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The Protocol: Ethereum’s Final Pectra Test Goes Live

Published

3 недели ago

26 марта, 2025

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Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap-up of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Ben Schiller.

In this issue:

Ethereum’s Final Pectra Test Goes Live

Hyperliquid Eases Token Transfers for DeFi

Celo Migration to Layer-2 Network Is Done

Bitcoin DeFi Expansion Faces Fork Dilemma

This article is featured in the latest issue of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday.

Network news

IT’S ALIVE! ETHEREUM PECTRA TEST: The final dress rehearsal for Ethereum’s upcoming Pectra upgrade occurred Wednesday, as the blockchain’s biggest changes in over a year were tested an additional time following a series of mishaps. The upgrade on the new Hoodi testnet was closely watched given that two previous tests, on the Holesky and Sepolia test networks, failed to finalize properly. Following those tests, developers created a new testnet, Hoodi, to give ecosystem players, particularly staking providers, one more testing opportunity before the Pectra upgrade hits Ethereum’s mainnet. The test involved passing Hoodi a series of code changes meant to make Ethereum more user-friendly for both end-users as well as developers. One of those changes adds smart contract functionality to wallets, allowing wallet software developers to build new convenience-oriented features, like the ability to pay transaction fees in cryptocurrencies other than ether (ETH). Testnets act as copies of a main blockchain, and are used by developers to run through any major code changes in a low stakes environment, giving them a place to patch out any bugs before they reach mainnet. Hoodi was the last of three testnets to run through a simulation of Pectra. Developers previously agreed that if all went well on Wednesday, Pectra would be monitored for around 30 more days and then, finally, activated on Ethereum’s mainnet. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.

HYPERLIQUID EASES TOKENS FOR DEFI: The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector is among the biggest drivers of value accrual and revenue creation for crypto projects, but its complexity often leaves users tangled in a web of blockchains, bridges, wallets and tokens. A technical update by Hyperliquid is making that process easier for both developers and users, with the direct linking of tokens on HyperCore and HyperEVM platforms now being possible. HyperCore is its native platform for spot assets (think tokens you can trade directly), and HyperEVM, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) network that executes smart contracts on Ethereum. Tokens on HyperCore, dubbed “Core spot,” can be linked to their counterparts on HyperEVM and are called “EVM spot.” Once linked, users can transfer them using simple actions — like a “spotSend” on HyperCore or a standard ERC-20 transfer on HyperEVM. By letting tokens move directly between them — without a third-party intermediary — developers can create products that cut out the technical chops required to move assets, which is easy for heavy crypto users, but may be challenging for beginners. — Shaurya Malwa Read more.

CELO MIGRATION to LAYER-2: The Celo blockchain’s long-awaited plan of becoming an Ethereum layer-2 chain has been completed, ending an almost two-year process, the main organizations behind the network said Wednesday. The transition ends a long journey beginning back in July 2023 for the layer-1 blockchain that included a community vote in July 2024 and a fierce competition, won by Optimism, among layer-2 networks out to convince the Celo ecosystem to build with their technology. The improved network — like other layer 2s — offers faster and cheaper transactions on top of Ethereum’s mainnet. The blockchain is powered by Optimism’s OP Stack, a customizable framework that lets developers build layer-2 networks based off of Optimism’s technology. According to Rene Reisberg, the CEO of the Celo Foundation, the migration is the first of its kind in the Ethereum ecosystem, and will probably be used as a blueprint for other EVM-compatible blockchains that are looking to become a layer-2 network. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.

BITCOIN DEFI FACES FORK DILEMMA: Bitcoin developers looking to expand the blockchain’s decentralized finance (DeFi) capabilities are likely to be considering zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, functionality that’s not currently available and which require a so-called soft fork, or new version of the software, to introduce them. That’s a problem, according Edan Yago, a Bitcoin veteran of over a decade and core contributor to smart contract operating system BitcoinOS (BOS). «Forking a blockchain, especially one with $2 trillion worth of value on it, is like open-heart surgery,» he told CoinDesk in an interview. ZK proofs are a cryptographic method of proving the validity of statements while maintaining privacy through not revealing any information about it. The functionality is not available in Bitcoin’s software, but could be made so through proposed implementations like OP_CAT and OP_CTV. Yago said developers should be able to find ways of enabling them on Bitcoin without any kind of fork. «The burden of proof is on developers to demonstrate that there is no other way of accomplishing this through clever engineering,» he said. This is what BOS hopes to achieve through the BitSNARK, a Bitcoin rollup protocol that is part of the family of computing paradigms being developed to scale the original blockchain. These emerged following the introduction of BitVM by Robin Linus in October 2023, which set out a framework for how Ethereum-like smart contracts could be enabled on Bitcoin. BitcoinOS has now open-sourced what Yago describes as a «fully production-ready» BitSNARK protocol, meaning developers now have access to ZK verification on Bitcoin and can connect it to other blockchains like Ethereum, Solana and Cardano. — Jamie Crawley Read more.

In Other News

In a two-hour interview with CoinDesk Senior Anchor Christine Lee, Strategy Executive Chair Michael Saylor discusses a U.S. Bitcoin strategic reserve, why securities holders keep him sleepless, and his own economic immortality. — Christine Lee reports.

Crypto start-up Plasma has revealed the technical features of its blockchain, which is designed for fast and efficient global stablecoin transfers, using a HotStuff-inspired consensus mechanism. — Omkar Godbole reports.

Regulatory and policy

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), one of the leading Democrats supporting crypto legislation, warned the industry against pushing for a “watered-down” version of the long-awaited stablecoin legislation currently moving through the Senate, arguing that stringent regulations are necessary to foster innovation and protect investors from bank runs like the one on Silicon Valley Bank in 2023 and the collapse of crypto exchange FTX in 2022. — Cheyenne Ligon report.

