Community Information
ETHEREUM’S NEW AI AGENT STANDARD: Ethereum builders are making ready to roll out ERC-8004, a new standard designed to assist software program agents discover one another, show who they’re and resolve who to belief after they function throughout totally different techniques. The proposal introduces a easy concept: If AI agents are going to transact, coordinate and execute duties autonomously, they want persistent identities and a shared approach to construct credibility — very similar to customers, wallets or sensible contracts do as we speak. It comes as giant firms race to deploy AI agents internally. Most techniques nonetheless depend on closed identification lists, API keys or bilateral belief agreements. That works inside a agency, however breaks down as soon as agents want to coordinate throughout distributors, chains or jurisdictions. ERC-8004 defines three light-weight registries that may reside on Ethereum mainnet or layer-2 networks. The primary is an identification registry, which assigns every agent a novel on-chain identifier utilizing an ERC-721-style token. That identifier factors to a registration file describing what the agent does, how to attain it and which protocols it helps. Possession of the identifier may be transferred, delegated or up to date, giving agents moveable, censorship-resistant identities. The second is a popularity registry, the place shoppers — human or machine — can submit structured suggestions about an agent’s efficiency. The registry shops uncooked alerts on-chain, whereas permitting extra advanced scoring and filtering to occur off-chain. The objective isn’t to rank agents instantly however to make popularity information public and reusable throughout functions. The third is a validation registry, which lets agents request unbiased checks of their work. Validators might embody staked providers, machine studying proofs, trusted {hardware} or different verification techniques. These outcomes are saved on the blockchain so different customers can see what was checked and by whom. — Shaurya Malwa Read more.
SOLANA’S LATEST PHASE IS FOCUSED ON BUILDING: Solana’s newest part seems lots much less flashy than its memecoin-fueled highs, and that could be the objective. Armani Ferrante, CEO of crypto exchange Backpack, informed CoinDesk in an interview the Solana ecosystem has spent the previous 12 months doubling down on a extra sober focus: monetary infrastructure. After years of experimentation as the broader crypto {industry} centered on NFTs, video games and social tokens, consideration is now shifting again towards decentralized finance, buying and selling and funds. “Persons are actually beginning to take into consideration blockchains as a new sort of monetary infrastructure,” Ferrante, who will likely be talking at CoinDesk’s Consensus Hong Kong conference subsequent month, stated. “It’s much less about NFTs, much less about random moonshot-like video games, and rather more about finance.” That shift has made Solana feel dull to some outside observers, however Ferrante framed it as an indication of maturity. The community is more and more positioning itself round high-throughput onchain buying and selling, market construction and settlement, what some have dubbed as “web capital markets.”The pivot comes amid a stark divide between crypto sentiment and conventional finance. Whereas crypto costs stay subdued and crypto-native traders stay cautious, Ferrante stated institutional curiosity has hardly ever been stronger. “If you happen to ask anybody on Wall Road, they’ve by no means been extra bullish,” he stated, pointing to rising momentum round tokenization, stablecoins and onchain settlement.— Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
OPTIMISM BEGINS VOTING ON OP TOKEN BUYBACKS: The Optimism neighborhood began voting on a governance proposal linking the worth of the OP token extra instantly to the financial efficiency of the Superchain, a rising community of Ethereum layer-2 blockchains constructed utilizing the OP Stack. If accredited, the plan introduced by the Optimism Basis will dedicate half the ether income generated by the Superchain sequencer to month-to-month buybacks of the OP token over an preliminary 12-month interval. The muse stated the plan represents a major evolution for OP, which has primarily functioned as a governance token, and expects it to translate into structural demand for OP. “Each transaction throughout each OP Chain expands the bottom from which buybacks function,” the proposal states, framing OP as a token more and more aligned with community utilization as well as to its governance position. Voting opened final week and members have 6 days to vote on the proposal. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
EF UNVEILS POST QUANTUM COMPUTING AS PRIORITY: The Ethereum Basis (EF), a nonprofit group that helps Ethereum’s improvement, is popping its lengthy working post-quantum analysis right into a public engineering push, forming a devoted “Publish Quantum” staff and calling the hassle a prime strategic precedence for the community. EF researcher Justin Drake stated the new group will likely be led by researcher Thomas Coratger, who Drake described as a key expertise behind “leanVM.” Drake framed leanVM as a core a part of Ethereum’s broader strategy to post-quantum safety, arguing that timelines are accelerating and that Ethereum ought to transfer right into a construct part reasonably than preserve work within the background. The announcement comes as crypto markets have grow to be extra delicate to quantum threat headlines, even when the sensible menace stays an extended dated drawback. Quantum computing makes use of new varieties of processors that would sooner or later break as we speak’s encryption a lot sooner than regular computer systems. Blockchain builders fear it might ultimately expose pockets keys, forcing networks to improve cryptography nicely earlier than that threat turns into actual. The larger situation for giant networks will not be a single breakthrough second however the time it takes to ship a protected transition, replace wallets and transfer customers onto new codecs with out breaking each day utilization. Drake outlined a number of near-term steps. A biweekly developer session centered on post-quantum transactions is anticipated to begin subsequent month, led by Antonio Sanso. The agenda is aimed toward user-facing defenses, together with devoted cryptographic instruments contained in the protocol, account abstraction paths and longer-term work on aggregating transaction signatures utilizing leanVM. – Shaurya Malwa Read more.
