About
EIGEN
Ended--
Last price (USDT)
171.76K
24h total (USDT)
739.77K
Total vol (USDT)
2024-04-30 09:00:00 ~ 2024-10-01 03:30:00
Trading time (UTC+0)
2024-10-01 09:00:00
Delivery time (UTC+0)
Total supply1.76B
Resources
Introduction
EigenLayer is a protocol built on Ethereum that introduces re-staking, allowing users who have staked $ETH to join the EigenLayer smart contract to re-stake their $ETH and extend cryptoeconomic security to other applications on the network. As a platform, EigenLayer, on one hand, raises assets from LSD asset holders, and on the other hand, uses the raised LSD assets as collateral to provide middleware, side chains, and rollups with AVS (Active Verification Service) needs. The convenient and low-cost AVS service itself provides demand matching services between LSD providers and AVS demanders, while a specialized pledge service provider is responsible for specific pledge security services. EIGEN total supply: 1.67 billion tokens
[English Long Read] Restaking Track Review: Truths, Misconceptions, and the Unfinished Journey
Chainfeeds Guide: After spending more than two years bringing all major AVSs onto EigenLayer and designing EigenCloud, this is my candid reflection on the entire journey: what misjudgments were made, what successes were achieved, and where we are headed next. Source: kydo Opinion: kydo: Launching EigenDA on top of the EigenLayer infrastructure was a huge positive surprise. It became the cornerstone of EigenCloud and gave Ethereum a much-needed super-scale DA track—allowing Rollups to advance rapidly without having to switch to a new L1 for performance reasons. The launch of MegaETH was because they believed Sreeram could help them break through the DA bottleneck. Mantle’s proposal to BitDAO to build an L2 was for the same reason. EigenDA also provides Ethereum with a layer of "shield." When there is a high-speed DA solution within the ecosystem, it becomes much harder for external L1s to leverage the Ethereum narrative to siphon value. One of EigenLayer’s early visions was to enable Ethereum to unlock preconfirmation. Later, preconfirmation received a lot of attention due to base rollup, but actual implementation remains difficult. To push the ecosystem forward, we jointly launched the Commit-Boost initiative, attempting to break the lock-in effect of preconfirmation clients and build a neutral platform where any team can innovate through validator commitment mechanisms. Today, the capital flow on Commit-Boost exceeds several billions of dollars, with over 35% of validators connected. As major preconf services go live in the coming months, this number will continue to rise. This is crucial to Ethereum’s anti-fragility and to the ongoing innovation in the preconf market. An underestimated impact of the restaking era is that a large amount of ETH flows to LRT providers, rather than pushing Lido all the way above 33%. This is significant for Ethereum’s social stability. If Lido were to stably occupy more than 33% for a long time without credible alternatives, governance conflicts and ecosystem splits would be severe. Restaking and LRT have not magically decentralized everything, but they have changed the trajectory of staking concentration. This is not meaningless. The biggest "victory" is conceptual. We have validated that the world indeed needs more verifiable systems. But the path is now very different from the original vision. Rather than starting from "broad cryptoeconomic security," insisting on complete decentralization from day one, and expecting everything to be routed from this layer, it’s better to directly provide developers with tools to apply verifiability and match each application with suitable verification primitives. You need to "meet" developers where they are, not require them to become protocol designers from the start. We began building internal modular services like EigenCompute and EigenAI to meet these real needs—things that other teams raise hundreds of millions of dollars and spend years to build, we can deliver in a few months. In the future, everything around EigenCloud will revolve around the EIGEN token. EIGEN will serve as: the core source of economic security; a collateral asset bearing multiple types of risk; and the main value capture for the entire platform’s fee flow and economic activity. Many early misunderstandings stemmed from the huge gap between "what users thought EIGEN would capture" and "what the actual mechanism can capture." The goal remains to enable more on-chain applications to safely use off-chain computation. But there won’t be only one tool—cryptoeconomic security, ZK, TEE, or hybrid technologies can all be used. The key is not to worship any particular technology, but to make "verifiability" a fundamental primitive that can be inserted into any application stack. The gap we want to bridge is from "I have an application" to "I have an application that can be verified by users, counterparties, and regulators." In reality, cryptoeconomic security + TEE is currently the strongest combination of programmability and practical security. When mechanisms like ZK mature, they will be integrated into EigenCloud. [Original text in English]
What’s going on with restaking?
In-depth Review of EigenLayer's Restaking Journey: The Pitfalls Encountered, the Achievements of EigenDA, All Paving the Way for the New Direction of EigenCloud. Written by: Kydo, Head of Narrative at EigenCloud Translated by: Saoirse, Foresight News From time to time, friends send me sarcastic tweets about restaking, but none of these jabs really hit the mark. So I decided to write a reflective “rant” myself. You might think I’m too close to the matter to be objective, or too proud to admit “we miscalculated.” You may feel that even if everyone has already concluded that “restaking failed,” I would still write a lengthy defense, never uttering the word “failure.” These views are reasonable, and many of them have some truth. But this article is only intended to objectively present the facts: what actually happened, what was accomplished, what wasn’t, and what lessons we learned. I hope the experiences shared here are universal enough to provide some reference for developers in other ecosystems. After integrating all major AVSs (Actively Validated Services) on EigenLayer and designing EigenCloud for over two years, I want to honestly review: where we went wrong, where we got it right, and where we’re heading next. What Exactly Is Restaking? The fact that I still need to explain “what restaking is” shows that, even when restaking was an industry focus, we failed to communicate it clearly. This is “Lesson Zero”—focus on a core narrative and repeat it consistently. The Eigen team’s goal has always been “easy to say, hard to do”: to make off-chain computation verifiable, so people can build applications on-chain more securely. AVS was our first and most clear-cut attempt at this. AVS (Actively Validated Services) is a proof-of-stake (PoS) network, where a group of decentralized operators execute off-chain tasks. These operators are monitored, and if they violate rules, their staked assets are slashed. To implement this “slashing mechanism,” there must be “staked capital” as backing. This is where the value of restaking lies: instead of each AVS building its own security system from scratch, restaking allows the reuse of already-staked ETH to provide security for multiple AVSs. This not only reduces capital costs but also accelerates ecosystem bootstrapping. So, the conceptual framework of restaking can be summarized as: AVS: the “service layer,” serving as the carrier for new PoS crypto-economic security systems; Restaking: the “capital layer,” providing security for these systems by reusing existing staked assets. I still think this idea is ingenious, but reality hasn’t been as ideal as the diagrams—many things didn’t turn out as expected. Things That Didn’t Meet Expectations 1. We Chose the Wrong Market: Too Niche We didn’t want “just any verifiable computation,” but insisted on systems that were “decentralized, slashing-based, and fully crypto-economically secure from day one.” We hoped AVS could become “infrastructure services”—just as developers can build SaaS (Software as a Service), anyone could build AVS. This positioning seemed principled, but it greatly narrowed the pool of potential developers. The result was a market that was “small in scale, slow in progress, and high in barriers”: few potential users, high implementation costs, and long cycles for both the team and developers. Whether it was EigenLayer’s infrastructure, developer tools, or each AVS on top, it took months or even years to build. Fast forward nearly three years: we currently have only two mainstream AVSs running in production—Infura’s DIN (Decentralized Infrastructure Network) and LayerZero’s EigenZero. Such “adoption” is far from “widespread.” To be honest, our original scenario was “teams wanting crypto-economic security and decentralized operators from day one,” but the real market demand was for “more gradual, application-centric” solutions. 2. Regulatory Environment Forced Us Into “Silence” When we started the project, it was at the peak of the “Gary Gensler era” (note: Gary Gensler is the chairman of the US SEC, known for his strict regulatory stance on crypto). At that time, several staking companies were under investigation and lawsuits. As a “restaking project,” almost every word we said in public could be interpreted as an “investment promise” or “yield advertisement,” and could even attract subpoenas. This regulatory fog dictated our communication style: we couldn’t speak freely, and even when faced with overwhelming negative coverage, partners shifting blame, or public attacks, we couldn’t clarify misunderstandings in real time. We couldn’t even casually say, “That’s not how it is”—because we had to weigh legal risks first. As a result, we launched locked tokens without sufficient communication. In hindsight, this was indeed risky. If you ever felt “the Eigen team was evasive or unusually silent on something,” it was likely due to this regulatory environment—even a single wrong tweet could bring significant risk. 3. Early AVSs Diluted Brand Value Eigen’s early brand influence was largely thanks to Sreeram (a core team member)—his energy, optimism, and belief that both systems and people can improve earned the team a lot of goodwill. And billions in staked capital further reinforced this trust. But our joint promotion of the first batch of AVSs didn’t match this “brand height.” Many early AVSs made a lot of noise but merely chased industry trends; they were neither the “most technically advanced” nor the “most trustworthy” AVS examples. Over time, people began to associate “EigenLayer” with “the latest liquidity mining and airdrops.” Much of the skepticism, fatigue, and even aversion we face today can be traced back to this stage. If I could do it over, I’d start with “fewer but higher-quality AVSs,” be more selective about partners who could receive brand endorsement, and accept a “slower, less hyped” promotional approach. 4. Over-Engineering for “Minimal Trust” Led to Redundant Design We tried to build a “perfect universal slashing system”—it had to be general, flexible, and cover all slashing scenarios to achieve “minimal trust.” But in practice, this slowed our product iteration and required us to spend a lot of time explaining a mechanism “most people weren’t ready to understand.” Even now, we still have to repeatedly explain the slashing system launched nearly a year ago. In hindsight, a more reasonable path would have been to launch a simple slashing scheme first, let different AVSs try more focused models, and then gradually increase system complexity. But we put “complex design” first, ultimately paying the price in “speed” and “clarity.” What We Actually Achieved People love to label things as “failures” outright, but this approach is too hasty. In the “restaking” chapter, many things were actually done very well, and these achievements are crucial for our future direction. 1. We Proved We Can Win Hard Fights in a Fierce Market We prefer “win-win,” but we’re never afraid of competition—if we choose to enter a market, we must lead. In the restaking field, Paradigm and Lido once jointly supported our direct competitor. At that time, EigenLayer’s TVL was less than 1 billion. The competitor had narrative advantages, channel resources, capital support, and “default trust.” Many told me, “Their combination will execute better and crush you.” But reality proved otherwise—today, we hold 95% of the restaking capital market share and have attracted 100% of top-tier developers. In the “data availability (DA)” field, we started later, with a smaller team and less funding, while industry pioneers already had a head start and strong marketing. But now, by any key metric, EigenDA (Eigen’s data availability solution) holds a large share of the DA market; as our biggest partners go fully live, this share will grow exponentially. Both markets were fiercely competitive, but we ultimately stood out. 2. EigenDA Became a Mature Product That “Changed the Ecosystem” Launching EigenDA on top of EigenLayer infrastructure was a huge surprise. It became the cornerstone of EigenCloud and brought something urgently needed to Ethereum—a massive DA channel. With it, rollups can run at high speed without leaving the Ethereum ecosystem for “speed” or turning to other new blockchains. MegaETH launched because the team believed Sreeram could help them break through the DA bottleneck; when Mantle first proposed building L2 to BitDAO, it was for the same reason. EigenDA also became Ethereum’s “defensive shield”: with a high-throughput native DA solution inside the Ethereum ecosystem, external blockchains find it harder to “attract attention with Ethereum narratives while siphoning off ecosystem value.” 