foundation

The Ethereum Foundation unstaked 21,271 ETH from Lido, triggering market panic. Arkham published an analysis stating that the foundation's move may be due to concerns about the security of third-party protocols.In addition, the foundation has recently sold ETH multiple times, indicating a need for treasury rebalancing, which typically would not lead to immediate selling.

The Ethereum Foundation has appointed three new co-leads, Will Corcoran, Kev Wedderburn, and Fredrik, to lead the main protocol cluster. The team handover work is now fully underway. The focus for the future is to release Glamsterdam, continue preparations for Hegotà, and advance Strawmap.

The Ethereum Foundation disclosed the results of a recent interoperability meeting held by core developers in the Svalbard archipelago of Norway and updated the key technical progress for the next phase upgrade, Glamsterdam. During the meeting, multiple client teams collaborated on network scalability and execution layer optimization, making progress in several directions. Developers confirmed that based on the comprehensive results of ePBS, BAL optimization, and the EIP-8037 repricing mechanism, a consensus has been reached on the "trusted path" following Glamsterdam.In terms of the execution layer, ePBS (external proposer separation architecture) has been stably running in the multi-client Glamsterdam-devnet, with the external block builder process completing end-to-end testing, covering almost all client implementations. Meanwhile, EIP-8037 has completed its final draft, establishing the fixed cost_per_state_byte model, and has produced complete repricing parameters in bal-devnet-6. The scalability direction Hegotá has also made progress. The FOCIL-related prototype has a runnable implementation, and the scope of account abstraction (AA) requirements has been defined, with the next phase entering the multi-client development network validation stage.Current development focus remains on the final implementation of Glamsterdam while advancing the Hegotá expansion design and subsequent Strawmap route evolution. The development network is online, and features like FOCIL are expected to continue deepening in the next phase of testing. At the organizational level, this interop meeting also marks the formal initiation of leadership structure adjustments within the Protocol Cluster. The new leaders include Will Corcoran, Kev Wedderburn, and Fredrik. Will Corcoran is responsible for zkVM proof and post-quantum consensus coordination, Kev Wedderburn leads zkEVM development, and Fredrik is in charge of protocol security and the Trillion Dollar Security project.Original Protocol Cluster leadership team members Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko will gradually step back from management roles, while Alex Stokes enters a leave period. The foundation stated that during its term, the Protocol has completed modular advancement and facilitated the launch of the Fusaka upgrade (December 2025), introduced PeerDAS, and enhanced mainnet gas capacity.

a16z Crypto published an article explaining the investment logic behind Arc, pointing out that stablecoins have evolved from tools for crypto trading to a core layer of global financial infrastructure, driving the upgrade of blockchain from "application layer finance" to "system-level economic operating systems."The trading volume of stablecoins reached approximately $9 trillion last year, placing them on the same scale as global payment networks like Visa and PayPal. The total supply of US dollar stablecoins has also exceeded $270 billion, with cross-border payments, B2B settlements, and foreign exchange trading becoming the core use cases for stablecoins, gradually making them the "upgrade layer for global capital flows."a16z Crypto stated that the existing blockchain infrastructure is still primarily aimed at crypto-native users and individual developers, lacking native support for large institutional-level demands. The reason for participating in the ecosystem construction related to ARC tokens is mainly due to the gradual on-chain transition of global finance; in the future, only a few public chains will be able to support the "on-chain economic system foundation."

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, the Ethereum Foundation redeemed 21,271 ETH from the Lido stETH withdrawal contract, worth approximately 49.66 million USD.

According to on-chain analyst Onchain Lens, the Ethereum Foundation redeemed 21,271 ETH from Lido, worth approximately 49.66 million USD.

The MegaETH Foundation announced that the MEGA token buyback plan has officially launched, and the first MEGA buyback has been completed, using funds from all net earnings generated by the issuer of USDm as of the end of April.The official emphasized that USDm is not issued or operated by the MegaETH Foundation or MegaLabs. The current supply of USDm is approximately $480 million, and future MEGA buybacks will be executed using a programmatic mechanism as much as possible, running automatically based on preset rules, rather than being timed by the foundation. The scale of funds available for each subsequent buyback is not fixed and will be influenced by changes in the supply of USDm and the yield of underlying reserve assets.

