Ethereum Is Facing A Critical Funding Gap, Says Ex-EF Member
Speakers
Trent Van Epps
— Protocol Guild Organizer
Summary
Trent Van Epps, Protocol Guild Organizer and former Ethereum Foundation member, discusses how the EF's 'subtraction' philosophy is creating a funding gap for core development, why he is optimistic the ecosystem will fill it, and why ETH the asset needs a new bullish narrative to reflect its deep network dominance and adoption.
- Ethereum Foundation is scaling back funding and coordinating roles, leaving a core developer funding gap.
- Core development needs an estimated $30 million per year to maintain network reliability.
- A transition to a multi-institutional ecosystem is underway, with new entities emerging.
- Ethereum maintains strong metrics: 90% of TVL across EVM chains, deep liquidity, majority stablecoin settlement.
- ETH the asset is seen as lacking a clear narrative; a fresh confident story could unlock its value.
- Van Epps remains optimistic about Ethereum's long-term future and ability to attract billions of users.
Ideas
ETH dominance needs fresh confident narrative
Ethereum is the strongest network, dominating in deep liquidity, DeFi ecosystem, stablecoin settlement, and EVM holding ~90% of total value locked across chains. Despite a near-term core developer funding gap, he is optimistic that new institutions will fill it, and that ETH the asset needs a fresh confident story to reflect its underlying network value, presenting a bullish opportunity.
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This CoinDesk video, published June 25, 2026, features Trent Van Epps discussing ETH. 1 trade idea extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers: Trent Van Epps · Tickers: ETH