{"id":2273,"date":"2026-05-20T11:19:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tokenmetrics.com\/blog\/ethereum-foundation-anime-mandate-resignations\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T23:17:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:17:46","slug":"ethereum-foundation-anime-mandate-resignations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tokenmetrics.com\/eth\/news\/ethereum-foundation-anime-mandate-resignations\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart-Money Netflow Turns Negative as Ethereum Foundation’s Anime Mandate Triggers Mass Resignations"},"content":{"rendered":"

TL;DR<\/h2>\n

Token Metrics data shows smart-money netflow is negative on ETH as the Ethereum Foundation’s governance crisis deepens. The Foundation published a 38-page illustrated “Mandate” document on March 13, 2026. It featured anime artwork, a cartoon suicide pledge, and imagery borrowed from the Milady NFT collection. Within weeks, all three protocol leads left. Over half a dozen senior contributors followed. No one named the document as their reason for leaving. But the timing was hard to ignore.<\/p>\n

Context<\/h2>\n

The Ethereum Foundation has been the nonprofit steward of Ethereum since the network launched in 2015. It funds research, protocol development, and grants. For most of that time, it operated quietly in the background. That changed in early 2026.<\/p>\n

Tomasz Sta\u0144czak had stepped into the co-executive director role less than a year earlier. He resigned in February 2026. Then, the Ethereum Foundation published its Mandate document<\/a> on March 13, 2026. The board signed it. Two artists were credited for the visual design.<\/p>\n

The document’s aesthetic came straight from Milady Maker, a controversial NFT collection. Vitalik Buterin uses a Milady NFT as his profile photo on X. Milady NFTs once traded above 7.3 ETH in December 2024. They now trade below 1.2 ETH. That is an 84% drop measured in ETH, or about 91% in USD terms.<\/p>\n

Milady’s history carries more baggage than a price chart can show. Its founder, Charlotte Fang (real name Krishna Okhandiar), resigned as CEO in May 2022. Investigators had exposed him as the operator of a 4chan-connected account called Miya. That account spread antisemitic and anti-Black content and promoted what researchers described as a suicide cult. Okhandiar later admitted to running the Miya account. Milady floor prices halved during his resignation.<\/p>\n

Eight days before the Mandate dropped, someone asked Buterin on X why he still supported Milady. Citing its links to Kali Yuga Accelerationism, the Miya account, and the seppuku license. The question got no public answer. Then the Mandate arrived, visually soaked in Milady imagery.<\/p>\n

According to reporting on the Ethereum Foundation’s internal dynamics<\/a>. Staff were reportedly asked to sign the Mandate or face termination. The Ethereum Foundation did not publicly confirm or deny that claim.<\/p>\n\t\t