Ayako (Aya) Miyaguchi is a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency industry, currently serving as the President of the Ethereum Foundation and an Advisor at the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken. Her career is marked by a notable transition from the education sector to the blockchain space. Before her current positions, she was the Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation and the Managing Director of Kraken in Japan. ^[4]​

Education

Ayako is a graduate of Nanzan University and San Francisco State University College of Business. ^[4]

Career

From 1997 to 2011, Miyaguchi held several roles, including as a Highschool Teacher at the Nagoya City Board of Education and internships at the Japan America Society of Southern California and Intrax. In 2011, she was an MBA Advisor at Centro Community Partners and Net Impact VP Marketing at San Francisco State University. ^[4]​

In 2012, Ayako co-founded TABLE FOR TWO, a Nonprofit organization that simultaneously addresses hunger in the developing world and life-style related diseases in the developed world. ^[4]​

Crypto Career

Miyaguchi entered the cryptocurrency industry in 2013, joining Kraken as Managing Director of Japan. Her work focused on global business expansion, strategic partnerships, and educating the public, regulators, and investors about cryptocurrency.

In 2018, she joined the Ethereum Foundation as its Executive Director, where she led efforts to support the ecosystem through research and development, funding, and educational initiatives. ^{[1] [2]}​

In early 2025, Miyaguchi's leadership was central to navigating the Ethereum Foundation through a significant, pre-planned structural evolution that had been in development for nearly a year. During this transition, she received a strong public endorsement from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who defended her leadership on the social media platform X, condemning what he described as a "scapegoat attack" and affirming her importance to the ecosystem. ^[3]​

This period of transformation culminated in mid-2025 with her promotion to President of the Ethereum Foundation amid a broader leadership and R&D division restructuring. In this role, she focuses on cultivating the foundation's institutional relationships. She also serves as an Advisor to Kraken. ^{[2] [1]}​

Vision for Ethereum

In her role at the Ethereum Foundation, Aya Miyaguchi has articulated a distinct philosophy for stewarding the Ethereum ecosystem, emphasizing long-term health and decentralization over centralized efficiency. Her vision is guided by several key principles:

• Ethereum as a Substrate: Miyaguchi views Ethereum as a foundational, general-purpose platform—a "substrate" for building a more decentralized society. She highlights its potential beyond finance, envisioning applications in governance, education, and environmental solutions that empower individuals to create systems free from traditional intermediaries.
• Bottom-Up Innovation: She champions a "bottom-up" approach to development, rejecting a corporate, top-down management style. Miyaguchi uses the metaphor of an "Infinite Garden" to describe the ecosystem, where organic growth and a diversity of ideas are nurtured, allowing the best solutions to emerge naturally from the community rather than being dictated by the Foundation.
• The Foundation as a 'Subtraction Layer': A core concept of her leadership is the "principle of subtraction." Miyaguchi actively works to reduce the power and influence of the Ethereum Foundation itself, preventing it from becoming a central point of control. By subtracting its own authority, the Foundation aims to empower the community and ensure the ecosystem remains credibly neutral and decentralized.
• Organizational Stewardship: Upon joining the Foundation in 2018, Miyaguchi focused on establishing and improving non-R&D functions such as grants, community coordination, and operations to make the organization a more efficient and transparent steward for the community's needs.

Her approach prioritizes the process of building with the community as an objective just as important as the technology itself. ^[5]​