Ethlabs launch raises questions over Ethereum stewardship

On June 22 five former Ethereum Foundation researchers — Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf and Julian Ma — announced Ethlabs, a nonprofit research and development lab. Ethlabs stated its mission is to make Ethereum the settlement layer of the global economy.

The announcement framed the project around both the protocol and ETH the asset. The statement called ETH “the most valuable, programmable store of value” and listed research into ETH’s monetary properties among the lab’s early priorities. The Ethereum Foundation has generally avoided explicit promotion of ETH’s monetary value.

Named backers include BitMine, SharpLink, Joe Lubin, Anchorage, Octant and SNZ. Ethlabs stated that funders will have accountability but not control over the research agenda, and that leadership will set direction along with quarterly reports and independent annual audits.

Funding context was central to the formation. Former contributor Trent Van Epps wrote that the Foundation’s retreat could create a core protocol funding shortfall within three to nine months and estimated core development needs at about $30 million a year across client teams, research and coordination. Ethlabs stated it aims to help address that shortfall. Public filings show BitMine reported approximately $258 million in annualized ETH staking revenue in June 2026.

Several departures from the Ethereum Foundation preceded the launch. Some co-founders posted that they were leaving the Foundation to join Ethlabs. Yuga Cohler wrote he was sad to see dysfunction at the Foundation and that it was losing leaders faster than it could replace them. Dankrad Feist wrote that the people leaving still support the Foundation’s strategy but blamed management execution for the exits.

Joe Lubin described the emerging structure as a network of “steward nodes.” The Foundation published a framework for evaluating and funding spinouts on the same day Ethlabs announced its plans.

Analysts flagged potential changes to the political economy of protocol decisions when treasury firms and large ETH holders fund research. Treasury companies and institutional holders have financial incentives tied to ETH prices and to treating ETH as institutional collateral.

Ethlabs’ governance safeguards include a nonprofit charter, independent leadership, quarterly reporting and independent annual audits. The lab stated funders will not control its research agenda.

On-chain data show roughly $157 billion in stablecoin market capitalization and about $14.9 billion in active tokenized real-world assets on Ethereum. Stablecoins, tokenized assets and decentralized finance depend on settlement infrastructure.

Ethlabs is the first formal effort by former Foundation researchers and ETH-aligned capital to address the succession and funding gap identified by critics.