Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, recently shared a chart from Josh Stark of the Ethereum Foundation (EF) on important organizational spending.
The disclosure follows recent discussions in the crypto community regarding transparency around funds transfers and coin sales from the Ethereum Foundation.
Important Ethereum Foundation Expenditure by Vitalik Buterin
The chart compiled by Stark shows “New Institutions” with the biggest share of EF expenditure at 36.5%. Buterin stated that this category includes grants to various organizations, including the Nomic Foundation, L2BEAT, The Decentralization Research Centre, and the 0xPARC Foundation.
The EF’s primary goal in creating new organizations is to strengthen the Ethereum community long-term.
The next biggest expenditure made by EF was in the L1R&D category, accounting for 24.9% of the total expenditure. Stark noted that this category comprises grants to external client teams and internal EF researchers. Internal spending was approximately 38%, and external spending was roughly 62% in 2022 and 2023.
Internal spending consists of EF teams such as Geth, Cryptography Research, Devcon, Solidity, Next Billion, and others. Stark pointed out the responsibilities of these teams, stating, “All these teams work out in the open and share info about their activities on their websites, githubs, and social channels.”
The EF has consistently released reports on its funding activities in the past four years regarding external spending or grants. Projects that received funding in the first quarter of 2024 include Xerxis, Ethereum Bogota, Motherless Africa, ETHKL, and others.
Recent Fund Transfers from EF
The EF’s spending disclosure follows recent transfers to exchanges. For instance, the EF took the market by surprise last week, transferring 35,000 ETH into the Kraken exchange. At the current market price, the 35,000 ETH translates to $89.8 million, representing the largest move for the Foundation this year.
At the time, Ethereum Foundation member Aya Miyaguchi clarified that the ETH movement was part of their treasury management activities. Miyaguchi added that the Ethereum Foundation’s strategy involved planned and gradual sales moving forward.
Concerns have been raised about these transfers, which were thought to be a reliable signal of local market peaks. Addressing the concerns about erroneous transfers, Stark says individuals can easily confirm from the EF since the organization’s treasury is “transparently visible” on-chain.
Besides revealing the EF’s spending, Vitalik Buterin revealed that his salary at the organization is 182,000 SGD (about $139,500) annually. This compares sparingly to Buterin’s net worth, which Forbes estimated at $1.5 billion in 2022.
Ethereum’s Price Reaction
The recent update has not made a substantial impact on Ethereum’s price. As of this writing, ETH experienced a 5.3% slump within the past 24 hours to trade at $2,584. However, the trading volume surged by 28.4% to $14.6 billion, with a market cap of $310 billion.
The tempered outlook in the Ethereum network is consistent with a broader market decline. It also coincides with recent outflows from the Ethereum Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) launched last month.
Despite these challenges, ETH could move upward if it experiences a supply shock. The coin’s supply on Centralized Exchanges recently hit a record low, hinting at bullish mid-term momentum.
