Interchain Foundation bought Skip on December 10, 2024, and renamed it Interchain Inc.1. The Interchain Foundation announced the deal in its own release, run on CoinDesk. Skip co-founder Barry Plunkett became co-lead of the new subsidiary, alongside fellow co-founder Maghnus Mareneck. The pair got one job: lead all product, protocol and strategy work for the foundation. Cosmos co-founder Ethan Buchman left the foundation's Council on December 10, 2024, too.
The second executive hire at the Interchain Foundation on the record since 2024
Leadership moves CryptoLately has verified at the Interchain Foundation, by year
- 2024: 5
- 2025, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 5 |
| 2025 | 0 |
| 2026 | 3 |
39 executive hires on the record in 2024
Executive hires CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2024: 39
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 11 |
| 2020 | 12 |
| 2021 | 27 |
| 2022 | 37 |
| 2023 | 20 |
| 2024 | 39 |
| 2025 | 59 |
| 2026 | 45 |
The move
Plunkett pointed to his own history with Cosmos in the foundation's release. “After nearly three years working in the Cosmos ecosystem, we are grateful and honored to be leading the next chapter of the Cosmos and interchain movement,” he said. “There is substantial work to be done: we need to build a revamped interchain stack, relaunch a true Cosmos Hub, and restart a wide-reaching Go-To-Market for our values and ecosystem.”1
Josh Cincinnati leads the Interchain Foundation's Council as its president. He told The Block the deal changed how the foundation works. “The acquisition of Skip marks a transformative moment for the Interchain Foundation and Cosmos itself,” Cincinnati said. “By aligning with Skip's unparalleled execution and their rapport with the broader ecosystem, we are re-envisioning the way the ICF works.”2 Reporter Daniel Kuhn wrote on December 10, 2024, that the foundation had split Cosmos work across separate groups called "stewards" for years. The Skip deal moved that work "in-house" under one team, Kuhn reported.
Skip's record before the acquisition
Skip built its name inside Cosmos. Its co-founders shipped the Block SDK, Skip:Connect and mev-tendermint in 20231. Those tools made the Cosmos SDK and CometBFT better for app-chain builders, the foundation's release said. One Skip product, Skip:Go, moved 25 to 50 percent of IBC's monthly transactions on average, the release said. The Block reported that Skip Protocol launched in 2022 to connect app-chains and make bridging between them simpler2.
What came next
Plunkett still ran the group on June 4, 2026, by then renamed Cosmos Labs, where he held the title of co-CEO34. The Block reported on June 4, 2026, that Cosmos Labs had bought the Cosmos block explorer Mintscan. That deal set up a Seoul-based unit, Cosmos Labs Korea, to grow the company's reach in Asia-Pacific. Cosmos Labs said the deal would bring Mintscan together with Skip:Go, IBC Eureka and Cosmos Hub work under one roof. Talks had started in October 2025, Plunkett said, when the South Korean firm Cosmostation first approached Cosmos Labs about a sale. “The team joining us today has been building in Cosmos for eight years and shares our conviction about where the ecosystem can go from here,” Plunkett said.
Sources
- Interchain Foundation, "Interchain Foundation Acquires Blockchain Solutions Provider Skip to Reignite Cosmos: the interchain," CoinDesk (press release), December 10, 2024, https://www.coindesk.com/press-release/2024/12/10/interchain-foundation-acquires-blockchain-solutions-provider-skip-to-reignite-cosmos-the-interchain
- Daniel Kuhn, "In latest shakeup, Interchain Foundation acquires Skip to refocus Cosmos Hub at ecosystem's core," The Block, December 10, 2024, https://www.theblock.co/post/330189/in-latest-shakeup-interchain-foundation-acquires-skip-to-refocus-cosmos-hub-at-ecosystems-core
- Yogita Khatri, "Cosmos Labs acquires block explorer Mintscan, forms Korea subsidiary to expand ecosystem," The Block, June 4, 2026, https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiqAFBVV95cUxOWjc4M0tMVThjTUhtUnRQSTR5R1QxS2pSMmtNM182VHU3WXdFWHVvazNuNkVGTzdzeFhpRE1KV1M0b0NlOV8xdWQ2NXZRbFVPdUJQd1l4TVI2SDJsMzRBdDVtdk0xRVVfTy1PTUtreEMxMC1nRlhtZm1rRTR6MzhLMUVROHFndS0tMVQxa0EtUEFCVWJqcXlXa3FkdXdIMXc1YkFXVHB4amU?oc=5
- Cosmos Labs, "Interchain Labs is now Cosmos Labs," Cosmos Labs, September 4, 2025, https://cosmos.network/blog/interchain-labs-becomes-cosmos-labs