The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has named security researcher pcaversaccio to its board of directors, expanding the body to four members. The announcement arrived on the same day that a separate organization, Ethereum Institutional, disclosed the completion of its first ecosystem funding round.

The appointment comes during a turbulent period for the Foundation, which has indicated plans to reduce spending and has experienced a recent wave of departures. The restructuring follows months of public discussion within the Ethereum community about the EF's role in ecosystem coordination, its communication practices, and whether its leadership structure was suited to the network's maturation into an institutionally relevant platform.

pcaversaccio Joins a Four-Member Board

Known as "pc," pcaversaccio is described as a privacy maximalist. He takes a seat alongside EF President Aya Miyaguchi, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, and Swiss counsel Patrick Storchenegger, the Foundation said in a blog post.

The appointment carries an initial one-year term and is unpaid, according to the Foundation.

pc co-founded and leads SEAL 911, a crypto security response initiative that coordinates rapid multi-party responses to smart contract exploits and protocol attacks, helping affected projects trace and recover stolen funds. He has also served on the EF's Silviculture Society, an informal advisory group centered on censorship resistance, open source development, privacy, and security. He authored The Ethereum Cypherpunk Manifesto, a 2024 reinterpretation of Eric Hughes' 1993 cypherpunk text, and a 2025 essay titled Ethereum Privacy: The Road to Self-Sovereignty.

Responding to the Foundation's announcement on X, pc wrote, "unconditional privacy."

Board Composition and Evolving Role

Miyaguchi commented on pc's appointment via X: "Very excited to welcome @pcaversaccio to join us at the EF board! What he brings isn't just security and privacy expertise."

She continued, "He's a living example of what 100% CROPS alignment looks like in practice. Looking forward to the perspective he'll bring, and to being pushed to think much harder about security and privacy." The reference to CROPS points to the censorship-resistance, open-source, privacy, and security principles the Foundation has placed at the core of its current mandate.

The Foundation characterizes its board as the body responsible for setting vision and ensuring management's strategy remains aligned with those guiding principles. It also serves as a security council and maintains the organization's compliance as a registered Swiss foundation, a legal structure that imposes specific governance and fiduciary obligations under Swiss law.

The board's structure has been shifting throughout the year. In May, Buterin stated that the board was expanding and that his own influence would "continue to decrease," a transition he said he welcomed.

Ethereum Institutional Completes First Funding Round

Later the same day, Ethereum Institutional announced it had concluded its inaugural ecosystem funding round and supporter coalition. The independent non-profit, which launched on July 1 as a liaison between financial institutions and the Ethereum ecosystem, did not disclose a dollar amount.

The organization's formation follows the approval of spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds in the United States in 2024, a regulatory milestone that brought new institutional participants into the Ethereum market and underscored demand for dedicated bridges between traditional finance and on-chain infrastructure.

According to its blog post, the round is anchored by treasury companies BitMine and SharpLink, along with Ethereum co-founders Joe Lubin and Mihai Alisie. More than 100 ecosystem participants have signed on as supporters.

The published supporter list includes Aave, Chainlink, Circle, Consensys, Uniswap Labs, and Robinhood. The organization, founded by former EF enterprise staff members David Walsh, Marius Smith, and Matthew Dawson, said the backing provides it with runway to pursue tokenization, stablecoins, and on-chain market infrastructure.

Staffing and Funding Pressures Persist

Cryptopolitan has reported that the EF eliminated 54 positions — approximately one-fifth of its staff — on June 22. Co-executive directors Tomasz Stańczak and Hsiao-Wei Wang both departed earlier this year.

Former coordinator Trent Van Epps has warned that core-development funding could reach a crisis point within three to nine months, noting that client-team maintenance costs roughly $30 million annually.

Ethereum Institutional is among several outside entities working to fill that gap, alongside Ethlabs, a research non-profit staffed by former Foundation researchers and backed by overlapping anchor supporters.

Market activity has remained subdued through the organizational changes. Cryptopolitan reported ETH trading near $1,655 in late June, well below its August 2025 peak of approximately $4,950. ETH currently trades around $1,894, having declined 1.1% over the past 24 hours.