JUST IN: TOM LEE'S BITMINE IS BACKING A NEW ETHEREUM RESEARCH FIRM The firm is called Ethlabs. It launches days after the Foundation's co-executive director stepped down, the second to leave in 2026. The five founders worked on Ethereum's core design: -finality -scaling -data availability -EVM -protocol economics. And here's what a lot of people get wrong: The ETH Foundation never "controlled" Ethereum. It funded and coordinated research. The protocol itself is decided by client teams, node operators, and validators. So when core researchers leave, the work doesn't stop. It just moves to a new home with its own funding. The backers read like a who's who of ETH conviction: co-founder Joe Lubin, Tom Lee's BitMine, and SharpLink. Tom Lee said the ecosystem needs to "dramatically expand its investment in talent and research" to handle institutions and AI agents. SharpLink's CEO called it "the beginning of an institutional supercycle on Ethereum." So what do you think: does spreading research across independent labs make Ethereum stronger, or just more fragmented?