Ethereum Foundation's Annual Budget Breakdown

According to Odaily, Ethereum Foundation Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi recently disclosed that the foundation's annual budget is $100 million. Former Ethereum Foundation employee Hudson Jameson commented on the X platform, stating that this budget is not excessive. He explained that the foundation's structure and philosophy make it difficult to consolidate all their activities and plans in one place, leading to misunderstandings about the budget's size. Jameson highlighted several key expenditures that might be overlooked by the public. Firstly, a significant portion of the budget is allocated to global trademark protection legal fees to prevent fraudsters from misusing the Ethereum name or logo. Additionally, the foundation invests heavily in servers and development infrastructure used by both internal and external protocol teams. This includes resources for hard fork testing, node launches, fork monitoring tools, and PSE infrastructure for setting up ceremonies. The foundation also covers costs associated with maintaining the website ethereum.org, which, while not actively operated, requires hosting, URL management, and payments to key coordinators and contributors. Research collaborations, such as the VDF research conducted with Filecoin a few years ago, are another area of expenditure. Events like Devcon and DevConnect also consume a portion of the budget. Grants represent a substantial part of the foundation's annual spending, with numerous grants awarded each year. Lastly, the foundation supports the salaries of at least 200 employees across various regions, further contributing to the overall budget.