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Buterin has increasingly championed upgrades to make Ethereum “harder” and “leaner,” including controversial proposals like FOCIL to ensure protocol-level censorship-resistance.
FOCIL was officially “scheduled for inclusion” as the consensus-layer (CL) headliner for the upcoming Hegota upgrade, targeted for late 2026.
Vitalik Buterin is building a "cypherpunk principled non-ugly ethereum" as part of his future vision for the largest onchain ecosystem.
In response to a post on X arguing that Buterin "should let the original ethereum die a slow and painful death by fragmentation (tempo, reth, l2s, app chains, institutions, etc) and rebuild it as a cypherpunk chain from first principles on risc v just to show who was the boss," Buterin responded:
I'm actually trying to do something even more ambitious: Create ‘cypherpunk principled non-ugly ethereum’ as a bolt-on to the present-day system, in a way that's as tightly integrated and interoperable as possible, and then grow it over time, in the mean time making sure ethereum itself gains the cypherpunk and simplicity properties that just necessarily have to be system-wide (eg. censorship resistance, zk prover friendliness, consensus properties)."
The statement comes on the heels of the controversial Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists (FOCIL) mechanism being officially "scheduled for inclusion" by Ethereum devs on Thursday for the upcoming Hegota hard fork. FOCIL was named as the consensus-layer (CL) headliner for Hegota, which is scheduled for late 2026, following the next Glamsterdam hard fork in the coming months, during Thursday’s All Core Devs call.
FOCIL, entered as EIP-7805, is essentially a bid to ensure Ethereum remains censorship-resistant at the protocol level by forcing validators to include all transactions. It does this by enabling committees of Ethereum validators to enforce transaction inclusion in blocks via fork-choice rules and inclusion lists (IL).
If a proposed block ignores valid transactions from the committee's ILs — including transactions that may violate OFAC sanctions — the chain forks away from it, guaranteeing that any valid, public-mempool transaction gets included within a bounded number of slots.
FOCIL has been a controversial proposal, and was previously excluded from inclusion in Glamsterdam. Critics argue it could create legal ramifications for Ethereum validators and increase protocol complexity. Still, FOCIL, alongside other protocol improvements, is key to Buterin’s vision for the future of a more cypherpunk and "harder" Ethereum.
In another X post, Buterin noted that FOCIL pairs well with EIP-8141, an account abstraction upgrade also as part of Hegota that would enable native support for smart wallets, multisig, quantum-resistant keys, and gas-sponsored privacy transactions without wrappers.
With EIP-8141 (AA), transactions from smart wallets, privacy protocols, etc, could be sent *through a public mempool, and directly received by a FOCIL includer*, no wrappers, ‘public broadcasters’, or other intermediaries required," Buterin wrote. "Ethereum is going hard."
Both upgrades are part of the Ethereum Foundation's trilateral goals of scaling, hardening, and simplifying the Ethereum base layer, as laid out in a recent blog outlining "protocol priorities for 2026."
Harden the L1 is a new track, and it reflects something we think deserves dedicated focus: making sure that as Ethereum scales and evolves, it retains the properties that make it valuable in the first place," the authors wrote.
At the same time, Buterin has also pushed to make a "lean Ethereum," by reducing technological complexity and bloat through a full network redesign. Part of this initiative is the so-called “Beam Chain” that would be ZK-native from the start by enshrining ZK-EVM proofs directly into L1 validation.
Another part is the long-term goal of swapping out the Ethereum Virtual Machine for RISC-V as Ethereum’s native virtual machine. RISC-V supports compiling a wider range of programming languages like Solidity, Rust, and C, while offering greater ZK support, for the Ethereum execution layer, devs have argued.
All this comes months into a radical refocusing on Ethereum's base layer scalability and functionality that kicked off last year amid increasing competition from alternative chains like Solana. As part of the reorganization of the Ethereum Foundation, Buterin has become a more vocal leader of the ecosystem, seen by a willingness to back controversial and difficult decisions.
This arguably came to a head earlier this month when Buterin more or less abandoned the "rollup-centric roadmap" he had championed for years, which looked to scale Ethereum through a network of Layer 2s.
Rather than allowing Ethereum to “die a slow and painful death by fragmentation,” from other Layer 1 users of the EVM, like Tempo, or other parasitic chains, Buterin has once again affirmed a decision to build in action.
Ethereum has already made jet engine changes in-flight once (the merge), we can do it ~4 times more! (state tree, Lean consensus, ZK-EVM verification, VM change)," he said on Friday.
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The securities regulator has continued its Project Crypto work to make unofficial policy changes as it moved to let broker-dealers treat stablecoins as capital.
