Original author: Fairy, ChainCatcher
Original editor: TB, ChainCatcher
On February 25, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) ushered in a major personnel change: Aya Miyaguchi will be promoted from executive director to chairman, and the leadership structure of the foundation will also undergo changes.
According to MAX KORDEK, Chairman of the Onchain Foundation, as the new chairman, Aya will be responsible for preparing, hosting, leading and ultimately signing resolutions of all foundation committee meetings.
These meetings cover all important matters of the Foundation, including:
Overall work report by the Chairman, Vice Chairman and Executive Director
Risk Assessment (review and update the Foundation’s risk assessment chart)
Financial affairs (current holdings and expenditures, token monetization plans, investment strategies, etc.)
Legal affairs (mainly the approval of legal contracts and agreements)
As an important figure in the Ethereum Foundation, can Aya Miyaguchi help Ethereum regain market confidence? This has become a topic of concern in the industry.
ChainCatcher compiled the various perspectives of crypto KOLs and collected comments from Aya’s colleagues on her promotion for readers’ reference.
1. Views of all parties
1. Unfavorable voices:
CoinMamba@coinmamba:
Aya Miyaguchi was hired to do a job she was not suited to, did no real work, and was paid for 7 years (while serving as executive director). She can continue to do nothing and play a symbolic role. Who is the new executive director?
Jason Chen @jason_chen 998:
Aya’s promotion is not surprising, because Vitalik has a “stubborn” personality. The more he is questioned and pressured, the more he insists on his choice. There was no clear vote or performance report in the process of Aya’s promotion to chairman, and it was more determined by Vitalik’s words.
Mindao@mindaoyang:
This chairmanship seems to have created a new position, responsible for institutional relations and government public relations, more like the President of the Party History Research Institute. The idea of the job transfer has a strong tone of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
2. Positive voice:
MAX KORDEK @maxkordek, Chairman of Onchain Foundation (formerly Lisk Foundation):
Overall, this is a positive adjustment for the Ethereum Foundation. If Ayako is trustworthy (I don’t know her well), this may be a good thing for Vitalik, because he can reduce the administrative work of FC meetings (such as preparing for meetings, signing documents, etc.) and devote more energy to what he is best at - blockchain research.
Ethereum investor DCinvestor@iamDCinvestor:
Vitalik and the Ethereum Foundation deserve recognition for listening to the community and making many positive changes in the past few weeks.
I believe Aya has been acting in good faith in the direction she has taken, and under her leadership, the Ethereum Foundation has become significantly more professional than when she first took over. I thank her for her contribution.
But now, I am more looking forward to new leadership and new ideas to push Ethereum back to a dominant position in innovation and practical applications.
Xiaoba｜Web3 AI@web3 xiaoba：
In the Ethereum community, many people believe that Aya’s “negligence and incompetence” caused the ETH price to remain sideways for nearly four years. However, few people know that Aya is an OG who entered the Crypto market in 2013. She joined the Ethereum Foundation in February 2018 and was appointed to the position in a critical situation.
Ebunayo.eth @Ebunayo 08:
As the discussion about Ethereum and the Ethereum Foundation (EF) continued, I was concerned that the culture and philosophy of Ethereum would be affected in the process of change. As many people have pointed out, there is indeed a lot of room for improvement. Aya herself has mentioned in several meetings that there are still many things to advance and optimize, but change needs to be gradual.
Ayas appointment as chairperson means that Ethereums culture is likely to continue, while other areas that need adjustment will also be improved. This also shows that Vitalik has full confidence in her leadership.
3. Neutral Voice:
XinGPT@xingpt:
Aya’s appointment this time was not about “the central government has already decided that you will be the general secretary”, but rather about “I am at ease with you doing the job”.
This is not a spur of the moment decision; the transition from the current executive director to the chairman has been planned for a year.
As executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, Aya adopts a unique leadership approach that she calls the subtraction principle - proactively reducing her own power and avoiding centralized decision-making while maintaining Ethereums open culture and decentralized spirit.
Ayas leadership style is deeply influenced by Zen philosophy, which is somewhat similar to the Taoist concept of ruling by doing nothing, in stark contrast to the traditional top-down management style.
On February 26, 2025, Aya Miyaguchi announced her transition from executive director to chairman. She also wrote an article titled A New Chapter in Infinite Garden, which she considered her future declaration. Aya emphasized the need to be guided by philosophy and maintain the values of Ethereum.
Eric Conner, early Ethereum developer @econoar:
I can’t quite tell whether the leadership changes at Aya and the Ethereum Foundation (EF) are a positive or negative. No one knows what the position of “chairman” means; no one knows what the new leadership structure is; no one knows who the new executive director is; we can only wait and see.
4. Voice of colleagues:
Joseph Schweitzer, Head of External Relations at EF Ethereum @JBSchweitzer:
Aya’s goal is to create effective operational processes for EF to succeed; to make decisions that uphold the core values and spirit of the Ethereum soul even in the face of storms - encouraging ecosystem growth, community ownership and decentralization. Thanks Aya.
Ethereum Foundation member Nathan Sexer @NathanSexer:
In the brief time I’ve had with Aya while working with her on Deva the Devcon Unicorn, I can attest that she has been a guiding force in maintaining and reinforcing Ethereum culture and values, which is a critical part of the success of devcon/nect.
Aya is a respected and authoritative voice within EF, and her approach to the community - hopeful, clear, and uncomplaining - is a testament to her wisdom and character. We often focus on what we havent achieved, but we should focus on what we have accomplished. Aya has made a remarkable contribution. Keep going. Keep going.
The future is unknown, but Ethereum still faces serious problems
Different opinions correspond to different positions. It is still unknown whether Aya’s promotion can bring a turning point for Ethereum, but Ethereum is indeed facing a series of severe challenges: overall innovation has stagnated, management has been accused of being self-satisfied, the competitiveness of ecological applications has gradually weakened, and user growth is far from expected.
In addition, the data shows that the flow of funds for Ethereum spot ETFs is not optimistic, and has experienced net outflows for three consecutive days. Data shows that the nine Ethereum spot ETFs have a total outflow of US$137 million.
Image source: Farside Investors
The long positions in the contract market were slaughtered. From February 24 to 25, the liquidation amount of Ethereum contracts reached 380 million US dollars in two days, of which 330 million US dollars were liquidated for long positions and 50.99 million US dollars were liquidated for short positions. The decline in ETH prices triggered a large number of leveraged trading liquidations.
Contract open interest fell from $25.5 billion on February 24 to $21.8 billion on the 26th, indicating that traders were closing leveraged positions and reducing risk.
Image source: Coinglass
Profitable addresses have decreased. According to IntoTheBlock data, after the ETH price fell, only 55% of Ethereum addresses are currently profitable, while 40% of addresses have fallen into losses. This is in stark contrast to the high point in May 2024, when the proportion of Ethereum profitable addresses was as high as nearly 90%. The decline in the past few days has put many holders back into the loss range, and market sentiment has further deteriorated.
The recent two hacking incidents and the overall market crash have caused the price of ETH to fall by 16%. Ethereum is under multiple pressures. Whether it can break through the current difficulties and re-stimulate market confidence in the future remains to be seen.
