TL;DR:
- The Ethereum Foundation began staking 70,000 ETH from its treasury to fund research, ecosystem development, and community grants.
- The process started with an initial deposit of 2,016 ETH and uses the open-source tools Dirk and Vouch, developed by the firm Attestant.
- According to Arkham Intelligence data, the Foundation holds an additional 172,650 ETH it could deploy, plus 10,000 WETH.
The Ethereum Foundation announced the start of a staking process on part of its treasury, putting around 70,000 ETH to work as part of its strategy to sustain its operations and deepen its role in the network’s ecosystem. The process started with an initial deposit of 2,016 ETH and uses Dirk and Vouch, open-source tools developed by infrastructure firm Attestant.
Dirk operates as a distributed signer that coordinates functions across multiple jurisdictions, reducing single points of failure. Vouch, in turn, manages validator duties. The infrastructure combines self-hosted hardware and externally hosted infrastructure, with minority clients distributed across several countries.
The decision to stake is part of the treasury policy the Foundation made public last year, a document that establishes how to manage its cryptocurrency and fiat holdings under long-term sustainability criteria and values aligned with Ethereum: decentralization, open access, and user privacy.
Ethereum: Rewards Put to Work
Rather than holding ETH passively — meaning it generates no returns — the Foundation will redirect staking rewards toward protocol research, ecosystem development, and community grants. Based on the CoinDesk Composite Ether Staking Rate (CESR), the current yield for Ethereum validators stands at around 2.808%, projecting a sustained income stream to fund these initiatives.
Data from Arkham Intelligence reveals that the Ethereum Foundation still holds an additional 172,650 ETH it could deploy, along with another 10,000 wrapped ether (WETH). Should the Foundation put that capital to work as well, the total volume in staking would scale considerably.
This operation aims to maximize asset management for one of the most influential organizations in the crypto industry. Rather than acting as a passive custodian of its reserves, the Foundation takes on an active role that aligns its economic incentives with the health and growth of the network.