3. Promoted the Development of the Pre-Confirmation Market One of EigenLayer’s early core topics was how to unlock Ethereum’s pre-confirmation functionality through EigenLayer. Since then, pre-confirmation has gained a lot of attention via the Base network, but implementation still faces challenges. To promote ecosystem development, we also jointly launched the Commit-Boost program—aimed at solving the “lock-in effect” of pre-confirmation clients, building a neutral platform where anyone can innovate through validator commitments. Now, billions of dollars have flowed through Commit-Boost, and over 35% of validators have joined the program. As mainstream pre-confirmation services go live in the coming months, this proportion will increase further. This is crucial for the “anti-fragility” of the Ethereum ecosystem and lays the foundation for continued innovation in the pre-confirmation market. 4. Always Ensured Asset Security For years, we have safeguarded tens of billions of dollars in assets. This may sound bland, even “boring”—but just consider how many crypto infrastructure projects have “collapsed” in various ways, and you’ll realize how rare this “blandness” is. To avoid risks, we built a solid operational security system, recruited and trained a world-class security team, and embedded “adversarial thinking” into our team culture. This culture is vital for any business involving user funds, AI, or real-world systems, and “can’t be patched later”—the foundation must be laid from the start. 5. Prevented Lido from Holding Over 33% Staking Share Long-Term The restaking era had an underestimated impact: a large amount of ETH flowed to LRT providers, preventing Lido’s staking share from staying well above 33% for a long time. This is significant for Ethereum’s “social balance.” If Lido had held over 33% staking share long-term without reliable alternatives, it would have sparked major governance disputes and internal conflicts. Restaking and LRT didn’t “magically achieve full decentralization,” but they did change the trend of staking concentration—this is by no means a trivial achievement. 6. Clarified Where the “True Frontier” Lies The biggest “gain” is actually conceptual: we validated the core thesis that “the world needs more verifiable systems,” but also realized the “path to realization”—the previous direction was off track. The right path is not “starting from general crypto-economic security, insisting on building a fully decentralized operator system from day one, and waiting for all businesses to plug into this layer.” The real way to accelerate the “frontier” is to provide developers with direct tools so they can achieve verifiability for their specific applications, and match these tools with suitable verification primitives. We need to “proactively meet developers’ needs,” not require them to become “protocol designers” from day one. To this end, we have started building internal modular services—EigenCompute (verifiable compute service) and EigenAI (verifiable AI service). Some features that would take other teams hundreds of millions of dollars and years to achieve, we can launch in a few months. The Road Ahead So, faced with these experiences—timing, successes, failures, and brand “scars”—how should we respond? Here’s a brief overview of our next steps and the logic behind them: 1. Make the EIGEN Token the Core of the System In the future, the entire EigenCloud and all products we build around it will be centered on the EIGEN token. The EIGEN token will serve as: The core economic security driver of EigenCloud; The asset backing all types of risks undertaken by the platform; The core value capture tool for all fee flows and economic activities on the platform. Early on, many people’s expectations for “what value the EIGEN token can capture” differed from the “actual mechanism”—this caused confusion. In the next stage, we will bridge this gap through concrete designs and implemented systems. More details will be announced later. 2. Enable Developers to Build “Verifiable Applications,” Not Just AVSs Our core thesis remains unchanged: by improving the verifiability of off-chain computation, people can build applications on-chain more securely. But the tools to achieve “verifiability” will no longer be limited to just one. Sometimes, it may be crypto-economic security; sometimes, it may be ZK proofs, TEE (Trusted Execution Environment), or hybrid solutions. The key is not to “favor a particular technology,” but to make “verifiability” a standard primitive that developers can directly integrate into their tech stack. Our goal is to narrow the gap between “two states”: From “I have an application” to “I have an application that users, partners, or regulators can all verify.” Given the current state of the industry, “crypto-economics + TEE” is undoubtedly the best choice—it achieves the optimal balance between “developer programmability” (what developers can build) and “security” (not theoretical, but practical and deployable security). In the future, when ZK proofs and other verification mechanisms are mature enough to meet developer needs, we will also integrate them into EigenCloud. 3. Deeply Invest in the AI Field The biggest transformation in global computing today is AI—especially AI Agents. The crypto industry cannot stay out of this. AI Agents are essentially “language models wrapped around tools, performing actions in specific environments.” Currently, not only are language models “black boxes,” but the operational logic of AI Agents is also opaque—which is why there have already been hacking incidents caused by the need to “trust the developer.” But if AI Agents are “verifiable,” people no longer need to rely on trust in the developer. To achieve verifiability for AI Agents, three conditions must be met: the inference process of LLMs (large language models) is verifiable, the compute environment executing actions is verifiable, and the data layer for storing, retrieving, and understanding context is verifiable. And EigenCloud is designed for such scenarios: EigenAI: provides deterministic, verifiable LLM inference services; EigenCompute: provides a verifiable execution environment; EigenDA: provides verifiable data storage and retrieval services. We believe “verifiable AI Agents” will be one of the most competitive application scenarios for our “verifiable cloud services”—so we have formed a dedicated team to focus on this area. 4. Reshape the Narrative Logic of “Staking and Yield” To earn real yield, you must take real risk. We are exploring broader “staking application scenarios,” so that staked capital can support the following risks: Smart contract risk; Risks of different types of computation; Risks that can be clearly described and quantitatively priced. Future yields will truly reflect “transparent, understandable risks undertaken,” rather than simply chasing “the current popular liquidity mining model.” This logic will naturally be integrated into the EIGEN token’s use cases, endorsement scope, and value flow mechanisms. Final Words Restaking didn’t become the “universal layer” I (and others) once hoped for, but it hasn’t disappeared either. Over its long development, it became what most “first-generation products” become: An important chapter, a pile of hard-won lessons, and now the infrastructure supporting broader business. We still maintain restaking-related business and still value it—we just don’t want to be limited by the original narrative anymore. If you are a community member, AVS developer, or an investor who still associates Eigen with “that restaking project,” I hope this article gives you a clearer understanding of “what happened in the past” and “where we are headed now.” Now, we are entering a field with a “much larger total addressable market (TAM)”: on one side is cloud services, on the other is direct developer-facing application layer demand. We are also exploring the “still underdeveloped AI track” and will continue to push these directions with our usual high execution. The team is still full of drive, and I can’t wait to prove to all doubters—we can do it. I have never been more optimistic about Eigen, and I have been increasing my EIGEN token holdings—and will continue to do so in the future. We are still at the beginning.
Major Token Unlocks Set for Ethena and EigenLayer
Key Points: Scheduled token unlocks by Ethena and EigenLayer. $72 million tokens set for release. Potential short-term market volatility due to unlocks. Major Token Unlocks for Ethena and EigenLayer Ethena and EigenLayer are set for major token unlocks between December 1-8, 2025, releasing millions in tokens and potentially impacting market supply. The unlock events could lead to temporary price volatility and influence market dynamics, given their significant supply increase and scheduled releases. Major Token Unlocks for Ethena and EigenLayer Ethena and EigenLayer have scheduled major token unlocks between December 1-8, 2025. These unlocks involve significant amounts, led by pre-announced vesting plans from both projects. Ethena plans to unlock $52.6 million worth of ENA tokens, increasing circulating supply by 3.04%. EigenLayer will release $19.5 million in EIGEN tokens, impacting the supply by 10.79%, potentially influencing market dynamics. Read more about the unlocks These token unlocks are expected to create temporary price volatility due to increased supply. Institutional involvement remains significant, driven by Ethena’s synthetic dollar growth and EigenLayer’s demand for restaking services. The financial implications could result in short-term dips, balancing potential entry points for investors, given the historical trend of recovery post-unlocks. According to market analysts , “Historically, significant token unlocks lead to temporary price dips, followed by recovery periods, creating potential entry opportunities for long-term investors.” These events conform to structured liquidity plans aligning with community transparency. The impact of these unlocks is observed in broader crypto markets, potentially affecting DeFi and Layer 1 tokens. Prior unlocks of this scale have prompted similar market reactions, with increased trading volumes across exchanges. More insights here Experts highlight the significance of these unlocks, emphasizing that structured releases align with long-term growth strategies. Continuing interest in these projects suggests robustness in core fundamentals despite short-term fluctuations expected with token injections.
Firelight launches XRP staking protocol on Flare, with stXRP planned to earn rewards through DeFi insurance
Firelight Finance has launched an XRP staking protocol on the Flare network, introducing a liquid token called stXRP that aims to earn rewards through a DeFi insurance model. The launch represents Phase 1 of the rollout. Users can bridge XRP to Flare through the FAssets system, deposit FXRP (Flare’s wrapped version of XRP) into Firelight, and receive stXRP on a 1:1 basis. stXRP can already move across the Flare ecosystem, but staking rewards are not active yet. Firelight expects rewards to begin in Phase 2 — planned for early 2026 — if DeFi protocols adopt the insurance model and pay fees for coverage. Firelight’s design borrows the idea behind restaking — reusing crypto assets to secure applications — but applies it differently from early Ethereum-based attempts such as EigenLayer. Firelight’s chief security officer, Connor Sullivan, formerly at Fireblocks, told The Block the main issue with earlier restaking frameworks was the cost of capital. “Firelight keeps the key concept [of restaking], that you can reuse capital to bootstrap security, but changes how it’s applied,” Sullivan said. “We focus on assets with a structurally lower cost of capital, like XRP, instead of trying to outcompete ETH DeFi yields. We narrow in on a single, high-conviction use case: DeFi cover and insurance for top-tier protocols, where proper risk modeling actually matters. And we rethink incentives: short, transparent points programs tied to real participation and real economic value.” Firelight's stXRP functions as a liquid receipt for users’ deposits and can already be used across the Flare ecosystem, including on decentralized exchanges, in lending protocols, and liquidity pools. Participants in the initial vault will also receive Firelight Points, intended to reward early protocol participation ahead of the Phase 2 launch. Firelight said its broader goal is to give XRP holders a way to earn staking rewards while offering DeFi protocols an insurance layer against hacks and failures. But Sullivan agreed that the model only works if protocols actually choose to purchase this cover — which he said is where Sentora, Firelight’s incubator and main technical contributor, plays a key role. stXRP for DeFi insurance? Firelight is incubated by Sentora — formed through the merger of IntoTheBlock and Trident Digital — and the Flare network, which provides the underlying infrastructure. Both are backed by Ripple and aim to build out XRP’s role in DeFi . Sullivan said Sentora has long worked with major DeFi protocols through risk-management strategies and liquidity programs, supporting billions of dollars in total value locked. “Our clients are institutions looking to earn yield through DeFi, and one of the biggest hurdles they face is the absence of this specific cover primitive,” Sullivan said. "DeFi cover is an essential feature, not a nice-to-have." Sullivan said Firelight is in active discussions with several DeFi protocols about integrating the cover system. If protocols adopt it, they will pay fees to purchase protection backed by the pooled FXRP inside Firelight. A portion of those fees would then be distributed to XRP stakers as rewards. Although Firelight is built on Flare, the system is chain-agnostic. "Any protocol on any chain can integrate with Firelight and purchase cover, not just those on XRPL or Flare," Sullivan said. If a covered incident occurs, a claim would be submitted by an appointed agent and reviewed by an independent consortium. If approved, payouts are executed automatically through onchain contracts. Sullivan said Firelight is currently focused on building liquidity for the cover module, with full cover functionality set to go live in Phase 2. He declined to share a target range for rewards but said the goal is to find a “fair balance” between staker returns and the cost of capital for protocols buying cover.