The addition of a few lines in a frequently-asked-questions page on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission website may open up the use of stablecoins in capital calculations for U.S. broker-dealers.
The agency is instructing brokers that they need only give their stablecoins a 2% haircut when calculating how much they can be used as regulatory capital.
Broker-dealers regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can treat their stablecoin holdings as regulatory capital, according to a tweak this week to a frequently-asked-questions document maintained by the agency.
That's a seismic shift offered in the form of a minor addition to the SEC's "Broker Dealer Financial Responsibilities" FAQ. It's on-brand for a regulator that has made a steady series of changes to its crypto approach through informal guidance, industry correspondence and staff statements ever since its Crypto Task Force began work during the administration of President Donald Trump.
In this case, a new question No. 5 was added about what kind of "haircut" a firm should take on its holdings of stablecoins — the dollar-tied tokens such as Circle's USDC and Tether's USDT. The answer was 2%, meaning that instead of the previous understanding that such assets were not considered measurable against a broker-dealer's capital tally (100% haircut), the firms will be able to count 98% of those holdings.
While this guidance does not create new rules, it helps reduce uncertainty for firms seeking to operate compliantly under current securities laws," said Cody Carbone, CEO of the Digital Chamber.
This puts stablecoins on the same footing as other financial products.
That means stablecoins are now treated like money market funds on a firm’s balance sheet," Tonya Evans, a former professor who now runs a crypto education business and is on the board of directors at Digital Currency Group, wrote in a post on social media site X. "Until today, some broker-dealers were zeroing out stablecoin holdings in their capital calculations. Holding them was a financial penalty. That’s over."
Before, the more stringent SEC limits meant those companies — firms registered with the SEC to handle customers' securities transactions and also trade in securities on their own behalf — weren't easily able to custody tokenized securities or act as a go-between for trading. Now the firms that follow this steer from the agency will be able to more easily provide liquidity, aid settlement and advance tokenized finance.
Everywhere from Robinhood to Goldman Sachs run on these calculations," Larry Florio, deputy general counsel at Ethena Labs, wrote in an explainer posted on LinkedIn. Stablecoins are now working capital, he said.
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce runs the agency's task force and issued a statement on the change, contending that using stablecoins "will make it feasible for broker-dealers to engage in a broader range of business activities relating to tokenized securities and other crypto assets." And she said she wants to consider how the existing SEC rules "could be amended to account for payment stablecoins."
That's the drawback of informal staff policies — they're as easy to reverse as they were to issue, and they don't carry the weight (and legal protections) of a rule.
The SEC has been working on some crypto rules in recent months, but they haven't yet been produced, and the process usually takes several months — sometimes years. Even a formal rule can still be reversed by a new leadership at the agency, which is why crypto advocates are pushing for more legislation from Congress that would set the government's digital assets approach into law, such as last year's Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act.
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The UAE Royal Group holds $453.6 million in bitcoin through Citadel Mining-linked operations, generating $344 million in unrealized profit, minus energy costs, Arkham said on Thursday.
The Gulf state retains the majority of its self-mined bitcoin, with onchain records showing the last fund outflow occurred four months ago.
The United Arab Emirates is sitting on approximately $344 million in unrealized profit from royal family-linked bitcoin mining operations, excluding energy costs, according to data from Arkham.
The Gulf nation currently holds a total of $453.6 million in bitcoin
BTC-1.22%
mined through state-linked infrastructure, maintaining a consistent production rate of 4.2 BTC per day over the previous seven days, the data show
UAE’s mining push traces back to 2022, when Citadel Mining, an entity tied to Abu Dhabi’s royal family, established large-scale operations on Al Reem Island. In 2023, Marathon Digital Holdings and Abu Dhabi-based Zero Two announced a joint venture to develop 250 megawatts of immersion-cooled mining capacity in the UAE, marking one of the region’s largest disclosed industrial deployments.
Arkham's latest data revises downward the $700 million in mined bitcoin it attributed to the UAE in August 2025, when the firm first identified the country's wallets on its platform and bitcoin prices were trading at higher levels. At that time, Arkham reported the UAE had mined approximately 9,300 BTC and continued holding about 6,300 BTC, ranking it fourth among government entities with verified onchain holdings.
The current data shows the UAE Royal Group holds about 6,782 BTC, representing 0.03% of bitcoin's total supply.
Beyond the Gulf: Other sovereign miners and holders
The UAE is not the only sovereign entity mining bitcoin. Bhutan's Royal Government, through its investment arm Druk Holding & Investments, began mining in 2019 using the country's hydroelectric resources. At its peak, Bhutan accumulated over $1 billion in bitcoin, with Arkham first identifying its holdings in September 2024 at just over 13,000 BTC.
