Previously, the spending situation of the Ethereum Foundation had raised widespread concerns in the community, and community members had long called for greater transparency. Today, the Ethereum Foundation officially released a report, comprehensively and in detail introducing the Foundation's core values, expenditure details, treasury status, and the overall state of the ecosystem. Foresight News has summarized and organized this information.
TL;DR
1. The three core values of the Ethereum Foundation: long-term thinking, self-subtraction, and value guardianship;
2. The Ethereum Foundation spent a total of $105.4 million in 2022, with the most spent on L1 research and development at 30.4% ($32.1 million), followed by new institutions or organizations at 27.1% ($28.6 million);
3. The Ethereum Foundation plans to spend $134.9 million in 2023, an increase of nearly 28% compared to 2022, with spending on new institutions or organizations reaching $47.4 million (35.2%), and L1 research and development accounting for 25.7%;
4. As of October 31, 2024, the Ethereum Foundation's total treasury is approximately $970.2 million, including $788.7 million in cryptocurrency assets and $181.5 million in non-cryptocurrency investments and assets;
5. 99.45% of the Ethereum Foundation's cryptocurrency assets are ETH, which accounts for 0.26% of the total ETH supply as of October 31, 2024;
6. The total value of the treasuries held by projects within the Ethereum ecosystem reaches $22.2 billion. From 2022 to 2023, the Ethereum ecosystem deployed $497 million to support projects across the entire Ethereum community.
The Ethereum Foundation's Three Core Values
The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is composed of multiple independent teams. The Ethereum Foundation believes that small, autonomous teams are the most efficient structure. New teams often grow organically by splitting off from existing teams to address new needs in the ecosystem. The Ethereum Foundation's teams have contributed to many areas of the Ethereum ecosystem. Some teams are dedicated to software development or exploring the frontiers of the Ethereum roadmap; some teams support the development of the global developer and user ecosystem; and other teams are responsible for spreading the utility and potential of Ethereum to the world and providing related education.
The three core values of the Ethereum Foundation are: long-term thinking, self-subtraction, and value guardianship.
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 counterbalance to this trend: transcending the fluctuations of market cycles and focusing on the long-term vision.
Self-subtraction: Not pursuing power and prestige, but using the achievements of the Ethereum ecosystem as the measure of success, rather than the Ethereum Foundation itself.
Value guardianship: Ethereum is not just a technology, but a community united by shared values.
Ethereum Foundation Activities and Expenditures
Over the past two years, Ethereum has been dedicated to cultivating 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, focused on core infrastructure development), Geodework (building community and educational infrastructure), L2BEAT (providing analysis, research, and tools related to Ethereum L2 projects), the 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, with the most spent on L1 research and development at 30.4% ($32.1 million), followed by new institutions or organizations at 27.1% ($28.6 million), community development at 18.5%, internal operations at 8.1%, developer platforms at 7.9%, Applied ZK at 7.2%, and L2 research and development at 0.8%. The spending on new institutions or organizations includes grants to organizations such as the Nomic Foundation, 0xPARC, and L2BEAT.
The Ethereum Foundation plans to spend $134.9 million in 2023, an increase of nearly 28% compared to 2022, with spending on new institutions or organizations increasing significantly to $47.4 million (35.2%), while the proportion of spending on L1 research and development has decreased to 25.7%, but the spending amount is still slightly higher than in 2022. This is followed by community development (12.5%), Applied ZK (11.0%), internal operations (7.7%), developer platforms (6.5%), and L2 research and development (1.4%).
Ethereum Foundation Treasury
As of October 31, 2024, the Ethereum Foundation's total treasury is approximately $970.2 million, including $788.7 million in cryptocurrency assets and $181.5 million in non-cryptocurrency investments and assets.
The vast majority (99.45%) of the Ethereum Foundation's cryptocurrency assets are ETH, which accounts for 0.26% of the total ETH supply as of October 31, 2024.
The Ethereum Foundation stated, "The reason for choosing ETH as the majority of our treasury assets is because we believe in the potential of Ethereum. At the same time, the goal of the Ethereum Foundation's treasury is to provide funding for important public goods for Ethereum's ecosystem in the coming years. To achieve this goal, we must follow a prudent treasury management policy to ensure that we have sufficient resources even if we face multi-year market downturns. This requires us to regularly sell ETH to ensure we have enough savings for the next few years, and to programmatically increase our fiat currency savings during bull markets to provide funding for expenditures during bear markets."
Ethereum Ecosystem Treasury
The image below shows the total value of the treasuries held by projects within the Ethereum ecosystem, reaching $22.2 billion, including both the liquid funds and the yet-to-be-released funds of these projects. Most project treasuries are primarily composed of the project's native tokens. These treasury funds will provide support for the development and maintenance of the Ethereum ecosystem.
From 2022 to 2023, the Ethereum ecosystem deployed $497 million to support projects across the entire community.
