Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap-up of a very powerful tales in cryptocurrency tech improvement. We’re Margaux Nijkerk and Sam Kessler, CoinDesk’s Tech & Protocols crew.
On this difficulty:
- Sandeep Nailwal Takes Management of Polygon Basis, Charts New Course, Retires ZkEVM
- Ethereum Basis Unveils New Treasury Coverage With 15% Opex Cap
- Bitcoin Core 30 to Improve OP_RETURN Information Restrict After Developer Debate Concludes
- Plume Launches Genesis Mainnet to Deliver Actual-World Property to DeFi
Community Information
SANDEEP NAILWAL TAKES CONTROL OF POLYGON FOUNDATION, RETIRES ZKEVM: Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal has formally assumed the position of CEO of the Polygon Basis, marking a pivot within the group’s management make-up and a sweeping overhaul of the community’s longterm roadmap. Nailwal, who launched the undertaking in 2017 when it was nonetheless known as Matic Community, will consolidate management and reorient the crew towards AggLayer — Polygon’s new cross-chain liquidity protocol that guarantees seamless interoperability throughout networks. The inspiration may also retire zkEVM, Polygon’s rollup community. “This renewed management marks the start of a strategic push for Polygon to reclaim its place on the forefront of Web3,” the crew wrote in a press launch shared with CoinDesk — Marguax Nijkerk Read more.
ETHEREUM FOUNDATION’S NEW TREASURY POLICY: The Ethereum Basis revealed an up to date treasury coverage, outlining a sequence of recent plans round token gross sales, fiat purchases and transparency practices designed to make sure the group’s “long-term company, sustainability, and legitimacy.” The EF, a Swiss non-profit, performs a central position within the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem. Along with using researchers, builders and neighborhood liaisons, the inspiration was granted a giant trove of ether (ETH) tokens at Ethereum’s genesis which it makes use of to fund its operations and help different initiatives within the ecosystem. In a weblog publish, the inspiration acknowledged it plans to yearly designate 15% of its treasury to operational bills (“opex”), with a 2.5-year buffer saved always in its reserves. “We intend to cut back annual opex roughly linearly over the following 5 years, ending at a long-term 5% baseline,” the inspiration wrote. “This coverage displays our conviction that 2025-26 are more likely to be pivotal for Ethereum, warranting enhanced deal with crucial deliverables.” — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
BITCOIN CORE 30 TO INCREASE OP_RETURN DATA LIMIT: The builders of Bitcoin Core, the first open-source software program for connecting the blockchain behind the world’s largest cryptocurrency, mentioned October’s model 30 launch will enhance the default restrict for OP_RETURN data transactions from the present 80 bytes to almost 4MB, a restrict imposed by Bitcoin’s block measurement. The proposal for the change, which was confirmed in an update on GitHub, had sparked debate throughout the Bitcoin neighborhood. Critics argued that eradicating the restrict may encourage elevated embedding of arbitrary information, doubtlessly resulting in community spam and a shift from bitcoin’s main operate as a monetary instrument. — Sam Reynolds Read more.
PLUME MAINNET GOES LIVES: Plume, a blockchain community centered on real-world belongings, introduced the launch of its hotly anticipated Genesis mainnet.The launch, in line with a assertion shared by the Plume crew, marks the “subsequent era” of asset-backed DeFi — tokenizing conventional monetary devices, or real-world belongings (RWA), to allow them to work together with blockchain-based monetary instruments. RWAs have taken over the world of blockchain, as they’re considered as a market that could be price trillions of {dollars} with conventional monetary establishments steadily dipping into crypto. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
In Different Information
- Protected, the favored multiparty crypto pockets beforehand known as Gnosis Protected, has launched a new improvement unit, Protected Labs, in a transfer aimed toward consolidating its operations and sharpening its product roadmap after it was focused in February’s $1.4 billion ByBit hack — the biggest crypto heist up to now. Together with the change, Protected is constructing a extra “opinionated” V2 of its platform focused at enterprise prospects. — Sam Kessler Read more.
- Morpho, a permissionless cryptocurrency lending protocol, unveiled an replace that seeks to additional align decentralized finance (DeFi) with conventional lending by bringing extra in the best way of bespoke, predictable mortgage phrases. Morpho V2 delivers market-driven fixed-rate, fixed-term loans with customizable phrases, options beforehand unseen in DeFi, that are required to satisfy the calls for of establishments and enterprises trying to construct or migrate monetary merchandise on-chain, Morpho mentioned in a press launch on Thursday.— Ian Allison Read more.
Regulatory and Coverage
- The U.S. Securities and Trade Fee is engaged on coverage to exempt decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms from regulatory limitations, mentioned Chairman Paul Atkins. Software program builders constructing DeFi instruments haven’t any enterprise being blamed for the way they’re used, Atkins and different SEC Republicans contended on the final of five crypto roundtables which have been held on the company because the management turnover underneath President Donald Trump.The chairman told a roundtable of DeFi experts that he is directed the SEC employees to look into modifications to company guidelines “to offer wanted lodging for issuers and intermediaries to hunt to manage on-chain monetary programs.” Atkins known as that potential exemptive aid “an innovation exemption” that might let entities underneath SEC jurisdiction deliver on-chain services to market “expeditiously.” — Jesse Hamilton Read more.
- The worldwide unit of Alipay proprietor Ant Group plans to hunt stablecoin licenses in Hong Kong and Singapore, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Ant Worldwide will apply for a stablecoin issuer’s license as soon as the regulatory regime comes into impact in August, in line with the report, citing individuals accustomed to the matter. The agency can be planning to use for a comparable license in its native Singapore, in addition to Luxembourg. — Jamie Crawley Read more.
Calendar
- June 8-22: Berlin Blockchain Week, Berlin
- June 24-26: Permissionless, Brooklyn
- June 30-July 3: EthCC, Cannes
- July 16-18: Web3 Summit, Berlin
- Sept. 22-28: Korea Blockchain Week, Seoul
- Oct. 1-2: Token2049, Singapore
- Nov. 17-22: Devconnect, Buenos Aires
- Dec. 11-13: Solana Breakpoint, Abu Dhabi
- Feb. 10-12, 2026: Consensus, Hong Kong
- Could 5-7, 2026: Consensus, Miami
