• The SEC approves trading for ETH ETFs.

• Superstate launches a crypto carry fund.

• Optimism announces Retro Funding Round 5.

• 10 years since the Ethereum ICO.

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The SEC has approved final filings for the trading of Spot Ethereum ETFs, allowing trading to begin in the U.S. According to Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas, trading will commence tomorrow at 9:30 am EST. All eight ETH ETF issuers have obtained S-1 approvals. Grayscale offers the lowest fee, set at 0.15% for its ETF. Bitwise also announced its commitment to donate 10% of profits from its ETHW ETF to the Protocol Guild and the Proposer Builder Separation (PBS) Foundation. The donation follows VanEck's pledge last year, with both issuers committing to make donations for at least the next decade. The price of ETH remains relatively unaffected amid the news, trading around $3,450.

Superstate, a tokenized fund for Real World Assets (RWA), introduced USCC, a tokenized crypto cash-and-carry trading fund for institutional investors. The strategy leverages price differences between spot and futures markets for Bitcoin and Ether, optimizing yield by staking spot Ethereum holdings. A cash-and-carry trade is a delta-neutral strategy that remains relatively unaffected by market volatility. Superstate takes a 0.75% management fee for the product. USCC is Superstate’s second offering, following its initial product, a U.S. tokenized treasury fund with over $80 million in TVL. Superstate was founded last year by Robert Leshner, the founder of Compound.

Optimism announced its fifth retroactive funding round, allocating 8 million OP tokens to projects that have contributed to the OP Stack. Contributions can include core Ethereum infrastructure, research and development, and tooling to enhance accessibility and usability. Applications for the round will open on August 15th. To qualify, contributions must have generated impact between October 2023 and August 2024 in areas such as smart contract languages, Ethereum clients, and cryptography research. Projects focused on app development and deployment are not eligible for this round. Badgeholders will vote on fund allocation in September, with grants being delivered in October.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Ethereum ICO. On July 22, 2014, the Ethereum began selling 60 million ether at an initial rate of 2,000 ETH per BTC, worth approximately 31 cents per token. The ICO raised over $18 million worth of BTC, notably without any VC investors. A year later, Ethereum's genesis block went live on the mainnet. If held today, investors who participated in the ICO would see a 100x return against Bitcoin.

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• CBOE confirms trading ETH ETFs.

• EF is hiring for a Protocol Support role.

• Avail announced its mainnet launch date.

• Applications open for the Superhack.

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The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) confirmed that Spot ETH ETFs from Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Invesco, VanEck, and 21Shares will begin trading on its exchange starting Tuesday, July 23rd. A Spot ETH ETF allows investors to gain exposure to Ethereum in the form of stock, rather than owning the asset directly. Except for Invesco, all four asset issuers will provide a fee waiver on the initial trading of their ETFs. Bitwise and Grayscale will trade on the NYSE, which has not yet announced the trading timeline. The Nasdaq, which will host BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum ETF, is also yet to confirm the trading start date, although it is anticipated that all will go live on Tuesday. The date marks two months since the SEC approved the Spot ETH ETF applications.

Avail, a data availability blockchain, announced its mainnet launch date, set for Tuesday, July 23rd. The deployment also introduces AVAIL, the platform's native token, which will be used to pay for services, staking, and governance. Users who claimed AVAIL in April will automatically receive the tokens in their wallets at the mainnet launch. Currently, AVAIL is trading at $0.25 on the Aevo pre-market. Avail aims to provide a scalable and secure solution for data storage by utilizing both validity proofs and data availability sampling (DAS). It also serves as a unifying coordination rollup with a proof aggregation layer and a mechanism for sequencer selection.

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is hiring for a Protocol Support role to help manage Ethereum's stewardship, which includes network upgrades, attracting and retaining protocol contributors, and expanding the team’s capacity to start new initiatives. It involves working on AllCoreDevs, the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship, and the Summer of Protocols programs. Protocol Support works closely with EF members like Trent Van Epps, Tim Beiko, Josh Stark, and others both within and outside the EF. Tim Beiko says it is the first time the role has been opened in a few years. The position is fully remote but requires being online for a few hours daily at 14:00 UTC, referred to as “ETH O’Clock.”

Applications are now open for Superhack, a virtual ETHGlobal hackathon focused on the Superchain, which includes tracks for OP Mainnet, Base, World Chain, Celo, and Mode Network. The hackathon offers $125k in prizes across various categories and will run from July 26th to August 9th. Builders have until Wednesday, July 24th to apply.

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• Polygon plans MATIC to POL migration.

• Optimism opens Security Council nominations.

• Nethermind releases Sedge v1.14

• Self-built blocks increase base gas volatility.

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Polygon announced that it will upgrade the staking contract for the Polygon PoS network on September 4th, changing the primary staking and gas token from MATIC to POL at a 1:1 ratio. POL is a new hyperproductive token that will enable validators to validate multiple ZK chains The POL upgrade has already been deployed on testnet. The migration is part of Polygon’s 2.0 roadmap, which transitions the PoS Chain into Polygon ZK-EVM as part of the AggLayer. In subsequent upgrades, POL will be used to support roles in block generation, data availability, and ZKP generation. No action is required from MATIC holders on Polygon PoS, however, MATIC holders on other chains may need to take action for the migration.

Nominations are open for Cohort A of the Optimism Security Council. The council consists of 13 members split into two cohorts with staggered elections. Seven member roles and a council lead are currently up for election. Anyone can self-nominate by posting their application in the Optimism governance forum by August 14th. Elections will be held from August 22nd to 28th, with new members starting their 12-month term on February 9th. The Security Council manages upgrade keys for OP Stack chains on the Superchain, requiring 75% of members to sign to execute emergency protocol upgrades. The elections follow Optimism's recent advancement to a Stage 1 rollup with the activation fraud proofs.

Nethermind released Sedge v1.4.0, an updated version of its node and validator deployment tool. The release features keys to generate 0x01 withdrawal credentials. The release also supports the Lido Community Staking Module (CSM) and MEV-Boost on the Holesky testnet. Sedge aims to lower technical barriers for solo stakers by providing a 1-click setup tool that automatically configures the client setup process, including the installation of any dependencies. The tool supports all four execution layer and all four consensus layer Ethereum clients.

Blockchain infrastructure provider Blocknative reported that self-built blocks, which contain only public transactions, have unexpectedly increased base fee volatility. Blocknative says the reason is due to the rise of private transactions and timing games in MEV-Boost auctions. Self-built blocks utilize only 18.2% of gas space, while blocks with private transactions use 97.6%. The inefficient gas space utilization unintentionally leads to gas volatility, impacting the effectiveness of self-built blocks.

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