Happy Friday, August 21, 2026.
ETH is up 33% this week, surpassing $2,500 today. Base prepares to ship its own native account abstraction standard. Robinhood Chain crosses $1 billion in chain TVL. And the Ethereum Foundation is looking to hire an Academic Project Manager.
Base is preparing to implement its own native account abstraction standard as part of its Cobalt network upgrade, scheduled for September. The feature is labelled as EIP-8130 (although an official EIP number is yet to be assigned), a proposal that defines a new transaction type and onchain system contract for account abstraction. The change allows accounts to configure authorized actors and authenticators in a Keystore system contract, and the protocol validates transactions using onchain authenticator contracts.
The standard enables passkey sign-in, gas sponsorship, and transaction batching support. Base engineer Chris Hunter outlined the case for 8130 over Frame Transactions (EIP-8141), arguing that 8130 was designed to serve high-performance L2s and alt-L1s alongside L1 with one portable standard, stating that Frames forces chains to choose between features and performance. Jesse Pollak said the team is working with Ethereum and other EVM chains to adopt the feature.
Also read: Account Abstraction debates.
Robinhood Chain crossed $1 billion in total value secured on its L2. Of the total, $709 million (~56%) is in stablecoins, led by Global Dollar (USDG), a fiat-backed stablecoin issued by Paxos. ETH and derivatives account for $382 million (~30%), with tokenized stocks, ETFs, and other assets making up the remaining $134 million (~11%). Robinhood Chain is an Arbitrum Orbit L2 focused on tokenized real-world assets and onchain financial services including 24/7 trading, lending, and borrowing of Stock Tokens. The chain uses ETH as its gas token and settles data to Ethereum via blob transactions.
The Ethereum Foundation is hiring a Project Manager for Academic Engagements to build and grow the EF's relationships with universities, research institutions, and academic communities worldwide. The role involves translating Ethereum research priorities into academic programs, identifying scholars whose work intersects with Ethereum's open questions, and managing university partnerships. The position is fully remote and open to candidates globally.
Catch up on the week with Ethereal news weekly #36. Etherscan adds web3 identity cards. Brantly sells Crypto.eth for 55 ETH. OpenRouter integrates SIWE. Veil Cash adds a Multi-Asset Pool.
EtherFi introduces Borrow. Vitalik publishes an obfuscation post on local mining. And the CFTC says it will enforce new rules if CLARITY stalls.
It's feeling like a great weekend to be onchain. Follow @ethdaily on X for the latest.
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