Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Ripple has facilitated significant transfers of its stablecoin RLUSD across both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum networks as the asset’s market capitalization approaches $2.4 billion.

RLUSD Mint and Burn Activity IncreasesThe Ripple Stablecoin Tracker recently identified a mint of precisely 14,394,224 RLUSD at the RLUSD Treasury on the XRP Ledger. This mint followed the burning of 10 million RLUSD on the same ledger. Shortly after, another 15 million RLUSD was removed from the RLUSD supply on Ethereum.

Combined, these three transactions accounted for $39.4 million in RLUSD-related activity in just a few days. Such mint-and-burn cycles reflect Ripple’s management of its stablecoin issuance and treasury liquidity, rather than a direct increase in circulating supply. The company does not publicly disclose details about the origin or specific purpose of each transaction supporting RLUSD movement.

The series of RLUSD mint and burn transactions on both XRP Ledger and Ethereum represented approximately $39.4 million within a short period, highlighting Ripple’s dynamic treasury management approach.

As of the latest figures, Ethereum held about $1.38 billion worth of RLUSD, while the XRP Ledger carried approximately $1.03 billion. This created a difference of roughly $350 million between the two networks, with recent activity showing RLUSD increasingly shifting toward Ethereum.

NetworkRLUSD SupplyEthereum$1.38 billionXRP Ledger$1.03 billionAlthough the new RLUSD mint on the XRP Ledger narrowed this gap slightly, Ethereum continues to hold the majority of RLUSD’s supply. Ongoing treasury transactions on both blockchains indicate active liquidity management from Ripple as market conditions evolve.

The market capitalization of RLUSD stood close to $2.40 billion as of September 11, up from roughly $2.26 billion at the beginning of the month. Daily trading volume registered approximately $114 million, demonstrating RLUSD’s growing presence in stablecoin markets.

Ripple Advances Regulatory Compliance and Institutional UseThis period of treasury activity followed Ripple’s release of a new guide for institutional clients, spotlighting RLUSD’s regulatory framework. Ripple, a technology company specializing in enterprise blockchain solutions and digital payments, highlighted in its materials that RLUSD is fully backed 1:1 by cash and approved cash equivalents, with assets held in segregated reserves. The company says institutions can directly mint and redeem RLUSD through Ripple Mint and benefit from redemption rights and oversight under established regulations.

Ripple’s recent messaging underscores its ambitions for RLUSD as a central component in payments, tokenization, lending, and custody services aimed at financial institutions. These compliance-focused efforts reflect the broader push among major stablecoin issuers to differentiate themselves as regulatory scrutiny intensifies worldwide.

Still, Ripple’s team has clarified that treasury minting reflects internal liquidity needs rather than direct retail or institutional demand. Data from August showed that roughly $449.3 million of RLUSD was minted on the XRP Ledger over a 30-day period, while about $448.9 million was burned within the same timeframe, resulting in an almost exact turnover of supply.

The company’s approach to stablecoin management involves frequent adjustments to ensure sufficient market liquidity and a balance between XRPL and Ethereum-based reserves, as RLUSD continues being adopted for institutional applications.

Mini dictionary: RLUSD is Ripple’s US dollar-backed stablecoin, managed across the XRP Ledger and Ethereum networks. It aims to provide high liquidity and regulatory compliance for institutional finance, allowing minting and redemption on multiple chains.

Ethereum [ETH] saw sharp volatility after reclaiming $2,500 and climbing to $2,600 before falling toward $2,400. At press time, it traded near $2,524, up 2.26% daily and 2% weekly.

The pullback coincided with large-holder selling, yet Exchange Supply presented a more complicated picture.

Is Wintermute selling Ethereum? Lookonchain reported that Wintermute deposited 61,847 ETH worth $160.3 million into Binance and Coinbase. The transfer raised selling concerns, but an exchange deposit does not confirm a sale.

Market makers regularly move inventory between venues for liquidity provision and operational purposes.

Source: Arkham If intended for liquidity provision, the transfer may not represent directional selling.

However, market sales from that inventory could increase short-term supply and create downside volatility. The transfer matters, but its purpose determines whether it becomes selling pressure.

Why is Ethereum Exchange Supply falling? Despite Wintermute’s deposit, Ethereum’s broader Exchange Supply continued falling.

AMBCrypto previously reported that Ethereum reserves on Binance had reached a three-month low. Binance covered one venue. However, the Exchange Supply Ratio [ESR] showed that the decline extended across exchanges.

Source: CryptoQuant ESR declined for ten consecutive days and reached 0.125 at press time. The metric had not visited this level since 2016. Its decline showed that exchanges held a smaller share of Ethereum’s circulating supply.

This suggested that the market absorbed individual deposits without creating a broad buildup of immediately sellable ETH.

Historically, lower Exchange Supply can reduce selling pressure. The harder question was why ETH remained weak as its liquid supply contracted.

Source: SwissIntelligence SwissIntelligence data showed that 196 whales were distributing ETH, compared with 125 accumulating.

Source: TradingView This imbalance suggested that large-holder selling continued weighing on ETH as whales secured modest gains.

The True Strength Index had declined since forming a bearish crossover several days earlier.

At the same time, the Balance of Power remained negative. Together, both indicators showed that sellers retained a short-term advantage despite declining exchange balances.

ETH was caught between fewer immediately sellable coins and more whales willing to sell.

If whale distribution continues, ETH could revisit $2,300 if Wintermute’s transfer becomes market sales. By contrast, shrinking Exchange Supply could help ETH reclaim $2,600 and target $2,800 if demand returns.

The next move may reveal whether buyers can absorb whale sales without losing the emerging supply squeeze.

Final Summary Wintermute deposited 61,847 ETH worth $160.3 million into Binance and Coinbase. Ethereum’s Exchange Supply Ratio reached 2016 levels, yet whale distribution continued weakening price momentum.

19h05 ▪ 5 min read ▪ by Evans S.

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Ethereum still aims for October 6 at 13:53 UTC to activate Glamsterdam on the Sepolia testnet. The date now appears as the next milestone on Ethereum’s official roadmap. But it remains fragile: Glamsterdam has not yet completed any full run on a stable private devnet, and several bugs must be fixed before exposing the update to Sepolia. The mainnet is still planned for the fourth quarter of 2026, with no confirmed date.

In Brief Glamsterdam targets Sepolia on October 6, but the date remains conditional. Devnet-9 has 1,000 validators and still fails to finalize properly. A bug related to EIP-8037 forces execution layer clients to modify their code. Devnet-9 Still Blocks Before Transition to Sepolia Glamsterdam was supposed to use devnets to eliminate these kinds of problems before reaching public networks. Cointribune was already following the entry of Glamsterdam into its advanced testing phase in the spring.

Five months later, tests are much heavier. Glamsterdam-Devnet-9 was launched on September 1 with 1,000 validator nodes, making it the largest Glamsterdam devnet so far by node count. The result is not yet as expected: the network does not finalize properly. Too few validators propose and attest the same chain head to reach finality.

Stefan Starflinger, DevOps engineer at the Ethereum Foundation, believes that this size mainly highlighted edge cases that were less likely to appear in smaller configurations.

Devnet-8 had already encountered a more serious problem. A bug could freeze the network when a validator proposed a block sharing the same parent hash as the one expected in a specific situation. Client teams have since worked on fixes. So Sepolia is not malfunctioning. Glamsterdam just hasn’t succeeded there yet.

EIP-8037 Adds a New Problem to Solve Another bug directly affects EIP-8037, one of the major proposals of Glamsterdam. This EIP changes the pricing for creating new permanent data on Ethereum. The network wants to increase capacity without letting its database grow at the same pace. EIP-8037 notably introduces separate accounting for certain costs related to state creation.

Cointribune had already explained why this adjustment matters in the project aiming to greatly boost Ethereum’s execution capacity.

Maria Silva, researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, identified during testing a problem related to this EIP. The fix requires updating all affected execution layer clients.

Ethereum will therefore take another round. Developers are now preparing a new devnet before Sepolia. CryptoPotato indicates that Devnet-11 has become the test to watch, with Devnet-10 no longer the main step retained in this week’s reported schedule.

