Key Facts

• Hsiao-Wei Wang, co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, announced her immediate departure from her role, effective June 2023, after taking a recent sabbatical, stating that "Ethereum has always been bigger than any role" and that she has not yet decided on her next steps.
• The Ethereum Foundation has experienced an estimated 19 layoffs and departures this year, with the loss of senior executives and core contributors drawing attention amid intensifying competition, ongoing debate over Ethereum's governance and long-term development strategy, and continued pressure on Ether's market performance.
• Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin acknowledged Wang's departure, noting that she had taken on "the most challenging position in the Ethereum Foundation" alongside Tomasz Stanczak, who also stepped down from his leadership role earlier this year.
• The Ethereum Foundation has reaffirmed its role as a steward of the Ethereum ecosystem, unveiling a revised mandate in March that places even greater emphasis on decentralization, with the ultimate goal of Ethereum passing the "walkaway test" where its protocol and core application layers become robust and trustless enough to function and evolve without the foundation.
• Buterin has pushed back against criticism that the foundation should play a more active role in promoting the network, stating that the foundation "is not the 'center of Ethereum,' rather [...] 'one node, with a defined purpose, alongside other nodes,'" and has also recently stated that the original vision for Ethereum layer-2 networks "no longer makes sense."