Welcome to the Protocol, Coindesk’s weekly wrapping of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I am Margaux Nijkerk, Coindesk’s Tech & Protocol’s reporter.
In this number:
- Ethereum at. 10: Where next to the world computer?
- Linea to burn eth with each transaction in bold L2 upgrade
- Solana players reveal ‘Internet Capital Markets’ timetable
- Square starts rolling out Bitcoin payments for sellers, targeted with full availability in 2026
Network news
10 years Ethereum: When Ethereum was launched on July 30, 2015, it began to be more than just another cryptocurrency. It aimed to expand the boundaries of Blockchain technology itself. While Bitcoin became digital gold, Ethereum pursued a more expansive vision: to be a decentralized “world computer” programmable, expandable and open. A decade later, Ethereum has transformed funding, culture and software. Along the way, it has been exposed to existential crises, unstable markets and tough internal debates. Now it is on CUSP in a new era – one that can see it fully embraced by traditional funding. Ethereum has seen an uptick in the last two months when the project hits 10 -year milestone, with the price of Ether (ETH), rebuilding to reach $ 3,800 in July after it falls around $ 1,500 as recnences as April. Over the past few months, the ecosystem has seen a new wave of use cases, including tokenization and stableco -growth, and the network also enjoyed the benefit of the trend for companies holding ETH in their treasuries, not only for prolonged value, but to earn the yield. On the anniversary, leading players from Ethereum’s ecosystem weigh in the last 10 years. – Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
Linea’s extensive protocol changes: Linea, an Ethereum-layer-2 network incubated by Consensys, has revealed a comprehensive package of upgrades designed to integrate the network deeper into LAG 1’s economic and ideological substance. Linea’s updated roadmap, which is expected to roll out in October 2025, introduces Eth-native stacks on bridge connection, a protocol level Eth Burn mechanism and the assignment of 85% of its token supply to ecosystem development. This step comes as Momentum in the Ethereum ecosystem builds thanks to the growing institutional interest. The Linea team wrote in a press release that was shared with Coindesk that their updates “will place Ethereum to meet the needs of sophisticated capital when Tradfi begins aboard defi and reinforce linea as an important home for future innovations in on-chain capital markets, stacking and infrastructure.” The team claims that Linea for the updates will be the first layer 2 to burn ETH at the protocol level and oblige 20% of the net transaction fees to reduce the Ethereum supply. The remaining 80% of the fees will be used to burn linea tookens, which is limited in supply, which embedded deflation pressure directly in networking activity. “Linea Mainnet will burn ETH with each transaction, use the Linea token to support users, builders and public goods and return value to Ethereum’s base layer, all with long-term value in Linea-token-based economy,” Declan Fox, head of Linea, said in the press release. – Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
Solana players reveal ‘Internet Capital Markets’ Roadmap: Solana’s ecosystem gather around an updated vision that its architects call the “Internet Capital Markets” decentralized, high-performance foundation for the next generation of financial applications for the chain. While the network has long focused on increasing the bandwidth and cutting latency, its latest timetable dives deep into the market microstructure structure and argues that the next leap forward lies in providing applications granular control over transaction execution. The roadmap, which was the coautor of the Leaders of the Solana Foundation, Anza, Jito Labs, DoubleZero, Operation and Multicoin Capital, centers on application -controlled execution (ACE), which will provide smart contracts Millisecond level Authority over transaction sequencing. “In our conversations with teams across the ecosystem, market microstruct structure is the only most important problem in Solana today,” wrote the authors. The new timetable, published by Anza, a core contributor to Solana Blockchain, outlines six critical Tradeoff dimensions: Privacy vs. Transparency, Speedbumps vs. unbound trade, Inclusion vs. Finality vs. latency time, Colocation vs. Geographical decentralization, producers-first vs. Takers-first priorities and flexible vs. meaningful architecture. – Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
Square starts rolling out BTC payments for sellers: Jack Dorsey’s Square (XYZ) has started rolling out Bitcoin payments for merchants on his network. Square began aboard the first sellers, which allowed them to accept Lightning-Network-driven BTC payments from customers, Owen Jennings, performing officer at Square’s parent company (XYZ), posted on X last week. Payments are decided in real-time time using Bitcoin Layer-2-Lyn, with square treatment of the exchange for Fiat. Square plans to make the service available to all merchants who use his sales platform by next year. The company piloted the system at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas in May, which allowed participants to make purchases in BTC by scanning a barcode. – Jamie Crawley Read more.
In other news
- Strategy (Mstr), the largest business owner of Bitcoin said it has acquired approx. $ 2.4 billion worth of BTC using the funds from its new preferred share (STRC) issue. The company sold almost $ 2.5 billion value of Strc, also called “Stretch”, to investors, significantly more than the originally planned $ 500 million. Strc, aimed at delivering a regular dividend to investors, originally set at a 9% interest rate will start shopping on Wednesday at Nasdaq. With the revenue, the company bought 21,021 BTC at an average price of $ 117,256, according to a press release. It brings the strategy’s Bitcoin stocks to 628,791 BTC worth nearly $ 74 billion at current prices. – Krisztian Sandor Read more.
- Sharplink Gaming (sbet), the Nasdaq-listed crypto-state company helped by Ethereum-Medfifter and Consensy’s CEO Joseph Lubin, revealed that its Ether (ETH) attitude rose to 438,190 tokens, worth approx. $ 1.68 billion at current prices. The company bought 77.209 Ether (ETH), or $ 297 million, through the week ended on July 27. It has also collected $ 279 million by selling shares and tapping the market’s stock facility. The Minneapolis-based company has been pursuing an aggressive state treasury strategy since it turns at the end of May, which raises money to gather the second largest cryptocurrency and insert tokens in exchange for rewards. The company said it has served 722 ETH since then. – Kristzian Sandor Read more.
Legislative and politics
- The Digital Assets Industry’s most reliable US Senate Allies, Cynthia Lummis, has introduced its latest crypto calculation, which would ensure that mortgage loans could use their cryptocurrency holdings to help secure their loans. Last month, the Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Grammar’s government -supported mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to come up with suggestions that detail how they can include crypto teams to support a mortgage loan. Lummis’ bill would “allow the inventory of a borrower in a digital asset that was shown and maintained in accordance with a qualified custodian, being included in the reserves of a borrower without conversion of the digital asset to the Dollars of the United States” – essentially codification of what the message is already looking for. “This legislation embraces an innovative path to wealth building, remembering the growing number of young Americans who possess digital assets,” Lummis said in a statement, suggesting that these assets can help bridge the gap for otherwise unattainable homeowner. – Jesse Hamilton Read more.
- Roman Storm, Tornado Cash Developer Standing Trial in Manhattan on charges that the privacy tool he created helped hackers and other cyber criminal laundering over $ 1 billion in criminal proceeds, not taking the stand, his lawyers told the court. Storm told District Judge Katherine Polk Failla from the US district court in the southern district of New York (SDNY) that he was aware that he had the right to testify in his own defense, but chose not to do so. After Storm made his decision, his defense team rested, led by Keri Axel and Brian Klein from Waymaker LLP, their case on Tuesday afternoon. – Cheyenne Ligon Read more.
Calendar
- 22-28. September: Korea Blockchain Week, Seoul
- 1-2 October: Token2049, Singapore
- 13-15 October: Digital Asset Summit, London
- 16.-17. October: European Blockchain Convention, Barcelona
- November 17-22: DevConnect, Buenos Aires
- 11-13. December: Solana Breakpoint, Abu Dhabi
- 10-12. February 2026: Consensus, Hong Kong
- 5-7 May 2026: Consensus, Miami
