Author: Michael Johnson

Ethereum’s weekly All Core Developer calls are a lot to keep up with, so this “Checkpoint” series aims for high-level updates depending on what’s happening in core development. See the previous update here. This is a special edition of the series! Kicking off Berlin Blockchain Week, ethereum core devs and researchers got together for an interop hacking week to make progress both on long-term research directions and short-term implementation of the Fusaka upgrade and gas limit increases. Two of these days solicited feedback on longer-term research directions from L2 and zk teams. The most recent in-person interop was in Bangkok…

The EF’s Grants Program launched in 2018 and has evolved over time to become the Ecosystem Support Program (ESP), providing grants and support to builders that help the Ethereum ecosystem thrive. Our mission is to enable work that strengthens Ethereum’s foundations and empowers future builders, in domains such as developer tooling, research, community building, infrastructure, and open standards. In 2024 alone, ESP awarded close to $3M in funding to 105 projects and initiatives that came through our open grants program webforms. These grants, which are one part of ESP’s larger portfolio, supported a diverse range of work, such as Commit-Boost…

258 victims’ personal data stolen from six public and financial portals. BTS star Jungkook targeted with 8.4B won HYBE stock theft attempt. 21.3B won in virtual assets stolen, 12.8B won recovered by police. South Korean authorities have uncovered one of the country’s largest cyber fraud cases, dismantling an international hacking ring that stole nearly 39 billion won from high-profile victims. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency confirmed that the group exploited weak security across government, IT, and financial platforms to steal data from 258 people, which was later used for large-scale SIM-swap fraud. The suspects targeted wealthy business leaders, lawyers, athletes,…

We are pleased to announce that Hsiao-Wei Wang is joining the Ethereum Foundation’s Board of Directors. The current board members now include Aya Miyaguchi (President) , Vitalik Buterin (Founder), Patrick Storchenegger (Swiss council) and Hsiao-Wei Wang (Co-ED). As this transition unfolds, the board will share further updates on its role and functions in the Ethereum Foundation. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks. Source link

A few months ago, we announced a renewed focus of Protocol on three strategic initiatives: Scale L1, Scale blobs, Improve UX. Following previous updates on Scale L1 and Scale blobs, this note relates to our “Improve UX” track, and its mission: Seamless, secure and permissionless experience across the Ethereum ecosystem, for individuals and institutions. We see interoperability, and related projects presented in this note, as the highest leverage opportunity within the broader UX domain over the next 6-12 months, in our position as a public, core Ethereum R&D group. The near-term strategy focuses on areas we believe will continue to…

Ethereum trades above $4,600 as bulls target a breakout to $5,000 A surge in Ethereum ETF net inflows and broader crypto bounce give buyers an edge. Tom Lee has predicted the ETH price surging to $5,500 and possibly $10,000 in 2025. Ethereum price hovers at around $4,595, slightly down in the past 24 hours but above a key support level as bulls eye a potential breakout to $5,000. The outlook for ETH is thus largely bullish as renowned investor Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest bets on Ethereum’s future gains with a splash in BitMine Immersion Technologies. BitMine, an Ethereum-focused treasury firm,…

Traders now see a 26% chance of ETH hitting 5,000 dollars this month. A “major liquidity floor” for ETH is being built by institutions. ETH has gained 20% in 30 days, while Bitcoin has fallen 6%. A tectonic shift is reshaping the cryptocurrency landscape. While Bitcoin, the long-reigning king, stumbles under the weight of fading momentum and massive liquidations, a powerful rebellion is brewing. Ethereum is leading the charge, its price buoyed by a torrent of institutional capital and a fundamental re-allocation of liquidity that has traders now seriously betting on it conquering the coveted 5,000 dollar milestone this month.…

ETH reached $4,700 in August 2025, yet DeFi adoption grows slowly. Regulatory rules, high fees, and complex processes hinder mass DeFi participation. Layer 2 solutions and better collaboration with regulators may drive future growth. Ethereum’s DeFi sector continue to run into issues, even though Ether (ETH) hit record highs in August 2025. ETH reached $4,700, the highest since 2021, and the number of daily active addresses went up to 9.1 million. DeFi hasn’t grown as much as Ether’s price has. Factors such as how many people are using it, how developed the market is, rules and regulations, and changes in…

Following up from Protocol Update 001, we’d like to introduce our approach to blob scaling. The L1 serves as a robust foundation for L2 systems to scale Ethereum, and a necessary component of secure L2 solutions is data availability provided by the L1. Data availability ensures that updates L2s make back to the L1 can be verified by anyone. Blobs are the unit of data availability in the protocol today, so scaling the blob count per block is a key requirement to usher in a wave of L2 adoption for use cases like real-time payments, DeFi, social media, gaming, and…

Whale opened $295m ETH longs with up to 10x leverage. ETH ETFs attracted one year’s worth of inflows in six weeks. Institutional ETH reserves surged from $6bn to $17bn in a month. An old Bitcoin (BTC) whale has moved millions into Ethereum (ETH), marking one of the largest visible portfolio shifts this quarter. Blockchain data shows the whale deposited $76 million worth of BTC into Hyperliquid, sold it, and then opened leveraged long positions in ETH across multiple wallets. This transition comes at a time when Ethereum is outperforming Bitcoin, both in returns and institutional inflows, a trend some are…