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Ether (ETH) is trading at $1,693 on June 23, down 3% on the day and 4.5% over the last seven days, according to CoinGecko data.
The price has broken below $1,700 for the first time since the recovery that began June 16, with the session low of $1,680.44 testing levels not seen in over a week. The decline arrives alongside two separate institutional developments that simultaneously reframe Ethereum’s research infrastructure and its largest corporate treasury position.
Five former senior Ethereum Foundation researchers — Ansgar Dietrichs, Barnabé Monnot, Caspar Schwarz-Schilling, Josh Rudolf, and Julian Ma — launched Ethlabs on June 22, an independent nonprofit research and development organization funded by Bitmine Immersion Technologies, SharpLink, Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, and additional contributors including Anchorage, Octant, and SNZ.
The lab’s stated early agenda covers faster settlement, native asset issuance, cross-chain interoperability, mainnet capacity, and research into ETH’s monetary properties.
Announcing Ethlabs: a non-profit R&D lab for Ethereum and ETH
Our mission is to make Ethereum the settlement layer of the global economy.
The internet became global because shared protocols created a common language between networks. Private systems remained useful, but…
— Ethlabs (@ethlabs_org) June 22, 2026
Ethlabs frames its mission around institutional readiness, aiming to ensure Ethereum advances “with trustworthy interoperability, so institutions building on Ethereum can do so with the neutrality, resilience, privacy and security they require,” as stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, and autonomous AI commerce increasingly settle onchain. Lubin described Ethlabs as one of several emerging “steward nodes” of the network, distinct from but complementary to the Ethereum Foundation’s own work.
The launch comes as the Ethereum Foundation has narrowed its mandate to censorship resistance, open-source development, privacy, and security, collectively referred to as CROPS. Ethlabs and similar independent groups are positioned to absorb research areas the foundation has stepped back from, including usability, scalability, and institutional outreach.
Bitmine chairman Tom Lee said the ecosystem “needs to dramatically expand its investment in talent and research” to support growth from institutions and AI agents. At the same time, SharpLink CEO Joseph Chalom called the launch “the beginning of an institutional supercycle on Ethereum.”
Bitmine reported ETH holdings of 5,672,956 tokens as of June 21, up from 5,620,754 a week earlier, representing 4.7% of the 120.7 million ETH circulating supply.
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BitMine provided its latest holdings update for June 22, 2026$10.7 billion in total crypto + "moonshots":
– 5,672,956 ETH at $1,733per ETH per ETH (per @coinbase)
– 205 Bitcoin (BTC)
– $200 million stake in Beast Industries @MrBeast
– $104 million stake in Eightco Holdings…— Bitmine (NYSE-BMNR) $ETH (@BitMNR) June 22, 2026
Total crypto, cash, and marketable securities holdings reached $10.7 billion, including $601 million in cash and marketable securities, a $180-million stake in Beast Industries, and a $104-million stake in Eightco Holdings (Nasdaq: ORBS), one of the only publicly listed equities offering investors indirect exposure to OpenAI.
Of Bitmine’s total ETH holdings, 4,718,677 tokens are staked through MAVAN (Made in America VAlidator Network), valued at $8.2 billion and generating a 2.73% seven-day annualized yield, with projected annualized staking revenues of $223 million. Lee said the company added 52,203 ETH over the prior week alone, continuing a steady accumulation pace throughout 2026 despite ETH trading well below its 2025 peak and falling further on June 23.
Data from TradingView and the daily ETH/USD chart show the price has fallen below the entire moving average (MA) stack.
The volume-weighted moving average (VWMA) at $1,679.5 is now the only MA below the current price.
The Hull MA at $1,709.4 and the 20-day simple moving average (SMA) at $1,696.9, both below the price in the prior session, have been overtaken by the decline and now sit above the current price.
The entire remaining MA stack sits above the current price.
The oscillator panel had not yet reflected the session’s decline at the time of the snapshot, with the relative strength index (RSI) at 40.6 and the average directional index (ADX) at 31.9, both likely to shift lower and higher, respectively, once updated.
The moving average convergence/divergence (MACD) at -62.0 had been showing an upward signal before the break below $1,700.
Immediate support sits at the session low of $1,680.44.
The VWMA at $1,679.5 is the only remaining support level below the price.
The Hull MA at $1,709.4 is now the first resistance level to reclaim, followed by the 20 SMA at $1,696.9.
ETH’s break below $1,700 and below every moving average except the VWMA marks a clear deterioration from the consolidation pattern seen earlier in the session.
Ethlabs’ research priorities and Bitmine’s continued accumulation at 4.7% of total supply remain unaffected by the short-term price move, reinforcing the now-familiar divergence between institutional conviction and spot price action.
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