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Open Standard’s dollar stablecoin launched Wednesday on Ethereum, Solana, Base and Tempo, issued by Stripe’s Bridge, with Coinbase access starting Oct. 1.

Open USD stablecoin live, Stripe, Visa, Mastercard open access

Posted September 30, 2026 at 12:49 pm ET.

Open USD (OUSD), the dollar stablecoin backed by Coinbase, Mastercard, Shopify, Stripe and Visa, went live on Wednesday, its operator Open Standard announced on X.

Businesses can start building with OUSD through Mastercard, Stripe and the Visa Stablecoin Platform now, with Coinbase access beginning Oct. 1. Each of the four integration paths lets businesses mint and burn the token at a 1:1 rate against the dollar at no cost, Open Standard said. The token runs natively on Ethereum, Solana, Base and Tempo, and will first be available to trade on Coinbase, Kraken and Uniswap.

OUSD is issued by Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure firm Stripe owns, with reserves held at BlackRock, Lead Bank and BNY. Bridge will publish reserve attestations monthly.

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What Stripe Is Offering Stripe said OUSD will be available alongside the stablecoins it already supports. Developers can use it across Stripe’s stablecoin products, including Bridge orchestration, Privy embedded wallets and stablecoin cards through Stripe Issuing, and businesses can hold OUSD balances in Stripe Treasury and send them to crypto wallets in more than 100 countries.

Stripe pitched the token at high-volume cross-border businesses such as remittance and payroll companies, arguing that the variable fees to convert other stablecoins in and out of dollars make them expensive to use. Open Standard instead charges a small transaction fee. Ramp, an Open Standard partner, uses Stripe to run stablecoin accounts that will let its customers hold OUSD and earn rewards.

“OUSD offers businesses better economics than any other stablecoin,” Privy co-founder Henri Stern said in Stripe’s announcement.

Equity for Partners Open Standard unveiled the project in June with more than 140 partners. It now counts more than 200, and says partners earn rewards in proportion to the supply and activity they drive, along with a chance to earn equity in the company.

“The overwhelming majority of our cap table is going to be distributed back to founders and non-founders based on how they help grow the network,” CEO Zach Abrams said in an interview with CoinDesk. The five founders are also putting up more than $1 billion to seed OUSD’s supply at launch, Open Standard said on Sept. 24.

Abrams co-founded Bridge, which Stripe bought in a $1.1 billion deal announced in 2024.

Related Listen: Stripe Bid $53B for PayPal: Who Actually Wins Stablecoin Payments?

AI-assisted content: This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and was reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by a member of the Unchained editorial team before publication.

US spot Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded $2.81 million in net outflows on September 29. The move ended a 7-day inflow streak that had brought roughly $850.8 million into the products.

Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs moved in the opposite direction on the same day. They took in $66.19 million, extending their own inflow run to 9 straight sessions.

How the Ethereum ETF Streak Lost Steam Before It BrokeThe streak began on September 18, according to SoSoValue data. It followed 3 sessions of outflows between September 15 and 17, which pulled about $404.8 million from the funds.

BeInCrypto reported that those outflows coincided with the Clarity Act stalling in the Senate. The largest day of the run came on September 21, when the funds drew $269.98 million. 

Daily totals then eased across most of the following sessions and slipped to $17.1 million by September 28.

Ethereum ETF inflow streak ends with outflow. Source SoSoValueWeekly figures show how strong the run was at its height. The funds added $689.88 million in the week ending September 25, their biggest week since late August.

On September 29, BlackRock’s ETHA recorded the largest outflow at $8.94 million. Meanwhile, Grayscale’s Ethereum Mini Trust took in $12.83 million, which kept the net loss small.

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Ethereum Price Slipped While the Money Kept Coming InEthereum’s price fell during the same week the funds were attracting capital. ETH traded at $2,673.54 at press time, down 3.32% over 7 days, according to BeInCrypto Markets data. The token gained 0.41% over the past 24 hours.

Ethereum (ETH) Price Performance. BeInCrypto MarketsBitcoin showed the same split between price and flows. BTC dropped 3.78% over the week to $83,359, although its ETFs gathered roughly $3.08 billion during their 9-session streak.

Ethereum ETFs still hold $17.79 billion in net assets, equal to 5.45% of Ethereum’s market capitalization. They have also attracted $979.69 million in net inflows over the past 30 days.

The funds have opened this week with $14.29 million in net inflows, a fraction of the previous week’s pace. Flow data from the coming sessions will show whether ETHA’s exit stays isolated or spreads to other issuers.

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Aztec Labs has relaunched zk.money, a self-custodial wallet for private crypto payments, three years after discontinuing the original product.

The new version runs on Aztec Network, the company's privacy-focused Ethereum Layer 2. Unlike a standard Ethereum wallet, zk.money does not publish users' balances, payment amounts or counterparties on a public ledger, Aztec said Tuesday.

The return comes as privacy has become a larger focus for Ethereum. Its public roadmap calls for making privacy a "first-class property" of the network, while Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has highlighted the risks of making people's financial activity publicly traceable.

"Onchain transactions between two individuals shouldn't mean publishing your financial history to the world," Aztec Labs CEO Joe Andrews said in a statement. "zk.money is a self-custodial crypto wallet where your financial history stays yours."

Why zk.money is returning The original zk.money launched in 2021 and was discontinued in 2023 as Aztec Labs shifted its focus to building Aztec Network. Aztec said the wallet reached more than 75,000 unique wallets and processed over $100 million in volume.

Andrews told The Block that demand was not the reason for shutting it down. The earlier system was difficult to expand and could not scale globally, he said.

"We sunset in 2023, not because private payments were a failed thesis, but because they needed infrastructure that did not yet exist," Andrews said. "The system back then was very hard to add features and did not scale globally."

Aztec spent the following three years building Aztec Network, a decentralized Layer 2 designed to support private applications on Ethereum, he added. The network is now overseen by the nonprofit Aztec Foundation, while Aztec Labs develops products on top of it.

"Now that the network is live and stewarded via the non-profit Aztec Foundation, our team at Aztec Labs is back shipping open-source privacy products on top of it," Andrews said. He added that the new infrastructure gives developers more room to add features using Noir, Aztec's programming language for zero-knowledge applications.

How the wallet works Users can claim a simple handle such as bob.zk.money instead of using a long wallet address, Aztec said. They can send or request payments by sharing a link.

The handles use Ethereum Name Service technology and can work with apps that support ENS. Users can also choose who can interact with their handles.

Users can send funds from Ethereum-based exchanges directly to a zk.money handle. Aztec also plans to connect the wallet with DeFi protocols on Ethereum. The company said it is working with potential partners, with integrations expected in Q4, but declined to name them ahead of future announcements.

Since the wallet is non-custodial, Aztec Labs said it cannot spend, move or freeze users' funds.

Users can access zk.money through the web or run it locally. A mobile app is also planned for Q4, though Aztec said there is no set launch date yet.

The relaunch comes after two older Aztec smart contracts were exploited in June. Aztec said the contracts were linked to separate products that had been shut down years earlier and were not part of the current Aztec Network. The new zk.money runs on the newer network and was not affected, the company said.

Aztec has raised $125 million to date, including a $100 million Series B backed by a16z crypto and Paradigm in 2022.

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Ethereum is attracting stronger buying interest from several corners of the market, though a major resistance level remains in focus.

September 2026 is turning out to be entirely different for Ethereum, as it appears to have bucked the “September Curse.” Since the start of the month, ETH is up by more than 9%.

Fresh data also revealed that the asset may be approaching a major resistance zone before a potential bullish move.

Real Test According to the latest findings by Ali Martinez, whale activity has risen sharply across the Ethereum network. Transactions worth more than $1 million jumped nearly 500% in the past week. The number of such transactions increased from 1,202 to 7,113. Martinez also found that large holders accumulated more than 320,000 ETH. At current prices, this stash is worth around $864 million.

However, Ethereum still faces a major wall between $2,722 and $2,822. More than 13.3 million ETH were previously traded in this range, which makes it a significant hurdle. Martinez said several failed breakout attempts could occur. If the leading altcoin breaks above this zone decisively, the next resistance levels are near $2,970 and $3,366. According to the analysis, rising whale demand remains a major market signal.

At the same time, another important trend is developing on the supply side. CryptoPotato recently reported that Ethereum’s available supply on crypto exchanges has dropped to a record low. Only 3.49% of ETH is held on tracked platforms, while another 1.16% of the supply has left exchanges since June 1.

The decline is linked partly to growing activity in staking and DeFi. Around 35% of ETH is estimated to be staked, while roughly $53 billion is locked in DeFi. Long-term holders and large treasury firms are also keeping more tokens off exchanges. This could limit readily available supply if demand increases.

Separately, Ethereum is also seeing an aggressive bet from a trader with an unusual track record. A mysterious trader has taken a $99 million long position on the crypto asset using 25x leverage. The position was opened when ETH traded near $2,660, with liquidation set at $2,552 unless more collateral is added.

You may also like: Institutions Watched Bitcoin Fall 50%: Yet None of 15 Bitwise Surveyed Investors Cut Exposure Ethereum Is Disappearing From Exchanges Fast: Here’s Where All the ETH Is Going Ethereum Investors Are Pulling ETH Off Binance at a Pace Not Seen in 3 Years The trader has reportedly made 3,156 trades with a 100% win rate and earned $5.5 million in profits last week alone.

Institutional Appetite On the institutional side of things, US-based spot ETH ETFs recorded another week of positive inflows, as nearly $690 million entered across five trading days. Monday saw the strongest inflow at almost $270 million.

On Tuesday, these investment products attracted $162 million, while Wednesday brought another $104.6 million, followed by $66 million on Thursday. Flows picked up slightly on Friday, with almost $87 million recorded.

