Ex-Ethereum Researcher Proposes $1B ETH-Backed Group

Dankrad Feist, a former researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, proposed on May 21, 2026 creating a new organization funded with at least $1 billion in ETH and ongoing staking and fee revenue. He posted the proposal on Twitter and outlined specific requirements for the entity.

Feist wrote the new group should be economically aligned with the protocol, accountable to the community and led by people focused on increasing ETH’s value. He wrote the organization must have “a minimum of $1 billion in ETH funding,” a revenue stream composed of staking and fee income, a board “who want ETH to go up,” and “a leader who is competent and wants to fight.” He also wrote, “The EF now holds less than 0.1% of all ETH. There is no flow of Ethereum staking or fee revenues to it.”

The proposal comes amid recent departures from the Ethereum Foundation. The foundation published a new mandate in March that said, “Our bottom line is not profit, nor organizational growth, nor blind adoption at all costs,” and added, “We are NOT a marketing agency…. We are NOT a casino…. We are NOT opportunists.” Several senior staff have resigned since the mandate was released, including two in recent days.

Feist left the foundation last fall to work on Tempo, a private blockchain project within payments firm Stripe. He did not name a prospective leader for the proposed organization in his post.

Feist’s post referenced market performance for context, noting ETH approached $5,000 last summer and has since declined about 57% to the low-$2,000 range. He described the new entity as a way to align funding and incentives with the asset’s economic outcome.

Implementing such an organization would require community approval, technical changes to route staking or fee-derived revenue to a separate entity, and legal and governance arrangements to define accountability and operations. Feist’s comments are part of an ongoing discussion within the Ethereum community about how development work and funding should relate to the token economy.