Ethereum Foundation Cuts 54 Jobs, Ethlabs Launches as ETH Slips Near $1,670

Ethereum News Five former senior researchers from the Ethereum Foundation unveiled Ethlabs on June 22, an independent non-profit research and development organization aiming to make Ethereum the settlement layer of the global economy. Founders Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf and Julian Ma describe ETH as the most valuable programmable store of value and list research into the asset’s monetary properties among early priorities — a stance the Foundation has historically avoided under its credible-neutrality framing. Backers include ETH treasury firms BitMine and SharpLink, alongside co-founder Joseph Lubin, Anchorage, Octant and SNZ. Funders receive accountability through quarterly reporting and annual audits but hold no control over the research agenda, distinguishing the lab from a typical altcoin venture. On June 23 the Ethereum Foundation confirmed a sweeping reorganization that eliminates 54 positions, roughly 20% of its workforce, completing a months-long restructuring tied to its March EF Mandate and 2025 treasury policy. The new design centers on five operational clusters — protocol, access, user, community and institutional layers — plus operations and leadership units. The protocol cluster will steward censorship resistance, open-source development, scaling and security while advancing post-quantum cryptography, zkEVM and Layer-1 privacy research aligned with efforts such as the Aztec Network. The Foundation framed itself not as Ethereum’s ruler but as a steward of network principles, emphasizing the CROPS values: censorship resistance, open source, privacy and security. Co-founder Vitalik Buterin addressed the shake-up directly, confirming the Foundation will cut its 2026 budget by roughly 40% as it transitions toward an endowment-based model. Annual spending is targeted to fall from an average near 15% of treasury holdings to about 5% from 2030 onward. On-chain data shows the Foundation held 102,702 ETH as of June 23, its lowest level since 2020. Buterin also signaled a “soft lean-and-done” philosophy for the protocol — narrowing new features once the current roadmap concludes and raising the bar for additions, with priority on security fixes and high-value changes. He acknowledged the cuts mean losing talented colleagues and scaling back PSE and Devcon activity. The restructuring weighed on price, with ETH falling about 5% on June 23 and breaking below its 20-day moving average near $1,700. Derivatives data shows roughly $157 million in liquidations over 24 hours, with long positions accounting for around $140 million versus just $17 million in shorts — a lopsided wipeout indicating forced unwinding of bullish leverage rather than fresh short selling. The asset slid to an intraday low near $1,620 before buyers stepped in, recovering to the $1,660-$1,670 zone by the close. The episode deepened a broader bear market mood, with ETH down roughly 20% over the past 30 days. Separately, Ethereum Layer-2 network Taiko urged users to withdraw funds immediately after confirming a compromise of its chain-state verification mechanism, warning that the security assumptions of all bridges deployed on the network could no longer be trusted. Security analysts traced the flaw to source-signal proof verification: forged message proofs were accepted as valid on Ethereum’s Layer 1 despite no legitimate event existing on the source chain, enabling unauthorized outflows from ERC-20 vaults that bypass the trust model of a clean atomic swap. On-chain records show about 649,761 USDC moved to an attacker-linked address on June 21. Loss estimates rose to roughly $2.2 million, and Taiko said affected users would be compensated from protocol treasury. The dual developments crystallize Ethereum’s post-Foundation question: who funds and steers the protocol as the EF deliberately shrinks. Former contributors have warned of a potential core funding crisis within three to nine months, estimating that maintaining client teams, research and coordination requires around $30 million annually. The Ethlabs model — capital from ETH-aligned treasury firms underwriting public-goods work — could fill that gap: BitMine disclosed roughly $258 million in annualized ETH staking revenue in a June SEC filing, a fraction of which would cover core development costs. Yet critics question who decides what counts as legitimate Ethereum work once funding carries influence, even as the network retains its 53% share of DeFi total value locked and dominant automated market maker volumes. COINOTAG’s proprietary 42-indicator composite scoring engine rates immediate resistance at $1,735 a 66/100 (strong) reading, driven by the confluence of the Fibonacci 0.236 retracement, the prior day high and the Ichimoku Tenkan line, with a nearer pivot cluster at $1,667 scoring 62/100. On the downside, the $1,634 support scores 73/100 — our strongest level — anchored by the previous day low, the S3 pivot and Fibonacci confluence, with $1,583 backing it at 66/100. Derivatives read mixed: funding sits marginally negative at -0.0001% while open interest holds $6.24 billion and a long/short account ratio of 3.14 shows 75.8% of accounts long — crowded positioning into an Extreme Fear reading of 17/100. RSI at 36.9 nears oversold while MACD flips bullish. A reclaim of $1,735 opens $1,872; losing $1,634 invalidates the bounce and exposes $1,505.COINOTAG does not provide financial advisory services. 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