Five Former Ethereum Researchers Form Independent Nonprofit Backed by Corporate Funders

Five former Ethereum Foundation researchers launched Ethlabs, an independent nonprofit research and development organization, on Monday. The group is backed by SharpLink Gaming, Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Consensys CEO Joe Lubin and several other entities. Ansgar Dietrichs serves as executive director.

The other founders are Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf and Julian Ma. All five previously worked at the Ethereum Foundation on scaling, data availability, protocol economics and network finality. Ethlabs' initial priorities include faster transaction settlement, greater network capacity and improved infrastructure for institutions issuing tokenized assets and stablecoins.

Ethereum holds a 53 percent share of the $300 billion stablecoin market and hosts roughly half of the $32 billion tokenized asset market, according to RWA.xyz data cited by CoinDesk. The launch follows several departures from the Ethereum Foundation. Co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang announced last week that she would step down.

Monnot and Ma left the foundation earlier in 2026. Joe Lubin said the move supports a shift toward multiple independent organizations advancing the network. "We are now poised to recognize and implement the idea that there should be a number of steward nodes of Ethereum," he said.

Dietrichs stated that Ethereum is positioned to serve as a neutral base layer for onchain activity. Ethlabs will administer grants externally to preserve research independence. Funding backers will receive transparency reports but hold no direct control over technical priorities, and all research will be published openly, CoinDesk reported.