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Summary

Ether.fi will sever its last structural tie to EigenLayer this quarter, leaving under 1% of assets restaked, and CEO Mike Silagadze says the exit came down to risk with no meaningful yield left in restaking.Restaking secures $10 billion but generated just $99,977 in fees over a week, while plain liquid staking earns roughly 53 times more per dollar secured.The five largest remaining liquid restaking tokens made $953,350 in combined gross profit last quarter, down from $2.18 million three quarters earlier.By the end of this quarter, ether.fi will have cut the last structural link between its staking tokens and restaking protocol EigenLayer. Protocol documentation put under 1% of assets still restaked as of August with EigenPod withdrawal credentials due to be removed by the end of the year.

When ether.fi launched in 2024, deposits were restaked on EigenLayer automatically. In August the company stripped restaking out of weETH, the version of its token that circulates and is accepted as collateral across DeFi, leaving it as a plain liquid staking token. Anyone who still wants restaking has to opt into a separate token built on Symbiotic, a rival platform.

Mike Silagadze, ether.fi's chief executive, said the decision came down to risk. "There were no meaningful yield opportunities in restaking and there was some perceived risk from stakers, so we decided it made sense to exit," he told CoinDesk.

What restaking was meant to beStaking means locking up ETH to help secure Ethereum, in return for a yield. Restaking was the idea that the same locked ETH could do a second job: EigenLayer would rent that security out to other services, such as oracles and data availability layers, which would pay for the protection. Depositors would earn twice on one pot of money. Liquid restaking tokens sat on top of that, giving depositors a tradable receipt that they could sell or use as collateral elsewhere rather than locking their ETH away and waiting. weETH was the largest of them.

EigenLayer held $19.7 billion at its peak and liquid restaking tokens grew more than 1,000% in the first six weeks of 2024. But the services buying security never paid enough to cover both the base staking yield and a premium on top, so the second yield restaking promised never materialized.

On Sept. 8, DefiLlama's restaking category held $10.02 billion and generated $99,977 in fees over the prior week. The liquid staking category, on $51.87 billion, generated $27.35 million. Per dollar secured, ordinary staking earns roughly 53 times more.

Restaking earns almost nothing (CoinDesk/Oliver Knight)Two developments then removed what was left of the incentive to restake. Points programs subsidizing deposits wound down through 2025, and slashing went live in April 2025. Slashing is the penalty that confiscates part of an operator's staked ETH when it misbehaves, by going offline or signing conflicting messages, for example. So restaking suddenly carried a real, priced downside where before the risk had been theoretical. There was no extra yield to compensate.

Set ether.fi aside and the rest of the sector is small. Renzo, Kelp, Swell, Puffer Finance and Bedrock, the five largest remaining liquid restaking tokens, made $953,350 in combined gross profit in the second quarter of 2026. Three quarters earlier the same five made $2.18 million. Puffer, which raised $23 million, recorded $21,590 for the quarter. Swell recorded $22,370.

The income statements also show which part of these businesses was ever profitable, and it was not the restaking. On Kelp's books, EIGEN token rewards appear at $460,600 in gross revenue and $460,600 in cost of revenue: they arrive and pass straight to depositors, leaving nothing with the protocol. Puffer and Swell book staking rewards the same way. Whatever profit these companies made came from the orinary staking fees charged underneath the restaking layer.

The hackOn April 18, an attacker exploited Kelp's cross-chain bridge, the system that moves its token between blockchains, and created 116,500 rsETH in 46 minutes, worth about $293 million, with no ETH backing it. The attacker deposited the tokens into Aave as collateral and borrowed real ether against them. Around $6 billion left Aave in the days that followed, with potential bad debt of $123 million to $230 million. In May, Aave rewrote its collateral listing standards to assess cybersecurity and technical architecture alongside price volatility.

Silagadze objects to reading the incident as a failure of leverage. "The cause of the Kelp hack was poor security practices with respect to cross-chain, not related to leverage," he said. "The ether.fi Aave market has very conservative parameters and we have a strong commitment to security."

He is right that EigenLayer itself did not fail. Nothing was slashed, no restaking mechanism broke, and the weak point was a bridge. But that is exactly what made the hack so damaging for liquid restaking tokens. The money was lost in the wrapper, the tradeable receipt sitting on top of the restaking, rather than in the restaking itself. By April, anyone holding one of these tokens was accepting an extra piece of software that could be attacked, and getting no extra yield in return. The wrapper had stopped paying for itself.

Where the money wentThe capital leaving restaking did not leave crypto lending, it moved from ETH into dollars.

In 2024 the pattern was: stake ETH, restake it, wrap it in a liquid restaking token, borrow against that and buy more, stacking exposure to a single asset. By 2026 the same behavior runs through curated vaults. A curated vault is a lending pool where an outside firm, known as a curator, rather than the lending protocol itself, decides which assets the pool accepts and on what terms, in exchange for a share of the fees. Morpho, the largest venue for this, holds around $5.8 billion.

As in restaking, the token a depositor holds is a receipt whose risks are set by someone else and accepted as collateral by a third party.

Curated vaults have already produced their own version of the Kelp collapse. On Nov. 4, 2025, Stream Finance disclosed roughly $93 million of losses and froze withdrawals. Its xUSD token, a yield-bearing dollar token meant to hold its value at $1, fell 77% in a day. Curators had built vaults on Morpho where depositors supplied real stablecoins against xUSD, and the borrowed stablecoins were used to buy more xUSD, inflating the token far beyond what actually backed it. Those markets valued xUSD at a fixed $1 rather than its market price, so when the real price fell, the automatic liquidations that should have closed the loans never triggered. Researchers later mapped roughly $285 million of debt exposure across lending platforms. A second dollar token, 65% backed by loans to Stream, fell about 98% and was wound down.

The exit from restaking left ether.fi with the question every liquid restaking protocol now faces: What is the business, once the thing it was built on stops paying? Its answer was to stop being a staking company.

Ether.fi’s second actEther.fi now runs a card that lets users spend against their crypto without selling it, a borrowing market on Ethereum layer-2 network Optimism and a set of vaults, and describes itself as a crypto neobank. In August it added tokenized stocks, metals and fiat rails. Silagadze puts the neobanking market at roughly $300 billion in annual revenue, about 300 times DeFi's.

The card took its share of monthly revenue from 17% in January to 46% in July. "Neobank revenue has fully replaced the revenue lost from restaking and lower ETH price," Silagadze said. "We are on track to increase revenue overall run rate this year by about 38%, while staking and restaking revenue has declined by 70%. Diversification of our revenue has been a huge success."

DefiLlama's figures show a different trend over roughly the same period, with ether.fi's gross profit falling 47% from $18.71 million in the third quarter of 2025 to $9.99 million in the second quarter of 2026. Both can be true, since gross revenue is not gross profit and a forward run rate is not a trailing quarter, but ether.fi has not published the basis for the 38%.

ether.fi's gross profit by source in Q2 2026 (CoinDesk/Oliver Knight)Card fees produced $3.14 million of gross profit in the second quarter. EigenLayer restaking produced $2.87 million, ahead of core ETH staking and ahead of vault fees, borrowing and management fees combined. On DefiLlama's accounting, restaking was ether.fi's second most profitable line at the point it decided to leave.

Silagadze disputes one input into DefiLlama’s figures. Cashback, the rewards paid to card users, appears in DefiLlama's figures at $5.83 million in both revenue and cost of revenue, which means it adds nothing to profit "That was back when third-party partners were paying the cashback rewards," he said. "That's no longer the case, so current revenue reporting doesn't include cashback subsidy grants." DefiLlama's adapter still books it on both sides through the most recent quarter.

He also says users were told about changes as ether.fi made them. Moving the cash vaults onto Aave replaced a custom-built debt manager and reduced risk, he said: "Users were notified multiple times and opted in to this change."

The technology was never the problemNone of this is to say the technology failed. EigenDA, EigenLayer's data availability service, runs on mainnet at 100 MB/s and remains the largest service by value secured. Symbiotic, where ether.fi moved its own restaking, has integrated more than 50 networks.

The question was never whether restaking works. It was whether it generates enough revenue to justify building a business on it, and for the protocols that made restaking their entire product, the answer has been no.

EigenLayer has also stopped selling restaking as the product. Rebranded as EigenCloud, it now markets verifiable computing, which lets applications prove that work done off-chain was carried out correctly, with restaked collateral as the layer underneath rather than the thing on sale. Its holdings stand at $5.10 billion, down from $22.06 billion in August 2025.

What the sector has not settled is whether a market that shrank roughly 75% while continuing to secure everything it secured before has failed, or whether it was simply four times larger than the work required. Silagadze did not wait to find out. He moved ether.fi out of restaking while the argument was still running.

12345678910The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific

The Definitive Stablecoin Landscape Series: Asia Pacific

As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.

Sep 15, 2026

As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.

Why it matters:

As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says the network's next hard fork, Hegota, is likely to be the last upgrade that looks like the ones that came before it. In an essay published on Sunday, Buterin wrote that Hegota, "the fork planned for next year," is "likely to be Ethereum's last 'normal' fork, with features and technology that would be recognizable to someone in 2015." Everything after it, he wrote, "involves recursive STARKs, automated formal verification, highly optimized consensus algorithms, and making it all quantum-safe."

Buterin describes the destination as a "cryptographic world computer", an architecture that combines a blockchain with cryptographic privacy and verification and decentralised off-chain components. The goal, he wrote, is "much more cheap, scalable and private high-security computation" than earlier technology could deliver.

The cryptographic world computer:https://t.co/ueayODeUPo

My attempt to express in somewhat concise terms the true meaning of basically everything planned to happen to Ethereum starting from the fork after Hegota. It's really not just a blockchain anymore. It's a hybrid…

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 27, 2026 The essay compares Ethereum's design in 2015 with where Buterin expects it to be in 2030. The biggest change is in how nodes check the chain. Today a node downloads each block and re-executes it; in the future design it samples data through PeerDAS and verifies a SNARK proof that the block was executed correctly. That would let light clients verify both data availability and computation directly, instead of trusting full nodes.

Consensus would move to a proof-of-stake design with "few-slot finality", with slots of around four to eight seconds and finality in roughly eight to 32 seconds, against the roughly 17-second blocks and 200-second confirmation window of Ethereum's 2015 design. Block construction would shift from a single proposer to a multi-party process, with FOCIL (fork-choice enforced inclusion lists) providing what Buterin calls "guaranteed real-time transaction inclusion" as a defence against censorship. Transactions would pass through a mempool with strong privacy properties, and zero-knowledge proofs combined with private account abstraction would extend privacy to accounts as well as individual transactions.

