Ethereum Protocol Studies 2026
The 2026 program introduces new tracks in cryptography and lean consensus/zkEVM and kicks off on February 23rd.
Ethereum Protocol Studies 2026.
Rocket Pool activates Saturn 1.
EF introduces new Platform Team.
Geth critical security release.
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Listen to this episode from Ethereum News on Spotify. The Ethereum Protocol Studies program returns. Rocket Pool activates the Saturn 1 upgrade. The EF introduces a new Platform Team. And Geth issues a critical security release. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/885 Earn 10% real yield on your dollars, fully onchain.
](https://open.spotify.com/episode/5YTmMY0UCkP4Rgz2unx6hd)
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The Ethereum Foundation announced the return of Ethereum Protocol Studies (EPS), a program designed to make Ethereum's core protocol more accessible. The 2026 cohort begins Monday, February 23rd, and introduces new tracks in cryptography and lean consensus/zkEVM, along with a self-paced learning platform. The program guides developers, researchers, and curious users from general Ethereum familiarity to reading protocol specifications, understanding client architecture, and contributing to core development. Participants get to engage with core developers and researchers through live seminars and Discord discussions, gaining a deeper understanding of Ethereum's inner workings.
Rocket Pool, the decentralized Ethereum staking protocol, activated its Saturn One upgrade, introducing 4 ETH megapool validators. The upgrade cuts the node operator bond requirement in half compared to the 8 ETH minipools, significantly improving capital efficiency, scalability, and overall token economics. With megapools, operators can run twice as many validators using the same capital, earning up to 2.3x more commission per ETH bonded. Saturn One also introduces the Universal Adjustable Revenue Split (UARS) rewards model, allocating a 5% base commission to node operators, a 9% revenue share to RPL stakers, while rETH holders maintain the same effective commission as before. rETH remains overcollateralized.
Ethereum Foundation Product Lead Josh Rudolf introduced the Ethereum Foundation's new Platform Team, focused on unifying the Ethereum L1 and L2 ecosystem. The team's mission is to ensure Ethereum serves as the strongest possible platform for users, applications, and organizations. The Platform Team will work to bring greater cohesion to Ethereum's growing network of differentiated L2s. It will lead product-driven R&D, integrate ecosystem needs into the Ethereum roadmap, align L1 and L2 strategy, track network health, and ensure protocol upgrades translate into real-world adoption. The initiative seeks to clarify the roles of L1 and L2 as Ethereum scales, strengthening L1 while enabling specialized L2s to extend its capabilities.
Go Ethereum released v1.16.9, a high-severity security update addressing multiple critical vulnerabilities. All Geth node operators are strongly urged to upgrade as soon as possible. After updating, operators should rotate their p2p node key. The team also released v1.17.0, a feature update that includes the same security fixes and introduces support for lightweight partial archive setups.
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Optimism Scaling Summit
BUIDL is live on UniswapX
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BlackRock acquiring ETH
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Bridge wins OCC approval
Zora pivots to Solana
Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.
Ethereum Hits $15b RWA Market
The market cap of tokenized Real-World Assets (RWAs) on Ethereum mainnet surpassed $15 billion, representing a nearly 200% YOY increase.
Ethereum hits $15b in RWAs.
Stani supports Abundance Assets.
EF sponsors PolyU scholarships.
Harvard endowment adds ETH.
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Listen to this episode from Ethereum News on Spotify. Ethereum's RWA marketcap hits $15 billion. Stani Kulechov proposes that Aave support abundance assets. The Ethereum Foundation Partners with PolyU. And Harvard's endowment adds ETH exposure. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/884 Earn 10% real yield on your dollars, fully onchain.
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EarnUSD is a stablecoin vault by Lido for earning transparent, onchain USD-denominated rewards. Get started today at stake.lido.fi/earn
The market cap of tokenized Real-World Assets (RWAs) on Ethereum mainnet has surpassed $15 billion, making Ethereum the leading blockchain by distributed RWA value. The value represents a nearly 200% year-over-year increase. Ethereum currently hosts 661 distinct RWA tokens with around 173,000 holders. U.S. Treasuries account for $5.3 billion of RWAs, followed by commodities at $5.1 billion and private credit at $2.4 billion. The Ethereum mainnet stablecoin market cap has also grown to over $164 billion. Ethereum dominance in tokenized finance captures roughly 59% of the total onchain RWA value across all chains.
