🟣 A wake-up call for Ethereum might be around the corner: the launch of Ethlabs & EF Layoffs

2 days ago @Ethlabs_org, a non-profit R&D lab focused on developing Ethereum, was launched. The announcement drew attention because Ethlabs is the initiative of five former EF researchers: @adietrichs, @barnabemonnot, @casparschwa, @rudolf6_, and @_julianma.
Here is everything you need to know, along with our opinion on this new initiative:
◻️ First point: funding.
The first thing to note is that Ethlabs was made possible through financial backing from @BitMNR (@fundstrat), @Sharplink, @Anchorage, and @ethereumJoseph (MetaMask, Consensys).
This is a double-edged sword:
On one hand, some will see an obvious convergence of interests: these actors are heavily exposed to ETH and therefore want to see the asset regain momentum.
On the other hand, that exposure lends credibility to their commitment. Their capital is directly at stake, which naturally aligns their interests with Ethlabs’ success and, more broadly, with the health of the Ethereum ecosystem.
It also means that future funding will depend on the results this new organization is able to produce. If its efforts don’t satisfy potential backers, it will be harder to justify future contributions. This is the main contrast with how EF operates: funding is driven by efficiency, not by draining the treasury.
It will also incentivize Ethlabs to deploy its treasury to generate yield to sustain its future expenses and be more conservative with its expenses.
◻️ Crisis within the EF:
This announcement comes as the Ethereum Foundation has faced criticism for several months. Some accuse it of being passive and of contributing to ETH’s decline through its numerous sales to fund operations, with little visibility into how that money is being spent.
Moreover, the Foundation has imposed an austerity program on itself, reducing its annual budget from 15% to 5% of its treasury by 2030. The trap is that its target reserve is denominated in dollars: the more ETH falls, the more it has to sell to maintain its cushion, fueling the selling pressure it is criticized for creating.
Until 2 days ago, the EF had recorded around 19 departures and layoffs in 2026, including at least eight senior figures in five months, as well as the loss of its two co-executive directors in quick succession (Tomasz Stańczak in February and Hsiao-Wei Wang in June). Yesterday, it announced the layoff of 54 additional employees, representing 20% of its workforce.
👉 Our take: objectively, it is a good thing that the Ethereum ecosystem has finally received a wake-up call.
The best gauge of confidence in Ethereum is ETH itself, and it is clearly struggling. Holding $ETH in the past 4 years was one of the most painful experiences crypto investors have had to go through.
The reason is fairly straightforward: the asset no longer benefits from a narrative of its own, underperforms most of the top CMC leaders, while the EF, which embodies the face of the network, is perceived by the broader public as more disorganized than ever.
Ethlabs is addressing that issue: restoring a clear investment thesis for ETH.
While the EF now embraces a stance centered on its core principles (CROPS): neutrality, censorship resistance, privacy, security, Ethlabs is taking on the product, adoption, and economic value-creation layer.
What is interesting is that, unlike the EF, Ethlabs is directly dependent on its own success. The organization depends on funding, so its priority will be to actually deliver.
Over time, other Ethlabs-like entities could emerge. That would be natural, and, above all, a positive development. It is essential for Ethereum’s development landscape to become genuinely decentralized and to partly move beyond the image of Vitalik and the EF, in favor of equally talented actors with complementary visions.
In any case, around sixty figures from the Ethereum ecosystem have rallied behind a common cause, and this signal is clearly positive in our opinion. Now, they have to deliver and prove that this is not simply a spinoff of EF that will repeat the same mistakes.