Ethereum adviser Dankrad Feist urges Foundation replacement

Dankrad Feist, a longtime Ethereum researcher who now serves as an adviser to the Ethereum Foundation, said on May 21 that the network needs a new outside organization “to save Ethereum.” His argument was not for a management tweak inside the Foundation, but for a separate body with its own capital, leadership and mandate. The proposal landed as the Ethereum Foundation faces scrutiny over a run of senior departures and over how much influence a nonprofit with a relatively small treasury can still exert over a network with a market value in the hundreds of billions of dollars. ### What exactly did Feist propose? Feist wrote on X on May 21 that “the community needs to create an organization that’s economically aligned with Ethereum and accountable to it.” He said that body should start with at least $1 billion in ETH, be led by “someone who is competent and wants to fight,” have a board that wants “ETH to go up,” and eventually receive a share of staking revenue. (criptonoticias.com) CriptoNoticias reported on May 22 that Feist framed the idea as a replacement for the Ethereum Foundation’s current role in steering development. Unchained separately reported that the proposed body would be independent and explicitly tied to Ethereum’s competitive position and price. ### Why is he saying the Foundation is no longer enough? (criptonoticias.com) Feist said the Ethereum Foundation now holds less than 0.1% of all ETH and lacks a recurring flow of staking or fee revenue. CriptoNoticias cited the Foundation’s treasury at 118,964 ETH against total supply of about 120.68 million ETH, which it said worked out to roughly 0.099% of circulating supply. (criptonoticias.com) The Ethereum Foundation’s own disclosures complicate part of that critique. The Foundation said on February 24 that it had begun staking about 70,000 ETH, with rewards directed back to the treasury, after publishing a treasury policy in 2025 that described research, advocacy and capital deployment as core functions. Feist’s criticism appears to be that the Foundation still lacks a structural claim on network-level revenue, not that it has no treasury activity at all. (criptonoticias.com) That is an inference from his remarks and the Foundation’s published policy. ### Why did this land so hard this week? CoinDesk reported on May 18 and May 21 that the Ethereum Foundation had been hit by a wave of departures, including Carl Beek and Julian Ma, extending broader concern about what it called a “brain drain.” Unchained said at least eight senior staff had left in 2026, with five departures in May alone. (blog.ethereum.org) CriptoNoticias said Feist’s comments came amid “multiple resignations and departures” of key developers. That timing made his post read less like an abstract governance debate and more like an intervention in an active leadership vacuum, according to the reporting. ### Is Feist arguing for a more price-driven Ethereum? (coindesk.com) Unchained reported that Feist’s outline included a board explicitly aligned with ETH appreciation, and community reaction split quickly over that point. Ryan Adams of Bankless backed the concept, while Ethereum consensus researcher potuz warned such a structure could turn Ethereum into “another corporate chain.” Curve founder Michael Egorov questioned what metric such an organization would optimize for. (criptonoticias.com) Jason Chaskin, another Ethereum Foundation researcher cited by CriptoNoticias, offered a counterpoint, saying he had “never been more optimistic” about the Foundation. That left the dispute centered not on whether Ethereum has resources, but on who should control them and what mandate they should serve. (unchainedcrypto.com) ### What should readers watch next? The next concrete signals are likely to come from three places: Feist’s own follow-up posts on how a $1 billion body would be formed, Ethereum Foundation treasury updates on staking and spending, and any further public statements from departing staff. The Foundation’s treasury staking initiative was published on February 24, 2026, and CoinDesk’s most recent reporting on departures was published this week. (criptonoticias.com) (blog.ethereum.org)