The Ethereum Foundation (EF), the non-profit organization that steers development of the Ethereum ecosystem, staked over 45,000 Ether (ETH) on Friday, bringing the total amount staked to about 69,500 ETH, less than 500 coins shy of the Foundation’s 70,000 goal.
The EF staked the coins in a series of transactions, each consisting of 2,047 ETH, with the total amount staked on Friday valued at over $92.2 million, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.
The EF began staking ETH in February as part of its revamped treasury strategy policy announced in June 2025 and will use the yield generated to fund protocol research, development and ecosystem grants. The EF said in its updated treasury policy:
“We are now increasingly moving into staking and DeFi, both to enhance financial sustainability and to support a key application category that is delivering on the promise of permissionless, secure access to base civilizational infrastructure for millions of people today.”
The foundation staked 2,016 ETH, valued at about $4.1 million in February, followed by 22,517 ETH, valued at about $46.1 million, in March. The EF has locked over $143 million in ETH in the Ethereum Beacon Deposit Contract, according to Arkham Intelligence.
The adoption of a yield-bearing treasury strategy followed pressure from the Ethereum community on the EF to generate income from its treasury to cover expenses, rather than continually selling tokens to fund operations.
Related: Ethereum Foundation sells $10.2M worth of ETH to BitMine in OTC deal
Vitalik Buterin warns EF staking may force positions in hard forks
Validators, who lock up tokens to secure proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain networks, can influence which chain is valid in the event of a network hardfork, or a partition of a network into two competing chains.
“If EF stakes, ourselves, this de facto forces us to take a position on any future contentious hard fork,” Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said in January 2025.
The EF is exploring ways to mitigate the centralization risks posed by its staking activities in the event of a contentious hard fork, Buterin added.
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