Ethereum Foundation Leadership Shake-Up: Tomasz Stanczak Steps Down, Bastian Aue Takes Over

Tomasz Stanczak is stepping down as co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation at the end of February 2026, just nine months after assuming the role alongside Hsiao-Wei Wang. Bastian Aue will step in as interim co-executive director, working alongside Wang to guide the organization through its next phase.

The leadership transition comes as Ethereum navigates an increasingly complex landscape involving Layer 2 scaling, AI integration, and institutional adoption, with Stanczak expressing confidence that the foundation is now “in a healthy state” to continue its mission. For ETH holders and ecosystem participants, this move signals continuity rather than disruption, with Stanczak remaining active as a builder and core contributor.

Who Is Tomasz Stanczak and Why Did He Join the Ethereum Foundation?

To understand why this leadership change matters, you need to rewind to early 2025. The Ethereum Foundation was under significant pressure from community members who questioned its transparency, strategic direction, and responsiveness to developer needs. Long-time executive director Aya Miyaguchi transitioned to the role of president, creating a leadership vacuum that needed filling.

Enter Tomasz Stanczak. Already well-known in Ethereum circles as the founder of Nethermind, one of the ecosystem’s major execution clients, Stanczak brought a builder’s mentality to the foundation’s top ranks. He was appointed co-executive director alongside Hsiao-Wei Wang in April 2025, charged with restructuring the organization and restoring confidence among developers and users alike.

The timing was anything but easy. Stanczak walked into an environment where critics pointed to perceived conflicts of interest, clashes over technical roadmaps, and frustrations about ETH’s price performance relative to other assets. The foundation needed someone who understood both the technical depths of Ethereum and the organizational challenges of shepherding a decentralized ecosystem.

Stanczak’s background made him a logical choice. Nethermind had established itself as a reliable contributor to Ethereum’s infrastructure, and he brought hands-on experience building tools that developers actually use. That operational credibility mattered enormously during a period when the foundation needed to demonstrate it could move faster and communicate more clearly.

What Tomasz Stanczak Accomplished in Nine Months

Nine months is not a long time in blockchain years, but Stanczak’s tenure packed meaningful changes into a compressed timeline. In his farewell blog post, he outlined several achievements that help explain why he feels comfortable passing the baton now.

The foundation launched a dedicated security program, recognizing that as Ethereum handles more real-world value, the attack surface expands accordingly. A new treasury policy brought greater clarity around how the organization manages its substantial ETH holdings, addressing one of the community’s long-standing transparency concerns. An AI team debuted to explore how machine learning and agentic systems might intersect with blockchain infrastructure, positioning Ethereum for what Stanczak calls the “agentic economy.”

Several internal units were combined to reduce redundancy and speed decision-making. The foundation created a Platform team specifically to engage with Layer 2 rollups, convening more than 20 teams to discuss scaling challenges, differentiation strategies, and interoperability standards. That work paid off in measurable ways, with major rollups increasingly dominating alternative Layer 1 chains in both stablecoin volumes and transactions per second.

Key Milestones Under Stanczak’s Leadership

• Security Program Launch: Dedicated initiative to harden Ethereum against emerging threats as institutional adoption grows
• Treasury Policy Reform: Clearer guidelines for how the foundation manages and deploys its ETH reserves
• AI Team Formation: Dedicated group exploring decentralized AI and agentic system integration
• Platform Team Creation: Direct engagement with 20+ Layer 2 teams to align on scaling and interoperability
• Merged Roadmap Development: Combined LEAN Ethereum and core development roadmaps for post-2026 coordination
• Quantum Strategy Definition: Clear positioning on post-quantum security requirements within the protocol roadmap

Stanczak also highlighted progress on the technical front. Ethereum delivered two network upgrades in 2025, maintaining the steady improvement cadence that users expect. Core developers established a defined quantum strategy, addressing the long-term question of how Ethereum will remain secure in a post-quantum world. And the foundation released standards and experiments around decentralized AI, betting that autonomous agents will increasingly rely on blockchain verification.