Parithosh Jayanti, who chaired the developers’ meeting, did not guarantee October 6. If the next devnet still encounters significant problems, teams will have to reassess the date “on a case-by-case basis.” So October 6 is definitely a target. Not yet a promise.

Ethereum: Mainnet Still Targeted End 2026, No Confirmed Date Ethereum.org continues to display Q4 2026 for the deployment of Glamsterdam on the mainnet. No specific day is indicated. Sepolia, meanwhile, officially appears as the next milestone with the date of October 6.

After Sepolia, Hoodi must still come, the second public testnet planned in the deployment. Here too, developers preferred to wait before setting a date.

Enrico del Fante, from Consensys, notably advocated for a few additional weeks before committing on Hoodi. The problems encountered on Devnet-9 make a precise timeline difficult to keep.

The challenge goes beyond a simple crypto hard fork. Glamsterdam must deeply modify how Ethereum builds and verifies its blocks. Its program notably includes ePBS, or built-in separation between block proposers and builders, as well as Block-Level Access Lists, designed to prepare for more parallel processing.

The network is already preparing the next steps. Cointribune recently detailed the planned work after Glamsterdam around Hegotá and privacy. For now, December remains possible. But Ethereum must first achieve something much simpler on paper: a Glamsterdam devnet that finalizes cleanly. If Devnet-11 succeeds, October 6 will remain within reach. Otherwise, Sepolia may still have to wait.

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Evans S.

Fascinated by Bitcoin since 2017, Evariste has continuously researched the subject. While his initial interest was in trading, he now actively seeks to understand all advances centered on cryptocurrencies. As an editor, he strives to consistently deliver high-quality work that reflects the state of the sector as a whole.

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.

Renowned asset management firm BlackRock has continued to dominate both the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF market, attracting large amounts of capital in the ecosystem. 

While Ethereum has been trading sideways, showing mixed price action over the past weeks, onchain data from Arkham Intelligence shows that BlackRock has managed to attract decent capital into the market over the past month.

BlackRock buys Ethereum's dipAccording to the data, BlackRock's Ethereum ETF (ETHA) bought about $13.9 million worth of ETH during its latest trading session, bringing the fund's total Ethereum purchases over the past 20 trading days to $251.4 million.

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While momentum across the broader Ethereum ETF market has been relatively weak amid persisting market uncertainty, BlackRock has managed to sustain institutional demand for the leading crypto asset.

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Following this strong performance from the BlackRock Ethereum ETF, ETHA has recorded no outflows during the 20-day period. This means that the fund has maintained a 20-day inflow streak despite unstable price movements.

BlackRock maintains dominance Unlike BlackRock, the downside pressure seen across the crypto market has affected the performance of other Ethereum funds, as they recorded multiple withdrawals during the period.

With BlackRock outperforming its peers in the Ethereum ETF ecosystem, data shows that other major Ethereum ETFs, including BlackRock's sister fund ETHA and Fidelity's FETH, recorded notable outflows during the period.

It appears that institutions are showing more confidence in the BlackRock investment product than in other funds, as ETHA continued to attract capital while some funds experienced withdrawals amid the market correction.

Aerie Capital, curator of Plume Vaults, is launching a lending market on Ethereum mainnet, allowing holders of Plume Vaults or Nest to use their RWA yield positions as collateral to borrow stablecoins and unlock liquidity without leaving Ethereum.

Aerie is a newly launched curator built to address a growing need in decentralized lending: a specialized curator with product-specific expertise for new asset types.Its mandate is simple: set the standard for Open Finance by bringing institutional investment strategies into transparent, composable onchain markets.

The Ethereum mainnet launch is the next step in that vision.

Expanding Onchain Yield OpportunitiesPlume Vaults are designed to make institutional assets accessible and usable across the broader onchain economy. With Plume Vaults now available on Ethereum through a dedicated Morpho market, users can borrow against these assets and execute looping strategies for the first time directly on mainnet, through one of DeFi’s most established lending environments.

Move Your Assets to EthereumFor existing Plume Vault or Nest users, the Ethereum mainnet vaults provide a new home for capital and collateral. Incentives will also be migrating over from the Plume chain.

Liquidity providers in the current Morpho vaults on Plume mainnet can move their liquidity to the corresponding Ethereum mainnet vaults, while borrowers using nALPHA and nOPAL can migrate their collateral to Ethereum mainnet and continue accessing DeFi opportunities there. 

Move your liquidity or collateral from Plume to Ethereum here. Start putting your nALPHA, nOPAL, nBASIS, and nFALCON assets to work across Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem.

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XRP Ledger (XRPL) developers have announced a plan to achieve full quantum resistance for the network by 2028, placing XRP Ledger ahead of several major blockchain rivals pursuing the same milestone. The move was confirmed by Vet, a contributor at the XRPL Foundation and validator on the decentralized Unique Node List (dUNL). Vet outlined that significant advancements are expected by 2027, including the initial deployment of new security protocols through a hybrid system.

XRPL’s technological strategy and key featuresThis newly revealed timeline positions XRPL as a front-runner in the race to secure blockchains against the potential threat of quantum computing, with its projected transition set for one year before Ethereum‘s scheduled 2029 upgrade.

Developers have highlighted three critical architectural innovations underpinning the XRPL quantum security transition. First, the native key rotation feature will enable cryptographic keys to be updated without changing users’ existing r-addresses. This secure and seamless transition is expected to minimize confusion and operational risks for asset custodians. In contrast, most competing blockchains require users to manually transfer assets to new wallets when adopting post-quantum standards.

Second, XRPL and RippleX developers have established a “Quantum-Day” emergency response protocol. In the event of rapid advances in quantum computing threatening current cryptographic schemes, this protocol allows vulnerable accounts to be instantly isolated and secured without interrupting the overall functioning of the ledger.

Third, the network has already begun actively testing quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms. Developers intend to roll out new security measures gradually, using a hybrid deployment that runs alongside existing protocols. This approach aims to ensure robust protection while maintaining the stability of the network during the transition phase.

Mini dictionary: Unique Node List (dUNL): A decentralized list of trusted validators used in XRP Ledger to ensure agreement on the true state of the network and maintain consensus securely.

Significant enhancements in quantum-resistant security are anticipated by 2027, which will see the launch of a hybrid deployment model operating alongside the network’s existing security structure. This aims to allow a smoother transition and scalability for users and custodians alike.

Competition with Algorand, and comprehensive XRPL auditThe race for quantum resistance has brought renewed focus on comparisons between XRPL and Algorand. Algorand recently announced the development of quantum-secured accounts utilizing Falcon-1024 signatures, a cryptographic scheme resistant to attacks by quantum computers. However, Vet cautioned the community against overestimating this achievement, pointing out that Algorand still primarily depends on the Ed25519 standard for most routine operations. Full integration of quantum-resistant technologies, including the consensus protocol, is not scheduled for completion until 2027.

Mini dictionary: Falcon-1024: A post-quantum digital signature algorithm designed to remain secure against quantum computer attacks.

NetworkQuantum Protection StartFull Quantum Protection TargetCurrent Key StandardXRP Ledger2027 (Hybrid Phase)2028Native key rotationEthereum–2029To be upgradedAlgorandIn progress2027Falcon-1024 (partial), Ed25519Meanwhile, the scope of Ripple’s Project Eleven includes a thorough security audit of XRP Ledger, covering components from validator nodes to the underlying network infrastructure. The audit is part of a broader initiative to validate and update every layer of security before the mainnet’s transition to quantum resistance.

Ripple’s rollout plan features a staged approach, beginning with comprehensive testing. A hybrid deployment of legacy and post-quantum signatures is planned for 2027, leading to a full upgrade in 2028 for the mainnet environment.

As part of its industry-leading strategy, XRP Ledger’s transition roadmap incorporates hybrid cryptographic solutions, system-wide audits, and responsive emergency protocols designed to protect user assets in the face of rapidly evolving quantum technology threats.

