Ethereum's brain drain just turned into a manifesto

Former Ethereum Foundation researcher @dankrad has published what many in the community are treating as a blueprint for institutional change. The cryptographer behind Danksharding, who now works at Tempo, the payments-focused Layer 1 backed by Stripe and Paradigm, is calling for the creation of a new organization built to compete aggressively on behalf of $ETH.

His ask is specific: at least $1 billion in starting capital, a leader willing to fight for Ethereum's competitive position, an accountable board with a charter oriented toward ETH's success, and permanent funding routed through staking revenue. The proposal lands at a moment when the Ethereum Foundation's institutional standing is under its most visible strain in years.

A Foundation Pulling Back as Rivals Push Forward

Feist's critique centers on the EF's structural limits. The EF now holds less than 0.1% of all ETH and receives no flow of Ethereum staking or fee revenues. The foundation's published mandate focuses on preserving core values: censorship resistance, open source, privacy, and security. Growth and market competitiveness do not feature. Critics argue the mandate signals the foundation intends to take a backseat just as institutional interest in blockchain is accelerating, raising concerns that Ethereum may need stronger coordination to compete with rival networks.

Crypto investor and Bankless co-founder Ryan Sean Adams echoed the call, arguing the EF's structure makes it constitutionally unsuited to the role of ETH advocate. Adams stated that the Ethereum community cannot rely on the EF and that what is needed is "an org that wants ETH the asset to win," one that "gets loud" and "executes hard," adding that "The EF is not that, never will be."

Eight Departures in 2026, Five in May Alone

The proposal does not exist in a vacuum. At least eight senior EF researchers and leaders have announced departures this year, with five exits coming in May alone, as the foundation undergoes a leadership reshuffle under new Co-Executive Directors Bastian Aue and Hsiao-Wei Wang. The roster includes Protocol Cluster leads Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko, operations lead Josh Stark, Protocol Guild founder Trent Van Epps, and most recently researchers Carl Beek and Julian Ma. Beek spent seven years at the EF contributing to the early design of the Beacon Chain and the KZG ceremony, while Ma co-authored FOCIL (EIP-7805) for censorship resistance and led the rollout of the 13-second Fast Confirmation Rule.

Not everyone reads the departures as a crisis. Long-time Ethereum community figure Ryan Berckmans pushed back against growing alarm, arguing the exits reflect internal disagreements over sub-strategies rather than any loss of faith in Ethereum itself, plus a deliberate generational shift. In Vitalik Buterin's framing, the departures are evidence the new mandate is working as intended rather than evidence of governance failure.

$ETH trades near $2,100 with a market cap of around $257 billion, trailing both bitcoin:native and solana:So11111111111111111111111111111111111111112 in recent performance. Feist's central question, whether Ethereum's institutional layer is equipped to compete or whether the community must build its own, remains unanswered.

Sources:
The Defiant: EF Exodus Fuels Calls for New Price-Focused Ethereum Organization
CoinDesk: Ethereum Foundation's New Mandate Sparks Debate About Its Role, Priorities
Unchained: Ethereum Foundation Exodus Deepens With at Least Eight Senior Departures in 2026