Nothing Has Changed Except the Bullish Momentum: Top 5 Altcoins Worth Taking a Shot On
Each asset shows improving structure as broader bullish conditions develop across major crypto markets. Investors monitor resistance reactions as renewed momentum creates stronger medium-term setups. On-chain trends suggest continued accumulation across several networks despite recent volatility. A steady shift in market sentiment has placed several altcoins back into focus as bullish pressure strengthens across key sectors. Reporting from multiple analytics desks shows rising activity in Litecoin, XRP, EIGEN, ARB, and STBL as traders evaluate renewed momentum after weeks of uneven performance. Analysts describe the current environment as remarkable due to consistent accumulation patterns, reduced selling aggression, and clearer structure across several networks. Market desks note that the momentum is not driven by sudden speculation but by improved consistency in trend confirmation. The reported data indicates that participants are re-examining mid-cap assets because the broader market has stabilized despite recent volatility. The five assets listed show unique structural behavior, but all share a similar return of confidence that many observers consider exceptional given recent conditions. Litecoin Shows Superior Consistency During Shifting Market Conditions Litecoin has displayed a superior trend pattern during the recent recovery phase. Analysts highlight stable transaction flow and steady hash rate behavior. The asset remains noted for clarity during periods of uncertainty. Current reports show improved sentiment as traders evaluate renewed structure. XRP Tracks Unmatched Range Stability as Convergence Tightens XRP remains within an unmatched consolidation zone as convergence patterns tighten. Recent data shows consistent liquidity flow despite earlier volatility. Market research groups report that the asset continues to react well to resistance retests. The structure forms a stronger medium-term setup. EIGEN Displays Groundbreaking Activity Across Its Expanding Network EIGEN has registered groundbreaking on-chain signals that point to steady demand. Analysts describe the recent movement as phenomenal due to increased usage statistics. Reports show stronger interactions across core functions, indicating stable ecosystem growth. Traders monitor the next phase. ARB Records Innovative Shifts as Layer-Two Metrics Improve ARB continues to show innovative performance within the layer-two sector. Network activity remains strong despite earlier drawdowns. Reporting desks highlight increased throughput and stable user participation. These data points build a clearer outlook for the asset. STBL Observes Remarkable Stability as Demand Rebalancing Continues STBL reports have highlighted remarkable behavior during recent cycles. The asset maintains tight trading behavior and consistent supply reactions. Analysts consider this stability important as conditions shift. Market observers watch for new demand triggers.
Here’s Why Ethereum Emerges As The Global Capital Rails For On-Chain Finance
In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital finance, Ethereum is quickly establishing itself as the primary infrastructure for global on-chain capital markets. From tokenized bonds and money market funds to institutional liquidity rails, the world’s capital is beginning to migrate to an ecosystem where transactions are programmable, auditable, and borderless. Why Is Ethereum Chosen As The Default Choice For Global Rails The global capital markets are moving on-chain to Ethereum because it is credibly neutral. ETH has never experienced downtime, and it possesses the economic security necessary to support the world’s financial system. Investor and founder of GM42NFT, Captain GM, has stated that ETH is not fast enough to support trading because it wasn’t built for it. However, the attempts to build a genuinely fast on-chain trading environment have consistently led teams to centralize significant parts of the trading system. This move creates security, reliability, and neutrality concerns for a system designed to be global. These compromises are in direct conflict with the very benefits that ETH provides, and make it the chosen blockchain for global finance. This is where Raya Network steps in to solve these issues at the core. Raya is delivering a decentralized exchange (DEX) with institutional-grade execution speed and Ethereum-level security. It’s a platform that is as fast as TradFi and remains simultaneously secure, reliable, and credibly neutral as exactly DeFi should be. “Fast is easy, decentralized is hard, and it’s only Reya that does both,” Captain GM noted. Analyst Alucard mentioned that the Raya network has become one of the few projects that genuinely solves the speed and security problem. The sub-millisecond execution speeds, trades are fully verified on ETH, and there’s no dependence on a single sequencer. This is an engineered combination designed for real progress in the space. However, over 45% of the token supply is allocated to the community. Reya, combined with the ETH buyback mechanism, creates an ecosystem that’s aligned both technically and economically. They’re building something fast and secure, and because of that, Reya sits in a different category. Why Reya’s Design Feels More Like A New Standard Than Another DEX A trader and ambassador of Somnia, Onur, has also explained that his experience with Reya feels like a full redesign of on-chain execution rather than a small improvement. It offers sub-millisecond fills, unified margin, Ethereum security with ZK settlement, and smooth flow through EigenDA. According to Onur, the peer-to-pool model keeps trades consistent, efficient, and free from bottlenecks or hidden edges. As a result of this approach, Reya isn’t just another venue anymore, and it’s actively becoming the new execution standard for DeFi. Featured image from Peakpx, chart from Tradingview.com
What is EigenLayer's awkward concept of intersubjective forking?
Author: Ebunker Co-founder 0xTodd This article is reprinted with permission A fact can generally be divided into three categories: Objective facts Subjective facts And “intersubjective” facts, which are somewhere in between. For example: 1. Objective fact: for instance, 1+1=2; 2. Subjective fact: for example, someone thinks @0x_todd is handsome; 3. Intersubjective fact, which is a bit abstract, comes from “social consensus,” such as: ChatGPT is one of the leading AIs today. Intersubjective facts are not as set in stone as objective facts, nor as arbitrary as subjective facts. They exist between subjects—in plain language, they are the consensus of the masses, even if they may not be the truth. If we look at Crypto, here are a few more examples: 1. Objective fact: for example, if EVM executes a piece of code and performs a certain function, it will definitely output a certain result. 2. Subjective fact: for example, a tweet where I think @eigenlayer allocated too little to early holders; 3. Intersubjective fact, also from “social consensus,” such as: bitcoin is the leader of crypto; or a certain node acted maliciously because it concealed some data. Now, everyone knows what Re-staking is: Using ETH as collateral to perform some validation work; 1. If validation is successful, you earn a commission; 2. If you mess up, your collateral is deducted. But how do you determine whether you actually messed up or succeeded? Who deducts the collateral? This is a tough problem. Verifying “objective facts” is fine, as there are very clear standards. For example, whether a smart contract executed successfully—this is easy to handle. Using $ETH as collateral for verifying objective facts is not a problem. But verifying “intersubjective facts” is troublesome, as the standards are not so clear. Would you still dare to use $ETH as collateral in this case? Definitely not. Therefore, Eigenlayer believes that for any validation involving intersubjective facts, ETH should no longer be used for re-staking, but instead the $Eigen token should be used. This still doesn’t solve our previous problem. How do you determine whether you actually messed up or succeeded? 1. Rely on majority voting? That could lead to “tyranny of the majority,” where large holders could team up to wipe out small holders. 2. Rely on a committee decision? Then why are we in crypto at all? So, Eigen token staking plans to use a third approach: 3. Rely on forks. If there is a huge disagreement over an “intersubjective fact,” the last resort is to fork. If you (and those on your side) believe everyone else is wrong, even if you don’t currently hold the majority, you can directly fork the token and confiscate the others’ tokens. Note, this is the ultimate trump card. So what exactly is a huge disagreement over an “intersubjective fact”? For example, back in the day, Trump lost his re-election by a small margin of votes, and Biden became the 46th President of the United States. However, in a brief window, Trump claimed that Biden “stole” his votes and that he was the real legitimate 46th President. Before this matter was settled, there were certainly many people who firmly believed Trump was the real 46th president, and they had no subjective intent to do evil, and neither side’s supporters could convince the other. Eigenlayer believes that the best solution to this kind of problem is to mutually fork tokens and let time test everything, because eventually one side will gradually lose legitimacy and approach zero. So: 1. In the eyes of Trump supporters (i.e., the Trump version of EIGEN), all Biden supporters’ collateral should be confiscated; 2. From the perspective of Biden supporters (i.e., the Biden version of EIGEN), all Trump supporters’ collateral should be confiscated. We all know the final result: Trump is not the 46th president in the public eye, the Trump version of EIGEN eventually goes to zero, so confiscating Biden supporters’ tokens doesn’t matter—they’re all worth 0 anyway. Conversely, Biden is the 46th president in the public eye, the Biden version of EIGEN becomes the official EIGEN, and Trump supporters whose tokens were previously confiscated have paid the price. This is the problem that intersubjective forking aims to solve. Therefore, these must use the EIGEN token, not ETH. ETH forks are too difficult, and it’s not good for ETH security. Of course, there’s also the self-interest of locking up their own token as much as possible. There’s another small detail: EIGEN uses a dual-token model. One is a standard ERC-20 token, which cannot be forked and can be used on exchanges or DeFi. The other is the token truly used for determining facts, which can theoretically be forked infinitely if there is a huge disagreement. These two tokens are isolated from each other but have a certain mapping relationship. If you’re interested, you can check the whitepaper; I won’t elaborate here. To summarize, Eigenlayer abstracts a new type of fact (intersubjective), which cannot be solved by previous solutions (ETH Restaking), so it proposes a new solution (staking and slashing based on the EIGEN token), i.e., issuing a new work token $EIGEN. Ebunker, a long-term Ethereum supporter, closely follows Ethereum’s technological development, proposal upgrades, and community changes, sharing research and views on key Ethereum sectors such as Staking, L2, and DeFi. Currently, Ebunker includes Ebunker Pool (a non-custodial Ethereum staking pool) and Ebunker Venture (Ethereum maximization venture capital), among other businesses.
