Ethereum upgrades, layer-2 rollups, staking, and the wider EVM ecosystem. 205 stories curated by CryptoCatalyst.
Aztec Foundation has released Tierra V6, an upgrade for its Ethereum layer-2 network designed to support private apps. The foundation says it fixes earlier security issues and makes private transaction proof generation twice as fast, though the announcement details provided do not specify the fixes or a measured performance benchmark.
Ethereum researcher Justin Drake says the team hopes to complete the network’s post-quantum and post-AI transition by December 2028. That is earlier than the 2029 deadline previously reported for Ethereum’s quantum-resistance work, but the statement is a hope, not a confirmed completion date.
A 12-person Arbitrum committee temporarily changed a core contract to move $30 million in funds linked to the Binance hack, despite not having the address’s private key. It then restored the code; the report says this is the second time this year the council has used this kind of intervention.
The FBI says North Korea was behind the roughly $6 billion Binance hack and has asked the crypto community to block hundreds of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana addresses linked to the attackers. Chainalysis says the group has already used thousands of addresses, so the list may keep growing.
EIP-7702 gives regular Ethereum wallets access to programmable features, including combining transactions and having another party pay gas fees. The source describes the upgrade, while separate reports on the Binance breach say investigators are tracing stolen funds and stablecoin issuers moved to freeze assets—not that EIP-7702 caused the attack.
Ethereum postponed the Glamsterdam upgrade on Hoodi, canceling its planned activation on October 26, 2026, at 17:42:48 UTC. No new date has been set, so the previous Hoodi schedule and activation instructions are no longer current.
Binance says it has reserved $6.34 billion of its own funds to cover losses from a record-breaking hack, including about $3 billion in stolen assets that have been frozen. The breach is also prompting institutional investors to pull funds from other exchanges, widening the fallout beyond Binance.
A new OpenAI paper declares "ETH" false, a claim that hundreds of research papers rely on, according to Decrypt. The paper's exact argument and what "ETH" refers to in this context remain unclear, but the claim has drawn discussion from both crypto users and mathematicians.
Google’s Multi-Party Compute system, designed to secure crypto custody, is in private preview with several major financial institutions testing it. Alphabet is also using the technology to protect its own digital assets on Ethereum and Solana.
Ethereum developers fixed a flaw in the upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade that could have sent staking deposits to block builders instead of their intended destination. They first rejected the change, then reconsidered it as testing delays gave them more time to inspect the issue.
Hong Kong has designated a Nasdaq-listed company focused on Solana as a strategic enterprise. The company says it plans to set up Solana validator operations in the city, though the announcement does not specify a launch date or further details about the designation.
Initia suspended its layer-1 network and rollups after researchers identified unauthorized token minting. Onchain data cited by The Block shows a transfer of about $2.7 million in ether to Ethereum, while the team investigates the incident.
Ethereum developers canceled the Glamsterdam upgrade’s planned Monday activation on the Hoodi testnet after researchers warned that new gas rules could cause some existing smart contracts to permanently record failed operations. Security firm ChainSecurity identified 13 real-world examples of potentially affected contracts and is coordinating disclosure with their projects.
Starknet voters have backed research into a blockchain that could operate independently of Ethereum and resist future quantum-computing threats. StarkWare plans to publish a draft whitepaper in November; the vote supports exploring the idea, not launching a new network.
A record 43.8 million ETH was staked in Ethereum during Q3, equal to nearly 36% of its supply, while staking yields slipped to 2.63%, according to Bitwise. Solana also reached a staking record, with 440.5 million SOL staked.
A wallet linked to the $295 million Drift exploit sent 25,700 ETH—about $61 million—through Tornado Cash in two hours, according to Decrypt. A separate report says the attacker moved more funds over two days and that linked wallets still held $138 million in Ether, underscoring that the reported balances and transfer totals vary by snapshot.
JPMorgan has expanded its dollar-denominated JPM Coin deposit token to the Ethereum Virtual Machine ecosystem, including Base. The move enables institutional clients to transfer the token peer to peer across supported networks; the announcement does not specify a broader public launch or a rollout date.
The Ethereum Foundation has published its Protocol cluster priorities after adding three coordinators in May and spending months aligning with contributors. The announcement frames the update around what the Protocol cluster is for and what it commits to, though the specific priority list was not included in the available description.
JPMorgan plans to bring JPM Coin, its token representing dollar deposits, to the Ethereum blockchain. The move is aimed at reaching a wider selection of institutional clients, though the report provides no launch date or further rollout details.
Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade is scheduled to reach the Hoodi testnet after activating on Sepolia on October 6. It is designed to improve Layer 1 scaling with proposer-builder separation, block-level access lists and revised gas pricing; the announcement provides no mainnet date.
Starknet has opened a vote asking STRK holders whether the project should explore leaving its role as an Ethereum layer-2 and becoming an independent layer-1 blockchain. The stated reason is to reduce dependence on Ethereum's timeline for upgrades against future quantum-computing risks; the vote concerns whether to investigate the move, not whether it has been decided.
Starknet says it is actively considering leaving its role as an Ethereum Layer 2 and becoming a standalone Layer 1 blockchain. The project says the shift could help it become the first fully quantum-resistant network by 2027; its token rose 20% after the announcement.
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, emphasizes the need for crypto encryption to be resistant to both AI and quantum computing threats. This comes as Zcash developers set a January 2027 target for quantum-resistant payments.
Ethereum's Sepolia test network has increased its block gas limit to 200 million, over three times the mainnet's current 60 million. This change, part of the Glamsterdam upgrade, aims to improve network capacity and efficiency.