cover expenses.

This practice continued into 2025, with another 100 ETH sold on Jan. 20, despite Buterin’s assurances of exploring alternative methods.

Responding to criticism on X, Buterin highlighted regulatory concerns and technical challenges associated with staking ETH.

However, he noted that the foundation is actively exploring staking as a viable option and may eventually abandon ETH sales.

“The concerns historically were (1) regulatory, (2) if EF stakes ourselves, this de-facto forces us to take a position on any future contentious hard fork,” Buterin explained. “There are ways to minimize (2), and we’ve recently been exploring them.”

Facing Competitive Pressure

Despite its ongoing efforts, the Ethereum Foundation has faced significant scrutiny for failing to deliver on promises of high scalability and a robust ecosystem post-merge .

Meanwhile, competing networks like Solana and various Ethereum Layer 2 solutions have made notable strides, adding pressure on EF to accelerate its progress.