Key Highlights
Hsiao-Wei Wang announced on June 18 that she is stepping down as co-executive director and board member of the Ethereum Foundation effective immediately, saying a sabbatical gave her time to reflect on her priorities and the kind of life she wants to build next, and that she had come to feel it was the right moment to step back from her formal role.
Wang's departure follows Tomasz Stańczak's exit as co-executive director in February 2026 and earlier sabbaticals or transitions involving several senior Protocol Cluster figures including Barnabé Monnot, Tim Beiko, and Alex Stokes, marking a significant period of leadership change at the foundation.
Vitalik Buterin credited Wang as a steadfast Ethereum contributor for a decade, highlighting both her technical work on research and consensus and her community-building efforts in Taipei, while the foundation's protocol roadmap work including the Glamsterdam upgrade continues under existing teams.
Hsiao-Wei Wang announced on X that she is stepping down as co-executive director and board member of the Ethereum Foundation, effective immediately. She said a sabbatical gave her space to reflect on her priorities and the kind of life she wants to build next, and that she came to feel it was the right moment to step back from her formal role. Wang thanked Bastian Aue for guiding the transition during her absence. She said she expects to spend more time closer to home and remains a member of the Ethereum community, though she did not announce a new position or project.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin responded on X by describing Wang as a steadfast contributor to the Ethereum ecosystem for a decade. He recalled her early participation in the Ethereum research community, first as an outside contributor and then inside the foundation, and said she brought thought and care to making Ethereum research and consensus work more organized. Buterin also highlighted her role in building a strong Ethereum community in Taipei through people and events, and said she handled foundation leadership skillfully and gracefully during a difficult period for both Ethereum and the wider industry. He said he looks forward to her next steps. Wang and Stańczak had been appointed co-executive directors in March 2025, at which point the foundation described Wang as bringing seven years of research experience including work tied to the Beacon Chain and Ethereum's wider research process.
Her departure follows a series of leadership changes at the foundation over the past several months. Tomasz Stańczak stepped down as co-executive director in February 2026, after which the board appointed Aue as interim co-executive director, describing him as having deep knowledge of the foundation's structure and values and experience working across grants, enterprise work, and operations. The Protocol Cluster transition that followed included exits or sabbaticals involving Barnabé Monnot, Tim Beiko, and Alex Stokes, with new leads taking over key areas as core teams continued work across scaling, security, and client development. The Ethereum Foundation has also been narrowing its role as an institution, with Buterin having previously described his view that the foundation should function as one node in the wider Ethereum system rather than as its parent or permanent steward.
Protocol work continues across Ethereum teams despite the personnel changes. The foundation's Q1 2026 grants supported client implementations including Geth, Erigon, and Lighthouse, as well as validator security tooling, zero-knowledge research, and public infrastructure. The Glamsterdam upgrade, currently being developed by core teams, focuses on Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation and Block-Level Access Lists, changes aimed at making block building more transparent and helping clients process data more efficiently. Wang used her departure message to point to the breadth of the Ethereum ecosystem beyond the foundation, crediting builders, researchers, educators, node operators, validators, and users, and saying Ethereum has always been bigger than any one role.
