Major ETH Holders Back New Ethereum Research Nonprofit Ethlabs
Five former Ethereum Foundation researchers have launched Ethlabs, an independent nonprofit backed by SharpLink, Bitmine, Joe Lubin and other crypto industry participants. The group will focus on Ethereum scaling, faster settlement and infrastructure for tokenized assets and stablecoins.
What happened?
Five former Ethereum Foundation researchers have launched Ethlabs, an independent nonprofit backed by SharpLink, Bitmine, Joe Lubin and other crypto industry participants. The group will focus on Ethereum scaling, faster settlement and infrastructure for tokenized assets and stablecoins.
Why it matters
The effort also reflects the growing role of corporate ETH holders in Ethereum’s ecosystem. CoinDesk noted that Ethereum hosts a 53% share of the roughly $300 billion stablecoin market and about half of the $32 billion tokenized asset market, citing RWA.xyz data. Ethlabs said its research will be published openly, while funding contributors will receive transparency reports but no direct control over technical priorities.
Five former Ethereum Foundation researchers have launched Ethlabs, a new independent nonprofit research and development organization for Ethereum. The group is backed by SharpLink Gaming, Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Ethereum co-founder and Consensys CEO Joe Lubin, and other supporters including Anchorage Digital, Octant and SNZ, according to CoinDesk.
The launch matters because it comes during a period of organizational change around Ethereum’s core development structure. CoinDesk reported that the Ethereum Foundation has seen several high-profile departures, including co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang’s decision to step down and earlier exits by Ethlabs leaders Julian Ma and Barnabé Monnot.
Ethlabs is led by Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf and Julian Ma, all former senior Ethereum Foundation contributors. Their prior work covered areas such as scaling, data availability, protocol economics and network finality.
Supporters frame the new organization as part of a broader shift toward a “multi-node” model for Ethereum development, where multiple independent groups share responsibility for advancing the network rather than relying primarily on the Ethereum Foundation. Ethlabs said its early agenda will include faster transaction settlement, expanded network capacity and better infrastructure for institutions using Ethereum for tokenized assets and stablecoins.
The effort also reflects the growing role of corporate ETH holders in Ethereum’s ecosystem. CoinDesk noted that Ethereum hosts a 53% share of the roughly $300 billion stablecoin market and about half of the $32 billion tokenized asset market, citing RWA.xyz data. Ethlabs said its research will be published openly, while funding contributors will receive transparency reports but no direct control over technical priorities.