Quick Read Ethereum Foundation Report: $240 Million Spent Over Two Years, Nearly 30% on L1 R&D

Original source: Ethereum Foundation

Compiled and organized by: Karen, Foresight News

Previously, the spending situation of the Ethereum Foundation had raised widespread concerns within the community, with members continuously calling for increased transparency. Today, the Ethereum Foundation officially released a report that comprehensively and thoroughly introduces the foundation's core values, spending details, treasury status, and the overall state of the ecosystem. Foresight News has distilled and organized this information.

TL;DR

1. The three core values of the Ethereum Foundation: long-term thinking, self-restraint (Subtraction), and value guardianship;

2. The Ethereum Foundation spent a total of $105.4 million in 2022, with L1 research and development being the largest expense, accounting for 30.4% ($32.1 million), followed by new institutions or organizations (27.1%, $28.6 million);

3. The Ethereum Foundation spent a total of $134.9 million in 2023, nearly 28% more than in 2022, with spending on new institutions or organizations reaching $47.4 million (35.2%), and L1 research and development accounting for 25.7%;

4. As of October 31, 2024, the total treasury of the Ethereum Foundation is approximately $970.2 million, which includes $788.7 million in cryptocurrency assets and $181.5 million in non-cryptocurrency investments and assets;

5. Among the cryptocurrency assets held by the Ethereum Foundation, 99.45% are ETH, which accounts for 0.26% of the total ETH supply as of October 31, 2024;

6. The total value held by project treasuries within the Ethereum ecosystem reaches $22.2 billion. From 2022 to 2023, the Ethereum ecosystem deployed a total of $497 million to support projects across the entire Ethereum community.

Three Core Values of the Ethereum Foundation

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) consists of multiple independent teams. The Ethereum Foundation believes that small autonomous teams are the most efficient structure. New teams typically grow organically by differentiating from existing teams to address new needs within the ecosystem. The teams of the Ethereum Foundation contribute to many areas of the Ethereum ecosystem. Some teams focus on software development or exploring cutting-edge areas of the Ethereum roadmap; others support the development of the global developer and user ecosystem; while other teams are responsible for promoting the utility and potential of Ethereum worldwide and providing related education.

The three core values of the Ethereum Foundation are: long-term thinking, self-restraint (Subtraction), and value guardianship.

Long-term thinking: The Ethereum Foundation believes that the ecosystem sometimes focuses too much on very short-term goals and cycles. The Ethereum Foundation should act as a counterbalance to this trend: transcending the fluctuations of market cycles and focusing on the long-term vision.

Self-restraint: Not pursuing power and prestige, measuring success by the achievements of the Ethereum ecosystem rather than the Ethereum Foundation itself.

Value guardianship: Ethereum is not just a technology; it is also a community bound together by shared values.

Activities and Spending of the Ethereum Foundation

Over the past two years, Ethereum has been dedicated to cultivating and supporting many new organizations that are driving the Ethereum ecosystem forward, such as Argot Collective (composed of 25 former team members of the Ethereum Foundation, focusing on core infrastructure development), Geodework (building community and educational infrastructure), L2BEAT (providing analysis, research, and tools related to Ethereum L2 projects), Nomic Foundation (providing open-source engineering software), and 0xPARC (accelerating the development and deployment of programmable cryptography).

The Ethereum Foundation spent a total of $105.4 million in 2022, with L1 research and development being the largest expense, accounting for 30.4% ($32.1 million), followed by new institutions or organizations (27.1%, $28.6 million), community development (18.5%), internal operations (Internal Ops, general expenses supporting all EF teams, 8.1%), developer platforms (7.9%), Applied ZK (7.2%), and L2 research and development (0.8%). Among the spending on new institutions or organizations, grants were made to organizations such as Nomic Foundation, 0xPARC, and L2BEAT.

The Ethereum Foundation spent a total of $134.9 million in 2023, nearly 28% more than in 2022, with spending on new institutions or organizations significantly increasing, reaching $47.4 million (35.2%), while spending on L1 research and development decreased to 25.7%, but in terms of spending amount, it still slightly exceeded that of 2022. The next largest categories were community development (12.5%), Applied ZK (11.0%), internal operations (7.7%), developer platforms (6.5%), and L2 research and development (1.4%).

Treasury of the Ethereum Foundation

As of October 31, 2024, the total treasury of the Ethereum Foundation is approximately $970.2 million, which includes $788.7 million in cryptocurrency assets and $181.5 million in non-cryptocurrency investments and assets.

Among the cryptocurrency assets held by the Ethereum Foundation, the vast majority (99.45%) are ETH, which accounts for 0.26% of the total ETH supply as of October 31, 2024.

The Ethereum Foundation stated, "The reason for choosing the majority of treasury assets to be in ETH is due to the belief in Ethereum's potential. At the same time, the goal of the Ethereum Foundation's treasury is to fund important public goods for the Ethereum ecosystem in the coming years. To achieve this goal, we must follow a prudent treasury management policy to ensure that we have sufficient resources even in the face of prolonged market downturns. This requires us to regularly sell ETH to ensure that we have enough savings for the coming years and to programmatically increase our fiat currency savings during bull markets to fund expenditures during bear markets."

Treasury of the Ethereum Ecosystem

The following figure shows the total value held by project treasuries within the Ethereum ecosystem, reaching $22.2 billion, which includes liquid funds available to projects as well as funds that have not yet been released. Most project treasuries are primarily composed of the project's native tokens. These treasury funds will support the development and maintenance of the Ethereum ecosystem.

From 2022 to 2023, the Ethereum ecosystem deployed a total of $497 million to support projects across the entire community.