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Ethlabs, Founded by Former Ethereum Foundation Contributors and Funded by Bitmine, Sharplink and Joe Lubin, Launches to Accelerate Ethereum’s Institutional Supercycle

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New nonprofit research and development lab brings together a group of senior technical contributors from the Ethereum Foundation to ready the network for step-function wave of adoption from institutions, agentic finance and DeFi

Ethlabs to reinforce foundational commitments to credible neutrality, censorship resistance and security

NEW YORK, June 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A coordinated group of Ethereum ecosystem stewards today announced the launch of Ethlabs, an independent, nonprofit research and development organization formed to ready Ethereum for the next phase of institutional adoption. The funding effort is led by Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BMNR), Sharplink, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBET), Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin and other key Ethereum ecosystem contributors including Anchorage, Octant and SNZ.

As stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, funds and autonomous AI commerce move onchain, they are converging on Ethereum as the neutral, credibly permissionless settlement layer for the global economy. Ethlabs exists to ensure the network is ready to absorb that demand at scale, advancing a faster Ethereum with trustworthy interoperability, so institutions building on Ethereum can do so with the neutrality, resilience, privacy and security they require.

Cofounded by five former senior Ethereum Foundation researchers: Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf and Julian Ma, Ethlabs brings together researchers responsible for key contributions to finality, scaling, data availability, the virtual machine and protocol economics — the technologists who have guided the network through its most consequential upgrades over the past decade. This initiative gives that work a dedicated institutional home with stable, long-term funding.

The launch reflects a natural evolution of the Ethereum ecosystem. As the Ethereum Foundation refocuses on its core mandate and embraces a multi-node future, Ethlabs emerges as one of several independent organizations advancing the network in parallel. Ethlabs’ early work will center on what institutions need to move onchain at scale: faster settlement, native issuance and cross-chain movement on robust infrastructure, capacity on mainnet and research that grounds ETH‘s monetary properties.

Thomas “Tom” Lee, Chairman of Bitmine. “We believe Ethereum is positioned to grow significantly in adoption by institutions and by AI agents. And naturally, the ecosystem needs to dramatically expand its investment in talent and research to support this growth. The formation of Ethlabs demonstrates that key stakeholders are stepping up to help ensure Ethereum remains a leading platform for decentralized finance. We believe positive momentum is building in the digital asset ecosystem, and initiatives like this strengthen the foundation of the ecosystem as the community works together to advance Ethereum‘s next chapter. As a significant institutional participant in the Ethereum ecosystem, Bitmine is excited to help serve as a steward of Ethereum‘s long-term growth and support the dedicated builders, researchers and innovators who are helping shape its future.”

Joseph Chalom, Chief Executive Officer of Sharplink. “We are at the beginning of an institutional supercycle on Ethereum, and the researchers behind this organization are the people who will make the network ready to carry it. They have quietly shaped Ethereum for the better part of a decade, and giving their work a stable, independent home is one of the most meaningful contributions we can make to the ecosystem. We hold ETH because we believe in what this network is becoming, and supporting the people advancing it at the protocol level is the clearest way we know to back that conviction. This is what responsible stewardship looks like: using our position to drive the next wave of institutional adoption and to strengthen the foundation the entire onchain economy will be built on. Sharplink is proud to help bring Ethlabs to life, alongside our ecosystem partners.”

Joe Lubin, Ethereum co-founder and founder and Chief Executive Officer of Consensys. “Ethereum is entering its next stage of evolution. We are now poised to recognize and implement the idea that there should be a number of steward nodes of Ethereum, each configured in their unique way to evolve and protect what is sacred about the network and massively grow the world’s appreciation and utilization of it. With support from the Sharplink, Bitmine and many others, Ethlabs is the latest group of EF origin that is externalizing to become a major node of the network of “Responsible Institutions and Stewards of Ethereum“. By providing a long-term, independent home to researchers and developers advancing Ethereum‘s core technology and values, Ethlabs will be instrumental in preparing the network for the next major wave of adoption, from institutional finance to agentic commerce, with the scale, security, interoperability and resilience that global institutions require. Today and going forward the Ethereum ecosystem will be further decentralized, enormously stronger with each steward more focused and empowered.”

