Ethereum Foundation releases first-ever report about its treasury

Many call it the first time when the Ethereum Foundation or EF released a report that details how its $1.6 billion treasury includes mostly Ether along with an 18.8% in non-digital assets.

The EF Non-profit organization, which has the responsibility to manage the funds for Ethereum, holds 0.3% of the total current ETH supply. This amounts to roughly $1.3 billion as per the current market rate, verifiable on Etherscan. Moreover, the non-crypto holdings by the organization account for a $302 million share.

Ethereum Foundation is in a good shape

The Foundation’s April 2022 report is the first to detail what it has in its treasury and how it is spending it, including grant support for various Ethereum-based projects. Overall, the Ethereum Foundation appears to be in good financial shape, spending only $48 million in 2021.

According to the report, it has boosted its non-crypto holdings to $302 million from an undisclosed sum previously. That amount is intended to provide “a greater safety margin” in the event of a cryptocurrency market crash.

In an April 18 tweet, Ethereum researcher Justin Drake, however, argued that the non-crypto holdings are simply currency reserves.

the EF spent $48M in 2021

it has 350K ETH ($1B) and $300M fiathttps://t.co/1AL68I5YgF pic.twitter.com/0yLXNHy3Aj

— Justin Ðrake 🦇🔊 (@drakefjustin) April 18, 2022

Last year, the Ethereum Foundation, which transferred $100 million worth of ETH to Kraken, spent $21.8 million on layer-one (L1) research and development, which accounted for the majority of its spending. The Client Incentive Program (CIP), an ongoing project that awards nine specific node operators with a share of 39,168 ETH ($132 million) on a set schedule, is not included in this figure.

It also spent $9.7 million on community development, $5.9 million on Ethereum as a developer platform, $5.1 million on overseas operations, $3.6 million on ZK research and development, and $1.9 million on layer-two (L2) research and development.

The financial report from the Ethereum Foundation comes just a few months before The Merge when the Ethereum mainnet will switch to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus process. The network’s energy requirements and carbon footprint are predicted to be drastically reduced as a result of this.