Buterin argues this changes the role decentralisation plays. Running computation across many independent nodes has usually been treated as a cost paid for security, and he writes that it is "shifting from being purely a burden incurred in the name of safety and robustness to at least sometimes being a strength even from a performance perspective." He adds that a network like the post-Lean-upgrade Ethereum is called a blockchain "to a large extent for historical reasons."

The essay did not commit to specific dates. Much of what it describes, including real-time proving of Ethereum blocks and quantum-safe signature schemes, is still in research or early implementation, and each component will have to go through Ethereum's core developer process.

TLDR: PeerDAS, live since Fusaka in December 2025, lets nodes sample blob data instead of downloading every blob. Hegotá, expected in 2027, could be Ethereum’s last broadly familiar fork before deeper cryptographic redesign. EIP-7805 adds validator-backed inclusion lists to curb censorship by individual block builders in Hegotá. Ethereum targets 2029 for core post-quantum infrastructure, alongside Lean Consensus and recursive STARKs. Vitalik Buterin has outlined a long-term architecture for Ethereum that could make the network increasingly difficult to describe as a conventional blockchain. The model combines decentralized consensus, zero-knowledge proofs, distributed computation, privacy systems and post-quantum cryptography.

In a September 27 post titled “The cryptographic world computer,” Buterin said the network now blends Bitcoin-era blockchain principles with newer cryptographic research. His framework describes a system where verification relies less on every node repeating every computation and more on proofs, sampling and specialized distributed infrastructure.

The cryptographic world computer:https://t.co/ueayODeUPo

My attempt to express in somewhat concise terms the true meaning of basically everything planned to happen to Ethereum starting from the fork after Hegota. It's really not just a blockchain anymore. It's a hybrid…

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 27, 2026

That shift is already visible in several parts of the roadmap. Data availability, block construction and consensus are moving toward designs that reduce duplication while preserving verifiability across the network.

Ethereum’s World Computer Shift Rewrites Blockchain Verification Traditional blockchains require many nodes to download data and independently re-execute transactions. Buterin described an architecture that increasingly replaces that model with data sampling and cryptographic proof verification.

Consensus has also moved from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, while a more optimized Lean Consensus design remains under development. At the same time, block construction could become more distributed instead of depending heavily on one miner or builder.

PeerDAS provides an early example of that direction. Introduced through the December 2025 Fusaka upgrade, it lets nodes verify blob availability by sampling data rather than downloading every blob.

That reduces bandwidth requirements while supporting higher Layer 2 capacity. As a result, more computation can move outside the base layer without removing Ethereum’s ability to verify results cryptographically.

The next major milestone is Hegotá, currently expected in 2027. Buterin described it as potentially the last upgrade that would remain broadly familiar to developers from earlier network eras.

Hegotá and Lean Ethereum Push Toward Quantum-Safe Design FOCIL, formally EIP-7805, is scheduled for Hegotá. It introduces validator-backed inclusion lists intended to limit the ability of individual block builders to censor valid transactions.

However, the upgrade’s broader scope remains under development, so additional features and timing could still change. Beyond Hegotá, research increasingly centers on recursive STARKs, formal verification and advanced state management.

EIP-8288 offers one example. The draft proposal would aggregate quantum-resistant signatures and STARK proofs in the mempool before producing one recursive proof for block verification.

Lean Ethereum extends that direction with redesigned consensus, hash-based post-quantum signatures, formal verification and finality targeted in seconds. Separately, the Ethereum Foundation is targeting about 2029 for core post-quantum infrastructure.

Taken together, Buterin’s framework describes a network where decentralized offchain systems handle larger workloads while cryptographic proofs preserve security guarantees. He calls that architecture a “cryptographic world computer.”

Ethereum Foundation researcher Toni Wahrstätter recently reported that development on the Glamsterdam upgrade and EIP-7928, which introduces Block-Level Access Lists, is nearing completion. Wahrstätter expressed confidence regarding the progress, highlighting advancements as the project approaches a key milestone.

The first public test for Glamsterdam is on the horizon, following ongoing devnet testing. Developers have scheduled the Sepolia testnet fork for October 6, 2026, with the mainnet launch planned for the fourth quarter of 2026. An exact mainnet date is yet to be confirmed.

Wahrstätter described Glamsterdam as one of Ethereum’s most significant forks to date, attributing the extended development timeline to its ambitious scope. He believes the end result will justify the effort invested by the team and community.

The upgrade is designed to advance Ethereum’s scaling capabilities and introduce a new era for the network. Its primary goals include implementing parallelization to accelerate transaction processing, increasing overall capacity, and enhancing sustainability by curbing database bloat.

Key features and technical objectivesA notable highlight of Glamsterdam is the introduction of ePBS, a revamped block validation pipeline that reduces trust assumptions within the network. Additionally, Block-Level Access Lists (BALs) aim to bring parallelization benefits, laying the groundwork for a more scalable and efficient protocol.

Looking at recent technical trends related to market timing and investor choices, the meme token market demonstrates how quickly substantial capital can appear. An example from Fomo App showed a $99 investment in “Niu Lai” growing to approximately $370,000, underscoring the importance of monitoring not only prices but also key moments and asset selections. Fomo App integrates token discovery and trading, featuring social functionality such as investor rankings and trade notifications, allowing users to actively track the evolving meme token landscape.

Vitalik Buterin outlines post-Hegota visionEthereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin recently offered his perspective on the evolution of the network after its upcoming Hegota hard fork. In his view, Hegota may be Ethereum’s last “ordinary” upgrade, recognizable to developers and users familiar with the network’s earlier architecture.

Buterin referred to “Strawman,” Ethereum’s long-term roadmap, which suggests that upgrades following Hegota will move far beyond the technology of 2015. These future phases are expected to incorporate recursive STARKs, automated formal verification, and advanced consensus mechanisms to enhance quantum resistance.

Buterin outlined that after Hegota, Ethereum’s focus will shift to integrating advanced cryptographic and computational techniques. He described the network as a hybrid architecture, no longer just a blockchain, but a combination of modern cryptography and decentralized infrastructure to enable more advanced functionalities.

He also credited the PeerDAS solution as the beginning of Ethereum’s transformation, marking the start of moving from a traditional blockchain structure to a multifaceted, more powerful system. According to Buterin, the upgrades to follow will push Ethereum toward becoming a “cryptographic world computer.”

He emphasized that these innovations aim to deliver cheaper, more scalable, and more private high-security computation, surpassing the capabilities of earlier blockchain systems.

As Ethereum approaches these network milestones, stakeholders continue to monitor both technical developments and the timeline for implementation ahead of the mainnet launch.

ARK Invest and Securitize announced the launch of the ARK Venture Fund’s tokenized share class, ARKVX, on September 24. This initiative will see shares of the fund issued and managed through Securitize’s regulated tokenization platform, bringing its exposure to blockchain through Ethereum.

The ARK Venture Fund is managed by ARK Invest, an asset manager known for focusing on disruptive innovation and technology investments. With the new tokenized share class, investors do not hold tokens representing direct equity in SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic, or other portfolio companies. Instead, ARKVX represents a fractional interest in the regulated fund itself, which in turn holds stakes in these private and public technology firms.

Current portfolio data from ARK Invest show SpaceX makes up 7.54% of the fund, OpenAI accounts for 5.26%, and Anthropic stands at 3.86%. Other notable companies in the fund include Stripe, Crusoe, and Figure AI among a mix of private and listed technology ventures.

The new structure allows investors to buy tokenized interests in a regulated fund with exposure to high-growth technology companies, but not in the underlying companies themselves.

Eligible investors must participate through Securitize’s official platform, which provides the technical and regulatory infrastructure to facilitate compliant onchain issuance and transfers.

Mini dictionary: Securitize is a US-based digital asset securities firm specializing in the compliant issuance and management of tokenized securities, providing regulated infrastructure for onchain asset management.

Ethereum as the Settlement LayerSecuritize has stated that the ARKVX share class will settle and transfer on Ethereum’s blockchain, taking advantage of its smart contract capabilities for record keeping and transaction validation. However, the fundamental structure and investment framework of the ARK Venture Fund remain unchanged. As a closed-end interval fund, it continues to be actively managed, focusing on disruptive private and public market investments.

Interval funds are a specific category of investment vehicles that offer periodic repurchase opportunities, rather than continuous secondary market trading. This means holders of ARKVX retain exposure to technological growth but must participate in scheduled liquidity windows, as opposed to instant tradability sometimes associated with blockchain-based assets.

Fund AttributeTraditional StructureTokenized ARKVXOwnership RecordOffchain (Registrar)Onchain (Ethereum)LiquidityPeriodic RepurchasePeriodic RepurchaseUnderlying AssetsPrivate & Public Tech CompaniesPrivate & Public Tech CompaniesInvestor AccessTraditional PlatformSecuritize PlatformThe tokenization adds a new digital rail but does not affect the fund’s core liquidity or access to underlying company equity. ARK Invest emphasized that while trading onchain can sound more liquid, the interval fund format means liquidity remains governed by official repurchase periods.

Moving tokenized funds onchain updates ownership and settlement processes, but it leaves the fundamental investment and redemption structures intact.

Growth in Tokenized Real-World AssetsARK Invest has advocated for the continued growth of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) within traditional finance. The firm believes tokenization could expand market access and potentially unlock a multi-trillion-dollar segment for investors seeking exposure to disruptive technology.

This launch aligns with a broader industry shift as funds and securities increasingly leverage blockchain for efficiency, transparency, and broader investor reach.

With the activation of EIP-4444 on July 8, 2025, Ethereum execution clients can now prune pre-Merge historical data, slashing storage requirements by 300 to 500 GB and enabling new nodes to sync in under half a day.

The result: operators can run a fully functional node on a 2 TB disk with aggressive settings keeping total storage under 0.5 TB.