Ansgar Dietrichs, Executive Director of Ethlabs. “Ethereum is at a pivotal moment. A decade of uninterrupted operation and a track record of credible neutrality have earned it the trust of users and institutions around the world. As blockchain systems move rapidly into mainstream use, the coming years will define the shape of the onchain economy for decades. Ethereum is uniquely positioned to become the shared base layer of that economy, the neutral foundation the broader onchain ecosystem is built on, where users, institutions, and agents can transact and interoperate without intermediation. Ethlabs was created to help Ethereum realize that potential. As longtime contributors to the core protocol, we are establishing an independent non-profit organization to advance Ethereum‘s core technology and the shared standards and infrastructure builders depend on, and we are excited to carry forward that work at the moment it matters most.”

The funding effort has been organized to preserve Ethlabs independence at every level. Contributions flow through an independent grants administrator that handles screening, valuation and disbursement. Funders provide accountability through transparent quarterly reporting and an independent annual audit, rather than influence over the research agenda. Final decisions on research priorities and technical direction will rest with Ethlabs leadership.

About Bitmine
Bitmine (NYSE: BMNR) is a Bitcoin miner with operations in the US. The company is deploying its excess capital to be the leading Ethereum Treasury company in the world, implementing an innovative digital asset strategy for institutional investors and public market participants. Guided by its philosophy of “the alchemy of 5%,” the Company is committed to ETH as its primary treasury reserve asset, leveraging native protocol-level activities including staking and decentralized finance mechanisms. The Company launched MAVAN (Made-in America Validator Network), a dedicated staking infrastructure for Bitmine assets, in 2026.

About Sharplink
Sharplink (NASDAQ: SBET) is a leading institutional-grade Ethereum treasury platform designed to give public market investors smarter, more productive exposure to ETH. Ethereum underpins the majority of global stablecoin, tokenized real-world assets and decentralized finance settlement, making ETH a unique native yield generation and long-term network growth opportunity. Sharplink was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Miami, Florida. Learn more at www.sharplink.com.

About Ethlabs
Ethlabs is an independent, nonprofit research and development lab and ecosystem steward focused on the next era of growth for Ethereum and ETH. It exists to turn Ethereum‘s unique properties into infrastructure, standards, and outcomes that users, builders, institutions, and asset issuers can rely on. All of its research is published openly. Learn more at ethlabs.org.

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding anticipated institutional interest in Ethereum, research focus and technical roadmaps, governance arrangements, grants administration and oversight mechanisms, and treasury and digital-asset strategies. These statements are based on current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, including market conditions for digital assets, regulatory changes, protocol-level developments or setbacks, the timing and success of research efforts, funding availability, and general economic conditions. Additional risk factors are described in Sharplink’s and Bitmine’s SEC filings at www.sec.gov. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release, are not guarantees, and neither Sharplink nor Bitmine undertakes any obligation to update them except as required by law. This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or digital asset.

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SOURCE Ethlabs

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Robot.com Launches R-noid, a Humanoid Built For the Work That Burns People Out. No Legs, All Lift to the Bottom Line.

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Five solution categories. Nineteen deployable tasks. One platform that goes from initial site visit to autonomous operation in months — ready to show its work at Automate 2026.

SAN FRANCISCO, June 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Robot.com®, the company putting robots to work in the real world, today announces its entry into humanoid labor solutions with the commercial launch of R-noid™, a robot purpose-built for the repetitive, multi-shift, and hard-to-staff jobs. Deployed under a Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) model, Robot.com can go from the first visit of a customer’s site to autonomous on-site R-noid operation in as few as eight to twelve weeks.

The R-noid launch commences with five initial solution categories — Restaurant Assistant, Packer, Picker, Folder, and Host — deployed across six industry verticals, including industrial, logistics, healthcare, food services, lodging, and experiential. These solutions target the roles operators chronically struggle to fill.

