Key Facts

• The Ethereum Foundation's co-executive director, Tomasz Stańczak, announced his departure in February 2026, after helping lead the foundation's initial restructuring, and was followed by the publication of a new mandate outlining a narrower vision for its role within the Ethereum ecosystem.
• Nine senior foundation leaders, researchers, and executives left the organization over the following months, marking one of the largest periods of turnover in its 12-year history.
• In June 2026, co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang resigned, and the foundation announced its largest restructuring to date, cutting roughly one-fifth of its workforce, eliminating 54 positions, and reducing its annual operating budget by about 40%.
• The foundation's restructuring included the reorganization of remaining staff into five core operating groups focused on areas the foundation said only it was uniquely positioned to support, and was accompanied by the emergence of new institutions, including ETHLabs, Ethereum Institutional, and EthSystems.
• The changes have resulted in a smaller Ethereum Foundation, with a redefined mandate built around the CROPS framework — censorship resistance, resilience, openness, privacy, and security — and a greater reliance on independent organizations to drive research, institutional adoption, and protocol development.