Welcome to our weekly digest, where we unpack the latest in account and chain abstraction and the broader infrastructure shaping Ethereum.

This week: Ethlabs launches as an independent EF-origin R&D lab backed by Bitmine, Sharplink, and Joe Lubin; the Ethereum Foundation reorganizes into five focused clusters and parts ways with a fifth of its staff; Starknet brings confidential USDC payments to DeFi through its STRK20 framework; and a new industry report charts how crypto-native neobanks went mainstream and why account abstraction matters more because of it.

Ethlabs Launches as an Independent R&D Lab

The Ethereum Foundation Restructures Into Five Clusters

Starknet Brings Private USDC to DeFi