Ethereum co-founder says foundation shake-up is evolution, not crisis

Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin has described recent budget cuts, staff departures, and leadership changes at the Ethereum Foundation as a necessary evolution rather than a crisis, CoinDesk reported. According to the report, Lubin argued that the foundation should adopt a decentralized structure, focusing on the protocol's core technology and value management while other organizations handle Ethereum's expansion, institutional partnerships, and ecosystem growth. He stated that the foundation must be neutral to be trusted beyond reproach, explaining that trust in a decentralized protocol is undermined by potential conflicts of interest between its business and development arms. "The work currently underway at the foundation is to separate protocol management from commercialization, and the view that Ethereum has entered a period of decline is not true," Lubin said. He also acknowledged that the AI narrative has recently overshadowed crypto in the tech industry and that digital assets are not currently leading capital inflows. However, Lubin added that he believes the next major wave will be AI agent commerce—an economy where humans and machines merge, using blockchain as infrastructure.