- In 2026 alone, at least eight senior staff members left the Ethereum Foundation.
- Key protocol cluster leaders, including Tim Beko and Barnabé Monnot, have recently departed.
- The foundation stated that Ethereum's roadmap remains unchanged, but concerns over leadership instability are growing.
The Ethereum Foundation is facing increasing scrutiny following another wave of executive departures, with at least eight senior staff having left this year. The latest departures include Karl Bick, who worked at the company for seven years, Beacon Chain and Julian Ma, who spent four years contributing to … Ethereum scaling efforts, including FOCIL and Layer 2 bridging initiatives.
The departure of these individuals has added further pressure to an organization already facing internal restructuring, execution criticism, and ongoing community dissatisfaction with the pace of Ethereum development.
The protocol cluster has been almost destroyed
Particularly noteworthy is that these departures have been almost entirely concentrated among the leadership of the Ethereum core protocol.
At the beginning of this month, several key figures, including Tim Beiko and Barnabé Monnot, stepped down from their leadership roles in the Ethereum protocol cluster, and Alex Stokes also began a leave of absence. Combined with earlier departures this year, the foundation’s senior technical leadership has undergone significant turnover in just a few months.
Former co-executive director Thomas K. Stanczak resigned in February after serving in the role for less than a year; and long-time Ethereum Foundation member Josh Stark left in March after seven years with the organization.
The foundation has made almost no comments.
The public explanations for these departures remain somewhat vague. Julian Ma said his responsibilities gradually shifted from research to a greater focus on product development, ultimately prompting him to explore new opportunities. Carl Beek cited changes in family matters and personal life as the reason for his departure.
However, Ethereum Foundation has not provided a more thorough explanation for why so many seasoned contributors left in such a short period of time.
This silence has intensified speculation within the Ethereum community, especially following criticism of the foundation regarding its prioritization of scaling, communication, and ecosystem support, as well as its internal restructuring in 2025.
The Ethereum roadmap continues — at least for now.
Despite leadership changes, the Ethereum Foundation remains committed to the full-scale advancement of its core technology roadmap. Upcoming initiatives include: Grampsden, with Hegotá and FOCIL reportedly continuing under the new leadership structure.
But even if the roadmap remains technically unchanged, the scale of these personnel changes makes it impossible for the community to ignore. Losing eight senior contributors in just five months—including protocol leads and executive management—is far from a routine organizational adjustment.
The bigger issue is the future direction of Ethereum.
The core issue now is less about individual resignations and more about what these collective departures signal regarding Ethereum’s long-term governance, execution culture, and internal coordination.
Some community members believe that, as the Ethereum ecosystem matures and extends beyond the foundation itself, this personnel change is an inevitable part of its development. Others worry that it reflects deeper underlying tensions behind the scenes regarding leadership, scaling priorities, or organizational direction.
In any case, the Ethereum Foundation is now under increasing pressure to provide clearer answers, one of which is this. cryptocurrency's most important ecosystem has entered another critical phase of development.