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:
- Solana established for an important review after 98% of votes to approve the historical update of ‘Alpenglow’
- Ethereum Foundation to download another 10k eth after the Sharplink agreement
- ‘Op_cat is not my invention. It’s Satoshi, ” says Bruce Liu while Opcat_Labs presses to restart the bitcoin code
- Ethereum to close its biggest test network, Holesky, after Fusaka update
Network news
Alpenglow approved by Solana Community: The Solana community voted overwhelmingly in favor of the long -awaited Alpenglow update, approaching the network one more step to the most significant technical transformation in its history. According to the state of Solana in X, 98.27% of the Sun Stakers voted approved the proposal, with only 1.05% voting against and 0.36% refraining. In total, 52% of the network stakers participated in the vote. The update introduces a new consensus protocol designed to drastically improve the purpose of the transaction and network efficiency. In the heart of Alpenglow there are two new components, voters and rotor, which will replace existing Solana systems, the history and Towerbft test. Currently, history test time test transactions to preserve their order without slowing down the network, while TowerBft manages the voting process between validators. Alpenglow will review both systems. The voter will reduce the purposes of transactions of more than 12 seconds to around 150 milliseconds, delivering an almost instant confirmation for users. The rotor, scheduled for a posterior deployment, will minimize data transfers between validators, a crucial improvement for high demand applications, such as decentralized finances. (Defi) and blockchain -based games. With safe approval, Solana is now preparing to implement the update, a milestone is expected to unlock a higher speed, resistance and scalability throughout its ecosystem. – Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
EF to sell 10k eth in the coming weeks: The Ethereum Foundation (EF) Shared in an X publication on Tuesday that plans to sell 10,000 ETH through centralized exchanges over the next weeks to support work towards research and development, ecosystem subsidies and related donations. According to Coinmarketcap, ETH will amount to approximately $ 43 million at Tuesday prices. “The conversions will take place on multiple smaller orders, instead of as a single large transaction,” the EF wrote in the publication about X. The news continues the launch of the EF of a new treasury policy in June that limits the annual operational spending (Opex) With 15%, it establishes a several -year reserve shock and establishes a gradual rhythm towards an even more thin long -term expense. The Foundation sold 10,000 ETH additional to Sharplink Gaming in July, which made the online casinos marketing company in the first company that quotes on the stock market on buying ETH from a key company in the network ecosystem. – Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
A talk with Bruce Liu in op_cat: Without op_cat, Bruce Liu says that Bitcoin is as “useful as a Jet Jet without wings” capable of much more than he can do, but gets stuck on the floor while Ethereum and Solana shoot. Liu, the founder of Opcat_Labs, says that a single OPCODE, op_cat, could transform Bitcoin of static digital gold into programmable money that rivals other Capa-1 chains. Op_Cat is a long disability operation code in the bitcoin code that, if enabled, would allow developers to concatenate data in scripts and unlock new possibilities, from vaults and agreements to decentralized exchanges and zero knowledge tests. Bitcoin’s block chain, if op_cat was enabled again, would be as programmable as Ethereum or Solana, Liu said. “Op_cat is not a new code. It was never eliminated, he only commented and disabled. We are not adding my operation code or that of another person. It is Satoshi,” Liu told Coindesk during an interview outside BTC Asia in Hong Kong. – Sam Reynolds Read more.
Holesky Sunset comes after the Fusaka update: A new Ethereum Testnets slate is replacing Holesky, the staging ground, once massive, is now established for closing after two years of service. The mess will occur two weeks after the Fusaka update is finalized at the end of this year, in which the client and infrastructure equipment of the tip will stop providing support. Fusaka is configured to make Ethereum’s rollups more cheaper and faster extending “data storage work” more uniform among validators. Holesky was launched in 2023 to test stress, the testing machinery of Ethereum stagnation at scale. It quickly became the largest public, providing thousands of validators with a platform to update updates before being implemented in the main one. The main milestones, such as the updates of Dencun and Pin, which reduced the transaction costs and improved validator efficiency, among other characteristics, were executed first through Holesky. However, the cracks began to appear as the network aged. Holesky found “leaks of inactivity” after the activation of pein at the beginning of 2025, a term that refers to the off -line validators in large quantities, which created a significant portfolio for those who tried to leave. The result was the lines of one month that made it not practical to test the life cycle of the complete validator. For developers who need fast feedback loops, Holesky had become more an obstacle than a tool. – Shaurya Malwa Read more.