What EIP-4444 actually changes EIP-4444 introduces what’s called “partial history expiry.” Instead of requiring every node to store the complete history of the Ethereum blockchain, nodes can now drop older data after a defined retention period. The initial design specified roughly 33,000 epochs, but this was revised to approximately 82,000 epochs, or about one year of history.

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Nodes validate the current chain head using weak subjectivity checkpoints. The consensus layer can sync in minutes through checkpoint sync, while the execution layer benefits from not needing to download and verify a decade of transaction receipts. Historical data retrieval mechanisms remain available as an optional feature for operators who need archival access.

All five major Ethereum execution clients have shipped support. Geth v1.16.0, Nethermind 1.32.2, Besu 25.7.0, Erigon v3.0.12, and Reth v1.5.0 each include the necessary flags and configurations.

Why storage was becoming a problem Prior to EIP-4444, a full node needed more than 400 GB of disk space, and that number was only going in one direction. Every new block, every smart contract interaction, every token transfer added to the pile.

There’s an important distinction worth noting. This change affects full nodes and validators, not archive nodes. Archive nodes, which serve historical queries for block explorers and analytics platforms, will continue storing everything.

The accessibility equation A sub-half-day sync on under 0.5 TB of storage means a relatively modest consumer-grade machine with a decent SSD can participate in Ethereum’s network, compared to the multi-day sync processes and terabyte-plus storage demands that previously greeted new node operators.

EIP-4444 sits within the “Purge” phase of Ethereum’s roadmap, which Vitalik Buterin has described as focused on reducing protocol complexity and node requirements.

The remaining question is how the network handles the transition period as nodes begin pruning at different rates and historical data becomes distributed rather than universally replicated. The Portal Network and other peer-to-peer data availability solutions are designed to fill this gap, ensuring that historical queries can still be resolved even when most nodes have moved on.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

In brief Magic Eden warned that NFTs listed on its now-closed EVM marketplace between roughly February and October 2024 could be exposed to an exploit in Limit Break's Payment Processor V2. Yuga Labs' 0xQuit said a whitehat operation rescued 23,155 NFTs worth more than $5.7 million, but 660 WETH couldn't be recovered. Users should revoke the contract's approvals on Ethereum, Polygon and Base. Revoking won't return tokens that have already moved. Magic Eden may have left Ethereum behind, but some of its old users' NFTs were still exposed.

The marketplace warned Friday that NFTs listed on its EVM marketplace between roughly February and October 2024 could be affected by an exploit in Payment Processor V2, an NFT trading protocol built and maintained by Limit Break.

Myriad: Where does Ethereum go next? Click to make your prediction.EVM refers to Ethereum and the blockchains compatible with it. Magic Eden adopted the contract to settle trades in 2024, stopped using it that October and shut its EVM marketplace entirely in early 2026.

"No live Magic Eden listings were impacted in this exploit," the company said on X.

The problem lies in lingering approvals. When users list NFTs, they typically grant a contract permission to move them, and that permission stays active until it's revoked.

Magic Eden urged anyone who listed or traded on its EVM marketplace to revoke the V2 contract's "approved for all" permissions on Ethereum, Polygon, and Base using Revoke.cash. It noted that revoking won't return tokens that have already moved.

At 9AM EST today somebody abused a bug in Payment Processor V2 to steal 10 Meebits, 50 Otherdeeds, 10 WoW, and 235 Desperate Apewives.

It wasn't until over 12 hours later that somebody reported it to me, and upon digging in I realized that a great many NFTs were subject to the… pic.twitter.com/Vue8TUyMD2

— Quit (@0xQuit) September 25, 2026

Yuga Labs Vice President of Blockchain 0xQuit said an attacker used the bug to take 10 Meebits, 50 Otherdeeds, 10 World of Women NFTs, and 235 Desperate ApeWives. Limit Break paused Payment Processor V3, which had the same flaw, but V2 couldn't be paused. That forced a whitehat rescue, an operation in which friendly hackers move vulnerable assets to safety before attackers can.

"All in all, we rescued 23,155 NFTs worth north of $5.7M USD," 0xQuit wrote. Owners will be able to reclaim them after revoking the approvals, according to 0xQuit.

But 660 wrapped Ethereum, or WETH, exposed to a reverse version of the exploit wasn't recovered in time.

Magic Eden dropped Ethereum and Bitcoin support in February to focus on Solana and its crypto casino, Dicey. It later wound down its multichain wallet.

The episode lands at a rough time for crypto users. Just yesterday, unknown hackers swiped more than $380 million in Ethereum and other crypto assets from the Bitget exchange in what is now the biggest crypto hack of the year.

Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Key Highlights ETH maintains position around $2,680 with a 0.40% gain in the last 24 hours Major holders controlling 10K-100K ETH accumulated 260K tokens starting Saturday, reversing prior week’s selling trend Spot Ethereum ETFs in the US recorded their fourth consecutive session of positive net flows totaling $104.6 million BlackRock’s ETHA product dominated with $50.8 million in inflows on September 23 Critical support zone between $2,560-$2,600 faces retest after converting from resistance Ethereum currently sits at $2,680, marking a 0.40% increase during the previous 24-hour period. The digital asset maintains a market capitalization of approximately $328 billion.

Ethereum (ETH) Price Major Ethereum holders have shifted back into accumulation mode. According to CryptoQuant analytics, addresses containing between 10,000 and 100,000 ETH have acquired 260,000 tokens beginning Saturday.

This accumulation represents a sharp reversal from recent activity. The identical cohort of large holders had previously disposed of 140,000 ETH across a three-day period following the Senate’s stalling of the Clarity Act.

Mid-tier holders exhibited contrasting patterns. Addresses controlling 1,000 to 10,000 ETH maintained relatively stable positions before executing a modest 50,000 ETH reduction over the most recent 48-hour window.

Those managing between 100 and 1,000 ETH continued their distribution trend. This segment has collectively released approximately 140,000 ETH since the Clarity Act developments emerged.

On-exchange metrics reveal withdrawals exceeding deposits in recent sessions. This pattern indicates certain market participants are accumulating during price weakness while others secure gains.

Institutional Appetite Maintains Momentum United States-based spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds recorded their fourth consecutive session of positive net capital flows. Wednesday’s aggregate figure reached $104.6 million.

BlackRock’s ETHA product dominated institutional demand, capturing $50.8 million. This represents approximately half of the total daily inflow volume.

Fidelity’s FETH product followed closely, securing $41.3 million during the identical trading session.

Market analyst Ted, recognized on social platforms as @TedPillows, offered perspective on current market dynamics. He noted ETH is experiencing a minor pullback and anticipates a retest around $2,550 before resuming upward momentum.

Critical Price Level Under Examination Another market observer operating under the handle BATMAN highlighted the $2,560-$2,600 band as a crucial technical zone for ETH. This region previously functioned as overhead resistance and has undergone multiple support validation tests.

$ETH is heading back toward the key $2.56K–$2.60K zone. That was previous resistance and has flipped into support multiple times.

200 EMA sits around $2.46K below. Watching how Ethereum reacts as it gets there. pic.twitter.com/OlxVGqdqsB

— BATMAN ⚡ (@CryptosBatman) September 24, 2026

Should ETH successfully defend this zone during corrective price action, it would validate the transformation from resistance to support. The 200-day exponential moving average hovers nearby at approximately $2,460, providing traders with an additional reference point.

From a technical perspective, ETH currently trades above the median Bollinger Band positioned at $2,547.65. The upper band extends to $2,767.17.

The MACD indicator registers at 96.50, positioned above its signal line at 86.47. The histogram displays a positive reading of 10.02, although the separation between lines remains relatively narrow.

Coinglass metrics indicate $74.5 million in forced liquidations throughout the past 24 hours. Long position liquidations accounted for $44.4 million of that volume.

Overhead resistance markers beyond current pricing include $2,786 and $2,894, with an additional obstacle positioned at $3,177.

Regarding broader market conditions, Brent crude oil advanced nearly 3% Thursday following the collapse of US-Iran diplomatic discussions. The United States 10-year Treasury yield surpassed 5.15%, reaching its most elevated point since June 2007.

TLDR Table of Contents

Solana now controls 36% of tokenized commodities spot DEX volume, up from about 1% three weeks earlier. Robinhood Chain follows with 26%, while Canton and Ethereum hold 19% and 13%, respectively. Solana’s rise came alongside new commodity products, including tokenized silver, gold, oil, and PAXG collateral support. Despite leading trading volume, Solana holds only $26.8 million in tokenized commodities, compared with Ethereum’s $4.7 billion. Market leadership remains unstable, with Ethereum, BNB Chain, Robinhood Chain, and Solana all leading at different points since July. Solana now leads tokenized commodities trading on decentralized exchanges, according to Blockworks data. The network holds 36% of spot trading volume, up from about 1% three weeks ago. Robinhood Chain follows with 26%, while Canton holds 19% and Ethereum accounts for 13%.

Market Leadership Shifts Rapidly Ethereum controlled most daily tokenized commodity trading volume after tracking began in July 2026. Its share rarely dropped below 80% for much of that period. Avalanche recorded brief increases, but none changed the market structure for long.

The picture changed in August when BNB Chain captured more than half of daily volume on some days. Robinhood Chain then moved into first place by late August. The wider tokenization market has also added tokenized U.S. equities and commodity-backed instruments across more networks.

Solana Gains Share as Products Expand Solana’s rise followed several product launches. Dominion Market introduced tokenized silver through SILV, while GMTrade added trading contracts linked to gold, silver, and oil. Kamino also began accepting PAXG as collateral, and Raydium handles much of the related decentralized trading flow.

PAXG collateral support could keep more tokenized gold inside Solana’s ecosystem. Users can hold the asset while accessing lending markets instead of moving it to another network. This adds another use case beyond direct spot trading.

Asset Value Still Favors Ethereum Trading volume does not match the distribution of tokenized commodity assets. RWA.xyz data for September 25 shows Solana holds $26.8 million in distributed tokenized commodities, equal to 0.55% of the market. Ethereum holds about $4.7 billion, or roughly 95%.

