Ethereum Foundation DeFi Team
The dedicated effort will support Defipunk values and more experimental DeFi innovations.
EF announces DeFi team.
BGD Labs leaves Aave DAO.
EF Protocol Support resource site.
Bankr hits $100m in volume on UniV4.
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Listen to this episode from Ethereum News on Spotify. The Ethereum Foundation announces its DeFi team. BGD Labs leaves the Aave DAO. The EF Protocol Support team launches a resource site. And Bankr hits $100m in volume on Uniswap V4. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/889 Borrow against ETH at the lowest fixed rates in DeFi.
](https://open.spotify.com/episode/53eBxCq3d3TUtMXIVJ2UlA)
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The Ethereum Foundation announced a dedicated effort to strengthen DeFi on Ethereum and support Defipunk values, including permissionless, censorship-resistant, privacy-first, self-custodial, and open source. The EF believes that DeFi should not replicate TradFi, but enable financial systems that could only exist on Ethereum. Beyond DeFi's current impact in lending, stablecoins, and open markets, the EF aims to support more experimental innovations such as AI-integrated financial systems, onchain futures markets, futarchy DAOs, and privacy-preserving undercollateralized lending using zero-knowledge (ZK) reputation. The EF's DeFi efforts are led by Charles St. Louis, a former DELV leader and MakerDAO contributor, and Ivan Bogatyy, the co-founder of Gearbox Protocol. In 2026, the team will focus on strengthening builder relationships, improving security and privacy infrastructure, establishing standards, and expanding research.
The Protocol Support team at the Ethereum Foundation launched a new website, ps.ethereum.foundation, creating a resource hub for Ethereum developers and enthusiasts. The site aggregates protocol governance resources, including Forkcast, the Ethereum network upgrade tracker, the Project Management repository, AllCoreDevs (ACD) and breakout call coordination, the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship, and the Ethereum Study Group. Protocol Support facilitates the Ethereum protocol development process by coordinating across client teams, researchers, and the broader community, helping make governance and core development more accessible.
BGD Labs, a core development contributor to Aave, announced it will not renew its service agreement with the Aave DAO after April 1, 2026. The team said the decision stems from organizational misalignment, citing Aave Labs' shift toward a more central role focused on Aave v4 and disagreements over the strategic direction of v3 versus v4. BGD stated that it considers its primary mission largely accomplished, describing Aave's core infrastructure as stable, mature, and future-proof. The team plans to transition its work by moving relevant codebases to the Aave DAO GitHub with proper documentation to support the transition. BGD Labs served as one of the main technical contributors to Aave for nearly four years.
Bankr, an AI-powered crypto banker agent, crossed $100 million in volume on its custom Doppler-powered Uniswap v4 hook, tailored specifically for AI-agent token deployment flow. The hook went live earlier this month, and the volume was generated in less than two weeks from the surge of tokens launched through the Bankr bot. Uniswap Labs highlighted the achievement, noting Bankr's rapid traction at the intersection of AI and crypto.
ePBS devnet-0 soon
LUCID Encrypted Mempool
Vitalik's post on security
Ansgar on Bankless
TheDAO Fund updates
Hudson joins ECH
Daily Gwei Refuel #859
Safe hits 1b txs
Spire RPC hits $1b txn volume
Sourcify 20m contracts verified
BitMine buys 51k ETH
Terra sues Jane Street
Anthropic distillation attacks
Robinhood Ventures introduced
Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.
Vitalik's Cypherpunk Roadmap For Ethereum
Vitalik Buterin outlined a five-year cypherpunk-principled roadmap to make upgrades across the state tree, Lean consensus, ZK-EVM verification, and VM.
Cypherpunk roadmap for Ethereum.
Uniswap releases AI Skills.
IPTF Shielded Pools PoC.
ENSv2 architecture.
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Listen to this episode from Ethereum News on Spotify. Vitalik Buterin outlines a cypherpunk roadmap for Ethereum. Uniswap releases skills for AI agents. And the Ethereum Institutional Privacy Task Force releases a PoC Gated Shielded Pools. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/888 Earn 10% real yield on your dollars, fully onchain.
](https://open.spotify.com/episode/0MVDbJ8kp9zd9FwZcUT0Ud?si=swg9ftEsQGaWDpxfU6ZplQ)
EarnUSD is a stablecoin vault by Lido for earning transparent, onchain USD-denominated rewards. Get started today at stake.lido.fi/earn
Vitalik Buterin outlined an ambitious five-year roadmap to upgrade Ethereum into a cypherpunk-principled and structurally simpler system while preserving interoperability with the current network. The roadmap includes four major technical upgrades: a redesigned state tree, the introduction of Lean consensus, L1 ZK-EVM verification, and a new virtual machine. Lean Ethereum itself focuses on lean consensus, lean data, and lean execution, made possible by a real-time zkVM. There are also ongoing efforts to transition toward a RISC-V-based virtual machine, which supports Rust. The Cypherpunk roadmap would adhere to core values like permissionlessness, decentralization, censorship resistance, and open-source development. The roadmap aligns with the Hegota upgrade, which is scheduled to include FOCIL for censorship resistance.
