ETH Insider Explains Wave of 2026 Ethereum Foundation Departures

A long-time Ethereum investor and community figure has pushed back against growing alarm over the string of departures from the Ethereum Foundation (EF), arguing that the organization’s commitment to the network is as firm as ever.

Ryan Berckmans, who has worked full-time in the Ethereum space for eight years, offered one of the more detailed community-level defenses of the EF’s current direction since the exits started mounting this year.

Departures Caused by Differences of Opinion

According to Berckmans, people are misreading the situation.

“The EF departures are not because the people departing feel differently about Ethereum and our trajectory vs. the people staying at EF or vs. community folks like me,” he wrote.

What actually drove them, in his view, was a mix of internal disagreements over sub-strategies rather than any loss of faith in Ethereum itself, plus a deliberate generational shift.

“Some folks disagreed. Some tiny number were asked to leave for Reasons. Some few others left immediately due to Reasonable Net Feelings. Some more are leaving because the Wheel is Turning,” he explained.

Further, Berckmans added that new, younger contributors are ready to step into leadership across teams and departments. He also addressed a persistent piece of community frustration, that the EF and Vitalik Buterin do not care about ETH’s price, calling it a misconception.

According to him, they care deeply, but across a much longer time horizon than most community members track.

“They want to know, ‘How will Ethereum remain dominant after quantum computers?’ and, ‘How will Ethereum be the world’s economic hub for trillions in assets and thousands of L2s across a hundred countries?'”

His conclusion was that these are questions that can only get asked if you believe the outcome is achievable, and the EF’s programs in response to them are “gigabullish.”

Four Prominent Contributors Left in Just Four Weeks

The wave of exits has included Carl Beek, Julian Ma, Barnabé Monnot, Tim Beiko, Trent Van Epps, Josh Stark, and former co-Executive Director Tomasz Stańczak.

Stańczak’s departure, in particular, drew quite a lot of attention, considering that it came just 11 months after he’d taken the role. In addition, the exits have been concentrated, with four of the more prominent ones landing within roughly four weeks of each other in April and May.

Meanwhile, a detailed analysis by crypto researcher Nick Sawinyh pointed to unconfirmed claims circulating online that staff were asked to formally align with the Foundation’s new mandate. However, the EF has not publicly confirmed those claims, and none of the departing contributors cited the mandate as their reason for leaving.

People are also focusing on the coming Glamsterdam upgrade to Ethereum that is still under test. The protocol update includes changes tied to scaling and validator infrastructure, although some anticipated features, including FOCIL and native account abstraction, have already been delayed to a later upgrade cycle.

Despite this, many Ethereum backers believe that the entire ecosystem can now take leadership changes in stride without posing a risk to the network as a whole. One of them, author William Mougayar, described the Foundation’s shrinking role as a deliberate attempt to remove Ethereum’s remaining central point of control rather than a sign of institutional decline.