Tomasz Stańczak, a co-director of the Ethereum Foundation, said on Friday he will resign at the end of the month and move to a hands-on product role focused on artificial intelligence. He will be replaced by Bastian Aue, while Hsiao-Wei Wang remains as the other executive director.
Stańczak and Wang were appointed less than a year ago to replace Aya Miyaguchi, who stayed on the foundation’s board alongside Vitalik Buterin. Their appointments followed investor frustration with the cryptocurrency’s performance after Donald Trump’s reelection.
In a blog post, Stańczak said he will keep working on Ethereum as an AI-focused builder and researcher. He wrote, “I know now that agentic systems and AI-assisted discovery are reshaping the world.”
He also framed the decision as partly driven by his changing role at the foundation. As he wrote, “The leaders at the EF grew more confident about making decisions by themselves and owning more.”
Stańczak said the foundation will soon publish major proposals, including plans for a “lean” Ethereum and roadmaps for ongoing development and DeFi coordination. Under Stańczak and Wang, the foundation cut 19 staff, shifted focus from layer 2s to scaling Ethereum, promoted the chain with videos, accelerated upgrades, and launched privacy, quantum-threat, and AI initiatives.
Stańczak will leave at month’s end and continue contributing to Ethereum development in his new product role.
