The Ethereum Foundation (EF) published the report as the network stood at a technical crossroads. Just one week earlier, on April 11, developers had completed a successful mainnet shadow fork, a dry run of Ethereum's planned switch from energy-intensive Proof-of-Work to the more efficient Proof-of-Stake consensus model. Core developer Tim Beiko publicly signaled on April 13 that the network was entering the final chapter of Proof-of-Work on Ethereum, advising: "I would strongly suggest not investing more in mining equipment at this point." Against that backdrop, the EF's decision to open its finances for the first time signaled something beyond routine bookkeeping.

What the Treasury Looks Like

As of March 31, 2022, the EF held roughly $1.3 billion in ETH, approximately 0.3% of all ether in existence, alongside $300 million in non-crypto investments and $11 million in other cryptocurrencies. ETH was trading at $3,057 on the date of the report's publication, putting the network's total market capitalization near $368 billion. That figure represented about 15.3% of the entire $2.41 trillion crypto market at the time, though sentiment across the sector was cautious: the market fear and greed index registered 24 out of 100, firmly in "extreme fear" territory.

Where the Money Went in 2021

Total spending for 2021 came to roughly $48 million. Among the major spending areas, Layer-1 research and development received $21.8 million, the largest single line item, directed primarily at the infrastructure work required to make the Merge happen. The foundation's Ecosystem Support Program (ESP), which issues grants to external developers and projects, distributed $19.6 million across 397 projects. Community development programs including the annual Devcon conference, the Ethereum.org website, and the Next Billion initiative together accounted for $9.7 million. Applied zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography research, a field with significant implications for transaction privacy and scalability, received $3.6 million. Layer-2 research, which covers scaling solutions built on top of Ethereum's base chain, received $1.9 million. The budget also included Developer Platform at $5.9 million and Internal Operations at $5.1 million, among other line items.

A Philosophy, Not Just a Budget

The report formalized what the EF calls its "Infinite Garden" vision, a framework borrowed in part from philosopher James P. Carse's concept of "infinite games," which are played not to be won but to keep going. The foundation uses this framing to argue that Ethereum should be cultivated rather than directed from the top down. Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi has been direct about this stance: "Ethereum doesn't grow like a machine; it grows like a garden, strengthened by its biodiversity." The EF has described its approach internally as "subtraction," meaning it tries to step back and route resources to independent organizations rather than consolidating control. Recipients of this approach include groups like the Nomic Foundation, ETHGlobal, and 0xPARC. Some grant allocation has also moved to quadratic funding mechanisms (a method where many small contributions carry more collective weight than a few large ones), giving community members more say over where money flows. Miyaguchi has stated: "We believe that more decentralized funding is important for the future of the Ethereum ecosystem."

What It Means Outside the United States

For developers and users in emerging markets, the report carries practical weight that goes beyond transparency. The EF's Next Billion program, funded within the $9.7 million community development budget, runs a fellowship specifically targeting underrepresented regions. Fellows from the first cohort included Benson Njuguna of Kenya, who deployed crop insurance smart contracts through ACRE Africa and onboarded over 17,000 smallholder farmers, cutting insurance payout times from months to days. Kuldeep Aryal, working with BRAC in Bangladesh, one of the world's largest development NGOs, built a blockchain-based beneficiary identification system for its service programs across South Asia. Naroa Zurutuza connected Ethereum staking mechanics to the UN's Giga initiative, which is working with African governments to fund school internet access through staking yields.

The regulatory environment in some of these markets helps explain why the report's financial transparency carried specific trust-building significance. India's Reserve Bank had imposed a banking ban on crypto that was only lifted in 2020, and Nigeria's Central Bank restricted crypto-related banking interactions in 2021, just one year before this report's publication. In that environment, a published financial accounting from the world's leading Ethereum-focused foundation was not a formality for developers in those regions; it was a credibility signal. Africa accounts for 3% of global blockchain developers as of 2024, with Ethereum remaining the dominant platform. Nigeria alone had an estimated 300,000 blockchain developers by 2024, 39% of whom work in Solidity, Ethereum's programming language. By 2024, India was onboarding more new crypto developers than any other country, a trend rooted in the developer ecosystem expansion already underway in 2022. For builders in Lagos, Nairobi, Mumbai, or Dhaka, clearer grant pathways and a credibly funded foundation matter. So does Ethereum's planned energy transition: the 99.95% reduction in energy consumption promised by Proof-of-Stake carries genuine policy relevance in regions where electricity access is a persistent constraint.

What Comes Next

The Merge completed in September 2022, roughly five months after this report was published. The $21.8 million in L1 research spending was in some sense a final investment in that transition. With the upgrade delivered, the EF's spending priorities appear to have shifted toward Layer-2 infrastructure and ZK research, areas where the foundation has since scaled its commitments. In Q1 2025, the EF allocated $32.65 million to Layer-2 technology, ZK proofs, and global education. That single quarter's allocation amounts to roughly 68% of the entire 2021 annual budget in nominal terms, a concrete indication of how much the foundation's spending scale has grown in the years since it first opened its books.