Allocation Update - Q4 2025

The Ethereum Foundation's Ecosystem Support Program (ESP) closed Q4 2025 with a broad set of grants spanning community building, cryptography research, protocol hardening, developer tooling, and global education. The update showcases how capital is being allocated to strengthen Ethereum's long-term resilience-both technically and socially - while nurturing emerging regions and deep research tracks.

Key Ideas

Massive investment in cryptography, ZK infrastructure, and formal verification - a large portion of grants target foundational ZK research, Lean-based formal verification, SNARK security, Fiat-Shamir analysis, zkVM correctness, and post-quantum proving systems. This signals a continued push toward mathematically rigorous, verifiable infrastructure, which is critical for Ethereum's long-term security and scaling roadmap.
Global community expansion with a strong LATAM and APAC emphasis - Hackathons, meetups, workshops, and translation initiatives across Argentina, Brazil, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and broader LATAM regions highlight a deliberate strategy: decentralize talent pipelines and onboard new builders in emerging markets. This aligns with Ethereum's ethos of global accessibility and community-led growth.
Protocol robustness and developer experience as strategic pillars - Funding spans differential testing for clients, smart contract vulnerability databases, Tor integration for privacy, and new compiler middle layers (MLIR for Solidity). These investments aim to reduce attack surfaces, improve client diversity, and enhance developer ergonomics, which is key for long-term ecosystem health.

Why It Matters?

This allocation round reflects a maturing ecosystem that's balancing frontier research with grassroots expansion. The EF is clearly betting on formal verification and ZK infrastructure as the backbone of Ethereum's next decade, while simultaneously cultivating global builder communities that can sustain innovation outside traditional hubs. For anyone building in Ethereum's orbit, the signal is unmistakable: rigor, decentralization, and long-term resilience are the strategic north stars guiding ecosystem funding.