Ethereum Foundation President Aya Miyaguchi broke her silence this week on the organization's new mandate and the wave of senior departures that have rattled the community. In a post on X, she defended the EF's move toward a smaller, more focused structure — and said the reduced centrality is proof Ethereum has matured, not a retreat. The statement came days after co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared his own take on the transition, describing the EF as still in flux.
The trigger: competing expectations
Miyaguchi said the restructuring — proposed late last year by the board — was driven by a structural problem. The Ethereum Foundation had become a lightning rod for competing expectations, where technical debates turned political and personal. The new mandate is centered on what the EF calls CROPS and 'inalienable user self-sovereignty and self-sovereign coordination.' The guiding question, Miyaguchi wrote, was always: 'how does this stand on its own, without us?'
Who left in 2026
This year alone, the EF has seen a string of exits from senior contributors: Carl Beekhuizen, Julian Ma, Barnabé Monnot, Tim Beiko, Trent Van Epps, Josh Stark, and former co-executive director Tomasz Stańczak all left. Miyaguchi acknowledged that as the EF becomes more focused, the team naturally gets smaller and more concentrated. She did not specify whether any of the departures were voluntary or tied to the restructuring.
Buterin’s role in the transition
In a May 24 post, Vitalik Buterin emphasized that he does not hold special power over the board and said another leader is executing much of the current transition — though he did not name who. He described the EF as still 'in transition.' Buterin's comments and Miyaguchi's X thread are the most detailed public explanations yet for why the foundation is reshaping itself.
The new mandate in practice
Miyaguchi pointed to projects the EF incubated and released — Uniswap, ENS, ETHGlobal hackathons, Gitcoin, and Moloch — as evidence that the foundation's best legacy is letting things stand on their own. The EF currently holds less than 0.2% of all ETH, a share that has drawn criticism from some in the community who want the foundation to be a more active steward. At press time, ETH traded at $1,986.
What comes next isn't fully clear. Buterin said another leader is running the transition day-to-day, but the foundation hasn't named that person publicly or given a timeline for when the new structure will be complete. Miyaguchi's post suggests the EF expects to keep shrinking — but whether the community will buy that as maturity rather than retreat remains an open question.
