The Ethereum Foundation is frequently criticized, and researchers support its mission to build protocols rather than pump ETH

According to Cointelegraph, the Ethereum Foundation has recently faced criticism from the community for selling ETH, unstaking, and having limited public communication. However, blockchain researcher and investor William Mougayar defended it in a post, stating that the outside world has long misunderstood the Foundation's positioning. ETH, the Ethereum network, and the Ethereum Foundation itself are three different aspects: ETH is an asset, Ethereum is a shared computing infrastructure, and the Foundation is a non-profit organization responsible for promoting protocol development, one of its goals even being "to make the founders gradually less important." The Ethereum Foundation is currently on a "subtraction path," strengthening the network by promoting protocol upgrades, funding underlying research, and reducing its own centralized influence.