Ethereum Market Research Founder Defends The Foundation, Says Criticism Is ‘Profoundly Misplaced’

As the institutional adoption of Ethereum grows, the Ethereum Foundation has said it is only a steward of the blockchain’s protocol, not the sole governor.

• Ethereum Maket Research founder William Mougayar defended the Ethereum Foundation after it released a new mandate outlining its role in the ecosystem.
• Mougayar said criticism of the Foundation is often misplaced because Ethereum operated as a decentralized ecosystem rather than a single organization.
• Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the mandate reaffirms the Foundation’s focus on decentralization, security, privacy, and censorship resistance.

Amid growing institutional adoption of Ethereum (ETH) by major financial firms, the Ethereum Foundation published a mandate outlining its role within the blockchain ecosystem. However, that has sparked quite a bit of criticism. But, the founder of Ethereum Market Research Center, William Mougayar, has chosen to defend the foundation, saying the current criticism is “profoundly misplaced.”

Mougayar pushed back against criticism on Friday, saying the organization was often wrongly treated as the Ethereum network's central authority. “Criticizing the Ethereum Foundation has become the easiest reflex in this industry,” Mougayar wrote. “It’s convenient. It gives critics a single target to point at,” the author added, saying it is unwise to do so.

Mougayar, who has a decade of experience as a blockchain analyst, explained that the foundation should be viewed as a “steward” of the protocol rather than as controlling the broader ecosystem. “Ethereum is not a company. It is an ecosystem,” he wrote.

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is a non-profit organization that supports research, development, and coordination of the Ethereum protocol. Rather than controlling the full network, the foundation funds core development, supports infrastructure, and helps guide long-term research around Ethereum’s technology.

Ethereum Foundation Under Criticism For Selling ETH​

The Foundation has often been criticized for regularly selling ETH to fund its work. These sales have garnered a lot of criticism for selling Ethereum in bear markets.​ Some critics believe it's hypocritical, saying that it pushes Ethereum's price to tank. Critics have also asked why a non-profit that is financially sound needs to sell ETH.

Critics also say that the Foundation moves too slowly in execution, marketing, user growth, and competition with faster chains like Solana (SOL).​

Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $2,103, down by 0.4% over 24 hours. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around ETH remained in the ‘bearish’ territory, as chatter levels around it moved from ‘low’ to ‘normal’ over the past day. 

​Ethereum Foundation Clarifies Its Mandate

The Ethereum Foundation released a mandate on Friday, outlining its mission and responsibilities within the ecosystem.

The organization explained that it would focus on maintaining a censorship-resistant, open-source, private, and secure Ethereum network, which it called “CROPS.” The Foundation said its primary responsibility was to help the protocol and focus on tasks that other ecosystem participants were unlikely to undertake. “EF focuses on critical tasks that have no other natural home and that no other ecosystem actor can or will reliably undertake,” the Foundation wrote.

Vitalik Defends The Mandate

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also commented on the mandate. Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation would continue to prioritize decentralization, privacy, security, and censorship resistance while contributing to tools and infrastructure that support user self-sovereignty, a point the 32-year-old founder has repeatedly emphasized.

He described Ethereum as a “sanctuary technology” designed to preserve technological self-sovereignty and ensure that no single organization or ideology can dominate the digital ecosystem.

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