Ethereum Foundation Co-Director Hsiao-Wei Wang Leaves Immediately Amid Leadership Turnover

The Ethereum Foundation said co-director Hsiao-Wei Wang is leaving the organization effective immediately, continuing a leadership turnover that Decrypt links to earlier departures including Tomasz Stańczak in February.

Decrypt reports that after Stanczak’s exit, Bastian Aue was named interim co-director alongside Wang, and Wang said, "Over time, I've come to feel that this is the right moment for me to step back."

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Cointelegraph adds that in a post on X, Wang wrote that "Ethereum has always been bigger than any role" and indicated she had not yet decided what she will do next.

Cointelegraph also says Vitalik Buterin commented on Wang’s X post, acknowledging she had taken on "the most challenging position in the Ethereum Foundation" alongside Tomasz Stanczak.

As the leadership reshuffle unfolded, Cointelegraph framed the departures as part of intensifying scrutiny of the research organization amid questions about talent retention and governance philosophy.

Cointelegraph says Buterin pushed back against criticism that the foundation should play a more active role, writing in May that the foundation "is not the 'center of Ethereum,' rather […] 'one node, with a defined purpose, alongside other nodes.'"

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In a separate thread, Decrypt reports that Buterin signaled the Foundation would transition into a "smaller ship," creating a leaner team with a more narrow focus around censorship resistance, privacy, and security.

Cointelegraph also cites the Ethereum Foundation’s revised mandate emphasizing decentralization, including the goal for Ethereum to pass the walkaway test even if the Foundation and core developers disappeared tomorrow.

Decrypt ties the leadership exits to broader uncertainty about the Foundation’s ability to push the Ethereum ecosystem forward, noting that skepticism was amplified by top researcher Dankrad Feist shortly before Buterin’s mandate in May.

“Tomasz Stańczak leaves the leadership of the Ethereum Foundation after a little over a year, reigniting doubts about the organization's stability and governance”

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Decrypt says Feist posted on X that "The community needs to create an organization that's economically aligned with Ethereum and accountable to it," and added it needs "a leader who is competent and wants to fight."

Cointelegraph reports that the Foundation has logged an estimated 19 layoffs and departures this year, while also stating that decentralization remains the Ethereum Foundation’s core mandate.

Cointelegraph further describes Buterin’s evolving stance on layer-2 networks, saying he recently stated that the original vision for layer-2s "no longer makes sense" and that improvements to the Ethereum mainnet make it a more suitable long-term scaling solution.