As countries around the world continue to regulate cryptocurrencies, taxation stands out as one of the most important issues.

The latest notable regulatory effort on this issue comes from Germany.

A New Era in Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Earnings! Germany, one of Europe’s largest countries, is preparing comprehensive regulations to tax gains from cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin and Ethereum.

According to BlockBeats, a draft prepared by the German Ministry of Finance plans to subject cryptocurrency gains to a flat tax of 25 percent, similar to stocks and other capital investments.

The draft legislation is not yet enacted and will be submitted to parliament for approval after a review process within the government.

One Year of Tax Exemption is Ending! Under the current system, gains made by individual investors from selling cryptocurrencies held for more than a year are exempt from tax. However, the ministry wants to abolish this exemption, and the new regulation proposes removing this exemption and classifying cryptocurrencies as capital gains.

At this point, the new system is planned to be applied to cryptocurrencies acquired on or after January 1, 2027.

The draft also envisages preserving some important advantages for investors. The current annual tax exemption limit of €1,000 ($1,170) is expected to remain in effect. Furthermore, according to the report, the draft text also includes a provision allowing crypto investment gains and losses to be offset against gains and losses from other securities such as stocks.

*This is not investment advice.

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Ethereum just got its clearest blueprint yet for surviving a quantum computing future without bankrupting its users on gas fees. EIP-8288, authored by Vitalik Buterin and merged into the Ethereum EIP repository on September 9, 2026, introduces a framework for recursive STARK aggregation that could fundamentally reshape how the network handles cryptographic proofs.

The proposal, first put forward on June 5, 2026, tackles a problem that’s been lurking in Ethereum’s roadmap for years: post-quantum signatures are large and expensive to verify on-chain. EIP-8288’s solution is elegant in its simplicity. Instead of every transaction carrying its own hefty proof, transactions declare their quantum-resistant signatures and STARK proofs as dependencies, and mempool nodes batch them together into a single, compact aggregate proof.

How recursive STARK aggregation actually works Technically, the proposal introduces what it calls a “frame type” for post-quantum signatures and STARK aggregation. Transactions include a minimal base frame, keeping the on-chain footprint small. The heavy lifting, the actual aggregation logic, happens at the mempool and block builder layer rather than at consensus.

By keeping aggregation off the consensus layer, Ethereum avoids the kind of protocol-level changes that require every node to upgrade simultaneously. Block builders and mempool operators handle the recursive proof combination, then submit a single aggregated proof that validators can verify cheaply.

The I-star fork and Lean Ethereum EIP-8288 is part of Ethereum’s broader strategic planning around what’s been called the I-star fork and the “Lean Ethereum” concept, both of which emphasize STARK verification as a core primitive for the network’s future.

Forum discussions around the proposal in June 2026 focused on two key concerns: recursion soundness and omission accountability. Recursion soundness asks whether nested STARK proofs maintain their security guarantees as they get aggregated. Omission accountability addresses the question of what happens when a block builder drops a transaction’s proof from the aggregate batch, either accidentally or maliciously. Notably, the community worked through these issues without proposing any changes to Ethereum’s consensus architecture. The merged pull request, PR #11772, went through comprehensive peer review before acceptance.

What this means for Ethereum’s ecosystem On cost, quantum-resistant signature schemes produce signatures that are orders of magnitude larger than the elliptic curve signatures Ethereum uses today. Without aggregation, migrating to post-quantum signatures would dramatically increase gas costs per transaction. EIP-8288 neutralizes that problem by amortizing verification costs across an entire block’s worth of transactions.

On privacy, the framework opens doors for protocols that rely on zero-knowledge proofs. Aggregating these proofs at the mempool level makes privacy features more economically viable for everyday users.

For Layer 2 solutions, rollups already rely heavily on STARK and SNARK proofs for their security model. A base layer optimized for aggregating these proofs makes L2 settlement cheaper and more efficient.

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

BitMine Immersion Technologies has made another large Ethereum buy, acquiring a total of 28,086 ETH in the past week. Meanwhile, Chairman Tom Lee remains bullish on the future of ETH price after the recent rally.

BitMine Expands Ethereum Treasury With $70 Million Buy The latest acquisition would be valued at around $70 million at the average price of ETH around $2,495. The acquisition is expected to add 5,929,198 ETH to the company’s current holdings, bringing its total ETH stake to 5% of the network’s supply, as it continues to work towards reaching this target.

The company claimed that its Ethereum treasury now accounts for 4.9% of the estimated total ETH supply of 122 million as of Sept. 7. In addition to its crypto holdings, cash, and marketable securities, BitMine’s total assets are approximately $15.7 billion, which also includes strategic investments.

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BitMine provided its latest holdings update for September 8, 2026

$15.7 billion in total crypto + "moonshots":
– 5,929,198 ETH at $2,495 per ETH per ETH per ETH (per @coinbase)
– 211 Bitcoin (BTC)
– $180 million stake in Beast Industries @MrBeast
– $91 million stake in…

— Bitmine (NYSE-BMNR) $ETH $BMNP (@BitMNR) September 8, 2026

Whilst, Lee said that the company has been buying for a long time since it announced the Ethereum treasury plan in June 2025. He noted, “Over the past week, we acquired 28,086 ETH.”

Lee further noted that BitMine has been buying Ethereum since the strategy was initiated, once a week. He said the firm’s build-up is unmatched in terms of its record among publicly listed companies.

The company also revealed that over 5.06 million ETH is currently staked on its Made in America VAlidator Network (MAVAN). Those staked holdings are worth approximately $12.6 billion based on current prices. When it comes to staking revenue, BitMine estimates that it will generate approximately $330 million in annualized revenue based on the current yield.

Tom Lee On The Future of Ethereum, Crypto Market Lee highlighted the strong results in digital assets this quarter. He said Ethereum has been the top-performing macro asset in Q3 2026, beating the S&P 500 by 5,430 basis points. He also pointed out that Bitcoin and Solana are two of the top-performing assets over the past quarter.

Lee further added, “We believe there are multiple positive catalysts as we head into the final months of 2026.”

In addition, Lee underscored upcoming voting on the CLARITY Act in mid-September, rising investor enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies in South Korea and ongoing interest in blockchain tokenization and agentic AI as factors that could fuel the market.

Additionally, BitMine stated that its common stock is up 99% this quarter, the fourth-best performing stock in the Russell 1000, and noted that its common stock has a 14.98% yield. In June, the company joined the Russell 1000 large-cap index, and the crypto segment holds four of the index’s top 21 performers this quarter, the company said.

USDC markets backed by WBTC and cbBTC are live, while roughly $5 billion held in Morpho Vaults remains unable to enter Midnight pending DAO action.

Morpho launched its Midnight fixed-term, fixed-rate lending protocol on Ethereum on Sept. 8, expanding the product beyond Base and giving Ethereum users access to USDC loans backed by WBTC or cbBTC.

The deployment adds predictable borrowing terms for Ethereum users, but its largest potential source of capital remains blocked. Morpho Vaults, which hold about $5 billion in deposits, can still allocate only to Morpho Blue markets until the DAO enables Midnight allocations.

Morpho’s Ethereum-filtered Markets page displayed $7.41 million in total deposits and $2.63 million in outstanding loans around publication. The retained page output did not expose the individual market rows, so those displayed totals could not be broken down between the WBTC and cbBTC markets.

The practical difference from Morpho Blue is rate certainty. Blue uses open-ended loans whose rates change according to a formula, while Midnight trades credit units at market-set prices for fixed maturities. A borrower can therefore establish the financing cost in advance, and a lender can lock a return rather than remain exposed to a rate that changes every block.

Midnight lenders buy credit units below their one-to-one redemption value at maturity. Morpho’s documentation says two lenders in the same market can receive different rates because each rate is determined by the price at which the lender trades.

Morpho co-founder Merlin Egalite said the Ethereum rollout would begin with “USDC | cbBTC and USDC | WBTC markets” and expand progressively. Both collateral types are tokenized representations of bitcoin on Ethereum.

