Ethereum's identity crisis deepens with a $1B price-first proposal

A growing faction of the Ethereum community is calling for the creation of a new, independent $1 billion organization dedicated to boosting ETH’s market performance, a direct challenge to the Ethereum Foundation’s technology-focused mandate. The move comes as ETH, trading around $2,100, continues to underperform rivals like Bitcoin and Solana, fueling an identity crisis within the ecosystem.

“The way to save Ethereum is for the community to create an organization that’s economically aligned with Ethereum and accountable to it,” Dankrad Feist, a former Ethereum Foundation researcher, wrote on X on May 19. Feist is the primary architect of the proposal, arguing the ecosystem needs an institution with permanent funding and a leadership focused on growth.

The proposal for a new entity follows a turbulent period for the Ethereum Foundation, which has seen at least eight senior members depart in 2026, including prominent figures like Tim Beiko and Carl Beekhuizen. The Foundation, which now controls less than 0.1% of the total ETH supply, has been criticized for its institutional aversion to promoting ETH as a financial asset. This stance was codified in its March “CROPS” mandate, which prioritizes censorship-resistance and security over market competitiveness.

If the proposed organization materializes, it risks creating a competing power center and fragmenting the ecosystem. Developers could be caught between the protocol-purist EF and a new, price-focused patron. However, supporters argue it's a necessary step to align institutional structure with the economic interests of the network and its token holders.

An Ideological Divide

The debate highlights a fundamental schism in the Ethereum community. On one side, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) operates with a mandate focused on technical principles. On the other, a growing number of investors and developers believe this approach has become a liability.

Crypto journalist Laura Shin framed the issue as Ethereum’s “original sin.” “I think Ethereum’s original sin was not considering tokenomics with every move it made from Dencun on,” Shin wrote on X. The March 2024 Dencun upgrade, which successfully lowered transaction fees for layer-2 networks, also reduced fee revenue flowing to Ethereum’s base layer, weakening the “ultrasound money” narrative that had been central to its investment case. While the upgrade made the ecosystem cheaper to use, the market reacted negatively to the diminished value accrual for ETH.

What a $1B Fund Could Do

Feist’s proposal envisions a new organization with a treasury of at least $1 billion, potentially funded by large ETH holders and ecosystem projects. The key innovation is its proposed funding model: permanent staking revenue. This would give the entity financial independence and align its income directly with the health of the network and the value of ETH.

Prominent Ethereum advocate Ryan Sean Adams backed the concept, arguing that the future of Ethereum cannot depend solely on the Ethereum Foundation. The new organization would have an explicit mandate to improve Ethereum’s competitive market position, a function the EF has deliberately avoided. The risk is a potential clash of priorities, with a price-focused organization demanding protocol changes that the more ideologically-driven EF might resist.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.