- Cardano Foundation’s CTO is stepping down this August.
- Zinetti has served as the technical leader at the company for 2.5 years.
- The CTO is leaving weeks after Emurgo also announced plans to step down from Cardano’s governance.
Giorgio Zinetti is stepping down as the Chief Technology Officer at Cardano Foundation after 2.5 years at the company.
Zinetti took to X on Monday to announce he would be leaving the organization on August 31, with plans for a new adventure later in September.
After 2.5 years, I’ll be stepping down as CTO of the Cardano Foundation at the end of August.
— Giorgio Zinetti (@giozzi) August 10, 2026
Time really flew. I’m proud of what we built, but even more grateful for the people I got to work with along the way.
First, a few weeks off to welcome our daughter ❤️
Then a new…
He joined the Cardano Foundation in 2024, where he served as the technical leader for expanding the Foundation’s projects and products, with a focus on scaling enterprise adoption.
The Foundation confirmed Zinetti’s departure in a separate post on X.
No replacement has been named, and the company has yet to spell out how the CTO’s duties will be covered once Zinetti walks out by the end of the month.
It, however, mentioned that the board and executive team will continue working closely with senior technical and business development staff to hold the line on enterprise adoption.
“In line with our current roadmap, The Foundation Board and Executive team continues to work closely with our technical and senior business development leaders to maintain a direct focus on enterprise adoption,” Cardano Foundation precisely wrote on X.
Emurgo steps down from Cardano’s governance
The Swiss-based Cardano Foundation is a not-for-profit organization tasked with advancing Cardano.
It’s worth noting that Cardano is also supported by two other separate entities, Input Output Global (IOG) and Emurgo. All three companies work together to manage and advance the Cardano blockchain.
IOG is Cardano’s engineering and development front, led by Charles Hoskinson, while Emurgo serves as the commercial arm.
In July, however, Emurgo announced it would step down from its duties as a member of Cardano’s governance group. The decision was made after its wallet, SecondFi, was exploited, resulting in the loss of $2.4 million ADA, as Cryptopolitan reported.
Cardano is currently the 29th-largest chain by total locked-asset value (TVL). It accounts for $69.62 million in DeFi TVL, across 69 protocols, according to on-chain data from DeFiLlama.
At the time of writing, the native token ADA was trading at $0.1961, with $7.16 billion in market cap.
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FAQs
Who is leaving the Cardano Foundation and when?
Giorgio Zinetti, the Foundation's Chief Technology Officer, announced on August 10 that his departure takes effect on August 31, after a tenure he described as two and a half years.
Has the Cardano Foundation named a replacement CTO?
No. The Foundation has not named a successor or outlined an interim plan, saying only that its board and executive team will keep working with senior technical and business-development leaders.
Why did Giorgio Zinetti say he is stepping down?
He framed it as a personal decision, citing time off to welcome a new daughter before starting something new, and expressed gratitude to colleagues rather than any dispute with the Foundation.
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Ibiam Wayas
Ibiam Wayas has covered the crypto news beat since 2019. He studied Computer Science at National Open University of Nigeria. His work has appeared on various crypto news platforms, including Coinfomania, Crypto News Australia, and AltcoinBuzz. Drawing on his background in Computer Science, he now focuses on crypto, robotics, and longevity news.
