Ethereum Foundation Allocates $32.65 Million in Q1 2025 for Layer 2, ZKPs, and Education

Coin WorldFriday, May 9, 2025 1:56 am ET
2min read

The Ethereum Foundation has allocated $32.65 million in grants during the first quarter of 2025 to support 32 initiatives aimed at advancing Layer 2 scalability, zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), and global education. This significant investment underscores the Foundation's commitment to enhancing the Ethereum ecosystem's technical robustness and long-term growth.

The funding, distributed through the Ecosystem Support Program (EFESP), is strategically focused on seven key domains. The largest portion of the grants, targeting 37 initiatives, was dedicated to community-building and educational programs. These initiatives include events such as ETHPrague, ETHiopia, and regional developer bootcamps. The Arabic Blockchain Developer Bootcamp is one of the projects generating localized material and planning meetups to engage developers in underprivileged areas. This effort highlights Ethereum's goal of fostering a global decentralized community ready to shape the future of the protocol.

Zero-knowledge proofs and cryptographic research received the second-largest share of the funding, with 16 projects selected. These projects are exploring post-quantum cryptography, building general-purpose ZK tooling, and enhancing SNARK/STARK efficiency. The focus on ZKPs is crucial for scaling Ethereum without compromising privacy or security, and it supports the development of trustless applications with minimal data loss. Initiatives like zkSync, Polygon zkEVM, and Scroll have already demonstrated the potential of ZKPs in the ecosystem, and the Ethereum Foundation's increased investment in this area is aimed at future-proofing the network in anticipation of growing user demand.

Seven initiatives focused on Ethereum’s Consensus Layer were also funded. These projects aim to improve validator performance, enhance rollup compatibility, and optimize network efficiency. One notable beneficiary is Andrew Lewis-Pye, a renowned mathematician working on consensus security improvements. In the Execution Layer, five projects received grants to refine gas mechanics and optimize client implementations, including exploring gas metering changes and developing alternative clients to improve node diversity, which is essential for Ethereum’s decentralization.

The Ethereum Foundation also funded 17 projects under the Developer Experience and Tooling category. These initiatives include mobile SDK development, validator toolkits, analytics systems, and multi-language library support. Groups like BuidlGuidl are developing education-oriented platforms and promoting the developer onboarding process, ensuring that programmers can create faster, more securely, and with broader language support, thereby enabling Ethereum to maintain its leadership in smart contract development.

Two initiatives were funded under the Overall Growth and Support category, focusing on attracting new talent and building institutional pipelines through formal fellowships and internships. Additionally, seven niche initiatives were supported in areas such as formal verification for smart contracts, onboarding institutional players to DeFi, enhancing decentralization through open-source advocacy, and publishing regional and sector-specific blockchain analysis. These grants reflect the Ethereum Foundation's effort to support not just code and infrastructure but also the social and intellectual fabric of the Ethereum ecosystem.

The timing of the grant announcement is notable, as it follows the Pectra upgrade, which combined the Prague execution layer and Electra consensus layer. This upgrade optimized network performance and set the stage for future enhancements, adding 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). Concurrently, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin released a revised Layer 1 roadmap emphasizing blobs, user experience, and Layer 2 rollup growth. This roadmap aligns with the Ethereum Foundation's funding strategy, which aims to advance scalability while preserving decentralization and accessibility.

By backing education, cryptography, consensus, and tooling in one cohesive funding round, the Ethereum Foundation is making it clear that Ethereum’s evolution depends on both technical progress and global participation. The next wave of developers and researchers, many now funded by the Foundation, will play a central role in shaping Ethereum’s decentralized future.