On June 23, 2026, a group of senior technical contributors from the Ethereum Foundation announced the formation of Ethlabs, an independent, nonprofit research and development organization dedicated to preparing the Ethereum network for the next phase of institutional adoption. The launch is backed by funding from Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR), Sharplink, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBET), Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, and other ecosystem contributors including Anchorage, Octant, and SNZ.
Ethlabs is co-founded by five prominent former Ethereum Foundation researchers — Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf, and Julian Ma — who have collectively driven key advancements in finality, scaling, data availability, the virtual machine, and protocol economics over the past decade. The lab aims to create a dedicated institutional home with stable, long-term funding, allowing these technologists to focus on the core infrastructure required for mass adoption.
According to the press release, the lab’s early work will concentrate on faster settlement, native issuance, cross-chain interoperability on robust infrastructure, mainnet capacity, and research that grounds ETH’s monetary properties. Ethlabs positions itself as one of several independent organizations emerging as the Ethereum Foundation refocuses on its core mandate, thereby decentralizing the network’s development.
Bitmine chairman Thomas “Tom” Lee stated: “We believe Ethereum is positioned to grow significantly in adoption by institutions and by AI agents… initiatives like this strengthen the foundation of the ecosystem.” Sharplink CEO Joseph Chalom added: “We are at the beginning of an institutional supercycle on Ethereum, and the researchers behind this organization are the people who will make the network ready to carry it.” Joe Lubin emphasized that Ethlabs will be a “major node of the network of ‘Responsible Institutions and Stewards of Ethereum’” and will help the ecosystem become “enormously stronger.”
To preserve independence, contributions flow through an independent grants administrator, and oversight is maintained via transparent quarterly reporting and an annual audit. Research priorities and technical direction remain solely under Ethlabs leadership.
