Within a span of weeks in early 2026, a cluster of senior crypto operators announced they were stepping back or switching domains.

Akshay BD, who spent five years building Solana’s ecosystem, posted a “life update” saying he was “grateful to pass the torch.”

Anthony Rose, a zkSync executive, announced he was “moving on” after four years at Matter Labs.

Nader Dabit left Eigen Labs to join Cognition, working on “end-to-end software agents that ship production code.”

Kyle Samani stepped down as Multicoin’s managing partner to explore AI and robotics, while maintaining he’s still bullish on crypto.

The timing felt coordinated, even if it wasn’t.

The pattern looked like a talent drain because these roles sit at the center of…