Sharplink Joins Bitmine and Joe Lubin in Launching Ethlabs for Institutional Ethereum
SBET•Sharplink joined Bitmine Immersion Technologies and Joe Lubin to fund Ethlabs, a new nonprofit R&D lab co-founded by five former Ethereum Foundation researchers. Ethlabs aims to bolster Ethereum’s institutional scalability by advancing faster settlement, native issuance, cross-chain movement and protocol resilience.
1. Ethlabs Launch and Founders
Ethlabs has been established as an independent nonprofit research and development lab to prepare Ethereum for a wave of institutional adoption. The organization is co-founded by five former senior Ethereum Foundation researchers responsible for key advancements in finality, scaling, data availability, the virtual machine and protocol economics.
2. Funding Partners
The initial funding round is led by Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Sharplink and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, with additional support from Anchorage, Octant and SNZ. Sharplink’s CEO Joseph Chalom emphasizes that providing a stable, independent home for protocol research is a core component of their institutional strategy.
3. Strategic Objectives
Ethlabs will focus on the infrastructure needs of large-scale institutional participants, emphasizing faster settlement, native asset issuance, robust cross-chain interoperability and capacity enhancements on Ethereum mainnet. Early projects will also investigate research to solidify ETH’s monetary properties and trustworthiness under high transaction loads.
4. Governance and Independence
An independent grants administrator will oversee contributions, screening, valuation and disbursement to preserve Ethlabs’ autonomy. Funders receive accountability through quarterly reporting and annual audits, while final decisions on research priorities rest solely with Ethlabs’ leadership.
