Former Ethereum Foundation Researchers Launch Ethlabs Backed by Major ETH Treasury Firms

A group of former Ethereum Foundation researchers has launched Ethlabs, a new nonprofit research and development organization focused on advancing the Ethereum ecosystem. The initiative is supported by some of the largest corporate Ethereum holders, including SharpLink Gaming (NASDAQ: SBET) and Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR), as well as Ethereum co-founder and Consensys CEO Joe Lubin, Anchorage Digital, Octant, and SNZ.

Ethlabs is led by five former senior contributors from the Ethereum Foundation: Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf, and Julian Ma. The team previously worked on critical areas of Ethereum development, including network scaling, protocol economics, data availability, and transaction finality.

The launch comes during a period of significant change within the Ethereum Foundation. Recent leadership departures, including co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang, have fueled discussions about the future structure of Ethereum development. Monnot and Ma were also among the notable researchers who left the Foundation earlier this year.

Supporters of Ethlabs view the organization as part of Ethereum’s transition toward a multi-node development model, where multiple independent organizations contribute to the network’s growth and security rather than relying primarily on a single institution.

According to Joe Lubin, Ethereum is entering a new phase in which several stewardship organizations can independently help guide and protect the network while accelerating adoption across industries.

Ethlabs plans to focus initially on improving Ethereum transaction settlement speeds, increasing network scalability, and strengthening infrastructure for institutions issuing tokenized assets and stablecoins on blockchain networks. Ethereum currently remains the dominant blockchain for stablecoins, holding approximately 53% of the global market, while also hosting nearly half of the tokenized real-world asset (RWA) sector.

Executive Director Ansgar Dietrichs said Ethereum is uniquely positioned to become the foundational layer of the onchain economy, enabling users, institutions, and autonomous agents to transact seamlessly without intermediaries.

To preserve independence, Ethlabs stated that funding contributors will not influence technical priorities. Research activities will be managed through an external grants process, and all findings will be published openly to support transparency and innovation across the Ethereum community.