Vitalik Buterin Pushes Back on Ethereum Foundation Critics Over Token Price and Marketing Calls

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin responded to criticisms of the Ethereum Foundation’s role in the Ethereum ecosystem by pushing back against calls for the organization to take a more active role in supporting token prices and marketing.

“The Ethereum Foundation's mandate was published in March 2026”

Cointelegraph

Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation will continue to focus on promoting censorship-resistance, open source software code, long-range research, cybersecurity, and decentralization of the Ethereum Protocol, as outlined in its mandate.

Cointelegraph

He said the Foundation’s mandate was published in March 2026 and that it would strengthen Ethereum’s cybersecurity and code base without necessarily competing with high-throughput chains or scaling to 1 million transactions per second.

Buterin’s comments came as the cryptocurrency was trading around $2,094, about 50% below its all-time high of nearly $5,000 reached in August 2025, and as several large ETH holders sold their entire ETH position.

He also said, "The EF has only about 0.16% of all ETH," noting that it is common for other foundations to hold 10-50% of their native tokens.

Cryptocurrency journalist Laura Shin linked Ethereum’s problems to the 2024 Dencun upgrade, describing it as "Ethereum’s original sin" for not considering tokenomics with every move from Dencun on.

Shin said the Dencun upgrade was a major protocol update released in March 2024 that significantly reduced network fees for layer-2 transactions and led to a subsequent collapse in Ethereum’s base layer revenue.

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In the same discussion, Shin said, "Most investors don’t want to believe in something that is not also putting up points on the scoreboard," about ETH.

The criticism and debate around the Foundation’s role was also tied, in the coverage, to "high-profile departures from the Ethereum Foundation" and "several large ETH holders selling their entire ETH position."

Buterin said the Foundation would focus on "longevity" and stretch its funds to finance research, meaning it would sell less ETH in the future.

In May, the Ethereum Foundation unstaked 21,270 ETH from the Lido liquid staking platform as part of its treasury strategy, according to the reporting.

“Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has responded to criticisms about the Ethereum Foundation's role in the ecosystem”

Zamin.uz

The coverage said that unstaking ETH means those holdings will no longer generate yield for the Ethereum Foundation, but it is not a confirmation that the organization will sell those tokens.

Buterin’s broader stance was that the Foundation aims to keep the Ethereum protocol decentralized and is not focused on competing with other high-throughput blockchains, while continuing work on censorship resistance, open-source software, long-term research, and cybersecurity.

The mandate framing and the treasury action were presented together as part of how the Foundation would respond to pressure amid falling token price and personnel changes.

As Buterin put it, "Now, we are taking action to ensure that we will be the latter," in the context of the Foundation’s neutrality and its decision to sell less ETH while funding research.