After funding a whole bunch of initiatives with thousands and thousands of {dollars}, the Ethereum Foundation is quickly pausing the Ecosystem Help Program’s (ESP) open grant software course of to refocus on a extra proactive funding mannequin that’s higher aligned with the ecosystem’s strategic wants.
The transition comes as the inspiration faces challenges reviewing the excessive quantity of inbound purposes, which it mentioned has left “restricted capability to pursue new strategic alternatives.”
In a Friday blog post, the Ethereum Foundation harassed that the ESP will proceed funding new initiatives, however below a refined strategy to grantmaking. Extra particulars are anticipated within the fourth quarter, together with a curated methodology outlining particular ecosystem priorities.
In 2024, ESP awarded practically $3 million throughout 105 initiatives and initiatives, supporting areas equivalent to developer tooling, knowledge and analytics, analysis and training. Within the first quarter of 2025 alone, the Ethereum Foundation distributed $32.6 million in whole grants.
As a nonprofit established in 2014 by Ethereum’s co-founders, the Ethereum Foundation has traditionally performed a key function in offering funding, coordination and long-term imaginative and prescient for the blockchain’s improvement, together with main community upgrades.
In June, the inspiration launched a more transparent treasury policy detailing operational prices and money necessities. As a part of the dedication, it pledged to publish quarterly and annual disclosures of its property, investments and any vital developments.
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Ethereum Foundation’s evolving priorities
Because the world’s second-largest blockchain, Ethereum has sturdy backing from institutional buyers and builders however faces rising competitors from quicker, lower-cost alternatives such as Solana, Avalanche and BNB Good Chain, which market themselves as extra scalable and user-friendly platforms.
As such, Ethereum is being steered towards a renewed focus on layer-1 scaling, lowering community prices and enhancing the general person expertise.
These priorities had been highlighted in a separate basis blog post on Friday, which described interoperability as “the highest-leverage alternative throughout the broader UX area over the subsequent 6–12 months.”
Interoperability has turn out to be a central focus given the rapid proliferation of layer-2 protocols. Whereas these options lengthen Ethereum’s performance, additionally they introduce new challenges, notably fragmentation, the inspiration mentioned.
Earlier this yr, the inspiration additionally launched a $1 trillion safety initiative — a broad technique designed to strengthen Ethereum’s resilience and place the community for a wider, non-crypto viewers.
Ethereum has already made inroads with monetary establishments, with VanEck CEO Jan VanEck calling Ether (ETH) the “Wall Road token.” On stablecoins, he argued that the successful blockchain would be the one that draws essentially the most builders: “It’s going to be Ethereum, or one thing that makes use of Ethereum’s methodology.’”
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