Welcome to the protocol, the weekly COINDESK envelope of the most important stories in the development of cryptocurrency technology. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, reporter in Coindesk.
In this number:
- Btcfi’s big problem: 77% of Bitcoin holders have not even tried it, says Survey
- Ethereum’s Fusaka update passes the Holesky test, it approaches Mainnet
- Doublezero Mainnet goes live with 22% sun states on board
- Bee Maps raises $ 32 million to climb decentralized mapping network with solar energy
Network news
Bitcoin holders doubt BTC Defi: Bitcoin Decentralized Finance (Defi), also known as BTCFI, has been promoted as the next wave of innovation for the world’s largest cryptocurrency. However, the investigation suggests that Bitcoin holders themselves are barely attractive. About 77% of Bitcoin holders have never tried a BTCFI platform, according to a survey of more than 700 respondents in North America and Europe for the Gomination of the BTC mining ecosystem. A little more than 10% reported having experienced once or twice, while only 8% said they actively use BTCFI services for performance or loans. The survey highlights a marked disconnection between the promise of the sector and its real reach. “There is a huge appetite for these opportunities, but the industry has created products for cryptographic natives, not for Bitcoin headlines every day,” said Gomining CEO, Mark Zalan, in a statement. This appetite appears in the data: 73% of respondents expressed interest in obtaining performance in their BTC through loans or bets, while 42% want access to non -selling liquidity. However, the doubt dominates. More than 40% said they would assign less than 20% of their holdings to BTCFI products, which underlines the problem of trust and complexity of the sector. – Jamie Crawley Read more.
Ethereum Fusaka The update at Holesky Testnet goes live: The next Ethereum update, Fusaka, has just approached to live in the main block chain after a successful test in the Holesky test network last week. The Fusaka Hard Fork occurs only a few months after the best tong update of Ethereum and is designed to do the cheapest things for the institutions that Ethereum use. One of the changes that it introduces is peerdas, a feature that allows validators to verify only part of the necessary data instead of complete fragments (“blobs”), which helps reduce costs for both the networks and validators of layer 2. The test networks such as Holesky act as practice land where developers can safely test a new code before it reaches the real chain. Holesky, launched in 2023, was particularly important because its validator configuration closely reflects the Ethereum main network. But in recent months, Holesky has begun to show signs of age and reliability problems. Fusaka is the last update that the network will see before it goes out, two weeks after Fusaka turns on in Mainnet. The following two test executions are scheduled for October 14 and 28. After they are completed, Ethereum developers will block a date for the full launch of Fusaka Mainnet. – Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
Doublezero Mainnet goes live: A new project wants to give Blockchains its own “fast lane” on the Internet. The Doublezero Foundation announced that its highly anticipated Mainnet-Beta is live. Doublezero is a network built to accelerate how Blockchain’s validators talk to each other. Instead of trusting the public internet, which can sometimes be slow and unpredictable, Solana’s validators can now connect through Doublezero’s fiber routes, which allow users to make transactions faster. In simple terms, Doublezero is like a private blockchains road system. While normal Internet routes are designed to be cheap and wide, they are not built for the coordination of division seconds that need thousands of blockchain nodes. Doublezero says that his network reduces the delay and facilitates that the validators process transactions and remain synchronized, which could improve performance and reliability for end users. The project has already seen early adoption. Currently, 22% of the staked sun is connected to the Doublezero network. The big names of the industry such as Jump Crypto, Galaxy, Rockaway and Jito are contributing to fiber links and engineering resources, betting that the fastest internet infrastructure will be worthwhile as a blockchain application scale. – Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