Magic Labs, Embedded Wallet Provider for Polymarket & Naver, Integrates Newton Protocol for Onchain Compliance
Announcement highlights PayPal Ventures-backed Magic Labs’ move to make compliance plug-and-play and affordable for 200,000 developers and to bring institutional-grade safeguards to 50 million wallets through the integration of Newton Protocol’s onchain policy engine. Magic Labs, the core developer behind the Newton Protocol, will integrate and make available the Newton SDK to its network of more than 200,000 developers and 50 million wallets, bringing programmable compliance directly into the transaction layer of Magic-powered applications. The integration marks the largest deployment to date of programmable compliance infrastructure across a live developer network, enabling builders to design applications with verifiable policy enforcement and automated risk management built in. “Magic secures the account. Newton Protocol secures the transaction,” said Jaemin Jin, Co-Founder and President of Magic Labs. “By integrating Newton Protocol’s programmable policy layer into wallets, we’re giving developers a compliance-ready framework that extends Magic’s trust model from onboarding to execution.” Magic Labs, the only wallet provider certified under SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001:2022, and HIPAA, will extend its security framework beyond onboarding and authentication to include policy enforcement at the transaction layer. With Newton Protocol, developers can automate compliance checks – such as KYC, AML, sanctions screening, or asset restrictions – without maintaining their own in-house risk or legal infrastructure. “By bringing Newton Protocol to Magic developers, we’re making compliance a native part of the onchain development experience for hundreds of thousands of builders,” added Mohammad Akhavannik, Managing Director of the Magic Newton Foundation. “This is a major step toward verifiable, compliant automation at scale while blockchain adoption continues to accelerate.” From Polymarket to Programmable Policy The announcement builds on the success of Magic Labs wallet infrastructure being used by Polymarket, the world’s largest prediction market, which processes billions in onchain volume. During the 2024 U.S. election night, Polymarket handled over $3 billion in transactions with zero downtime and sub-second response times, powered by Magic’s embedded wallets. To date, Magic Labs has supported over $8.9 billion in transaction volume for Polymarket alone. Leveraging Newton Protocol, Magic Labs jointly developed a step-up 2FA policy framework for Polymarket that adds an extra layer of verification for high-risk actions as defined by Polymarket, dynamically enforcing withdrawal and transaction rules through Newton Protocol’s verifiable, privacy-preserving policy ledger. This collaboration with Polymarket proves the effectiveness of programmable, onchain compliance for real-world applications. A New Standard for Onchain Compliance Unlike traditional compliance systems hardcoded into smart contracts or confined to centralized rule engines, Newton Protocol provides a universal policy layer that works across chains and is compatible with the openness of DeFi. Developers can define policy rules using offchain oracle data, such as proof-of-reserves, sanctions lists, or identity checks, that update as regulations change to produce verifiable onchain proofs of compliance. Each policy evaluation generates a cryptographic attestation on Newton Explorer, with enforcement executed by a decentralized operator network secured through EigenLayer restaking. For developers without dedicated compliance teams, Newton Protocol connects seamlessly to third-party data providers, from identity verification to wallet risk scoring, to help enforce global regulatory expectations such as OFAC, KYC/AML/CFT, SEC, and MiCA standards. About Magic Labs Magic Labs is the lead developer for Newton Protocol. In addition to protocol development, Magic offers secure, compliant and flexible TEE-based API wallets. Since 2018, Magic has brought over 50M wallets onchain and is trusted by 200K+ developers and leading brands like Forbes, Helium, Polymarket, WalletConnect, and Naver. Magic Labs has raised approximately $90 million from investors including PayPal Ventures, Placeholder, DCG, Volt Capital, Polygon, Balaji Srinivasan and others. About Newton Protocol Newton Protocol, secured by NEWT, is the first policy protocol designed to govern the new era of assets such as stablecoins, RWAs and AI, which require more compliance and composability than smart contracts allow. Newton Protocol establishes a secure framework to bring the $250T global investable asset market onchain, plus hundreds of trillions in RWAs, by creating policies for both offchain and onchain data. Magic Newton Foundation oversees the research, development and community initiatives of the Newton Protocol. The Foundation’s mission is to bring programmable trust and compliance to the next generation of blockchain, AI and financial systems through open-source infrastructure and transparent governance. For a deeper dive into Newton Protocol, read the latest litepaper.
Infura launches DIN AVS to bring decentralized RPC and API marketplace to EigenLayer
Foresight News reported, according to The Block, that the decentralized infrastructure network (DIN) developed by the Infura team under Consensys is launching its Autonomous Verifiable Service (AVS) mainnet on EigenLayer. The goal is to bring economic security and decentralization to a sector long dominated by a few centralized Remote Procedure Call (RPC) providers. This move aims to address the concentration issue in RPC infrastructure, as currently about 70% to 80% of traffic is routed through a handful of centralized providers. EigenLayer allows users to restake ETH, including through liquid staking tokens such as stETH, to secure third-party applications known as AVS. DIN's AVS is one of the first large-scale applications of EigenLayer's modular restaking model, with the network structure designed to scale through the participation of hundreds of operators and future on-chain incentive mechanisms.
Only four protocols in the DeFi space have a TVL exceeding $10 billion.
according to DeFiLlama data, as of now, there are only 4 protocols in the entire DeFi ecosystem with a TVL (Total Value Locked) exceeding 10 billion USD, namely: Aave (approximately 31.059 billion USD) Lido (approximately 26.481 billion USD) EigenLayer (approximately 12.656 billion USD) Binance staked ETH (BETH) (approximately 10.848 billion USD) With the market correction, most protocols have experienced varying degrees of TVL decline, causing the "10 billion TVL club" members to further shrink.
Infura launches DIN AVS to bring decentralized RPC and API marketplace to EigenLayer
Decentralized Infrastructure Network (DIN), built by the team behind Infura at Consensys, is launching an Autonomous Verifiable Service (AVS) mainnet on EigenLayer, designed to bring economic security and decentralization to a segment long dominated by a handful of centralized remote procedure call (RPC) providers. The move aims to tackle concentrated RPC infrastructure — the method that wallets, dapps, and platforms use to talk to a blockchain node — which currently funnels 70% to 80% of traffic through a few centralized providers, Infura said in a statement shared with The Block. EigenLayer enables users to re-stake ETH, including through liquid staking tokens like stETH, to secure third-party applications called AVSs. DIN's AVS represents one of the first large-scale applications of EigenLayer's modular restaking model, with the network structured to scale through participation from hundreds of operators and future onchain incentive mechanisms, according to the team. "We set out to build a protocol that would finally align incentives across the infrastructure layer of Web3. With EigenLayer, we were able to deliver on that vision by building on a proven restaking standard backed by the strongest asset in crypto: restaked ETH," E.G. Galano, co-founder of Infura, an RPC provider developed by Consensys, said. "DIN's Eigen AVS turns infrastructure into an open marketplace, where reliability and performance are directly rewarded." DIN, already integrated into MetaMask, Ethereum Layer 2 Linea, and Infura, routes more than 13 billion monthly requests across Ethereum, multiple Layer 2s, and over 20 alternative Layer 1 networks, according to the team. Under the AVS model, node providers earn rewards for uptime and accurate data, and can be slashed over time for downtime or incorrect responses. "DIN launching on EigenLayer is a major step for crypto infrastructure, because it brings real economic consequences to a part of the stack that's been too easy to overlook," Eigen Labs founder and CEO Sreeram Kannan said. "For years, developers relied on a few centralized RPC providers and had to hope they wouldn't fail." RPC centralization risk The Infura team argues that reliance on centralized RPC providers poses systemic risk, as outages can cascade across wallets, dapps, bridges, and DeFi protocols. DIN aims to mitigate this through a decentralized supply of RPC nodes validated by independent watchers and secured by stETH restaking, with ETH and EIGEN support to follow. Key features include permissionless onboarding for RPC node providers, watchers, and restakers, independent performance verification, and an architecture that lets restakers choose which networks to secure. Infura claimed incentivized testnets recorded a greater than 99% success rate and median latency of under 250ms while serving over 7 billion monthly requests during pilot phases. Founding node operators, including EverStake, Liquify, NodeFleet, Validation Cloud, and CompareNodes, are already contributing to the AVS mainnet. The DIN team said it has also completed two independent audits, and additional partners supporting the rollout include 0xFury, AltLayer, BlockPi, Chainstack, Compare Nodes, InfStones, Nodies, Northwest Nodes, Rivet, and Simply Staking. Last month, Axios reported that Consensys had engaged JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs to assist it with an initial public offering in the U.S., following in the footsteps of other crypto-related firms like Circle, Gemini, and Bullish.
CoinFello: The First Self-Sovereign AI Agent for Using and Automating Any Smart Contract
November 17th, 2025 – Fort Worth, Texas, USA HyperPlay Labs Inc., a leader in crypto, software distribution, and wallet innovation, will this week announce the launch of CoinFello at DevConnect in Buenos Aires, Argentina. CoinFello is the world’s first AI agentic app for using and automating any smart contract protocol. CoinFello provides users with a simple chat interface that can understand on-chain context, execute user intents, and automate smart contract interactions, all in plain language. CoinFello combines the user’s wallet with a user agent that anticipates user needs to make crypto easy, fun, and safe, making way for mainstream users to onboard into DeFi. Built on both EigenCloud and the MetaMask Smart Accounts Kit, developed by Consensys , CoinFello ensures that users remain in full custody of their funds while interacting with CoinFello’s advanced AI LLM. CoinFello receives a delegation from the user’s existing MetaMask wallet (or can create a new MetaMask wallet directly within the CoinFello app). CoinFello enables MetaMask users to leverage an intuitive, intent-based system, solving many of the greatest user experience problems preventing the mainstream adoption of crypto, such as discovery of DeFi protocols that best meet a user’s needs, abstracting away the complexities of dealing with gas, explaining what smart contracts do in plain language, and automating cross-chain transactions. For example, CoinFello users can prevent liquidations by asking their assistant to automatically reallocate funds in case of black swan events, such as those seen in October 2025, where $1.7B+ worth of liquidations happened on Ethereum and EVM-compatible networks alone. “Self-sovereign AI solves many of the fundamental user experience problems for interacting with dApps and DeFi protocols,” said jacobc.eth, Founder and CEO of CoinFello and previous Lead of Operations at MetaMask. “CoinFello represents the first time that self-custodial DeFi can be truly accessible to mainstream audiences. We’ve created a user agent that can protect user funds, solve protocol discoverability, and simplify UX. We’re aiming to minimize risks while maximizing accessibility.”Also describing the partnership, Sreeram Kannan, Founder of EigenCloud and CEO of Eigen Labs, said, “We are excited to partner with the CoinFello team to deliver verifiable, deterministic, and self-sovereign AI for crypto users. This partnership ensures that users have AI agents they fully control, using the model the user signed up for, and with reliable and repeatable outputs that protect users against non-attributable manipulation in agents.” At every layer of the crypto experience, CoinFello works to make things easier. CoinFello users can complete complex transactions without ever navigating to a website-based dapp. Instead, users tell their agent what they’d like to execute, and the agent interfaces with the relevant smart contracts directly