In other news
- Galaxy Digital Digital Assets Investment Signature (GLXY) He is carrying his stock to Blockchain Rieles as capital token gains steam. The company that is in Nasdaq is working with Blockchain Firm Superstate to make its class available to the agreement preserves the complete rights of the assets registered in the SEC while allowing investors to maintain and transfer shares in the chain, companies said. The tokenization of traditional assets has won traction throughout the financial sector as companies experience with mute shares, bonds and money fund funds in blockchain infrastructure. A series of tokenized capital products reached the market in recent months predominantly for EU investors, even by Robinhood, Gemini with Dinari and Xstocks per Kraken and supported finance. However, some offers attracted concerns such as the limited rights of shareholders and fragmented regulations. Unlike synthetic or wrapped tokenized actions that operate without the participation of the issuer, Galaxy’s shares are issued directly in the chain and track the superstate as a transfer agent, registering changes in the registration of shareholders instantly as the tokens move between the verified wallets. This approach seeks to combine compliance with Blockchain’s characteristics, such as a fast settlement, transparency and watch availability, companies said. – Kristzian Sandor Read more.
- Ondo Finance launched its tokenized capital platform called the Global Markets, offering non -American investors access to more than 100 US actions and negotiated funds on the stock market (ETF) In the chain. Tokenized actions, announced for the first time in February, have gone to Ethereum and are backed by values held by the stockbrokers registered in the United States, said the firm. The offer includes versions of Apple cryptographic token (AAPL)Nvidia (NVDA) and the ETF QQQ among others. Investors in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa and Latin America can coin and exchange the shares throughout the day during negotiation days, with access to underlying exchange liquidity. The service is not available for users of us. Tokens are designed to move freely between wallets, exchanges and decentralized finances (Defi) Protocols The firm has also been associated with Bitgo, Ledger, Chainlink and other infrastructure suppliers to support the deployment. Kristzian Sandor Read more.
Regulatory and political
- European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde urged the European Union (EU) Legislators impose strict requirements and safeguards in foreign stables.
- Lagarde argued that they should meet the regulatory standards of the block before operating on the EU floor, he said in a speech on a European systemic risk board (ESRB) Conference in Frankfurt. The president of the ECB warned that during a stablecoin career, investors would be more likely to be redeem in jurisdictions with stronger protections, such as the EU, where market-active markets (Mica) The regulation prohibits redemption rates, which potentially exhaust local reserves. “The risk of poor liquidity management between jurisdictions is one that we have seen before. Banking groups, for example, are already obliged to ensure that the reserves are available in the part of the group where and when they are necessary,” said Lagarde. – Jamie Crawley Read more.
- The United States government has begun to use blockchains to disseminate key economic data, starting with the release of the gross product of the United States Department of Commerce. (GDP) Numbers, which were described as a “proof of concept” to do more in the future. “We are making the United States’s economic truth immutable and accessible worldwide as never before, consolidating our role as the world capital of Blockchain,” said Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick in a statement announced the new approach to distribute the data. In a deliberate effort not to choose Blockchain’s favorites, the department published last week’s data on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Tron, Stellar, Avalanche, Arbitrum One, Polygon Post and optimism, identifying the transaction hashes for each one in their announcement. The agency said it also sent the data through Chainlink and Pyth and pointed out that the exchanges of Coinbase, Gemini and Kraken helped. Jesse Hamilton Read more.
Calendar
- September 22-28: Korea Bloquchain Week, Seoul
- October 1: Token2049, Singapore
- 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
- March 30-April. 2: ETHCC, Cannes
- May 5, 2026: Consensus, Miami