Recent data also shows Solana’s tokenized equity trading share has risen, adding another category of blockchain asset activity. However, BNB Chain holds $87 million in tokenized commodities, while Arbitrum holds $85.8 million. Both totals remain more than three times Solana’s amount.

Robinhood Chain holds only $4.6 million in tokenized commodities, yet it handled about one-quarter of DEX volume on September 23. Elsewhere, firms have introduced direct stock-to-token conversion services as tokenized markets expand across networks.

Solana’s commodity value rose 1.09% over 30 days, while Ethereum fell 4.72% and BNB Chain dropped 7.83%. Daily trading remains small, so new listings can quickly change rankings. Ethereum still holds most of the tokenized commodity supply despite Solana’s current volume lead across decentralized venues tracked in the latest available market data on September 25.

According to Farside’s monitoring, on September 24, total net inflows into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs hit $190.7 million, broken down as follows: BlackRock’s IBIT: +$162.6 million; Fidelity’s FBTC: +$12.9 million; Morgan Stanley’s MSBT: +$10.2 million; Franklin’s EZBC: +$4.9 million; Bitwise’s BITB: +$4.1 million; WisdomTree’s BTCW: -$4 million. ARK’s ARKB, Invesco’s BTCO, Valkyrie’s BRRR, VanEck’s HODL, Grayscale’s GBTC, and other Bitcoin ETFs saw no net inflows or outflows. Total net inflows into U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs yesterday reached $66.1 million, with breakdown: BlackRock’s ETHA: +$26.8 million; Fidelity’s FETH: +$21.5 million; Grayscale’s ETH: +$17.8 million. BlackRock’s ETHB, Bitwise’s ETHW, 21Shares’ TETH, VanEck’s ETHV, Invesco’s QETH, Franklin’s EZET, Morgan Stanley’s MSSE, and Grayscale’s ETHE recorded no net inflows or outflows.

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Token ARGUS on the Arc chain has surged 47.8% over the past 24 hours, with its current market capitalization standing at $27.44 million.

According to GMGN market data, ARGUS, the token of Arc blockchain launchpad ArgusPad, has risen 47.8% over the past 24 hours. Its current market capitalization stands at approximately $27.44 million, with a 24-hour trading volume of around $2.8 million. BlockBeats reminds users that the Arc mainnet has just launched, carrying high early-stage hype risks: most tokens on the network have low trading volumes, insufficient liquidity, and extreme price volatility, so investors should exercise caution.

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KelpDAO sues LayerZero and its co-founders over the rsETH cross-chain bridge vulnerability.

KelpDAO has issued a statement announcing that Kelp is suing LayerZero and its co-founder Bryan Pellegrino over the rsETH LayerZero cross-chain bridge vulnerability incident earlier this year. The lawsuit alleges the vulnerability originated from LayerZero’s own technical flaws and a breach of its security infrastructure—including LayerZero’s failure to disclose inherent weaknesses and risks in its technology, and its inability to stop attackers from compromising its security infrastructure to exploit the flaw. Over the past several months, LayerZero and Pellegrino publicly blamed Kelp for the incident, but Kelp claims LayerZero had previously reviewed and approved the deployment and configuration of its LayerZero technology in writing. Kelp further stated that following the vulnerability incident, it has taken steps to protect user assets, including migrating the rsETH cross-chain bridge to a more secure cross-chain security standard. The lawsuit seeks to hold LayerZero and Bryan Pellegrino liable for the related losses.

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The U.S. Secretary of Defense lists Bitcoin in his 2025 financial disclosure, with valuations ranging from approximately $16,000 to $65,000.

According to CNBC, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s newly released 2025 annual financial disclosure shows his household’s cash, retirement investments, and Bitcoin holdings are worth at least approximately $3.1 million. The Bitcoin is valued between $16,000 and $65,000, and one of his three cash accounts exceeds $1 million.

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Goldman Sachs says the AI sector remains attractive, with a massive $800 billion investment underpinning Asia's hardware supply chain.

Insight Beating AI News Brief: Goldman Sachs Asia Pacific Equity Strategist Timothy Moe said AI-related stocks remain attractive despite rising government bond yields. “We are firmly in the ‘higher for longer’ camp,” he stated. He noted that hyperscale cloud computing firms are projected to invest roughly $800 billion this year, with that figure potentially reaching $1.2 trillion by 2027 – a key indicator of demand for Asia’s AI hardware supply chain. Moe added that the “extremely low” valuations in Asian markets also offer extra support for related stocks, as the region’s overall stock market currently trades at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of around 10, sitting at the lower end of its historical valuation range. He further noted that corporate earnings growth will act as a buffer against the high interest rate environment. For the rest of this year, Moe expects markets to stay “somewhat choppy” amid the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, with high energy prices and geopolitical risks amplifying market pressure. However, after this phase, he believes markets could rally by year-end, driven by corporate earnings growth and valuation recovery. (Jin10)

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Bybit’s CEO: Ready to assist Bitget in any way possible at any time.

Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou posted on social media that the Bybit team is ready to provide assistance in any way possible for the recent Bitget hack incident. When Bybit was targeted by a hacker attack, Bitget extended its support to the platform. Bybit is updating its LazarusBounty bounty website to help Bitget track and determine the flow of stolen funds. BlockBeats previously reported that on February 21, 2025, Bybit suffered what was then the largest hack in cryptocurrency history, with approximately $1.46 billion to $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum stolen, an attack later attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. Following the breach, Bitget quickly transferred 40,000 ETH to Bybit (valued at roughly $105 million to $106 million at the time), with the funds sourced from Bitget’s own reserves, not user assets. The support came in the form of an interest-free, uncollateralized, open-ended loan, intended to help Bybit cope with withdrawal runs and replenish liquidity.

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Bitget Wallet: User assets are not affected by the current Bitget incident; users are advised to beware of phishing posts spreading FUD.

Bitget Wallet’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Alvin Kan stated in a social media post that Bitget Wallet is a self-custody wallet, meaning users’ assets remain on-chain and are fully controlled by the users themselves. In short, Bitget Wallet users’ assets are not affected by the ongoing incident involving Bitget Exchange. The team has been conducting preventive checks and reviews of internal systems as a precaution, and no security impacts have been detected to date. Additionally, the team has observed numerous scam posts impersonating Bitget Wallet and distributing phishing links. We urge everyone to exercise extreme caution and only access updates through official channels.

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Payy Network shut down its entire payments platform on September 24 after an attacker exploited a vulnerability in its Ethereum rollup contract and walked away with roughly $1.83 million in USDC. Deposits, withdrawals, transfers, and card transactions all went dark as the team scrambled to contain the damage.

The exploit hit at 04:21 UTC, buried inside a malicious verifyRollup transaction confirmed at block 26044909.

What the attacker actually did Payy is built around a privacy-first stablecoin payments model, running on an Ethereum-based rollup. The rollup contract is effectively the bridge between what happens on Payy’s network and what gets settled on Ethereum mainnet, and that bridge is where the attacker found their opening.

By crafting a transaction that passed through the verifyRollup function, the exploiter was able to extract USDC that should have remained locked in the contract.

Blockchain investigation firm Specter Investigation traced the stolen funds through the Railgun privacy protocol, where the USDC was converted into approximately 683 ETH and then fanned out across multiple addresses.

Payy confirmed the attack publicly and said all network operations were suspended while the team works with law enforcement and cybersecurity professionals. No timeline for resuming services has been announced.

This is not Payy’s first security scare in 2026 What makes this breach harder to dismiss as a fluke is that Payy already dealt with a serious vulnerability earlier this year. In June 2026, the project disclosed a critical flaw in its zk-circuit logic, the cryptographic layer responsible for generating the zero-knowledge proofs that underpin the platform’s privacy guarantees.

That flaw had allowed for the potential creation of forged burn messages, meaning an attacker could theoretically signal that tokens had been destroyed when they hadn’t been. The team patched it in version 1.3.0 before any funds were lost.

Why rollup bridges keep ending up in the headlines Payy’s case follows a familiar pattern: a project builds a sophisticated privacy architecture, the cryptographic layer holds, but the surrounding infrastructure fails. Zero-knowledge proofs are exceptionally hard to break mathematically. The contracts that wrap around them are not always written to the same standard.

What users and investors are watching now The immediate concern for Payy users is straightforward: funds are frozen, the network is dark, and the company has not given a restart date.

Payy has not indicated whether affected users will be made whole. In past DeFi exploits, outcomes have ranged from full reimbursement funded by treasury reserves to total losses for users, depending on the protocol’s financial position and governance decisions. Payy has not yet disclosed which category this incident falls into.

Security audits, which Payy had clearly invested in given the June patch, are necessary but not sufficient. The June vulnerability was found and fixed before exploitation. The September exploit suggests either a separate attack surface was missed or the fix introduced new complexity that created new risk.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

PeckShield Flags $4.3M in Suspicious Duelbits Outflows.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield has reported approximately $4.3 million in suspicious cryptocurrency outflows from Duelbits across Ethereum and BNB Chain, involving ETH, stablecoins, BNB, and Shiba Inu.

#PeckShieldAlert #Duelbits has seen a suspicious outflow of ~$4.3M in crypto on #Ethereum and #BNBChain, including 836 ETH($2.23M), 1.146M USDT, 209 BNB ($160.68K), 96.805K USDC, 12.398B SHIB ($70.17K), and 31.515K DAI.

The attacker has since swapped the stolen funds for 1587.87… pic.twitter.com/zJ5HUtIghQ

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) September 24, 2026

PeckShield identified the recipient as an attacker and said the funds had been converted into approximately 1,587.87 ETH, valued at around $4.2 million, alongside about 31,500 DAI. Its alert did not identify how the funds were accessed or establish whether customer balances were affected.

ETH, Stablecoins and 12.398 Billion SHIB Involved According to PeckShield, the suspicious outflows included 836 ETH worth approximately $2.23 million, 1.146 million USDT, and 209 BNB valued at $160,680.

PeckShield Flags $4.3M in Suspicious Duelbits Outflows. The firm also listed approximately 96,805 USDC, 12.398 billion SHIB worth $70,170, and 31,515 DAI.

