Offchain Labs has partnered with the Arbitrum Foundation to launch Onchain Labs, an incubator program to boost decentralized application (DApp) development within the Arbitrum ecosystem.
Announced on March 17, the program will support “innovative and experimental” projects and provide mentorship on product development and marketing strategies but will not offer engineering or operational support.
The firm also clarified that its venture capital arm, Tandem, is not obligated to invest in any incubated projects, though it remains a possibility. Offchain Labs emphasized that Arbitrum has evolved into one of the most high-performing ecosystems in the blockchain space, and the new initiative seeks to enhance its application layer.
“Through Onchain Labs, we’re dedicating resources to support developers looking to rapidly expand the application layer by ideating with them from the ground floor to bring the best user experiences to Arbitrum,”
the company stated.
Beyond supporting innovation, Offchain Labs also sets ethical standards for participation. It criticized the growing trend of “extractive zero-sum launches” in the industry, arguing that such approaches contradict the core values of crypto. Instead, Onchain Labs will exclusively support projects that commit to fair and equitable launches, reinforcing the principle that all ecosystem participants should be able to thrive together.
Arbitrum was one of the first layer-2 scaling solutions for Ethereum, but the landscape has become more competitive, especially after Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade. Currently, over 70 layer-2 networks are operating, raising concerns about the potential fragmentation of the Ethereum ecosystem. The emergence of low-cost solutions like Base and Arbitrum has also affected Ethereum’s market outlook, leading Standard Chartered to reduce its 2025 price target for Ethereum from $10,000 to $4,000. Geoff Kendrick, the bank’s head of digital asset research, noted that Base alone may have contributed to a $50 billion decrease in Ethereum’s market cap, reflecting the significant impact of these layer-2 developments.
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