Ethereum Slips 5% After New Leadership Change at Foundation

Ethereum Foundation co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang has resigned from her leadership role, becoming the latest senior figure to leave the organization during a challenging period for the Ethereum ecosystem.

Wang announced her departure on Firefly, stating that it was the right time to step away after a recent sabbatical. Her resignation also ends her tenure as a board member of the Ethereum Foundation.

The departure marks another leadership change for the Switzerland-based organization as Ethereum continues facing governance questions, ecosystem criticism, and prolonged weakness in ETH price performance.

Ethereum Foundation Loses Eight Senior Members in 2026

Wang’s resignation now brings the total to eight senior members of the Ethereum Foundation who have left the organization this year. These include her co-executive director, Stańczak, who stepped down in February.

Other high-profile researchers and developers have also left the foundation recently. Two of three team leads for the Protocol cluster, Tim Beiko and Barnabé Monnot, left the organization while the third co-lead, Alex Stokes, took a sabbatical.

The exit of these key developers has raised multiple questions about the strategy and direction of the Switzerland-based non-profit.

However, the Ethereum Foundation appears to have a clear-cut vision as it published its mandate earlier this year. It stated that it would focus strictly on censorship resistance, open source, privacy, and security (CROPs).

Despite its mandate, the Ethereum Foundation continues to face criticisms from within the ecosystem. These criticisms usually focus on the ETH price, the foundation’s ETH sales, and questions about what it funds.

A recent ETH sale coincided with DeFi United’s fundraising efforts to restore the rsETH peg after the KelpDAO exploit. This drew widespread backlash from within the Ethereum community.

ETH Falls Below $1,700 Amidst Market-Wide Decline

Meanwhile, Wang’s resignation coincides with a 5% drop in ETH value. The leading altcoin fell below $1,700 today after previously showing signs of recovery from its $1,500 bottom a few days ago.

The decline today is part of a broader decline in crypto asset values, likely due to reports that the Federal Reserve will raise rates again this year. Bitcoin also fell by almost 4%.

With this decline, ETH remains in the red across almost every time period this year. It is down 20% over the past month and 43.3% year to date.