The Ethereum Foundation is undergoing significant changes in 2026, including leadership shifts and a major restructuring to address community concerns.
Transformations at the Ethereum Foundation Throughout 2026
The Ethereum Foundation has experienced significant changes throughout 2026, responding to growing concerns from its community about governance and technical direction. Entering the year, scrutiny intensified as developers and investors criticized the foundation for focusing too heavily on layer-2 scaling solutions while neglecting improvements to the base layer.
In February, the foundation's co-executive director, Tomasz Stańczak, announced his resignation, marking the beginning of a series of leadership changes. This was followed by the establishment of a new mandate that shifted the foundation's role to that of a long-term steward within the Ethereum ecosystem, guided by the CROPS framework—censorship resistance, resilience, openness, privacy, and security.
Following Stańczak's departure, the foundation saw an unprecedented wave of exits, with nine senior leaders and researchers leaving within months. Despite these departures, the leadership maintained that these changes were part of a necessary organizational reset rather than a sign of decline.
In June, co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang also resigned, leading to the foundation's most extensive restructuring to date. This involved a 20% reduction in workforce, laying off 54 employees, and cutting the annual operating budget by 40% to ensure financial sustainability. The remaining staff were reorganized into five operational groups focused on areas where the foundation believed it could provide the most effective support.
Simultaneously, new entities emerged to take on responsibilities that had traditionally belonged to the foundation. ETHLabs was launched to accelerate protocol research and ecosystem coordination independently. July saw the introduction of Ethereum Institutional, aimed at facilitating enterprise adoption of Ethereum through research and education. Additionally, EthSystems was established as a for-profit entity focused on developing privacy solutions for financial institutions using Ethereum.
This series of developments marks the most significant reorganization in the Ethereum Foundation's history, reshaping its structure and redefining its mission. As it moves forward, the foundation is increasingly reliant on independent organizations to drive research and development within the Ethereum ecosystem.