on the user’s behalf. CoinFello presents users with the smart contract interaction (or automation) for approval ahead of executing it. CoinFello is the first solution that is both fully self-sovereign and supports any smart contract interaction on any EVM chain. With a context-aware conversational AI interface, users can simply say, “Sell my meme coins to buy more ETH,” or “use the liquidity in my wallet to ensure my loan positions are not liquidated during market fluctuations,” and the application handles the rest, presenting the user with an overview of the action to be taken first. CoinFello abstracts away complexities like gas fees, chain selection, token swapping, and bridging, making smart contract interactions simple. “We’re excited to be working with the CoinFello team as they bring agentic experiences to life with the MetaMask Smart Accounts Kit.” said Ryan McPeck Product Lead at Consensys for the MetaMask Smart Accounts Kit . “Together we imagine a future where AI agents can act safely on behalf of users through fine-grained and transitive permissions, empowering people to express exactly what they want to see happen on-chain.” CoinFello is available now in a private alpha testing cohort, with a public release slated for Q1 2026. For more information and to join the waitlist, users can visit . About HyperPlay Labs HyperPlay Labs is the creator of both CoinFello and HyperPlay . HyperPlay is the leading web3 gaming infrastructure solution, providing wallet interoperability, questing, and censorship-resistant game distribution. HyperPlay Labs team members are veterans of crypto, AI, and gaming. HyperPlay originates from within MetaMask and was founded to solve the largest UX problems around onboarding mainstream audiences into the decentralized web. About EigenCloud EigenCloud is the world’s first verifiable cloud, enabling developers to build applications, AI products, and AI agents that are provably trustworthy. Built on top of the EigenLayer restaking protocol, EigenCloud extends Ethereum’s security across the digital and even physical world, allowing developers to verify any input, event, or computation using cryptoeconomic guarantees. With primitives like EigenAI for verifiable inference, EigenCompute for secure offchain execution, and EigenDA for high-throughput data availability, EigenCloud introduces verifiability-as-a-service to launch a new era of cloud computing. Its services are backed by over $14B in staked assets, with more than 190 Autonomous Verifiable Services (AVSs) in development and 40+ live on mainnet. For more information, users can visit . About Consensys Consensys is the leading Ethereum software company, building the infrastructure, tools, and protocols that power the world’s largest decentralized ecosystem. Founded in 2014 by Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin , Consensys has played a foundational role in Ethereum’s growth, from pioneering products like MetaMask, Linea, and Infura to shaping protocol development and staking infrastructure. Today, Consensys continues to lead Ethereum’s evolution through strategic R&D and direct contributions to network upgrades like the Merge and Pectra. With a global product suite and deep roots across the ecosystem, Consensys is uniquely positioned to accelerate Ethereum’s role as the trust layer for a new global economy, one that is decentralized, programmable, and open to all. To learn more, users can visit . Contact CoinFello
Infura’s Decentralized Network Handles 13 Billion Requests
Key Points: DIN processes 13 billion requests, impacting Ethereum and Bitcoin. Economic guarantees with EigenLayer slashing. Introduction of multi-provider marketplace model. Infura’s Decentralized Infrastructure Network (DIN) efficiently handles approximately 13 billion requests monthly, signaling rapid adoption. The system leverages a multi-provider model with EigenLayer to ensure accountability through economic guarantees, impacting Ethereum and Bitcoin integrations. Infura’s Decentralized Infrastructure Network rollout is pivotal for distributed blockchain networks, enhancing security and reliability. It represents a shift towards decentralized infrastructure and impacts developers and projects dependent on Infura, MetaMask, and connected services. Infura’s DIN leverages multiple node providers, ensuring economic security through EigenLayer slashing. Key players include Infura, MetaMask, and external node operators, adopting a decentralized model. This approach shifts the focus towards a multi-provider marketplace, enhancing infrastructure resilience. **Tom Hay, Head of Product, Infura,** stated, “By leaning on Ethereum’s economic security through EigenLayer, we continue to build on DIN’s steady progress, creating a web3 permissionless marketplace for infrastructure services.” The processing of 13 billion requests marks a shift in blockchain infrastructure reliability especially for Ethereum and Bitcoin integrations . This development promises enhanced uptime for decentralized applications and services dependent on Infura’s infrastructure. This advancement reflects growing adoption in decentralized blockchain services. The entrance of Bitcoin into DIN-supported assets signifies a broader extension of services, enabled by partnerships like Hemi. Affected markets may see increased use cases and Dapp efficiencies. Analysts predict increased efficiency and competition among node providers. Regulatory discussions are developing regarding decentralized infrastructure, echoing DIN’s alignment with resilience and redundant network preferences. DIN’s shift from centralized models introduces financial accountability. Stakeholders see potential cascading effects on market decentralization and service reliability, with attention on regulatory reactions and ecosystem adoption. Explore Infura’s Early Access Program for Decentralized Network
Zero-knowledge identity startup Self completes $9 million financing
Foresight News reported, according to CoinDesk, that zero-knowledge identity and human verification protocol Self has announced the completion of a $9 million seed round. The round saw participation from Greenfield Capital, Startup Capital Ventures x SBI Fund (SoftBank), Spearhead VC, Verda Ventures, Fireweed Ventures, as well as angel investors such as Casey Neistat, Sreeram Kannan (EigenLayer), Sandeep Nailwal (Polygon), Julien Bouteloup (Curve), Jill Carlson (Espresso), and Hart Lambur (Across Protocol). Self has also launched a points-based rewards program aimed at promoting the adoption of on-chain identity verification.
SharpLink’s Ethereum Bet Pays Off: Massive Q3 Profit and 1,100% Revenue Jump
SharpLink Gaming posted Q3 2025 revenue of $10.8 million, a 1,100% year-over-year increase, as its Ethereum-focused treasury strategy propelled net income to $104.3 million. The company’s crypto assets totaled nearly $3 billion, with ETH holdings rising from 817,747 tokens on September 30（UTC+8） to 861,251 ETH by November 9, 2025（UTC+8）。 Financial Performance Driven by ETH Strategy SharpLink’s ambitious treasury strategy has reshaped its financial outlook. The company reported net income of $104.3 million, or $0.62 per fully diluted share, for the third quarter ending September 30, 2025（UTC+8）。 This result sharply contrasts with the net loss of about $885,000 recorded in the same quarter last year. The revenue surge reflects both ETH price gains and the company’s pivot to serving institutional Ethereum investors. As of September 30, 2025（UTC+8）, SharpLink held $11.1 million in cash and $26.7 million in USDC stablecoins. The company also maintained its substantial ETH position. The firm deployed most of its ETH holdings into yield-generating staking mechanisms to optimize returns. SharpLink initiated a $1.5 billion stock repurchase program, spending $31.6 million to buy back 1,938,450 shares during the quarter. In October 2025（UTC+8）, it completed a $76.5 million direct stock offering at a 12% premium to market price, underscoring investor demand for ETH-linked equity exposure. These moves reflect the company’s confidence in its treasury model and its ability to attract institutional capital. ETH Deployment into DeFi Yield Strategies A central part of SharpLink’s strategy is a $200 million commitment to deploy Ethereum onto Consensys’ Linea platform. This zkEVM Layer 2 solution delivers full Ethereum compatibility with low fees and fast settlement. Research from Linea’s official website claims the network achieves up to 10 times faster zero-knowledge proving than general zkVMs, providing advantages for DeFi applications. SharpLink leverages ether.fi and EigenCloud for institutional-grade staking and restaking services on Linea. The EigenCloud blog explains how the $200 million deployment blends liquid staking with restaking via EigenLayer’s Actively Validated Services (AVS), allowing SharpLink to earn additional yield streams on top of standard staking rewards. Anchorage Digital provides custody, ensuring compliance and security. This approach reflects a 2025 trend of public companies using DeFi protocols to enhance treasury returns. By participating in Layer 2 infrastructure and restaking, SharpLink aims to generate yield while retaining long-term exposure to Ethereum. The company’s early adoption of zkEVM technology also aligns its treasury strategy with Ethereum’s scaling developments. Additionally, SharpLink launched tokenized SBET on Ethereum through a partnership with Superstate, expanding its on-chain activity and creating new ways for shareholders to engage within the Ethereum ecosystem. Executive Appointments and Strategic Outlook SharpLink has expanded its leadership team by appointing senior professionals from leading financial and crypto firms. Matthew Sheffield joins as Chief Investment Officer, Mandy Campbell as Chief Marketing Officer, and Michael Camarda as Chief Data Officer. These hires bring experience from FalconX, Bain Capital Crypto, Consensys, and JPMorgan, highlighting the company’s focus on asset management, institutional partnerships, and blockchain infrastructure. SharpLink has scheduled a conference call for November 13, 2025（UTC+8）, at 8:30 a.m. ET to discuss its Q3 results and outlook. Investors and analysts are expected to examine the sustainability of the company’s yield-generation model, the regulatory landscape for public crypto holdings, and the potential for further capital deployment into DeFi protocols. The post SharpLink’s Ethereum Bet Pays Off: Massive Q3 Profit and 1,100% Revenue Jump appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Hourglass Closes Vault Deposits at $1.8 Billion
Key Takeaways: Over 25,000 wallets contributed to the $1.8 billion total. Hourglass utilized strict KYC protocols. Significant interest reflects high user demand globally. Hourglass’s Stable Vault Phase Two deposits closed with $1.8 billion accumulated across over 25,000 wallets, strictly adhering to KYC protocols. High traffic necessitated changes to ensure fair participation, affecting inflows of stablecoins like USDT and USDC. Hourglass has concluded Phase Two of its Stable Vault deposits , accumulating approximately $1.8 billion from over 25,000 wallets. The deposits, requiring strict KYC compliance, saw high traction globally, as reported via Hourglass’s official channels. Hourglass Stable Vault Phase Two The Hourglass Stable Vault Phase Two successfully closed deposits with significant global demand, resulting in a total accumulation of $1.8 billion across more than 25,000 wallets. Hourglass managed the event, issuing updates via official X (Twitter) and website communications, with no statements from executive figures. Token contributions were capped, while strict Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols were enforced throughout. Official Hourglass Update, Hourglass Protocol – “Once the new KYC links are online, users will have 72 hours to complete the process.” All participants must meet KYC requirements within 72 hours post-deposit closure for fund accessibility. The market sees increased liquidity flows in stablecoins USDT and USDC following the large-scale deposit event. This shift could potentially divert liquidity from other DeFi protocols, depending on users’ financial strategies. The event may temporarily alter respective Total Value Locked (TVL) metrics, reflecting the ongoing dynamics in decentralized finance. Historical parallels, such as Lido and EigenLayer events, suggest this reallocation often coincides with TVL fluctuations and modest impacts on stablecoin valuations. However, broader crypto markets might register only minor ripples. Such large-scale KYC requirements underscore institutional alignments, promoting transparency and regulatory confidence in decentralized ecosystems. Regulatory responses remain speculative with no statements from authorities at this stage, highlighting the evolving nature of compliance in DeFi operations. This event showcases a distinct institutional interest in stablecoin deposits, setting a precedent for potential financial shifts and technological advancements in DeFi protocols. The event’s success underscores a growing preference for secure stablecoin integrations, marking a significant milestone in digital asset management.
From LRT Protocol to Decentralized Infrastructure Provider: How Does Puffer Align with the Ethereum Ecosystem?