Aptos Foundation and Aptos Labs announced that they will invest over $50 million to cover first-party products, research, protocol infrastructure, and a strategic fund for trading and AI partners.Aptos stated that Decibel has launched on the Aptos mainnet, with a cumulative trading volume exceeding $1 billion. The market capitalization of stablecoins on the Aptos network has reached $1.93 billion, and the scale of RWA has reached $1.2 billion, with asset management institutions such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Apollo Global already deployed on the network. Subsequently, Aptos will advance features such as crypto memory pools, FIX and CCXT connections, multi-leader consensus, and confidential perpetual trading.

Google Cloud and the Solana Foundation have jointly launched a payment system for AI agents called Pay.sh, which supports on-demand payment of API call fees on the Solana chain using stablecoins. This system is based on the x402 protocol incubated by Coinbase, allowing AI agents to discover, invoke, and pay for API resources without the need to register an account or subscribe to services, achieving a "pay-as-you-go" micropayment model.It is reported that AI agents can bind a Solana wallet as an identity identifier and automatically complete payments by recharging their balance with stablecoins or credit cards when invoking cloud services such as data analysis and model inference. Pay.sh operates on top of Google Cloud and connects backend services through an API proxy layer, such as large model calls and container applications. In addition, the system is compatible with the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) and connects to over 50 API service providers, covering scenarios such as communication, e-commerce, and on-chain data. Officials state that this model helps promote the development of the "Agentic Economy," enabling AI agents to autonomously consume and invoke internet services.

The Ethereum Foundation published a summary of the Soldøgn Interop work, which has now basically completed the key goals of the Glamsterdam upgrade, including reaching consensus on the post-upgrade 200 million Gas Limit lower bound, achieving stable operation of the ePBS external Builder process, and finalizing the EIP-8037 Gas repricing parameters.The focus of the Glamsterdam upgrade is to enhance security by increasing the Gas Limit to expand Ethereum's throughput, while EIP-8037 will prevent state bloat caused by a high Gas Limit by raising the cost of state creation. The Ethereum Foundation also stated that most clients have completed stable operation on glamsterdam-devnet-2 and successfully tested the entire external Builder process. Additionally, substantial progress has been made on FOCIL, native account abstraction, and Hegotá upgrade-related features. In the coming weeks, core developers will continue to advance client hardening, testing improvements, and code merging, with final parameters to be publicly confirmed in the AllCoreDevs meeting.

The Ethereum Foundation published a summary of the Soldøgn Interop work, which has now basically completed the key goals of the Glamsterdam upgrade, including reaching consensus on the post-upgrade 200 million Gas Limit lower bound, achieving stable operation of the ePBS external Builder process, and finalizing the EIP-8037 Gas repricing parameters.The focus of the Glamsterdam upgrade is to enhance security by increasing the Gas Limit to expand Ethereum's throughput, while EIP-8037 will prevent state bloat caused by high Gas Limits by increasing the cost of state creation.The Ethereum Foundation also stated that most clients have completed stable operation on glamsterdam-devnet-2 and successfully tested the entire process of external Builders. In addition, substantial progress has been made on FOCIL, native account abstraction, and Hegotá upgrade-related features. In the coming weeks, core developers will continue to advance client hardening, testing improvements, and code merging, with final parameters to be publicly confirmed at the AllCoreDevs meeting.

The Zcash Foundation officially announced the release of Zebra version 4.4.0. This update fixes multiple consensus-level critical security vulnerabilities and strongly recommends that all node operators upgrade immediately. This includes a denial-of-service vulnerability that can cause new blocks to stop being discovered permanently, consensus divergences caused by errors in block signature operation (sigops) counting, anomalies in the processing of transparent transaction signature hashes, and risks of memory allocation amplification attacks.The Zcash Foundation stated that some of these vulnerabilities could cause Zebra nodes to accept blocks that are rejected by zcashd, leading to chain forks. If not updated in a timely manner, nodes may face risks such as interruption in block discovery, consensus forks, and resource consumption amplification, and there are currently no alternative mitigation solutions.

