• Developers to launch Hoodi testnet.

• Aave Labs proposes an RWA project.

• ZKsync cancels its Ignite program.

• Compound launches vaults on Morpho.

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Ethereum core developers introduced Hoodi, a new long-lived Ethereum testnet featuring a similar configuration and validator count as Ethereum mainnet. Designed to initially test validator exits, Hoodi will go live on Monday, March 17, 2025, with the Pectra fork scheduled for the testnet on March 26, 2025. Tim Beiko urged staking operators and infrastructure providers to deploy to Hoodi as it becomes the primary testnet for infrastructure. Applications should also consider migrating. Ethereum developers introduce a new testnet every two years, each with a maximum lifespan of five years. The Pectra upgrade is anticipated to go live on Ethereum mainnet in late April or early May.

Aave Labs proposed Project Horizon, a Real World Assets (RWA) platform for integrating institutional DeFi into the Aave ecosystem. Subject to Aave DAO approval, Horizon will launch as a licensed instance of the Aave Protocol, enabling institutions to borrow USDC and GHO against tokenized Money Market Funds (MMFs) as collateral. The proposal includes a token distribution strategy for a new Horizon token, which has faced opposition from the Aave community. It also proposes a profit-sharing mechanism that allocates 50% of revenue to the Aave DAO in Year 1, gradually decreasing to 10% by Year 4. The proposal is currently open for community discussion.

Compound Finance launched custom lending vaults built on Morpho’s liquidity infrastructure, initially deployed on Polygon PoS. The vaults enable users to borrow and lend assets while optimizing for risk-adjusted yield using Compound’s CORE framework, which strikes a balance between security and yield for a moderate risk profile. The vaults are owned by the Compound DAO, which takes a 10% performance fee. To incentivize participation, Polygon has allocated $1.5 million in POL token rewards for vault depositors, while Compound is also offering $1.5 million in COMP tokens. Over $11 million has been deposited across the three vaults so far.

The ZKsync DeFi Steering Committee (DSC) announced an early end to the Ignite program, which was designed to incentivize DeFi activity on ZKsync Era with up to 300 million ZK in rewards. Originally planned to run for three seasons over nine months, the program will now conclude on March 17, 2025, with rewards being turned off and final distributions completed by that date. The decision was driven by market conditions and a pivot toward growing the multichain Elastic Network. 

• ACDE #207 updates

• ETHGlobal Trifecta hackathon

• BlackRock BUIDL hits $1b TVL

• Path to fix Ethereum fragmentation

• GENIUS Act clarity on stablecoins

• Definitive airdrop checker

• Unnecessary complexity with EOF

• Chaos AI crypto researcher

• Biconomy announces Biconomy Network

• Moonpay acquires Iron

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• Aave supports EURC on Base.

• Superstate expands Industry Council.

• Obol DAO approves staking rewards.

• Swell integrates Obol DVs.

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EURC, Circle’s Euro-pegged stablecoin, is now available on the Aave V3 Base market. Users can deposit EURC as collateral to borrow assets such as ETH, cbBTC, wstETH, cbETH, USDC, and GHO. The market has an initial supply cap of 4.2 million EURC, a borrow cap of 3.8 million EURC, and a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 75%. Issued by Circle France, EURC is compliant with Europe’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation. Retail users can also access EURC on Coinbase for on- and off-ramping. Currently, EURC has a market cap of $140 million compared to USDC’s $58 billion market cap.

Obol governance approved a proposal to enable staking for the OBOL token. Users will soon be able to stake OBOL for stOBOL, a liquid staked token that earns rewards while maintaining governance power in the DAO. The implementation uses Tally Liquid Staked Token (tLSTs) smart contracts. A total of 0.33% of the total OBOL token supply will be distributed as staking rewards over the next six months. Users can also use stOBOL in DeFi while earning staking rewards. Obol governance has also approved a proposal to enable token transferability.

Superstate, a tokenized fund focused on Real World Assets (RWA), expanded the Superstate Industry Council with 20 new members, including Omni Network, Frax, and Euler. The members bring expertise in trading, custody, lending, stablecoins, and infrastructure. The council plays a role in advancing Superstate’s product roadmap by bridging traditional capital markets with onchain. Steakhouse Financial also launched a USDC RWA Vault on Morpho using USCC as collateral. USCC is Superstate’s tokenized crypto cash-and-carry fund, which holds over $85 million in AUM.

• Swell integrates Obol DVs

• PSE Project unveils MPC Framework

• Coinbase update on Celo L2

• $221k MEV transaction

• Introducing Giza Protocol

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• Circle launches CCTP V2 on Ethereum.

• Fidelity plans to enable staking for FETH ETF.

• Lido Finance releases its CSM V2 vision.

• Optimism’s Futarchy contest goes live.

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Circle, the issuer of USDC, launched Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol V2, an upgrade that reduces transfer times from minutes to seconds by allowing message attestation before source chain finalization. It also features Hooks, enabling developers to automate post-transfer actions via smart contracts. A 1:1 burn-and-mint mechanism eliminates the need for liquidity pools, improving capital efficiency while supporting finality-based settlement. CCTP V2 is live on Ethereum, Base, and Avalanche, with planned support for Linea and Arbitrum. Since April 2023, CCTP V1 has processed over 2 million transfers, exceeding $37 billion in volume. 

Fidelity Investments is seeking approval to enable staking in its Ethereum Fund (FETH) ETF. On Tuesday, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) submitted Form 19b-4 to the SEC, requesting staking permission for the Spot Ethereum ETF. Once approved, the SEC must still greenlight Form S-1 filings before trading can begin. It marks the second ETF seeking ETH staking approval, following 21Shares Core Ethereum ETF, which filed a similar request in February. Fidelity’s Ethereum Fund ETF currently holds nearly $1 billion in AUM. After the news, ETH rebounded slightly to $1,950.

Lido Finance unveiled its vision for CSM v2, the next iteration of its permissionless staking solution that enables any node operator to run validators through the Lido protocol. The vision for 2025 focuses on expanding CSM's share of the protocol, increasing independent Community Staker participation, and enhancing the reward structure. CSM v2 introduces EIP-7002 withdrawal support and the addition of Entry Gates, which offer tailored staker incentives like priority deposit queues, customized rewards, and differentiated security requirements. CSM v2 also transitions the fee structure to a variable Node Operator reward share based on validator count. 

Optimism's Futarchy governance contest is now live. Futarchy uses prediction markets to guide decision-making. Users can apply to receive OP Play Tokens to predict which protocols will see the largest TVL increase from a 100,000 OP token grant. Users who accurately forecast the closest predicted TVL to the actual TVL achieved by a protocol will also win OP token rewards. The contest ends on March 20th.

• Lens Chain joins the Elastic Network

• U.S. gov withholds evidence in Storm case

• Starknet settles on Bitcoin and Ethereum

• GG23 community rounds announced

See disclosures