Ethereum Foundation Fires 20% Of Workforce, Reveals Brand-New Structure

Layoffs have rocked the crypto market over the last year as the market has struggled, and the Ethereum Foundation has joined the long line of companies trimming its workforce. The company revealed in an announcement that it has cut about 20% of its workforce as it unveils a new operating model designed to concentrate resources on the network’s long-term priorities. 

Ethereum Foundation Takes New Direction By Reducing Workforce

In a June 23, 2026, blog post, the Ethereum Foundation, one of the most popular nonprofits in the crypto industry, revealed it has cut 54 employees. The organization announced that this was a move it made in its commitment to reorganizing the entire value chain around five domain-focused clusters.

According to the foundation, the restructuring concludes a “months-long process” tied to its Mandate and Treasury Management Policy. The changes will eventually leave it with “the structure, activities, and people necessary for execution on the critical tasks ahead,” while also acknowledging that many of those leaving may continue contributing to Ethereum from outside the nonprofit.

The announcement is the clearest sign yet that the Ethereum Foundation is moving from a broad, research-heavy structure to a more selective model centered on protocol development, user access, community work, and institutional engagement. However, it also comes amid a wider leadership shake-up and fresh scrutiny over how the ecosystem funds core development. This follows the downturn that the crypto industry has suffered, with the Ethereum price itself dropping more than 65% from its 2025 all-time highs.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also revealed a roughly 40% budget reduction as part of a move toward a leaner, endowment-style model. Nevertheless, the laid-off staff is expected to receive severance equal to the higher of one month’s pay per year of service or the locally mandated amount, plus transition support and a small grant for career costs.

A New Structure For Success?

The new Ethereum Foundation model clearly separates its new networks into five clusters. These are named the protocol layer, access layer, user layer, community layer, and institutional layer. The foundation also added a dedicated operations cluster and a management group supporting leadership. Under this new model, each ‘domain’ will be responsible for different parts of the organization, ensuring that each facet focuses on the work tailored to them.

This shift supposedly reveals where the organization thinks scarce resources should go. For example, the protocol layer will focus on hardening and scaling the base Ethereum chain, including long-horizon work such as post-quantum security, zkEVM development, and Layer 1 privacy. 

Next up is the access layer, which is expected to help Ethereum users read, transact, delegate, and exit without depending on unverifiable intermediaries. This also increases the security layer for users as they interact with the blockchain.

The user layer is meant to make sure that all decisions are actually tailored to real-world use cases. “Its work includes user segments, personas, educational materials, use-case research, and impact evaluation,” the Ethereum Foundation announcement reads.

The community layer comes up next and is supposed to help shape how the organization will be presented to the outside world, including to open-source and civil-liberties groups. This is essentially the part that will paint its image to the rest of the world and help to build relationships in the industry.

Last of the five is the institutional layer, which will handle relationships with enterprises, governments, universities, insurers, and financial institutions. “The institutional cluster also works upstream with academics and allied advocacy organizations around the world to ensure Ethereum is correctly understood in both its current form and potential,” the nonprofit said.

That division suggests the Ethereum Foundation is trying to avoid competing on every front at once. Instead, it appears to be narrowing to work that it believes only the foundation can do. Meanwhile, Ethereum-linked groups and backers announced Ethlabs, a separate nonprofit R&D initiative aimed at institutional adoption and protocol growth. So, while the Ethereum Foundation seems to be consolidating its resources, adjacent organizations appear to be taking on more specialized roles.