Puffer has consistently adhered to principles aligned with Ethereum in its design and product evolution, demonstrating support for Ethereum's long-term vision. Written by: LINDABELL According to the latest strategic roadmap released by Puffer Finance, the platform has expanded from a native liquid restaking protocol to a decentralized infrastructure provider for Ethereum. Its product architecture has also been adjusted: in addition to Puffer LRT, Based Rollup Puffer UniFi and the pre-confirmation solution UniFi AVS have been added. Regarding these adjustments, Puffer stated, "Puffer's strategic roadmap represents the team's commitment to building the infrastructure needed to support Ethereum's growth and resilience. From UniFi AVS to PUFI TGE, every step has been carefully designed to align with Ethereum's core principles." The Birth of Puffer On November 29, 2023, Puffer co-founder Jason Vranek showcased Puffer's demo at the "Restaking Summit: Istanbul Devconnect" hosted by EigenLayer. Puffer is a native liquid restaking protocol aiming to design a permissionless, slash risk-reducing liquid restaking solution and to address the centralization and high entry barriers present in the current staking market. Puffer's founding team initially aimed to use verifiable technology to reduce the slashing risks that may exist in liquid staking protocols. Inspired by the solution proposed by Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake in his 2022 paper "Liquid solo validating," which suggested reducing solo validator slash risk through hardware technology, the Puffer team developed the Secure Signer security signing technology at the end of 2022. This technology uses Intel SGX to store validator private keys in an enclave, preventing slash risks caused by key leakage or operational errors. The development of Secure Signer also received funding from the Ethereum Foundation in Q4 2022. Of course, Puffer has also attracted the attention of many investment institutions and angel investors. To date, Puffer Finance has completed four rounds of financing, with a total amount reaching $24.15 million. In June 2022, Puffer Finance completed a $650,000 pre-seed round led by Jump Crypto. Subsequently, in August 2023, Puffer Finance completed a $5.5 million seed round led by Lemniscap and Lightspeed Faction, with participation from Brevan Howard Digital, Bankless Ventures, and others. This round of funding was used to further develop Secure-Signer. In April this year, Puffer Finance completed an $18 million Series A round, led by Brevan Howard Digital and Electric Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Kraken Ventures, Consensys, Animoca, and GSR. This round of funding was mainly used to advance the mainnet launch. Puffer LRT Protocol: Native Liquid Staking Protocol Liquid Restaking Tokens (LRT) are an asset class developed around the EigenLayer ecosystem, aiming to further enhance the capital efficiency of Ethereum staking assets through restaking mechanisms. The operating principle is to restake ETH or liquid staking tokens (LST) that are already staked on the Ethereum PoS network to other networks via EigenLayer, thereby earning additional rewards beyond the Ethereum mainnet staking rewards. Since Ethereum transitioned to the PoS mechanism, more and more staking products have emerged, driving the development of the staking market. However, some platforms like Lido have occupied a large share of the staking market, raising concerns about network centralization risks. Looking back at September 2023, in the liquid staking sector, Lido's market share once reached 33%. However, with the rise of liquid restaking protocols, Lido's market share has gradually declined and is now around 28%. Ethereum contributor Anthony Sasson stated that the vampire attack launched by Puffer dealt a significant blow to Lido, involving the movement of over $1 billion in funds. As a permissionless decentralized native liquid restaking protocol, Puffer combines dual strategies of liquid staking and liquid restaking, utilizing Secure Signer security signing technology and Validator Tickets (VT) to help independent validators effectively participate in Ethereum staking and restaking processes, thereby increasing returns while maintaining Ethereum network decentralization. In addition, to prevent Puffer from becoming overly centralized within the network, the protocol strictly limits the number of its validator nodes, not allowing them to account for more than 22% of the total Ethereum network nodes, thus ensuring it does not pose a threat to Ethereum's credible neutrality. Lowering the Staking Entry Threshold from 32 ETH to a Minimum of 1 ETH Becoming a node on Ethereum requires 32 ETH, which is undoubtedly a high threshold for independent users. Puffer, through a mechanism called Validator Tickets (VT), lowers the entry barrier for staking participation, allowing node operators to run validator nodes with only a 2 ETH deposit (or just 1 ETH if using SGX). VT is an ERC20 token representing the right for a node operator to run an Ethereum validator for one day, and the price of VT is set based on the expected daily earnings from running a validator. In other words, node operators need to lock a certain amount of VT to participate in staking and gradually release them to liquidity providers during the staking period, while validators can receive all PoS-generated rewards. To give a simple example, similar to joining a restaurant franchise, users can choose to pay monthly for earnings or pay upfront for the expected earnings of the coming year to obtain operating rights. Puffer's VT mechanism adopts the latter model. At the same time, node operators can receive 100% of PoS rewards, thus avoiding the "lazy node" phenomenon in traditional staking models (i.e., choosing to participate passively or exit consensus when returns are unsatisfactory). In addition, as an equity note, VT not only supplements staking funds but is also liquid and can be traded on the secondary market. Achieving Dual Returns through EigenLayer Puffer is a native liquid staking protocol. Here, "native" means that users can directly use ETH for restaking in addition to participating in Ethereum PoS consensus. This means that stakers can not only receive validator rewards from Ethereum PoS but also earn additional returns through the restaking mechanism, achieving dual rewards. Moreover, unlike traditional liquid restaking products, Puffer does not rely on third-party liquidity providers but directly uses native validators' ETH for restaking, avoiding centralization issues that may arise from dominance by a few large staking entities. In this way, Puffer not only increases yields but also enhances network decentralization. Currently, Puffer's total value locked has reached $859.6 million, with an annualized yield of 3%. Mitigating Slash Risks with Secure-signer and RAVe Puffer effectively mitigates slash penalties caused by validator operational errors through Secure-signer and RAVe (Remote Attestation Verification) remote attestation technology. Secure-Signer is a remote signing tool based on Intel SGX hardware security technology, capable of generating, storing, and executing signing operations within the enclave, thus preventing validators from being slashed due to double signing or other signature errors. The role of RAVe technology is to verify these remote attestation reports generated by Intel SGX, ensuring that nodes are indeed running the verified Secure-Signer program. After verification, the system records the validator key status on-chain, preventing malicious nodes from using unverified code or replacing critical operational logic. It is worth mentioning that, as a public good, the Secure Signer code has been open-sourced and is currently available on Github. Puffer launched its mainnet on May 9 this year. To further enhance Ethereum network decentralization, Puffer plans to release V2 in the fourth quarter of this year. This upgrade focuses on enhancing user experience and introduces several key features: Fast Path Rewards (FPR): Allows users to directly withdraw consensus layer rewards from L2, avoiding high gas costs during EigenPod withdrawals. Global Forced Anti-Slash: Puffer V2 will implement protocol-wide anti-slash mechanisms, further enhancing network security and decentralization. Lower Margin Requirements: Puffer V2 also lowers the margin requirements for NoOps (non-operating nodes), requiring only a small amount of pufETH collateral to address slash risks due to inactivity. Puffer UniFi: Achieving 100ms Transaction Confirmation via UniFi AVS On July 6 this year, Puffer released the Litepaper for its Based Rollup solution, Puffer UniFi. As a Based Rollup, UniFi leverages Ethereum validators for transaction ordering while returning transaction value to L1, thereby enhancing the security and decentralization of the Ethereum network. Since Ethereum adopted the "Rollup-centric" roadmap, a large number of L2 solutions have emerged in the market. According to L2Beat data, there are now over 100 Rollups in the market. Although these scaling solutions have improved Ethereum's scalability and user experience to some extent, they have also introduced issues such as liquidity fragmentation and centralized sequencers. Firstly, due to the lack of interoperability between different Rollups, liquidity and users are dispersed across various independent L2 networks, making it difficult for the overall ecosystem to form effective synergy. Moreover, users need to rely on cross-chain bridges when transferring assets between different Rollups, which not only increases operational costs but also poses certain security risks. In addition, most current Rollups use centralized sequencers, which extract additional rent from user transactions via MEV, affecting the user transaction experience. Puffer's UniFi solution aims to address these issues through validator-based decentralized transaction ordering. Unlike traditional centralized ordering solutions, UniFi transactions are processed by Puffer nodes, but these nodes are themselves native Ethereum staking nodes. Therefore, the UniFi solution allocates transaction ordering rights to decentralized validators, fully leveraging Ethereum's security and decentralization features. Further Reading: "What is a Based Rollup That Can Inherit Ethereum Liveness?" In addition, UniFi addresses liquidity fragmentation through synchronous composability and atomic composability. Applications built on UniFi can rely on its ordering and pre-confirmation mechanisms, enabling seamless interoperability with other Rollups or application chains that also use Based L1 ordering. At the same time, by using Puffer's TEE-multiprover technology, UniFi can achieve atomic-level composability with L1, meaning UniFi allows instant L1 settlement and direct access to L1 liquidity, improving the efficiency of cross-layer transactions and applications and making it easier for developers to build more efficient applications. However, although Based Rollup delegates transaction ordering to L1 validators, avoiding the risks brought by centralized sequencers, its transaction confirmation speed is still limited by L1 block time (about 12 seconds), making fast confirmation impossible. To solve this problem, Puffer introduced an AVS service based on EigenLayer, providing UniFi with a pre-confirmation mechanism and achieving 100ms transaction confirmation time. Further Reading: "Why Do Based Rollups Need Preconfs Technology?" In Puffer UniFi AVS, through EigenLayer's restaking mechanism, validators can use their ETH staked on the Ethereum mainnet for UniFi's pre-confirmation validation service without needing to stake new funds. This improves capital efficiency and lowers participation thresholds to some extent. Moreover, UniFi AVS leverages the economic security of the Ethereum mainnet. If validators participating in pre-confirmation do not fulfill their commitments, they naturally face the risk of having their staked ETH on the mainnet slashed, so there is no need to design additional slashing measures for Puffer's pre-confirmation mechanism. Validators wishing to participate in Puffer UniFi AVS must have EigenPod ownership to ensure that the UniFi AVS service can execute slash penalties, thereby constraining the behavior of validators who violate pre-confirmation commitments. In addition, node operators need to run Commit-Boost on the server or environment where their validator client is located, which is responsible for handling communication between validators and the pre-confirmation supply chain. Within just two weeks of launch, the UniFi AVS platform has already attracted 1.05 million ETH in staking, with over 32,000 validators participating. In the future, Puffer also plans to combine the Ethereum Foundation's neutral registration contract mechanism, allowing any L1 proposer to voluntarily register as a pre-confirmation validator. This means that every validator on the Ethereum mainnet can choose to become a pre-confirmation validator, further expanding the system's level of decentralization. Conclusion As the Ethereum ecosystem continues to grow, ensuring that all projects and participants work toward the same goal has become a core issue of long-term concern for the community. This alignment (Ethereum alignment) is considered key to the long-term success of the Ethereum network. In the early days, the community broke it down into three dimensions: "cultural alignment," "technical alignment," and "economic alignment." In his recent article "Making Ethereum Alignment Legible," Vitalik Buterin proposed a new set of metrics, including open source, open standards, decentralization and security, and "positive-sum effects." Of course, regardless of the metrics used, the core goal is to ensure that protocols, communities, and projects can stay aligned with Ethereum's overall development direction, thereby providing positive support for the ecosystem's sustainable development. It is commendable that Puffer has consistently adhered to principles aligned with Ethereum in its design and product evolution, demonstrating support for Ethereum's long-term vision. Through integration with EigenLayer, Puffer enables more independent validators to participate in the staking network, thereby enhancing Ethereum's decentralization. Puffer's UniFi solution returns transaction ordering rights to Ethereum's native staking nodes, aligning with Ethereum in terms of security and decentralization. Currently, Puffer Finance has released its tokenomics, with 75 million PUFFER tokens (accounting for 7.5% of the total supply) allocated for the Crunchy Carrot Quest Season 1 airdrop event. The eligibility snapshot for Season 1 airdrop was completed on October 5, 2024, and users can claim tokens through the token claim portal from October 14, 2024, to January 14, 2025. With the official launch of the PUFFER token, whether Puffer can further decentralize and grow its user base while advancing its Ethereum alignment goals remains worth watching.