Vault Capital Remains BlockedThe launch does not yet open Midnight to Morpho Vaults, the protocol’s curated deposit products. Morpho co-founder and CEO Paul Frambot said enabling vault allocations would take one DAO transaction, but would also open the newer protocol to significant capital.

Frambot said Morpho wants curators and users to become familiar with Midnight and give the ecosystem time to develop supporting tools before enabling that route. Morpho expects vault activation in the fourth quarter.

Until the DAO acts, Midnight’s Ethereum markets must attract capital through direct offers rather than Morpho’s existing vault deposit base.

Bitwise has filed an amended S-1 registration statement for its spot Ethereum ETF, adding language around staking mechanics, validator operations, slashing risk, and staking-yield accounting.

The filing is significant because staking remains one of the biggest unresolved questions around spot Ethereum ETFs. ETH is not just a passive asset. It secures a proof-of-stake network, and holders can earn rewards by participating in validation.

ETF staking would change the product conversation.

But the caveat is just as important: the SEC has not approved staking inside spot Ethereum ETFs. Bitwise’s filing is a proposal, not a green light.

For more details, visit the official Sec platform.

TL;DR Bitwise filed an amended spot Ethereum ETF S-1. The amendment includes staking mechanics and validator-risk disclosures. The SEC has not approved staking for spot ETH ETFs. Why Staking Is Such A Big Issue Ethereum staking is central to ETH’s investment case.

When ETH is staked, it helps secure the network and can earn protocol rewards. For direct ETH holders, staking is one reason the asset can look different from Bitcoin. It has a yield-like component tied to network participation.

Spot Ethereum ETFs complicate that.

If an ETF holds ETH but cannot stake it, investors may receive price exposure without the potential staking rewards. If an ETF can stake, the fund may become more attractive, but it also introduces new operational and regulatory questions.

That is the tension.

Slashing Risk Has To Be Disclosed Staking is not risk-free.

Validators can be penalized for certain failures or misconduct, a process known as slashing. There are also risks around downtime, validator concentration, custodian operations, smart contract exposure, and reward variability.

An ETF structure would need to explain those risks clearly.

Bitwise’s amended filing adds detail around custodian staking operations and slashing protection. That matters because regulators and investors need to understand how ETH would be staked, who operates validators, how rewards are treated, and what happens if something goes wrong.

The SEC Question Remains Open This is not an approval.

A filing amendment shows what Bitwise wants to include and how it proposes to disclose the mechanics. The SEC still has to decide whether staking can be part of a spot Ethereum ETF structure under its review standards.

That uncertainty is the story.

Issuers may want staking because it makes ETH products more complete. Regulators may want more comfort around custody, investor protection, securities-law implications, and operational risk before allowing it.

Why Investors Care ETF investors care because staking can affect returns.

A non-staking ETH ETF may underperform direct staked ETH over time, depending on fees and reward rates. That could make the ETF less attractive to sophisticated investors who can access staking elsewhere.

On the other hand, a staking-enabled ETF could bring new complexity.

Some investors may prefer a simpler product that tracks ETH without validator exposure. Others may want the fund to capture as much of ETH’s economic profile as possible.

The Market Signal Bitwise’s amendment keeps the staking debate alive.

Ethereum ETF products are still evolving, and issuers are testing how far the structure can go. Staking is the next big frontier because it touches the heart of what ETH is.

The market should not treat the filing as approval.

But it should recognize that issuers are still pushing for Ethereum ETFs to become more than passive spot exposure. If the SEC eventually allows staking, the ETH ETF market could look very different.

This article draws on Bitwise’s amended S-1 filing for its spot Ethereum ETF.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded significant net inflows of 10,330 ETH on September 4, 2026, according to data from SoSoValue. This influx follows a volatile week in the crypto market, signaling renewed institutional interest in Ethereum-based products and helping to stabilize U.S.-listed ETF holdings after a period of outflows.

BlackRock dominates Ethereum ETF activityBlackRock’s Ethereum ETF, under the ticker ETHA, outperformed all other funds by adding 29,600 ETH in net inflows. The product specifically saw 23,060 ETH added on the day, securing BlackRock’s strong foothold in the expanding Ethereum ETF sector. Other prominent issuers also reported increased demand, but BlackRock’s numbers positioned it as a clear leader among institutional investors.

Bitwise’s ETHB followed, registering a net inflow of 6,540 ETH. The positive inflow across various funds suggests that interest is not limited to a single product, but rather points to broader confidence in Ethereum-based investment vehicles. Fidelity’s FETH, by contrast, saw outflows totaling 19,270 ETH, possibly reflecting a preference shift among investors rather than a retreat from Ethereum ETFs as a whole.

Ethereum ETFs in the U.S. recorded a total net inflow of 10,330 ETH, led by BlackRock with 29,600 ETH, while Bitwise attracted 6,540 ETH and Fidelity saw withdrawals of 19,270 ETH, according to SoSoValue data.

ETF flows and institutional sentimentInstitutional sentiment towards Ethereum is often gauged by monitoring ETF flow patterns. Elevated inflows can enhance liquidity, reinforce spot market depth, and affect the underlying staking dynamics for Ethereum. These ETF investments influence exchanges, market-makers, and custodians tasked with managing fund creation and redemption mechanisms.

Analysts are closely watching whether this influx momentum will persist, especially as new macroeconomic data including upcoming CPI releases may impact capital allocation strategies. Additional factors such as expanded ETH ETF options markets and the rollout of Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade, which is expected to drive staking adoption, will likely play a role in shaping institutional participation.

In an environment where the impact of a single Federal Reserve decision or the sudden listing of a new altcoin can immediately upend market conditions, many traders are rethinking their toolkit. Using multiple apps for charting, news, and portfolio monitoring often results in reduced efficiency. Now, a growing number of privacy-focused investors are turning to platforms like CryptoAppsy, which offer real-time charts, price alerts, coin-specific updates, and macroeconomic data in a unified interface, even without requiring an account.

Macroeconomic backdrop and regulatory uncertaintyThe current uptick in fund flows occurs against a backdrop of macroeconomic uncertainty and regulatory ambiguity surrounding staking use in ETFs. No final clarification has come from the Securities and Exchange Commission, but the ongoing institutional adoption of crypto-backed investment products continues to bolster both Ethereum and Bitcoin.

If Ethereum ETFs continue to attract increased institutional capital, and market instruments such as ETH options see wider use, some observers anticipate a further acceleration of Ethereum adoption in the coming quarters following ongoing network upgrades.

ETF flows are shaping Ethereum’s market liquidity and influencing the role of major funds and custodians, especially as regulatory signals and product innovations continue to evolve.

Harmony has proposed retiring its seven-year-old layer-1 blockchain and moving ONE to Ethereum, with validators able to begin shutting down nodes from Sept. 10 as the project prepares a new AI video business.

Summary

Harmony has proposed retiring its layer 1 and issuing ONE as an ERC 20 token on Ethereum after taking a final network snapshot. Users have been asked to exit smart contracts before Sept. 10, while eligible validators can begin shutting down nodes and receive compensation from a $1.372 million pool. The proposal comes weeks after an exploit created forged ONE tokens and prompted Harmony to plan a rollback removing more than 109,000 transactions. Harmony plans to give validators the option to remain as governors or participate in its new AI video initiative after the blockchain is retired. Harmony said Sunday that it wants to take a final snapshot of the network, issue ONE as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum and move exchange listings to the new token. The proposal remains non-binding, and the project has not given a date for the final block.

The plan would end Harmony’s run as an independent blockchain after launching its mainnet in 2019. The project cited security threats from state actors and AI agents when announcing the proposed shutdown.

Harmony has not said whether the plan will be put through its existing validator-led governance process. Under the network’s published governance rules, elected validators can submit proposals and unelected validators can vote, with voting power determined by stake. A proposal requires participation representing 51% of total stake weight and 66.7% support after a seven-day introduction period and 14-day voting period.

Harmony proposes moving ONE balances to Ethereum At the final Harmony block, the project plans to record ONE held in wallets, staking delegations, validator rewards, smart contracts and centralized exchanges before distributing replacement tokens on Ethereum.

