John Wu posted on the Avalanche blog on Aug. 18, 2026, that he was stepping down as president of Ava Labs after seven years in the role1. He named Charley Cooper, then the company's chief operating officer, as his successor, and moved himself into a senior advisor title focused on long-term strategy.
The second executive exit at Ava Labs on the record since 2026
Leadership moves CryptoLately has verified at Ava Labs, by year
- 2026: 4
- 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 1 |
| 2022 | 0 |
| 2023 | 1 |
| 2024 | 0 |
| 2025 | 0 |
| 2026 | 4 |
27 executive exits on the record in 2026, the most of any year
Executive exits CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2026: 27
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 6 |
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2021 | 9 |
| 2022 | 9 |
| 2023 | 8 |
| 2024 | 11 |
| 2025 | 20 |
| 2026 | 27 |
The handoff, in Wu's own words
Wu wrote the announcement himself, and he explained his choice of successor in terms of Cooper's résumé. “I've worked closely with Charley and have seen firsthand his ability to build organizations, create alignment, and drive execution,” Wu wrote. He called Cooper “an exceptional operator with deep experience at R3, State Street, Deutsche Bank, and the CFTC”1.
CryptoTimes reported the next day, Aug. 19, 2026, that founder and chief executive Emin Gün Sirer had confirmed the changes in his own post on X, stating his role as CEO would stay unchanged2. Cooper answered Wu's praise with his own, posting that he was “grateful to John for his trust and to the entire team for the foundation they have built over the past seven years,” CryptoTimes reported. The same announcement named Lydia Chiu chief financial officer, making permanent a role she had held on an interim basis1.
Ava Labs before and after Wu
Wu measured the company's growth against where it started. “It was not so long ago when we were a team of ten Cornellians working out of a modest office in Brooklyn,” he wrote. “We are now a company of over 200 people powering the preferred platform for institutional operations”1. He credited Sirer's earlier work specifically, naming Sirer's writing on "the metastability whitepaper" and his role "anticipating the risks that led to the DAO hack".
The next role Wu described for himself is advisory, away from daily operations. “I will transition to Senior Advisor, where I'll advise on the long-term strategy, and help shape what's next for Avalanche,” he wrote1. Wu's advisory focus would run through Avalanche's relationships "across Wall Street and Silicon Valley," CryptoTimes reported2. CFO Lydia Chiu credited Wu's role in that work directly. “In 2019, John was one of the only people who could sit across the table from Wall Street and be taken seriously as a peer, as a bridge to blockchain,” Chiu said, according to CryptoTimes.
What to watch
Wu's post named institutional partnerships as the test of the handoff, and Cooper's background in government and regulated finance points the same direction12. Watch whether Ava Labs lands deals in tokenization, financial markets or enterprise blockchain infrastructure, the three areas CryptoTimes said would shape Cooper's operational strategy. A second marker is whether Wu's name keeps surfacing in Ava Labs' statements about its Wall Street relationships, the task he said he intended to keep.
Sources
- John Wu, "A Leadership Announcement from Ava Labs," Avalanche (Ava Labs), Aug. 18, 2026, https://www.avax.network/about/blog/a-leadership-announcement-from-ava-labs
- Isha Chavda, "Ava Labs Names Charley Cooper President as John Wu Moves to Senior Advisor," CryptoTimes, Aug. 19, 2026, https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/08/19/ava-labs-names-charley-cooper-president-as-john-wu-moves-to-senior-advisor/