The team behind the Ethereum Foundation's Institutional Privacy Task Force has launched a for-profit company called EthSystems, which debuted Tuesday to build confidential systems for institutional Ethereum. The firm argues that banks and asset managers will not move stablecoins, tokenized assets, and settlement onto a public ledger until they can hide trade details, positions, and client identities. EthSystems is the third organization to spin out from the Foundation this summer and the first for-profit one, backed by Ethereum treasury firms Bitmine and Sharplink, as well as Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin.
Filling Ethereum's Privacy Gap
EthSystems was founded by Mo Jalil, Oskar Thorén, and Aaryamann Challani, who led the Foundation's Institutional Privacy Task Force for a year, engaging with central banks, regulators, and major financial institutions. The company's thesis is that Wall Street has embraced crypto as an asset class but not yet as commercial infrastructure, because full public visibility of transactions is a dealbreaker. EthSystems launches with a year of open-source work already published, including proofs of concept for private bonds, confidential stablecoin transfers, and private cross-chain settlement. Its business model combines bespoke consulting—workshops, architecture reviews, and production systems—with continued open-source releases.
The Latest Spin-Out from a Restructuring Foundation
EthSystems is the latest team to break away from the Ethereum Foundation, which has been shrinking and restructuring in 2026. The Foundation cut 20% of its staff in June, trimmed its budget, and wound down its in-house privacy and scaling research unit after at least nine senior figures departed. In recent weeks, three groups have spun out: Ethlabs (non-profit core protocol research), Ethereum Institutional (non-profit outreach), and EthSystems (for-profit applied privacy technology). EthSystems said it left on good terms and sees itself as complementary, focusing on "depth over breadth."
Backers with Skin in the Game
EthSystems is funded by Bitmine Immersion Technologies and Sharplink, the two largest publicly traded Ethereum treasury companies, along with Joe Lubin and Asia-focused investment firm SNZ. Bitmine holds roughly 5.7 million ETH and Sharplink about 888,000 ETH, giving them a direct stake in Ethereum's adoption as settlement infrastructure. Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee said in a launch announcement that "the next $100 trillion of assets won't migrate on-chain without it." With Ethereum already hosting $16 billion in tokenized real-world assets and $159 billion in stablecoins, CEO Mo Jalil argued that privacy is "the difference between Ethereum holding billions today and running trillions tomorrow."