Vitalik Buterin has responded to criticism of the Ethereum Foundation after a wave of researcher departures. In a lengthy post on X, he said the foundation should not be seen as the center of Ethereum, but as one node in a broader ecosystem with a narrower and more durable role. According to Buterin, the EF is choosing “longevity over breadth,” meaning fewer initiatives, lower spending and less ETH selling.

The backdrop is tense. At least eight senior contributors have left or announced plans to leave the foundation in 2026, including several high-profile protocol researchers. That has intensified debate over whether the EF is losing talent, influence and strategic clarity.

Buterin pushed back against the idea that the foundation should manage the whole ecosystem or support the ETH price directly. He noted that the EF holds only about 0.16% of all ETH, far below many other blockchain foundations. That limited treasury is why the organization will focus on work that is critical to Ethereum’s resilience and unlikely to be funded by the market: censorship resistance, open source software, privacy and security.

On the technical side, Buterin pointed to AI-assisted formal verification, stronger consensus guarantees and intermediary minimization as priorities. He also warned that competing only on speed and TPS would be a path to mediocrity. The EF’s new long-term structure is expected to stabilize over the next few months.