The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has allocated $32,647,065.32 in grants during the first quarter of 2025, demonstrating a significant commitment to bolstering blockchain research and development. This funding is intended to accelerate Layer 2 scalability solutions, ZKPs and educational programs around the world. EF’s strategic investment aims to secure long-term economic growth and technical resilience of the Ethereum ecosystem.
The grants cover a number of important areas, showing Ethereum’s commitment to enhancing its underlying infrastructure and bettering its worldwide community. From development-focused security consensus to welcoming ecosystem community-building activities, the EF is reacting to the most urgent Ethereum network needs for continued long-term success. This all-encompassing approach highlights Ethereum’s commitment to staying at the cutting edge of blockchain innovation.
Enhancing Core Technology and Security
A significant share of that funding goes toward improving the Ethereum protocol’s underlying technology, resilience and security. Andrew Lewis-Pye, a noted mathematician and expert on consensus mechanisms, was awarded a grant to work on the development of more robust consensus security mechanisms. His work will help bring even more robustness and reliability to the Ethereum network.
Five of these projects under the Execution Layer have received funding to develop advanced gas refinements and optimize client implementations. Unsurprisingly, these enhancements are pretty darn important for unlocking Ethereum’s efficiency and performance potential to address the overall demand for transactions. In addition to supporting these various advancements, by optimizing gas usage, the Ethereum Foundation hopes to reduce end user transaction fees while increasing network throughput.
The Ethereum Foundation has touted the development of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) as crucial for scaling Ethereum while preserving users’ privacy and the network's security. ZKPs allow you to prove something without revealing the underlying data. Addressing security and scalability, this powerful tool provides valuable layers of security across applications. In total, 16 projects related to ZKPs and cryptographic research were awarded funding, taking home the second-largest share of the allocated grants.
Layer 1 Roadmap and the Pectra Upgrade
Inputs He’s big on blobs, user experience, and helping Layer 2 rollups thrive. This roadmap features 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) focused on making network operations more efficient and user access easier and more accessible. The newly-released roadmap comes as Ethereum continues to show its willingness and ability to adapt and evolve with the rapidly-changing and increasingly competitive blockchain space.
Just a week prior to this grant announcement, Ethereum had released their own Pectra upgrade. This groundbreaking move combines the Prague execution layer with the Electra consensus layer. This upgrade is a huge step towards Ethereum’s technological maturity. It has already laid the groundwork for improving it and subsequently addressing scalability. Ethereum’s recent Pectra upgrade highlights Ethereum’s ethos of always innovating and always getting better.
Community and Education Initiatives
We’ve heard the Ethereum Foundation is investing millions into their own community-building efforts. They’re deploying educational initiatives to increase awareness and understanding of the potential of blockchain technology and foster greater adoption of Ethereum. The biggest piece of this funding, focused at 37 initiatives, went to Community and Education. These initiatives feature events in Africa & the Middle East, focused on empowering local communities and building blockchain talent.
Other grassroots Ethereum community events supported by the Ethereum Foundation have included ETHPrague, ETHiota, and such regional developer bootcamps. These events provide opportunities for developers, researchers, and enthusiasts to collaborate, share knowledge, and build innovative solutions on the Ethereum platform. Through these events, the Ethereum Foundation hopes to foster a diverse and inclusive worldwide community of passionate builders.
In addition to these larger efforts, seven niche initiatives across different sectors were funded by the Ethereum Foundation. These initiatives are broad in scope, showcasing the multi-faceted and ever-changing Ethereum ecosystem. More broadly, by supporting these small, niche projects, the Ethereum Foundation supports experimentation and innovation throughout the blockchain ecosystem.