“The roadmap is clearer; the goals are set,” Stanczak wrote, adding that many changes have been completed or are consistently improving. That sense of momentum made this moment feel like a natural transition point rather than a crisis response.

Why Tomasz Stanczak Is Stepping Down Now

The question everyone asks during a leadership transition is simple: why now? Stanczak addressed this directly in his announcement, offering a characteristically candid explanation.

“While my ability to execute independently at the EF diminishes over time, my time at the organization in 2026 would feel more and more like just staying around to pass the baton,” he wrote. Translation: he accomplished what he set out to do, and lingering longer would shift from building to caretaking.

There’s also a personal dimension. Stanczak is a builder at heart, someone who thrives on creating rather than managing. He made clear that he plans to remain deeply involved in the Ethereum ecosystem, focusing on agentic core development and governance while continuing to support founders and local communities. “I plan to continue working directly with founders in frontier tech and Ethereum,” he said. “It is one of the most exciting times to be a builder on Ethereum.”

The foundation’s leadership structure also makes this transition less disruptive than it might appear. Hsiao-Wei Wang remains in place as co-executive director, providing continuity and institutional memory. Bastian Aue steps into the co-ED role alongside her, bringing his own experience within the foundation’s operations. This isn’t a clean sweep; it’s a measured handoff.

Who Is Bastian Aue, the New Interim Co-Executive Director?

Bastian Aue isn’t a household name in crypto Twitter circles, but within the Ethereum Foundation, he’s recognized as someone ready for larger responsibility. Aya Miyaguchi described him as having “no one more ready to take on this role,” expressing confidence that he will provide steady leadership during the transition period.

Aue’s background includes deep involvement in the foundation’s operational work, though specific details about his prior role remain limited in public materials. What matters more is the context: he steps into an organization that has already undergone significant restructuring, with clearer roadmaps and improved transparency compared to 2024. He doesn’t need to fix what’s broken so much as maintain what’s working while continuing gradual improvement.

The interim designation is worth noting. It suggests the foundation may take time to evaluate whether Aue is the right long-term fit or whether a more permanent search process should unfold. Either way, having Wang and Aue together provides a balance of continuity and fresh perspective that many organizations would envy during a leadership change.

Ethereum Community Reacts: Vitalik Buterin and Aya Miyaguchi Weigh In

When leadership changes at the Ethereum Foundation, the community pays attention, especially when co-founder Vitalik Buterin offers public commentary. His response to Stanczak’s departure was warm and substantive, reflecting the respect Stanczak earned during his brief tenure.

“Tomasz has always impressed me with his work ethic, his unique personality, and the kind of organization that he built at Nethermind,” Buterin wrote on X. He specifically praised Stanczak for bringing a creative perspective on Ethereum’s future role and for pushing the foundation to think more seriously about AI integration. Buterin also noted that Stanczak helped increase the foundation’s efficiency and made it more responsive to external input, two qualities that matter enormously in a decentralized ecosystem where no one holds all the answers.

Aya Miyaguchi, who held the executive director role for years before transitioning to president, offered her own reflections. She described Stanczak as “a unique talent and leader, accomplishing more in a single year than most could ever hope to.” Her statement emphasized that the foundation accepts this change “with gratitude and hope,” suggesting no behind-the-scenes drama or unresolved tensions.

The tone from both leaders matters. It signals to the broader community that this transition is orderly, expected, and even positive. When founders and predecessors speak warmly about a departing leader, it dampens speculation and keeps focus on the work ahead.

What This Means for Ethereum’s Roadmap: AI, Quantum Resistance, and Layer 2 Alignment

Leadership changes raise legitimate questions about continuity. Will the foundation maintain its current priorities? Are there hidden shifts that haven’t been announced? Stanczak’s farewell post addressed these concerns by outlining exactly what’s coming in 2026.

The foundation plans to release a merged roadmap combining the LEAN Ethereum initiative with core development work. This document will provide coordination guidance for the ecosystem through 2026 and beyond, helping diverse teams align their efforts without sacrificing autonomy. That kind of coordination becomes increasingly valuable as Ethereum scales and more specialized teams build on its foundation.