The Ethereum Foundation announced the sale of 10,000 ETH to BitMine, the largest treasury company of Ethereum, through an over-the-counter (OTC) trading platform, at an average price of $2,292.15 per ETH.

The Ethereum Foundation has once again sold 10,000 ETH (approximately $23 million) to Bitmine, adding to a similarly sized transaction from a week ago, bringing the total sale amount to approximately $47 million. The foundation stated that the funds will be used for core operations, including protocol development, ecosystem building, and community funding.Data shows that after completing the acquisition, Bitmine has continued to increase its staking, currently staking approximately 4,190,000 ETH (about $9.5 billion), accounting for about 83% of its total holdings.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a wallet associated with the Ethereum Foundation deposited 1,744 ETH into Kraken, worth 4.03 million dollars.

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, the Ethereum Foundation wallet received 22.92 million USDC from Coinbase Prime 5 hours ago.On-chain analyst Yu Jin stated that this fund may be related to the payment made by the Ethereum Foundation to Bitmine for selling 10,000 ETH through over-the-counter trading a week ago.

The Ethereum Foundation has announced the list of grants and ecosystem support projects for the first quarter of 2026, focusing on cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs (ZK), protocol security, and core infrastructure development, continuously strengthening the Ethereum underlying technology stack and long-term scalability.This quarter's funding covers several key areas. At the protocol and client level, projects include optimizations for the Geth and Erigon clients, upgrades to the Lighthouse client, and the development of network monitoring tools after the Pectra upgrade, with a focus on improving network performance and attack resistance. Additionally, projects such as HSM key management, the validator security tool Vero, and the DISC-NG node discovery mechanism have also received support to enhance node-level reliability and institutional compliance capabilities.In the areas of cryptography and ZK, the foundation continues to invest in projects such as the analysis of the Poseidon hash function, research on Gröbner basis attacks, exploration of quantum-resistant and homomorphic mixed encryption, and formal verification of RISC-V zkVM, further strengthening the security boundaries of zero-knowledge proofs and cryptographic infrastructure.In terms of the developer ecosystem, the BuidlGuidl education system upgrade, ERC standard community building, WalletConnect clear signature library, and Open Creator Rails toolchain are continuously advancing to lower development barriers and enhance user interaction security. Meanwhile, L2BEAT continues to provide transparency analysis for Layer 2, strengthening the data infrastructure for scaling ecosystems.Furthermore, the foundation supports privacy technologies (such as Tor integration and Privacy Pool SDK), decentralized identity (did:ethr standard upgrade), DAO governance research, and public goods experimental projects, covering a complete ecological structure from the protocol layer to the application layer. Overall, this round of funding continues Ethereum's long-term investment in the three core directions of "cryptography + ZK + protocol engineering," emphasizing the support for future multi-layer scaling and institutional-level application implementation through infrastructure and standardization development.

The Over Foundation has stated that due to financial constraints, it has ceased operations of all Over Protocol infrastructure and services, including OverWallet, OverNode, OverFlex, RPC nodes, block explorers, and related APIs, with no plans for recovery.Over Protocol is a Layer 1 mainnet that, while designed to be decentralized, is likely unable to continue operating in practice now that the foundation has stopped its services. Block production will depend on whether independent validators continue to run the open-source client, and the foundation cannot guarantee this. The foundation expressed that the original intention of the project was to allow ordinary users to participate in the construction of the Layer 1 network, thanked the community for their support, and expressed regret for not being able to continue the advancement.

MARA has launched the MARA Foundation to enhance Bitcoin's defense capabilities against security threats, covering risks such as quantum computing, while expanding the accessibility of self-custody and providing educational resources.