#924 - SEC Guidance On DeFi Front Ends
The SEC says certain DeFi front-end interfaces do not need to register as broker-dealers.
SEC guidance on DeFi front ends.
Scroll to dissolve its security council.
Dappnode reduces smooth pool fee.
Bitmine holds 4% of the ETH supply.
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Listen to this episode from Ethereum News on Spotify. The SEC issues guidance on DeFi front ends. Scroll seeks to dissolve its security council. Dappnode reduces its smooth pool fee. And Bitmine now holds 4% of the ETH supply. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/924 Sponsor: Lido Earn lets you deploy ETH or stablecoins into curated DeFi strategies for optimised yield.
](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3g5T8GuWt0POhfhE0dxMqu)
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The SEC published a staff statement clarifying that certain crypto front-end interfaces do not need to register as broker-dealers under the Securities Exchange Act. The staff says it will not object to DeFi providers operating without registration if they function strictly as neutral tools rather than intermediaries. The guidance applies to "covered user interface" providers that do not offer advice, do not handle user funds or execute transactions, and present market data and routing options based on objective, pre-disclosed criteria. Front-end fees must also be fixed and paid solely by the user. The guidance is also temporary, set to expire in April 2031.
Scroll, an EVM-equivalent ZK rollup, proposed dissolving its 12-member Security Council and shifting protocol control to a Scroll Admin multisig. Notably, the team aims to make the change within 10 days. According to L2Beat researcher donnoh.eth, the change would downgrade the network from Stage 1 to Stage 0 decentralization. Scroll cited high operational costs as the main reason, aiming to streamline governance and redirect resources toward product growth. Scroll is also cutting several DAO contributor roles, including marketing, program coordination, and accountability positions. The proposal comes amid the recent departure of EtherFi to OP Mainnet.
Dappnode reduced the fee for Smooth, its MEV smoothing pool for solo Ethereum stakers, from 7% to 5%. Smooth enables stakers to pool and share execution layer rewards, like MEV and block rewards, smoothing out the typically uneven payouts and improving overall returns. TheDAO Fund also committed 69,420 ETH to the pool, helping deliver consistent rewards for solo stakers. Despite a decline in MEV opportunities, Smooth still outperformed solo staking by ~78% over the past year in terms of execution rewards.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies Inc. digital asset treasury now holds 4% of the total Ethereum supply. The 4,874,858 ETH holdings are valued at over $11.4 billion. BitMine continues its accumulation strategy, progressing toward its long-term goal of owning 5% of the total ETH supply, roughly 6 million ETH. Corporate treasuries collectively hold more ETH than Ether ETFs.
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Kraken security update
Clanker Ecosystem Fund
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Hyperbridge DOT exploit
Dango $1.9m exploit
WLFI threatens to sue Justin Sun
Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.
#923 - Scroll Overcharges Users By $50k
Scroll manually increased its fee scalars, leading to significant overcharging its users for transaction fees.
Scroll overcharges users.
WLFI borrowing strains Dolomite.
Redirecting staking rewards to builders.
Zerion temporarily disables its web app.
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Listen to this episode from Ethereum News on Spotify. Scroll overcharges its users for transaction fees. WLFI borrowing strains Dolomite liquidity. A new proposal aims to redirect staking rewards to builders. And Zerion temporarily disables its web app. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/923 Sponsor: Lido Earn lets you deploy ETH or stablecoins into curated DeFi strategies for optimised yield.
](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3LvZL7LZyeyBMbz3lI9UN9)
EarnUSD is a stablecoin vault by Lido for earning transparent, onchain USD-denominated rewards. Get started today at stake.lido.fi/earn
Scroll, an EVM-equivalent ZK rollup, manually increased its fee scalars by up to 1,280x, leading to significant overcharging its users for transaction fees. According to L2BEAT, it resulted in over $50,000 in excess fees charged. The scalars control how much users pay for L1 data, but fees were far higher than the underlying costs. Engineers from Succinct reported paying over $20 per transaction on the L2 network. The inflated fees coincided with ether.fi migrating its credit card infrastructure from Scroll to OP Mainnet. Although Scroll later reduced the scalars by 160x, fees still remain about 8x above baseline without a clear reason and no response from the Scroll team.
