BMNR’s Tom Lee Rejects Ethereum Funding Crisis Warning After Foundation Loses Eighth Senior Leader This Year

• BMNR Chairman Tom Lee dismissed Ethereum funding crisis fears on X, posting "zero chance" and "Funding secured".
• Lee was responding to former EF contributor Trent Van Epps, who warned of a roughly $30 million annual funding gap within three to nine months.
• Ethereum Foundation co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang stepped down Thursday, at least the eighth senior EF departure in 2026.

BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) Chairman Tom Lee said on Friday there was "zero chance" of an Ethereum (ETH) developer-funding crisis, pushing back against a warning from a former Ethereum Foundation contributor.

"In my opinion, zero chance of this 'crisis' happening for $ETH," Lee wrote on X, adding "ZERO" and "Funding secured." 

​Lee was responding to Trent Van Epps, who worked on coordinating core protocol development and the Protocol Guild funding effort at the Ethereum Foundation between 2021 and April 2026. In an article published Thursday, Van Epps warned that Ethereum’s core development could be facing a “slow-burning funding crisis” in three to nine months.

Van Epps estimated the cost of supporting the network’s more than 10 client teams, researchers, and coordination groups at about $30 million a year. The main sources that cover that bill were tightening at the same time, with no replacement in place, he said. 

He added, “When compared to the shared resources this funding produces today, and the long-term ambition of the project, this is quite a small cost. Without continuous funding, we lose people with critical context built up over years, fall behind on looming challenges like quantum computing or scaling, and ultimately risk the mainnet's reputation for reliability. We cannot assume contributors will still be available when funding conditions improve, let alone account for the cost to morale for those who remain.”

Ethereum Foundation Loses More People

On the same day, Hsiao-Wei Wang stepped down as co-executive director and board member of the Ethereum Foundation, leaving Bastian Aue as effectively the sole executive director.

Wang's exit marks at least the eighth senior departure from the Foundation in 2026, including Van Epps in April and co-executive director Tomasz Stańczak in February. The Foundation has said its treasury plan keeps it solvent for the medium term. The leadership reshuffle came as zkSync (ZK) founder Alex Gluchowski argued the institutional case for Ethereum. In March, Gluchowski said that Ethereum was the “only option" for large financial firms despite competition from rival chains.

Gluchowski cited Stripe’s Tempo and an upcoming JPMorgan (JPM) chain as examples of corporate networks that would struggle to achieve industry-wide adoption, as rival institutions wouldn’t be likely to settle on a competitor’s infrastructure.

Ethereum’s price was trading around $1,723 at the time of writing, up over 1% in the last 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around ETH remained in the ‘neutral’ zone, while chatter stayed at ‘low’ levels over the past day.

BitMine is the largest corporate holder of Ethereum, which holds around 5.6 million ETH, representing about 4.6% of the circulating supply. The company has already staked about $8.1 billion in ETH through its own validator network.

BMNR stock closed over 2% on Friday. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around BMNR remained in the ‘bearish’ zone, while chatter stayed at ‘low’ levels over the past day.

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