Dankrad Feist, a former researcher on the Ethereum Basis (EF), referred to as on the Ethereum group on Could 21 to determine a brand new group with a minimal preliminary capital of $1 billion, because the EF faces mounting strain over debates surrounding its treasury, management, and ETH’s value-accrual mannequin. Feist argued that this group must align its financial pursuits straight with Ethereum, stay accountable to the group, and safe long-term funding from staking income.
Feist’s $1B Proposal
Feist argued that Ethereum at present lacks a corporation with a transparent mandate to guard ETH’s financial pursuits. In a put up dated Could 21, he acknowledged that the EF at present holds lower than 0.1% of the full ETH provide and has no direct income stream from staking or community charges. Due to this fact, in accordance with Feist, it’s tough for the EF to behave as an entity with incentives robust sufficient to drive ETH’s financial worth.
The best way to save lots of Ethereum: The group must create a corporation that is economically aligned with Ethereum and accountable to it.
The EF now holds lower than 0.1% of all ETH. There isn’t any stream of Ethereum staking or payment revenues to it.
If we need to get Ethereum again to…
— Dankrad Feist (@dankrad) Could 21, 2026
His proposal features a new group with at the least $1 billion in preliminary capital, a reliable chief, a board accountable for the purpose of accelerating ETH’s worth, and a long-term funding mechanism. Feist additionally recommended {that a} portion of staking income must be directed to this group via a governance mechanism that may be adjusted over time.
Notably, Feist is not only calling for extra grants. He’s questioning the ability construction and incentives inside Ethereum, notably the hole between the EF’s impartial position and the rising expectations from ETH holders for a corporation with clearer accountability for ETH’s financial progress.
Ethereum Basis Below Scrutiny
The Ethereum Basis has lengthy operated as a non-profit group supporting analysis, consumer growth, grants, and public items infrastructure for Ethereum. The EF doesn’t have an official mandate to pump the value of ETH. Nonetheless, that method is coming below nearer scrutiny as Ethereum competes with new L1s, L2 ecosystems, and crypto infrastructure firms with extra targeted progress methods.
Feist acknowledged that the EF at present holds lower than 0.1% of the full ETH provide, elevating questions once more in regards to the dimension of the inspiration’s treasury. Nonetheless, this determine must be interpreted with warning, as public knowledge can range relying on how liquid ETH, staked ETH, and on-chain labeled wallets are calculated.
The EF has additionally begun altering its treasury administration in 2026. CoinDesk reported in early April that the EF moved nearer to its purpose of staking 70,000 ETH after staking roughly an extra $93 million price of ETH in a single day. The article additionally cited Arkham knowledge exhibiting that the EF nonetheless has over 100,000 unstaked ETH in tracked wallets. This means that the inspiration is shifting a portion of its treasury to staking yield, although debates over the dimensions of holdings and incentive alignment stay unresolved.
Stress is additional mounting resulting from a wave of personnel departures from the EF. In Could, Carl Beek and Julian Ma introduced their departures from the group, extending a streak of exits in 2026. These personnel adjustments don’t robotically signify a disaster, however they increase questions on management and execution at a time when ETH’s financial narrative is being questioned.
The ETH Worth-Accrual Debate
Feist’s proposal comes amid a broader debate over the widening hole between Ethereum’s scalability and ETH’s value-accrual mechanism.
The best way to save lots of Ethereum: The group must create a corporation that is economically aligned with Ethereum and accountable to it.
The EF now holds lower than 0.1% of all ETH. There isn’t any stream of Ethereum staking or payment revenues to it.
If we need to get Ethereum again to…
— Dankrad Feist (@dankrad) Could 21, 2026
Zach Rynes, also called ChainLinkGod, argued that the “ultrasound cash” narrative was as soon as very robust as a result of it linked adoption to income, burns, and the potential for ETH to change into a deflationary asset. Based on him, this thesis weakens as high-value payment streams like MEV and congestion charges shift extra towards Layer 2, whereas Ethereum L1 focuses on knowledge availability and settlement. Rynes additionally doubts the brand new thesis that ETH will naturally change into the shop of worth in DeFi, as many on-chain markets are being priced in stablecoins like USDC as a substitute of ETH.
The problem lies within the trade-off of the rollup-centric roadmap. Dencun and EIP-4844 make it cheaper for L2s to submit knowledge again to Ethereum. However decrease L1 charges additionally cut back ETH burns and make the value-accrual story tougher to clarify. Ethereum could also be successful the infrastructure warfare, however the market nonetheless desires a clearer reply on how the ETH token advantages from that infrastructure.
How Huge Is a $1B Ethereum Fund?
Based on CoinMarketCap, ETH is buying and selling round $2,120 on Could 24, with a market cap of roughly $255.93 billion and a circulating provide of round 120.68 million ETH. With that scale, Feist’s $1 billion proposal is equal to about 0.4% of Ethereum’s market cap.
ETH value chart (1M). Supply: TradingView
One billion {dollars} is a big quantity in comparison with a typical grants funds, however it’s nonetheless small in comparison with a community valued at over $250 billion. This means that Feist is speaking about a corporation with affect on the ecosystem technique stage, not only a fund to help small tasks.
The Governance Query Behind Feist’s Proposal
Feist’s proposal just isn’t but an official plan. Huge questions stay open: who will fund it, how the board shall be chosen, how accountability to the group shall be dealt with, and whether or not the brand new group will complement or compete with the Ethereum Basis.
The principle bottleneck is the long-term funding supply from staking income. If it comes from events voluntarily redirecting their yield, the proposal might transfer in an impartial path. If it requires adjustments on the protocol stage to allocate income to a separate entity, the talk shall be extra complicated because it entails Ethereum’s neutrality, governance, and social consensus.
