The Ethereum Foundation [EF] released a report on Monday, detailing its reserves and investments in both crypto and fiat, as of March-end. The non-profit foundation said it held more than $1.6 billion in treasury assets in end-March.
Out of a total of $1.6 billion EF treasury, nearly $1.3 billion comprises ether reserves, which represented over 0.297% of the total ether supply as of March 31. Around $303 million accounted for non-crypto assets and investments. Some $11 million was held in other cryptocurrencies.
At the time of writing this post, the foundation did not disclose any further details on the composition of the assets. But did elaborate on how it deals during a market downturn.
We also increase our non-crypto savings in response to rising ETH prices. This provides a greater safety margin for our core budget and would enable us to continue funding non-core but high-leverage projects through a market downturn.
The holdings included 39,168 ether already committed to client teams building on Ethereum, according to the report.
The Ethereum Foundation is a non-profit organization that’s focused on growth within the Ethereum ecosystem. The team provides projects with grants to fund other teams working outside of the core EF domain. Apart from that it also manages delegated domain allocation and leverages third-party funding techniques.
The foundation funds research and development on Ethereum and related technologies. According to the report, in 2021, it invested a total of roughly $48 million, of that $20 million was in the form of external funding which included, grants, third-party funding, bounties, sponsorships, etc.
Eth developers, agencies, and teams involved in the foundation’s activities netted a total of $5.1 million in 2021, the report noted.
As a matter of fact, Research and development of layer 1 blockchains, saw spending of over $21 million last year, which included research on main net upgrade, security, mechanism design, and grants to external clients.
Ethereum’s long-awaited Merge might get pushed back
That said, the highly anticipated Merge to Proof-of-Stake on Ethereum might get delayed. Ethereum Foundation member Tim Beiko tweeted on Tuesday night that the upcoming Merge would not take place by June, as was previously thought.
Despite the delay, Beiko still hopes that the Merge will take place “soon.”