The $4.3 million figure represents PeckShield’s aggregate estimate. The individual amounts listed account for approximately $3.74 million at the quoted valuations, assuming the stablecoins traded near $1. The alert did not explain the difference between those figures.

Ethereum records dated September 24 show several incoming transfers from a Duelbits-labeled address to a wallet beginning 0xA77e24 and ending 05aef76. These included 31,515 DAI at 09:00:35 UTC, approximately 12.4 billion SHIB at 09:00:59, 96,804.68 USDC at 09:01:23, and 593,430.32 USDT at 09:02:11. The explorer also identified Duelbits as the address’s initial funding source.

Funds Moved Through deBridge and Relay Addresses Subsequent transactions show the recipient moving assets to addresses associated with cross-chain services.

At 09:27:35 UTC, the wallet transferred 96,804.68 USDC to a deBridge-labeled address. A separate transaction at 09:31:23 moved approximately 6.4 billion SHIB to the same labeled destination. Four later SHIB transactions, ranging from 1 billion to 2 billion tokens each, brought the displayed outgoing SHIB total to approximately 12.4 billion.

The records also show six transfers of 100,000 USDT each to Relay: Router V3, followed by another transfer of 83,346.89 USDT. Together, those seven transactions amounted to 683,346.89 USDT.

Following the transactions, the Ethereum address’s recorded balance stood at approximately 1,587.876 ETH, valued by Etherscan at $4,190,468.37. Its remaining token holdings consisted of 31,515 DAI worth approximately $31,510.37, placing the combined ETH and DAI balance at roughly $4.22 million at that snapshot.

Duelbits Previously Suffered a Separate Wallet Exploit Duelbits, which operates a cryptocurrency casino and sports betting platform, previously suffered an exploit on February 13, 2024. De.Fi’s incident report recorded losses of approximately $4.64 million and identified a loss of wallet access control as the apparent cause. Assets taken in that incident were also bridged and exchanged into ETH.

That historical finding does not establish the cause of the September 24 outflows. PeckShield’s latest alert focused on the assets moved and their subsequent conversion, without specifying an attack method.

Attackers drained roughly 11.7 million XRP from thousands of D’CENT App Wallet users. The theft, worth close to $20 million, unfolded between September 15 and 20. XRPL.to published the on-chain forensic timeline.

The operation unfolded across six separate waves. It hit a combined 6,678 wallets using keys the thief already controlled.

How the Attack Actually UnfoldedSomeone manually drained eight wallets, each holding over 99,999 XRP, within an hour on September 15. An automated script then swept a total of 1,682 wallets that same day.

Five more waves followed through September 20. Each wave reused the same script, manual tool, and stolen keys.

Attackers went beyond simple transfers, too. They deleted 5,001 accounts entirely to claim their remaining reserve balances, XRPL.to reported.

Notably, 2,470 of those wallets had never been swept. That detail suggests the thief held a broader list of compromised keys than the initial drain revealed.

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Wallets swept per hour (up) and accounts deleted per hour (down). Source: xrpl.toThe stolen funds moved fast. Roughly 5.6 million XRP crossed into Ethereum through THORChain. Other funds are routed through exchanges, including Binance, as well as services like unionchain.ai and NEAR Intents.

Each sweep often reached an off-ramp within hours, limiting the window available for freezing stolen funds. About 1.3 million XRP still sat in the attacker’s own wallets as of September 21.

Why Are D’CENT Users Specifically at Risk?D’CENT confirmed abnormal transfers affecting its App Wallet on September 16. The company clarified that hardware wallets remained unaffected. It later urged users to move funds immediately, though it has not confirmed whether reimbursement will follow.

Notably, no XRP Ledger exploit caused this incident. Every sweep used valid signatures from the wallets’ own private keys. That detail means the compromise originated from how those keys were exposed, not from any flaw in the network itself.

5.6 Million XRP Moved to Ethereum Through THORChain. Source: xrpl.toXRPL.to’s analysis found the operation reused identical scripts and fee patterns across multiple waves. That pattern strongly suggests a single coordinated actor carried out every stage. Security researchers now recommend one specific step.

Anyone who used D’CENT’s App Wallet at any point should migrate funds to a new wallet immediately. The exact method behind the original key compromise still remains unconfirmed.

XRP trades near $1.49 at the time of writing. That figure marked a 6% drop over the past 24 hours, according to BeInCrypto data. The token’s market cap stood near $93.82 billion, ranking fifth among all cryptocurrencies.

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Cayman Islands, Cayman Islands, September 23rd, 2026, Chainwire

Google Cloud joins as a key infrastructure partner for Puffer UniFi, operating a gateway through Puffer Preconf to deliver sub-second execution backed by Ethereum

Puffer Finance has announced that Google Cloud has joined as a gateway operator in Puffer Preconf, a preconfirmation (preconf) service that delivers sub-second transaction preconfs for Ethereum rollups. Puffer UniFi will be the first rollup to use Google Cloud’s gateway for transaction processing and preconfirmations. 

Puffer UniFi is Puffer’s high-performance Ethereum execution stack, built to deliver real-time execution while remaining synchronously composable with Ethereum.

The integration makes Google Cloud one of the first major cloud infrastructure providers to actively operate within Ethereum’s preconf and rollup ecosystem.

Google Cloud brings enterprise-grade reliability and geographic diversity. Rollups and appchains can select either gateway individually or combine them for added resilience. Starting with Puffer UniFi, this gives rollups access to Google Cloud’s infrastructure for transaction processing and sub-second preconfirmations.

Puffer Preconf addresses a core limitation of based rollups, a new class of Ethereum rollups that use Ethereum validators for transaction sequencing instead of centralized sequencers. While based rollups inherit Ethereum’s security and decentralization, they are constrained to Ethereum’s 12-second block times. Puffer Preconf’s gateway layer provides near-instant execution preconfirmations, backed by restaked ETH and economic security. If any gateway fails to honor a preconfirmation commitment, a slashing mechanism compensates affected parties, providing credible downside protection.

With sub-second confirmations from multiple gateway providers, Puffer Preconf makes it practical for developers to build applications, AI agents, and rollups that compose across the Ethereum ecosystem with near-instant finality. Puffer UniFi will be the first rollup to put Google Cloud’s gateway infrastructure into use, combining high-performance execution with fast preconfirmations before final settlement on Ethereum. This composability is particularly relevant as agentic commerce accelerates. AI agents executing high-frequency, time-sensitive transactions onchain need the speed and finality guarantees that Puffer Preconf’s gateway layer provides.

“Preconfirmations are how Ethereum rollups deliver speed without giving up decentralization. Google Cloud joining the Gateway Registry brings geographic and operational resilience to Puffer’s infrastructure and, by extension, the broader Ethereum ecosystem. With Puffer UniFi as the first rollup to use Google Cloud’s gateway, we’re bringing that infrastructure directly into Puffer UniFi’s execution stack, giving institutions, applications, and AI agents the speed and reliability they need to operate on Ethereum in synchrony,” said Amir Forouzani, Co-Founder and CEO of Puffer Labs. 

“AI and agents are moving towards onchain payment operations. This creates demands on infrastructure that can enable speed and scalability. We’re excited to contribute to this infrastructure as a gateway operator,” said Pranav Mehrotra, APAC Technology Leader – New Frontiers, Google Cloud.

About Puffer Finance

Puffer is building the next-generation settlement layer for Agentic Commerce. Through Puffer UniFi, AI agents, institutions, and trading platforms can transact and settle instantly on Ethereum, enabling synchronous composability with Ethereum for the first time.

About Google Cloud 

Google Cloud accelerates every organization’s ability to digitally transform its business. We deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Google’s cutting-edge technology – all on the cleanest cloud in the industry. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems.

Kamui Finance, a firm founded in 2024 and registered in the Marshall Islands, has rolled out three institutional-grade vaults on Ethereum designed to give large allocators streamlined access to tokenized real-world assets. The vaults pull together offerings from four established RWA platforms: DigiFT, Centrifuge, Midas, and Ondo.

How the vaults work Each vault issues its own token built to the ERC-7540 standard, a relatively new specification designed for tokenized vault shares that need to handle asynchronous deposit and redemption flows. In plainer terms, ERC-7540 lets the vault accept deposit requests, process them off-chain or through compliance checks, and then settle, rather than requiring instant atomic transactions that don’t play well with real-world settlement timelines.

Kamui’s vault strategies target private credit, real estate debt, trade finance, structured credit, and US Treasuries. These are asset classes where settlement can take days, counterparty checks are mandatory, and instant on-chain redemption would be either impractical or legally impossible.

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Kamui positions itself as the operator layer sitting between the investor and those underlying assets. The firm handles sourcing, due diligence, portfolio rebalancing, daily net asset value calculations, and compliance.

The ERC-7540 compatibility also means the vault tokens can plug into other DeFi protocols.

The team and the timing Kamui’s team includes alumni from Goldman Sachs and other institutional finance backgrounds, with experience spanning on-chain product development and institutional credit markets.

What this means for institutional RWA adoption The core problem Kamui is trying to solve is operational fragmentation. Right now, an institution that wants exposure to tokenized Treasuries from Ondo, private credit from Centrifuge, and structured products from Midas would need to complete separate KYC and onboarding processes with each issuer. Each integration requires its own legal review, technical connection, and ongoing monitoring. Kamui’s vault structure collapses those multiple relationships into one.

With no disclosed figures on assets under management or target yields, the market will be watching early inflows closely.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Beefy Finance has deployed its Cowcentrated Liquidity Manager, or CLM, on the Ethereum mainnet, bringing automated concentrated liquidity management to Uniswap V3’s most traded pairs. The launch, which went live on July 20, marks the protocol’s first foray into Ethereum’s mainnet liquidity environment after running CLM vaults across other blockchains for close to two years.

Four initial vaults target blue-chip and stablecoin pairs: WBTC/USDC, WBTC/WETH, WETH/USDT, and USDC/WETH. The system automatically manages range positions, compounds trading fees daily, and rebalances every six hours, all without requiring users to sell any tokens.