World Liberty Financial, an Ethereum-based DeFi platform by Donald Trump, deposited 5 billion WLFI tokens from its treasury as collateral to borrow $75 million, comprising $65 million in USD1 and $10 million in USDC, via the Dolomite lending protocol on Ethereum mainnet. Notably, Dolomite co-founder Corey Caplan is an adviser to World Liberty Financial, raising conflict-of-interest concerns. The large collateral deposits have driven utilization rates on Dolomite to peak levels, leaving many stablecoin depositors unable to withdraw their assets. Utilization has exceeded 80% in the USD1 pool and 90% in the USDC pool. Since WLFI has thin liquidity, a potential liquidation could result in bad debt for Dolomite and losses for regular depositors. World Liberty Financial has already transferred $40 million to Coinbase Prime, likely for off-ramping.
Ethereum Foundation public goods researcher Devansh Mehta proposed an in-protocol mechanism to redirect a portion of Ethereum staking rewards toward funding developer teams that improve the operator experience. The aim is to trade slightly lower validator yields for a stronger ecosystem and higher long-term ETH value. The proposal would be introduced in a hard fork and coordinated through the Ethereum Validators Association. Validators would signal their gas capacity, the share of rewards they're willing to redirect, and their preferred funding recipients. If a majority supports a redirect, the same contribution would be applied across all validators.
Zerion, a leading portfolio tracker and wallet provider, is advising users to temporarily avoid its web app while it investigates suspicious activity. As a precaution, it has taken the web app offline and blocked access using Blockaid to mitigate risk. Zerion confirmed that user funds remain safe, with only the web app affected. The iOS and Android apps, as well as the browser extension, continue to operate securely. Zerion later stated the attack is contained.
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Aave increases V4 deposit caps
Steakhouse DNS Attack update
Silo x Sonic oracles going offline
Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.
#922 - Polygon Onchain FX Markets
FX pools using fxUSD as a base asset for fast, low-cost currency swaps.
Polygon onchain FX markets.
Linea improves prover speed.
Etherscan redesigns contract interface.
Hegotá non-headliner proposal period.
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Listen to this episode from Ethereum News on Spotify. Polygon introduces onchain FX markets. Linea improves its prover speed. Etherscan redesigns its smart contract interface. And the proposal period opens for Hegotá non-headliner EIPs. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/922 Sponsor: Lido Earn lets you deploy ETH or stablecoins into curated DeFi strategies for optimised yield.
](https://open.spotify.com/episode/79z69GMsxJWJw0tWOYYiCq)
EarnUSD is a stablecoin vault by Lido for earning transparent, onchain USD-denominated rewards. Get started today at stake.lido.fi/earn
Polygon Labs, Frax, Curve Finance, and DFB have launched onchain foreign exchange (FX) liquidity pools on the Polygon PoS network, enabling fast, low-cost currency swaps. The pools use the frxUSD dollar-pegged stablecoin as the base asset. Initial pairs include the BRZ (Brazilian real), IDRX (Indonesian rupiah), tGBP (British pound), AUDF (Australian dollar), and KRWQ (Korean won). Curve Finance provides the trading infrastructure through its FXSwap pools, designed for low slippage and tight spreads, while DFB handles liquidity and market-making for non-USD stablecoin pairs. Together, the system enables near-instant settlement, lower fees, and transparent pricing, bringing FX markets onchain.
Linea, the EVM-equivalent ZK rollup developed by Consensys, improved the speed and efficiency of its proving system. The improvement comes from a redesign of its core architecture, replacing 252-bit "large fields" with much smaller 31-bit fields, which dramatically lowers computation costs. Although the Ethereum Virtual Machine operates on 256-bit numbers, Linea splits them into smaller chunks and processes them in parallel, taking advantage of modern CPUs that are optimized for efficient 32-bit operations. Linea also introduced zkASM, a flexible constraint-writing system that works across different field sizes, avoiding the need for a full rewrite of existing logic. Together, the improvements make proofs faster, cheaper, and more efficient, enabling faster withdrawals and better liquidity, lowering hardware requirements for developers, and reducing transaction fees for users.
Etherscan released a revamped smart contract tab on its block explorer, making it easier to explore and interact with contracts. The update introduces a full IDE-style code browser, letting developers navigate using a file tree, jump between functions with a contract outline, open multiple files in tabs, and search across all contract files. It also features improved Read/Write tabs with a cleaner interface for understanding and interacting with contract functions.
ACDE #234 minutes
Hegotá non-headliners
Storm hearing for acquittal
U.S. Treasury OCCIP initiative
Scroll high tx costs 1
KPK USDT Prime Vault
Base App update
LlamaRisk risk provider for Aave
Bitmine uplisting on NYSE
ZackXBT DPRK investigation
Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.