Calendar

April 8-10: Paris Blockchain Week

April 30-May 1: Token 2049, Dubai

May 14-16: Consensus, Toronto

May 20-22: Avalanche Summit, London

May 27-29: Bitcoin 2025, Las Vegas

June 30-July 3: EthCC, Cannes

Oct. 1-2: Token2049, Singapore

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Canary Capital Files for Tron ETF With Staking Capabilities

Published

3 часа ago

18 апреля, 2025

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Canary Capital is looking to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking the price of Tron’s native token, TRX, according to a filing.

The hedge fund submitted a Form S-1 for the Canary Staked TRX ETF with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday. As the name suggests, the fund — if approved — would stake portions of its holdings.

This would be done through third-party providers, with BitGo acting as custodian for the assets. The fund would track TRX’s spot price using CoinDesk Indices calculations.

A proposed ticker as well as the management fee for the product have not been shared yet.

Issuers had initially filed applications for spot ethereum (ETH) ETFs with the staking feature included but removed them in an amended filing later in order to receive approval from the SEC on their proposals.

While the SEC under former Chair Gary Gensler was strictly against staking, issuers have grown more hopeful that they will be able to add the feature to their spot ether funds, among others, with the appointment of crypto-friendly Chair Paul Atkins.

A decision on a February request from Grayscale to allow staking in the Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHE) and the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust ETF (ETH) was postponed by the regulator just a few days ago.

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Feds Mistakenly Order Estonian HashFlare Fraudsters to Self-Deport Ahead of Sentencing

Published

5 часов ago

18 апреля, 2025

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Just four months ahead of their criminal sentencing for operating a $577 million cryptocurrency mining Ponzi scheme, the two Estonian founders of HashFlare were seemingly mistakenly ordered to self-deport by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — an instruction that directly contradicted a court order for the men to remain in Washington state until they are sentenced in August.

In a joint letter to the court last week, lawyers for Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin told District Judge Robert Lasnik of the Western District of Washington that both men had received “disturbing communications” from DHS ordering them to leave the country immediately.

“It is time for you to leave the United States,” an email to Potapenko and Turogin dated April 11 read. “DHS is terminating your parole. Do not attempt to remain in the United States — the federal government will find you. Please depart the United States immediately.”

The email, included with the letter filed last week, threatened both men with “criminal prosecution, civil fines, and penalties and any other lawful options available to the federal government” if they stayed in the country. It resembles emails that undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens alike have received over the past few days.

Ironically, Potapenko and Turogin are not in the U.S. of their own volition — they were extradited from their native Estonia at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice in 2022 on an 18-count indictment tied to their HashFlare scheme. Though they initially pleaded not guilty to all charges, in February they both pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and agreed to forfeit over $400 million in assets. They have both been in the Seattle area on bond since last July.

“Although there is nothing Ivan and Sergei would want more than to immediately go home, they understood that they are also under Court order to remain in King County,” wrote Mark Bini, a partner at Reed Smith LLP and lead counsel for Potenko, wrote in the pair’s joint letter to the court. Bini did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.

In his letter, Bini said DHS’s emails had caused both Potapenko and Turogin «significant anxiety.”

“We and our clients have all seen recent news. Immigration authorities make mistakes, and individuals who should not be in custody end up in custody, sometimes even deported to places where they should not be deported,” Bini wrote.

Six days after Bini’s letter to the judge, the DOJ filed its own letter with the court saying that prosecutors had coordinated with DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division and secured a year-long deferral to the self-deportation order.

“This should provide ample time for the sentencing to take place,” the prosecution’s letter said.

DHS did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.

Potapenko and Turogin are slated to be sentenced on August 14 in Seattle. Their lawyers have said that they will request to be sentenced to time served, meaning no additional time in prison, and to be sent home to Estonia “immediately.”

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CoinDesk Weekly Recap: EigenLayer, Kraken, Coinbase, AWS

Published

5 часов ago

18 апреля, 2025

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Following last week’s tariff-caused drama, this was a relatively quiet week in crypto. Bitcoin remained stable around $84k. The CoinDesk 20, which tracks about 80% of the market, was up about 4% in the last seven days — i.e. nothing historic.

Still, plenty happened. On Tuesday, much of crypto went offline because of a tech issue at AWS, showing how the decentralized economy isn’t always that decentralized. Shaurya Malwa reported the news early. Bitcoin and other major cryptos slipped on bad news for Nvidia, Omkar Godbole reported.

Mantra, a project focused on real world assets, lost 90% of its value. Explanations varied (the company said it was due to “force liquidations” exchanges).

Meanwhile, EigenLayer, a restaking leader, rolled out a “slashing” feature meant to address security concerns (Sam Kessler reported). OKX, a major exchange, announced plans to set up in California following a $500 million settlement with the SEC over claims it operated previously in the U.S. without a money transmitter license. Cheyenne Ligon had that story.

In less good news, Kraken laid off “hundreds” of staff ahead of an expected IPO. And Coinbase became embroiled in a “front running controversy” linked to a curiously named token on its Base L2. Privacy advocates reacted with alarm to rumors that Binance was about to delist Zcash following a long decline in the value of privacy coins.

In D.C. news, Jesse Hamilton reported on a new wave of crypto lobbyists flooding the capital. Some asked if there are now too many trade groups and whether they really all could be effective.

Friends With Benefits, a buzzy social club for creative technologists, launched a new program to build Web3 products for music, film, publishing and other fun activities. (I wrote that one.)

Of course, there was plenty happening in the economy and markets (Trump’s disgust for Fed chair Powell fed into the unease). But, in crypto, it was pretty much business as usual. Fortunes won, fortunes lost, fortunes deferred.