The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is facing an intensifying wave of criticism from prominent DeFi figures over its financial management and strategic priorities, as warnings about a potential core development funding shortfall within three to nine months gain traction.
Marc Zeller, founder of the Aave governance group Aave Chan Initiative, publicly rebuked the foundation on X, arguing that basic budgeting principles could have kept operations afloat indefinitely. He said the EF should have staked its vast ETH holdings after the transition to Proof-of-Stake, or used them as collateral to generate yield, instead of funding what he described as “52 clients that nobody uses or meetups in Lesotho.” Zeller concluded, “If the EF hits a wall, it doesn’t deserve help. Ethereum will be fine though,” signaling a sharp loss of confidence in the foundation’s leadership.
Keyring Network founder Alex McPharlane added that financial management was a “taboo subject” within the EF, where employees who focused on funding were viewed as not aligning with the broader mission. He estimated the foundation holds between $500 million and $900 million in liquid assets, largely in ETH and stablecoins, against an annual budget of just $20–30 million. McPharlane called the inability to manage these resources effectively “incompetent.”
The criticism follows a warning from former EF contributor Trent Van Epps, who told the community that Ethereum’s core development could face a funding crisis within three to nine months due to spending cuts and the end of the Client Incentive Program. However, Fundstrat’s Tom Lee dismissed the warning, insisting there is “zero chance” of such a crisis.
In a separate but related statement, StarkWare co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson weighed in without joining either side of the bashing. He said Ethereum should emphasize merit and technology over alignment debates, citing how StarkWare’s early work on STARKs, Cairo, and zkVM—once seen as “misaligned”—proved to be sound technical choices. “I hope the new system that will arise will give a lot of weight to merit and technology, and less for alignment,” he wrote, in a message that reframes the debate about how to judge contributions within the Ethereum ecosystem.
The turmoil comes amid leadership changes at the EF: Hsiao-Wei Wang stepped down as co-executive director after returning from sabbatical, following Tomasz Stańczak’s exit from the same role. With the foundation yet to publicly respond to the financial criticisms, the community is left speculating on how it will address the perceived shortfall and governance tensions, at a time when Ethereum faces mounting competition from other layer-1 blockchains.
