- In a recent post on X, BitMine CEO Tom Lee expressed his support for a new Ethereum organization proposed by a former Ethereum Foundation researcher.
- According to Tom Lee, Ethereum will play a major role as a settlement layer for agentic AI in the future.
- Dankrad Fest shared some suggestions for the new organization, including new competent leadership.
On May 21, Tom Lee, co-founder and head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, shared a post about the recent major discussion around a new Ethereum organization amid the departure Many famous researchers and contributors to the Ethereum Foundation.
In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), Tom Lee raised his support for leading the new Ethereum organization alongside “A deep bench of leaders and developers“.It will help the community ensure the survival of the network The future settlement layer for finance and artificial intelligence.
The official tweet from Tom Lee highlights Ethereum The role of blockchain in the agent economy.
Tom Lee agrees with former Ethereum Foundation researcher’s proposal for new leadership
Tom Lee’s post came in response to a post shared by cryptocurrency analyst and Bankless co-founder Ryan Shawn Adams. In the post on X, Ryan Sean Adams named Lee as a potential leader of a new organization proposed by a former Ethereum Foundation researcher.
Tom Lee’s BitMine has been continuously accumulating ETH, and is currently the largest private company holding ETH. According to the latest advertisementThe company currently holds 5.27 million ETH tokens in its treasury, making it the largest ETH holding entity. This makes it the biggest bullish force for ETH price movement as it provides confidence to institutional investors. It also encourages other financial institutions to bypass Bitcoin treasuries and hold assets like ETH.
The origin of this discussion is a detailed proposal shared by Dankrad Vest, a former researcher at the Ethereum Foundation. In the post, Feist stated that the foundation now owns less than 0.1%. He also stated that there is “no flow” to generating income from staking or fees.
According to Dankrad, to get Ethereum back on track, the community must create an organization “Economically compatible with and accountable to Ethereum.“Dankrad stated that the organization must obtain reliable funding with a minimum of $1 billion initially.”“This is very reasonable for an ecosystem with a market cap of $250 billion,” he said.
In addition, he stressed that the new institution needs a competent leader who wants to fight. Also, the new organization must have a board of directors of people “who want ETH to go up, and a charter that holds the organization accountable for it.”
However, some community members still raise questions about this proposal proposed by Dankrad Vest. Laura Sheen male In the post that “However, IMO will only work if it can influence the token economy. This is the missing piece, which needs to be combined with technology. Having an external organization can only help with BD, not the fundamental ways in which the token works.“
The Ethereum Foundation is seeing the departure of key team members
The Ethereum Foundation is currently facing a crisis as top talent is leaving the organization for various reasons. Recently, several senior researchers, developers, and leaders have left the organization, sparking a community-wide debate about the organization’s future.
The list includes well-known names, including Karl Beck, Julian Ma, Barnaby Munot, Tim Biko, Josh Stark, Trent van Epps, Alex Stokes and Thomas Stanczak.
Most of these departures are related to internal restructuring at the Ethereum Foundation. In 2025, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin hinted at some leadership changes. In accordance with these changes, Aya Miyaguchi assumed the role of president.
In March 2026, the Ethereum Foundation unveiled a document known as EF State. In this regard, the Foundation shared new principles, including censorship resistance, open source development, privacy, and security.
“To be part of the EF, our teams must remember that Ethereum must, above all, remain censorship-resistant, open source, private, and secure (CROPS). Its self-sovereign use must be resistant to mining and have a seamless experience. These are the conditions that make Ethereum worth using, thus worth building, and worth defending. It should never be traded for convenience: without it, we would have nothing,” the official announcement said.
Tom Lee points out Blockchain’s role in agentic AI
In a tweet, Tom Lee highlighted the important role blockchain plays in the agent AI economy. “Blockchain is arguably the only way AI interacts in commerce,” he said. “Blockchain also significantly improves the profit profile of the financial system.”
Agentic AI is an autonomous system that can think, plan, and execute complex tasks with only simple human intervention. according to Goldman Sachs Research, Agent AI is expected to see 24x token growth due to increasing adoption and consumption by 2030.
Blockchain technology is expected to play a major role in this Agent payment Revolutionary because it can provide permanent records of ownership and agreements. Apart from this, the smart contracts feature can allow AI agents to automate financial transactions. Integrating agentic AI with blockchain technology will allow them to open the door to trustless settlement, meaning that AI agents can talk to each other without any middle authority and make settlements. This will also help developers create programmable money, such as USDC.
On May 11, Circle announced the launch Agent circuit stacka tool designed for artificial intelligence agents. One of the key features of this group is the proxy wallets that come with programmable security limits, which can be used for nano-payments using the USDC stablecoin. Apart from this, there will be a proxy market where users will be able to find different services and make transactions.
On May 21, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire shared a key update regarding AI clients. The new feature will allow agents to sign up for phone numbers themselves and make real-time AI calls through integrations with services like Twillio and BlandAI.
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