This week, Ethereum and the broader crypto ecosystem saw major developments across security, institutional trading, regulation, and protocol upgrades. SafePal’s data breach exposed records linked to nearly 40,000 customers, while the Maya Protocol exploit drained $1.7 million in CACAO and highlighted ongoing cross-chain security risks. Coinbase expanded crypto-style trading into traditional markets with 24/7 S&P 500 perpetuals, while the CFTC closed civil cases against former FTX executives Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang with five-year trading bans. Ethereum also moved closer to Glamsterdam with new testnet progress, while Vitalik Buterin proposed a Bitcoin-inspired UTXO and STARK-based scaling path. Meanwhile, Telegram’s .gram domain, Berachain’s Bera USD rebrand, and Ethlabs’ expansion show the ecosystem continuing to explore new forms of adoption, identity, and growth. On the protocol side, developers made further progress on Glamsterdam and Hegota, including the cancellation of EIP-7610, new Hegota priorities, and proposed Sepolia and Hoodi fork dates.

Catch up on last week's edition here.

This Week at a Glance

• MANTRA Chain Halted After Security Incident: MANTRA Chain has been halted after an incident, freezing transactions, endpoints, deposits and withdrawals as the team investigates without a confirmed root cause or recovery timeline.
• SafePal Data Breach Exposes 40K Customer Records: SafePal’s data breach exposed order details of nearly 40K customers. Here’s what was accessed, what remained secure and how SafePal responded.
• Coinbase’s New Perps Put the S&P 500 on 24/7 Trade: Coinbase launches US500 Perps with up to 20x leverage, giving US traders 24/7 perpetual-style exposure to the S&P 500 without holding individual stocks.
• Maya Protocol Exploit Drains $1.7M in CACAO: Maya Protocol suffered a $1.7M cross-chain exploit, draining 48.87M CACAO, 98.82 LINK and ~20 BTC, while CACAO crashed 88.7%.
• The .gram Could Be Telegram’s Biggest Web3 Move: Telegram’s .gram domain could turn usernames into websites, bringing Web3-style digital identity to millions through simpler, more familiar user experiences.
• CFTC Closes FTX Cases Against Ellison & Wang with Trading Bans: CFTC closes civil cases against FTX insiders Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, imposing five-year trading bans and extended registration bans.
• Vitalik’s Bitcoin-Inspired Plan for Ethereum: Vitalik Buterin outlines a Bitcoin-inspired UTXO and STARK scaling path that could help Ethereum grow without sacrificing decentralization.
• Platåberget Testnet Brings Glamsterdam Closer to Mainnet: Platåberget opens Glamsterdam testing to the wider Ethereum ecosystem, bringing ePBS, BALs, gas repricing & other major changes closer to public testnets.
• Trump Talks Hyperliquid, Crypto Markets Pump: Trump urges Congress to advance the CLARITY Act as the White House brings together crypto leaders & regulators, while revealing CFTC efforts to bring Hyperliquid into the U.S.
• Berachain Rebrands HONEY to Bera USD: Berachain rebrands HONEY as Bera USD ($BUSD), keeping the same token & contract while giving its stablecoin a clearer identity.
• Binji Joins Ethlabs to Grow Ethereum & ETH: Binji joins Ethlabs as a founding member to help grow Ethereum & ETH as the nonprofit expands its research, adoption & protocol ambitions.

Ethereum Protocol

All Core Developers (ACD)

• Meeting highlights: ACDE #185 focused on Glamsterdam fork readiness, upcoming Sepolia and Hoodi activation dates, progress toward the non-finality Devnet, and narrowing the EIP field for Hegota. The meeting also covered recent client optimizations, Devnet testing requirements, and the formal cancellation of EIP-7610 from Glamsterdam.
• Key decisions: EIP-7610 was formally cancelled from Glamsterdam, rather than postponed, and superseded by EIP-8253 for Hegota. EIP-833 and EIP-8379 received PFI status for Hegota, while PR-12188 was deferred for further ETH R&D discussion. Sepolia Glamsterdam was proposed for September 28, 2026, while Hoodi was targeted for October 26, subject to stable Devnets.
• Action items: All client teams will publish their Hegota EIP tier rankings (S/A/B/D) with rationale by mid-September. Client teams will also prepare for the upcoming non-finality Devnet, while CL teams will review remote-signing-api PR #28 and implement the signed authentication request for the builder API. Developers aim to reach rough consensus on Hegota’s EIP scope before Devcon.

AllCoreDevs - Testing #92

• Meeting highlights: The call focused on Glamsterdam devnet-8 testing and the planned removal of EIP-7610 from Glamsterdam, with EIP-8253 proposed as its Hegota replacement.
• Key decisions: The ACDT reached consensus to remove EIP-7610 from Glamsterdam, as Geth and Reth already skip the affected tests. EIP-8253, which bumps the nonce of 28 special accounts, is targeted for Hegota to permanently close the edge case.
• Action items: Jochem Brouwer will raise the EIP-7610 removal at the next ACDE for formal approval and place the EIP-7610/EIP-8253 discussion on this week’s ACDC agenda.

