Prominent Ethereum Dev Proposes $1 Billion ETH Organization With Leader Who 'Wants to Fight'

In brief

• Former Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist proposed replacing the organization with a new group.
• The new group would need at least $1 billion in ETH funding, he said, plus staking fees and a focus on raising ETH's price.
• The remarks come amid resignations at the Foundation and frustration with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

Amidst a cascade of resignations and mounting scrutiny over its long-term vision, the Ethereum Foundation was hit Thursday with a stinging rebuke by one of its most prominent former members.

Dankrad Feist, who until last year served as one of the Ethereum Foundation’s top researchers, suggested today that a new organization be built in its place to “save Ethereum.” 

The organization would need at least $1 billion in funding, Feist said, provided by “a significant amount” of revenue derived from ETH staking fees.

“The EF now holds less than 0.1% of all ETH,” Feist said. “There is no flow of Ethereum staking or fee revenues to it.”

The way to save Ethereum: The community needs to create an organization that's economically aligned with Ethereum and accountable to it.

The EF now holds less than 0.1% of all ETH. There is no flow of Ethereum staking or fee revenues to it.

If we want to get Ethereum back to…

— Dankrad Feist (@dankrad) May 21, 2026

He added that the new organization would need a board of people “who want ETH to go up” and “a leader who is competent and wants to fight.”

In recent months, Ethereum co-founder Vitalk Buterin has struggled to satisfy community members who worry the Ethereum Foundation is more preoccupied more with idealism and arcane technological improvements than with economics and marketing.

Decrypt reached out to Feist about the post, including seeking clarification on whether he was referring to any specific leader, and will update if we receive a response.

Despite its long-held position as crypto’s second most-valuable asset behind Bitcoin, ETH has struggled mightily to make significant price gains in recent years, and has yet to breach $5,000. It came close last summer, but has since plunged by nearly 57% to more than $2,100.

Last year, Buterin acknowledged the organization needed to make “large changes.” But when the Ethereum Foundation released a long-anticipated new in March, the document not only contained vaguely sexual language and imagery, including allusions to the controversial NFT collection—but also repeatedly emphasized the organization’s lack of desire to get too fixated in boosting ETH’s price.