Ethereum Foundation’s Main Wallet Down to About $650M, Top Official Says

The Ethereum Foundation, the main non-profit organization supporting the Ethereum blockchain, is set to release an updated financial report “soon,” according to a top official who also revealed that the organization’s main Ethereum wallet currently holds about $650 million.

Justin Drake, a prominent researcher at the Ethereum Foundation (EF) wrote during a typed ask-me-anything, on an Ethereum subreddit under the handle “bobthesponge1,” that the EF spends roughly $100 million per year and currently has roughly a 10-year runway, depending on the price of ether (ETH), the blockchain’s native token.

Drake confirmed to CoinDesk that bobthesponge1 is his Reddit account.

“The EF has a fiat buffer to cover a couple of years of runway,” he wrote in the AMA session. “ETH sales were temporarily paused for regulatory reasons so the buffer wasn’t replenished until recently.”

The last time the EF released insights on its financial holdings was in March 2022, at which point the EF treasury reported a balance of about $1.6 billion. That included $1.3 billion of ETH and about $11 million of “other crypto.”

At the time, the ETH price was $3,283. It’s down about 30% since then, to $2,296.

Over the last two years, due to the burn rate and price decreases, the funds have significantly decreased.

A redditor followed up, asking about if there was a sustainability plan in place, in the event that the EF runs out of funds.

“I’m not aware of any plan to sustainability :),” Drake responded.

The news was first reported by The Block.