The Ethereum Foundation entered 2026 under the shadow of intense criticism from within the community. Developers, investors, and prominent Ethereum advocates have long debated the organization’s decision-making structure, implementation speed, and technical priorities. The focus of criticism was that the roadmap placed too much emphasis on layer 2 scaling efforts, while improvements in the main network remained in the background.
Leadership change and separations came to the fore
Following the leadership change in the first quarter of the year, high-level departures at the foundation came one after the other. In the following months, nine senior managers, researchers and leaders left the institution. This was noted as one of the most remarkable personnel changes in the 12-year history of the Ethereum Foundation.
Foundation management argues that the separations are not a sign of decline, but should be seen as part of a broader institutional reset.
Ethereum Foundation is known as a non-profit structure that has long played a central role in the core research, development and coordination processes of the Ethereum ecosystem. For this reason, every management change in the institution is not limited to the internal functioning of the foundation; It is also closely monitored in terms of the technical aspect of the network and the future of the ecosystem.
The restructuring in June was decisive
The transformation accelerated even more in June. Co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang has resigned. A few days later, the foundation announced its biggest restructuring move to date. The agency eliminated 54 positions, reducing nearly a fifth of its workforce. The annual operating budget was also reduced by approximately 40%.
The aim of these steps was explained as providing a simpler structure to the organization and making it more financially sustainable. The remaining teams were reorganized into five main activity groups focusing on areas that the foundation said only it could support.
| Title | Change |
|---|---|
| workforce | Decreased by approximately 20%, 54 positions removed |
| annual budget | Reduced by approximately 40% |
| Organizational structure | Divided into five basic activity groups |
New institutions took on a greater role in the ecosystem
Simultaneously with the changes in June, new structures emerged that aimed to take over some of the tasks previously undertaken by the foundation. One of them, ETHLabs, was founded with the support of some companies that hold significant ETH reserves in the ecosystem. The goal of the structure was to accelerate protocol research, ecosystem coordination and product development on a platform outside the foundation.
Ethereum Institutional, introduced in July, focuses on supporting the use of Ethereum by companies, asset managers and non-profit organizations through research, education and standards development.
EthSystems, which came on the scene a few weeks later, was positioned as a new for-profit company aiming to develop infrastructure to keep financial institutions’ transactions on Ethereum private.
Developments throughout 2026 constitute the most comprehensive restructuring process in the history of the Ethereum Foundation.
Thus, the discussions that centered around governance and technical priorities at the beginning of the year turned into an ecosystem picture with a smaller foundation structure, a renewed leadership team, a redefined mission framework, and a more prominent role for independent organizations in research and institutional adoption.