Users would not have to file claims for the new tokens. Harmony said ERC-20 ONE would be sent to the same addresses recorded in the final snapshot, while delegated stakes and unclaimed validator rewards would be distributed to individual governor vaults.

The token’s total supply and emission rate would remain unchanged under the proposal. Harmony plans to make the Ethereum token contract, snapshot calculations and airdrop scripts public so they can be audited.

Not every asset or application can make the move. Multisig safes, liquidity pools and onchain applications cannot be transferred through the proposed migration, according to the project, which has asked users to exit smart contracts before Sept. 10.

Exchange-held ONE is included in the planned snapshot, with Harmony proposing to coordinate the migration of centralized exchange listings to the Ethereum version of the token.

Validators face a separate transition process. Node operators can begin shutting down from Sept. 10, while Harmony has set aside $1.372 million for validators and delegators who stop their nodes on time, sign an agreement, retain their stakes and continue as governors.

The compensation would be distributed over four quarters. Harmony said it would cover the difference in emission rewards between a validator’s last block and the network’s final block for eligible operators.

Validators could move into Harmony’s AI video project Harmony has proposed moving its work toward an AI video “remix economy” once the blockchain is retired, offering existing validators the option of remaining as governors or becoming operators or affiliates in the new project.

Under the model described by the team, a small group of video creators would publish prompts and other assets that fans could fork or remix. AI agents would then be used to turn the resulting branches into more video clips.

Operators would handle video generation, distribution and content moderation, with staking and service uptime tied to rewards. Harmony plans to subsidize GPU hardware during the first year and said operators could generate up to $1 million in combined revenue during that period, subject to the proposed staking and uptime requirements.

The project has floated a $10 monthly subscription for the service, with promoters receiving a continuing 30% commission from subscriptions they refer. Harmony said advertising could generate tens of millions of dollars if the platform reached 1 million users.

Future ONE emissions would be directed toward the new initiative, although the team said the arrangements would remain subject to feedback from governors.

Harmony shutdown proposal follows August ONE exploit The proposed shutdown follows an August security incident that forced Harmony to consider reversing days of blockchain activity after unauthorized ONE entered circulation.

On Aug. 12, crypto.news previously reported that Harmony was investigating an unauthorized mint after an outside researcher claimed nearly 4 billion ONE had been created and approximately 2.8 billion had reached centralized exchanges. Harmony had not confirmed either figure at that stage and said it was working with exchanges while examining recovery options.

A later reconstruction by the project identified more than 3 trillion ONE created across six transactions. Harmony traced the incident to a flaw in cross-shard receipt verification that allowed valid receipts to be processed more than once, creating ONE without a corresponding debit elsewhere.

By Aug. 17, the project had settled on a much more disruptive response. Harmony proposed rolling back its two shards to checkpoints recorded at 11:25:37 p.m. UTC on Aug. 11, before the forged mint activity.

For shard 0, validators were instructed to retain block 92,730,034 and restart from 92,730,035. Shard 1 would return to block 94,978,278 and resume from the following block, even though the forged mint did not originate on that shard.

The recovery would remove 141,628 consecutive shard 0 blocks containing 109,126 regular transactions and 315 staking transactions. Harmony’s analysis classified 104,545 of the regular transactions, or 95.8%, as automated activity, including nearly 100,000 transactions linked to decentralized exchange automation.

One wallet connected to the forged mint attempted 534 transfers of 5 billion ONE each within 106 seconds. Of those, 477 succeeded, moving 2.385 trillion ONE, according to Harmony’s investigation.

Investigators traced the tokens into standalone wallets, exchange accounts, decentralized exchange routers and pools, liquidity provider positions, bridge contracts, wrapped ONE and staking wallets. Harmony said it was working with exchanges, bridges and law enforcement as it tried to identify where the forged assets had moved.

Token migration was among the recovery options examined during that process, but Harmony said at the time that moving ONE would cause substantially more disruption than the rollback. Less than a month later, migration to Ethereum has become part of the project’s proposed plan to retire the network entirely.

Harmony has faced repeated token and bridge security incidents The August exploit was not Harmony’s first incident involving unauthorized ONE creation. In December 2023, the project disclosed that a staking logic flaw had resulted in 146.28 million ONE being minted across 74 delegator addresses before an emergency hard fork was deployed.

Harmony’s most prominent security breach came in June 2022, when attackers stole close to $100 million from its Horizon cross-chain bridge after compromising keys used to control the bridge.

The project worked with exchanges, blockchain analytics companies and law enforcement following the attack and raised its hacker bounty to $10 million in an attempt to recover the assets.

Harmony initially considered creating billions of ONE to reimburse users affected by the Horizon attack. A proposal published the following month included an option to mint 4.97 billion ONE for compensation, drawing opposition from community members concerned about dilution.

By September 2022, Harmony had changed course and said its revised recovery plan would not mint additional ONE or alter the token’s economics through a hard fork. The project instead proposed using treasury funds for recovery and ecosystem development.

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has introduced a revised conceptual framework for processing transactions on the Ethereum network. He emphasized that separating transaction “actions” from their “dependencies” could unlock significant efficiency gains for future developments.

Transaction Components: Actions and DependenciesButerin stated that ongoing advances in account abstraction, cryptographic proof systems, and novel state models are bringing about a clearer delineation between the tasks a transaction performs, and the conditions that must be met beforehand. He highlighted work around Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 8141, the use of alternative state models, the introduction of keyed nonces, and experiments with recursive STARK-based mempools as key contributors to this emerging model.

He described “actions” as the tangible effects caused by a transaction, such as transferring tokens or interacting with smart contracts. By contrast, “dependencies” represent the requirements that must be met before those actions can be carried out. This distinction, according to Buterin, would enable developers to pursue optimizations tailored to each component.

Actions define what a transaction changes within Ethereum, while dependencies set out the prerequisites before those changes can take place.

According to Buterin, most Ethereum nodes currently combine validation and execution: they receive transactions, verify them against network rules, and then execute any approved operations. Decoupling these functions, he argued, could lead to performance improvements and more nuanced security guarantees.

Optimizing Dependencies and State ValidationButerin pointed out that many transaction dependencies can be reviewed in parallel, enabling more streamlined pre-checks before transactions reach inclusion in a block. He also noted that certain dependencies, particularly so-called “pure” dependencies, do not require live access to Ethereum’s global state. These, he said, present a prime opportunity for enhancement.

If implemented, mempools—the systems that collect pending transactions—could process and validate these pure dependencies only once, rather than requiring every network validator to repeat the same checks as blocks are created and confirmed.

Large batches of such validated dependencies may eventually be aggregated into a single succinct cryptographic proof, specifically a STARK, which could demonstrate the correctness of all checks in a single step.

Mini dictionary: STARK (Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge), a cryptographic proof technology designed for efficient, trustless verification of complex computations without requiring confidential setup or assumptions. STARKs are widely used in scaling solutions and privacy applications within blockchain networks.

Many dependencies can be checked in parallel, streamlining the validation process and reducing duplication across validators.

Buterin views this model as an important architectural shift. He suggested that these changes might form the basis for future updates, as Ethereum’s developers aim to keep evolving the platform for scalability and security.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

Ethereum is getting a new transaction primitive that could reshape how wallets, dApps, and smart contracts interact with the network. EIP-8141 introduces what’s called a “Frame Transaction,” a single transaction that can be broken into up to 64 programmable sub-units called frames, each capable of performing distinct operations within one atomic execution.

The proposal, co-authored by Vitalik Buterin and several core contributors, was first put forward on January 29, 2026. It has since been moved to “Scheduled” status for inclusion in the 2027 Hegotá hard fork.

What frame transactions actually do The new transaction type, designated 0x06, lets each frame operate in one of three modes. DEFAULT handles standard transaction deployment. VERIFY runs read-only validation, useful for checking conditions without changing state. SENDER executes in the context of the transaction’s sender, enabling patterns that previously required deploying dedicated smart contract wallets.

