• Two researchers drop EigenLayer advisorship.

• Conduit introduces Account Abstraction features.

• A state pension fund buys ETHE.

• ArbitrumDAO approves 5m ARB for Stylus Sprint.

Ethereum researchers Justin Drake and Dankrad Feist announced their resignation from their advisory roles at EigenLayer. Drake also stepped down from his position with the ultra sound relay. The move aims to eliminate potential conflicts of interest and reinforce their commitment to Ethereum Layer 1 research. The resignations follow community concerns raised in May 2024 regarding their advisory roles at EigenLayer, which included substantial EIGEN token compensation. The researchers announced their dedication to maintaining neutrality and alignment with the Ethereum community. The resignation took effect in September 2024.

Conduit, a rollup-as-a-service provider, introduced account abstraction support to enhance the user experience for rollups. The release includes two core components: the Conduit Bundler and ZeroDev Smart Accounts. The Conduit Bundler bundles multi-transaction operations by leveraging UserOperations as specified by ERC-4337. ZeroDev Smart Accounts is a modular solution that enables features like gasless transactions, session keys, chain abstraction, and social recovery. Together, the new features allow rollups to provide seamless onboarding, flexible gas payment options, and simplified transactions, helping to lower entry barriers for users. Rollup teams can access the features through a $500/mo Conduit package.

Matthew Sigel, Head of Digital Assets Research at VanEck, uncovered that the State of Michigan Retirement System recently purchased 460,000 shares of the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), valued at approximately $10 million. The fund also bought another 460,000 shares of the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust, increasing its total ETH-related ETF holdings to about $11 million. The purchase places the pension fund among the top five holders of the ETHE ETF, as revealed in a recent 13F regulatory filing by the State of Michigan.

The ArbitrumDAO approved a 5 million ARB token grant allocation for the Stylus Sprint program, an initiative that rewards teams building on Stylus. Applications for the program will open on Monday, November 11, 2024.  Applications will be assessed by an evaluation committee featuring members from Offchain Labs, OpenZeppelin, SEEDGov, JoJo, and Entropy Advisors. Arbitrum Stylus is a general-purpose programming environment that enables developers to write applications in any WASM-compatible language, unlocking advanced smart contract development with lower gas costs and access to tools previously unavailable on the EVM.

• Ethereum's distinctive property is hardness

• SSF is not about "Single" Slot

• Kraken 2024 Proof of Reserves

• OpenSea teases new release

• Beaconcha.in validator monitoring dashboard

• Unichain testnet sees 16m txs

• Etherscan releases diamond proxy support

• Risk Rosette upgrade for Base

• UBS tokenized fund on Ethereum.

• Succinct introducing OP Succinct with Celestia DA.

• The Argot Collective spins out from the EF.

• uni.eth hits 1 million subnames.

  

Succinct Labs introduced support for integrating OP Succinct with Celestia as a data availability (DA) layer and Conduit for fast sequencing. OP Succinct allows any OP Stack chain to upgrade from an optimistic rollup to a ZK rollup with minimal development effort, enabling OP Stack chains to evolve into a Type 1 zkEVM and leverage Celestia for high-throughput data availability. The custom DA layer is implemented through an adapter that enables any OP Succinct rollup to use Celestia DA. The implementation uses Alt-DA Mode within the OP Stack, allowing DA layer teams to manage a DA Server, which oversees interactions with the OP Stack and handles custom logic and key management. Alt-DA Mode is designed to lower transaction costs by using a data market priced independently from Ethereum blobspace.

The Argot Collective introduced its non-profit focused on supporting free and independent Ethereum software, spinning out from the Ethereum Foundation. The new collective will oversee Ethereum projects related to compiler engineering, verification, and programming languages, including Solidity, Fe, and Sourcify. Argot will maintain a democratic governance structure and is founded by 25 current Ethereum Foundation employees. Argot is funded by a long-term grant from the Ethereum Foundation intended to support operations over the next 5 to 10 years. Argot is committed to transparency, publishing financial information, and project roadmaps.

Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) launched its first tokenized investment fund, the UBS USD Money Market Investment Fund Token (uMINT), on Ethereum. uMINT provides investors with access to a tokenized, institutional-grade cash management solution, emphasizing a conservative and risk-managed approach, and is available through its authorized distribution partners. The launch reflects the increasing demand for tokenized real-world assets and marks UBS’s effort to expand market access to digital assets. UBS has over $3 trillion in assets under management.

• Uni.eth hits 1m subnames

• Story of Saclier Mainnet

• Velodrome YBA incentices

• Base hits $450b USDC tx volume in Oct.

• Devcon SEA releases its schedule.

• Franklin Templeton launches BENJI on Base.

• Optimism supports ERC-7683.

• Zircuit airdrop for EIGEN holders.

Devcon released the schedule for Devcon VII, the largest Ethereum developer conference, set to take place in Bangkok, Thailand, from November 12-15. The event will feature more than 300 hours of talks, panels, and workshops covering topics such as security, layer 2, applied cryptography, real-world Ethereum, coordination, core protocol, and developer experience. Alongside the schedule, Devcon released Devcon Passport, a mobile-first Progressive Web App that allows users to sign in with Ethereum, customize their agenda, and receive event notifications. Devcon Week will run from November 9-17, with an expected attendance of over 12,000 people, making it the biggest Devcon to date.

Franklin Templeton launched its OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX) on Base, offering tokenized access to U.S. Treasury securities and repurchase agreements. Shares, trading under the ticker BENJI, maintain a stable price of $1 per share and currently provide a 7-Day Effective Yield of about 4.7%. Accessible to both retail and institutional investors via the Franklin Templeton platform, the fund has a market capitalization of more than $400 million and supports tokenized assets across seven networks. Base is the second-largest Layer 2 network by TVL with nearly $8 billion in assets, according to L2Beat.

Optimism announced support for ERC-7683, a cross-chain intents standard co-developed by Across Protocol and Uniswap Labs. ERC-7683 allows order fillers from any compatible system to fulfill user intents by adhering to a unified order structure. Optimism is implementing the standard on top of its native interoperability architecture.By adopting ERC-7683, Optimism extends native interoperability to order fillers in the broader Ethereum ecosystem. Together, ERC-7683 and Superchain Interoperability help enhance the speed, security, and cost-efficiency of cross-chain transfers for users.

Zircuit, an EVM-compatible ZK-Rollup, has announced the Zircuit Fairdrop for EIGEN token holders and stakers. Users who held or staked a minimum of 3 EIGEN tokens as of October 8, 2024, qualify for a share of 2% of the ZRC token supply, with each eligible wallet receiving an equal allocation. Zircuit is an LRT re-staking protocol that aggregates LRT deposits into a shared staking pool.

• Ethereum maintains blob target

• Uniswap integrates Venmo

• xERC20 launchpad

• Argot Collective spins out of EF

• USDC Grant Program winners

• Elipses raises $21m