The past year has been one of the most transformative in Ethereum's 11-year journey, marked by leadership changes, institutional adoption, and a shift in the Ethereum Foundation's approach.
By Margaux Nijkerk, AI Boost|Edited by Cheyenne Ligon Jul 30, 2026, 1:52 p.m. 4 min readMake preferred on ShareShare this articleCopy linkX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailMake preferred on SummaryShow- The 11th year of Ethereum was characterized by a major transformation at the Ethereum Foundation, including leadership changes, layoffs, a new operational mandate, and the establishment of independent entities like EthLabs and Ethereum Institutional.
- Despite internal restructuring, Ethereum continued to progress technically and gained traction with institutional investors, launching the Fusaka upgrade and seeing over $11.23 billion in inflows into U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs.
Since its launch on July 30, 2015, Ethereum has aimed to serve as a decentralized world computer. Eleven years later, it has become a foundational layer for a multitude of tokenized assets and decentralized finance applications. However, the narrative surrounding Ethereum has shifted beyond the network itself to encompass the institution that has guided it, which has undergone significant changes over the past year.
In the last year, the Ethereum Foundation has experienced an unprecedented level of change, driven by growing dissatisfaction among developers and community members regarding its operational pace. This dissatisfaction sparked the most substantial organizational restructuring since Ethereum's inception, leading to leadership changes, staff departures, and a reevaluation of its role within a rapidly evolving ecosystem.
Criticism had been mounting for months as rival blockchains aggressively sought to attract developers and users. Some in the Ethereum community expressed concerns that the foundation had become too insular and slow to adapt. Calls for increased transparency and improved execution intensified, placing significant scrutiny on an organization that traditionally operated behind the scenes.
This pressure culminated in major internal changes. In the last seven months, nine senior figures left the Ethereum Foundation, including co-executive directors Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak, whose resignations ended a dual leadership experiment initiated during a previous restructuring. Additionally, the foundation reduced its workforce by 20% through layoffs, emphasizing a broader goal to redefine its mission and allocate resources more effectively.
The reorganization was not solely about leadership changes. In March, the foundation unveiled its first formal mandate, serving as a guiding document for its future operations. This mandate outlines a framework known as CROPS: Censorship Resistance, Open Source, Privacy, and Security, which are described as essential principles guiding all technical and organizational decisions. Notably, the mandate also states that the foundation's success should be evaluated based on its ability to lessen its influence over Ethereum, indicating a belief that the ecosystem should increasingly operate independently.
This philosophy is reflected in the creation of new independent entities that have emerged from the foundation, including EthLabs, Ethereum Systems, and Ethereum Institutional. Each of these entities is focused on different aspects of ecosystem development. While the foundation remains a key steward of protocol research and funding for public goods, these spinouts signify a deliberate shift towards distributing responsibilities that were once centralized.
The timing aligns well with Ethereum's longstanding commitment to decentralization, which aims to eliminate single points of failure through distributed consensus. Now, eleven years after its inception, this principle is increasingly being applied to its institutional framework.
Simultaneously, the technical roadmap for Ethereum has progressed. The Fusaka upgrade demonstrated the resilience of the network's development process. This upgrade focuses on PeerDAS, a data availability enhancement intended to improve the efficiency of layer-2 solutions. While it may not attract the same level of public attention as the highly publicized Merge upgrade, Fusaka represents another critical step in Ethereum's scaling strategy.
As Ethereum underwent internal transformations, its relationship with Wall Street has also evolved significantly over the past year. Once primarily seen as the backbone of decentralized finance, Ethereum is increasingly being recognized as a foundational layer for traditional finance as well.
Asset management leader BlackRock has been actively participating in the Ethereum ecosystem, exploring opportunities in Ethereum DeFi and launching staked ether ETFs. Meanwhile, JPMorgan has expanded its blockchain-based settlement initiatives. These efforts highlight a broader institutional trend toward utilizing Ethereum as the foundational layer for tokenized real-world assets, driven by its security, composability, and a robust developer ecosystem.
The increasing acceptance of Ethereum by traditional finance is also evident in the markets. Since their inception in 2024, U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs have gained over $11.23 billion in net inflows, reflecting a growing institutional appetite for ETH exposure. Importantly, institutions are no longer just holding Ethereum's native asset; they are also starting to issue financial products directly on the network.
This contrast may ultimately define Ethereum's eleventh year. Internally, the ecosystem has undergone one of the most significant periods of reflection in its history, prompting its leading institution to reconsider its structure, leadership, and mission. Externally, Ethereum has never been more deeply integrated into the global financial system.
While the first decade of Ethereum was centered on demonstrating the viability of decentralized infrastructure, its second decade begins with a new challenge: ensuring that the surrounding institutions evolve without compromising the decentralized principles that made Ethereum successful in the first place.
Read more: A timeline of the Ethereum Foundation's ongoing shakeup
Ethereum NewsAI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.Latest Crypto News- 1Institutional crypto trading hits a record 72% as Wall Street calms crypto's wild swings5 minutes ago
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