The Ethereum Foundation, the Swiss-based nonprofit that stewards Ether (ETH) – the second-largest cryptocurrency – lost a second leader in four months after co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang stepped down on Thursday, following the February exit of fellow co-executive director Tomasz Stańczak.
Wang Quits Ethereum Foundation, Leaving Both Co-Director Seats Vacant
19 June 2026 - 05:19 CEST
Dual-leader structure
Wang announced her resignation in an 18 Jun X post following a sabbatical that prompted a reassessment of her priorities. "I've come to feel that this is the right moment for me to step back," she said. She and Stańczak also gave up their seats on the foundation's board.
Known for her technical contributions, Wang was a key architect of the Beacon Chain, the backbone that allowed Ethereum to transition from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) during The Merge.
Wang and Stańczak were brought on as a dual-leadership team in March 2025, replacing longtime executive director Aya Miyaguchi during a major organizational restructuring. Their pairing matched Wang's Layer 1 research background with Stańczak's infrastructure and management experience.
Guiding but not controlling
When Stańczak resigned in February, the foundation's board – which includes Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin – appointed Bastian Aue as interim co-executive director. No successor has yet been named following Wang's exit; she credited Aue with steering the foundation during her sabbatical.
The foundation's role includes funding protocol development, growing the ecosystem and advocating for Ethereum, while explicitly not controlling or leading the protocol.
CROPS mandate
The exits come as the foundation spells out a shifting mandate. It has framed Ethereum's strategic direction around CROPS: censorship resistance, open source, privacy and security.
A parallel governance shift introduced a two-tier model with a separate board of directors and a management team led by co-executive directors, alongside a clearer line between Layer 1 as the blockchain's settlement layer and Layer 2 as the scaling and customization layer.
Not the center
The reforms were driven by criticism over poor communication, unclear priorities and weak builder support. Buterin, the most influential voice on the protocol, has been a central figure in the shift, urging the foundation not to sit at the centre of a network it controls or dominates.
Ethereum provides dominant infrastructure for Web3, finance and tokenization, having transformed blockchain into a multi-purpose platform for decentralized systems. However, it lags Bitcoin (BTC): the digital bellwether's market capitalization stands at approximately $1.3tn versus Ether's $205bn.