Robot.com will showcase R-noid alongside its proven R-kiwi™, R-kiwi+™, and R-cargo™ solutions at Automate 2026 in Chicago from June 22–25 at Booth 1592 in the Humanoid Pavilion.

The problem R-noid fills is structural and pervasive. Quick-service restaurants experience staff turnover upwards of 130%. Warehouse picker tenure averages just 1.2 years. More than 67% of hotel operators report critical staffing gaps in both housekeeping and laundry. These staffing shortfalls put customer experience at risk as the jobs simply don’t stay filled. R-noid never resigns.

“The future of work isn’t fewer people. It’s people freed from the parts of the job that grind them down, doing more of what they’re good at,” said Felipe Chavez Cortes, CEO and Co-Founder. “We build the robots that make that trade real, taking the repetitive physical work off your team so they can focus on craft, care, and the customer.”

Launching with support from NVIDIA Robotics, Astribot, FieldAI, Formic, Physical Intelligence, Robots for America, and Yukai Engineering, R-noid brings humanoid labor solutions to Robot.com’s broader fleet — R-kiwi for delivery, R-cargo for transport, and R-kiwi+ for advertising — all running on the same software stack and five-phase engagement model.

Robot.com is working with FieldAI to bring its general-purpose Field Foundation Models (FFMs) to R-noid as the autonomy brain. FFMs serve as an operational AI layer that generalizes across robots and environments and serves three roles: enabling safe and reliable operations in dynamic, real-world spaces without prior information or supporting infrastructure; preventing model hallucinations through physics-grounded AI models; and coordinating multiple robots working together.

The body that work runs on is built for reach and stability: dual 7-degree-of-freedom (DoF) arms, a 4-DoF articulated torso with 0 to 1.9m of vertical reach, and a holonomic mobile base that lets R-noid reposition in tight, busy spaces.

For the robot’s design language and character, Robot.com partnered with Yukai Engineering, a Japanese studio known for emotionally expressive consumer robots. Yukai advised on materials, manufacturing, and interaction design, and the collaboration produced R-soul, the expression and behavior system designed to earn people’s trust in seconds. It’s a goal Robot.com has pursued since 2017: building robots that open people’s hearts and minds to the future of technology. R-soul lets the robot communicate intent, status, and personality.

The dexterity comes from Physical Intelligence. R-noid runs on π0.7, Physical Intelligence’s vision-language-action model built for generalist manipulation. It reads a natural-language instruction, looks at the scene in front of it, and produces the arm and hand movements to carry out the task, adapting as objects, layout, and order change. One model spans packing, picking, and folding, so adding a task means extending the same system rather than engineering a new robot for each job.

At launch, R-noid can perform 19 deployable tasks across five categories. Lighthouse deployments are already underway, demonstrating the new humanoids’ speed-to-impact on business performance. The R-noid Packer is live at an award-winning golf course, handling on-site order packing operations. The Packer category is also moving toward production at a major food manufacturing facility, with early results validating R-noid’s end-of-line capabilities at scale. The Picker is designed to integrate directly into existing pick ports across logistics operations, with no facility retrofit required. Formic serves as Robot.com’s deployment partner for humanoid solutions, helping customers pilot, deploy, and scale automation in production environments.

“Our answer to ‘how long will this take?’ is weeks, not years,” said David Rodriguez, Co-Founder of Robot.com. “With thoughtful hardware design, best-in-class software, and our proven platform, we can have a robot doing real work in your facility within weeks of the first conversation. No other humanoid platform can make that claim.”

Robot.com’s fleet is built on NVIDIA’s full robotics stack; the robots run on NVIDIA Jetson modules, which power the robot’s perception, planning, and control stack on-device — delivering the low-latency inference real-world operations demand. Across its development cycle, Robot.com uses NVIDIA Isaac Sim to simulate, validate, and stress-test each robot before deployment, ensuring reliability before any unit touches a customer floor.

