An Ethereum core developer has set up a new organization called the Ethereum Community Foundation, with one of its aims to bring the price of Ether to $10,000.

ECF was spearheaded by Ethereum core developer Zak Cole, who explained his rationale for setting up ECF at the eighth Ethereum Community Conference held in Cannes, France, on Tuesday.

According to Cole, the Ethereum Foundation has been neglecting ETH as an asset class.

The new organization is set to fund infrastructure projects that grow the Ethereum ecosystem, while simultaneously increasing the price of ETH, according to Cole. 

“We are the Ethereum Community Foundation. We say what the [Ethereum Foundation] can’t, we do what the [Ethereum Foundation] won’t. We serve ETH holders because you deserve better.” Cole said.

In an X post, Cole said ETH’s price is a “direct function of security.” He went on to state that ETH needs to head toward the $10,000 mark for this reason.

The project has no ties to the Ethereum Foundation.

The ECF says it will provide grants to projects that increase “ETH burn, contribute to the public goods, advance core infrastructure, and scale Ethereum.”

In order to receive grants, projects must use Ethereum as the settlement layer, which will lead to ETH burns due to the transactions being processed on the Ethereum mainnet. 

Additionally, the projects must be tokenless and immutable in nature, according to the ECF website.

During his presentation, Cole called out Uniswap, Ethereum Name Service and Optimism for receiving support from the Ethereum Foundation, but later on launching their own tokens backed by venture capital funding.

“Publicly funded projects should remain public and benefit those who have paid for them,” Cole said.

Cole also lambasted the Ethereum Foundation for neglecting ETH as a valuable asset.

Cointelegraph reached out to the Ethereum Foundation but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Ethereum Validator Association

Ethereum Validator Association (EVA) was announced as the first recipient to receive a grant from the ECF.

Cole says that with the EVA, validators will now have a say in how Ethereum’s monetary policy is shaped by prioritizing EIP road maps and choosing Ethereum’s client priorities.

“The EVA introduces validator representation,” Cole said.

Cole said that the EVA will empower clients based on their performance. 

Additionally, Cole highlighted a potential conflict of interest as Offchain Labs, the team behind layer-2 network Arbitrum, has an ownership stake in Prysmatic Labs. 

Notably, Prysm is the second-largest consensus layer client of the Ethereum network, according to Ethernodes. Prysmatic Labs operates the Prysm client.