• The Ethereum Foundation restructures its Protocol team.

• Aave integrates CoW Swap.

• Celo releases a roadmap for its L2.

• ZKsync releases Airbender zkVM.

The Ethereum Foundation introduced Protocol, a restructuring of its former Protocol Research and Development team, now operating under the simplified name Protocol. The change focuses around three strategic priorities: scaling Layer 1, scaling blobs and Layer 2, and enhancing user experience—all while upholding Ethereum’s core values. Tim Beiko and Ansgar Dietrichs will lead L1 scaling, Alex Stokes and Francesco D’Amato will oversee L2 scaling and blobs, and Barnabé Monnot and Josh Rudolf will drive UX improvements. Dankrad Feist will support all tracks as a strategic advisor. As part of the transition, some team members are departing the Foundation. The shift aims to accelerate Ethereum’s protocol development, improve coordination, and better align efforts with the needs of users.

Aave integrated CoW Swap, an intent-based DEX aggregator, into its front-end swap widget. Users can now swap tokens on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, and Gnosis Chain directly within Aave using this CoWSwap-powered widget. CoW Swap protects users from MEV, enables gasless transactions, aggregates liquidity across multiple DEXs, and delivers competitive pricing through a network of solvers that bid to fulfill user orders. To use the feature, simply click “Swap” in the top-right corner of the Aave interface to open the in-app swap widget.

Consensys led a $425 million private placement into SharpLink Gaming as part of a strategic effort to bring Ethereum into the global economy. SharpLink previously announced plans to use the capital to acquire ETH and adopt it as its primary reserve asset, making it one of the largest ETH holders among publicly traded companies. The round included participation from ParaFi, Pantera, Galaxy, and Electric Capital. Joseph Lubin, Ethereum co-founder and Consensys CEO, will become Chairman of SharpLink. Lubin coined SharpLink’s ticker, SBET, as a symbolic “Strategic BET on ETH.”

Celo released its roadmap for Celo L2, its Layer 2 built on the OP Stack, which went live in March 2025. Celo plans to implement support for Pectra upgrade EIPs by mid-July. Celo is also integrating EigenDA v2 to enhance data availability, offering near real-time confirmation, high throughput, and resilience against DDoS attacks. Celo is exploring zk-powered fault proofs through OP Succinct and OP Succinct Lite, aiming to strengthen security, improve finality, and progress toward Stage 2 decentralization. Celo plans to adopt Espresso’s shared BFT consensus layer to enable faster, secure block confirmations and enhance cross-chain interoperability.

ZKsync released ZKsync Airbender, a new zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) and proof system designed to support future cross-chain and modular interoperability. Airbender is based on the RISC-V instruction set and includes RISC-V circuits, a RISC-V simulator, and tools for witness generation, proof creation, and verification. The project is open-source and dual-licensed under the Apache 2.0 and MIT licenses.

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