Ethereum Institutional closes initial funding round with 100+ backers

Building a bridge between Wall Street and the Ethereum ecosystem is, it turns out, a nonprofit-sized job. Ethereum Institutional, an independent nonprofit organization founded by veterans of the Ethereum Foundation’s Enterprise team, closed its inaugural funding round on July 29 with backing from over 100 institutional and individual supporters. The organization launched on July 1, 2026, and has already assembled a roster of anchor funders that includes publicly traded companies, Ethereum co-founders, and credentialed finance executives. Who built this and why it matters The three founders, David Walsh, Matthew Dawson, and Marius Smith, all came out of the Ethereum Foundation’s Enterprise function. The nonprofit is designed to be a neutral front door for banks and asset managers exploring tokenization, stablecoin issuance, and on-chain infrastructure. In practice, that means institutional education, neutral research, and coordinating industry events. The board includes Tom Lee and former BlackRock executive Joseph Chalom. Anchor funders include BitMine Immersion Technologies, which trades on the NYSE under the ticker BMNR, and SharpLink, listed on the Nasdaq as SBET. Ethereum co-fo...