Dankrad Feist, a former researcher on the Ethereum Basis (EF), referred to as on the Ethereum group on Could 21 to ascertain a brand new group with a minimal preliminary capital of $1 billion, because the EF faces mounting strain over debates surrounding its treasury, management, and ETH’s value-accrual mannequin. Feist argued that this group must align its financial pursuits instantly with Ethereum, stay accountable to the group, and safe long-term funding from staking income.
Feist’s $1B Proposal
Feist argued that Ethereum presently lacks a company with a transparent mandate to guard ETH’s financial pursuits. In a publish dated Could 21, he acknowledged that the EF presently holds lower than 0.1% of the overall ETH provide and has no direct income stream from staking or community charges. Due to this fact, in line with Feist, it’s tough for the EF to behave as an entity with incentives sturdy sufficient to drive ETH’s financial worth.
The way in which to avoid wasting Ethereum: The group must create a company that is economically aligned with Ethereum and accountable to it.
The EF now holds lower than 0.1% of all ETH. There isn’t a circulation of Ethereum staking or payment revenues to it.
If we need to get Ethereum again to…
— Dankrad Feist (@dankrad) Could 21, 2026
His proposal features a new group with a minimum of $1 billion in preliminary capital, a reliable chief, a board accountable for the aim of accelerating ETH’s worth, and a long-term funding mechanism. Feist additionally instructed {that a} portion of staking income ought to be directed to this group by a governance mechanism that may be adjusted over time.
Notably, Feist isn’t just calling for extra grants. He’s questioning the ability construction and incentives inside Ethereum, significantly the hole between the EF’s impartial position and the rising expectations from ETH holders for a company with clearer accountability for ETH’s financial progress.
Ethereum Basis Beneath Scrutiny
The Ethereum Basis has lengthy operated as a non-profit group supporting analysis, consumer growth, grants, and public items infrastructure for Ethereum. The EF doesn’t have an official mandate to pump the value of ETH. Nevertheless, that method is coming below nearer scrutiny as Ethereum competes with new L1s, L2 ecosystems, and crypto infrastructure corporations with extra centered progress methods.
Feist acknowledged that the EF presently holds lower than 0.1% of the overall ETH provide, elevating questions once more concerning the measurement of the inspiration’s treasury. Nevertheless, this determine ought to be interpreted with warning, as public information can differ relying on how liquid ETH, staked ETH, and on-chain labeled wallets are calculated.
The EF has additionally begun altering its treasury administration in 2026. CoinDesk reported in early April that the EF moved nearer to its aim of staking 70,000 ETH after staking roughly an extra $93 million value of ETH in a single day. The article additionally cited Arkham information displaying that the EF nonetheless has over 100,000 unstaked ETH in tracked wallets. This means that the inspiration is shifting a portion of its treasury to staking yield, although debates over the dimensions of holdings and incentive alignment stay unresolved.
Stress is additional mounting on account of a wave of personnel departures from the EF. In Could, Carl Beek and Julian Ma introduced their departures from the group, extending a streak of exits in 2026. These personnel modifications don’t mechanically signify a disaster, however they increase questions on management and execution at a time when ETH’s financial narrative is being questioned.
The ETH Worth-Accrual Debate
Feist’s proposal comes amid a broader debate over the widening hole between Ethereum’s scalability and ETH’s value-accrual mechanism.
The way in which to avoid wasting Ethereum: The group must create a company that is economically aligned with Ethereum and accountable to it.
The EF now holds lower than 0.1% of all ETH. There isn’t a circulation of Ethereum staking or payment revenues to it.
If we need to get Ethereum again to…
— Dankrad Feist (@dankrad) Could 21, 2026
Zach Rynes, also called ChainLinkGod, argued that the “ultrasound cash” narrative was as soon as very sturdy as a result of it linked adoption to income, burns, and the potential for ETH to develop into a deflationary asset. In accordance with him, this thesis weakens as high-value payment streams like MEV and congestion charges shift extra towards Layer 2, whereas Ethereum L1 focuses on information availability and settlement. Rynes additionally doubts the brand new thesis that ETH will naturally develop into the shop of worth in DeFi, as many on-chain markets are being priced in stablecoins like USDC as a substitute of ETH.
The difficulty lies within the trade-off of the rollup-centric roadmap. Dencun and EIP-4844 make it cheaper for L2s to submit information again to Ethereum. However decrease L1 charges additionally cut back ETH burns and make the value-accrual story tougher to elucidate. Ethereum could also be successful the infrastructure warfare, however the market nonetheless needs a clearer reply on how the ETH token advantages from that infrastructure.
How Huge Is a $1B Ethereum Fund?
In accordance with CoinMarketCap, ETH is buying and selling round $2,120 on Could 24, with a market cap of roughly $255.93 billion and a circulating provide of round 120.68 million ETH. With that scale, Feist’s $1 billion proposal is equal to about 0.4% of Ethereum’s market cap.
ETH worth chart (1M). Supply: TradingView
One billion {dollars} is a big quantity in comparison with a typical grants price range, however it’s nonetheless small in comparison with a community valued at over $250 billion. This means that Feist is speaking about a company with affect on the ecosystem technique stage, not only a fund to assist small initiatives.
The Governance Query Behind Feist’s Proposal
Feist’s proposal is just not but an official plan. Huge questions stay open: who will fund it, how the board might be chosen, how accountability to the group might be dealt with, and whether or not the brand new group will complement or compete with the Ethereum Basis.
The primary bottleneck is the long-term funding supply from staking income. If it comes from events voluntarily redirecting their yield, the proposal may transfer in an impartial route. If it requires modifications on the protocol stage to allocate income to a separate entity, the talk might be extra complicated because it entails Ethereum’s neutrality, governance, and social consensus.
