Ex-Ethereum Foundation Researchers Launched Their Own Lab

Summary

Kain Warwick, Taylor Monahan, and Luca Netz discuss Ethlabs—a new R&D effort by former Ethereum Foundation researchers—and its questionable early focus. They praise Fomo's $75M raise and product execution, highlight the Jared from Subway sandwich bot honeypot, and react to the WSJ's Polymarket influencer story. Macro clips on Strategy's S&P rating and AI data center demand are played but lack speaker attribution.

• Ethlabs launched by ex-EF researchers with anchor funding from BitMine to make Ethereum the global settlement layer.
• Hosts criticize Ethlabs' initial '15-minute finality' research framing as poorly communicated and out of touch.
• Fomo raised $75M from non-crypto VCs, praised as the best mobile on-chain trading app with strong product-market fit.
• Jared from Subway sandwich bot lost ~$7.5M to a counter-MEV activist who used a honeypot of fake tokens and open approvals.
• Judge orders plaintiff to handwrite legal filings after repeated use of AI-slop in CryptoPunks lawsuit.
• WSJ reports Polymarket paid influencers to stage fake bets; hosts suspect a botched influencer campaign rather than deliberate fraud.
• Pre-roll clips discuss Strategy's S&P rating undervaluing its Bitcoin holdings and risks to AI data center chip demand.