
BitMine, Sharplink, Joe Lubin Back New Ethereum Research and Development Lab
Some of Ethereum's largest holders are coming together to fund a new research and development lab aimed at boosting the network and ETH.

Some of Ethereum's largest holders are coming together to fund a new research and development lab aimed at boosting the network and ETH.

Ethlabs, backed by Joe Lubin and the two largest ETH DATs, Bitmine and SharpLink, will focus on institutional adoption.

Bitmine, Sharplink and Joe Lubin are backing Ethlabs, a new nonprofit founded by former Ethereum Foundation researchers.

Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf, and Julian Ma have launched Ethlabs, an independent non-profit R&D lab backed by Bitmine, Sharplink, and Consensys founder Joe Lubin, with a thesis that Ethereum will become the universal onchain settlement layer.

Ethereum's core developers have delivered their most significant technical milestone in months, emerging from a week above the Arctic Circle with a credible roadmap to dramatically scale the network's capacity. Last week, just over 100 core contributors gathered in Longyearbyen, on Norway's Svalbard archipelago — some 78 degrees north, where the sun never sets — for the Soldøgn interop, a week of intensive work on the Glamsterdam network upgrade. By Friday, the team had locked in a post-Glamsterdam gas limit floor of 200 million, stabilised external block builder implementations, and finalised gas repricing numbers for EIP-8037. "At their best, interop weeks can compress a month of asynchronous progress into each day," Ethereum Foundation researcher Tim Beiko wrote in a recap shared with developers on Friday. The breakthrough lands as Ether trades at $2,377, still more than 50% below its August peak of $4,946. However, signs of hope are emerging. Ethereum has jumped 14% over the past month, CoinGecko data shows . The 200 million gas limit target is notable because it determines how many transactions Ethereum can process per block. The higher the limit, the more activity the network can handle without congestion — and the stronger the case for Ethereum as the backbone of a global financial system. Beiko billed it as one of the most productive weeks in recent memory for the Ethereum team. Foundation sells, Bitmine buys The Ethereum Foundation wasted no time translating its technical progress into operational runway. On Friday, the Foundation completed a third over-the-counter sale of 10,000 Ether tokens to Bitmine Immersion Technologies — the largest Ethereum treasury company — at an average price of $2,292 per coin, bringing the total transaction value to roughly $23 million. It is the third such deal between the two parties. In March, the Foundation sold Bitmine 5,000 ETH at around $2,043 per coin. Last Friday, another 10,000 ETH changed hands at $2,387. The Foundation has also conducted a separate 10,000 ETH sale to rival treasury firm Sharplink. The money goes straight back into funding Ethereum's development, including research, grants, and the kind of work that just happened in Svalbard, the Foundation said. But despite the price downturn, Bitmine, led by prominent Wall Street bull Tom Lee, is not flinching. Earlier this week the company disclosed its largest Ethereum purchase of the year — 101,901 ETH worth roughly $235 million — bringing its total holdings above 5 million Ether and cementing its position as the dominant corporate accumulator of the asset. Bitmine bought most of its Ethereum at much higher prices. At today's levels, the company is sitting on an unrealised loss of more than $6 billion. Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at lance@dlnews.com

Crypto majors are green; BTC +1.5% at $92,000; ETH +1% at $3,130, SOL +2% at $142; XRP +1% to $2.06. DASH (+60%), IP (+30%) and XMR (+13%) led top movers; XMR hit another new ATH at $680 (now $640). Gold and Silver hit new ATHs again in the wake of the Powell investigation. The US Senate released the draft Crypto Market Clarity Act, including limits on stablecoin rewards. Senator Warren pressed the SEC over inclusion of crypto in 401ks arguing they expose retirees to too much risk. Vitalik Buterin warned crypto needs better decentralized stablecoins, citing governance capture and inflation risks. World Liberty Financial launched a crypto lending platform built around its USD1 stablecoin, attracting ~$20M. BitGo filed for a U.S. IPO targeting a ~$2B valuation as custody assets surpassed $100B. Tennessee regulators ordered Polymarket, Kalshi, and Crypto.com to halt sports prediction markets and refund users, escalating a multi-state legal fight.