TLDR
- Ethereum Foundation co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang has resigned effective immediately after returning from a sabbatical.
- Her departure follows fellow co-director Tomasz Stańczak, who also stepped down earlier this year.
- The foundation has now seen roughly 19 layoffs and departures in 2026, including at least eight senior figures in five months.
- Board member Bastian Aue has stepped in to help oversee the leadership transition in the interim.
- Vitalik Buterin acknowledged Wang held “the most challenging position” at the foundation.
Ethereum Foundation co-director Hsiao-Wei Wang has stepped down from her role, adding to a growing list of leadership exits at the Switzerland-based nonprofit.
Wang announced her resignation on X on Thursday, saying her recent sabbatical gave her time to reflect on her priorities. “I’ve come to feel that this is the right moment for me to step back,” she wrote. She said she has not yet decided what she will do next.
After my sabbatical, I have decided to step down as co-executive director and board member of the Ethereum Foundation (@ethereumfndn), effective today.
That time gave me space to reflect on my priorities and the kind of life I want to build next. During my break, Bastian…
— hww.eth | Hsiao-Wei Wang (@hwwonx) June 18, 2026
Her departure comes just months after fellow co-executive director Tomasz Stańczak also resigned. Stańczak had been helping steer a leadership transition before stepping down.
A Wave of Departures
The Ethereum Foundation has now logged an estimated 19 layoffs and departures in 2026. At least eight senior figures have left in the past five months.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin responded to Wang’s post on X, saying she had taken on “the most challenging position in the Ethereum Foundation” alongside Stańczak.
Board member Bastian Aue has stepped in to fill the gap. Aue helped oversee the leadership transition during Wang’s sabbatical and has taken on a larger role in the interim following both co-directors’ exits.
The departures have drawn scrutiny from the broader Ethereum community. Questions have been raised about the foundation’s governance, strategic direction, and ability to retain talent as Ethereum faces competition from rival blockchains.
The Foundation’s Stated Mission
Buterin has pushed back against critics who say the foundation should do more to promote the network. In May, he said the foundation is “not the ‘center of Ethereum'” but rather “one node, with a defined purpose, alongside other nodes.”
In March, the foundation released a revised mandate placing greater emphasis on decentralization. It stated its goal is for Ethereum to pass the “walkaway test” — meaning the protocol should be robust enough to keep functioning even if the foundation and its core developers disappeared entirely.
Buterin has also recently said that the original vision for Ethereum layer-2 networks “no longer makes sense.” He argued many layer-2 solutions have not achieved meaningful decentralization, and that improvements to the Ethereum mainnet make it a stronger long-term scaling option.
Wang reflected on Ethereum’s broader mission in her farewell statement. “Ethereum has always been bigger than any one role, any one organization, or any one moment,” she said.
The foundation has not yet named a permanent replacement for either co-executive director role.
