In 2026, that group of people who understand Ethereum the best and believe in Ethereum the most are leaving one by one.

Written by: BiBi News

David Hoffman, co-founder of Bankless, posted on X, announcing that he has sold all his ETH.

This is not an ordinary investor's stop-loss decision; Bankless has been the most influential Ethereum content platform in the English-speaking crypto community since its establishment in 2020. The co-founder of this company liquidating ETH is not just a signal, it is a flag coming down.

Hoffman has previously said that 99% of his money is invested in Ethereum. His article "Ether is equity" has been shared and collected by countless fans, while Bankless's podcast and community have brought millions of people into the world of Ethereum.

In May, five core researchers from the Ethereum Foundation announced their resignations in succession. In 2026, that group of people who understand Ethereum the best and believe in Ethereum the most are leaving one by one.

Nine People Leaving the Ethereum Foundation

This round of resignations began in February 2026 and by May has accumulated to nine people, with five of them announcing their departures in succession this month.

The people leaving are not fringe figures.

Carl Beek has worked at the foundation for seven years and was one of the early designers of the key upgrade that transitioned Ethereum from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake;

Julian Ma worked for four years, and his two technical proposals greatly enhanced Ethereum's censorship resistance, while another reduced cross-chain transfer waiting times from several minutes to 13 seconds.

The two announced their resignations on May 18.

Earlier, co-executive director Tomasz Stańczak chose to leave in February, less than a year after taking office; long-time core developer meeting host Tim Beiko, MEV researcher Barnabé Monnot, and protocol researcher Alex Stokes all exited in May; ecosystem coordinator Trent Van Epps and operations head Josh Stark concluded their respective five to seven-year tenures in April.

The team responsible for protocol research and core development coordination has almost undergone a complete overhaul. The number of Ethereum core developers dropped from 225 in May 2025 to 169 in May 2026, a decrease of over 25%. At the same time, the number of Solana developers has already surpassed that of Ethereum.

In response to these changes, the official explanation from the Ethereum Foundation is proactive slimming down, handing over more protocol development work to independent teams, shifting from a promoter role back to a guardian position, and no longer leading everything.

What Happened to David Hoffman and Bankless

On May 20, David Hoffman wrote on X: “The atmosphere on crypto Twitter has changed a lot in the past two weeks. Is it just because I sold my last batch of ETH?”

In a subsequent reply, he added: I still believe in the Ethereum network, but the ETH token as an asset is becoming increasingly questionable. Price performance and team leadership have become inseparable.

On the same day, co-founder Ryan Sean Adams announced the official end of Bankless’s first phase, marking the conclusion of their six-year collaboration. David will take the helm in the second phase, exploring areas no longer solely focused on Ethereum; Ryan expressed that he remains optimistic about ETH and will continue to participate in the weekly podcast but will step back from a content-leading role.

The changes at Bankless are actually much more than the announcement may suggest. The community has been discussing team adjustments recently, with BD Director JeanPaul Faraj confirming his departure, followed by Ryan publicly helping him seek employment on X.

A media company that once symbolized the evangelism of Ethereum is also undergoing its own transformation period.

In fact, David had long laid the groundwork. In March 2026, he criticized the Ethereum Foundation for having too many declarations and too few pragmatic roadmaps. This liquidation is the practical action three months after that article.

What Problems Are with Ethereum

The growth rate of developers in the Ethereum ecosystem has started to slow down or even regress.

In 2025, Solana added 11,534 developers, a year-on-year growth of 83%, with the growth rate of new developers repeatedly surpassing that of Ethereum. While Ethereum still leads in overall monthly active developers, its monthly active count has declined by 17% year-on-year in 2024, making the growth narrative increasingly difficult to tell.

At the end of 2021, the total value locked in global DeFi approached $180 billion, with Ethereum alone contributing 70% to 80% of that.

By May 2026, the total locked in Ethereum L1 plus L2 was approximately $78 billion to $150 billion, with its share of the global DeFi market dropping from 63.5% at the beginning of 2025 to about 53%. Both absolute figures have shrunk, and the relative share is also sliding.

Meanwhile, April 2026 became one of the highest monthly on-chain loss months ever recorded, with losses reaching $600 million to $650 million, a significant increase compared to the average quarterly level in 2025, and the number of DeFi security incidents rose by 68% year-on-year. As the largest asset gathering place for DeFi, Ethereum is the most concentrated target of hacker attacks.

The 38-page mission declaration document EF Mandate released by the Ethereum Foundation in March this year was even more direct.

The document clearly stated that the foundation would no longer be responsible for ETH’s market share, shifting its focus to decentralization ideology and streamlining the guardian role.

In an article published by David Hoffman that same month titled "The EF's Endless Manifestos," he wrote that he did not want to read another document from the Ethereum Foundation in 2026 telling them that they did not intend to fight for ETH’s market share but would focus on a cyberpunk ideology that does not help ETH's market value.

The exchange rate of ETH to BTC currently hovers around 0.0275, at a 10-month low, having fallen about 17.5% since 2026.

Embrace of Institutions and Public Companies

As of mid-May 2026, the U.S. spot ETH ETF has seen cumulative net inflows exceeding $11.8 billion since its launch, with total assets under management approaching $12.1 billion.

BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust holds approximately 15.3 million ETH, with assets under management of about $6.5 billion to $7.2 billion; Fidelity's Wise Origin Ethereum Fund holds approximately 1.18 million ETH.

In late April, there were records of consecutive net inflows for 10 days, and early May saw a single-day net inflow exceeding $100 million at one point.

Currently, 37 publicly traded companies hold ETH, with a total of about 7.31 million ETH, valued at over $15.5 billion, accounting for 6.12% of the circulating supply of ETH.

BitMine Immersion Technologies alone holds over 5 million ETH; companies like SharpLink Gaming and Bit Digital are also continuously increasing their holdings and obtaining on-chain returns through staking.

In terms of tokenizing real-world assets, the global on-chain RWA market size has approached $30 billion, with Ethereum capturing about 60% to 65% of that share. BlackRock's BUIDL fund has exceeded $2.4 billion in size, making it the largest product in the tokenized U.S. Treasury market; Ondo Finance focuses on tokenizing short-term U.S. Treasuries, with the ecosystem's total scale surpassing $2.5 billion.

The staked volume of Ethereum exceeds 36 million ETH, accounting for more than 30% of the entire circulating supply. Approximately 55% of the global stablecoin market operates on Ethereum.

After the Evangelists Leave

What David sold was not the Ethereum network, but his confidence in the ETH token.

Institutions are still buying, BlackRock and Fidelity are still increasing their positions, and on-chain data has not collapsed. All of this is real.

Ryan also added in response to David that there is a 50/50 chance that he sold at the bottom. David has indeed historically sold at the bottom.

But any asset is essentially a narrative asset. When the people who understand Ethereum the most and believe in Ethereum the most give their judgments through actions rather than words.

Who will continue the story of Ethereum and reclaim its glory?