Justin Drake: Ethereum Foundation to release financial report, holds roughly $650 million in main wallet

The Ethereum ETH -2.59% Foundation will release a financial report “relatively soon,” as the foundation’s spending has recently been a burning issue among the community.

In an ask-me-anything (AMA) on the r/ethereum subreddit, Justin Drake, an Ethereum researcher,  wrote under the nickname “bobthesponge1” that the foundation is preparing to publish a financial report similar to one released  in April 2022 .

In what he described as his "limited personal understanding," Drake said the foundation spends around $100 million per year, holds around $650 million worth of funds in its main Ethereum wallet, and has roughly a 10-year runway, variable depending on the price of ether.

“The current approximate budget strategy is to spend 15% of our remaining money every year,” Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also said in a separate comment on the subreddit. “This implies a default path where the EF lasts forever but gets smaller and smaller (as a share of the ecosystem) over time.”

The Ethereum Foundation has been receiving scrutiny and some negative feedback from the community after a series of unexplained large movements of ether from the foundation, as community members urged the foundation to provide more transparency. 

Last month, blockchain analytics provider Lookonchain reported that the foundation transferred 35,000 ETH ($94.07 million) to the Kraken exchange.

As X user and Ethereum community member @antiprosynth complained about being blindsided by the funds' movement, Ethereum Foundation executive director Aya Miyaguchi stated that the budget is part of its "treasury management" and mainly used for grants and salaries, which some recipients can only accept in fiat currency. 

“This year, there was a long period of time when we were advised not to do any treasury activities due to the regulatory complications, and we were not able to share the plan in advance,” Miyaguchi said . "This transaction is not equal to a sale. There will be planned and gradual sales from here on."

“Seriously, how hard is it to release a quarterly report with financials and basic updates? Expenses, expected upcoming sales, how/where the money is being spent, team size and distribution, etc.,” X user @econoar wrote . “Frankly, it's offensive that the community has to learn about large ETH sales from the EF via Twitter bot notifications.”

Ether is currently trading at $2,380, down 0.79% in the past 24 hours, according to The Block’s ether price page .