On the technical front, Stanczak highlighted ongoing work around quantum resistance. Ethereum has a defined quantum strategy, with post-quantum security considerations baked into the protocol roadmap. This matters because quantum computing advances could eventually threaten the cryptographic assumptions underlying most blockchains. Having a plan now, rather than scrambling later, reflects the foundation’s focus on long-term resilience.

The AI angle deserves special attention. Stanczak described Ethereum as “becoming the underlying infrastructure for verification and financial transactions” as automated interactions expand. The foundation’s dedicated decentralized AI team has been delivering standards and experiments aimed at what he calls the “agentic economy.” In plain English: as AI agents start transacting and interacting autonomously, they’ll need verifiable infrastructure, and Ethereum is positioning itself to provide exactly that.

Layer 2 relationships also received attention. Stanczak referenced Vitalik Buterin’s recent posts clarifying long-observed dynamics between base layer and rollups. The foundation’s Platform team has engaged with more than 20 L2 teams to discuss scaling, differentiation, and interoperability. The results show in the data: major rollups now dominate alternative Layer 1 chains in stablecoin metrics and transaction throughput, suggesting the Ethereum-centric scaling vision is actually working.

Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH Reclaims $2,000 Amid Leadership News

Markets usually dislike uncertainty, and leadership changes qualify as uncertainty. Yet Ethereum’s price reaction to Stanczak’s departure has been relatively muted, with ETH reclaiming the $2,000 level amid broader crypto market movement.

The weekly chart shows ETH/USDT trading at approximately $2,055 at the time of writing. That represents a recovery from recent lows but remains well below the 20-week Exponential Moving Average sitting at $2,999. Technical traders view this gap as significant; until price can close above that EMA on a weekly basis, the bearish bias that has characterized recent months remains intact.

Momentum indicators tell a similar story. The Relative Strength Index reads 33, still below the 50 midline that would signal neutral to bullish momentum. That’s oversold territory but not extremely so, suggesting persistent selling pressure without the panic that drives deeply oversold readings. The Stochastic oscillator sits at 16, deep in oversold conditions that sometimes precede reversals, though confirmation remains absent.

Liquidation data adds another layer. Ethereum saw approximately $70 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, with $58 million of that representing long positions getting washed out. Total liquidations since the week began stretch to $456 million, indicating that leverage has been bleeding from the system gradually rather than in a single capitulation event.

Key levels to watch include immediate resistance at $2,107, followed by $2,388 if momentum builds. On the downside, support sits at $1,741, then at $1,524, levels that have held during previous drawdowns. A weekly close back above the 20-week EMA would be needed to ease the broader bearish bias that has constrained Ethereum’s price action.

What Comes Next for the Ethereum Foundation and Ecosystem

Stanczak’s departure doesn’t signal crisis; it signals completion. He walked into a foundation under fire, helped restructure it, clarified its roadmaps, and strengthened its focus on the intersections that will define Ethereum’s next chapter: AI, institutional adoption, and scaling through Layer 2. Nine months later, he’s handing over an organization that looks healthier than when he arrived.

Bastian Aue now steps into the co-executive director role alongside Hsiao-Wei Wang. The interim label suggests the board may evaluate long-term fit over coming months, but for immediate purposes, continuity is the theme. The roadmap continues, the upgrades keep shipping, and the community keeps building.

For Ethereum holders and ecosystem participants, the takeaway is straightforward: leadership changes happen, even in decentralized organizations. What matters is whether the mission remains clear and whether the people executing that mission have what they need to succeed. By those measures, the Ethereum Foundation looks better positioned today than it did a year ago, and that’s a story worth paying attention to regardless of who holds which title.

The next few months will show whether Aue and Wang can maintain momentum while putting their own stamp on the organization. March brings continued development work, April may bring the merged roadmap Stanczak previewed, and the rest of 2026 will test whether Ethereum can deliver on its ambitious AI and institutional adoption theses. For now, the foundation has done what good organizations do: planned for transition, communicated clearly, and kept focus on the work rather than the personalities.