Uniswap Labs released new AI Skills that provide structured access to core Uniswap protocol actions, enabling foundational infrastructure for agentic onchain workflows. The Skills allow developers and AI agents to execute token trades, integrate swaps, participate in cross-chain auctions via UniswapX, build Uniswap v4 hooks, and plan swaps and liquidity strategies. Developers can install the AI Skills via the Skills CLI on GitHub or through the Claude Code Marketplace. The release strengthens infrastructure for agentic DeFi, supporting seamless interactions between AI agents and human users on Ethereum.
The Institutional Privacy Task Force (IPTF) published a proof-of-concept for banking-grade private stablecoin transfers on Ethereum L1 using a gated shielded pool design. The system prioritizes compliance-first privacy where only KYC-verified participants can deposit, while regulators can audit activity through selective disclosure. The implementation is open source and works with existing ERC-20 tokens without requiring changes to token contracts. The protocol combines four components: attestation-gated entry, a UTXO-based commitment nullifier model, a dual-key architecture separating spending and viewing authority, and a relayer abstraction to reduce identity leakage.
ENSv2 architecture
Ethereal news weekly #12
L1-zkEVM stack explained
Justin Drake on Lean Ethereum
Erigon v3.3.8 release
Event NFT claim scams
Robinhood testnet hits 4m txs
Sonic Labs CEO steps down
Claude Code Security
Linea 100+ mGas/s throughput
Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.
FOCIL Scheduled For Hegotá
Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL, EIP-7805) is scheduled as the consensus-layer (CL) headliner for the Hegotá upgrade.
FOCIL becomes Hegotá headliner.
Uniswap launches Developer Platform.
Payy Network L2 goes live.
Compound to launch V4 on Base.
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Listen to this episode from Ethereum News on Spotify. FOCIL is scheduled for inclusion in Hegotá. Uniswap launches a developer platform. Payy Network launches its stablecoin-focused L2. And Compound will launch Compound V4 on Base. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/887 Are you running a treasury? You need liquidity but don't want to sell ETH?
](https://open.spotify.com/episode/7naEKoJwp1TGRDVT9TRaLt)
EarnUSD is a stablecoin vault by Lido for earning transparent, onchain USD-denominated rewards. Get started today at stake.lido.fi/earn
During ACDC #175, Ethereum core developers agreed to schedule Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL, EIP-7805) as the consensus-layer (CL) headliner for the upcoming Hegotá upgrade, which follows Glamsterdam. FOCIL strengthens censorship resistance by enabling multiple validators to enforce the inclusion of any transaction that is valid under Ethereum's protocol rules. FOCIL prevents a single block builder from excluding transactions and shifts inclusion guarantees from social coordination and market incentives into the protocol itself. Other proposals under consideration for Hegotá include Frame Transactions (EIP-8141) and Encrypted Mempool (EIP-8105). The decision deadline for Hegotá headliner EIPs is February 26.
Uniswap Labs launched the Uniswap Developer Platform to public beta, allowing developers to generate API keys and integrate swap and liquidity providing (LP) functionality into their applications within minutes. The Uniswap APIs abstract away smart contract complexity, giving developers streamlined access to Uniswap's routing engine and intent-based trading systems. The APIs provide access to public, private, and off-chain liquidity, including UniswapX RFQ, along with built-in MEV protection and competitive pricing. Features include intelligent routing for cost-efficient swaps and auto-generated token approvals and transaction calldata. The API is free to use and is still in beta.
Payy Network launched its stablecoin-focused Layer 2 on mainnet. Users of the Payy app should update to the latest version to access the release. Payy Network enables private ERC-20 transfers by default, requiring no changes to existing wallets or smart contracts. The network uses chain-native privacy pools that custody ERC-20 tokens, enabling transfers to take place confidentially within pools. Privacy Vaults handle transaction data offchain, while stealth transactions leverage one-time addresses to prevent links between sender and receiver. The network also integrates a native zero-knowledge (ZK) precompile, enabling low-cost, high-performance privacy applications.
DeFi lending protocol Compound Finance announced plans to launch Compound V4 on Base, the latest iteration of its protocol, aiming to capitalize on the convergence of decentralized and traditional finance. Compound V4 will introduce support for tokenized equities and other real-world assets (RWAs), expand cross-chain liquidity, and add permissioned vaults for institutions. The upgrade will also feature a modular integration suite that enables DeFi applications, financial institutions, and asset managers to embed lending, borrowing, and yield functionality directly into their platforms.
ACDC #175 highlights | minutes
Vitalik FOCIL and AA synergy
Aave hits $1b in RWAs
Ethereum's hardness property
Base increases gas base fee
Balancer pauses reCLAMM pools
Securitize partners with Euler
Marius joins EF enterprise team
Sovra new media agent
Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.