Each frame carries an intrinsic cost of 12,000 gas plus 475 gas per frame. For context, a basic Ethereum transfer today costs 21,000 gas, so the overhead per frame is relatively modest considering the functionality it unlocks.

The proposal also introduces several new opcodes. The APPROVE opcode (0xaa) handles authorization logic, while a suite of TXPARAM, FRAME, and SIG opcodes give developers granular control over how frames reference each other, pass parameters, and verify signatures.

Why this matters: native account abstraction without the workarounds The ecosystem has been building toward account abstraction through proposals like ERC-4337, which created an “alternative mempool” for account-abstracted transactions without changing the protocol itself. EIP-7702 took a different approach, allowing EOAs to temporarily delegate to smart contract code. ERC-4337 adds infrastructure complexity with bundlers and paymasters. EIP-7702 requires persistent delegation setups.

EIP-8141 takes a third path by baking these capabilities directly into the transaction format. A single frame transaction can include a verification step, an approval, and an execution, all without requiring the user to deploy a smart contract wallet or rely on third-party bundler infrastructure.

The proposal explicitly complements rather than replaces EIP-7702 and ERC-4337. Developers who’ve already built on those standards won’t need to rip anything out.

Gas sponsorship and atomic batching With frame transactions, a third party can cover gas costs within the same transaction structure. A dApp could onboard new users who hold zero ETH by sponsoring their first interactions, all without external relayer networks or off-chain signature schemes.

Atomic batching allows bundling approve-and-swap into a single atomic operation: either everything executes or nothing does, eliminating the current risk where a successful approval and a failed swap leaves a contract authorized to spend tokens.

ERC-20 fee payment is another notable inclusion. Users could pay transaction fees in stablecoins or other tokens rather than ETH, with a frame handling the conversion or payment logic inline.

Users can also create temporary, purpose-specific accounts for individual transactions without deploying persistent smart accounts or setting up delegation.

Post-quantum implications and long-term positioning Frame transactions create a natural structure for introducing post-quantum signature schemes. Because each frame can carry its own signature verification logic, the network could support quantum-resistant algorithms alongside existing ECDSA signatures without requiring a hard switch.

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

21h05 ▪ 5 min read ▪ by Luc Jose A.

Summarize this article with:

Over the past thirty days, Solana has captured $348 million in net flows towards tokenized real-world assets. The blockchain thus outperforms other networks during this period, according to data provided by the RWA Foundation. This momentum raises the value of RWAs distributed on Solana to $4.23 billion. However, it is not enough to dethrone Ethereum across the entire market.

In Brief Solana dominates recent RWA flows, capturing $348 million in thirty days. The value of RWAs on Solana reaches $4.23 billion, driven by increased holders and transfers. U.S. Treasury bonds and tokenized stocks are among the main drivers of this growth. Solana gains ground without dethroning Ethereum, which maintains a clear lead on total RWA value. Solana Accelerates on All RWA-Related Indicators The communicated $348 million corresponds to capital inflows over one month. This amount does not represent either the trading volume or the total value of tokenized assets on Solana. It measures the difference between capital entering and leaving this ecosystem during the observed period.

The RWA Foundation stated :

Solana leads the race. The network tops net RWA flows over the last thirty days, with $348 million directed to the blockchain.

Several indicators help measure the scale of this evolution :

$348 million in net flows were recorded over thirty days ; The distributed value of RWAs reaches $4.23 billion, up 11.79% ; The number of wallet holders amounts to 398,644, an increase of 17.63% ; The transfer volume over thirty days reaches $3.72 billion, up 8.38%. Statistics updated on September 5 reveal that growth is not solely based on asset revaluation. Indeed, transactions and the number of wallets are also increasing, indicating broad usage of the products available on the blockchain.

However, one wallet does not necessarily equate to a distinct investor. The same individual or institution may control multiple addresses. This indicator thus measures the on-chain token distribution without precisely calculating the number of real users.

U.S. Treasury Bonds and Tokenized Stocks Support Growth RWAs are financial or physical assets represented as tokens on a blockchain. On Solana, this category mainly includes U.S. Treasury bonds, money market funds, private credit, and tokenized stocks.

U.S. public securities amounted to nearly $1.2 billion on the blockchain as of August 23, according to Solana Compass. Their value had thus increased by 16.1% in one month. Products such as Ondo’s USDY or BlackRock’s BUIDL fund also contribute to this expansion.

Tokenized stocks represent another important driver. Products like xStocks enable trading on Solana of digital representations of U.S. stocks and ETFs. They can also be traded on Raydium, Jupiter, and Kamino Finance.

Solana’s decentralized exchange platforms processed $5.8 billion in tokenized stocks in the second quarter of 2026. The blockchain reportedly accounted for 95 to 97% of the global volume on this segment through decentralized exchanges.

This trend is also visible over a longer period. The value of RWAs available on Solana was nearly $1.4 billion in January. With $4.23 billion at the beginning of September, it has nearly tripled in eight months.

Solana Dominates Recent Flows, but Not Yet the Total Market The $348 million represents nearly 8% of the current value of RWAs distributed on Solana. Such a proportion attests to the importance of recent inflows, even though valuation fluctuations and new issuances can also increase the total.

Solana is not yet the leading network in the sector. Ethereum held nearly $17.2 billion in RWAs at the end of August, more than four times the amount on Solana. The announced lead exclusively concerns flows over the last thirty days.

This distinction remains essential. A blockchain can temporarily capture more capital without holding the highest asset stock. The continuity of the trend will now depend on maintaining flows, expanding the number of holders, and the effective use of assets in transactions, credit, or payments.

Ultimately, the next phase will be to verify if Solana keeps this first place over several months. A simultaneous evolution of assets under management and transfer volumes would further reinforce the scenario of sustainable adoption.

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Luc Jose A.

Diplômé de Sciences Po Toulouse et titulaire d'une certification consultant blockchain délivrée par Alyra, j'ai rejoint l'aventure Cointribune en 2019. Convaincu du potentiel de la blockchain pour transformer de nombreux secteurs de l'économie, j'ai pris l'engagement de sensibiliser et d'informer le grand public sur cet écosystème en constante évolution. Mon objectif est de permettre à chacun de mieux comprendre la blockchain et de saisir les opportunités qu'elle offre. Je m'efforce chaque jour de fournir une analyse objective de l'actualité, de décrypter les tendances du marché, de relayer les dernières innovations technologiques et de mettre en perspective les enjeux économiques et sociétaux de cette révolution en marche.

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.

Ethereum just wrapped up its third quarter with a roughly 66.55% gain, making it the network’s best Q3 since 2016 and the third strongest in its history. For context, the previous standout Q3 was 2020’s “DeFi summer,” which delivered a 59.5% return.

The performance is even more striking when you compare it to Bitcoin, which managed a comparatively sleepy 6-10% gain over the same period.

What drove the rally Three major catalysts converged to push Ethereum higher through July, August, and September.

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First, spot Ethereum ETFs became a vacuum for capital. Net inflows across these products surpassed $10 billion cumulatively, with nearly $4 billion pouring in during August alone.

Second, public companies went on an Ethereum shopping spree. Corporate treasury purchases exceeded $15 billion in ETH during the quarter.

Third, decentralized finance continued to build momentum beneath the surface. Total value locked across Ethereum-related chains, including its growing constellation of Layer-2 networks, climbed to approximately $88 billion by the end of Q3.

Price action and the near-miss at all-time highs ETH spent portions of Q3 trading above $4,000 and at times approached the $5,000 level, flirting with what would have been a new all-time high. The asset didn’t quite get there, and September brought a 5.73% pullback that cooled some of the euphoria.

A different kind of cycle Analysts tracking the rally have noted that Q3 2025 looks structurally different from prior Ethereum bull runs. The 2017 surge was driven by ICO mania. The 2020-2021 cycle rode a combination of DeFi yield farming and NFT speculation.

This quarter’s gains, by contrast, have institutional fingerprints all over them. Spot ETF inflows represent regulated, custodied capital from wealth managers and allocators. Corporate treasury allocations represent board-level decisions with multi-year time horizons.

