Ethereum Foundation clarified its treasury policy – focus on DeFi yield and “Defipunk”. In particular, a two-factor liquidity model has been formalized for the first time (A the share of annual expenses, B the operating buffer reserve), and the volume of planned ETH sales now depends directly on it. Current targets are A = 15 % of the treasury and B = 2.5 years, while the Foundation intends to cut A to 5 % by 2030.
ETH assets are also allocated between “core” strategies (solo-staking, wETH lending) and limited “segregated sleeves” with higher risk. Special attention they paid to future on-chain placements and the “Defipunk” checklist: FLOSS code, self-custody, privacy, minimal oracle dependence, and decentralized UIs.
Fundamental Ethereum Improvements Come One After Another
It seems that barely a few weeks pass before the Ethereum Foundation announces yet another fundamental update aimed at improving efficiency, scalability, or security. And given that, despite direct competitors, Ethereum remains the backbone of DeFi with the most extensive ecosystem – this benefits every participant in Web3.
Still, coming back to this EF Treasury Policy update, it has made a huge contribution to transparency in its operations and prospects.
First of all, they made the macro-policy parameters governing the use of ETH reserves transparent. The new formula clarifies this process, where A fixes the share of the treasury that annual expenses cover and B sets the number of years for which the Foundation must hold a hard buffer in a fiat equivalent. The product A × B forms the target fiat cushion, and if the actual dollar value of the assets exceeds this level, the Finance team routinely sells ETH and replenishes “cash.” A review of these parameters is also provided, carried out by the Board every quarter with an eye on the market – in “bear” periods the Foundation promises to expand ecosystem support, and in “bull” periods to rein in spending.
Another fundamentally important point was the definition of strategies for on-chain assets and ETH sales. In particular, EF singles out a base layer (“core deployments”) that consists of solo-staking and placing wETH in proven lending protocols; it is intended to be long-term and is reviewed only in the event of significant technological or market changes. They also allocate a “sleeve” for moderately risky instruments, which may include decentralized farms or tokenized real-world assets, but with strict volume limits and a mandatory smart contract audit.
The fiat portfolio has also been defined and is divided into three buckets. The first is cash and high-liquidity money-market instruments to cover current expenses; the second is liability-matched deposits and bonds with a horizon synchronized with future grant and research obligations; and the third is tokenized T-Bills or other RWA that follow the same risk guidelines as native DeFi positions.
Of course, “Defipunk” received special attention. That way EF extends the traditional cypherpunk set of principles by formulating a practical checklist that will filter all future on-chain investments. The key evaluation points are now permissionless access with no KYC, self-custody by default, FLOSS licenses (BSD, MIT, Apache, or AGPL), privacy options for transactions and states, minimal dependence on centralized oracles, decentralized interfaces, and formal code verification.
Conclusion
This fundamental improvement in transparency and sustainable development comes not just from a key player, but from the very organization to which all of modern DeFi owes its existence. And observing the recent run of active improvements, it is far from the last. We will be watching very closely.