Aave founder Stani Kulechov proposed that Aave should support abundance assets by tokenizing real-world infrastructure, such as solar and other clean energy projects, and supporting them as collateral on the protocol. Abundance assets are technologies that drive costs down, expand productive capacity, resist inflation, and generate positive economic feedback loops. Kulechov argues that bringing the asset class onchain through DeFi can help solve structural capital allocation problems in global finance. In his view, DeFi has already solved the supply side of capital by aggregating global liquidity. He believes tokenizing solar would create new borrowing demand, absorb stablecoin liquidity, and connect DeFi directly to productive economic activity.
The Ethereum Foundation is partnering with the Research Centre for Blockchain Technology (RCBT) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), providing scholarships for MSc in Blockchain Technology, MSc in Cybersecurity, and PhD students pursuing blockchain research. The Foundation emphasized that universities play a key role in Ethereum's long-term public good. The collaboration aims to establish a commitment to academic excellence, talent development, and a secure Web3 ecosystem. The Ethereum Foundation and PolyU will also co-host events, including the Ethereum Hong Kong Meetup at Consensus 2026.
Harvard Management Company, which oversees Harvard University's $50 billion endowment, has initiated its first Ethereum investment by acquiring 3.87 million shares of BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA), valued at $86.8 million, according to recent 13F filings. As of Q4 2025, the endowment's total cryptocurrency exposure through spot ETFs is approximately $352 million.
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Daily Gwei Refuel #858
EthDenver side events
Safe Standard introduced
Curvance domain compromised
Fluidkey red envelopes
PrivacyPools hits $10m deposits
Make Ethereum driven by LLMs
Smart Node v1.19.1 release
Crypto's KYC problem
ZKsync tokenized deposits
Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.
Tomasz Stańczak Steps Down From EF
Bastian Aue will assume the role of Interim co-Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation. Stańczak will continue building on Ethereum.
Tomasz steps from EF.
Peer releases onramp extension.
EIPT builds private bonds on Aztec.
TheDAO publishes a gov proposal.
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Listen to this episode from Ethereum News on Spotify. Tomasz Stańczak stepped down as co-ED from the EF. Peer releases its embedded crypto onramp extension. The Ethereum Institutional Privacy Taskforce builds private bonds on Aztec. And TheDAO publishes a governance proposal. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/883 Sponsor: Arkiv is an Ethereum-aligned data layer for Web3.
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EarnUSD is a stablecoin vault by Lido for earning transparent, onchain USD-denominated rewards. Get started today at stake.lido.fi/earn
Tomasz Stańczak, co-Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation and CEO of Nethermind, is stepping down from his role at the Ethereum Foundation at the end of February 2026. He will continue building on Ethereum ecosystem, beginning a new project on March 1st. Bastian Aue will assume the role of Interim co-Executive Director alongside Hsiao-Wei Wang. Aue has been a core member of the Ethereum Foundation's executive management team since 2019. In his announcement, Stańczak emphasized Ethereum's growing role as foundational infrastructure for global financial systems, AI-driven agentic economies, robotics, governance innovation, and emerging tech. Stańczak also stated his departure was not due to internal conflict.
Peer, a ZK-powered crypto-to-fiat bridge, released the Peer browser extension, enabling developers to embed a fiat-to-crypto onramp directly into their applications using the ZKP2P SDK. Through a simple SDK call, the Peer extension opens a side-panel flow that allows users to purchase crypto without leaving the dapp. Peer supports fiat payments from Venmo, Revolut, Wise, Cash App, and other platforms, enabling users to receive onchain assets like USDC, ETH, SOL, and USDT across 20+ chain. Transactions are gasless, require no redirects or centralized exchanges, and do not require additional verification beyond the connected payment platform.
The Ethereum Institutional Privacy Taskforce redeveloped its private zero-coupon bond prototype on Aztec, reducing the architecture from three separate components into a single ~200-line Noir contract. By leveraging Aztec's privacy-first L2, the rebuild provides a single contract instead of multiple codebases, an encrypted mempool, authentication witnesses for atomic swaps, composability with other private contracts, and a larger anonymity set. The proof-of-concept aims to showcase confidential, compliant bond trading on Ethereum.
The DAO, the infamous 2016 Ethereum crowdfunding experiment now evolved into the TheDAO Security Fund, has published its first governance proposal in nearly a decade. DAO token holders are asked to vote on three proposals that would authorize the Security Fund to: recover any DAO tokens mistakenly sent to TheDAO contract, and retrieve 49 SAI and 1.8777 DGD from the TheDAO contract. Voting is open for the next three days and will close on Monday, February 17, 2026, at 7 UTC.
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Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.