A blockchain researcher has pushed back against growing criticism of the Ethereum Foundation, arguing that the organization does “exactly” what it was designed to do and that critics keep getting it wrong.

In post in X titled “Leave the Foundation Alone,” William Mougayar, a Toronto-based blockchain investor, researcher and best-selling author, argued that EF is a steward of the protocol, not a marketing engine.

Mougayar said that ETH, Ethereum and the Ethereum Foundation are three separate entities with three distinct trajectories. “The act is money. The infrastructure is shared. The foundation is a nonprofit that steers protocol toward irrelevance for its founders,” he wrote, adding that confusing the three leads to bad predictions and misplaced anger.

Source: William Mougayar

The post comes as the foundation has faced a wave of criticism from the crypto community in recent months. ETH sales, non-staking, and public silence have sparked repeated accusations that the organization is hurting ETH prices.

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EF tightens the protocol

Mougayar said EF is on a “subtraction path,” working to become less central to Ethereum over time. “It hardens the protocol so the world doesn’t need it as much. It’s an improvement to ships. It’s funding research that no one else is funding,” he wrote.

He suggested that the criticism comes from people who want a king. He argued that expecting EF to promote ETH or judicial institutions is “like expecting the IETF to run Super Bowl ads for TCP/IP.”

ETH is currently trading at $2,117.09, up 4.67% from the last day. However, according to CoinMarketCap data, the token is down more than 57% from its all-time high of $4,953 recorded in August last year.

Related: Harvard abandons its entire ETH position after just one quarter

EF sells, puts away ETH

Earlier this month, the foundation completed its third ETH OTC sale to BitMine Immersion Technologies, transferring 10,000 ETH at an average price of $2,292, or a value of approximately $22.9 million. Combined with two previous transactions, 5,000 ETH in March and another 10,000 ETH in the previous week, the Foundation has sold approximately $47 million worth of ETH to BitMine in recent weeks.

The sale also came shortly after the foundation unlocked 17,035 ETH worth approximately $40 million. Earlier this month, EF also offloaded another 21,270 Ether from Lido worth almost $50 million.

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