In addition to its Automate debut, R-noid will be among the featured players in Robot.com’s first appearance at Cannes Lions, where the company is the official Robotics Innovation Partner for PMG’s AI & Tech Sandbox.

For demos, media availability, or to book time at Automate, contact robot@thekeypr.com.

About Robot.com
Robot.com Holdings Inc., doing business as Robot.com®, is a pioneer in practical robotics solutions powered by advanced AI. The company operates a dual-engine business: Robotic Services, delivering Level 4 autonomous robots for campus delivery, warehouse logistics, and inspection; and Robot.com Media, a national OOH advertising platform powered by its mobile robot fleet. With more than 500 robots deployed across the United States, Canada, Dubai, and MENA, and completing over 2.5 million tasks, Robot.com operates at enterprise scale every day in real environments. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Colombia, Robot.com partners with enterprise operators, including Sodexo, to solve workforce and logistics challenges today. Robot.com is a founding member of Robots for America, a national coalition advancing the adoption of robotics and American industrial competitiveness.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, as amended, including those relating to certain industry metrics, Company performance metrics and other statements that are predictive in nature. These statements relate to future events, future expectations, plans and prospects. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking expressions, including, but not limited to, “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “estimate,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would” and similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date made, actual results or outcomes may prove to be materially different from the expectations expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Meaningful factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to, whether we will have adequate financial resources to enable us to pursue our business successfully, given that we will likely need more financial resources than the additional resources. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors. The Company does not undertake any obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking statements as a result of subsequent events or developments, except as required by law.

Media Contact:
robot@thekeypr.com 

For Investors:
Matt Kreps
Darrow Associates
+1-214-597-8200
mkreps@darrowir.com

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SOURCE Robot.com

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Media Advisory – NASA technical briefing: on-orbit repairs to Canadarm2

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LONGUEUIL, QC, June 22, 2026 /CNW/ – On June 25 at 2:00 pm ET, NASA will hold a technical briefing about an upcoming spacewalk to replace a wrist joint on Canadarm2. The spacewalk is scheduled for Tuesday, June 30, at approximately 8:35 am ET.

Experts from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and NASA will give a preview of the spacewalk from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Media interested in joining by phone must contact the Johnson Space Center newsroom at jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov no later than Wednesday, June 24, at 5:00 pm. To ask a question, media must dial in no later than 15 minutes before the start of the briefing. United States-based media who want to attend in person must contact the Johnson newsroom by the same deadline.

Media who have questions or would like to speak with a CSA expert should contact the CSA’s Media Relations Office.

Date:       

June 25, 2026

Time:       

2:00 pm ET

Who:         

Jason Dyer, CSA deputy liaison manager, Houston

Bill Spetch, operations and integration manager, International Space Station Program (NASA)

Fiona Antkowiak, spacewalk flight director (NASA)

The briefing will be livestreamed on NASA’s platforms. For more information, please consult NASA’s media advisory.

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SOURCE Canadian Space Agency

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Minister Hodgson highlights launch of National Food Security Strategy

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KING CITY, ON, June 22, 2026 /CNW/ – The Government of Canada is focused on building a stronger economy and making life more affordable for Canadians. Today, the Honourable Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, on behalf of the Honourable Heath MacDonald, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, highlighted the launch of the National Food Security Strategy in King City, Ontario.

Backed by more than $3 billion in investments over 10 years, this strategy will drive productivity and innovation, support independent grocers, and create greater competition across Canada’s food system to help lower prices for Canadians.   

Minister Hodgson outlined the Strategy’s four main objectives:

Spur grocery store competition and create more choice for Canadians
Canada’s new government will invest $1 billion in food infrastructure – including new and expanded food terminals and hubs – to help independent grocers buy and move competitively-priced products without relying on supply networks owned by large retail chains. Additional funding will also provide the Competition Bureau and Competition Tribunal with more resources to investigate, prevent, and combat unfair business practices.

