Ethereal news weekly #24

Devcon 8 early bird tickets, ApeWorX collective: nonprofit for Python dev tooling, glamsterdam-devnet-4 launched

Ecosystem

• Devcon 8 tickets: $349 early bird (ETH payment only)
• Ethereum Foundation:
  • Researchers Carl Beekhuizen & Julian Ma leaving EF
• ETH metrics:
  • Gas (gwei): 0.3 average, 0.1 - 12.1 (12.9 for zero net issuance)
  • ETH supply change: 19k net issuance
  • ETHUSD: $2,081 - $2,253 (all time high $4,946, August 24, 2025)
  • ETH ETFs: 5.2% of ETH supply
  • ETHBTC: 0.028 (0.166 for the Flippening)

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Enterprise

• Blocknative joined Deloitte, API services & Gas Network winding down June 19

Applications

• DeFi United (effort to restore rsETH backing):
  • Aave WETH LTVs restored
  • Kelp: rsETH protocol operations resumed & consolidating supported networks, bridge to mainnet before June 15
• PunksMarket: CryptoPunks v1 tradable without wrapping via workaround
• ETH.sh migrate tokens: batch migrate multiple tokens to a new address
• ENSvolution: view change history for an ENS name

Developers

• ApeWorX collective: nonprofit for Python dev tooling, web3.py & other Ethereum Foundation Python packages being moved to collective, ApeWorX LTD wound down and Ape (dev framework) & Silverback (bots) actively maintained
• Nomic Foundation Hardhat v3.5.0 (dev framework): adds EIP712 cheatcode support in Solidity Test, initialize projects by named template & templates updated to TypeScript 6
• revm v108: additional Glamsterdam support (bal-devnet-7)
• ETHGlobal hackathon continuity track: hack on existing code, either extend open source or ship a new feature
• Application layer standards (ERCs):
  • Revived ERC1643: Document management for security tokens
  • ERC8262: Zero-knowledge compliance oracle
  • ERC8263: Onchain proof layer for AI agents
  • ERC8264: AI agent memory access rights
  • ERC8265: Prepared transaction envelope
  • ERC8267: Agent identity, capability & reputation

Security

• LayerZero Kelp $292M exploit post-mortem: Kelp used 1/1 DVN, LayerZero Labs developer socially engineered into cloning malicious repo, session keys harvested, two internal RPC nodes poisoned & DoS attack on external RPC
• Blockchain security standards council contract security standard v1: chain agnostic guidance for developers & framework to evaluate security posture

All core devs (main protocol calls)

All core devs - execution (ACDE) #237

• Glamsterdam upgrade (targeting mid-2026):
  • EIP7904 compute gas cost increase, likely not needed once benchmarks confirmed as clients performing at 100M gas/sec target
• Hegotá upgrade (targeting late-2026):
  • Non-headliners proposed for inclusion:
    • EIP8188 state tiering by write age; presentation
    • EIP8182 private ETH & ERC20 transfers; presentation
    • EIP4758 deactivate SELFDESTRUCT

All Core Devs - Testing (ACDT) #80

• Glamsterdam upgrade (targeting mid-2026):
  • EIP7954 increase maximum contract size, updated to 64KiB
  • Engine API SSZ proposals discussion

Layer 1

• Glamsterdam upgrade (targeting mid-2026):
  • bal-devnet-7 & glamsterdam-devnet-4 launched
  • Terence: ePBS scaling impact, separates deadlines giving execution payload & blobs more time to propagate and be verified
  • Toni Wahrstätter: Block-level Access Lists explainer
• Consensus-specs v1.7.0-alpha.8
• Consensus-specs implementations: maps specs to client code, based on ethspecify maintained by clients
• Hegotá upgrade (targeting late-2026):
  • FOCIL breakout #34: agreed to disable enforcement during non-finality, hegotá-devnet-0 tentatively planned after glamsterdam-devnet-4 stable
• Ethereum improvement proposals (EIPs):
  • EIP8266: Expiring nonces for frame transactions
  • EIP8268: Storage roots in block access lists

Staking

• ethPandaOps The Lab: validator report, analyze validator performance including attestation correctness, sync committee participation & balance history
• Client diversity:
  • Consensus layer: Lighthouse ~54% (data may not be accurate)
• Staking market share: Lido 21.7% [Note: dual governance]
• Validators: 896k active (target 128k), 13k accumulating (0x02 withdrawal credentials)
• Client releases:
  • Consensus layer:
    • ChainSafe Lodestar v1.43.0 (recommended): fixes for self rate-limiting & block-import performance, Glamsterdam upgrade prep and tools changed to pnpm v11
  • Execution layer:
    • Lambda Ethrex v13.0.0: hardens RPC defaults and Glamsterdam upgrade prep (bal-devnet-6 & eth/71)

Layer 2

• L2Beat:
  • Token frameworks (dashboard): cross-chain transfers by volume, quantity & tokens by volume
  • Lighter (perp DEX L2) ZK circuits regenerated from sources
• Winding down: Zero Network (bridge off by July 31), Everclear (formerly Connext) and Syndicate Labs

Regulation

• President Trump fintech executive order directs regulators to review non-bank access to Reserve Bank payment accounts
• US Fed payment accounts proposal for non-banks to clear & settle, but without intraday credit, discount window or interest
• US SEC rescinds no-deny policy which prevented denials of allegations in order to settle

General

• Privacy Stewards of Ethereum (PSE) private transfers dashboard, 11 protocols compared across privacy, cost, UX, decentralization, compliance, verifiability, state & composability
• Vitalik: formal verification explainer
• THORChain $10.7M exploit, node operator reconstructed private key via vulnerability in GG20 implementation
• Verus ~$11M bridge exploit, exploiter returned 75% & kept 25% as a bounty
• MAP Protocol unauthorized MAPO minting via Butter Bridge abi.encodePacked hash collision

Editor: @abcoathup
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