Ignas | DeFi: Ethereum Foundation's grants surged to $30 million in Q4 last year, lacking comprehensive and transparent spending reports

On August 25, Ignas | DeFi posted on the X platform that the Ethereum Foundation allocated $30 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. In the third quarter of 2023, they allocated $8.9 million. EF allocates grants for education and niche (but cool) products that may not receive a lot of VC support. This may explain why they are reluctant to fund DeFi protocols, as they will receive external funds from VCs anyway. However, there is a lack of comprehensive and transparent total spending reports. The latest report is for 2021, showing a total of $48 million in internal spending and external grants and bonuses. The biggest expenses are:

$21 million for L1 R&D

$9.7 million for community development, including grants and education

$5.1 million for internal operations (salaries, legal fees, etc.)

Therefore, 10% of total expenses in 2021 are used to pay developer salaries and support the maintenance of EF.

Earlier news, the executive director of the Ethereum Foundation stated that depositing 35,000 ETH with Kraken was part of financial management activities.