PANews reported on August 29th that the Ethereum Foundation announced that it is optimizing the focus areas and implementation paths of the Ecosystem Support Program (ESP). As part of the transition, it has temporarily suspended public grant applications. This adjustment will buy the Foundation time to redesign its funding model, shifting its focus to strategic initiatives, from reactive to proactive, while also supporting the priorities of other teams within the Ethereum Foundation. The Foundation mentioned that it has continuously optimized its processes and improved efficiency over the past three years, but as a public grant program with limited resources and a wide coverage, the influx of applications has consumed a large portion of its time and energy, making it difficult to free up resources to explore new strategic opportunities.
The Foundation will continue to fund Ethereum public products and accept applications, but will adopt a new approach, with specific details to be announced in a future announcement. The optimized focus areas and implementation path for the ESP will be announced in Q4 2025.