Foundation's "Lean Ship" Loses Another Captain as Hsiao-Wei Wang Steps Down 🧭

The Ethereum Foundation has lost another senior leader, with co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang announcing on X that she has stepped down from her role effective immediately following a recent sabbatical. Wang, who had been with the organization for nearly a decade, wrote that "Ethereum has always been bigger than any role" and indicated she has not yet decided what she will do next. Bastian Aue, who served as interim co-director during her absence, now remains as the sole executive director.

Wang's exit follows the February departure of her fellow co-director, Tomasz Stańczak. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin commented on Wang's post, acknowledging that she had taken on "the most challenging position in the Ethereum Foundation" alongside Stańczak. Wang specifically credited Aue, stating, "During my break, Bastian guided the transition with care and thoughtfulness, and I appreciate the work he and many others have put into that process. Over time, I've come to feel that this is the right moment for me to step back."

The departures come amid a broader wave of exits estimated at roughly 18 to 19 personnel this year. Other notable resignations include operations lead John Stark in April 2026, protocol lead Tim Beiko in May 2026, former lead developer Barnabe Monnot last month, and senior researchers Carl Beekhuizen, Julian Ma, Tren Van Epps, Pablo Voorvaart, and Alex Stokes, all of whom also left in May 2026. Former top researcher Dankrad Feist, who departed last year, recently proposed that the community create a new organization with at least $1 billion in ETH funding to "save Ethereum," stating it needs "a leader who is competent and wants to fight."

In March, the Foundation unveiled a revised mandate emphasizing decentralization, stating, "Our ultimate goal is for Ethereum to pass the walkaway test: its protocol and core application layers become robust and trustless enough that they would continue to reliably function and evolve even if the Foundation and today's core developers disappeared tomorrow." Last month, Buterin signaled that the Foundation would transition into a "smaller ship" focused on censorship resistance, privacy, and security, while also stating that the original vision for layer-2 networks "no longer makes sense." The Foundation has also implemented a more transparent ETH treasury policy, recently beginning to stake its holdings with a goal of staking around 70,000 ETH, worth approximately $119 million at current prices. As of writing, ETH is down around 1.4% over the past day and trading near $1,700.