The Ethereum Foundation has again seen senior leadership changes. Co-executive director Wang Xiaowei has announced her departure from the organization, continuing a series of personnel adjustments over the past year. Previously, Vitalik Buterin indicated that the foundation would transition to a leaner organizational structure, focusing on areas such as censorship resistance, privacy, and security.
There have been multiple departures this year.
Wang Xiaowei’s departure occurred after she returned from her leave. Prior to that, her co-CEO counterpart, Tomasz Stańczak, had left in February of this year. Subsequently, Bastian Aue was appointed as interim co-CEO to work alongside Wang Xiaowei during the transition.
Wang Xiaowei said that during her leave, Bastian Aue drove the handover process, and she believes now is the right time for her to step down.
In addition to management changes, the Ethereum Foundation has previously lost several key members. The report noted that renowned researcher Dankrad Feist and at least two other senior members have also departed. These changes have intensified concerns among outsiders about whether the foundation can continue to effectively advance the Ethereum ecosystem.
Buterin proposed a direction for organizational contraction.
One month before Wang Xiaowei stepped down, Buterin stated that the Ethereum Foundation would shift to a "smaller boat"—a smaller, more focused team. According to him, the foundation would henceforth concentrate its efforts on clearer goals such as censorship resistance, privacy, and security.
In fact, internal adjustments at the foundation did not begin recently. Buterin previously mentioned that since early 2025, the foundation has been driving significant organizational changes aimed at improving connections with ecosystem builders and active participants. Entering 2026, he also acknowledged that Ethereum needs to reassess its relationship with Layer 2 networks.
The treasury policy is also being adjusted accordingly.
In addition to personnel changes, the Ethereum Foundation has recently adjusted its treasury management approach. For a long time, the foundation faced criticism from the community for selling ETH. In response to these concerns, the foundation has recently introduced a more transparent treasury policy, outlining the circumstances under which ETH will be sold and committing to seek acceptable returns on its treasury assets.
Earlier this year, the foundation also began staking from its treasury, with the goal of ultimately staking approximately 70,000 ETH. Based on the price mentioned in the text, this portion of assets is valued at approximately $119 million.
As of the time of this report, ETH has declined approximately 1.4% over the past 24 hours, trading around $1,708. At this price, ETH is down nearly 66% from its all-time high of $4,946 set in August 2025.