The Ethereum ecosystem underwent something of a short revival in 2025. Early in the year, as many major cryptocurrencies surged to fresh all-time highs, ether lagged behind. Some in the community pointed fingers at Ethereum Foundation’s (EF) leadership, claiming the organization hadn’t done enough to reinvigorate the network’s momentum.

This feature is a part of CoinDesk's Most Influential 2025 list.

While the EF doesn’t control Ethereum’s technical roadmap, it remains a central force in supporting the developers and teams who do. So when the organization announced in February that they had tapped two new leaders to guide the EF into its next phase, Tomasz Stańczak and Hsiao-Wei Wang, the move carried weight.

Wang, a seven-year EF veteran and core researcher, has contributed across multiple protocol upgrade paths. Stańczak, by contrast, comes from outside the Foundation, having built one of Ethereum’s major software client teams, Nethermind. Together, their appointment signals a hybrid leadership strategy: pairing a deeply embedded protocol researcher with a seasoned builder as Ethereum shifts from an early-stage experiment to global-scale infrastructure.

Some in the wider Ethereum community became more enthusiastic as the year went on following the leadership changes, though Wang and Stańczak’s appointment coincided with ETH climbing from a $1,554 bottom in April to an all-time high of $4,886 in August. As of publication, it has retreated to $2806.

Since stepping into his role, Stańczak has hosted open community calls, inviting anyone interested to weigh in on the network’s direction. The EF has also rolled out updated roadmaps outlining approaches to privacy, security and the emerging role of AI. Stańczak also told CoinDesk that beyond just meeting with developers and those who steer the blockchain, he’s made an effort as well to meet with traditional institutions, as tokenization and ETFs brought in a new wave of interest into the ecosystem this year.

Stańczak recognizes that this year has been a key turning point for Ethereum, and the appointment of these two new leaders marks the beginning of a new chapter for the ecosystem.