Encrypt The Mempool #009

• Meeting highlights: The Encrypt the Mempool working group focused on post-quantum readiness, validator whitelist governance, and censorship resistance for EIP-8105.
• Key decisions: EIP-8105’s censorship-resistance discussion was deferred to the next Tech Working Group call. Validator voting was identified as the most practical whitelist governance approach, while the protocol should keep entry barriers low.
• Action items: Jannik Luhn will outline validator whitelist voting options, while participants will review the EIP-8105 censorship-resistance note. Boma and Justin Traglia will also review the open EL spec PR #5403.

FOCIL Breakout #040

• Meeting highlights: The call focused on finalizing FOCIL specifications, client readiness, and preparations for the first FOCIL devnet, tentatively targeted for August 31, 2026.
• Key decisions:The IL committee will be passed directly as a parameter in get_inclusion_list_bits, rather than passing the full state. The change is provisional and can be revisited after release.
• Action items: Jihoon will finalize consensus-specs PR #5544, prepare the Alpha 14 release for client teams, and verify FOCIL Hive test coverage. Client teams are continuing work toward focil-devnet-0 branches.

Ethereum Standards Updates

Ethereum standards activity was focused this week, with EIP-3298 and EIP-5920 returning from Stagnant to Draft and ERC-8187 entering Draft. Hegota’s early candidate set expanded through PFI-related updates covering EIP-8361, EIP-5920 and EIP-7923. Glamsterdam’s tracked scope also changed as EIP-7610 was removed through an update to EIP-7773.

EIP-8141 remained one of the most actively developed proposals, receiving multiple changes around frame execution, validation and gas accounting.

Read the full update on EIPsInsight.

Client & Infrastructure Updates

• Execution Layer:

  • Nethermind 1.39.3
  • Geth 1.17.5
  • Erigon 3.5.5
  • Besu 26.8.0
  • Reth 2.5.1
  • EthereumJS 10.1.2

• Consensus Layer:

  • Teku 26.8.0
  • Nimbus 26.7.0
  • Prysm 7.1.8
  • Lodestar 1.46.0
  • Lighthouse 8.2.1

• Latest from Clients:

1. Lodestar: Lodestar is heading to Taipei with Matt representing the team. If you’re there, don’t miss the chance to hear him share his insights with the Ethereum community.
2. Erigon: Erigon’s overlay turns missing historical events into a simple query by replaying past blocks with updated contract code, without touching the chain.

Podcasts

1. Ethereum Has an Issuance Problem | Jerome de Tychey | Sam Jernigan
   Ethereum may be overpaying for security. Jerome de Tychey and Sam Jernigan discuss EIP 8363, stake targeting, rising staking ratios, ETH issuance, DeFi, and Ethereum’s monetary future.
2. Kevin Warsh Is Ending the One-Man Fed | David Hoffman | Jim Bianco
   Jim Bianco joins David Hoffman to discuss Kevin Warsh’s Fed plans, interest rates, sticky inflation, AI’s economic impact, and Bitcoin’s growing dependence on Wall Street and Washington.
3. Is Claude's New EU Watermark Compelled Speech? - DEX in the City | Jessi Brooks | Jacob Robinson | Jane Khodarkovsky
   Jessi Brooks walks through how the new "secret key" system works, and Jacob Robinson and Jane Khodarkovsky push back on it from two different angles, before Jessi previews the CFTC's first meeting on AI in markets.

Good Reads

• Crypto’s Funding Graveyard: Why Millions Couldn’t Buy Product-Market Fit: Crypto’s funding graveyard shows why millions in VC capital cannot guarantee survival, as failed projects struggled to achieve product-market fit, demand and sustainable growth.
• Trump Meets Crypto Leaders This Week. Here’s Why: Trump’s crypto meeting comes as the CLARITY Act stalls in the Senate. Here’s why regulatory clarity matters more than political support for crypto.
• Trump Just Triggered a Massive Crypto Rally: Trump’s White House crypto summit sparked a major rally. Here’s why the Clarity Act, U.S. crypto policy and Trump’s support could reshape the market.
• These New GENIUS Rules Could Reshape Crypto in America: U.S. Treasury proposes new GENIUS Act rules defining how stablecoins can be issued, sold and offered to users across the United States.
• All you need to know about Ethereum Hegota Upgrade: Curated resources by EtherWorld for Hegota Upgrade
• All you need to know about Ethereum Glamsterdam Upgrade: Curated resources by EtherWorld for Glamsterdam Upgrade

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Jobs

• Announcing the Avarch Internship Program: A professional internship program by Avarch offering students real project experience, open-source contributions, expert mentorship & industry-ready portfolio development.

Community Spotlight

Ethereum Foundation’s better.codes challenge puts AI agents to work on a real cryptographic problem, with every verified submission improving the proven security bound of koalaIRS12. The goal is to move its machine checked security guarantee toward 128 bits, strengthening the foundations of hash based SNARKs used in Ethereum’s post quantum roadmap.

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