• Fusaka goes live on Sepolia.

• EF 2026 Internship Program.

• Stripe recurring stablecoin payments.

• Gitcoin Grants 24 goes live.

The Fusaka upgrade has successfully activated on the Sepolia testnet, introducing 12 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) that improve scalability, performance, and user experience.  Hoodi is scheduled to undergo the upgrade on October 28th. Testnet node operators must update their client software ahead of the activations. Since testnet rollouts have gone smoothly, Fusaka is likely to go live on Ethereum mainnet on December 3, 2025. Fusaka’s headline feature, PeerDAS (EIP-7594), brings higher blob throughput, significantly reducing L2 transaction costs and enhancing Ethereum scalability. After Fusaka, Blob Parameter Only (BPO) forks will gradually and automatically raise blob limits.

The Ethereum Foundation opened applications for its 2026 Internship Program, a paid, full-time, 12-week opportunity beginning in summer 2026. Students and recent graduates interested in Ethereum development or research can apply until December 1, 2025. Interns will work directly with Ethereum protocol, research, and ecosystem teams and contribute to active projects. Interns can work remotely or in EF offices. Mentoring teams include Cryptography Research, EthPandaOps, Geth, P2P Networking, STEEL, Robust Incentives Group (RIG), and Strategic Funding Coordination. The internship is designed for technically familiar, curious learners eager to deepen their understanding of Ethereum.

Stripe introduced support for recurring stablecoin payments on Polygon and Base. The new feature lets customers pay for subscriptions using USDC directly from their crypto wallets, while merchants can manage both fiat and stablecoin subscriptions in the Stripe Dashboard. Powered by a new smart contract that enables automatic recurring payments, the feature helps businesses lower cross-border transaction costs and expand their global customer reach. The rollout is currently live in private preview for U.S.-based businesses.

• GG24 goes live

• Aave earns $105m in 2025 revenue

• Aerodrome surpasses $300b volume

• OP Stack vs Superchain comparison

• ParaFi stakes on Obol

• SharpLink holds 840k ETH

Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.

• Tornado Cash Proof of Association (PoA) tool.

• Bhutan launches its digital identity system.

• ZKsync Prividium Breakthrough Initiative.

• BitMine now holds 3 million ETH.

0xbow, the developers of the Privacy Pools protocol, introduced Tornado Cash Proof of Association (PoA), a tool that allows Tornado Cash users to cryptographically prove their withdrawals aren’t linked to illicit addresses without compromising privacy. The system generates a ZK proof that checks a withdrawal against a curated blacklist. Users simply enter their note and withdrawal address; all computation happens locally, and no connection between deposit and withdrawal addresses is revealed. The PoA aims to end suspicion toward Tornado Cash users by maintaining a public PoA Registry that marks verified addresses.

Bhutan, a small Buddhist kingdom on the eastern edge of the Himalayas, launched its national digital identity system on Ethereum, becoming the first country to do so. Aya Miyaguchi, President of the Ethereum Foundation, and Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, attended the launch ceremony alongside Bhutanese leadership. Known for its Gross National Happiness framework, Bhutan aims to align digital innovation with citizen wellbeing. The Bhutan National Digital Identity (BNDI) system is already fully operational, with credentials for all 700,000+ citizens expected to migrate by Q1 2026. The initiative is a collaborative effort among the NDI team, GovTech, and Ethereum community contributors.

ZKsync unveiled the Prividium Breakthrough Initiative, aimed at bringing blockchain infrastructure to global institutions and creating an interconnected global financial network. The effort is backed by Citi, Deutsche Bank, Mastercard, and over 30 other partners. It addresses the challenges of balancing privacy, security, interoperability, and speed. Unlike existing infrastructure, Prividiums are permissioned, private Layer 2 networks anchored to Ethereum and secured by zero-knowledge proofs. They offer up to 15,000 transactions per second throughput with one-second latency.

BitMine Immersion Technologies Inc. now holds over 3 million ETH, worth approximately $12.8 billion, representing more than 2.5% of Ethereum’s total supply. The milestone marks the halfway point toward BitMine’s goal of owning 5% of the ETH circulating supply. The company recently acquired 202,037 ETH during last week’s crypto market flash crash. Altogether, Digital Asset Treasury companies now hold nearly 6 million ETH, approaching the 6.9 million ETH held by ETFs.

• Privacy on Ethereum #14

• Sophon introduces a stablecoin card 

• Octant opens creator program

• Ethereum Community Hub goes live

• Virtuals AI hackathon closes soon

• Binance compensates users $283m

Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.

Gm frENS. It's been rough to say the least. Today's brief goes slightly beyond Ethereum. Keep your head up and keep building! This also marks our 800th episode!

• $19b in crypto liquidations

• Aave executes $180m in liquidations.

• A whale nets $192 million in profits.

• Keyring launches a donation vault.

The cryptocurrency market suffered a historic $19 billion liquidation event on Friday, October 10, 2025, marking the largest in its history, surpassing the Covid, FTX, and Luna crashes. Long positions accounted for $16.6 billion, with shorts losing $2.4 billion, including $5.5 billion wiped out in a single hour. The crash intensified after President Trump announced 100% tariffs on Chinese imports effective November 1, causing Bitcoin and Ethereum to plummet about 12%. Bitcoin fell by nearly $20,000 amid the flash crash. Altcoins faced even more severe losses, with some seeing extreme down wicks due to thin liquidity.

Roughly thirty minutes before President Trump’s October 10, 2025, announcement of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports, a newly created Hyperliquid account opened massive short positions on BTC and ETH with 8-12x leverage. The trades, executed on the decentralized perps exchange, netted $192 million in profits within hours amid the crypto market crash. The precise timing of the trade has sparked allegations of insider trading.

Aave, the leading DeFi protocol with over $40 billion in TVL, processed $180 million in liquidations in a one-hour period during the historic crypto market crash triggered by Trump’s 100% tariff announcement on Chinese imports. Founder Stani Kulechov praised Aave’s flawless performance, marking the largest single-day stress test for the DeFi protocol. The AAVE token itself plummeted 64% in the flash crash, but has mostly recovered since.

The Ethereum Foundation’s Funding Coordination Team, in partnership with Keyring Network, launched a donation initiative to support the legal defense of Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev. Over the next two months, 100% of protocol fees from Keyring’s zkVerified vaults on the Ethereum mainnet will be allocated to their legal defense funds. Keyring’s zkVerified permissioned vaults enable compliant, privacy-preserving DeFi lending. Users can deposit USDC into these vaults to earn rewards, while the collected fees are directed to support the privacy-focused developers. So far, the vaults have generated $22,109.52 in fees.

• L2s hit ATH TPS

• EF EcoDev update

• IPFT open-sourced

• Democrats’ market structure proposal

• a16z leads Kalshi Series D

• Morgan Stanley removes restrictions

• Binance performance issues

• Hyperliquid HDL explained

• Crypto investor found dead

• China clarifies export controls

Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.