The foundation responsible for developing Ethereum had already lost other developers in previous months.

The Ethereum Foundation (EF), responsible for the development of Ethereum (ETH), announced on Tuesday (23) the dismissal of 54 people from its team, representing 20% ​​of its workforce.

The text indicates that this is due to the conclusion of a reorganization process that lasted for months.

Previously, several developers had already left the project, including Tomasz Stanczak and Hsiao-Wei Wang , who had served as co-executive directors of the Foundation since April 2025, as well as Josh Stark, Carl Beek, and Julian Ma.

Ethereum Foundation fires developers and reveals new structure.

The announcement of the mass layoffs at the Ethereum Foundation was published on the project's social media channels.

“Today, EF is changing shape, concluding a reorganization process that lasted months as part of the implementation of the Mandate and Treasury Management Policy. We emerge from this process with the structure, activities, and people needed to execute the critical tasks ahead, but also with 54 fewer colleagues, about 20% of EF, many of whom will be looking for ways to contribute to Ethereum from outside of EF in the coming weeks.”

Ethereum Foundation announces the dismissal of 54 people from the project. Source: X.

In the full statement, available on the Ethereum blog , the text makes it clear that the layoffs occurred today. Therefore, the 54 affected do not include developers who had already left the project.

The text indicates that the decisions were difficult, but necessary. The justification is a focus on the long term , without distractions caused by short-term market movements.

At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading in the $1,650 range, down 4.8% in the last 24 hours. In addition to the impact of layoffs, the cryptocurrency is also mirroring Bitcoin's 3.5% drop over the same period, which in turn follows the decline in US tech stocks .

Finally, regarding the layoffs, the Foundation states that it is offering a payment to those affected, as well as assistance in finding new jobs.

What changes in the development of Ethereum?

Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, had already stated in May that the Ethereum Foundation should be "smaller and more enduring ." The text above also reinforces the idea that the project is focused on the long term.

Regarding the new developments presented in the statement, the text reveals that the Foundation now has "five groups with different areas of work ." These are:

• Protocol;
• Access;
• User;
• Community;
• Institutional.

In addition, two other areas are also mentioned, one focused on operations and the other on management, as well as teams that directly support the management work.

Ethereum Foundation's new structure features five groups, subdivided into various other functions. Source: Ethereum Foundation/Reproduction.

As can be seen in the image above, each group is divided into specific functions, ranging from zkEVM research to global strategy policies and events.

“The EF that emerges from this change is leaner and more focused. We will share more in the coming weeks and months about how the work is changing and how the ecosystem can better interact with the new structure.”

In the full article, you can see more details about the work expected from each group.