Unlike the UAE, which Arkham reports has not moved funds in four months, Bhutan has been systematically reducing its position. Since the beginning of 2026, Bhutan has sold bitcoin for three consecutive weeks, totaling approximately $29 million, with the most recent sale occurring in February. Over the past five months, Bhutan has sold more than $100 million in bitcoin, reducing its holdings by more than half from peak levels. The government currently holds 5,600 BTC valued at $375 million, according to Arkham data.
Several other governments hold significant bitcoin portfolios, though unlike the UAE and Bhutan, their accumulations derive primarily from asset seizures. According to Arkham, the U.S. government ranks first among sovereign holders with 328,000 BTC valued at $22 billion, representing 1.64% of the total supply.
These holdings were recovered by the FBI from the Bitfinex hack, seizures from the Silk Road marketplace, and assets taken from Silk Road hacker James Zhong. The U.S. recently acquired an additional 127,000 BTC from the LuBian Hacker address, per Arkham.
The UK government ranks second with 61,000 BTC valued at $4 billion, or 0.3% of total supply. The UK Metropolitan Police seized part of this bitcoin stash from Jian Wen and Zhimin Qian in 2018, gaining access to the funds in July 2021.
Other governments have accumulated bitcoin through different channels. Ukraine has received $22.8 million in bitcoin donations since the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, while Germany seized 50,000 BTC in January 2024 from a movie piracy site and fully sold the holdings in July 2024. Arkham’s platform tracks these and other sovereign wallets, though it notes that additional government holdings may remain unidentified.
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Peter Thiel and affiliated Founders Fund entities fully exited their 7.5% stake in Ethereum treasury firm ETHZilla, according to a 13G filing with the SEC.
K33 said bitcoin’s current regime closely resembles “late bear market territory,” echoing positioning and derivatives signals seen near the 2022 bottom.
Happy Wednesday! Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan said strengthening DeFi fundamentals and rising institutional investment could help lead the market out of crypto winter, while Strategy's Michael Saylor struck a similarly optimistic tone, predicting a swift recovery and declaring that "spring is coming" for bitcoin.
In today's newsletter, Peter Thiel and Founders Fund fully divest their ETHZilla position, K33 says bitcoin
BTC-1.27%
is approaching "late bear market territory," Brevan Howard's crypto fund posts a 30% loss, and mor
Meanwhile, two spot SUI ETFs hit the market this morning, offering investors direct exposure to the token's price along with the ability to earn staking rewards.
P.S. Don't forget to check out The Funding, a biweekly rundown of crypto VC trends. It's a great read — and just like The Daily, it's free to subscribe!
Peter Thiel and Founders Fund exit Ethereum treasury firm ETHZilla, SEC filing shows
ETHZilla shares fell nearly 7% at one point in premarket trading on Wednesday, marking a roughly 97% drop from their $107 peak after Thiel's initial investment disclosure.
Thiel first took the stake in August 2025 as ETHZilla rebranded from 180 Life Sciences Corp. and pivoted to an Ethereum treasury strategy backed by a $565 million capital raise.
The company has since reduced its ether holdings, selling about $40 million worth in October for share buybacks and another $74.5 million in December to redeem convertible notes.
ETHZilla has now shifted its focus toward real-world asset tokenization, acquiring home loans and aircraft engines to tokenize on an Ethereum Layer 2.
Despite the recent sales, ETHZilla remains the sixth-largest known corporate holder of ether
ETH-1.37%
with 69,802 ETH, though it trails far behind the leading Ethereum treasury firm, Bitmin
Brevan Howard crypto fund posts 30% loss in 2025, worst year since launch
The fund underperformed bitcoin, which dropped about 6% last year, and reversed strong gains of 43% in 2023 and 52% in 2024.
The losses came as the broader crypto market declined, with total market capitalization falling 10.4% and bitcoin posting its first annual drop since 2022.
Despite the downturn, Brevan Howard Digital has reportedly continued deploying capital into crypto startups and tokenization firms while incorporating downside protections in select investments.
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$ZEC Zcash is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency launched in 2016. It uses advanced cryptography called zk-SNARKs to enable shielded transactions, allowing users to hide sender, receiver, and amount details. Unlike Bitcoin, Zcash offers optional privacy, making it attractive for users seeking confidentiality.

Fundamentally, ZEC has a fixed supply of 21 million coins, similar to Bitcoin, supporting scarcity value. Its development is backed by the Electric Coin Company and the Zcash Foundation. Key factors influencing price include regulatory stance on privacy coins, adoption growth, network upgrades, and overall crypto market sentiment.