The $88 billion TVL figure is worth sitting with. That’s roughly equivalent to the total assets of a mid-tier US bank, all locked into smart contracts operating without traditional intermediaries.

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

Late August’s crypto market rebound has driven enterprises to increase their crypto asset allocations. As Bitcoin’s price rose, Bitcoin mining firms that had previously pivoted aggressively to AI businesses have reemerged as high-beta plays in BTC’s market, while corporate balance sheet strategies involving direct Bitcoin holdings have once again drawn market attention. Data shows Bitcoin climbed around 23% in late August, with some mining stocks surging 41% to 67%—outperforming multiple AI infrastructure companies. The market attributes the rally to three key factors: the U.S. Treasury expanding Treasury repurchase operations, the White House issuing positive signals on crypto regulation, and over $1.6 billion in short positions being liquidated. In terms of corporate buying activity, Strive purchased 1,800 BTC in the final week of August for roughly $143 million, lifting its total holdings to 23,156 BTC and making it the fifth-largest public company holder of Bitcoin. Strategy added 4,603 BTC over the same period, bringing its total holdings to more than 845,000 BTC. Separately, 21 major financial institutions including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup plan to set up a new entity and launch a U.S. dollar stablecoin in the first half of 2027, with plans to expand to other G7 currencies for cross-border payments and digital asset settlements. For Ethereum, Bitmine has been accumulating ETH for 65 consecutive weeks, with its latest position exceeding 5.9 million ETH—accounting for 4.9% of Ethereum’s roughly 120.7 million circulating supply, just short of its 5% holding target. Despite the ongoing accumulation, the company’s current ETH holdings still carry approximately $5.1 billion in unrealized losses.

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Rollups pushed Ethereum blob usage to an ATH this week, with demand the highest its ever been.

The Ethereum ecosystem's blob usage just reached a new all-time high, with a current 3D moving average of 5.9 blobs per block and a daily average of 6.7, according to data highlighted today by Protocol Guild organizer Trent van Epps.

What's the Scoop?The metric: Blobs are the cheap data slots rollups use to post batches to Ethereum. More blobs per block means L2s are putting more activity through Ethereum’s data layer.The tape: Usage has climbed back after a spring dip and is now above prior peaks from late 2025. The activity we're seeing now is still only about 40-50% of the current 14-blob target, so the network is busy but not full.Capacity path: Blob limits have been raised in steps since Dencun, starting with 3/6, then 6/9 in Pectra, 10/15 in BPO1, and 14/21 in January’s BPO2. For the time being, hits on the current 21 max remain rare.Scaling debate: Core devs have been asking when to lift again toward 21/32, weighing cheaper L2 fees against extra bandwidth load and the next gas-limit jump in Glamsterdam. The catch is that keeping this scaling path moving still depends on client-team funding, which Protocol Guild argues remains thin for a chain of Ethereum's size.

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Users paid $4.45 million to transact on the network on Sept. 2, more than Ethereum, Solana and Tron combined, after the base fee rose 23 times off its 0.02 gwei floor. Robinhood absorbs the cost inside its own wallet app until Sept. 29.

Robinhood Chain collected more in gas fees over the past 24 hours than any other blockchain, after memecoin launch activity pushed the two-month-old network's base fee far above the minimum price its contracts allow.

Almost all of the increase is price. Transactions on the chain rose about 36% over the same stretch, while the execution gas on an average transaction went from under a cent to about 32 cents. Robinhood pays the fee for customers swapping inside its wallet app under an offer that expires on Sept. 29.

Users paid $4.45 million in gas on Sept. 2, up 18.8% from the prior day and 82 times the $54,254 paid on Aug. 22, according to DefiLlama, which counts gas fees paid by users covering both Robinhood Chain execution and the Ethereum data component. Canton ranked second that day at $1.69 million, followed by Tron at $873,930, Solana at $612,579, BNB Chain at $480,271 and Ethereum at $304,277. The chain has taken $12.44 million over seven days, two-thirds of the $18.45 million it has earned since mainnet launched on July 1.

Off The 0.02 Gwei FloorRobinhood Chain enforces a minimum gas price of 20 million wei, or 0.02 gwei, readable from the ArbGasInfo precompile at address 0x6c and the same default Arbitrum One runs. The base fee held at that floor on a median basis from Aug. 17 through Aug. 23, according to blocks sampled directly from the chain's public RPC endpoint. It has been above it every day since Aug. 24.

Over the 24 hours to 16:27 UTC on Sept. 3, the median base fee across 600 sampled blocks was 0.467 gwei, 23 times the floor, with intraday readings above 5 gwei. Arbitrum One was at 0.02 gwei at the same moment and Base at 0.005 gwei.

Measured onchainAug. 21-22Sept. 2-3Median base fee0.0201 gwei0.467 gweiGas consumed per second13.2 million36.9 millionTransactions per block9.9613.97Gas per transaction132,766272,229Execution gas cost per transactionunder $0.01$0.32At the intraday peaks, a transaction of that size costs roughly $3.40. DefiLlama's 82-fold increase runs ahead of the 47-fold rise in execution cost because its series also prices the Ethereum data component and priority tips, which the per-transaction calculation above excludes.

Gas Burn Nearly TriplesRobinhood Chain consumed an average of 36.9 million gas per second over the past 24 hours, against 13.2 million on Aug. 21 and 22. Blocks carried an average of 13.97 transactions against 9.96, and each transaction used 105% more gas.

Arbitrum Nitro tracks a gas backlog against several targets measured over windows from nine seconds to a full day, per Arbitrum's documentation. When the backlog grows the base fee rises exponentially to discourage usage, and falls as the backlog clears. The base fee has risen on nine of the past 10 days.

Robinhood Pays Until Sept. 29Customers swapping inside the Robinhood Wallet app are paying none of this. Robinhood covers network fees on crypto and stock token swaps on Robinhood Chain, plus one-time ERC-20 approval fees, for swaps greater than $0.50, with "no additional caps, limits, or frequency restrictions," according to Robinhood's support page for the offer.

The offer period runs "beginning at launch of Robinhood Chain to 11:59 PM EST September 29, 2026." Wallet-to-wallet transfers, bridge transactions and anything executed through the dapp browser are excluded, as are third-party wallets. Robinhood reserves the right to change or end the offer without notice.

That leaves traders using Pons, GMGN or Uniswap directly paying the current rate, and Robinhood Wallet users facing it in 26 days unless the offer is extended.

Pons Sets The LoadPons V2, the launchpad that exists only on Robinhood Chain, took $6.09 million in fees over the past 24 hours and $26.33 million over seven days, DefiLlama data shows. Uniswap V4 on the chain collected $6.65 million, trading bot GMGN $2.65 million and Uniswap V3 $870,480.

PONS traded at $0.5827 on Thursday, up 42.9% over 24 hours, 388.2% over seven days and 2,727.3% over 30 days, for a market capitalization of $413.8 million and a rank of 117, according to CoinGecko. The token set an all-time high of $0.6011 at 17:19 UTC on Sept. 3 and turned over $126.7 million in the past day.

DEX volume on the chain was $1.55 billion over 24 hours, down 7% from the prior day and up 88.1% over seven days. Total value locked stands at $819.6 million.

Gas Takes A QuarterGas has gone from a rounding difference against those application fees to a quarter of everything paid on the chain. Fees across Robinhood Chain and every protocol deployed on it totaled $19.12 million on Sept. 2, of which gas was 23.3%. On Aug. 22 it was 2.5%.

No other large network prices its own capacity that high.

Chain, Sept. 2All fees paidChain gas feesGas shareRobinhood Chain$19.12 million$4.45 million23.3%BNB Chain$2.89 million$480,27116.6%Solana$10.54 million$612,5795.8%Base$1.86 million$97,5835.3%Arbitrum One$268,976$13,8575.2%Ethereum$9.34 million$304,2773.3%Application fees scale with the value being traded and gas with the compute the chain can supply. Volume has kept climbing; capacity has not.