x402 is becoming increasingly competitive, seize new asset opportunities in ERC-8004 ahead of time
Original Title: "x402 Intensifies, Unearthing New Asset Opportunities in ERC-8004 Ahead of the Curve" Original Author: David, Deep Tide TechFlow x402 has clearly become a sensation. According to CoinmarketCap data, trading volume for various projects within the x402 ecosystem has surged 137-fold, and the first ecosystem token, PING, soared from zero to a market cap of $30 million in just a few days. KOLs from all sides are publishing intensive analyses, covering everything from technical principles to project reviews—every angle you can think of has been written about. Yet two weeks ago, when we were among the first to analyze x402 and mention the potential of projects like PayAI, the market was relatively quiet. In a market where narratives and token lifecycles are rapidly shortening, researching new narratives ahead of time makes it easier to lock in opportunities related to those assets. Now, every time you refresh Twitter, a new "x402 ecosystem project" pops up; frankly, if you're only starting to research x402 now, it might already be a bit late. It's not that the protocol itself lacks prospects, but rather that the most obvious alpha opportunities have already been fully exploited. But while everyone is focused on x402, attentive observers will notice that another protocol has recently been frequently discussed in the English-speaking crypto community: ERC-8004. Even more interestingly, Davide Crapis, one of the proposers of ERC-8004 and head of the Ethereum Foundation's dAI team, revealed a detail in a September interview with Decrypt: "ERC-8004 will support multiple payment methods, but having x402 extensions helps improve the developer experience." Wait, support multiple payment methods? Isn't x402 a payment protocol? Why does ERC-8004 also involve payments—are they competitors or complementary? In early October, when the Ethereum Foundation announced the final version of ERC-8004, the signatories included Marco De Rossi from MetaMask, Jordan Ellis from Google, and Erik Reppel from Coinbase, who is also the creator of x402. The same person is driving both protocols. What's the logic behind this? If the explosion of x402 made everyone see the huge market for AI Agent payments, then ERC-8004 may represent the other half of the puzzle in this market that has yet to be fully recognized. When everyone is chasing the payment track, perhaps the real opportunity lies outside of payments. ERC-8004: The Prerequisite for Payments is Identity Registration for AI To understand ERC-8004, we must first return to a fundamental issue in the AI Agent economy. Imagine a scenario where AIs collaborate: Your personal AI assistant needs to complete a complex task: preparing a market analysis report for your upcoming product launch. This task exceeds its capabilities, so it needs to hire other specialized AIs: one for data scraping, one for competitor analysis, and one for chart creation. Now with x402, payments are no longer an issue; a few lines of code can complete a USDC transfer. But before payment, your AI assistant faces a series of tricky identity issues: Among these self-proclaimed "professional data analysis AIs," which are genuine and which are scammers? How was their past work quality? How many clients gave positive reviews, and how many complaints were there? This is a bit like doing business in a world without Taobao, Dianping, or business registration authorities. Every transaction is a blind box, every collaboration a gamble. Therefore, to put it in one sentence, ERC-8004 is the "business registration bureau + credit system + qualification certification center" for AI Agents on-chain. It gives every AI Agent an ID card, credit record, and capability certification, all recorded on the blockchain—publicly queryable and tamper-proof. On August 13 this year, Davide Crapis from the Ethereum Foundation, Marco De Rossi from MetaMask, and an independent AI developer Jordan Ellis jointly submitted the EIP-8004 proposal. Interestingly, Jordan Ellis was later confirmed to have close ties with Google’s Agent-to-Agent team. Simply put, ERC-8004 adds a trust layer to Google’s A2A. In the words of the Ethereum Foundation, this is about establishing a "trusted neutral track" for AI Agents. Leaving aside the complex code details, let’s take a rough look at how 8004 works. The design of ERC-8004 is extremely streamlined, containing only three on-chain registries: · Identity Registry Each AI Agent receives an ERC-721 token as an ID card. Yes, you read that right, AI Agents are NFT-ized. This means an Agent’s identity can be viewed, transferred, or even traded in any NFT-compatible wallet. This NFT points to a standardized "Agent card," describing the Agent’s name, skills, endpoints, and metadata. Because it follows open standards, any browser or marketplace can index it, enabling cross-platform permissionless discovery. · Reputation Registry This is the "Dianping" of the AI Agent world. Clients and other Agents can submit structured feedback, tagging by skill or task. More importantly, x402 payment proofs can be attached. Only clients who have actually paid can review, preventing fake reviews. All reputation signals are public goods. This means anyone can build their own reputation scoring system based on this data. · Validation Registry For high-value tasks, reviews alone are not enough. The validation registry allows Agents to request third-party validation—this could be TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) oracles, staked guarantee inference, or zkML verification. This is the qualification certification in the Agent world. An Agent claiming to do financial analysis can cryptographically prove it ran a specific model and produced specific results. If this sounds a bit technical, let’s look at a concrete example. Suppose an exchange’s AI Agent needs a weekly DeFi market analysis report but lacks the capability itself. · Search for Service: The client Agent finds analyst Agent Alice via the identity registry and checks her NFT identity card’s service description. · Check Reputation: Finds Alice has 156 positive reviews, an 89% completion rate, and real reviews with x402 payment proofs. · Escrow Payment: Pays 100 USDC via x402 to a smart contract escrow, not directly to Alice. · Third-Party Validation: After Alice completes the report, validator Bob checks the quality and signs confirmation in the validation registry. · Automatic Settlement: The contract sees validation passed, automatically releases funds to Alice, and the client leaves a review. (Source: Researcher Yehia Tarek’s personal column) The entire process requires no human intervention; three AI Agents autonomously completed a business transaction based on the ERC-8004 trust system. Wait, does this have anything to do with x402? To clarify the relationship between x402 and ERC-8004 in one sentence: x402 solves the payment problem for AI Agents, ERC-8004 solves the trust problem, and a truly autonomous AI economy needs both. Specifically, x402 is a standard for micropayments between agents or users, eliminating payment friction and allowing one agent to automatically pay another for task completion. ERC-8004 is the identity and reputation layer for agents. It introduces on-chain verification, making every task and score traceable. An easier analogy: · x402 = ERC20 · ERC-8004 = Etherscan The former allows you to pay API access fees directly by call count, acting as a payment standard; the latter is more like an on-chain AI agent registry, with each agent having an associated wallet that can be queried and verified. In fact, all of this is part of a broader "crypto x AI" narrative. In a large crypto AI economy: · Crypto AI Economy = Discovering AI Agents + Communication Between AI Agents + Verifiable Computation (Image source: Twitter user @soubhik_deb) How do you discover AI Agents? Essentially, it means enabling AI Agents to find each other—this is what ERC-8004 does, writing a registry on Ethereum to record AI identities. How do you enable communication between AI Agents? x402 is an open standard for on-chain payments between agents; there are also protocols like Google’s A2A. How do you verify all this? Every AI Agent must perform verifiable reasoning, inference, and actions, which may be recorded in places emphasizing data availability. The post by @soubhik_deb on Twitter is worth reading, as it explains the above logic clearly and can help you discover more alpha project opportunities based on this logic. At this point, we fully understand the relationship between x402 and ERC-8004; it’s more appropriate to describe their relationship as complementary and jointly constructing the full picture of the AI economy. If you want a clearer and more direct comparison, here’s a one-picture summary: Beneficiary Projects Under the ERC-8004 Narrative Too long, didn’t read version: you can refer directly to the chart below. When x402 exploded, payment tokens like PING were the first to surge. But ERC-8004’s opportunities are more widely distributed—from infrastructure to applications, each layer has its own logic. Understanding this logic is more important than chasing individual projects. 1. First is the infrastructure layer, such as Taiko and EigenLayer. Taiko, L2 Execution Layer Why would an L2 be the most active supporter? The narrative here is that the Agent economy needs cheap and fast chains. Mainnet is too expensive—every identity or reputation update costs several dollars in gas fees, which is unaffordable for Agents. Taiko offers a solution by deploying the 8004 registry on L2, reducing costs. The contract was deployed on October 24 and may become the main battleground for Agent activity. EigenLayer, Security Layer The biggest challenge for 8004 is what to do if validators act maliciously? EigenLayer’s answer: slashing. Validators stake ETH, and if they provide false validation, their assets are slashed. EigenLayer is integrating 8004 into over 200 AVSs, each potentially becoming a dedicated Agent validation service. The logic for infrastructure is simple: the more Agents, the more transactions, the more revenue. It’s the business of selling shovels. 2. Next is the middleware layer, such as S.A.N.T.A and Unibase. S.A.N.T.A, Payment Bridge Its positioning straddles both narratives, acting as a connector between x402 and 8004. When one Agent finds another via 8004 and then needs to pay via x402, S.A.N.T.A handles the process. More importantly, it enables cross-chain operations—for example, if a Solana Agent wants to hire an Ethereum Agent in the ideal narrative, S.A.N.T.A can play a role. Unibase, Memory Layer Agents need not only identity but also memory. Unibase gives each Agent persistent storage, linked through the 8004 identity system. This means Agents can "remember" previous interactions, accumulate experience, and even share knowledge. On October 26, it achieved x402+8004 integration on the BNB Chain, taking the lead. The value of middleware lies in its irreplaceability. You can switch L2s, but some connection functions are unique. 3. Finally, the application layer, such as the familiar Virtuals Protocol. Virtuals is an AI Agent token issuance platform, allowing users to create, invest in, and trade AI Agent tokens via a bonding curve mechanism. Currently, there are over 1,000 Agent projects on the platform, with daily trading volume exceeding $20 million. For Virtuals, 8004 solves a practical problem: how to enable different Agents to recognize and interact with each other. Recently, its official Twitter announced that the ACP protocol update will fully support the 8004 standard, meaning every Agent issued on Virtuals will automatically receive an on-chain identity and reputation system. As for which application will break out, perhaps it can be combined with Launchpad gameplay, and further observations can be made regarding updates in rule design and incentives. Overall, x402 solves the payment problem, ERC-8004 solves the trust problem. x402 took five months from launch to explosion; 8004 may be even faster. In terms of timing, pay attention to Devconnect on November 21, which will feature a Trustless Agents Day showcase. The first batch of applications based on 8004 may demonstrate their features at the conference. If a killer app emerges, it could trigger the first wave of hype. By the end of this year, I predict that x402 ecosystem projects will enter a consolidation phase and are likely to announce support for 8004. The synergy between the two protocols will produce a 1+1>2 effect. If you are a conservative player, you might focus on large-cap infrastructure projects benefiting from 8004; if you are more aggressive, you need to closely monitor the small-cap projects in the table above and watch for new projects emerging. After all, it’s been a long time since the crypto market was dominated by a narrative driven by technology. Whether x402 and ERC-8004 are just a flash in the pan or have far-reaching impact will be left to the market to decide.
Can ERC-8004 replicate the success of x402 and become the cornerstone of the AI agent trust layer?
