Report: Ethereum foundation $1.6 billion fund is 80% ETH

The Ethereum Foundation has released its first financial report, which offers insights into how the non-profit organization operates.

Ethereum foundation holds approximately 0.3% of ETH total supply

The report revealed that the foundation holds $1.6 billion worth of financial assets as of March 31, 2022. 80.5% of this is ETH, 0.7% other cryptocurrencies, and 18.8% non-crypto assets and investment.

Interestingly, the foundation’s ETH holdings presently account for almost 0.3% of the total Ether supply.

The report is part of the foundation’s effort to be more transparent while carrying the Ethereum community along with its plans. Beyond details of its finances, it also revealed how the non-profit manages its portfolio to ensure it has enough funding for development of the ecosystem.

It reads,

“The EF follows a conservative treasury management policy that ensures we have sufficient resources to fund the EF’s core objectives even in the case of a multi-year market downturn.”

The 28-page report also stated its policy on selling part of its ETH reserve to fund its non-crypto holdings.

Ethereum foundation on selling its holdings and its expenses

According to the foundation, this is done when ETH is at peak prices to ensure sufficient funds in its core budget.

Previous sales include 70k ETH during the 2017 bull market, 35k ETH soon after the May 2021 peak, and 20k when it reached its current ATH of $4,878 on November 10. The timing of all these sales is quite remarkable.

The report also contains expenses the foundation has incurred. It was revealed that the foundation spent approximately $48 million in 2021.

These funds were spent on several projects such as Layer 1 and 2 research and development, community development, and zero-knowledge roll-up applications. All of these suggest that the funds were expended on helping Ethereum improve its scalability.

Its biggest expense was on Layer 1 R&D, as it spent close to $22 million on it. Next was the $10 million it spent on community development while around $2 million for Layer 2 R&D.

The Ethereum Foundation is the largest non-profit supporting the Ethereum ecosystem. The foundation is responsible for the highly anticipated migration of the blockchain to a Proof of Stake stake network.