Aya Miyaguchi Becomes Ethereum Foundation President Amid Crucial Upgrade Challenges

The Ethereum Foundation has undergone a major leadership transition. Aya Miyaguchi, who served as Executive Director for seven years, has stepped into the role of President.

On February 25, Miyaguchi announced her move, marking a significant shift in the foundation’s leadership structure.

Aya Miyaguchi Becomes Ethereum Foundation’s President

In the latest blog, Miyaguchi explained that the shift would allow her to focus more on institutional relationships and expanding Ethereum’s cultural and philosophical influence.

“It’s been amazing to witness this growth of the ecosystem. Seven years ago, when I joined EF, Ethereum had fewer voices. Participation—both in building and securing the network—was concentrated in fewer hands and regions,” the blog post read.

Nonetheless, Miyaguchi emphasized that the network has evolved significantly, transforming into a decentralized and diverse ecosystem. She highlighted that a wide array of contributors—including developers, Layer 2 teams, application builders, and local communities—actively shape its future. 

She added that this expansion has bolstered Ethereum’s resilience and reinforced its commitment to decentralized, community-driven growth.

“This richness—where technical and social innovation intertwine and influence each other—isn’t just a feature of Ethereum; it’s the reason it endures,” Miyaguchi stated.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also praised Miyaguchi’s leadership, crediting her for Ethereum’s cultural and organizational stability.

“Every success of the EF – the steady execution of Ethereum hard forks, client interop workshops, Devcon, Ethereum’s culture and steadfast commitment to its mission and values, and more – is in part a result of Aya’s stewardship,” Buterin wrote.

Notably, discussions about Miyaguchi’s transition began a year ago. Just last month, Buterin confirmed that major leadership restructuring was underway.

However, Miyaguchi faced criticism from segments of the Ethereum community regarding the Ethereum Foundation’s leadership direction. Some community members, including a core developer, Eric Conner, pushed for Danny Ryan to be appointed the Executive Director. 

The situation escalated when certain users resorted to harassment against Miyaguchi, demanding her resignation. Amid this turmoil, Conner even left the Ethereum Foundation.

Ethereum Pectra Upgrade Fails on Testnet

Meanwhile, the leadership shift coincides with technical challenges facing Ethereum’s development pipeline. Holesky, an Ethereum testnet, faced a major issue during the Pectra upgrade.

According to the report by Ether World, the issue stemmed from a misconfiguration in deposit contract tracking among Execution Layer (EL) clients.

This prevented most clients from correctly tracking validator deposits, disrupting network consensus. Minority clients continued producing valid blocks, highlighting inconsistencies in client implementations.

The issue was specific to Holesky, with the mainnet and other test environments unaffected. Despite the disruption, the incident provided valuable insights into Ethereum’s resilience and upgrade process.