The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is being sued after firing an employee shortly after she objected to an alleged mandated suicide pledge. The dismissal also came within weeks of her revealing her cancer diagnosis.
EF is a non-profit that supports the cryptocurrency platform Ethereum. Filed to the District Court of Colorado on Nov. 4, the complaint claims EF fired Protocol Support team lead Kayleen Fulton (also known as Nixo) after she coordinated a collective letter opposing a suicide pledge all employees had been directed to affirm. The “Source Seppuku License” had been included in a document entitled “The Ethereum Foundation Mandate,” which was distributed to all employees on Feb. 25:
“By inclusion of this license, the author, maintainer, editor or (re)distributor (the ‘actor’) of this software SHALL uphold the following pledges:
To always make freely available and publicly accessible a full and accurate copy of the source code and associated documents of this software, including all modifications hereto by the Actor.
To take his or her own life with a sword upon failure to uphold any of the pledges in this license, or upon modification or removal of any part of this license.
May we ritualistically fall on our own swords if we fail to uphold our solemn promise to Ethereum and the Infinite Garden.”
Multiple EF employees allegedly objected to the license, one noting that a colleague had just killed themselves in 2025. These criticisms prompted EF’s board to revise the mandate. However, rather than remove the Seppuku License, the finalised 38-page mandate issued on March 13 reportedly reformatted it into a Comic Sans-style font, made it less prominent, and illustrated it with cartoon cats and an anime girl pointing a gun at the reader.
Credit: The Ethereum Foundation
EF employees were allegedly given until March 25 to pledge their commitment to the mandate via an online form, with failure to do so considered a resignation. EF co-executive director Bastian Aue reportedly did state that the mandate’s reference to ritual suicide was not intended to be literal, however did not remove it from the document.
“Employees were thus asked to accept, on management’s word in a chat thread, that a clause the board had just spent a week redrawing rather than deleting did not mean what it said,” read the complaint.
Fulton refused to sign the pledge, and worked with colleague Trent Van Epps to draft a letter to EF’s board voicing their objections. Signed by several dozen other workers, it reportedly stated that while they agreed with the mandate’s “general direction,” they could not agree to it as it stood.
“We will continue to perform the duties with which we are tasked and do not resign,” read the letter Fulton emailed to all EF staff on March 25. “Many of us have signed the commitment to the mandate under duress in fear of losing their jobs and livelihoods. We consider their responses on the poll to be coerced and meaningless.”
Aue allegedly told staff that he accepted the letter as committing to the mandate while voicing “frustrations with the process and form.” However, EF fired both Fulton and Van Epps on April 6, less than two weeks after the email was sent, reportedly with no cause given. While none of the letter’s other signatories were immediately dismissed, the complaint states that most had resigned or been fired by September.
The Ethereum Foundation Mandate is currently available on EF’s website, including the Source Seppuku License.
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Fulton and Van Epps’ termination came within an hour of Aue allegedly issuing a company-wide statement on how to raise concerns, including use of tone. In it, he reportedly stated that if employees’ confidence in EF was shaken, “it is likely better for both you, the EF, and Ethereum if you look for a way to contribute to Ethereum from outside the EF.”
According to the complaint, EF board member Vitalik Buterin subsequently told Fulton in May that “if you reward making a stink with outcomes, then everyone will know that essentially making that kind of a show both internally and externally is the way to cause outcomes inside of the EF.”
“Mr. Buterin’s account… explains [Fulton’s] termination as a deterrent: the organizers of the Protocol letter were removed so that the remaining staff would learn that organizing does not ’cause outcomes inside of the EF,'” claimed the complaint. “Defendants acted intentionally, willfully and wantonly, with malice, and with reckless indifference to Ms. Fulton’s federally and state protected rights.”
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The lawsuit claims Fulton had never been criticised for her work, and that her supervisor had rated her performance at EF as “greatly exceeding expectations” seven months prior to her dismissal. Her termination also occurred amidst her cancer diagnosis, which she was informed of on March 19 and disclosed to EF on March 24. Fulton considers this diagnosis as a parallel motivation for her termination, as Aue allegedly stated during her dismissal that a cancer patient would could not offer the “exclusive and energetic focus” EF required from employees.
“Ms. Fulton has suffered and continues to suffer emotional distress, anxiety, humiliation, and loss of professional standing as a result of being fired in the first weeks after a cancer diagnosis, without explanation, by an organization that had just ordered her to affirm a suicide pledge, while facing the loss of her health insurance during treatment, and then being given three days to sign away her rights or lose even the health stipend she had been offered,” read the complaint.
Fulton alleges EF violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, and is seeking backpay and lost benefits, frontpay in lieu of reinstatement, punitive damages, and compensation for emotional distress. Mashable has reached out to EF for comment.
If you’re feeling suicidal or experiencing a mental health crisis, please talk to somebody. You can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. You can reach the Trans Lifeline by calling 877-565-8860 or the Trevor Project at 866-488-7386. Text “START” to Crisis Text Line at 741-741. Contact the NAMI HelpLine at 1-800-950-NAMI, Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. ET, or email info@nami.org. If you don’t like the phone, consider using the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Chat. Here is a list of international resources.
