Compiled & edited by: Karen
Previously, the Ethereum Foundation’s spending had caused widespread concern in the community, and community members have been calling for greater transparency. Today, the Ethereum Foundation officially released a report that comprehensively and thoroughly introduces the foundation’s core values, spending details, treasury status, and the overall status of the ecosystem. Foresight News has refined and organized this.
TL;DR
1. The three core values of the Ethereum Foundation: long-term thinking, self-restraint (Subtraction), and value protection;
2. The Ethereum Foundation spent a total of $105.4 million in 2022, of which L1 research and development accounted for the largest proportion, accounting for 30.4% (US$32.1 million), followed by new institutions or organizations (27.1%, US$28.6 million);
3. The Ethereum Foundation spent a total of $134.9 million in 2023, nearly 28% more than in 2022, of which new institutions or organizations spent $47.4 million (35.2%), and L1 R&D spending accounted for 25.7%;
4. As of October 31, 2024, the total treasury of the Ethereum Foundation is approximately US$970.2 million, including US$788.7 million in cryptocurrency assets and US$181.5 million in non-cryptocurrency investments and assets;
5. 99.45% of the cryptocurrency assets held by the Ethereum Foundation are ETH, which accounts for 0.26% of the total ETH supply as of October 31, 2024;
6. The total value held by project treasuries within the Ethereum ecosystem is $22.2 billion. From 2022 to 2023, the Ethereum ecosystem deployed a total of $497 million in funds to support projects across the Ethereum community.
The Ethereum Foundation's three core values
The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is made up of multiple independent teams. The EF believes that small, autonomous teams are the most efficient structure. New teams often grow organically by branching off from existing teams to respond to new needs in the ecosystem. Teams at the EF contribute to many areas of the Ethereum ecosystem. Some teams work on software development or explore the frontiers of the Ethereum roadmap; some teams help grow the developer and user ecosystem worldwide; and others are responsible for educating the world about the utility and potential of Ethereum.
The three core values of the Ethereum Foundation: long-term thinking, self-restraint (Subtraction), and value protection.
Long-term thinking: The Ethereum Foundation believes that the ecosystem sometimes focuses too much on very short-term goals and cycles. The Ethereum Foundation should be a counterweight to this trend: transcending the ups and downs of market cycles and focusing on the long-term picture.
Self-limitation: Do not seek power or prestige, success is measured by the achievements of the Ethereum ecosystem, not the Ethereum Foundation itself.
Protection of values: Ethereum is not just a technology, but also a community formed by common values.
Ethereum Foundation Activities and Expenditure
Over the past two years, Ethereum has been committed to fostering and supporting many new organizations that are driving the Ethereum ecosystem forward, such as the Argot Collective (composed of 25 former Ethereum Foundation team members, focusing on core infrastructure development), Geodework (building community and educational infrastructure), L2BEAT (providing analysis, research, and tooling related to Ethereum L2 projects), Nomic Foundation (providing open source engineering software), and 0xPARC (accelerating the development and deployment of programmable cryptography).
The Ethereum Foundation spent a total of $105.4 million in 2022, of which L1 R&D accounted for the largest amount, accounting for 30.4% ($32.1 million), followed by new institutions or organizations (27.1%, $28.6 million), community development (18.5%), internal operations (Internal Ops, general expenses to support all EF teams, 8.1%), developer platform (7.9%), Applied ZK (7.2%), and L2 R&D (0.8%). Among them, the expenditures of new institutions or organizations include grants to organizations such as Nomic Foundation, 0xPARC, and L2BEAT.
The Ethereum Foundation spent a total of $134.9 million in 2023, nearly 28% more than in 2022. The proportion of expenditures by new institutions or organizations increased significantly, reaching the largest proportion of $47.4 million (35.2%), while the proportion of expenditures on L1 R&D decreased to 25.7%, but it was still slightly higher than in 2022 in terms of expenditure amount. The second largest proportion was community development (12.5%), Applied ZK (11.0%), internal operations (7.7%), developer platform (6.5%), and L2 R&D (1.4%).
Ethereum Foundation Treasury
As of October 31, 2024, the Ethereum Foundation's total treasury was approximately $970.2 million, consisting of $788.7 million in cryptocurrency assets and $181.5 million in non-cryptocurrency investments and assets.
The vast majority (99.45%) of the cryptocurrency assets held by the Ethereum Foundation are ETH, which accounts for 0.26% of the total ETH supply on October 31, 2024.
The Ethereum Foundation stated, “The reason why we chose ETH as the majority of the treasury assets is because we believe in the potential of Ethereum. At the same time, the goal of the Ethereum Foundation Treasury is to provide funds for important public products for the Ethereum ecosystem in the coming years. To achieve this goal, we must follow a sound treasury management policy to ensure that we have sufficient resources even in the event of a multi-year market downturn. This requires us to sell ETH regularly to ensure sufficient savings in the next few years, and to programmatically increase our fiat currency reserves during the bull market to fund expenditures during the bear market.”
Ethereum Ecosystem Treasury
The following chart shows the total value held by the project treasuries within the Ethereum ecosystem, which is $22.2 billion, including the project's available liquidity and funds that have not yet been released. Most project treasuries are mainly composed of the project's native tokens. These treasury funds will support the development and maintenance of the Ethereum ecosystem.
From 2022 to 2023, the Ethereum ecosystem deployed a total of $497 million to support projects across the community.