Bee Maps raises $ 32 million in the financing round: Bee Maps, the decentralized mapping project promoted by Hivemapper, has raised $ 32 million in new funds to expand its global taxpayers network and climb its infrastructure, announced this week. The round was directed by Panther Capital, LDA Capital, Capital and Ajna Capital Borderless, which marked one of the largest financing in the Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Sector (Depin) this year. Bee Maps is an application in the HiveMapper network, which is one of the largest decentralized physical infrastructure networks (depin) focused on maping data in Solana. Hivemapper allows drivers to contribute data through dashboard enabled for AI, which detect real -time changes on roads (such as new signals on roads, deviations or construction areas), ensuring that digital maps can be quickly updated to remain precise. Bee Maps takes advantage of this infrastructure by rewarding taxpayers with their native token, $ Honey, for collecting images at street level. The Raise highlights the appetite of strong investors for the vision of bees maps of the AI ​​maps in real time. In recent months, Bee Maps has been associated with the main players, including the Lyft and Volkswagen Robotaxi program to bring their mapping data to their platforms. The new capital will be used to distribute more devices, improve AI models that process and update the map characteristics and increase taxpayers linked to $ Honey. – Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
In other news
- Kaio, the tokenization firm backed by Brevan Howard and the digital laser focused on the cryptography of Nomura Bank, is bringing its tokenized funds to the SEI (SEI) network as the demand for real world assets is expanding. The firm, previously known as free capital, has issued more than $ 200 million in assets, including token versions of Brevan Howard feeding funds, Hamilton Lane, Digital Laser and a Blackrock background, with plans to expand access to additional strategies. Tokens, available for institutional and accredited investors, allow subscription, redemption and chain reports. The SEI network, built for high -speed financial transactions, provides the underlying rails for execution. Kaio’s expansion follows the tokenization firm supported by Ark Securitize, introducing the Diversified Credit Fund Apollo of $ 112 million, a tokenized feed fund of the private credit vehicle of Apollo, to SEI. The announcement highlights an increasing trend in real world assets (RWAS), where traditional investments such as bonds, credit and funds are represented as digital tokens. – Kristzian Sandor Read more.
- Yuma, a subsidiary of the Digital Currency Group (DCG) focused on decentralized artificial intelligence (AI), has appointed veterans founders of Cripto Greg Schvey and Jeff Schvey as their new director of operations and technology director, respectively, said the company. Employees mark a key expansion for Yuma, since the operations in the bittensor network, including validader, mining and subnet accelerator initiatives, and prepares to launch an asset management division, the company said. The Schvey Brothers are better known for co -founding Tradeblock, an institutional platform for cryptocurrency management and portfolio data acquired by DCG, and Axoni, a blockchain infrastructure company that provides services to traditional financial markets. Axoni’s largest business unit was acquired by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) in 2024. DCG was one of the first investors in both companies. – Will Canny Read more.
Regulatory and political
- The Bank of England (BOE) is planning exemptions to its boundaries proposed on the holdings of Stablecoins, Bloomberg reported earlier this week. The BOE will give exemptions to some companies that need to have large amounts of tokens, such as encryption exchanges, according to the report, citing a person familiar with the matter. The Central Bank of the United Kingdom will also allow companies to use Stablecoins for liquidation in its digital values ​​sand box, people said. Last month, it was reported that BOE officials planned to impose limits of 10,000-20,000 pounds ($ 13,400- $ 26,800) for individuals and 10 million pounds ($ 13.4 million) in stables. The digital asset industry figures criticized plans as unfeasible. The governor of BOE, Andrew Bailey, expressed skepticism about Stablecoins in July, highlighting the possible threats to financial stability and warned global investment banks against the development of theirs. – Jamie Crawley Read more.
- The stock exchange and values ​​commission is still seeking to formalize an “exemption of innovation” so that companies are based on digital assets and other innovative technologies in the United States, potentially as soon as the end of the quarter, said the president of the Agency Paul Atkins. Although he acknowledged that the current closure of the Government had “pursued” the ability of the SC to advance in the regulations, Atkins said that working on this exemption remains its priority for the end of the year or the first quarter of 2026, he said in an event of the report of the law of futures and derivatives organized by the law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday. The president of the SEC opened with one of his stirrups now common: that cryptography is “work one” and the agency has become a pro-initiation that seeks to encourage developers and entrepreneurs to build in the United States, Nikhilesh of Read more.
Calendar
- October 13-15: Digital Asset Summit, London
- October 16-17: Blockchain European Convention, Barcelona
- November 17-22: Devconnect, Buenos Aires
- December 11-13: Solana Breakpoint, Abu Dhabi
- February 10-12, 2026: Consensus, Hong Kong
- February 17-21, 2026: Ethdenver, Denver
- March 30-April. 2: ETHCC, Cannes
- May 5, 2026: Consensus, Miami
