A stark warning has emerged from within the Ethereum ecosystem: the network’s core development funding could face a critical shortfall within the next three to nine months. Trent Van Epps, a former Ethereum Foundation official who oversaw core development funding, raised the alarm in a new article, highlighting the potential consequences of recent spending adjustments.
Van Epps estimates that maintaining Ethereum’s core development system requires approximately $30 million annually. This sum supports client teams, researchers, and coordination groups responsible for protocol upgrades, security patches, and implementation of Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). He points to two primary drivers of the impending crisis: spending cuts by the Ethereum Foundation and the formal termination of the Client Incentive Program (CIP).
The Ethereum Foundation has a treasury policy aiming to cut annual spending from 15% of its treasury to a 5% baseline by 2030. Meanwhile, the CIP, which started in 2021 to reward client teams with validator-based rewards for maintaining diverse client software, expired in April 2026 with no replacement in sight. Van Epps says the loss of steady support could push experienced developers away and make it harder to handle long-term work such as scaling and quantum-related security research.
Van Epps stressed that the Ethereum Foundation was never intended to be the network’s permanent steward. He argues that the ecosystem must cultivate new institutions and funding mechanisms to ensure the network’s evolution without creating a single point of dependency. The warning intensifies debate over who should fund the people who maintain Ethereum’s base software, especially as developers prepare for the major Glamsterdam upgrade that includes changes for Layer 1 scaling, block building, and gas pricing.
Protocol Guild, a collective fund supporting Layer 1 contributors via long-term token vesting, remains one existing path, but Van Epps insists that Ethereum needs more durable sources of support. The Ethereum Foundation’s Q1 2026 grants have continued to fund client teams like Geth and Erigon, validator security tools, and cryptography research, but the scale is insufficient to fill the looming gap. For Van Epps, the core question is whether Ethereum can sustainably fund shared infrastructure without centralizing control.
