A group of former Ethereum Foundation researchers has launched a new nonprofit research and development organization called Ethlabs, according to Decrypt. The initiative has secured financial backing from Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, mining firm BitMine, and investment firm Sharplink. Additionally, more than 50 ecosystem contributors have been listed as community supporters, lending their endorsement to the project.
Ethlabs' core mission is to position Ethereum as the settlement layer for the global economy. To achieve this, the organization will prioritize promoting institutional-scale on-chain adoption and providing protocol-level support for AI agent applications. Ethlabs says it will operate at the intersection of “real-world usage demands” and “protocol development,” translating the practical needs of frontier builders into actionable standards and products.
The founding team consists of several researchers who previously worked at the Ethereum Foundation, signaling a broader trend of core Ethereum talent extending into independent organizations. As institutional adoption and AI-driven use cases gain traction, Ethlabs could play a bridging role in the Ethereum ecosystem.