Two more key researchers have resigned from the Ethereum Foundation, taking confirmed major departures this year to at least 8.

On May 19, Cointelegraph reported that Julian Ma and Carl Beek left the Ethereum Foundation after 4 years and 7 years, respectively.

The departures widen the foundation's senior-level gaps. Ma worked on Ethereum's censorship resistance, cross-layer bridge algorithms and related strategy. Beek contributed to the early design of the Beacon Chain, which introduced a move to proof-of-stake (PoS) for the blockchain. Including their resignations, 5 senior developers and researchers have left the foundation in May alone.

In a post on X, Ma said he left to focus on product and growth. He wrote, "Ethereum Foundation is an amazing place," but added, "It is not the place that fits my future career." Beek also said he plans to leave on May 29 and spend time with his family for the time being.

Departures from the Ethereum Foundation have accelerated in recent months. Earlier this month, Barnabe Monnot and Tim Beiko, who led the protocol cluster team, said they were leaving the team, and team lead Alex Stokes decided to take a sabbatical. In April, core researcher and project manager Josh Stark announced he was leaving, and a day later Trent Van Epps also announced his resignation. In February, Tomasz Stanczak said he would step down as co-executive director.

This trend coincides with a shift in the foundation's direction. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin responded last year to user criticism over how the long-term roadmap was being run by proposing sweeping leadership changes and a new direction for the foundation. Buterin said at the time the organisation would bring in new talent to redevelop the protocol to deliver more throughput and faster performance.

For the foundation, a key task is how quickly it can fill gaps left by core research staff. With people involved in protocol-level work such as the Beacon Chain design, censorship resistance and cross-layer strategy leaving, internal knowledge transfer and continuity of development could become important.

Even so, it is difficult to conclude that this trend only weakens the foundation's capabilities. Since Buterin has already signalled a leadership overhaul and recruitment of new talent, the departures also carry the character of a generational change during organisational restructuring. The question is how steadily the new staff configuration can sustain Ethereum's roadmap to improve throughput and enhance performance.

These departures are drawing attention because they show the makeup of personnel responsible for Ethereum's core research and protocol design is changing, rather than reflecting simple resignations. The fact that the foundation is pursuing both a leadership overhaul and recruitment of new talent also shows the direction of organisational change this year.

After 7 incredible years, I've decided that Friday May 29th will be my last day at the Ethereum Foundation. I'm humbled by the projects I got to work on along the way: from the KZG ceremony, to helping architect the early design of the Beacon Chain, and a lot in between. At the…