Network news
“ALPENGLOW” UPGRADE LIVE FOR TESTING ON SOLANA: Solana developer Anza said that Alpenglow, the largest proposed consensus overhaul of the network to date, is live on a community test cluster, marking an important step toward a possible mainnet rollout. The update means that validator operators can now test software designed to move Solana from its current consensus system, which combines Proof-of-Stake with TowerBFT and Proof-of-History, to a new architecture intended to dramatically reduce finality times and improve network responsiveness. “Alpenglow is live on the community test cluster,” Anza wrote on X. “The largest consensus change in Solana history, now running on the validator infrastructure before the mainnet.” Today, Solana relies on Proof-of-History, a cryptographic clock that timestamps transactions, in addition to TowerBFT, a voting mechanism that validators use to agree on the state of the blockchain. While the design has helped Solana achieve high throughput and low costs, some have pointed to outages and network instability during periods of high demand. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
LAYERZERO apology for KELP DAO INCIDENTLayerZero said it “made a mistake” by allowing its own authentication infrastructure to secure high-value crypto assets in a vulnerable configuration, marking a notable change in tone after weeks of blaming developer Kelp DAO for a $292 million hack linked to North Korean attackers. The admission marks a notable shift after weeks of public finger-pointing between LayerZero and Kelp over responsibility for the April hack, which LayerZero had initially portrayed as an application-level configuration error by Kelp. “First and foremost: a belated apology,” LayerZero wrote in a blog. LayerZero initially blamed Kelp, arguing that the protocol had chosen a risky “1-to-1” configuration in which only a single decentralized verification network, or DVN, had to approve cross-chain transfers, creating a single point of failure. A DVN is part of the infrastructure that verifies whether a transaction that moves assets between blockchains is legitimate. “We made a mistake by allowing our DVN to act as a 1/1 DVN for high-value transactions,” the company said. “We failed to monitor what our DVN was securing, creating a risk we simply did not see. That is our property.” — Sam Reynolds Read more.
RONIN TO TRANSITION TO $LOW-2: Ronin, the gaming-focused blockchain once synonymous with the industry’s infamous $625 million 2022 exploit, is officially shedding its sidechain skin on May 12 to become an Ethereum layer 2 to improve security while maintaining throughput. Ronin, which announced the migration in April, will perform a hard fork at block 55,577,490, a process that will result in about 10 hours of downtime for users, the network said Monday on X. According to onchain data, the migration is expected to begin around 3:16 PM UTC on Tuesday. “We launched Ronin four years ago because Axie Infinity needed a faster and more efficient network,” Ronin said when announcing the migration. “It worked. Axie Infinity introduced millions of gamers to crypto, and Pixels proved it was possible to do it again.” The time has come to ‘reconnect to the mother ship’. While operating as an independent sidechain in mid-May 2022, Ronin suffered what remains the largest DeFI bridge exploit in history. Layer 2 protocols benefit from tighter links to the underlying blockchain than sidechains, and offer benefits such as greater security. — Olivier Acuna Read more.
ETHEREUM DEVELOPERS RELEASE “CLEAR SIGNATURE”: The Ethereum Foundation and a group of major crypto wallet developers are introducing a new security standard designed to prevent users from accidentally transferring their funds, an issue that has fueled some of the industry’s biggest hacks and scams. The initiative, called “Clear Signing,” aims to replace the confusing walls of code that users currently encounter when approving Ethereum transactions with simple, human-readable explanations of what they are actually agreeing to. The effort comes after years of phishing attacks and wallet drains, which often boil down to the same problem: users unknowingly approving malicious transactions they don’t understand. The Ethereum Foundation cited incidents like the Bybit hack as an example of how attackers are exploiting “blind signing,” in which users approve transactions filled with unreadable technical data. Right now, signing a crypto transaction can be like clicking “Accept” on a terms of service page written in a different language. Wallets often contain long strings of code that only highly technical users can decipher, leaving ordinary traders vulnerable to fake apps, malicious links and compromised websites. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
In other news
- Charles Schwab, the brokerage giant that manages about $12 trillion in client assets, has begun rolling out its spot cryptocurrency trading service for retail clients in the US. A first group of customers can now trade in bitcoin and ether ($ETH) on the Schwab Crypto platform, ranking the company at The Westlake, Texas-based company already offers crypto investments through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and futures trading. — Jamie Crawley Read more.
- JPMorgan (JPM) is preparing to launch a tokenized money market fund, the latest sign that major financial institutions and Wall Street asset managers are accelerating their efforts to move traditional assets onto blockchain rails. A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) outlined plans for a blockchain-based money market fund that invests exclusively in short-term U.S. Treasury securities, cash and overnight repurchase agreements backed by Treasury bonds. The fund, called JPMorgan OnChain Liquidity-Token Money Market Fund (JLTXX), will maintain blockchain-based token balances linked to investors’ ownership data, allowing approved users to submit purchase, redemption and transfer requests via Ethereum, the filing said. The underlying blockchain infrastructure will be managed by Kinexys Digital Assets, the blockchain unit of JPMorgan, formerly known as Onyx. — Kristian Sandor Read more.
Regulations and policies
- Legislation that could fully integrate the US crypto industry into the regulated financial system has done so appeared in its latest formwith the Senate Banking Committee unveiling the text of the market structure bill just after midnight Tuesday, ahead of this week’s hearing that will move the effort forward. The latest version wasn’t expected to offer many surprises for the crypto industry, which has already had a chance to dig through it privately, but it still contains controversial language about stablecoin yields and it maintains legal protections for decentralized finance (DeFi) developers, keeping that corner of the crypto sector happy (so far). Industry insiders have been waiting late into the night for its release, and they still have to study the language to ensure their expectations were met. “This bill reflects serious, good-faith work within the committee and provides the certainty, safeguards, and accountability that Americans deserve,” committee Chairman Tim Scott said in a statement. “It puts consumers first, fights illegal financing, cracks down on criminals and foreign adversaries, and keeps the future of the financial industry here in the United States secure.” — Jesse Hamilton Read more.
- The Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors on Tuesday, moving President Donald Trump’s pick a step closer to becoming the next chairman of the US central bank. Lawmakers approved Warsh on a 51-45 vote. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was the only Democrat to support the nomination. Warsh still must win a separate Senate vote to become Fed chairman, which is expected Wednesday. Governors serve a fourteen-year term, while the chairman serves a four-year term. If Warsh, 56, is confirmed as chairman, he will replace Jerome Powell, whose eight-year term as Fed leader ends Friday. However, Powell has said he plans to remain on the board until a federal investigation into the renovation of the Fed’s headquarters is completed. — Helene Braun Read more.
Calendar
- June 2-3, 2026: Proof of Talk, Paris
- June 4, 2026: Stable Summit, New York
- June 8-10, 2026: ETHConf, New York
- September 29 – October 1, 2026: Korea Blockchain Week, Seoul
- October 7-8, 2026: Token2049, Singapore
- November 3-6, 2026: Devcon, Mumbai
- November 15-17, 2026: Solana Breakpoint, London