Network news
NEW SCALING PLANS FOR ETHEREUMEthereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published a blog post on The plan follows the publication of a ‘strawmap’ by the Ethereum Foundation, intended to make the network more efficient in the long term. In the short term, Buterin says Ethereum can safely increase throughput by checking blocks more easily and quickly. Upcoming upgrades will allow the computers running Ethereum to review different parts of a block at the same time, rather than processing everything one step at a time. At the same time, changes to the way blocks are built allow the network to use more of each 12-second processing window, rather than terminating early out of caution (known as ePBS, and will be implemented in the Glamsterdam upgrade). The result: Ethereum should be able to fit more transactions into each block without increasing the risk of errors or instability. Another key part of the plan is to rethink the way transaction costs – known as ‘gas’ – are calculated. Buterin states that not all activities on Ethereum burden the network to the same extent. There is a big difference between temporarily using computing power and permanently adding new data that each Ethereum computer or node must store forever. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
OKX DATES AI AGENTS: OKX has rolled out an AI-focused upgrade to OnchainOS, its developer platform, and deployed it as infrastructure for autonomous crypto trading agents. The AI layer builds on well-known components such as wallet infrastructure, liquidity routing, and on-chain data feeds, and combines them into a unified execution framework focused on AI agents operating across chains. Instead of manually wiring up price feeds, token approvals, gas estimates, and swap routing, developers can connect an agent and provide high-level instructions such as swapping $ETH for USDC below a certain price. OnchainOS handles the behind-the-scenes workflow, from monitoring markets to obtaining liquidity and confirming settlement. The intersection between crypto and AI has grown exponentially over the past twelve months – the blockchain AI market is expected to rise from $6 billion in 2024 to $50 billion by 2030 – and traders are using the technology to their advantage. A recent example occurred when a group of retail traders used AI to find “issues” on platforms like Polymarket before instructing AI to trade on their behalf. — Sam Reynolds Read more.
$NEARBY FOUNDER OF BLOCKCHAIN’S FUTURE USERS: For years, the crypto industry has been searching for its next breakthrough moment – something on the scale of the DeFi summer or the NFT boom. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence (AI) is quietly embedded in everyday life. Developers use ChatGPT as a co-pilot. Consumers rely on AI assistants to compose emails, plan trips and, increasingly, manage workflows. Crypto still feels infrastructural in comparison. Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of $NEARBYbelieves the divide is about to collapse, but not in the way many expect. “The users of blockchain will be AI agents,” Polosukhin said in an interview. “AI will be at the front end and blockchain at the back end.” His framing goes against many of the recent crypto experiments with AI, which have focused on speculative tokens, memecoins, and agent-themed trading bots. Instead, Polosukhin argues that AI will become the primary interface layer for everything online, including crypto, taking away wallets, explorers and transaction hashes. “The goal is to make sure that your AI hides the entire blockchain,” he said. “The fact that we have that [blockchain] Explorers is actually a failure because we don’t abstract the technology.” In this view, blockchain does not disappear, it disappears. AI agents interact directly with protocols, make payments, manage assets, coordinate services, and even vote in governance systems. Meanwhile, people communicate with the AI. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
BITCOIN LATEST BOARD CASH: Bitcoin’s latest governance clash escalated when the first block signaling support for a temporary soft fork, designed to limit arbitrary, non-monetary data in the blockchain’s transactions, was produced by mining pool Ocean. The proposal, which was formally assigned BIP-110 after evolving from previous drafts, aims to implement strict limits on the size of transaction outputs and arbitrary data fields for about a year. The idea is to curb what proponents see as “spam” use of block space for non-financial data. They claim that unverified data, including large inscriptions and so-called OP_RETURN payloads, threaten the original blockchain’s role as a sound monetary infrastructure and burden nodes. The community remains deeply divided. Prominent critics, including Blockstream CEO Adam Back, have warned that consensus-level intervention could damage Bitcoin’s credibility and lead to preferential treatment of some transactions, contrary to the principle of neutral transaction capacity. He also questioned the level of support for the proposal, which he said increases the risk of the blockchain being split. — Jamie Crawley Read more.
