July 1, Cannes, France.
At the ongoing EthCC stage, Ethereum developer Zak Cole made a powerful statement:
“ETH to $10k isn’t a meme, it’s a requirement!”
Translated roughly, ETH rising to $10,000 is not a meme, but a requirement.
As soon as he finished speaking, he announced the establishment of the Ethereum Community Foundation (ECF), an Ethereum community foundation that claims to be community-based and vows to push ETH to new heights.
The name of this upcoming organization easily reminds people of the Ethereum Foundation (EF), which is only one word different but more official.
Later, Zak Cole said in his speech:
“We say what the Ethereum Foundation (EF) is unwilling to say and do what they are unwilling to do. We provide services to ETH holders because you deserve better. Our North Star, our token Ticker, is ETH.”
Applause and doubts exploded on the X platform at the same time. Some people cheered that this was the awakening of the community, while others sneered that it was another speculative gimmick.
Ethereum, the king of DeFi, NFT and Layer 2 innovation, is facing a squeeze between low prices and rivals such as Solana.
The Ethereum Foundation (EF), which was established 11 years ago, has promoted the technical upgrades of Ethereum The Merge and Dencun, but has also been criticized for its high expenditures and alienation from the community.
At this time, ECF’s slogan of serving the community and ETH holders is indeed timely, but saying and doing are completely different concepts.
What is its specific plan to make ETH reach $10,000? What is the difference between it and EF?
The banner of transparency and empowerment
Judging from the content of the on-site speeches, ECF’s goals are clear and radical: to push up ETH prices, accelerate institutional adoption, and empower the community.
In general, first, it will increase ETH destruction by funding high-trading volume projects (such as tokenization of real assets), reduce the circulating supply, and push the ETH price to $10,000.
Secondly, ECF plans to provide banks and enterprises with easy Ethereum integration solutions, promote Ethereum as a global settlement layer, and attract traditional finance to enter. Finally, it promises to give validators and the community more say in protocol development and funding allocation through the Ethereum Validator Association (EVA) and coin voting mechanisms.
In terms of specific strategy, ECF’s execution revolves around “immutable, token-free” projects.
It will give priority to funding high ETH consumption applications such as on-chain financial derivatives and real estate tokenization to ensure that the destruction mechanism of EIP-1559 has the maximum effect.
To attract institutions, ECF plans to work with regulators to develop compliant on-chain solutions, while investing in validator infrastructure such as staking tools and node optimization to enhance network security.
In addition, transparency is its core selling point: all funding decisions are made through community voting, and the flow of funds is 100% public, striving to draw a clear line between itself and the black box operations of the Ethereum Foundation (EF).
If he is not talented, replace him
In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei entrusted his son to Zhuge Liang in Baidi City and said to him on his deathbed: If my successor is capable, then assist him; if he is not, you can take him for yourself.
What I mean is, if my son doesnt succeed, you can just take his place.
Ethereum in 2025 is also at this historical juncture.
The Ethereum Foundation (EF) seems to be like the helpless Liu Chan; but can the Ethereum Community Foundation (ECF) be the loyal Zhuge Liang?
From the above combination of attacks, it is clear that ECF is targeting the official Ethereum Foundation. Zak Cole’s speech also captured the pain points of EF: low prices, community alienation, and loss of competition.
The Ethereum Foundation (EF) was once the beacon of Ethereum. However, this year we have seen more negative discussions about it. EF is indeed mired in internal and external troubles. High expenditures, centralized decision-making and market failures have caused complaints from the community.
EF’s expenditures in 2023 amounted to $134.9 million, funding projects such as mainnet upgrades and zero-knowledge proofs, but it has been criticized for its lack of transparency.
The community also questioned the lack of funding allocation details and project progress in its Ecosystem Support Program, and the concentration of decision-making power in a small number of management, which is contrary to the concept of decentralization.
In 2024, EF researchers Justin Drake and Dankrad Feist resigned due to the EigenLayer advisory controversy, further exposing the conflict of interest issue, and calls on the X platform that EF is out of control continued to rise.
Internal restructuring and layoffs further highlight the management difficulties.
In 2024, Ethereum mainnet revenue dropped significantly, Layer 2 (such as Arbitrum and Optimism) diverted transaction volume, and the ETH destruction effect of EIP-1559 was weakened due to the reduction in mainnet activity.
ETH prices failed to outperform Solana in the 2024-2025 bull market. The latter has advantages in transaction speed and low fees, and Binance Smart Chain has also diverted some DeFi traffic.
In terms of institutional adoption, EF’s neutral stance has slowed down Ethereum’s expansion into traditional finance, far less than Solana’s collaboration with enterprises.
The communitys disappointment also paved the way for ECFs debut today.
Zak, a serial entrepreneur
Man proposes, God disposes. Whether ECF can bring ETH to 10,000 US dollars depends on people.
However, the past of Zak Cole, a core developer, is like a double-edged sword, which not only adds glory to his ambition, but also casts a shadow on the credibility of ECF.
He is a well-known serial entrepreneur in the circle and has served as a co-founder of multiple projects. However, the results of these serial entrepreneurial ventures seem to run counter to his current slogan of empowering the Ethereum community.
The community is often the one that suffers the most.
According to Crypto Fearless, a well-known whistleblower blogger on X, the market performance of several larger projects that Zak participated in was not ideal.
For example, BTC L2 Corn fell below its issue price soon after its launch, and its airdrop strategy also benefited the community. In 2017, the token of ICON, an ancient project in which it participated, almost returned to zero.
(Image source: X user crypto fearless @cryptobraveHQ )
Of course, this is due to the sluggish overall crypto market and the falsification of various narratives and projects, but it is also hard to believe that a person who has started a business repeatedly would put in lasting efforts in the Ethereum community.
ECF’s “ETH to $10k” ambition is still a question mark at this point.
Its price-driven strategies, such as funding high-burn projects and institutional adoption programs (such as working with banks), may be able to push up the value of ETH in the short term, but it also faces speculative risks and centralization risks.
After all, you don’t know whether the next crypto project will be a reskin of the previous rug.
The crypto world has been up and down, and we have seen too many ups and downs. Often, transparent promises are just slogans, and the community is just a pawn controlled by price ambitions.
Will it be different this time?
