Bitmine chairman Tom Lee has downplayed the recent fears that the Ethereum Foundation may not be able to fund upcoming network upgrades.
In a response on Friday, Lee dismissed the concerns, noting that funding has been secured.
In my opinion, zero chance of this ‘crisis’ happening for $ETH. Zero. Funding secured.
The latest FUD stemmed from a revelation by former Ethereum core protocol contributor Trent Van Epps that the network could face a funding crisis in the next three to nine months.
According to Van Epps, about $30M is needed annually to ensure Ethereum’s smooth running, including core protocol updates, primarily overseen by the Ethereum Foundation.
For him, this limited funding can’t address Ethereum’s complexity as the foundation cuts expenditure and talent.
Worth noting that the recent changes are part of founder Vitalik Buterin’s push to have other entities take over the stewardship of the network. Buterin had previously maintained that the Ethereum Foundation was not “designed to be an eternal steward.”
So far, several top executives and core protocol contributors have left the foundation, further raising concerns about the future of the chain. In fact, others were worried that even the transition into the post-quantum era could be affected too.
What’s next for Ethereum?
That said, it was not clear whether Tom Lee’s ‘funding secured’ comment meant he was gearing up to be an alternative to the Ethereum Foundation. Lee is the chairman of the world’s largest ETH treasury firm, BitMine Immersion Technologies.
The treasury firm reported holdings of 5.62 million ETH last week, or 4.6% of the total supply of 120.7M tokens. Out of this, 4.7M ETH has been staked. Still, the firm has issued a preferred stock to raise more cash to fund ETH buys.
The bet? According to Lee, blockchains, especially Ethereum, will benefit from tokenization and the AI agent boom.
In fact, despite corporate-backed chains like Stripe’s Tempo emerging, Lee believes they’ll fight with other firms for control, leaving Ethereum as the only go-to, neutral network.
Institutional demand remains negative
Separately, overall institutional demand via the U.S. spot ETF has remained negative since May. This has kept the ETH price below $2K in late Q2.
The subdued performance could continue unless meaningful ETF demand returns and the Ethereum Foundation uncertainty is addressed.
Final Summary
- Bitmine’s Tom Lee said that Ethereum funding has been secured, noting that there will be ‘zero chance’ of a crisis.
- Institutional demand has been negative since late May, keeping ETH price subdued below $2K.