Network news
ETHEREUM COMMUNITY REACTS TO EC WITHDRAWAL: A wave of departures from the Ethereum Foundation (EF) is reviving a debate in the crypto industry: What is going on at the main custodian behind Ethereum, and why does the community know so little about what is happening behind the scenes? Days after several high-profile figures said they had left the foundation amid an internal shakeup, community members at X began openly questioning the organization’s direction, management structure and communications practices. “What’s happening at EF?” crypto commentator Andy, the co-founder of the Rollup podcast, wrote in a post on X. Others echoed similar frustrations, arguing that the EC has not clearly explained the rationale behind the changes or how responsibilities within the organization are evolving. “Why can’t the EF just be transparent about things,” wrote Joon Ian Wong, a prominent figure in the crypto community event space. The criticism reflects a long-standing tension surrounding the Ethereum Foundation, the Swiss nonprofit that plays a central role in funding research, coordinating upgrades and overseeing the development of the world’s second-largest blockchain by market capitalization. In contrast to traditional companies, EF has historically operated with a loose and decentralized structure. Some have argued that the model preserves Ethereum’s neutrality and prevents excessive concentration of power. Others say the approach has increasingly clashed with expectations of an ecosystem that now supports hundreds of billions of dollars in assets and decentralized financial activity. Recent departures appear to have reopened that debate. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
CITI SAYS BITCOIN ESPECIALLY EXPOSED TO QUANTUM TROUBLE: Quantum computers are emerging as a growing risk to digital assets, with Wall Street bank Citi ( C ) warning that recent breakthroughs are accelerating the timeline of potential threats to crypto security and internet infrastructure. In a report, the bank said advances in quantum computing are challenging the cryptographic systems that underpin cryptocurrencies, financial networks and online communications. “While large-scale quantum attacks remain a medium-term concern, the pace of progress has shortened the horizon and warrants closer attention from investors,” analyst Alex Saunders wrote. Quantum computers are a long-term threat to crypto because a sufficiently powerful quantum computer can break the cryptographic systems that protect wallets, exchanges, and blockchains, especially public key cryptography like ECDSA used by Bitcoin and Ethereum. In theory, a quantum attacker could derive private keys from visible public keys, forge transactions and steal money. Still, the risk is not immediate. Experts say the hardware needed to do this at scale is still years away, and blockchains will likely migrate to post-quantum cryptography before then. The analyst singled out Bitcoin as particularly vulnerable due to its conservative governance model and slower ability to implement protocol upgrades. Saunders pointed to vulnerabilities linked to public keys exposed on the chain, dormant wallets and early pay-to-public-key (P2PK) addresses, including wallets believed to belong to Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. The latest estimates put around 6.5 million-6.9 million bitcoin at quantum risk due to already exposed public keys. This is about a third of the circulating supply, or about $450 billion worth, depending on the BTC price. — Will Canny Read more.
JUMP CRYPTOS FIREDANCER CLIENT: Jump Crypto’s long-awaited Firedancer validation client is now producing blocks on Solana’s mainnet, marking a turning point in the project’s year-long push to overhaul blockchain’s performance infrastructure. “Firedancer is live and running in production,” Firedancer founding engineer Ritchie Patel told CoinDesk in an interview. “We’ve packed tens of thousands of transactions over the last few months.” However, the rollout has been deliberately withheld. Patel said the team preferred to roll out gradually across the network rather than through a broad public launch, as the team remains wary of rapidly increasing adoption. “We don’t want everyone to run it yet,” Patel said. “If half the network upgrades before we’ve done a full security audit, that would be a bit much.” Firedancer, developed by Jump Crypto, is a validation client for Solana or another version of the software that runs the blockchain. The effort arose in part in response to concerns about Solana’s past outages and its reliance on a single dominant customer maintained by Solana’s infrastructure company Anza. Rather than framing Firedancer as a competitor to Anza, Patel described the relationship as collaborative. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
BUTERIN ON AI FORMULA VERIFICATION AND CRYPTO: Vitalik Buterin says artificial intelligence can make cryptocurrency systems and critical internet infrastructure more secure if developers combine AI-generated code with mathematically verified software. Ethereum’s co-founder argued that AI-assisted “formal verification” could become one of the most important tools for cybersecurity as increasingly advanced AI systems make it easier to detect software vulnerabilities, in a lengthy blog post that was shared. Formal verification refers to the use of machine-verifiable mathematical proofs to confirm that the software behaves exactly as intended. While the technique has been around for decades, Buterin said recent advances in AI are making it more practical by helping developers write both code and the evidence needed to verify it. Buterin framed the technology as a response to growing fears that artificial intelligence could overwhelm defenders by speeding up detection of flaws and cyberattacks. Smart contract exploitation remains an ongoing problem across crypto, with attackers often draining millions of dollars from vulnerable decentralized finance protocols. Mathematically verified software could help reverse this trend, especially in areas where security failures would be catastrophic, Buterin argued. He specifically pointed to Ethereum infrastructure, zero-knowledge secure systems, consensus mechanisms, and post-quantum cryptography as technologies that could benefit from formal verification. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
