Buterin Says Ethereum Foundation Is Not the 'Center' of Ethereum
Vitalik Buterin pushed back on critics urging the Ethereum Foundation to boost ETH price or marketing, and said the group will stay focused on Ethereum's core mission.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
Buterin argued the Ethereum Foundation is meant to be one participant in Ethereum, not its command center. He said the group should keep prioritizing censorship resistance, open source code, research, cybersecurity, and decentralization even as pressure rises over ETH's weak price.
Ethereum has a group called the Foundation that helps keep the project healthy. Vitalik Buterin said that group should not act like the boss of everything or try to hype the price all the time.
He wants it to keep doing the quiet but important work, like helping protect the network, funding research, and keeping the code open for everyone. It is more like a maintenance crew than a cheerleading team.
Some people are upset because ETH's price has been weak. Buterin is saying the goal is to make Ethereum strong for the long run, even if that means not chasing quick wins.
Analysis
What Buterin said
Vitalik Buterin responded to criticism that the Ethereum Foundation should play a more aggressive role in supporting ETH's price and visibility. He said the Foundation is not supposed to function as the center of Ethereum, but as one node with a specific purpose alongside other participants in the ecosystem.
The Foundation's stated mission
According to the article, Buterin said the EF will keep focusing on censorship resistance, open source software, long-range research, cybersecurity, and decentralization. He also said the organization is taking steps to make sure it stays in that role rather than shifting into a more centralized marketing or price-support function. He added that the Foundation does not need to try to match high-throughput chains or chase a goal like 1 million transactions per second.
Why the criticism is growing
The story says the response comes after several large ETH holders sold all of their positions and after high-profile departures from the Ethereum Foundation. It also notes that ETH is trading around $2,094, more than 50% below its all-time high near $5,000 reached in August 2025. That price pressure has fed criticism that Ethereum's ecosystem has underdelivered on token economics since Dencun in March 2024, when layer-2 fees fell and base-layer revenue dropped.
Treasury and longevity
Buterin said the Foundation will emphasize longevity and stretch its funds so it can finance research, implying it may sell less ETH in the future. The article also notes that in May the Foundation unstaked 21,270 ETH from Lido as part of treasury management, though that move does not by itself prove the tokens will be sold.
Key points
- Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation is not the "center" of Ethereum.
- He argued the EF should stay focused on decentralization, research, and security rather than price promotion.
- The article says ETH is trading more than 50% below its 2025 peak.
- The piece links rising criticism to recent ETH sales by large holders and departures from the Foundation.
- Buterin said the Foundation wants to preserve longevity and may sell less ETH going forward.
