Obol Introduces $OBOL Airdrop
Obol is allocating 7.5% of the $OBOL token supply to a retroactive airdrop for the Obol Community.
Obol announces its $OBOL token.
SEC launches a crypto task force.
Vitalik responds to community demands.
Interface launches a web app.
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Obol introduced its OBOL governance and utility token with a total supply of 500 million, allocating 7.5% to an airdrop for the Obol Core Community, Obol Contributions Holders, and Solo Stakers, including Rocketpool Node Operators. The Core Community includes Techne credential holders, testnet participants, and Obol DappNode owners. Contributions Holders are those who provided ETH to run Distributed Validators (DVs). The airdrop will be claimable starting January 24th and will remain open for 90 days. Tokens will initially be locked as non-transferable NFTs. A future governance vote will later enable transferability. Obol also introduced the Obol Product Suite, a toolset for running secure, slashing-resistant DVs, and the Decentralized Operator Ecosystem, a global network of 600 credentialed operators. Obol’s distributed validators improve Ethereum’s fault tolerance by distributing a validator's key across multiple nodes.
SEC Chairman Mark T. Uyeda launched a new crypto task force, led by SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, to create a clear regulatory framework for crypto assets. Its goals include establishing guidelines for registration, reducing confusion, fostering innovation, combating fraud, and coordinating with federal, state, and international bodies. The task force will engage investors, industry participants, academics, and the public to shift the SEC’s approach from reactive enforcement to proactive clarity. The SEC is welcoming public input at Crypto@sec.gov, with future roundtables planned for broader feedback.
In response to calls for the resignation of the Ethereum Foundation's Executive Director, Aya Miyaguchi, Vitalik Buterin firmly stated "No" noting that he holds the authority to appoint the foundation's leadership. Buterin also expressed concern that the mounting pressure on community members is creating a toxic environment for top talent. The remarks were made amid requests to appoint Ethereum researcher Danny Ryan as the new Executive Director. Danny Ryan expressed appreciation for the community's support and urged the community to be respectful and reasoned in their debates. Ryan also mentioned that he has been in ongoing conversations with Vitalik and others about his potential role in the next phase of the Ethereum Foundation.
Interface, a social app for tracking onchain activities, launched its web application. The platform enables users to follow wallets and explore onchain events such as token swaps, NFT mints, and contract interactions. It also supports wallet following and copy trading. The app provides insights into a wallet's token balances, trade PnL, and collectibles across Ethereum, Base, OP Mainnet, and Arbitrum. Users can log in with their Ethereum wallet to start tracking wallets.
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Ethereum Foundation Activates DeFi Wallet
A Safe smart wallet with 50,000 ETH was set up to take a more active role in the Ethereum ecosystem.
The EF sets up a Safe wallet.
Changes to EF leadership.
A path to Native Rollups.
World Liberty Financial buys $47m ETH.
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The Ethereum Foundation established a Safe smart wallet address to take a more active role in the Ethereum ecosystem. Foundation leadership member Hsiao-Wei Wang announced the creation of a 3-of-5 Safe wallet by the foundation. Wang stated that the foundation plans to transfer 50,000 ETH to the wallet in the coming days. As part of its activities, the foundation conducted a test transaction on Aave, likely signaling plans to deposit more funds into the lending protocol. Wang also mentioned that additional funds would be transferred to the Safe Wallets over time. Safe is the leading smart contract wallet provider with nearly $100 billion in total value held on Safes.
Vitalik Buterin announced that the Ethereum Foundation (EF) is undergoing significant structural changes, a process that has been in progress for nearly a year. The changes focus on enhancing technical expertise within EF leadership, improving communication and collaboration with ecosystem stakeholders, attracting fresh talent, accelerating execution, and expanding the adoption of decentralized and privacy-focused technologies. Buterin emphasized that the restructuring explicitly aims to avoid adopting extreme ideological shifts, engaging in aggressive lobbying of regulators or political figures, or allowing vested interests to dominate the EF's direction. The announcement comes as ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin vouched for Danny Ryan and Jerome de Tychey as potential candidates for EF leadership.
Ethereum researcher Justin Drake published an article outlining a pathway to achieve native rollups on Ethereum. The proposal introduces an EXECUTE precompile, which enables trustless verification of EVM state transitions directly on Ethereum’s L1. By leveraging the native EVM execution engine, native rollups can fully inherit Ethereum’s security while eliminating reliance on governance mechanisms like security councils. The EXECUTE precompile ensures EVM equivalence, seamless compatibility with L1 upgrades, and secure transaction validation, enforced through validator re-execution or optional SNARK proofs. Native rollups simplify development, enhance scalability, and provide a secure architecture while addressing ETH value accrual.
World Liberty Financial, an Ethereum-based DeFi platform backed by Donald Trump, purchased $47 million worth of ETH over the weekend. The purchase celebrates Trump’s inauguration as the 47th U.S. President. The transactions were executed through the CoW Swap MEV-protecting DEX. World Liberty Financial's holdings now total 59,000 ETH, valued at approximately $200 million. The platform also bought $47 million worth of WBTC on Ethereum and staked a portion of its ETH via Lido Finance.. The acquisitions coincide with the conclusion of World Liberty Financial’s token sale, which raised over $300 million.
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Rollup Teams Call For Blob Increase
The Pectra upgrade will double the blob capacity from 3 to 6 blobs per block but demand is likely to outpace that capacity within months.
Rollup teams call for a blob increase.
Brave Search supports ENS Lookup.
EF 2024 Academic Grants Round winners.
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Jesse Pollak, lead builder at Base, called for an increase in blob capacity on Ethereum, stating that current blob fees are constraining L2 growth. The demand comes amid rising blob base fee costs for rollups, driven by increasing activity and competition within the current limit of three blobs per block. Over the past week, more than 340 ETH has been burned in base blob fees. Optimism core contributor Karl Floersch emphasized that blob scaling remains the most critical feature both during and after the Pectra upgrade. The upcoming Pectra upgrade is set to double the blob capacity to six blobs per block, but the measure is expected to serve as only a temporary fix, with demand likely to outpace capacity within months. A medium-term solution, PeerDAS, a decentralized data availability sampling system, is planned in Fusaka, the fork after Pectra, to address the blob market.
Brave Search now supports resolution for ENS domain names, enabling users to instantly search any .eth second or top-level domain to view wallet balances directly in search results. The feature displays ETH and ERC-20 token balances across EVM chains, including Ethereum, Base, Optimism, Arbitrum, and Polygon. ENS is the leading naming protocol that turns hexadecimal wallet addresses into human-readable names, with nearly 2 million active .eth names registered to date. Brave is a privacy-focused browser that processes over 1.2 billion queries monthly. Users can access the ENS lookup on Brave Search, with or without the Brave Browser.
The Ethereum Foundation announced the grantees from its 2024 Academic Grants Round, a grant series designed to support Ethereum-related academic work addressing critical challenges in cryptography, consensus mechanisms, security, and execution. A total of $1.7 million was allocated across 41 selected grantees, which includes researchers, universities, and students. The eight grants categories included: Client Engineering, Consensus Layer, Cryptography and Zero-Knowledge Proofs, Cybersecurity and Privacy, Economics and MEV, Formal Verification, P2P Networking, and Society and Regulation. Any researchers who missed the deadline for the Academic Grants Round are encouraged to join the Ecosystem Support Program (ESP).
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