Author: Olivia Martinez

We introduced Protocol last June which organized our work around three strategic initiatives: Scale L1, Scale Blobs, and Improve UX. A lot has happened since then! In this post, we want to share what we accomplished last year, how our thinking has evolved, and where Protocol is headed in 2026. TL;DR Great progress with tracks last year as we scaled L1, scaled blobs for L2, and built a strong foundation for UX improvements.Announcing three new tracks: Scale (led by Ansgar, Marius, Raúl) focused on consensus, execution, and blob scaling.Improve UX (led by Barnabé and Matt) doubling down on the work…

DeFi isn’t a speculative bet on the future. It’s the inevitable evolution of finance, driven by a fundamental truth: financial autonomy is a right, not a privilege. And it’s been a critical driver of Ethereum’s growth and adoption. We want to see DeFi thrive, but we’re opinionated about what it should look like: permissionless, censorship-resistant, privacy-first, self-custodial, and open source. We recognize the challenges involved in fully getting to this point—our role is to advocate for these principles, support teams working toward them, showcase the ones doing it, and be clear about how to get there and why it matters.…

The Ethereum Foundation has begun staking a portion of its treasury, in line with its Treasury Policy announced last year. Approximately 70,000 ETH is being staked with rewards directed back to the EF treasury. Architecture & configuration After assessing many good staking software options, the Ethereum Foundation chose to use the open source software options Dirk and Vouch: Dirk serves as a distributed signer, spreading signers across multiple geographic regions. This design eliminates a single point of failure and enhances resilience.Vouch supports the use of multiple Beacon Client and Execution Client pairings with a variety of configurable strategies which can be…

The commons called. It wants a runway. Every so often, in the blockchain world’s usual cycle of funding scares, a team maintaining a widely used open source public good declares mayday. Libp2p is a core infrastructure stack that powers multiple Ethereum clients (among others) and a large part of Web3 infrastructure. It was, not long ago, one of the latest projects to put out a call for assistance as financial resources ran thin. Ethereum’s public goods landscape (in the sense of “teams building and open-sourcing things that are maximally valuable to our ecosystem”) has no shortage of talent: the ecosystem…

Dearest Friends, Today we are publishing the EF Mandate, a document that serves as part constitution, part manifesto, and part guide for the Ethereum Foundation. It is written primarily for the EF itself: to be clear about what we are here to do, the principles by which we make decisions, and what we must both do and refuse to do if we are to stay true to our mission. But within it is also the story of a journey, from source to stars. It carries a message not only to the Ethereum ecosystem, but also to the broader field of…

The TRU token collapsed from $0.1659 to near zero, wiping out market value. Liquidity on decentralised exchanges dried up following the exploit. The attacker wallet was linked to a Sparkle protocol attack 12 days earlier. A serious security breach at Truebit Protocol has triggered one of the sharpest collapses seen in decentralised finance this year. The blockchain project, which focuses on verified computing, lost around $26.5 million after an attacker exploited a weakness in its smart contract system. The incident sent the protocol’s native TRU token crashing to near zero and left liquidity across decentralised exchanges severely strained. On-chain movements…

Ethereum (ETH) is stabilising near $1,800–$1,900 after a prolonged sell-off. Whale accumulation and falling leverage hint at reduced downside risk. Strong fundamentals support a potential shift from decline to consolidation. Ethereum (ETH) is showing early signs of stabilisation after weeks of steady downside pressure. The price has been trading near the $1,800–$1,900 zone, an area that has repeatedly acted as support during recent sell-offs. This level matters because it reflects a point where sellers appear to be losing momentum. The broader market context remains cautious, but Ethereum’s behaviour suggests the panic phase may be fading. Over the past month, ETH…

Ethereum rally above $2,100 follows a sharp spike in open interest. A break above the resistance at $2,175 could open the path toward $2,500. Large ETH withdrawals from exchanges point to tightening supply. Ethereum has climbed above the $2,100 after a strong daily rally that pushed the asset higher amid renewed interest in derivatives markets. The move follows a period of consolidation that had kept the price trapped near the $2,000 level for several sessions. The surge has now placed the $2,500 region firmly on the radar of short-term traders. At the same time, comments from Vitalik Buterin about the…

Fusaka follows this year’s Pectra upgrade, representing a major step forward in Ethereum’s scaling roadmap by introducing PeerDAS and key improvements that enhance blob throughput, L1 performance, and user experience. This post announces the testnet activation schedule for the first three testnets, beginning with Holesky at slot 5,283,840 (October 1, 2025, 08:48:00 UTC). See the activation table below for the complete Sepolia and Hoodi timeline. Fusaka also introduces Blob Parameter Only (BPO) forks to safely scale blob throughput after PeerDAS activation. These are minimal, config-only upgrades that adjust the blob target/max and fee update fraction. The Fusaka testnet client releases…

Today we are proud to announce a new leadership structure for privacy-related efforts at the Ethereum Foundation: Igor Barinov joins as coordinator of Privacy @ EF, guiding strategy and alignment across privacy-focused efforts including PSE and more. Igor has over a decade of experience in the Ethereum ecosystem as founder of Blockscout, Gnosis Chain, and zkBob, and is a strong advocate for open-source and privacy. Andy Guzman will now serve as coordinator of the (PSE) team, taking over from Sam Richards and leading applied cryptography, research, and development. Andy has been with PSE/EF since 2022 and has led various key…