Joe Lubin, BitMine, Sharplink fund Ethlabs

Ethlabs, a nonprofit research and development lab founded by former Ethereum Foundation researchers, has launched with funding from Ethereum co‑founder Joe Lubin and public ETH treasuries BitMine Immersion Technologies and Sharplink. The organization says its aim is to prepare the Ethereum network and its native token, ETH, for institutional use.

The group announced an initial focus on enabling institutions to operate on‑chain at scale and on translating real‑world user and developer needs into standards and products for the protocol. Ethlabs’ founding researchers previously worked on consensus finality, scaling and protocol economics, the organization said.

Ethlabs listed more than 50 community supporters that include contributors from layer‑2 networks, venture capital firms and decentralized projects on Ethereum. The organization did not disclose detailed funding amounts and said its funders will not influence the research agenda.

The launch comes about one week after Ethereum Foundation co‑director Hsiao‑Wei Wang left her post. Several researchers have departed the foundation in recent months, including Dankrad Feist, who moved to Stripe’s stablecoin project, Tempo, and argued that a new organization could support Ethereum if its incentives align with ETH.

Ansgar Dietrichs, Ethlabs’ executive director and co‑founder, wrote on X that the organization’s core belief is that adoption is arriving and that they want to “help Ethereum realize its potential and become the shared global settlement layer.” Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine, added in a statement that the lab shows stakeholders increasing investment in talent and research to support wider institutional use of the network.

Market response was muted. Ethereum’s price rose about 0.1% in the 24 hours after the announcement and traded near $1,732, down more than 16% over the past month and roughly 65% below its record high.

A spokesperson for Ethlabs did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lubin, through Consensys, and BitMine chairman Tom Lee hold investments in Dastan, a company active in the crypto sector.