Ethereum Foundation Makes Record-Breaking $46.2M ETH Stake, Signaling Major Bullish Shift

The Ethereum Foundation has executed its largest single-day ETH staking deposit to date—$46.2 million worth of Ether—marking a dramatic pivot from years of reserve sales and mounting pressure to deploy its treasury productively. Following the transfer, the Foundation still holds one of crypto's most significant treasuries at 147.47K ETH, with plans to eventually stake 72K ETH as previously outlined by Vitalik Buterin. The move coincides with Bitmine winding down its staking operations, while over 2.7 million ETH remain queued for the Beacon Chain, with wait times now under 50 days.

Ethereum Foundation creates Ethereum Economic Zone

The Ethereum Foundation changed its attitude toward L2 chains. Previously, the chains held strong brands, and each one was a hub for liquidity. 

The Ethereum Economic Zone aims to blur the boundaries between the L1 mainnet and L2 chains. The Foundation noted rollups were the answer to scaling, lowering transactions on both the Ethereum network and known L2s. 

However, the Foundation noted liquidity was siloed into each L2 network, with minimal interaction between those ecosystems.

L2 chains also spawned their own lists of apps, becoming disconnected from Ethereum. 

Ethereum Economic Zone rollups will be created for contracts that would otherwise be deployed on the mainnet. With this move, the Ethereum Foundation creates its own scaling infrastructure, without the brands and bridging used for other networks. 

The move may lower the output of L2 chains and their DeFi apps, which have so far been the main use case for Arbitrum, Base, ZKSync, Optimism, and other prominent L2s. 

The Ethereum Foundation remains in focus for governance conflict

The Ethereum ecosystem is facing another rift based on the supporters of the Milady project. 

On one side, the Milady supporters claim they can become the online presence of Ethereum and increase its cultural momentum at a time of doubt, so the network can survive in the long run. 

For others, the Milady supporters are sporting obscure philosophy, with little care for the ETH market performance and the chain’s economic potential. 

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