As controversy swirled around the Ethereum Foundation (EF) this winter, one of Ethereum’s most respected architects was quietly planning his next move. Danny Ryan has the key foresight behind Ethereum’s most ambitious upgrade, The Merge, which dictated EF in September, but in a few months he joined the consultations to rejoin the organization as a new leader.
“I was having conversations with Vitalik (Buterin) and others could return to run the Ethereum Foundation,” Ryan revealed in an honest interview with Coindesk. However, Ryan’s trajectory unexpectedly moved elsewhere as the nonprofit behind the second-largest blockchain received a dramatic reshuffle of leadership.
The change in the Ethereum Foundation comes amid growing uncertainty in the community. Critics have denounced the basis of their perception that Ethereum is losing momentum to a dominant rival like Solana. The remodeling included the move of Aya Miyaguchi, the foundation’s executive director since 2018, to the role of president.
Rather than Ryan took up his previous position at Miyaguchi, the foundation’s daily leadership shifted to EF researcher Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak, founder of Ethereum’s Nethermind client software.
The Swiss nonprofit, the Ethereum Foundation is a leading organization that supports the development of the Ethereum Blockchain ecosystem. It manages the Ministry of Finance for Ethereum Ether (ETH) tokens. This will be distributed to ecosystem projects through grants. He also serves as a team of developers and researchers who play an important role in coordinating updates and shaping the chain’s roadmap.
In January, he said, with the EF leadership shakeup ongoing, Ryan “has become a way of breaking up with Baterin and the Foundation.” “I immediately introduced Vivek (Raman),” one of the founders of Etherealize is a new company aimed at bringing Ether (ETH) products to Wall Street. In March, Ryan announced he would be joining Etherealize as a co-founder.
Ryan says he made the move because he believes Ethereum is at a technical inflection point: “Ethereum is much bigger than EF. It’s not just a few changes to EF, it just makes and breaks the whole Ethereum.”
According to Ryan, what the ecosystem needs more than ever is getting the technology to real users. “The only reason things may exist more than they are in the past than they are now is that the world is actually ready to adopt these systems,” Ryan said. “Ethereum – existentially, it’s a platform that has really been adopted with open, decentralized, unauthorized platforms.”
From Web3 to Wall Street
At Etherealize, Ryan aims to connect Ethereum’s technical ecosystem with institutional funding. The company is developing financial products that make Ethereum more accessible to traditional investors while maintaining the core blockchain value.
As an EF researcher, Ryan played a central role in mapping the ambitious upgrade of Ethereum to the proof of proof, known as Merge, from workplace proof to proof of proof. He believes his close relationship with one of the most influential organizations in the Ethereum space will benefit his new job at Etherealize.
“I’m going to get on board and make that bridge two-way. I have a deep Ethereum context – I helped build the protocol,” Ryan said. “I know all the people working on it. I know the challenges at hand, I understand how things will unfold in the next few years. And I can serve like a bridge from Ethereum back to the real world.”
As for Ryan’s role, specifically, his responsibility is not fully defined. “We hope that Etherealize will take on the orders to do open (research and development) and be a player in Layer-1 or Layer-2 or Application Layer.
Industry watchers note that Ryan’s move comes at a pivotal moment for both Ethereum and institutional crypto adoption. With the new regulatory environment for crypto under President Donald Trump, traditional US financial companies in particular are expected to be more comfortable adopting blockchain technology. Ryan hopes that his technical integrity will help these integrations meet the strict standards of Wall Street without compromising on Crypto’s core ideals.
“We plan to bring the world to Ethereum as much as we can, and having a deep technical background and understanding about Ethereum from a very basic way will help us do that,” Ryan said.
Looking forward to the Ethereum Foundation
As criticism of the organization grows, when asked about the timing of his departure from EF, Ryan provided a measured perspective. “A lot of what we saw is the market dynamics, which is portraying people’s perspectives on things, regardless of fundamental values. They sometimes described the project with reference to the volatility of ETH prices that colored the public’s sentiment.
Ryan remains optimistic about the changes that come to the foundations he once thought he was leading. “I’m excited about some new blood,” he said. “I’ve known AYA since January 2018. We’ve worked closely together for years and have publicly said we’re admiring her leadership.
He added that he is “excited with the two leaders” who have been promoted to replace Miyaguchi. “They have a very technical background and a deep understanding of Ethereum. They are both positive and negative in terms of building protocols.”
Read more: New Cheerleaders at Ethereum on Wall Street: Q&A with Vivek Raman
