Vitalik said the withdrawn ETH will be gradually deployed to strengthen Ethereum’s open-source infrastructure and support the long-term sustainability of its ecosystem.
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Hassan Shittu
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Hassan Shittu
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Last updated:
January 30, 2026
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has withdrawn 16,384 ETH, worth roughly $44.5 million at current prices, as the Ethereum Foundation enters what he described as a period of “mild austerity.”
In a post published on X, Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation is adjusting its spending approach to meet two parallel goals.
The objective involves providing a bold technical roadmap that maintains the scalability, decentralization, and resiliency of Ethereum and also enables the foundation to be self-sustaining in the long term and safeguard the core ethos of Ethereum.
He emphasized that the change is not the symptom of the financial hardships but a purposeful reaction to the market environment and needs to be more focused.
Buterin Links ETH Withdrawals to Open-Source Funding and Fiscal Discipline.
Under that change, Buterin said he is taking up the role of working on it himself, where it could have been done as individual foundation projects.
He described the ETH withdrawal as being over a period of years to assist in open-source, secure, and verifiable software and hardware in financial, communication, governance, operating systems, secure hardware, and privacy-preserving technologies.
He also indicated that he was also considering decentralized staking alternatives, which may enable future staking incentives to be redirected to the identical objectives.
The pullback coincides with a broader decline in crypto markets, with Ether trading at around $2,720, significantly lower than its October high of about $4,831.
According to blockchain analytics company Arkham Intelligence, Ethereum Foundation has a crypto portfolio worth approximately $554.5 million, and about 172,719 ETH constitute the majority of the treasury at present.
Other investments are ETH that is held in Aave, wrapped ETH, and smaller investments in stablecoins like DAI and USDC.
Buterin himself is estimated to own crypto assets worth approximately $666 million.
The foundation has described its current phase as one of fiscal discipline rather than retrenchment.
Officials and researchers familiar with its finances have said the “austerity” framing refers to more conservative spending and longer planning horizons during a market downturn, not a shortage of funds.
Included in its foundation activities are core protocol development, research, and grants, with the foundation reevaluating discretionary spending.
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