Bitmine and Sharplink Fund Ethlabs to Scale Ethereum for AI and Institutions

Ethlabs Forms Independent Research Group to Strengthen Ethereum’s Core Network

A group of senior Ethereum contributors has launched Ethlabs, a nonprofit research and development organization built to prepare the network for a new wave of institutional and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven activity.

The initiative is funded by a coalition led by Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Sharplink, Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, and other ecosystem backers, including Anchorage, Octant, and SNZ.

Ethlabs is designed to reinforce Ethereum’s core principles of credible neutrality, censorship resistance and security while helping the network scale for stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, funds, decentralized finance and autonomous AI commerce.

The organization was co-founded by five former senior Ethereum Foundation researchers: Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf, and Julian Ma. Their past work spans finality, scaling, data availability, the Ethereum Virtual Machine ( EVM), and protocol economics.

A New Research Home for Ethereum’s Core Builders

Ethlabs arrives as the Ethereum ecosystem moves toward a more distributed development model. As the Ethereum Foundation narrows its mandate, independent groups are taking on larger roles in protocol research and infrastructure development.

Ethlabs will focus first on areas that matter to institutions moving onchain: faster settlement, stronger interoperability, mainnet capacity, native issuance, cross-chain movement, and research into ETH’s monetary properties.

Dietrichs, Ethlabs’ executive director, said Ethereum has reached a pivotal stage after a decade of uninterrupted operation. He said:

Ethereum is uniquely positioned to become the neutral foundation where users, institutions, and agents can transact and interoperate. Ethlabs was created to help Ethereum realize that potential.

Joe Lubin said Ethereum is entering a phase where several independent nodes can help evolve and protect the network. He commented:

Ethlabs will be instrumental in preparing the network for the next major wave of adoption, from institutional finance to agentic commerce, with the scale, security, interoperability, and resilience that global institutions require.

Treasury Firms Step Into Stewardship Role

The funding effort also reflects the growing influence of public Ethereum treasury companies.

Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine, said Ethereum is positioned for significant adoption by institutions and AI agents. He said:

As a significant institutional participant in the Ethereum ecosystem, Bitmine is excited to help serve as a steward of Ethereum’s long-term growth and support the dedicated builders, researchers, and innovators who are helping shape its future.

Sharplink CEO Joseph Chalom called the launch part of an “institutional supercycle” for Ethereum. He said supporting protocol-level researchers is one of the clearest ways for ETH holders to back the network’s long-term development.

Ethlabs said its funding structure is designed to preserve independence. Contributions will flow through an independent grants administrator responsible for screening, valuation, and disbursement. Funders will receive transparency through quarterly reporting and an annual audit, but will not control the research agenda. Final decisions on technical direction will rest with Ethlabs leadership.

For Ethereum, the launch marks another step in its maturation from developer-led experiment to global settlement infrastructure. The question now is whether new research institutions like Ethlabs can help the network meet the scale, privacy, and reliability demands of the next adoption cycle.