StarkWare Co-Founder Speaks Out as Ethereum Funding Gap Fears Grow

Ben-Sasson Enters the Debate

StarkWare co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson stepped into the growing debate around the Ethereum Foundation on June 21, striking a measured tone. He said he was not joining those criticising the foundation, nor was he claiming Ethereum is near its end. He also said he was not trying to defend it by saying everything was fine. "Ethereum has many strengths, and it also has its politics," he wrote.

Ben-Sasson noted that StarkWare's first paid project in 2019 and 2020 focused on a post-quantum ZK-STARK system to scale Ethereum and make it quantum-ready. He also pointed to StarkWare's later choices, including STARKs, Cairo, zkVM work, native account abstraction and Bitcoin scaling, noting those decisions were not always popular and were sometimes viewed as "misaligned." Ben-Sasson said he was glad the team made them, as he sees them as the right technical calls.

His main point centred on how Ethereum should judge teams and ideas. Ben-Sasson expressed optimism about what lies ahead, writing: "I hope the new system that will arise will give a lot of weight to merit and technology, and less to alignment."

A $30 Million Funding Problem

Ben-Sasson's comments come as the Ethereum Foundation faces a difficult stretch. Hsiao-Wei Wang stepped down as co-executive director and board member after returning from a sabbatical, following the earlier exit of fellow co-executive director Tomasz Stańczak. At least eight senior figures have departed the Ethereum Foundation over the past five months, raising concerns even as Ethereum faces increased competition from rival blockchains.

Compounding the leadership churn is a warning about money. Trent Van Epps, a former Ethereum Foundation contributor who spent five years coordinating core protocol development, has warned that Ethereum's core development could slide into a funding crisis within three to nine months. He argues that sustaining Ethereum's network of more than ten client teams, researchers, and coordination groups costs roughly $30 million a year, with no replacement mechanism announced. The Client Incentive Program, a four-year effort that funded client teams through staking rewards, expired in April 2026 without a successor. Van Epps estimates the combined effect could open a "slow-burning funding crisis" within three to nine months, framing the gap not as a one-time episode but as a symptom of structural problems in how the ecosystem gathers and allocates funding.

Not everyone shares the alarm. Tom Lee called the prospect of a genuine funding crisis a "zero chance" scenario, reflecting a divide in how the market is reading the situation. Van Epps's comments remain an independent assessment rather than an officially confirmed projection, and the Ethereum Foundation has not publicly endorsed the three-to-nine-month estimate.

The warning ties the funding question to the foundation's "Subtraction" philosophy, its stated effort to reduce its relative influence over Ethereum, while leaving gaps that no other institution has stepped in to fill. According to Van Epps, the loss of stable economic incentives could lead to the migration of senior researchers and technicians to other commercial sectors, weakening the technical capacity to implement scalability upgrades or shield the network against quantum computing.

Sources:
Eli Ben-Sasson calls for merit over alignment in Ethereum debate (crypto.news)
Ethereum could face core development funding crisis within nine months (The Block)
Ethereum Core Development Funding At Risk As Major Client Incentive Program Expires (FinanceFeeds)