In other news
- Kraken secured a “master account” from the Federal Reserve, giving the banking department direct access to the Fed’s major payment systems and becoming the first crypto firm to operate on the same lines as traditional financial institutions. The company said its Kraken Financial unit has received approval for a “master account” from the Federal Reserve. The account provides direct access to Fedwire, a major interbank payment network that processes trillions in wire transfers every day. Until now, Kraken has had to rely on partner banks to send or receive US dollars. Changes to direct access come as the company can now handle payments itself, which can speed up deposits and withdrawals for large merchants and institutional clients. Kraken Financial operates under a Wyoming charter designed for crypto-focused banks. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City oversaw the application. However, approval is limited. Kraken will not receive the full range of services available to traditional banks because it will not earn interest on reserves or be able to tap into the Fed’s emergency lending. — Francisco Rodrigues Read more.
- Tether, the company behind the most popular stablecoin, $USDTinvested $50 million in sleep tech startup Eight Sleep at a $1.5 billion valuation, according to a Wednesday press release and data from Crunchbase. With the funding, Eight Sleep plans to develop new AI health features using Tether’s QVAC architecture, a computing framework designed to process data at the device level rather than relying entirely on cloud systems. Eight Sleep builds sensor-equipped sleep systems that track biometric data such as heart rate and temperature at night. The flagship “Pod” adjusts mattress temperature and generates sleep insights based on real-time physiological data. “We believe that advanced personalized AI is the perfect path to understanding and expanding human potential,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, in a statement. The investment is the latest example of how Tether is going beyond stablecoins and crypto infrastructure. The company is best known for its $183 billion $USDT stablecoin, popular as a savings and payment instrument in emerging markets with limited access to US dollars. Tether reported net income of more than $10 billion in 2025 and has increasingly channeled those revenues into venture investments in energy, payments, artificial intelligence and health technology. — Kristian Sandor Read more.
Regulations and policies
- US President Donald Trump said bankers are trying to undermine the Genius Act – the landmark stablecoin legislation he signed into law last year – in a Truth Social post Tuesday, and he urged passage of the crypto market structure legislation from Congress without interference. “The US needs to get the market structure done as quickly as possible. Americans need to make more money with their money,” he said in the post. “The banks are making record profits, and we will not let them undermine our powerful Crypto agenda, which will ultimately go to China and other countries if we don’t fix the Clarity Act.” He warned banks against holding the Clarity Act hostage, saying the bill was necessary to keep the crypto industry in the US. “They need to make a good deal with the crypto industry because that’s in the best interest of the American people,” he said. The market structure bill has been in limbo since the Senate Banking Committee in January indefinitely postponed a hearing on the markup, in which lawmakers were scheduled to debate and vote on amendments to the bill. There are still a number of issues standing in the way of the bill’s passage, but the most public battle has been between the banking and crypto sectors over whether third parties can offer returns on stablecoin deposits to customers. Nikhilesh De Read more.
- A federal judge has dismissed a proposed class action lawsuit against Uniswap Labs, CEO Hayden Adams and several venture capital backers, ruling that they cannot be held liable for alleged “rug pull” tokens traded through the decentralized exchange’s protocol. In a ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Katherine Polk Failla dismissed the remaining state claims in Risley v. Universal Navigation Inc., the Brooklyn-based company that operates Uniswap. after previously dismissing the plaintiffs’ federal securities claims. The decision effectively ends the case at the district court level. The ruling is one of the first to specifically address whether developers and investors behind a decentralized protocol can be held liable under existing securities and state laws for tokens created and traded by third parties. “Due to the decentralized nature of the Protocol, the identities of Scam Token issuers are essentially unknown and unknowable, leaving plaintiffs with an identifiable injury but no identifiable defendant,” Failla wrote. “Undeterred, they are now suing the Uniswap Defendants and the VC Defendants, hoping that this Court would overlook the fact that the current state of cryptocurrency regulation leaves them without recourse, at least as to the specific claims asserted in this lawsuit,” she added. — Olivier Acuna Read more.
Calendar
- March 24-26, 2026: Digital Asset Summit, New York City
- March 30 – April 2, 2026: EthCC, Cannes
- April 15-16, 2026: Paris Blockchain Week, Paris
- April 29-30, 2026: Token2049, Dubai
- May 5-7, 2026: Consensus, Miami
- 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