The Ethereum Foundation has moved through its most significant leadership change in years, spanning a 2025 governance restructuring, a sustained wave of high-profile departures through 2026, and a narrower mandate for the organization. This tracker indexes ETH Daily's coverage of who has left, who has taken over, and how the foundation's role is being redefined.
The Ethereum Foundation sits at the center of protocol research, standards coordination, and ecosystem funding. Changes at the top shape research priorities, the pace of upgrades, and how the foundation positions itself against competing ecosystems. Tracking the turnover in one place makes it easier to see the through-line: a deliberate shift from a broad operational role toward a leaner mandate focused on Ethereum's resilience.
The current chapter began with a leadership overhaul in early 2025. Vitalik Buterin signaled a large-scale change to the foundation's leadership structure, Aya Miyaguchi moved from executive director to president, and Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak were appointed co-executive directors. The foundation followed with its Ethereum Foundation Mandate, a manifesto built around two core goals: protecting self-sovereign computation and enabling coordination at scale.
A string of high-profile exits followed through the first half of 2026. Josh Stark departed the Ethereum Foundation one day after developer Trent Van Epps revealed his own exit. The foundation then named new leadership for its Protocol cluster after Tim Beiko, Barnabé Monnot, and Alex Stokes moved on. Longtime researcher Carl Beek departed in May alongside researcher Julian Ma. Most recently, Hsiao-Wei Wang stepped down as co-executive director and board member, leaving Vitalik Buterin, Aya Miyaguchi, and Patrick Storchenegger as the foundation's remaining board members.
The turnover has coincided with a redefinition of the foundation's role. Buterin outlined a narrower mandate for the EF, with an expanding board and a sharper focus on work critical to Ethereum's resilience. The direction reframes the foundation as a leaner institution that defers more day-to-day building to the broader ecosystem while concentrating on the protocol's long-term security and credible neutrality.
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