Harvard and Others Exit, Six Core Talents Depart in a Month: What's Happening to Ethereum?
Ethereum faces significant internal and external pressures, marked by a wave of high-profile departures from its core development team and a loss of confidence from major institutional investors. Within four months, at least seven key figures—including researchers, protocol leads, and a former executive director—have left the Ethereum Foundation. This exodus, partly triggered by controversy over a new "mission statement" requiring employee sign-off, risks derailing critical roadmap upgrades like PeerDAS and Verkle trees, and has already contributed to delays in the planned Glamsterdam upgrade.
Compounding the internal instability, major institutions are reducing their exposure. Goldman Sachs slashed its iShares Ethereum Trust holdings by approximately 70%, and Harvard's endowment fund completely exited its $87 million Ethereum ETF position. Concurrently, the Ethereum Foundation itself has been unstaking and selling ETH for "treasury rebalancing," further unsettling the market.
These challenges emerge as Ethereum's competitive dominance erodes. Its share of the total DeFi market has fallen to around 54%, with rivals like Solana and Base gaining ground. In fee revenue, it was recently outpaced by newer chains like Hyperliquid. Furthermore, a trend of institutions exploring proprietary or hybrid blockchains (exemplified by Circle's Arc) threatens Ethereum's position as the premier settlement layer for institutional assets.
While founder Vitalik Buterin's vision for Ethereum as a secure, decentralized "technical sanctuary" and "world computer" remains clear, its realization is threatened by the concurrent loss of execution capability, institutional patience, and market share during a critical competitive phase.
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