Boost domestic food production across Canada
For decades, we’ve been paying other countries to convert what we already have into what we really need. This Strategy changes that. This Strategy launches a new $1 billion Agri-food Project Finance Fund through Farm Credit Canada (FCC), and a $150 million Food Security Fund to help Canadian businesses grow, produce, and process more food in Canada. The Strategy will also create a $100 million Collaborative Food Innovation Fund to help producers make better use of what they already grow – expanding processing so more parts of each crop are used, and so more value is kept in Canada.

Grow fruits and vegetables year-round
We will invest $750 million to drastically expand year-round Canadian production of fruits and vegetables, through greenhouses, vertical farms, and other enclosed growing spaces, including in rural and Northern communities. The Strategy will reduce reliance on long, costly supply chains by expanding local food production.

Cut red tape across the agricultural supply chain
To reduce the regulatory burden on farmers and producers, we will modernise key regulations; speed up approvals for seeds, feed, fertilizers, and veterinary products; and reduce backlogs that slow down the system. This will help farmers access the tools they need sooner, increase productivity, and stabilise the food supply. The Strategy will also help provincially licensed food businesses meet federal requirements so that a Canadian- product made in one province or territory can more easily reach a shelf in another.

A country’s sovereignty depends on its ability to feed itself, fuel itself, and defend itself. And right now, Canada is not fully in control of our own food system. Our overreliance on foreign suppliers has left us vulnerable to global shocks – to conflicts overseas, to droughts, and to tariffs. Our new National Food Security Strategy is about changing that. It is about putting Canadians back in control of what we grow, of what we buy, and of what we put on our tables, so that we can build a truly strong, affordable, resilient Canada for all.

Quotes 

“The National Food Security Strategy is about giving Canadians greater choice, control, and access to affordable, locally produced food. Through this made-in-Canada approach we will be able to process more of what our farmers grow, creating new jobs, economic opportunity and more food self-sufficiency. By reducing red tape and helping innovative businesses get projects off the ground faster, we will unlock new opportunities for farmers, food processors, and entrepreneurs across the agri-food sector.”

–  The Honourable Heath MacDonald, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

“The National Food Security Strategy will strengthen our entire food system from farm to table, so residents of King City and beyond can purchase and enjoy more affordable, locally produced food. By supporting innovation, upgrading infrastructure, and improving how food moves across the country, we are creating new opportunities for producers and ensuring a more resilient future for Canada.”

–  The Honourable Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources

Quick Facts

The Strategy builds on federal measures already helping lower everyday costs for Canadians, including:Eliminating the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for first-time homebuyers on new homes up to $1 million and reducing it on new homes between $1 million and $1.5 million.Making the National School Food Program permanent, providing school meals for up to 400,000 children each year and saving participating families with two children in school an estimated $800 annually on groceries.Cancelling the federal consumer carbon price effective April 1, 2025, helping lower gas prices in most provinces and territories by around 18 cents per litre compared to 2024-25.Launching the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit, providing a family of four up to $1,890 this year and about $1,400 a year for the next four years, and a single person up to $950 this year and about $700 a year for the next four years – reaching more than 12 million Canadians.To support Canadians while building a stronger domestic food system, the government is also:Providing $20 million to food banks and community food organisations across the country through the Local Food Infrastructure Fund’s Community Support Stream.Through Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and the Regional Development Agencies, the Government will call on industry leaders inviting them to put forward projects to improve the resilience and self-sufficiency in food processing by building new capacity, modernizing existing capacity and strengthening our support infrastructure. The Strategic Response Fund is to launch an early wave of its call for proposals in June 2026, followed by a second wave in the fall of 2026, in conjunction with Regional Development Agencies.Delivering immediate expensing for new or expanded greenhouse construction, providing upfront tax relief to help boost the domestic supply of fresh fruits and vegetables.Reforming the Nutrition North Canada program to improve food-related access, affordability, and long-term sustainability in Northern communities.

Additional Links 

National Food Security StrategyNational Food Security Strategy – placemat

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SOURCE Natural Resources Canada

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