PANews reported on June 12 that according to The Block, Péter Szilágyi, a former Ethereum Foundation researcher and Geth lead developer, posted on the X platform this week that he rejected a $5 million offer that required him to spin off the Ethereum core client Geth into a private company. He also accused the foundation of secretly funding a rival Geth development team. He revealed that he was fired less than 24 hours after talking to Ethereum communicator Josh Stark about the "secret second Geth team."

Szilágyi said that the Ethereum Foundation had threatened to cut funding for Geth and offered to provide developers with $5 million to allow it to operate independently. This statement was in response to the new co-director of the Ethereum Foundation, Tomasz K. Stańczak, who developed the second largest Ethereum client Nethermind. Stańczak previously posted a denial of the "plan to withdraw from Geth" and refuted Szilágyi's statement that the foundation "plans to withdraw from Geth in the next few years to focus on research and education." Szilágyi announced his leave from the foundation in November last year.