Ethereum Foundation Cuts 20% Of Staff In Major Restructuring, Unveils Five-Cluster Organizational Model

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has completed a months-long reorganization, which resulted in a leaner structure and 54 fewer employees — roughly 20% of its total headcount.

The foundation announced the changes on Tuesday, describing the restructuring as necessary to focus on what it called “critical work that only the EF can, and therefore must, do in the coming years.” The cuts come alongside a new organizational model built around five distinct work clusters.

A New Blueprint For Ethereum’s Core Organization

According to the organization’s blog post, the five clusters are the Protocol Layer, Access Layer, User Layer, Community Layer, and Institutional Layer — supported by an operations cluster and management teams.

The Protocol cluster carries what the Ethereum Foundation describes as its core legacy — ensuring the network delivers on its foundational promise of scaling self-sovereignty. 

Its mandate covers hardening the protocol itself, defending against censorship and capture, and advancing long-horizon research, including post-quantum security, zkEVM, and L1 privacy.

The Access Layer focuses on making self-sovereignty practical — ensuring users can read the chain, transact privately, and exit without depending on intermediaries they can’t verify. The User Layer keeps EF decisions grounded in real user needs. 

On the other hand, the Community cluster handles how the Ethereum Foundation presents itself to the world, deliberately distancing the organization from what it called “zero-sum financial crypto” and “corpo-compromised crypto.” 

Lastly, the Institutional Layer manages relationships with banks, enterprises, governments, and universities exploring Ethereum integration.

54 People Out 

As for the departing staff, the 54 employees will receive a severance package comprising the higher of one month’s pay per year of service or whatever their local jurisdiction mandates — the same package offered to those who left the EF in earlier rounds of cuts in recent months.

The foundation said it will also provide transition support, including help finding roles elsewhere in the Ethereum ecosystem and a small grant to cover career coaching and related transition expenses. “These decisions were hard, but they are necessary,” the Ethereum Foundation said in its announcement.

Featured image generated with OpenArt.