Quick Take
Visa introduces a Tokenized Asset Platform.
Bungee introduces the Bungee Protocol.
Vitalik suggests lowering the staking requirement.
Visa Tokenized Asset Platform
Visa introduced the Visa Tokenized Asset Platform (VTAP), a new solution enabling banks to issue, mint, burn, and transfer fiat-backed tokens onchain, such as stablecoins. Banks will be able to experiment with tokenization in a sandbox environment, with a live pilot expected in 2025 through the Visa Developer Platform. VTAP supports integrations with traditional financial systems, smart contract functionality, interoperability across networks, and cross-chain token transfers. The platform aims to connect fiat currencies with blockchain-based assets, helping banks and financial institutions expand into onchain services. Spanish bank BBVA is already testing token issuance using VTAP, with plans to pilot a token on Ethereum in 2025.
Bungee Introduces Bungee Protocol
Bungee, a cross-chain bridge aggregator, introduced the Bungee Protocol, a liquidity marketplace enabling users to perform actions across chains without the need to bridge or pay gas in native tokens. Users can simply sign gasless requests for actions such as swaps, deposits, or NFT minting, and an offchain agent will execute it. Built on Socket Protocol’s chain-abstraction infrastructure, the protocol uses Modular Orderflow Actions (MOFA) to allow solvers, provers, and fillers to execute user requests. The marketplace aims to scale actions across thousands of chains. Users can claim "Bungee balls" for early access to the platform.
Vitalik Suggests Lower Stake Requirement
In response to discussions about minimum bandwidth requirements for solo stakers, Vitalik Buterin highlighted that the 32 ETH minimum staking requirement poses a greater barrier than bandwidth limitations. He proposed a potential trade-off: increasing bandwidth requirements while reducing the minimum stake requirement to 16 or 24 ETH. Currently, 32 ETH is both the maximum and minimum staking requirement for running a validator. The upcoming Pectra upgrade will introduce support for Max EB EIP-7251, allowing large staking providers to consolidate up to 2048 ETH per validator, though the 32 ETH minimum will remain in place. Buterin also suggested a future scenario where the minimum deposit could be reduced to as low as 1 ETH, contingent on the completion of PeerDAS and Orbit SSF, which are expected to ease bandwidth demands.
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