On July 1, the Ethereum blockchain network got a new non-profit organization, Ethereum Institutional, in order to boost the institutional adoption of Ethereum.
1/ Announcing Ethereum Institutional
An independent non-profit dedicated to accelerating the institutional adoption of Ethereum, its L2s, applications and overall ecosystem. pic.twitter.com/XUeViH6rrq
— Ethereum Institutional (@ethereuminsti) July 1, 2026
What is Ethereum Institutional?
The purpose of Ethereum Institutional is to work as a “front door” for large financial institutions to join the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem by providing support for tokenization, stablecoins, and other on-chain financial infrastructure.
The launch of Ethereum Institutional is the result of a year of work by the Ethereum Foundation’s enterprise team. The list of founders includes former Ethereum Foundation team members such as David Walsh, Marius Smith, and Matthew Dawson. David Walsh will work as Executive Director.
Ethereum Institutional will place itself as a neutral partner for banks, asset managers, custodians, and sovereign institutions in order to ensure smooth onboarding of these institutions to the Ethereum ecosystem, including its L2s, applications, and overall ecosystem.
The organization is funded by Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Sharplink, and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, along with other institutions.
Ethereum Institutional will fill the gap between traditional finance (DeFi) and the Ethereum blockchain network. Ethereum is already hosting major institutional activity. For example, the stablecoin market cap on Ethereum is currently revolving around $180 billion, which is around 60% of the cumulative market capitalization of around $320 billion, according to DeFiLlama. Apart from this, the distributed asset value of real-world assets (RWAs) is currently revolving around $15.92 billion.
However, the Ethereum blockchain is currently lagging behind in the race for institutional adoption as many other blockchains like Solana have accelerated their efforts to gain major traction in institutional adoption.
Ethereum Institutional will focus on 5 major areas, including engagement, research, marketing, discovery, and events. The non-profit organization is also planning to expand in other states like New York, London, Hong Kong, and Singapore to places like Zurich, Frankfurt, Tokyo, and Abu Dhabi.
“The founding team built the Ethereum Foundation’s Enterprise function from scratch, engaging hundreds of institutions across banks, asset managers, custodians, and market infrastructures. Ethereum Institutional scales that work, independently, with long-term funding,” stated in a thread posted on X.
The team has already created momentum with more than 500 institutional relationships. It has hosted the Institutional Ethereum Forum.
Ethereum Foundation Faces Backlash Following Layoff
The launch of Ethereum Institutional comes amid the turbulence around the Ethereum Foundation due to its inefficiency in generating revenue.
A few days ago, the Ethereum Foundation announced layoffs of around 54 staff members under a major restructuring plan. This is around 20% of its workforce. Apart from this, the Ethereum Foundation has also cut down its budget by around 40%.
Not only this, but in the last few months, the organization witnessed the departures of senior leaders and researchers.
Apart from this, the Ethereum Foundation is also facing criticism for revenue generation issues and slower progress on institutional outreach in comparison to other rivals. Its treasury is currently holding less than 0.1% of ETH, with limited direct staking or fee revenue.
In May 2026, former EF researcher Dankrad Feist revealed a proposal to create a new Ethereum-aligned organization with initial funding of around $1 billion in ETH. He said, “The way to save Ethereum: The community needs to create an organization that’s economically aligned with Ethereum and accountable to it.”
“If we want to get Ethereum back to winning. create an organisation with credible funding, minimum $1b as a start. That’s very reasonable for an ecosystem with $250b market cap,” he said.
Earlier this year, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared his plan for how Ethereum is preparing for long-term growth.
