• 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).

• Aave hits $730m TVL on Base

• Changing blob count may delay Pectra

• Ameen on blob extremes

• Jesse on long-term blob capacity

• Francis: 6/9 is a good step for Pectra

• $80m USDT transfer to Ink

• RISC Zero partners with Irreducible

• FDIC stonewalls FOIA requests

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• Coinbase supports Bitcoin-backed USDC loans.

• Aevo transitions from Celestia to EigenDA.

• Tradable brings RWAs to ZKsync Era.

• Base shares 2025 mission.

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Coinbase now allows users to use Bitcoin as collateral for USDC loans on its centralized exchange, leveraging the Morpho Blue lending protocol on Base. When users borrow, their Bitcoin is converted into Coinbase Wrapped Bitcoin (cbBTC) on Base and deposited into the Morpho lending protocol. Loans can be managed directly through the Coinbase app. nA minimum of $20,000 worth of Bitcoin is required to initiate a loan, with borrowing limits up to $100,000 and a maximum loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 86%. Loans exceeding the LTV threshold will be automatically liquidated. The lending feature is available to U.S. users, excluding residents of New York, with plans to support additional collateral types in the future.

Aevo is transitioning its data availability layer from Celestia to EigenDA to achieve tighter integration with Ethereum’s security, lower costs, and near-instant data throughput. With the transition, Aevo aims to enhance performance and user experience. EigenDA leverages the economic security and decentralization of EigenLayer restakers. As an Actively Validated Service (AVS) on EigenLayer, EigenDA provides secure and cost-effective data availability with a throughput of 15MB/s for rollups. Aevo, a derivatives-focused rollup built on a customized OP Stack codebase, operates an options trading exchange featuring an offchain order book paired with onchain settlements. 

Tradable, a private credit tokenization platform, is bringing $1.7 billion in real-world assets onto ZKsync Era. According to data from RWA.xyz, the addition of 27 tokenized institutional-grade private credit positions by Tradable propels ZKsync to become the second-largest blockchain by real-world asset (RWA) total value. The deployment also positions Tradable as the second-largest tokenization platform, following Figure. Tradable bridges traditional asset management with onchain solutions and leverages ZKsync for secure, scalable, and cost-effective transactions. Although the smart contracts have been deployed, tokens have not yet been issued to holders. Tradable is developing a permissioned DEX and has plans to enable collateralized lending in the future.

Base released its 2025 mission, vision, and strategy. Base aims to create a global onchain economy by focusing on five pillars: empowering builders, fostering a thriving ecosystem of apps, simplifying user ownership, advancing onchain markets, and enabling decentralized global access. In 2025, Base aims to achieve 25 million users, 25,000 developers, and 1 billion monthly transactions.

• Introducing USDT0 stablecoin

• Pectra Devnet 5 goes live 

• Pectra testnet forks in February

• Reasons for Danny Rran at EF

• Daimo introduces Emporium

• Coin Center fellow sues DOJ

• Backed RWA pool on Gnosis

• OP Security Council Cohort B

• Fluid deploys GHO Smart Vault

• Lens Hackathon winners

• PostFinance launches ETH staking

• Crypto will be a national priority

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• 28.8% of validators signal a gas limit increase.

• Pyth introduces Pyth Lazer.

• Web3.js is sunsetting in March.

• Methods for optimal blockchain resource allocation.

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According to data shared by Ethereum researcher Toni Wahrstätter, over 28% of validators now signal a block gas limit greater than 30 million. Raising the block gas limit allows each block to contain more data, which improves transaction throughput. An increase of 10 million gas could reduce Layer 1 transaction fees by an estimated 15-33%. The adjustment does not require a hard fork; validators can simply raise the gas limit when proposing blocks by modifying their node configurations. When more than 50% signal for an increase, the block gas limit will automatically increase to the next agreed-upon level, which is currently targeted to be 36 million gas. Validator operators can learn more by visiting pumpthegas.org.

Pyth Network unveiled Pyth Lazer, an advanced ultra-low-latency oracle solution tailored for high-frequency trading, derivatives, and perpetual futures protocols. Pyth Lazer delivers 1-millisecond price updates, supports up to 20 price feeds per transaction, and operates with just 15,000 compute units for 100-byte proofs. It provides real-time insights into market depth, bid-ask spreads, and features customizable frequencies. Pyth Network powers DeFi applications with reliable offchain price feeds sourced from exchanges and market makers. Pyth Lazer is 400 times faster than the legacy Pyth Core oracle, setting a new benchmark for speed-sensitive DeFi protocols. Initial adopters of Pyth Lazer include Orderly Network, Drift Protocol, and Ethereal.

Web3.js, a TypeScript interface for Ethereum, will archive its libraries on March 4, 2025, as ChainSafe is transitioning away from maintaining the library. With the growth of alternative frameworks like Viem and Ethers.js, ChainSafe will shift its focus to new projects while offering support to developers migrating from Web3.js. As a framework, Web3.js enabled developers to build applications by providing tools for interacting with Ethereum smart contracts, accounts, and nodes. The transition will follow a structured migration plan, including comprehensive documentation, security updates, support via GitHub and Discord, and migration guides for Ethers.js and Viem. The process will conclude with transferring NPM access rights to the Ethereum Foundation.

Ethereum researcher Barnabé Monnot published an article examining alternative methods for metering and pricing resources such as computation storage, and data handling, focusing on the trade-offs between transaction-level and block-level metering and the role of mediated pricing. The post argues that block-level metering and mediated pricing can lead to better resource allocation and scalability.

• USCC surpasses $100m AUM 

• Reown raises $13m

• Poll: Danny Ryan ED of EF

• FOCIL breakout #2

• Protocol Guild design brief

• Gasless voting for ENS and Uniswap

• Base gas target increase to 21 Mgas/s

• EIP: Block-level warming 

• Ledger Live integrates Uniswap

• Latest Unichain integrations

• Kraken’s legal team of 70

• Curve Finance 2024 report

• Taiko client v0.43 upgrade

• Across live on Soneium

• Reservoir live on Shape

• OnchainKit introduces Wallet Island

• elizaOS goes live on Polygon

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