Why concentrated liquidity is a headache worth solving When Uniswap launched its V3 upgrade, it introduced concentrated liquidity, a mechanism that lets liquidity providers allocate capital within specific price ranges rather than spreading it across the entire curve. The result is dramatically better capital efficiency.

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The catch is that it’s genuinely difficult to manage well. Providers need to constantly monitor price movements, adjust their ranges, and compound earned fees manually. Fall asleep at the wheel, and your position drifts out of range, earning exactly nothing.

Beefy’s CLM attempts to eliminate that friction entirely. The protocol’s smart contracts handle range resets every six hours, automatically repositioning liquidity around the current market price. Trading fees get compounded daily back into positions, and the whole process runs without any user intervention after the initial deposit.

The protocol charges a 9.5% performance fee on earned yield for this service. That’s slightly below the roughly 10% average that competing automated liquidity managers typically charge.

Two years of receipts Beefy isn’t exactly walking into Ethereum blind. The CLM product has been operating across multiple blockchains for nearly two years, managing hundreds of millions in total value locked during that period. The protocol reports zero operational failures across those deployments.

The choice to start with four vaults covering the most liquid Uniswap V3 pairs is telling. These aren’t exotic long-tail assets where a miscalculation might go unnoticed. WBTC, WETH, USDC, and USDT represent the core of DeFi’s trading infrastructure.

What this means for Uniswap V3 liquidity The six-hour rebalancing cadence is worth watching closely. More frequent rebalancing keeps positions tighter around the current price, which maximizes fee capture but also increases exposure to impermanent loss during volatile moves.

The no-token-sale rebalancing mechanism is a particularly interesting design choice. Traditional rebalancing often requires selling one token for another to maintain the desired ratio, which generates taxable events and adds friction. By avoiding token sales during rebalancing, Beefy’s CLM simplifies the accounting burden for users and potentially reduces the MEV extraction that typically accompanies on-chain swaps during rebalancing operations.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

21Shares is extending its single-asset lineup into two different niches: DeFi through ETHFI and privacy-focused crypto through ZEC. Both products charge 2.50% annually, creating a considerably higher cost hurdle than the issuer’s core Bitcoin and Ethereum products. Zcash now has exchange-traded investment vehicles in Europe and the U.S., while ETHFI tests demand for listed exposure to individual DeFi protocols. 21Shares is pushing its European crypto lineup further beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum with exchange-traded products tied to ether.fi’s ETHFI token and Zcash.

The 21Shares ether.fi ETP, ticker ETHFI, and 21Shares Zcash ETP, ticker ZCASH, began trading on Euronext Paris and Euronext Amsterdam on September 22. Both are physically backed, meaning the products hold the underlying cryptoassets rather than using derivatives to replicate their performance. Each charges a 2.50% annual product fee.

That fee is a meaningful part of the investment case. By comparison, 21Shares’ Ethereum Staking ETP charges 1.49%, while its Core Bitcoin and Core Ethereum products currently carry a 0.10% fee under an extended waiver through June 2027. The new ETPs therefore sit at the more expensive end of the issuer’s range, consistent with the economics of narrower single-asset products.

For an investor comparing the ETP with a hypothetical fee-free direct holding, a 2.50% annual charge creates a 2.5-percentage-point performance drag before trading costs and other factors. The wrapper removes private-key management, but that convenience comes at a material price.

ETHFI Brings a DeFi Protocol Token Into a Brokerage Account The ether.fi product packages exposure to a token whose investment case has been changing alongside the protocol itself.

ether.fi began as a liquid-restaking platform but has expanded into a broader set of onchain financial services spanning staking, lending, swaps, payments and spending products. 21Shares argues that the protocol’s revenue mix is increasingly shifting beyond staking, giving ETHFI exposure to a wider financial ecosystem rather than a single DeFi activity.

The ETP changes the route investors use to obtain that exposure. Instead of opening a crypto account, acquiring ETHFI and managing a wallet, investors can hold the security through the same type of brokerage account used for conventional investments.

21Shares’ product page currently reports approximately $11 million in assets under management and a 2.50% product fee. It also reports a variable staking yield that accrues daily to the ETP’s net asset value. The yield is not fixed and should not be treated as a guaranteed offset to the management fee.

The underlying risk remains tied to ETHFI. Easier custody does not remove token volatility, protocol-specific risks or ether.fi’s dependence on maintaining activity across its expanding suite of products.

Zcash Gets a European Exchange-Traded Wrapper The ZCASH product targets a very different thesis.

Zcash is built around optional transaction privacy, allowing users to use shielded transactions that can limit the information publicly exposed onchain. ZEC also has a maximum supply of 21 million coins, giving the asset a scarcity structure that resembles Bitcoin at the issuance level while serving a different use case.

The launch is particularly timely because regulated investment access to ZEC has expanded rapidly.

Grayscale launched its U.S.-listed Zcash product on NYSE Arca in August, giving American investors a regulated route to spot ZEC exposure. 21Shares is now extending exchange-traded access in Europe through Euronext Paris and Amsterdam. The products operate under different regulatory structures, but together they give Zcash listed investment vehicles on both sides of the Atlantic.

That is notable for a privacy-focused cryptocurrency, a category that has historically faced more friction with centralized exchanges and regulated financial intermediaries than Bitcoin or Ethereum.

The question is whether easier brokerage access creates persistent demand or simply captures interest generated by ZEC’s recent market performance.

The Same ETP Wrapper Covers Two Different Bets Launching ETHFI and ZCASH together should not obscure how different the underlying exposures are.

ETHFI is primarily a protocol bet. Its investment case increasingly depends on whether ether.fi can turn its staking base into sustained activity across lending, payments, swaps and other financial services.

ZEC is primarily a privacy and monetary-asset bet. Demand depends more heavily on the value investors place on transaction privacy, cryptographic development and a capped token supply.

Both shift custody away from the investor. Buyers avoid managing wallets and private keys, but instead rely on the ETP issuer, institutional custodians and securities-market infrastructure.

Neither wrapper removes crypto volatility. The ETP simplifies access to the underlying asset; it does not transform its economic risk into that of a conventional equity or bond.

That makes future flows useful for different reasons. ETHFI can test whether investors want exchange-traded exposure to individual DeFi protocols. ZCASH can provide evidence of whether demand for privacy-focused assets extends into conventional investment accounts.

A 2.50% Fee Sets a Higher Performance Hurdle The fee deserves particular attention because crypto ETP competition has pushed costs sharply lower at the largest end of the market.

21Shares’ Core Bitcoin and Core Ethereum products currently charge just 0.10% under a temporary fee waiver, while its Ethereum Staking ETP carries a 1.49% fee. Several of the issuer’s more specialized products have historically charged 2.50%.

That creates a clear divide in the product lineup.

Bitcoin and Ethereum have enough scale and issuer competition to support increasingly aggressive pricing. A niche token ETP must spread custody, administration, market-making and other product costs across a potentially much smaller asset base.

For ETHFI, staking income could partly offset the product fee when yields are positive, although both staking returns and token prices can change. ZCASH does not have the same staking mechanism, leaving the management charge as a more direct drag on exposure.

The 2.50% price therefore raises the bar for both products: convenience and regulated brokerage access need to be valuable enough for investors to accept a substantially higher recurring cost than they would pay for mainstream crypto ETPs.

Crypto ETP Competition Is Moving Down the Asset Curve European crypto ETPs have already expanded well beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. 21Shares’ own catalogue includes single-asset exposure across numerous networks and tokens, and company filings show that a 2.50% fee is already used across several specialized products.

The harder question is whether simply making an asset available through an ETP is enough to build a durable market around it.

ETHFI and ZEC provide an interesting test because their investment cases have little in common. One derives much of its relevance from activity inside an evolving DeFi ecosystem. The other is built around privacy technology and monetary scarcity.

For ETHFI, assets under management, secondary-market liquidity and the contribution of staking income to NAV will show whether investors are willing to pay for packaged DeFi exposure.

For ZCASH, net flows and trading liquidity will offer a cleaner measure of whether renewed interest in privacy assets is translating into longer-term investment demand.

Bitcoin and Ethereum proved that crypto can support large exchange-traded investment markets. ETHFI and ZCASH will test something harder: how far down the crypto asset curve that model can travel before higher fees and narrower demand begin to limit its scale.

Alexander Zdravkov is a crypto journalist and market analyst specializing in digital assets, blockchain technology, and the rapidly evolving cryptocurrency market. He entered the industry more than four years ago, drawn to the speed of innovation in crypto and the potential of blockchain-based financial systems to reshape traditional markets. His work focuses on understanding the forces behind crypto market movements, from Bitcoin and altcoin cycles to institutional adoption, regulation, exchange-traded products, stablecoins, DeFi, and emerging blockchain ecosystems. Rather than simply following price action, Alexander looks at liquidity, investor positioning, market structure, and macroeconomic conditions to identify developing trends and explain what they could mean for digital assets. With a degree in International Relations, he brings a broader perspective to cryptocurrency coverage by connecting developments in the sector with monetary policy, geopolitics, regulation, and global capital flows. This allows him to examine crypto not as an isolated market, but as an increasingly interconnected part of the global financial system. Over the course of more than five years in financial journalism, Alexander has written over 5,000 articles covering cryptocurrencies, blockchain, traditional markets, and the global economy. His reporting spans Bitcoin, Ethereum and altcoins, DeFi protocols, institutional crypto adoption, regulation, market infrastructure, security incidents, and major developments shaping the wider digital asset industry. His approach is centered on giving readers context behind the numbers and headlines, explaining not only what is happening in crypto markets, but why it matters and what could come next.

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Ethereum‘s price has climbed back above $2,500 after a sharp decline earlier this month. The cryptocurrency briefly touched $2,360 on September 16, then rallied to $2,668 before stabilizing near $2,600. Despite this recovery, ETH remains about 47% below its all-time high of roughly $4,946 recorded in October 2025.

Supply squeezes as exchange balances fallThe recent price recovery is closely linked to developments in ETH’s supply dynamics. Since May 2025, Ethereum exchange balances have dropped from 14.8 million ETH to 25.7 million ETH, representing a decline of 28%. This reduction indicates that fewer coins are readily available for immediate sale, which can have a significant effect on price movements, especially if investor demand rises.