In other news
- Qivalis, a group of European banks building a regulated euro stablecoin, said on Wednesday that 25 more lenders joined the initiative, more than tripling its membership, as banks across the region deepen their efforts in blockchain finance. The expansion brings the consortium to 37 financial institutions spanning 15 European countries. New members include ABN AMRO, Rabobank, Intesa Sanpaolo, Nordea, Erste Group and National Bank of Greece. The expansion comes as tokenization gains traction among major financial institutions and asset managers, with stablecoins — crypto tokens whose value is tied to a traditional asset such as a fiat currency — playing a key role in settlement and asset trading on blockchain rails. The move also reflects a broader push by European banks to expand the use of euro-denominated stablecoins and reduce the dominance of US dollar-backed tokens, which currently account for around 99% of the global stablecoin market. The total stablecoin market cap is around $318 billion, dominated by Tether’s USDT and Circle Internet’s (CRCL) USDC. Together they make up more than 80% of the total number. By building a regulated euro-based alternative, Qivalis aims to strengthen the single currency’s role in digital payments and tokenized finance as blockchain settlement gains traction among institutions. “This infrastructure is essential if Europe is to compete in the global digital economy while maintaining its strategic autonomy,” said Howard Davies, chairman of Qivalis’ board. — Christian Sandor Read more.
- Galaxy Digital said New York regulators granted the company a BitLicense and money transmitter license, allowing the crypto-financial firm to expand institutional digital asset operations in one of the industry’s most tightly regulated markets. The approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services authorizes GalaxyOne Prime NY, the company’s New York entity, to offer regulated crypto trading and custody services across the state. Galaxy said in a press release that the move gives New York-based institutions — including hedge funds, registered investment advisers and family offices — access to its digital asset platform, which the company said manages about $9 billion in client assets. “New York is home to the deepest pool of institutional capital in the country, and digital assets no longer sit on the edge of those allocations,” Mike Novogratz, Galaxy’s founder and CEO, said in a statement. — Helen Braun Read more.
Legislation and policy
- US President Donald Trump ordered the federal government to update its regulatory framework to integrate “digital assets and innovative technology into traditional financial services and payment systems” in an executive order. According to the document, the United States should promote financial technology services in its existing payment and financial services. “Therefore, it is United States policy to streamline regulatory processes, reduce unnecessary barriers to entry, and encourage cooperation among fintech companies, federally regulated financial institutions, and federal financial regulators,” the order said. The order directed the heads of financial regulators to review their existing rules over the next three months and identify any rules or documents “that unduly hinder fintech companies from entering into partnerships with federally regulated institutions.” Within six months, Trump directed regulators to “take steps to promote innovation as a result of the review.” Those steps include asking the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to review how it provides uninsured depository institutions and non-bank-financed companies access to payment accounts and services. — Nikhilesh De Read more.
- US Senator Elizabeth Warren is demanding that the agency that regulates national banks explain its chartering of nine crypto-focused institutions that, she argued, failed to meet federal regulations and posed a risk to the financial system. The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has granted trust charters to a number of banks as the agency embraced President Donald Trump’s agenda to elevate the crypto sector and establish a friendly regulatory environment. Now Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, sent a letter to OCC Chief Jonathan Gould calling for an explanation of approvals of trusts belonging to companies including Coinbase, Paxos, Ripple, BitGo and Fidelity Digital Asset Services. “These companies are effectively crypto-banks that want to evade the basic safeguards and obligations that come with being a bank,” Warren, who has previously criticized Gould’s decision in hearings, wrote in the letter. “Your decision to facilitate this regulatory arbitrage not only conflicts with federal law, it also poses serious risks to consumers, the safety and soundness of the banking system, and the separation of banking and commerce.” — Jesse Hamilton Read more.
Calendar
- 2.-3. June 2026: Proof of Talk, Paris
- June 4, 2026: The Stable Summit, New York
- 8.-10. June 2026: ETHConf, New York
- 16.-17. September 2026: Avalanche Summit, New York
- September 29-1. October 2026: Korea Blockchain Week, Seoul
- 7.-8. October 2026: Token2049, Singapore
- 3.-6. November 2026: Devcon, Mumbai
- 15.-17. November 2026: Solana Breakpoint, London
