Layla Zulfa
Zug, Switzerland – February 21, 2026 – Tomasz, Co-Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation (EF), today announced his decision to step down from his leadership role at the end of February 2026, marking the conclusion of a pivotal tenure focused on accelerating the organization’s strategic initiatives and strengthening the Ethereum ecosystem. His departure will see Bastian Aue, a seasoned leader within the EF, assume an expanded Co-Executive Director role, serving alongside current Co-ED Hsiao-Wei. The transition comes as Ethereum solidifies its position as a foundational layer for emerging technologies and institutional finance, with Tomasz expressing profound optimism for the network’s trajectory, the EF’s robust health, and his own future contributions as a hands-on builder in the burgeoning field of agentic AI and governance.
The Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting Ethereum and related technologies, plays a crucial role in fostering research, development, and community growth within the blockchain space. The Co-Executive Director position is central to guiding the EF’s strategic direction, managing its diverse teams, and ensuring alignment with the broader Ethereum community’s vision for decentralization and innovation. Tomasz’s announcement signals a planned succession, highlighting the EF’s commitment to continuity and adaptability as the blockchain landscape rapidly evolves.
A Period of Transformative Growth and Strategic Realignment
Tomasz’s tenure, which began in March/April 2025, has been characterized by a focused drive to enhance the EF’s operational efficiency, outreach, and impact. He emphasized the importance of the co-ED role as a platform to empower exceptional talent both within the Foundation and across the wider Ethereum community. Key achievements during this period include a significant acceleration in decision-making processes, a renewed focus on engaging younger generations of builders, and a more open communication strategy across social media and podcasts.
Under his leadership, the EF has actively fostered stronger relationships with institutions, supporting founders, and refining internal governance, including treasury policies and compensation structures. Efforts were also dedicated to clarifying the complex relationship between Ethereum’s Layer 1 (L1) and various Layer 2 (L2) scaling solutions, providing essential guidance for ecosystem participants. Increased internal and external transparency regarding budgets and organizational structure has further bolstered confidence in the Foundation’s stewardship. Many of these initiatives, driven by dedicated teams, are either complete or show consistent improvement, laying a solid groundwork for the incoming leadership. The EF, according to Tomasz, has transformed into a resilient and dynamic organization, adept at balancing long-term strategic goals with the imperative for rapid change, steered by highly intelligent and committed individuals.
Ethereum’s Ascendancy: Institutional Adoption and Technological Frontiers
Tomasz’s outlook on Ethereum’s future is decidedly bullish, underpinned by the network’s growing technological maturity and increasing institutional acceptance. He notes that despite market volatility and the emergence of competing blockchain paradigms, a deep understanding of Ethereum’s technology, governance, and inherent values consistently brings the community together.
The year 2025 marked a significant turning point, with Ethereum emerging as the clear institutional preference. Data dashboards indicate a growing market share in stablecoins and Real World Asset (RWA) activity, signaling a profound shift in traditional finance towards blockchain infrastructure. Institutions are increasingly recognizing Ethereum’s "credible neutrality," robust decentralization, and unparalleled track record of continuous uptime since its genesis, which collectively present an infrastructure with uniquely low counterparty, technology, and jurisdiction risk. This institutional embrace is further underscored by the upcoming major Institutional Ethereum Conference slated for New York this year, a testament to its mainstream integration.
Beyond finance, Ethereum is positioned as a natural infrastructure layer for the coordination of an array of future technologies. Tomasz foresees a near future where robots, new forms of governance, and AI-powered healthcare and education systems will increasingly rely on Ethereum for underlying verification and financial transactions. The rapid advancements in open-source Large Language Models (LLMs) and the emergence of "agentic workers" are creating exciting new avenues for builders, reminiscent of the early days of Ethereum’s innovation. As these paradigms take hold, critical questions around privacy and security are arising, areas where Ethereum, with its unwavering cypherpunk ethos, is actively contributing through the work of leading privacy builders and security experts. The network is evolving to help individuals preserve privacy and maintain access to essential digital infrastructure in a rapidly changing world.
The Ethereum Foundation’s Strategic Roadmap for 2026 and Beyond
The EF is poised for an impactful 2026, with several key initiatives underway. A proposal for a merged "LEAN Ethereum" and core development roadmap is anticipated soon, designed to provide clear, long-term guidance and enhance coordination for the Ethereum protocol. Following two successful network upgrades in 2025, core developers, supported by EF coordination teams, are well-positioned to continue delivering essential improvements on schedule.
Addressing future technological challenges, the EF has a "very clear quantum strategy." Top quantum security researchers are finalizing specifications, and engineers are actively working on implementations to ensure post-quantum security is integrated into the EF Protocol roadmap. This proactive approach underscores the Foundation’s commitment to long-term resilience.
In the realm of Artificial Intelligence, a dedicated decentralized AI team at the EF is actively developing standards, conducting experiments, and formulating solutions for the nascent agentic economy, exemplified by projects like 8004.org and Clawdbotatg.eth.link. Concurrently, the Ecosystem Development (EcoDev) team is singularly focused on the success of founders, institutions, and governments building on Ethereum. This is complemented by a dedicated Global Policy Support team, navigating the complex regulatory landscape. The Foundation is also leveraging AI internally to automate and enhance coordination efforts, while clear communication about roadmaps, use cases, and applications is being spearheaded by teams at ethereum.org and forkcast.org.
