Ethereum Foundation endures fresh wave of resignations as top contributors leave

The Ethereum Foundation has lost several high-profile contributors, raising issues on alignment and the future of Ethereum. The resignations arrived after Tomasz Stańczak spent only a year as a co-director of the Foundation. 

In April and May, six contributors in total stepped down from their roles or went on extended leave from the Ethereum Foundation. Most of the resignations affected the core engineering team of the Foundation, as well as its research divisions. 

Some of the engineers abandoned the Protocol Cluster, responsible for Ethereum’s L1 design. The Protocol cluster was restructured, parting ways with engineers Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko.

Earlier, Josh Stark left the EF after a seven-year stint and a role as a co-chair of the Trillion Dollar Security Initiative. Trent Van Epps left the EF after five years as a Protocol Guild contributor. He will continue as a part-time contributor for the wider ecosystem. 

Ethereum Foundation resignations continued in May

The latest contributor to leave the EF was Carl Beek, with seven years of experience and a key role in the Beacon Chain launch. 

Recently, Julian Ma, mechanical design researcher, also resigned after four years as a cryptoeconomics researcher. 

The last two resignations drew even more attention from the Ethereum community and raised questions about the future direction of the EF. The Foundation itself has spoken mostly about its general support for the ecosystem, rather than its role as a central authority. 

The removal of high-profile contributors does not immediately point to a problem with Ethereum. However, the resignations started discussions on leadership, coordination, and the goal of decentralization.

Ethereum developer activity remains healthy

Despite the high-profile resignations, Ethereum developer activity remains healthy. Based on Token Terminal data, the project retains 169 core developers, up 63% in the past month. Ethereum core developers have been sliding in the past year, down from 225 core contributors in May 2025.

Ethereum core developers recovered slightly in the past month, but are down from 225 total contributors in May 2025 to 169 as of May 19, 2026. | Source: Token Terminal

In general, ecosystem developers are now lagging behind Solana. Despite this, a total of 9,744 Ethereum developers have reported activity, based on Chainspect data.

The EF may be restructuring in accordance with its recently published Mandate, taking up a new direction of development. Part of the Mandate’s goals includes the removal of direct influence from the Foundation, which includes parting ways with key contributors. 

One of the main worries for the EF is the dwindling ETH reserves in the organization’s wallets. The Foundation retains 103.66K ETH, after staking some of the coins and selling some of its reserves to BitMine. 

The wave of resignations arrived despite the expectations of turning Ethereum into a key layer for global finance. The team restructuring also happened at a time of peak attacks against decentralized projects, most in the Ethereum ecosystem. 

Following the recent news of resignations, ETH also traded near its lower range, losing 40% in the past year. ETH hovered around $2,117.02 following the recent general slide of crypto markets. The recent ETH price range remains on the low side, despite having 31% of the circulating supply staked in the Beacon Chain contract.

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