Ethlabs, Founded by Former Ethereum Foundation Contributors and Funded by Bitmine, Sharplink and Joe Lubin, Launches to Accelerate Ethereum's Institutional Supercycle

New nonprofit research and development lab brings together a group of senior technical contributors from the Ethereum Foundation to ready the network for step-function wave of adoption from institutions, agentic finance and DeFi

Ethlabs to reinforce foundational commitments to credible neutrality, censorship resistance and security

NEW YORK, June 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A coordinated group of Ethereum ecosystem stewards today announced the launch of Ethlabs, an independent, nonprofit research and development organization formed to ready Ethereum for the next phase of institutional adoption. The funding effort is led by Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BMNR), Sharplink, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBET), Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin and other key Ethereum ecosystem contributors including Anchorage, Octant and SNZ.

As stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, funds and autonomous AI commerce move onchain, they are converging on Ethereum as the neutral, credibly permissionless settlement layer for the global economy. Ethlabs exists to ensure the network is ready to absorb that demand at scale, advancing a faster Ethereum with trustworthy interoperability, so institutions building on Ethereum can do so with the neutrality, resilience, privacy and security they require.

Cofounded by five former senior Ethereum Foundation researchers: Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf and Julian Ma, Ethlabs brings together researchers responsible for key contributions to finality, scaling, data availability, the virtual machine and protocol economics — the technologists who have guided the network through its most consequential upgrades over the past decade. This initiative gives that work a dedicated institutional home with stable, long-term funding.

The launch reflects a natural evolution of the Ethereum ecosystem. As the Ethereum Foundation refocuses on its core mandate and embraces a multi-node future, Ethlabs emerges as one of several independent organizations advancing the network in parallel. Ethlabs' early work will center on what institutions need to move onchain at scale: faster settlement, native issuance and cross-chain movement on robust infrastructure, capacity on mainnet and research that grounds ETH's monetary properties.

Thomas "Tom" Lee, Chairman of Bitmine. "We believe Ethereum is positioned to grow significantly in adoption by institutions and by AI agents. And naturally, the ecosystem needs to dramatically expand its investment in talent and research to support this growth. The formation of Ethlabs demonstrates that key stakeholders are stepping up to help ensure Ethereum remains a leading platform for decentralized finance. We believe positive momentum is building in the digital asset ecosystem, and initiatives like this strengthen the foundation of the ecosystem as the community works together to advance Ethereum's next chapter. 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."

Joseph Chalom, Chief Executive Officer of Sharplink. "We are at the beginning of an institutional supercycle on Ethereum, and the researchers behind this organization are the people who will make the network ready to carry it. They have quietly shaped Ethereum for the better part of a decade, and giving their work a stable, independent home is one of the most meaningful contributions we can make to the ecosystem. We hold ETH because we believe in what this network is becoming, and supporting the people advancing it at the protocol level is the clearest way we know to back that conviction. This is what responsible stewardship looks like: using our position to drive the next wave of institutional adoption and to strengthen the foundation the entire onchain economy will be built on. Sharplink is proud to help bring Ethlabs to life, alongside our ecosystem partners."

Joe Lubin, Ethereum co-founder and founder and Chief Executive Officer of Consensys. "Ethereum is entering its next stage of evolution. We are now poised to recognize and implement the idea that there should be a number of steward nodes of Ethereum, each configured in their unique way to evolve and protect what is sacred about the network and massively grow the world's appreciation and utilization of it. With support from the Sharplink, Bitmine and many others, Ethlabs is the latest group of EF origin that is externalizing to become a major node of the network of "Responsible Institutions and Stewards of Ethereum". By providing a long-term, independent home to researchers and developers advancing Ethereum's core technology and values, 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. Today and going forward the Ethereum ecosystem will be further decentralized, enormously stronger with each steward more focused and empowered."

Ansgar Dietrichs, Executive Director of Ethlabs. "Ethereum is at a pivotal moment. A decade of uninterrupted operation and a track record of credible neutrality have earned it the trust of users and institutions around the world. As blockchain systems move rapidly into mainstream use, the coming years will define the shape of the onchain economy for decades. Ethereum is uniquely positioned to become the shared base layer of that economy, the neutral foundation the broader onchain ecosystem is built on, where users, institutions, and agents can transact and interoperate without intermediation. Ethlabs was created to help Ethereum realize that potential. As longtime contributors to the core protocol, we are establishing an independent non-profit organization to advance Ethereum's core technology and the shared standards and infrastructure builders depend on, and we are excited to carry forward that work at the moment it matters most."

The funding effort has been organized to preserve Ethlabs independence at every level. Contributions flow through an independent grants administrator that handles screening, valuation and disbursement. Funders provide accountability through transparent quarterly reporting and an independent annual audit, rather than influence over the research agenda. Final decisions on research priorities and technical direction will rest with Ethlabs leadership.

About Bitmine
Bitmine (NYSE: BMNR) is a Bitcoin miner with operations in the US. The company is deploying its excess capital to be the leading Ethereum Treasury company in the world, implementing an innovative digital asset strategy for institutional investors and public market participants. Guided by its philosophy of "the alchemy of 5%," the Company is committed to ETH as its primary treasury reserve asset, leveraging native protocol-level activities including staking and decentralized finance mechanisms. The Company launched MAVAN (Made-in America Validator Network), a dedicated staking infrastructure for Bitmine assets, in 2026.

About Sharplink
Sharplink (NASDAQ: SBET) is a leading institutional-grade Ethereum treasury platform designed to give public market investors smarter, more productive exposure to ETH. Ethereum underpins the majority of global stablecoin, tokenized real-world assets and decentralized finance settlement, making ETH a unique native yield generation and long-term network growth opportunity. Sharplink was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Miami, Florida. Learn more at www.sharplink.com.

About Ethlabs
Ethlabs is an independent, nonprofit research and development lab and ecosystem steward focused on the next era of growth for Ethereum and ETH. It exists to turn Ethereum's unique properties into infrastructure, standards, and outcomes that users, builders, institutions, and asset issuers can rely on. All of its research is published openly. Learn more at ethlabs.org.

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding anticipated institutional interest in Ethereum, research focus and technical roadmaps, governance arrangements, grants administration and oversight mechanisms, and treasury and digital-asset strategies. These statements are based on current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including market conditions for digital assets, regulatory changes, protocol-level developments or setbacks, the timing and success of research efforts, funding availability, and general economic conditions. Additional risk factors are described in Sharplink's and Bitmine's SEC filings at www.sec.gov. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release, are not guarantees, and neither Sharplink nor Bitmine undertakes any obligation to update them except as required by law. This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or digital asset.