Ethereum Foundation Reshapes Core Team to Optimize Layer 1 and UX

• Ethereum focuses on layer 1 (L1) performance
• Fusaka update will bring PeerDAS to blobs
• Foundation expands use of DeFi in treasury

The Ethereum Foundation announced a strategic rebrand of its core development team, renaming the Protocol R&D group to simply “Protocol.” The change aims to provide greater clarity on internal responsibilities and align efforts with priority ecosystem goals such as network scalability and improving user experience.

🚨 BREAKING: The Ethereum Foundation just dropped a major update.

The Protocol R&D team is getting a full rebrand → now simply called “Protocol.”
But it's more than just a name change. Here's what's shifting under the hood:

🔧 Scaling Layer 1 — doubling down on making the…

— Cryptonomic (@Antares_7) June 3, 2025

According to the statement, part of the team was disassociated from the organization, while the remaining members will now be part of a more cohesive and specialized unit. The restructuring aims to make workflows more integrated, with shorter cycles between the stages of research, prototyping and implementation of solutions in production.

“This means doubling down on areas where EF has unique domain knowledge and unmatched depth of experience in our ecosystem: from writing mission-critical code to publishing groundbreaking research and coordinating major initiatives,” the foundation said.

The restructuring comes at a critical time, with the recent implementation of the Pectra upgrade and the anticipation of the next phase, called Fusaka. While Pectra brought advances in institutional staking and wallet performance, Fusaka will introduce PeerDAS (Peer Data Availability Sampling), a technology aimed at efficiently verifying blobs — a critical framework for scaling Ethereum.

In addition to the organizational changes, the Ethereum Foundation has also been diversifying its fund management. Instead of conducting direct ETH liquidations, the foundation has started to allocate resources to decentralized finance protocols such as Aave, Compound, and Spark. The strategy aims to generate sustainable yield and increase the sophistication of its treasury.

Since the beginning of 2024, these initiatives have been accompanied by community debates on governance and transparency. The foundation, however, reinforces its commitment to a more efficient, secure Ethereum that is adapted to the growing demand for scalability and usability.