The Ethereum Foundation published an updated Ministry of Finance’s policy on Wednesday, outlining a number of new plans for token sales, Fiat purchases and transparency practices designed to secure the organization’s “long-term agency, sustainability and legitimacy.”
EC, a Swiss non-profit, plays a key role in the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem. In addition to hiring researchers, builders and societal connections, the fund was awarded a large trove of Ether (ETH) tokens at Ethereum’s Genesis, which it uses to finance its operations and support other projects in the ecosystem.
In a blog post on Wednesday, the fund stated that it is planning to appoint 15% of its treasury for operational expenses (“Opex”) annually with a 2.5-year-old buffer that is always kept in its reserves. “We intend to reduce the annual OPEX roughly linearly over the next five years and end on a long -term baseline of 5%,” the fund wrote. “This policy reflects our belief that 2025-26 is likely to be central to Ethereum, which justifies improved focus on critical deliveries.”
In addition to periodically selling some of its ETH tookens on the market, the fund said it will occasionally diversify its stocks to Fiat to ensure that it can continue to finance key ecosystem projects regardless of crypto market conditions.
The Fund emphasized that decisions on the management of its Treasury – including occasional ETH sales – have been made with operational planning and risk limitation in mind. The fund stated that its investments are not driven by speculative goals, but to ensure that the EC can continue to support the ecosystem far into the future.
“We will often redistribute funds between protocols for land such as changing market conditions, diversification or new dividend opportunities,” the fund wrote. “Withdrawals must be understood in this context and not as anti-approvals.”
In addition, the fund promised to publish quarterly financial reports to its board of directors as well as an annual report previously published. On October 31, 2024, the EC shared that it had $ 970.2 million in the Treasury, dropped 39% from the previous time that the organization reported its financial location.
Token-rich crypto funds such as the Ethereum Foundation have been at the center of many of the industry’s biggest controversy for years. Foundations have tremendous power within the ecosystems they serve, but they are often criticized for having opaque operations, generous compensation packages and vague responsibility.
Wednesday’s post comes in the midst of a wider push from the Ethereum community for basic transparency and reform.
By 2024, a couple of Ethereum Foundation researchers came under fire to quietly accept tokenallocations from Ethereum-based projects and pushed the entire organization into a calculation of conflicts of interest.
Ethereum has also faced increased competition from other blockchains in the past year, and some in the community have been pushing for the Ethereum Foundation to trade with a more urgent nature in pushing along the ecosystem’s tech development.
Earlier this week, the fund shared that it had dismissed some members as part of a restructuring of its research arm.
Read more: Ethereum Foundation puts some staff in the middle of the F&U Current Rructuring
