Justin Sun outlines what Ethereum Foundation and Ethereum could be under his leadership

TRON founder Justin Sun has unveiled his hypothetical plan for the Ethereum Foundation (EF). He joined the conversation about the recent criticism the crypto community has leveled against Ethereum leadership and its operations. Sun suggested that if Ethereum were under his oversight, he would take the token to $10,000.

In a January 22 post on X, the TRON entrepreneur proposed several changes to EF’s modus operandi, which include halting Ethereum Foundation’s ETH sales for at least three years to preserve supply and maintain market confidence.

Since Monday, EF has been on the naughty list, with some members of the community accusing the organization of “dumping ETH” and not effectively using its ecosystem. 

Gm to all former .eths

I love Ethereum—but if the Foundation doesn’t believe ETH is money, why should we?

Ratio. pic.twitter.com/15AHlYhqyT

— josé.vdex (@josebetandcourt) January 21, 2025

They believe that EF’s leadership has made the network lag behind in the spirit of “not competing” against other blockchains and neutrality.

Sun proposes his vision for Ethereum, supported by critics 

According to Justin Sun, Ethereum’s operational costs can be covered through alternative methods such as AAVE lending, staking yields, and stablecoin borrowing. 

He argued that instead of EF selling Ethereum to pay off these costs, it should consider using on-chain decentralized protocols, which would align with the network’s deflationary goals and boost investor confidence.

Additionally, he proposed streamlining the Ethereum Foundation’s operations by drastically reducing staff to retain only the top performers. 

“Remaining employees will receive significant salary increases, transitioning EF into a purely merit-based system that rewards performance and results,” Sun denoted.

The Tron founder’s sentiments drew some support from several users on X, including Marc Zeller, founder of the Aave-Chan Initiative (ACI). 

“We live in a timeline where H.E. Justin Sun has a more sensible plan for the Ethereum Foundation than the Foundation itself,” he said. 

However, Zeller asked the community to give the current EF leadership credit for their notable efforts and actions from the queries being raised.

Community insists EF does not believe in Ethereum   

The crypto community has been bashing EF for not using the second-largest crypto by market cap to pay developers or handle operational fees. 

On January 20, a foundation member tried to make a case that ETH was being used extensively, but users on X pointed out that most of the coin’s use cases involved swapping it for other tokens and stablecoins.   

> the ethereum foundation does not use the chain

>> we actually use it all the time, to sell eth pic.twitter.com/9upC5swSHW

— Arnold Bernault (@ahitposter) January 20, 2025

Analysts have raised queries on EF’s hesitance on staking, with advocates arguing that it aligns with Ethereum’s decentralized ethos and provides a sustainable funding model. 

However, Ether co-founder Vitalik Buterin warned that staking could entangle the foundation in regulatory and political controversies. He added that it would be forced to completely side with initiatives that favor ETH, which conflicts with EF’s principle of being “fair.”

In a January 22 X post, YouTuber Richard Scheuler also known as Richard Heart, said that EF’s plan to go against the culture of “competing and winning” is not feasible. 

“I believe the absolute opposite. I fully endorse competing and winning, so much it’s even in my name here,” Scheduler remarked.

He believes that using other tokens has made Ethereum’s transactional costs soar far beyond the goals set by Buterin in 2014 when the co-founder envisioned a decentralized platform with minimal transaction costs.

Scheuler used his post to promote PulseChain, a Layer 1 blockchain that he founded, asserting that it can address Ethereum’s sustainability and high gas fees issues.

“PulseChain also has higher throughput and lower inflation, while being at its core, almost entirely Ethereum, because the code is almost entirely Ethereum’s code!”