A shrinking supply on exchanges means trading activity is more sensitive to shifts in sentiment and incoming demand, amplifying volatility on both the upside and downside.

Staking and ETF inflows strengthen locked supplyStaking activity has accompanied this outflow. Over the past year, the portion of ETH being staked increased steadily, rising from 29.8% in September 2025 to 35.56% as of September 18, 2026. Most staked ETH is effectively removed from active trading since participants lock their coins to support network operations and secure rewards.

Mini dictionary: Staking, the process of locking up cryptocurrency to help validate transactions and secure a blockchain network, often rewards participants with additional coins but removes those tokens from regular circulation during the staking period.

Funding rates are holding near 0.0046, suggesting that leverage in the market has not surged alongside increased staking. This points to a more stable trading environment compared to periods of high leveraged speculation.

Spot ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States have captured about $13.25 billion in net inflows, with total ETH ETF assets now standing at $16.7 billion. This figure amounts to roughly 5.2% of Ethereum’s market capitalization. Among these, BlackRock’s ETHA fund leads the segment with more than $9 billion in assets under management.

MetricCurrent ValueChange/NotesETH price$2,60047% below Oct 2025 peakExchange balances25.7M ETHDown 28% since May 2025Staked ETH35.56%Up from 29.8% last yearETH ETF assets$16.7B5.2% of market capETF inflows have fluctuated throughout September. More than $400 million flowed out midweek but was partially offset by a $143.8 million inflow on September 18.

Mixed outlook amid technical and network upgradesForecasts for ETH by year-end remain divided. Tom Lee of Fundstrat has suggested that ETH could reach $6,000 if bitcoin rises to $150,000 and the ETH/BTC ratio climbs to 0.04. By contrast, Arthur Hayes, former CEO of BitMEX and a well-known crypto investor, has signaled his optimism by making ETH his largest holding, saying a $10,000 price could be possible by late 2026.

Other analysts are more cautious. Geoff Kendrick, head of crypto research at Standard Chartered, maintains a target of $4,000 for ETH by the end of 2026. Citi analysts have even set a one-year target as low as $2,240.

Currently, ETH trades above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, at $2,272.50 and $2,076.10, respectively. Technical resistance is observed in the $2,655 to $2,672 range; a breakout above could pave the way for a move toward $2,800 or potentially $3,000, while a reversal might bring support back to the $2,400 mark.

Tom Lee projects that if bitcoin reaches $150,000 and the ETH/BTC ratio returns to 0.04, Ethereum could rise to $6,000 by the end of the year. Arthur Hayes, meanwhile, considers Ethereum his primary holding, viewing a $10,000 target as possible by the close of 2026.

Ethereum’s next planned network upgrade, Glamsterdam, is also approaching. The Sepolia testnet is set for October 6, with the mainnet upgrade expected in the fourth quarter of 2026. The update aims to boost transaction throughput, enable parallel execution, and expand blob capacity for increased efficiency.

As of September 20, Ethereum remains near $2,600, and the ETH/BTC ratio is approximately 0.032.

According to CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost, there has been a significant increase in Ethereum (ETH) withdrawals via Binance. The exchange’s average monthly ETH withdrawal count exceeding 90,000 indicates that medium- and long-term accumulation activity has reached its highest level in the last three years.

Darkforth reported that the monthly average of ETH withdrawals on Binance has risen to its highest level since 2023. This level is approximately double the figure recorded at the beginning of the year.

In its analysis of on-chain data, Darkfost stated that the large amount of ETH being moved out of cryptocurrency exchanges is noteworthy in terms of investor behavior. The analyst noted that withdrawals from exchanges could be linked to the transfer of purchased Ethereum assets to personal wallets or other external addresses, suggesting a tendency towards longer-term holdings.

The transfer of assets from exchanges to personal or external wallets may indicate that investors prefer to store those assets in addresses under their own control rather than holding them on exchanges for short-term trading. However, exchange exits alone do not definitively prove that investors intend to hold assets long-term.

Withdrawals from Binance reaching a three-year high have raised concerns about shifts in Ethereum investor custody preferences. Whether withdrawal activity will remain at similar levels in the future could be a key indicator for assessing medium- and long-term market behavior.

*This is not investment advice.

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8h05 ▪ 5 min read ▪ by Lydie M.

Summarize this article with:

Using Ethereum costs much less than in the spring. The average cost of an ETH transfer fell to around 0.095 dollars, compared to a peak of 0.72 dollars on April 21, according to Santiment data. The drop therefore exceeds 85%. It comes as demand on the mainnet has calmed, but also after several months of technical improvements. Fusaka, blobs, and Layer 2 have given more capacity to the crypto network.

In brief The average cost of an ETH transfer fell to around 0.095 dollars. It was still 0.72 dollars on April 21. Fusaka, blobs, and Layer 2 have increased the capacity available on Ethereum. Transferring crypto ETH Now Costs Less Than $0.10 The drop is clear. In April, sending ETH cost on average 0.72 dollars at the year’s high. This cost now hovers around 0.095 dollars. A simple transfer thus goes below the ten-cent mark according to data tracked by Santiment.

Part of the explanation comes directly from the network. Ethereum activated Fusaka in December 2025. The update notably increased capacity intended for rollups, raised the gas limit, and introduced PeerDAS to better manage data.

The gas limit per block was raised to 60 million. More operations can therefore be processed before users start fighting for the same space.

Demand also matters. The summer was calmer on the Ethereum mainnet. Less competition to enter blocks generally means less pressure on fees. Santiment also warns that a cheaper network does not automatically mean that activity will strongly rebound.

For the crypto user, the result is much simpler: sending ETH, moving a stablecoin, or using some DeFi applications now costs significantly less than in April.

Layer 2 Absorb an Increasing Part of the Traffic Ethereum no longer processes all of its ecosystem’s activity alone. Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, and other Layer 2s execute a large number of transactions outside the main layer, then publish their data on Ethereum. These networks notably use blobs, which are less costly than the old data storage method.

At the beginning of September, Ethereum even reached a record of 6.7 blobs per block on a daily average. The detail is interesting: the network currently has a target of 14 blobs per block and a ceiling of 21. With 6.7 blobs used on average, there is still considerable margin left.

Fusaka also reinforced this architecture. PeerDAS allows validators to verify data fragments instead of having to download everything. For rollups, this opens more space without requiring the same bandwidth increase at each node.

This is a quite different evolution from Ethereum’s early years, when almost all crypto activity fought directly for a spot on the mainnet. Transactions have been distributed. So have fees.

Very Low Fees Do Not Tell the Whole Story of Ethereum For users, paying less remains good news. For the network’s economy, the issue is a bit more complex. Ethereum derives part of its revenue from fees paid on its main layer. When these fees drop sharply, users save money, but the protocol also collects less revenue.

The phenomenon was already visible in the first half of 2026. Ethereum recorded strong activity while seeing its fee-derived revenue decline. Layer 2s play an important role in this decrease. They make the crypto ecosystem cheaper to use but also move part of the activity away from the mainnet.

JPMorgan had already raised this question after Fusaka: more capacity and lower fees do not necessarily guarantee a sustainable increase in Ethereum’s revenue. The migration of some applications and their users to Layer 2s can maintain this pressure.

ETH crypto rebounded this week after briefly falling near 2,350 dollars. It had recovered more than 2,480 dollars at the time of publication. The two movements thus advance together: ETH is rising, while using Ethereum costs much less. At an average of 0.095 dollars for an ETH transfer, the network especially no longer had much to do with the periods when a few operations could quickly cost several dollars.

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Lydie M.

Enseignante et ingénieure IT, Lydie découvre le Bitcoin en 2022 et plonge dans l’univers des cryptomonnaies. Elle vulgarise des sujets complexes, décrypte les enjeux du Web3 et défend une vision d’un futur numérique ouvert, inclusif et décentralisé.

DISCLAIMER

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.

Vitalik Buterin, the prodigy behind Ethereum, has made it clear that he does not intend to abandon privacy, which remains the core idea in crypto. 

"It’s only dead if you give up," Buterin wrote in a recent X post. "I’m not giving up on privacy. I’m doubling down."

The terse statement comes after privacy became a technical priority for Ethereum. Work is now spanning wallets, transaction inclusion, private blockchain queries, as well as shielded transfers.

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"CROPS" Back in March, Buterin argued that Ethereum should think of itself as part of an ecosystem of what he called “sanctuary technologies.” 

The Canadian Ethereum co-founder aspires to create open-source infrastructure that would enable people to transact and communicate without facing government pressure.  Privacy and individual autonomy were the key pillars of his vision. 

Later, Buterin said that Ethereum should not compromise on four core properties: censorship resistance, open source, privacy, and security (he used the "CROPS" acronym to describe these). 

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On May 20, he outlined Ethereum's path toward "native privacy," including account abstraction, keyed nonces, access-layer work, and so on. 

Buterin urged the Ethereum Foundation to specifically concentrate resources on keeping Ethereum censorship-resistant, private, and secure. 

In August, Buterin compared Ethereum's current development "Strawmap" with his 2023 roadmap and pointed to one particularly significant change: "first-class attention to strong privacy."

What Ethereum is actually doing about privacyEthereum users can easily inspect addresses, balances, and transactions, which is the opposite of privacy. Public blockchain networks specifically place a strong emphasis on transparency. 

However, Ethereum's current privacy roadmap is focused on enhancing privacy with private reads, private writes and private proving.

Private reads are meant to prevent infrastructure providers from learning exactly what a user is looking at.  

Private writes concern what happens when the user actually sends a transaction.

One proposed piece of this puzzle is FOCIL, which is meant to make it much harder for a powerful block builder to simply refuse to process transactions associated with a privacy protocol. 

Ethereum researchers are also considering a protocol-level shielded pool for ETH and ERC-20 transfers. 

Buterin has also been unusually vocal about the subject during longer-form appearances.

During a Bankless interview in August 2025, he described privacy as a fundamental part of the original cypherpunk movement. "Privacy is freedom," he said.