Navigating the L1-L2 Relationship and Scaling Solutions
One of the most significant discussion points and challenges over the past year has been the evolving relationship between Ethereum’s L1 and its diverse L2 scaling solutions. Vitalik Buterin’s recent posts have aimed to provide much-needed clarity on this dynamic. L2s extend or build upon Ethereum, offering various trade-offs in terms of security and decentralization. They differentiate themselves by balancing risks and user experience across parameters such as scaling, decentralization, historical state availability, and privacy.
To foster collaboration and strategic alignment, the EF established a Platform team, bringing together over 20 Ethereum L2s at the "Network School" to discuss the future of scaling, differentiation, and interoperability. This initiative has provided teams building based rollups, native rollups, and synchronous composability with clearer visions and more focused approaches for the current year. A notable trend observed is the consistent surpassing of alternative L1s by major Ethereum rollups in stablecoin and transactions per second (TPS) metrics, a trajectory Tomasz is confident will continue.
Despite increasing openness to applications and institutional engagement, the EF remains anchored in its cypherpunk values. Groups like Vitalik’s Silviculture Society actively advise senior leaders on emerging risks and caution against missteps, reinforcing the foundational principles of the network. Recent public statements by Vitalik Buterin at the beginning of 2026 further underscored the importance of these core tenets. The work of groups like PSE and Kohaku is now intensely focused on applied privacy, while the Protocol team is dedicating unprecedented effort to security and censorship resistance through initiatives like FOCIL and the "Trillion Dollar Security program."
Global Community and Future Leadership
The global reach of Ethereum continues to expand, highlighted by the eagerly anticipated Devcon Mumbai in 2026. Tomasz expressed immense pride in the team bringing this flagship event to India, a community he believes has long deserved it, to unite blockchain thought leaders and founders. The "Ethereum Everywhere" initiative already supports active hubs in major cities like San Francisco, Lagos, London, Berlin, and Hong Kong, while the Academic Secretariat team plans numerous university events this year, fostering new generations of builders and thought leaders worldwide. The concept of "pop-up cities" continues to gain momentum, creating organized spaces for collaboration and innovation.
In the coming weeks, the EF’s DeFi coordination team is set to publish its plans and roadmap, promising significant support for the decentralized finance ecosystem. Tomasz conveyed his excitement about the caliber of talent brought into the EF to lead these crucial DeFi coordination efforts.
Looking ahead, Hsiao-Wei will continue her leadership as Co-Executive Director, now joined by Bastian Aue in an expanded leadership capacity. Tomasz affirmed that they will have the unwavering support of the best talent in crypto. He specifically acknowledged James Smith for spearheading the EcoDev transformation across builders, founders, and institutional engagement. Policy support and long-term strategic work will continue under the leadership of Bastian Aue and Tju Liang. Josh Stark was lauded for his exceptional ability to execute operational changes swiftly and for leading significant communication enhancements across social media in 2025. The tighter collaboration between engineers and researchers within the Protocol cluster is expected to confidently shape future roadmaps and tackle the most complex technological challenges, underscoring the EF’s dynamic and agile operational environment.
Tomasz’s Next Chapter: A Return to Hands-On Building
As he transitions from his co-ED role, Tomasz plans to remain an active and influential voice within the Ethereum ecosystem. He will continue to offer support to the EF leadership and maintain an open channel for community members seeking connections or discussions on Ethereum’s vision and strategy, committing to "always put pressure on the Ethereum ecosystem to move at pace."
His future endeavors will see him travel and work with local communities, assisting businesses building on Ethereum. Significantly, he intends to act more as a core developer and a hands-on product builder, with a particular focus on "agentic core development and agentic governance." This echoes his sentiment from 2017 when he founded Nethermind, a period during which he strongly felt a profound change was underway and that Ethereum would revolutionize financial systems. Drawing on his financial industry experience, he aims to guide this evolution rather than a mere revolution. Today, he sees a similar paradigm shift with agentic systems and AI-assisted discovery reshaping the world, recognizing the potential for playful experimentation that defined early Ethereum innovation. He plans to work directly with founders in frontier tech and Ethereum, supporting the realization of the visions he has championed. For Tomasz, there has rarely been a more exciting time to be a builder on Ethereum.
A Grateful Farewell
Tomasz concluded his announcement by extending heartfelt gratitude to the countless individuals who supported him, the EF, and Ethereum throughout 2025. He recounted visiting over 20 countries, engaging with thousands of builders, financiers, educators, policymakers, creators, researchers, and academics, valuing their support, challenging questions, and constructive critique. He thanked the EF board for their bold decision to bring him on, Hsiao-Wei and the management team for their collaborative spirit, and specifically named Bastian Aue, Josh Stark, and Tju Liang for their emotional intelligence and facilitation of difficult discussions. Joe Schweitzer was acknowledged for his role in reviewing podcasts and expanding the reach of Ethereum’s message. He also expressed profound appreciation for the hundreds of Ethereum leaders who reached out in early 2025, sharing their insights and shaping the EF’s strategy, and to every single person at the EF for their dedication and talent.
