Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said he expects growth to continue next year, but with smarter adjustments that expand capacity without new bottlenecks. Ethereum crossed a threshold in execution capacity as its mainnet block gas limit reached 60 million, the highest level the network has seen in four years. Data tracker Gas Limit Pics showed that in November, over 513,000 validators signaled a 60 million gas limit, pushing the Ethereum network over the threshold needed for the protocol to begin moving the gas limit upward. A higher gas limit allows Ethereum to fit more work into each block, including swaps, token transfers and smart contract calls. In practice, that can ease congestion during busy periods and help the network process more activity at the base layer. Read more
Despite Ether’s drop below $3,000, data suggested that ETH price could see a sustained recovery over the next few weeks, as long as the $2,800 support level held. Ether (ETH) price is up 11% since plunging below the $3,000 mark on Nov. 22, reclaiming key support levels. Analysts say that increased demand from institutions, coupled with the end of quantitative tightening, could lead to a recovery toward $3,600 next. Key takeaways: Ethereum demand is recovering along with ETF inflows. Read more
A car accident left Trevor Koverko with brain injuries. But his fortunes turned around when Vitalik handed him the Ethereum white paper. Not everyone can say they were there when history was being made. But former ice hockey star Trevor Koverko, on the mend from a serious car accident, witnessed it firsthand in his hometown. I was at a meet-up in Toronto and this guy named Vitalik was handing out documents, which turned out to be the Ethereum whitepaper. We had a cluster of really important high-profile people that came out of that time in Toronto. Vitalik, Joe Lubin and Charles Hoskinson, for example. In Canada, ice hockey is its own kind of subculture. Koverko had fallen in love with the sport at a young age, and by the time he was a teen, he was competing at the semi-pro level and moved away from home, playing to crowds of 10,000. Read more
Aztec launched its Ignition mainnet with no centralized operators, opening community staking amid its major token sale and positioning itself as a fully decentralized L2. Ethereum layer-2 network Aztec launched its mainnet Wednesday — albeit with partial functionality — marking the launch of one of the few fully decentralized networks in the ecosystem. According to an Aztec email viewed by Cointelegraph, Aztec has launched its “Ignition” mainnet chain, a functional consensus-producing chain that generates blocks, but without the smart contract execution layer. According to L2Beat, only the trustless, optimistic rollup network Facet v1 and Aztec’s old decentralized finance (DeFi) anonymization project, Zk.Money are classed as a stage 2 system with full decentralization. Read more
BlackRock is now pursuing a new staked Ethereum ETF, offering more lucrative returns, approximately 15 months after launching its flagship ETH fund, ETHA. BlackRock has registered for a new staked Ethereum exchange-traded fund in Delaware, signalling that the $13.5 trillion asset manager is now ready to expand beyond its flagship Ethereum ETF product. A Delaware name registration is one of the first steps that a fund issuer needs to take to file for a new ETF. BlackRock, however, still needs to file other relevant documents to put the proposed product on track for regulatory approval. It would also complement BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA), which has attracted $13.1 billion worth of inflows since launching in July 2024. BlackRock did not add staking to its spot Ethereum product, stating on its website: Read more