Vitalik Buterin Reveals 90% of His Net Worth Sits in ETH Amid Foundation Overhaul Plans

Vitalik Buterin laid out a direct case on Sunday for why the Ethereum Foundation must become a leaner, more opinionated organization focused on the properties that set Ethereum apart.

Buterin acknowledged that tension clearly. Some people saw a foundation finally getting serious about execution and business development. He saw something different and stated that the critics who pushed hardest on idealism were the ones whose words carried the most weight with him.

To explain the choice the EF is making, Buterin reached for an analogy. He described Google as a company that started with strong, idealistic roots but slowly moved away from them as mainstream corporate pressure set in. He remarked that if he could have pressed a button in 2008 to make Google two standard deviations more principled, he would have pressed it immediately. His reasoning: one organization choosing to hold a different standard matters more when the rest of the industry is drifting in the other direction.

Going forward, the EF will concentrate on activities critical to Ethereum’s function as a censorship-resistant, private, and open system, and only those activities that would not happen without the foundation’s direct involvement. That means some respected contributors and technically aligned teams will move outside the EF structure. Buterin said that is necessary, not accidental. External teams need the ability to attract outside capital, and that is harder when they sit inside the foundation.

Buterin closed the post by describing what the EF is becoming. A smaller ship. More opinionated. Built to last longer. He said the foundation’s new long-term structure should stabilize over the next few months.

Board member Aya Miyaguchi is leading the operational side of the transition. Buterin said his own influence on the board will continue to decrease, and that is the outcome he wants.