Dankrad Feist Calls for a $1 Billion Ethereum Organization as Foundation Brain Drain Accelerates

The Ethereum Foundation has lost at least eight senior researchers and leaders this year. Five of them left in May alone.

The exits have rattled a community already debating whether the world’s second-largest crypto network has the institutional backbone to compete in the next cycle. And with the foundation staying mostly quiet, the loudest voices in the room are former insiders now calling for a radical overhaul.

Dankrad Feist, a former Ethereum Foundation researcher, posted a blunt proposal on X this week. He wants the community to build a new organization from scratch, one that is economically tied to ETH and accountable to the people who hold 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

Feist’s core argument is financial. He pointed out that the Ethereum Foundation holds less than 0.1% of all ETH and receives no direct flow of staking or fee revenue from the network.

His proposed organization would carry at least $1 billion in funding, a permanent revenue model, explicit accountability, and leadership focused on growth.

CoinDesk framed the current dispute as something deeper than a personnel story.

According to CoinDesk: CoinDesk reported on May 21 that several high-profile Ethereum Foundation departures had deepened uncertainty inside the Ethereum community. The foundation had not offered a detailed public explanation for the exits or addressed growing criticism of its leadership and strategic direction.

CoinDesk framed the current dispute as more than a personnel story: community members and former insiders are now debating whether Ethereum’s most influential institution is properly aligned with the network it helped build. The article highlighted Dankrad Feist’s proposal for a new ETH-focused organization with permanent funding, explicit accountability, leadership focused on growth, and a treasury of at least $1 billion.

It also noted his criticism that the Ethereum Foundation controls less than 0.1% of all ETH and receives no direct stream of staking or fee revenue from the network. CoinDesk published the Ethereum identity-crisis story on May 21, 2026.

CoinDesk said Ethereum Foundation departures have deepened uncertainty and frustration in the Ethereum community. CoinDesk said the Ethereum Foundation had not publicly offered a detailed explanation for the departures at the time of publication.

Dankrad Feist, a former Ethereum Foundation researcher, posted that the community should create an organization economically aligned with Ethereum and accountable to it.

The outlet reported that the foundation had offered no detailed public explanation for the departures as of May 21.

The roster of exits is hard to ignore.

CoinDesk named Carl Beek and Julian Ma as the latest to leave, extending a wave that already included Barnabe Monnot, Tim Beiko, Trent Van Epps, and Alex Stokes.

According to CoinDesk: CoinDesk reported on May 18 that the Ethereum Foundation was under renewed scrutiny after Carl Beek and Julian Ma said they were leaving, extending a wave of departures across the organization. The same piece named other high-profile figures tied to the broader churn, including Barnabe Monnot, Tim Beiko, Trent Van Epps, and Alex Stokes.

It connected the turnover to the foundation’s internal transition and its new mandate, which defined the EF as one steward of Ethereum rather than Ethereum’s owner or central authority. CoinDesk also said the departures have fueled debate over whether the foundation can evolve alongside a network that now supports major financial applications, large developer ecosystems, and hundreds of billions of dollars in onchain activity.

Dankrad Feist, a former Ethereum Foundation researcher, posted that the community should create an organization economically aligned with Ethereum and accountable to it. Feist proposed a new ETH-focused organization with at least $1 billion in funding, permanent funding, explicit accountability, and leadership focused on growth.

Feist wrote that the Ethereum Foundation holds less than 0.1% of all ETH and receives no direct flow of Ethereum staking or fee revenue.

The Defiant confirmed the scope, reporting that at least eight senior EF figures had announced departures in 2026.

The tokenomics critique is gaining traction alongside the governance fight. Laura Shin argued that Ethereum’s leadership failed to consider the economic consequences of its Layer 2 roadmap for ETH holders.

I think Ethereum’s original sin was not considering tokenomics with every move it made from Dencun on.

The ultrasound money thesis was a good one and with Dencun (or the L2 roadmap generally) they should have stopped to say that this was going to hurt the ultrasound money thesis…

— Laura Shin (@laurashin) May 21, 2026

Defenders of the foundation’s current direction do exist. The EF’s 2026 mandate describes the foundation as one steward among many rather than Ethereum’s owner or central authority.

That framing appeals to the protocol-purist camp, which values neutrality, censorship resistance, and open-source work above market positioning.

I usually refrain from commenting on the current thing of the day because it’s almost always rage bait. But since everyone seems to be saying they’re bearish on the direction of the EF, I’ll say the opposite, I’ve truly never been more bullish.

There is now a very clear direction…

— chaskin.eth (@jchaskin22) May 20, 2026

The question facing ETH holders is whether a deliberately modest steward can keep Ethereum competitive against chains with aggressive, well-funded leadership teams and treasuries that dwarf the EF’s balance sheet. Feist clearly thinks the answer is no, and the departures suggest he is far from alone.

Ethereum is still the number two crypto asset by market cap, sitting above $250 billion. The talent and capital are still there.

Whether they stay depends on what happens next inside the institutions that are supposed to serve the network.

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