Author
Ahmed Barakat
Author
Share it
Hsiao-Wei Wang resigned as executive director and board member Ethereum Foundation on June 18, immediate staff, the second departure of the co-ED in four months and the latest news shows that the leadership of EF is not stable and is moving forward.
The exit comes on the same day EF contributor Trent Van Epps published a detailed warning that the development of Ethereum faces a slow funding problem within three to nine months, with an annual cost of $ 30 million that has no way to change.
Wang thanked Bastian Aue for guiding the change over the past week. Aue, who served as co-ED in the interim when Tomasz Stańczak resigned in February, is now the Foundation’s sole executive director. No replacement plan has been announced.
ETH was trading near $1,690 at the time of publication, down about 3.3% on the day, in line with market pressure rather than any Wang price. The standard issue here is not the price tag. It is as if EF could establish its leadership and financial structure in the face of both opportunities.
Note: The best crypto to change your profile
Ethereum Core Dev Funding: What the $30M Gap Really Means
Van Epps, who spent five years at the Ethereum Foundation from May 2021 to April 2026, focusing on development communication and funding of the Protocol Guild, is not an outside commentator raising concerns.
They were included in the warning system now, which makes the three to nine month window very important.
The $30 million a year figure that Van Epps cites covers the customer service, research, and coordination teams responsible for upgrading protocols and maintaining network reliability. That initiative is currently under pressure from two sources of change.
First, the Client Incentive Program ended in April 2026 without announcement. The CIP was established in 2021 to provide rewards from validators to groups that are maintaining important customers of Ethereum, Geth, Erigon, Lighthouse, and others, with payments unlocked over time based on the continued supply of the network.
Its ability to eliminate one of the few repetitive, well-organized processes outside of EF’s direct support.
Second, EF’s leadership is running a deliberate budget reduction program, aiming to reduce annual spending from 15% of its budget to 5% by 2030.
This is a long-term security for the organization managing billions in ETH, but this change creates a long-term gap that no other alternative has filled.
The EF Q1 2026 grants covered Geth, Erigon, Lighthouse, validator security tools, cryptography research, and basic infrastructure. Funding continues, but Van Epps’ argument is that episodic aid is no substitute for CIP continuity.
If a replacement Client Incentive Program is not announced in the next few months, the groups most at risk are those who are keeping customers integrated and connected on a limited path, precisely the engineers whose continuous output is required to keep the Glamsterdam’s development strategy up to date.
Van Epps also characterizes the safety net research project and the phase 1 expansion project as long-term projects that are destroyed first as the financial landscape shortens.
Two Co-EDs Emerge in Four Months: Ethereum’s Leadership Emerging Signal
Wang and Stańczak were appointed chief executives in March 2025 as part of a re-establishment of leadership following Aya Miyaguchi as president.
All are now gone within fifteen months. Additional reports put the total number of EF departures in 2026 at about 19, with at least eight that have come out in the last five months, including figures linked to the change of the Protocol Cluster, such as Barnabé Monnot, Tim Beiko, and Alex Stokes.
Treating each outcome as an individual decision misses the point. The foundation that manages the multi-billion ETH assets, oversees the developer funding of the world’s largest platform, and is going through a major change doesn’t lose two EDs in four months without some kind of conflict, whether it’s responsibility, distribution, or leadership.
Vitalik Buterin publicly responded to Wang’s departure, calling him a constant supporter for ten years and crediting him with organizing Ethereum research, collaborative work, and community building in Taipei. That is true acceptance.
It does not resolve the question of how the EF organization looks forward, especially when Bastian Aue is in charge of ED without a co-director, and no succession period has been identified.
