Former Employee Sues Ethereum Foundation and Vitalik Buterin
Kayleen Fulton, former head of protocol support at the Ethereum Foundation, has sued the foundation and Vitalik Buterin in a U.S. court. She alleges she was dismissed 13 days after her cancer diagnosis and accuses…
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https://cryptoast.fr/ethereum-foundation-plainte-kayleen-fulton-vitalik-buterin-licenciement/
In a complaint filed on November 4, 2026 in the federal district court of Colorado, Kayleen Fulton, known in the crypto community under the pseudonym “Nixo”, accuses 4 entities and 2 personalities from the Ethereum Foundation (or EF, for Ethereum Foundation) ecosystem.
The Stiftung Ethereum (the Swiss entity of the foundation), Ethereum Asia Pacific Limited (its subsidiary in Singapore), the companies Lightsource HR Global (its official employer) and Vensure Employer Services (which managed its payroll and benefits), as well as co-executive director Bastian Aue and co-founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin are all targeted by this complaint.
The former employee led the Ethereum Foundation's Protocol Support team and hosted All Core Developers calls, the open process by which developments to the Ethereum protocol are discussed among developers. She also continues to facilitate these meetings, but now from outside the foundation. Kayleen Fulton is seeking damages, retroactive payment of wages and a judicial declaration that her separation agreement does not preclude her from pursuing proceedings nor force her into arbitration in Singapore.
The affair originated in an internal document called “The Ethereum Foundation Mandate”, distributed to all staff on February 25, 2026. This text presents Ethereum as a “liberating technology” and sets the strategic orientations of the foundation.
Its page 11 contained a clause titled "Source Seppuku License", which required each "author, maintainer, publisher, or redistributor" to agree to "take their own life with a sword" if they failed to comply with the document's obligations (referring to Japanese seppuku, or harakiri). According to the complaint, 79 employees voted to remove it. One employee even asked in writing if signing meant having to commit suicide.
On March 13, 2026, the final version was however published with the clause maintained, this time in the form of a stylized image in Japanese comic style (see below). The document was then permanently recorded on the Ethereum blockchain.
On Friday March 20, 2026, Bastian Aue sent all staff an ultimatum. Each employee must confirm their membership in the Mandate via a form, under penalty of being considered as having resigned. The day before, Kayleen Fulton learned that she had ovarian cancer.
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