Original Author: David, TechFlow by Deep Tide Original Title: Successor to x402? It's Time to Pay Attention to ERC-8004 x402 has clearly exploded in popularity. According to CoinmarketCap data, trading volume of various projects in the x402 ecosystem has surged 137 times, and the first ecosystem token PING soared from zero to a market cap of $30 million within a few days. KOLs from all sides have been publishing intensive analyses, covering everything from technical principles to project overviews—every angle you can think of has been written about. Yet two weeks ago, when we analyzed x402 early and mentioned the potential of projects like PayAI, the entire market was relatively quiet. In a market where narratives and token lifecycles are rapidly shortening, researching new narratives in advance makes it easier to lock in opportunities for related assets. (Related reading: What investment opportunities are hidden in the underestimated x402 protocol, which both Google and Visa are deploying?) Now, every time you refresh Twitter, a new "x402 ecosystem project" pops up; frankly, if you're just starting to research x402 now, it might already be a bit late. It's not that the protocol itself lacks prospects, but rather that the most obvious Alpha opportunities have already been fully mined. But while everyone is focused on x402, attentive observers will notice that another protocol has recently been appearing frequently in discussions in the English-speaking crypto community: ERC-8004. Even more interestingly, one of the proposers of ERC-8004, Davide Crapis, head of the dAI team at the Ethereum Foundation, revealed a detail in a September interview with Decrypt: "ERC-8004 will support multiple payment methods, but having x402 extensions helps the developer experience." Wait, support multiple payment methods? Isn't x402 a payment protocol? Why is ERC-8004 also involved in payments—are they competitors or complementary? In early October, when the Ethereum Foundation announced the final version of ERC-8004, the signatories included Marco De Rossi from MetaMask, Jordan Ellis from Google, and Erik Reppel from Coinbase, who is also the creator of x402. The same person is driving both protocols. What's the logic behind this? If the explosion of x402 made everyone see the huge market for AI Agent payments, then ERC-8004 may represent the other half of the puzzle in this market that has yet to be fully recognized. When everyone is chasing the payments track, perhaps the real opportunity lies outside of payments. ERC-8004: The Prerequisite for Payments Is Identity Registration for AI To understand ERC-8004, we need to return to a fundamental issue of the AI Agent economy. Imagine a scenario of collaborative AI: Your personal AI assistant needs to complete a complex task—preparing a market analysis report for your upcoming product launch event. This task is beyond its capabilities, so it needs to hire other specialized AIs: one for data scraping, one for competitor analysis, and one for chart creation. With x402, payments are no longer an issue; a few lines of code can complete a USDC transfer. But before making payments, your AI assistant faces a series of tricky identity problems: Among these self-proclaimed "professional data analysis AIs," which ones are real and which are scammers? What is their past work quality? How many clients have given positive reviews, and how many have complained? This is a bit like doing business in a world without Taobao, Dianping, or business registration. Every transaction is a blind box, every collaboration a gamble. Therefore, if we have to explain it in one sentence, ERC-8004 is the "business registration bureau + credit system + qualification certification center" for AI Agents on-chain. It gives every AI Agent an ID card, credit record, and competency certification, all recorded on the blockchain—publicly queryable and tamper-proof. On August 13 this year, Davide Crapis from the Ethereum Foundation, Marco De Rossi from MetaMask, and an independent AI developer Jordan Ellis jointly submitted the EIP-8004 proposal. Interestingly, this Jordan Ellis was later confirmed to be closely associated with Google’s Agent-to-Agent team. Simply put, ERC-8004 adds a trust layer to Google’s A2A. In the words of the Ethereum Foundation, this is about building a "trusted neutral rail" for AI Agents. Leaving aside the complex code details, let's briefly look at how 8004 works. The design of ERC-8004 is extremely streamlined, containing only three on-chain registries: Identity Registry: Each AI Agent receives an ERC-721 token as an ID card. Yes, you read that right—AI Agents are NFT-ized. This means the Agent’s identity can be viewed, transferred, or even traded in any wallet that supports NFTs. This NFT points to a standardized "Agent Card," describing the Agent’s name, skills, endpoints, and metadata. Because it follows open standards, any browser or marketplace can index it, enabling cross-platform permissionless discovery. Reputation Registry: This is the "Dianping" of the AI Agent world. Clients and other Agents can submit structured feedback, tagging by skill or task. More importantly, x402 payment proof can be attached. Only clients who have actually paid can leave reviews, preventing fake ratings. All reputation signals are public goods. This means anyone can build their own reputation scoring system based on this data. Validation Registry: For high-value tasks, reviews alone are not enough. The validation registry allows Agents to request third-party validation—it could be a TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) oracle, staking-backed inference, or zkML verification. This is the qualification certification in the Agent world. An Agent claiming to do financial analysis can cryptographically prove it actually ran a specific model and produced specific results. If this sounds a bit technical, let’s look at a concrete example. Suppose an exchange’s AI Agent needs a weekly DeFi market analysis report, but it doesn’t have this capability itself. Service Search: The client Agent finds analyst Agent Alice through the identity registry and checks her service description on the NFT identity card. Check Reputation: Finds that Alice has 156 positive reviews, an 89% completion rate, and real reviews with x402 payment proof. Escrow Payment: Pays 100 USDC via x402 to a smart contract escrow, not directly to Alice. Third-party Validation: After Alice completes the report, validator Bob checks the quality and signs confirmation in the validation registry. Automatic Settlement: The contract sees the validation is passed, automatically releases funds to Alice, and the client leaves a review. (Source: Researcher Yehia Tarek’s personal column) The entire process requires no human intervention; three AI Agents autonomously complete a business transaction based on the ERC-8004 trust system. Wait, does this have anything to do with x402? To put it simply, the relationship between x402 and ERC-8004 is: x402 solves the payment problem for AI Agents, ERC-8004 solves the trust problem, and a truly autonomous AI economy requires both. Specifically, x402 is the standard for micropayments between agents or users, eliminating payment friction and allowing one agent to automatically pay another for task completion. ERC-8004 is the identity and reputation layer for agents. It introduces on-chain verification, making every task and score traceable. An easier analogy is: x402 = ERC20 ERC 8004 = Etherscan The former allows you to pay API access fees directly by call count, acting as a payment standard; the latter is more like an on-chain AI agent registry, with each agent having an associated wallet that is queryable and verifiable. In fact, all of this is part of a larger "crypto x AI" narrative. In a broad crypto AI economy: Crypto AI Economy = Discovering AI Agents + Communication Between AI Agents + Verifiable Computation (Image source: Twitter user @soubhik_deb) How do you discover AI Agents? Essentially, it's about enabling AI Agents to find each other—this is what ERC-8004 does, writing a registry on Ethereum to record the identities of AIs. How do you enable communication between AI Agents? x402 is an open standard for on-chain payments between agents; there’s also Google’s A2A protocol, etc. How do you verify all this? Every AI Agent must perform verifiable inference, reasoning, and actions, which may be recorded in places that emphasize data availability. This post by @soubhik_deb on Twitter is worth reading, as it explains the above logic clearly and can help you discover more Alpha project opportunities based on this logic. At this point, we fully understand the relationship between x402 and ERC-8004; describing their relationship as complementary and jointly building the full picture of the AI economy is more appropriate. If you want a clearer and more direct comparison, here’s a one-picture summary: Beneficiary Projects Under the ERC-8004 Narrative If you want the TL;DR version, just refer to the image below. When x402 exploded, the first to rise were payment tokens like PING. But ERC-8004’s opportunities are more widely distributed, from infrastructure to applications—each layer has its own logic. Understanding this logic is more important than chasing a single project. 1. First is the infrastructure layer, such as Taiko and EigenLayer. Taiko, L2 Execution Layer Why would an L2 be the most active supporter? The narrative here is that the Agent economy needs cheap and fast chains. Mainnet is too expensive; every identity or reputation update costs several dollars in gas fees, which Agents can't afford. Taiko provides a solution by deploying the 8004 registry on L2, reducing costs. The contract was deployed on October 24 and may become the main battleground for Agent activity. EigenLayer, Security Layer The biggest challenge for 8004 is: what if validators act maliciously? EigenLayer’s answer: slashing. Validators stake ETH, and if they provide false validation, their assets are confiscated. EigenLayer is integrating 8004 into over 200 AVSs, each of which could become a dedicated Agent validation service. The logic of infrastructure is simple: the more Agents, the more transactions, the more revenue. This is the business of selling shovels. 2. Next is the middleware layer, such as S.A.N.T.A and Unibase. S.A.N.T.A, Payment Bridge Its positioning straddles both narratives, acting as a connector between x402 and 8004. When one Agent finds another through 8004 and needs to pay via x402, S.A.N.T.A handles the process. More importantly, it enables cross-chain operations—for example, in the ideal narrative, if a Solana Agent wants to hire an Ethereum Agent, S.A.N.T.A can play a role. Unibase, Memory Layer Agents need not only identity but also memory. Unibase gives each Agent persistent storage, linked through the 8004 identity system. This means Agents can "remember" previous interactions, accumulate experience, and even share knowledge. On October 26, it achieved x402+8004 integration on the BNB Chain, taking the lead. The value of middleware lies in its irreplaceability. You can switch to another L2, but some connection functions are unique. 3. Finally, the application layer, such as the old friend Virtuals Protocol. Virtuals is an AI Agent token issuance platform, allowing users to create, invest in, and trade AI Agent tokens through a bonding curve mechanism. Currently, there are over 1,000 Agent projects on the platform, with daily trading volume exceeding $20 million. For Virtuals, 8004 solves a real problem: how to enable different Agents to recognize and interact with each other. Recently, its official Twitter announced that the ACP protocol update will fully support the 8004 standard, meaning every Agent issued on Virtuals will automatically have an on-chain identity and reputation system. As for which application will break out, perhaps it can be combined with Launchpad gameplay, and further observation is needed regarding updates in rule design and incentives. Overall, x402 solves the payment problem, ERC-8004 solves the trust problem. x402 took five months from launch to explosion; 8004 may be even faster. In terms of timing, pay attention to Devconnect on November 21, which will feature a Trustless Agents Day showcase. The first batch of applications based on 8004 may demonstrate their features at the conference. If a killer app appears, it could trigger the first wave of hype. By the end of this year, I predict that x402 ecosystem projects will enter a consolidation period and are likely to announce support for 8004. The synergy between the two protocols will create a 1+1>2 effect. If you are a conservative player, you might focus on large-cap infrastructure projects benefiting from 8004; if you are more aggressive, you need to closely monitor the small-cap projects in the table above and watch for new projects emerging. After all, the crypto market has not been dominated by a technology-driven narrative for a long time. Whether x402 and ERC-8004 are just a flash in the pan or have far-reaching impact will be tested by the market.
SharpLink plans $200M Ethereum deployment with Linea partnership
Key Takeaways SharpLink will deploy $200 million in Ethereum via a partnership with Linea. The initiative targets higher yields by accessing native staking rewards and DeFi opportunities. Share this article SharpLink, a Nasdaq-listed firm with one of the largest Ethereum treasuries, today announced plans to deploy $200 million worth of Ethereum through a strategic partnership with Linea. The deployment will leverage Linea, a Layer-2 scaling network for Ethereum developed by ConsenSys, to capture both native staking rewards and enhanced DeFi yields. The firm has tokenized its equity as SBET directly on Ethereum, signaling a broader commitment to on-chain institutional-grade finance. SBET offers investors institutional-grade, leveraged exposure to ETH. SharpLink’s entry into the Linea Consortium gives it influence over Layer-2 governance and a prominent role in shaping Ethereum’s scaling landscape. Collaborations with EtherFi, a liquid restaking protocol, and EigenLayer, a leading Ethereum restaking protocol, enable SharpLink to access restaking rewards by securing third-party services and EigenCloud AVSs.
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