Danny Ryan, who led Ethereum's critical Merge upgrade during his seven years at the Ethereum Foundation, declined to return as the organization's leader despite an on-chain vote representing over $159 million in ETH supporting him. After leaving the Foundation in September 2024 and entering leadership talks with Vitalik Buterin, Ryan and the Foundation mutually parted ways in January 2025. Instead of rejoining, Ryan co-founded Etherealize in March 2025 with former Citadel executive Vivek Raman to develop financial products bringing Ethereum to Wall Street and traditional investors. The leadership transition comes as critics blame the Swiss non-profit Foundation for Ethereum losing momentum to competitors like Solana, with day-to-day operations now led by researchers Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak while Aya Miyaguchi moved from executive director to president.
Story comments
Loading comments…