In Different Information
- Tether, the corporate behind the world’s largest stablecoin, has been shopping for bodily gold at a tempo of up to two tons per week because it builds one of many world’s largest bullion stockpiles. The corporate’s CEO, Paolo Ardoino, informed Bloomberg that Tether intends to proceed buying gold at that charge for no less than the following few months. At present costs, that equates to greater than $1 billion in buys each month. The purchases are delivered to a high-security former nuclear bunker in Switzerland, which Ardoino described as “a James Bond sort of place.” Tether’s gold holdings now complete round 140 tons, value an estimated $24 billion, making it one of many largest recognized holders of gold outdoors of governments, central banks and main ETFs. Most of that gold represents the corporate’s personal reserves, whereas some backs its gold-backed stablecoin, which at the moment has a $2.7 billion market capitalization in accordance to CoinGecko. — Francisco Rodrigues Read more.
- Stablecoins are transferring past crypto experimentation and into trusted monetary infrastructure, OKX stated, because it introduced the launch of a new debit card in Europe. “Momentum is constructing quick,” Erald Ghoos, CEO of OKX Europe, informed CoinDesk. “Regulators are placing actual guardrails in place, main banks will not be solely taking them critically for funds and settlements however are collaborating in industry-wide EU initiatives to grow to be issuers, and on a regular basis customers are selecting sooner, cheaper digital funds.” European regulators have accelerated that momentum by means of the rollout of the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework, which brings stablecoin issuers and crypto service suppliers beneath a single, bloc-wide regulatory regime. Ghoos’s feedback accompanied OKX’s announcement that it has rolled out a new crypto funds card in Europe, permitting customers to spend stablecoins instantly at Mastercard-accepting retailers. The OKX Card connects self-custody wallets with real-world funds, providing fee-free spending, although there’s a 0.4% market unfold utilized on the level of conversion, and crypto rewards. In contrast to most crypto playing cards that require guide conversions or preloading funds, the OKX Card lets customers pay with stablecoins held of their wallets. The belongings are transformed solely on the time of buy. Customers earn crypto rewards of up to 20% throughout a restricted promotional interval. — Olivier Acuna Read more.
Regulatory and Coverage
- The digital asset market is dealing with a important fork within the highway, in accordance to crypto asset administration agency Bitwise. In a blog post, the funding supervisor warned that the stalling of the Readability Act in Congress might shift the market from a speculative bull run right into a grueling “present me” part. The Senate Agriculture Committee postponed its crypto market structure markup listening to from as we speak to Thursday, citing the winter storm that hit a lot of the U.S. over the weekend. In accordance to Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan the Readability Act is important for cementing a present pro-crypto regulatory setting into everlasting legislation. With out it, the {industry} stays weak to the whims of future administrations. Hougan pointed out that market sentiment on whether or not the invoice will grow to be legislation has soured just lately. Whereas Polymarket merchants in early January priced in an 80% chance of the invoice passing, these odds have plummeted to roughly 50% after figures like Coinbase (COIN) CEO Brian Armstrong labeled the present draft unworkable. Armstrong stated his agency pulled support for a sweeping digital belongings invoice after discovering provisions that would have harmed customers and stifled competitors. Ought to the laws stall, Hougan argued that crypto should comply with the trail of disruptive giants like Uber and Airbnb, which survived regulatory gray areas by changing into too common for lawmakers to ignore. — Will Canny Read more.
- Even because the U.Ok.’s crypto rules work their approach by means of the system, a lot of the nation’s banks are nonetheless blocking their clients’ entry to even registered crypto exchanges. The Monetary Conduct Authority’s listing of crypto asset firms, which certifies they meet the nation’s anti-money laundering and terrorism financing rules, now numbers 59, together with exchanges like Coinbase (COIN), Kraken and Gemini (GEMI). Nonetheless, shoppers wanting to make investments on these platforms are doubtless to discover themselves stymied by their banks. In a report published, foyer group UK Cryptoasset Enterprise Council discovered that seven out of the ten prime exchanges working within the nation understand elevated hostility from nationwide banks over the previous 12 months. The remaining three stated issues stay unchanged. A full 80% of the exchanges reported a rise in clients experiencing blocks or limits to financial institution transfers in 2025 and 70% described the banking setting as extra hostile now than 12 months in the past. The survey discovered that 40% of transactions have been blocked or delayed. “The debanking of the UK’s digital asset financial system is a significant impediment to its progress,” the group wrote within the report. “… virtually all the main UK banks and funds providers companies at the moment impose blanket transaction limits or full blocks to cryptoasset exchanges. This development is steadily worsening – with new restrictions being carried out …”— Olivier Acuna Read more.
Calendar
- Feb. 10-12, 2026: Consensus, Hong Kong
- Feb. 17-21, 2026: EthDenver, Denver
- Feb. 23-24, 2026: NearCon, San Francisco
- Mar. 30-Apr. 2, 2026: EthCC, Cannes
- Apr.15-16, 2026: Paris Blockchain Week, Paris
- Could 5-7, 2026: Consensus, Miami
- Nov. 3-6, 2026: Devcon, Mumbai
- Nov. 15-17, 2026: Solana Breakpoint, London
