Vitalik Buterin said low-risk DeFi protocols can bring in stable revenue for the network, like how Google Search does for Google, but while also ensuring Ethereum’s core values remain intact. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said revenue from low-risk decentralized finance protocols could give the network economic stability — much like Google Search supports Google — while letting nonfinancial apps uphold Ethereum’s cultural values. Low-risk DeFi could address “important tensions” in the Ethereum community over whether apps that bring in enough revenue to economically sustain the ecosystem align with the cultural and ethical values that brought people to Ethereum in the first place, Buterin said in a blog post on Saturday. The former has been a combination of nonfungible tokens, memecoins, and speculative trading, while the nonfinancial and semifinancial apps that reflect Ethereum’s cultural values have either struggled to gain widespread adoption or haven’t generated enough fees, he said. Read more
Ether’s road to $5,000 looks clear, especially if TradFi adoption and spot ETH ETF inflows continue at their current pace. Key takeaways: Strong onchain Ethereum activity and treasury accumulation sustain Ether’s resilience despite validator queue exit pressure. Spot Ether ETFs' growth and declining exchange balances reinforce the bullish outlook, positioning ETH for a potential breakout. Read more
Davide Crapis says the Ethereum Foundation’s new AI team wasn’t part of the roadmap but grew out of grassroots demand. The Ethereum Foundation’s new push into artificial intelligence was not part of its roadmap, but emerged in response to demand from ecosystem projects, according to new team lead Davide Crapis. While not a direct policy shift, the move represents “another step” for the long-term success of the protocol. “Our ecosystem needs this,” Crapis told Cointelegraph. The newly formed AI team will essentially have a foot in two main sides of the Ethereum Foundation: the protocol and ecosystem divisions. The dual focus targets product development and preparing Ethereum to onboard traditional AI developers. Read more
Ether price eyed fresh highs as it held above a key trendline, with markets betting on a 96% chance of Fed cuts and further easing this year. Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), has fallen 5.73% from its weekend high near $4,766, retreating as traders trim risk ahead of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve interest rate decision. The pullback reflects caution in the market, but the bigger question is whether the Fed’s potential dovish shift could reignite Ethereum’s rally and how far its next move might extend. Ether bulls are defending the 20-day exponential moving average (20-day EMA; the green wave) near $4,450, showing resilience as markets price in a 96.1% chance of a Fed rate cut this week, up from 85.4% a month ago, with two more reductions expected by year’s end. Read more
The privacy roadmap included adding features for private transactions and decentralized identity solutions across Ethereum's tech stack. The Ethereum Foundation has released a roadmap to bring end-to-end privacy features to the Ethereum network, a layer-1 (L1) smart contract blockchain, and rebranded its “Privacy & Scaling Explorations” initiative to “Privacy Stewards of Ethereum” (PSE). PSE said it aims to bring privacy solutions to the protocol, infrastructure, networking, application, and wallet layers in Friday’s announcement, and laid out several key goals for the next 3-6 months. These included enabling private transfers through the development of the PlasmaFold layer-2 network, confidential voting, and privacy in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Read more