Ethereum Foundation is entering a five-year period of “mild austerity,” according to co-founder Vitalik Buterin, as the network posts a new transactions-per-second record and US spot funds see fresh withdrawals.
However, price pressure has persisted alongside those headlines. The token traded at $2,711 at the time cited, down more than 7.8% over 24 hours, with weekly and monthly declines also reported.
Vitalik Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation will pursue mild austerity for five years. The plan aims to support core development without threatening the foundation’s independence. Meanwhile, he described two objectives for the approach. The statement said the first goal targets an aggressive roadmap to keep the network performant and scalable.
In addition, he said the second goal focuses on financial sustainability for the foundation. This includes protecting the core mission and supporting user access with self-sovereignty, security, and privacy.
Furthermore, he said he will redirect personal resources toward certain “special projects” instead of relying on the foundation. He said that change frees foundation resources while allowing him to pursue a broader technology vision.
Consequently, he said he withdrew 16,384 ETH to fund those efforts over the next few years. The co-founder also highlighted exploring secure, decentralized staking options to support longer-term funding.
On-chain performance also drew attention after a reported throughput milestone. An X post from Joseph Young said the network reached 75,862 transactions per second (TPS), the highest cited figure for a single second.
However, the post read that the previous all-time high stood at 58,786 TPS. TPS is a common scalability metric that tracks how many transactions a network processes in one second.
Meanwhile, Young linked the spike to potential bursts in decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, or other activity. It did not specify a single driver for the record.
In addition, the update arrives as users continue shifting activity to Layer-2 (L2) networks, which bundle transactions and settle them back to mainnet. This migration often coincides with lower user fees and faster confirmations on L2s.
Furthermore, base-layer fees remain a focus during periods of heavy trading. The information provided said gas fees have spiked during intense activity, then cooled as users moved more aggressively to L2 solutions.
US-listed spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to Ether also recorded net outflows, based on figures cited from Farside Investors and shared by Ted Pillows. The data showed net daily outflows of $155,700,000 on January 29, 2026.
Meanwhile, BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) recorded $54.9 million in net outflows, according to the data. This figure ranked as the second-largest single-fund contributor in the list provided.
In addition, Fidelity’s FETH posted $59.2 million in outflows, described as the largest among issuers in the report. The figures also listed withdrawals from Grayscale products, including ETH at $26.5 million and ETHE at $13.1 million. Furthermore, the data cited smaller outflows from Bitwise. Those fund flows have contributed to downward price pressure.
In the weeks ahead, attention is likely to stay on the foundation’s funding posture, throughput metrics like TPS, and daily ETF flow data, as each factor has recently coincided with volatile price action.
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