Six Of Eight SignersBringing fees down by raising the chain's throughput is not Robinhood's decision alone. Robinhood Chain's parameters sit with a Security Council of eight signers — two held by Robinhood and one each by BitGo, Chainlink Labs, Fireblocks Trust Company, Offchain Labs, Paxos and Talos — where routine changes need six of eight approvals and a seven-day onchain timelock, according to the chain's governance documentation. Emergency actions skip the timelock and need seven of eight.

Arbitrum's Cut GrowsRobinhood kept $4.01 million of Sept. 2's gas fees after Ethereum data costs and the 10% fee share owed under the Arbitrum Expansion Program license, DefiLlama's accounting shows. The gap between the two figures is almost exactly 10%, leaving Ethereum data costs at close to nothing for the day.

That share splits 8% to the Arbitrum DAO treasury and 2% to development funding, putting roughly $356,000 a day into the DAO at Sept. 2 rates against about $4,300 on Aug. 22. ARB traded at $0.1381, up 10.6% over 24 hours and 44.2% over seven days, according to CoinGecko.

Robinhood Chain passed Ethereum on daily application revenue in late August and ranked second among all chains by DEX volume at the start of September. It overtook Base on daily active users three weeks after launch.

ETH traded at $2,500.32, up 4.6% over 24 hours.

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Standard Chartered has expanded its regulated digital asset business in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading for institutional clients, adding the service to a regional crypto offering that already includes custody.

The London-headquartered bank introduced digital asset custody in the UAE in September 2024. In June 2026, it followed with a banking agreement allowing CoinMENA to use Standard Chartered for fiat on- and off-ramps, client money accounts and transaction management through virtual accounts.

The bank is providing the new service through Standard Chartered DIFC, an entity regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).

Institutional Clients Gain Spot Crypto Access Eligible institutions can access spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) trading through electronic trading channels integrated into Standard Chartered’s existing platforms.

Standard Chartered said Thursday that it is the first Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB) to offer the capability in the UAE and the only global bank currently providing institutional digital asset spot trading in the region.

Other Platforms Seek UAE Crypto Approvals The launch comes amid broader efforts by cryptocurrency and trading businesses to secure regulatory authorization for digital asset products in the UAE.

Capital.com disclosed plans in August to provide spot crypto services to UAE clients after its affiliate, Capital Vault UAE, obtained a virtual-asset licence from the country’s Capital Market Authority (CMA).

Revolut also moved to expand its crypto services in July, when the neobank received in-principle approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority to provide crypto-related services in the UAE.

DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.

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Coinbase launched regulated derivatives contracts for eligible Canadian traders on September 2, giving users access to crypto, commodity and index futures through Coinbase Financial Markets. The company announcement lists 23 perpetual and dated crypto futures, including contracts tied to Bitcoin, Ether and Solana. Coinbase said the rollout makes it the first major crypto-native platform to offer direct native crypto futures in Canada.

The initial lineup combines perpetual-style and dated contracts. Coinbase is also offering five commodity futures linked to markets including gold, silver and oil, plus index futures such as COIN50. Access is limited to customers who meet the platform’s eligibility requirements.

Coinbase describes the contracts as nano-sized, which reduces the capital needed for each position relative to larger contract formats. Eligible traders can take long or short positions with leverage of up to 10 times. That leverage can magnify losses as well as gains, and the company warns that futures trading may not suit every investor.

CFM Provides the Regulated Route The contracts are offered by Coinbase Financial Markets, a futures commission merchant registered with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and a member of the National Futures Association. Coinbase previously secured U.S. authorization for crypto futures sales through its regulated broker, providing the structure now used for eligible Canadian customers.

Product Mix Extends Beyond Crypto Combining crypto, commodities and an index in one derivatives menu broadens the launch beyond directional bets on individual tokens. It also gives users several instruments for hedging, although the announcement does not say that every Canadian Coinbase customer will qualify. Availability depends on the platform’s assessment and product rules.

The rollout also builds on Coinbase’s wider derivatives infrastructure. Its futures business has previously worked with Nodal Clear to introduce USDC as collateral in U.S. futures markets.

Launch Pricing Comes With Risk Warnings Coinbase set introductory pricing at 0.02% per trade plus $0.11 per contract for eligible Canadian traders, describing the terms as temporary. The company did not specify an end date for the launch offer.

The announcement emphasizes that leverage can cause losses exceeding the initial investment. The launch therefore expands regulated product choice in Canada without removing the market, liquidation and leverage risks attached to derivatives. Traders must still pass Coinbase’s eligibility process before using the contracts.

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Tokoni Uti is a Lagos-based writer with several years of experience. Her work has appeared in the Huffington Post, the Los Angeles Free Press and the San Diego Free press among others. She is a graduate of Bowen University.

20h05 ▪ 5 min read ▪ by Lydie M.

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Grayscale, a16z and the Crypto Council for Innovation ask the SEC not to automatically tighten the rules for the new generation of ETFs. The crypto sector especially refuses that Bitcoin, Ethereum or other digital assets be placed in the same category as private asset funds, leveraged strategies or event contracts. The three organizations want faster reviews tailored to the real risk of each product.

In brief Grayscale, a16z and the CCI sent their proposals to the SEC at the end of August. a16z asks the SEC not to treat all new ETFs as a single category. Grayscale notably wants to establish a confidential procedure before the official submission of a file. Crypto refuses a single rule for all ETFs The SEC has been working on this file for several weeks. The regulator opened at the end of June a consultation on new ETFs and digital assets. Grayscale and a16z have now responded.

The common point between their letters is quite clear: a crypto ETF should not automatically face new constraints simply because the SEC considers it “novel,” that is, new or unusual. The category studied by the regulator is very broad.

It can include products exposed to crypto, private assets, commodities, a single stock, highly leveraged strategies, or prediction markets. a16z believes these products do not present the same liquidity, valuation, or investor protection issues.

The company also recalls that crypto ETFs and ETPs now have a more developed infrastructure. Bitcoin and Ethereum have already set precedents. Solana also has products listed in the United States. For a16z, starting almost from scratch for each new category therefore does not make much sense.

Grayscale and a16z propose two different paths However, the two groups do not agree on everything. a16z wants to keep the current definition of an “investment company” provided by the Investment Company Act of 1940. A product that mainly holds assets that are not financial securities should not automatically fall into this category.

Grayscale defends a similar position. The manager notably refuses that the SEC impose new portfolio conditions, minimum quotas of financial securities, or additional restrictions on crypto products that already have a compliance history. The matter is becoming concrete for Grayscale. The group also removed three Cardano, Hedera, and Polkadot ETF applications in August.

Another problem: timing. Today, an issuer can finish part of the registration of its fund while the authorization for listing by the exchange is still pending. a16z wants to better coordinate these two procedures. The company proposes standardized timelines, shorter reviews, and, when possible, simultaneous processing of applications.

Grayscale puts forward another idea. The group wants an optional and confidential procedure before the public filing, with a defined response time for SEC staff. The CCI also supports this mechanism. It notably mentions the problem of files copied very quickly after their publication, a phenomenon that the use of AI could accelerate even more.

The next wave of crypto ETFs is happening now The market concerned is already large. Assets held in US ETFs exceed 12 trillion dollars according to figures cited in the responses addressed to the SEC. More than 4,600 funds are now available.

Crypto represents only part of this market. But it is advancing quickly. US spot Bitcoin ETFs recently approached 100 billion dollars in assets. Ethereum and Solana also have their own products, while managers are testing assets increasingly distant from the two large cryptos.

One detail still divides the players. a16z would like to reserve the term “ETF” for funds registered under the Investment Company Act. Other products would be clearly identified as ETPs. Grayscale opposes this. For the manager, the term ETF can also describe a listed product with an arbitrage mechanism and a transparent price, regardless of its precise legal framework.

The CCI prefers clearer information on the regulatory status of each product rather than a complete change of names. The SEC must now decide between investor protection, speed of procedures, and the arrival of much more varied crypto products. As for the candidates, they are no longer waiting for Bitcoin or Ethereum: Grayscale has, for example, filed an application to launch a BNB ETF on Nasdaq.

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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.