The Ethereum Foundation entered 2026 under mounting pressure. Developers, investors and prominent Ethereum community members had spent months criticizing the organization’s pace of execution, governance and technical priorities, with many arguing Ethereum’s roadmap had become overly focused on layer-2 scaling while neglecting improvements to the base layer.
The first major shakeup to the foundation came in February, when co-executive director Tomasz Stańczak announced he would step down after helping lead the foundation through its initial restructuring. A few weeks later, the foundation published a new mandate outlining a narrower vision for its role within the Ethereum ecosystem. Built around the CROPS framework — censorship resistance, resilience, openness, privacy and security — the document recast the foundation as a long-term steward rather than the ecosystem’s primary builder or coordinator.
The leadership transition was followed by a steady stream of departures. Over the following months, nine senior foundation leaders, researchers and executives left the organization, marking one of the largest periods of turnover in its 12-year history. The exits fueled speculation about the foundation’s future even as its leadership insisted the changes were not a sign of decline, but rather a necessary part of a broader organizational reset.
