The Ethereum Foundation said on June 23 it is ending 54 roles, described as "roughly 20% of the EF", completing a reorganization it called "a months-long process." The Foundation's work will be divided into five domain clusters: protocol, access, user, community, and institutional layers, each with a distinct structure and accountability model.
Co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang stepped down in the week before the announcement, per Decrypt, leaving board member Bastian Aue to oversee day-to-day operations. Her exit is the latest in roughly nine senior departures at the Foundation since January 2026, per CoinDesk.
Co-founder Vitalik Buterin separately disclosed that the Foundation is cutting its annual spend by roughly 40% this year, targeting around 5% of treasury assets per year by 2030, down from approximately 15% before the restructuring. Among the units affected is Privacy and Scaling Explorations (PSE), the Foundation's ZK research division, which is being wound down. Buterin wrote: "I respect my EF colleagues far too much to pretend that there was not much that is lost."
