Ethlabs launched after five former Ethereum Foundation researchers formed an independent nonprofit R&D firm backed by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, Bitmine Immersion Technologies, SharpLink, and other ecosystem supporters.
The organization said through PR Newswire on June 22 that it focuses on infrastructure for institutional use. Its work will cover settlement speed, cross-chain infrastructure, mainnet capacity, native asset issuance, and ETH economics.
Funding includes Anchorage, Octant, SNZ, and more than 50 community partners, Decrypt reported. Ethlabs did not disclose the amount raised. Its backers show institutional interest in Ethereum research, as Bitmine has disclosed more than 5.4 million ETH, and SharpLink remains a major ETH treasury firm.
Former Foundation Researchers Lead Ethlabs
Ethlabs was founded by Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf, and Julian Ma. They worked on Ethereum finality, scaling, data availability, the Ethereum Virtual Machine, and protocol economics.
Dietrichs, the executive director, said Ethereum is “uniquely positioned to become the shared base layer” of the emerging on-chain economy. He also described it as “the neutral foundation the broader on-chain ecosystem is built on.”
“As longtime contributors to the core protocol, we are establishing an independent non-profit organization to advance Ethereum’s core technology and the shared standards and infrastructure builders depend on,” Dietrichs said.
The launch follows Foundation leadership changes. Hsiao-Wei Wang, a co-executive director, stepped down on June 18 after a sabbatical. Tomasz Stańczak resigned earlier in 2026.
Institutional Ethereum Needs a Shape Research Agenda
Ethlabs said its early work will address technical areas tied to institutional adoption. Faster settlement, higher capacity, stronger interoperability, and clearer ETH monetary properties are central.
Those priorities reflect current Ethereum use across stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, on-chain portfolios, and AI-driven commercial transactions. Each area depends on reliable infrastructure and better coordination across networks.
Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine, said the ecosystem needs to “dramatically expand its investment in talent and research” as institutional and AI-driven activity grows. SharpLink CEO Joseph Chalom called the launch “the beginning of an institutional supercycle on Ethereum.”
Independent Funding Tests Ethereum Governance
Ethlabs said its funding model is designed to protect research independence. An external grants administrator will screen, evaluate, and allocate capital. Funders will receive quarterly reporting and an annual independent audit, but they will not control the research agenda.
That structure matters because some backers hold major ETH exposure. Ethlabs said final technical decisions will remain with its leadership.
Lubin, who also co-founded Consensys, described Ethlabs as part of Ethereum’s move toward a broader set of steward nodes that can help evolve and protect the network.
The launch widens Ethereum’s research map beyond one central foundation. It also shows how open-source blockchain development is spreading across independent organizations with separate missions, funding sources, and technical mandates.
