Ethereum’s core cryptography is getting an overhaul, Robinhood’s own blockchain just outpaced Ethereum on a key metric, and a fresh security study caught more than a dozen crypto payment providers, including Coinbase, breaking their own rules. This week’s roundup of blockchain project updates spans everything from a quiet cryptographic pivot at the Ethereum Foundation to a governance shake-up at ENS and a stablecoin that has lost 95% of its supply since spring.
Key takeaways
- The Ethereum Foundation is dropping the Poseidon hash function for Ethereum’s Layer 1 roadmap, shifting to SHA or BLAKE ahead of a 2027-2028 rollout tied to post-quantum security.
- Robinhood Chain’s daily NFT trading volume hit $3.13 million, overtaking Ethereum, while its TVL jumped 32% weekly to $473 million even as active accounts grew just 3.3%.
- Hyperliquid will auto-deploy idle HLP cash into a native lending pool, Uniswap is routing test-token fees into a buy-and-burn contract, and Jupiter launched Lend v2 on Solana.
- ENS DAO formally created the ENS Foundation, with an executive director and five-member board now overseeing governance beyond protocol development.
- A USENIX security study found all 15 tested x402 payment providers, including Coinbase, violated at least one security rule, while MegaETH’s USDm stablecoin supply collapsed from $600 million to roughly $18 million.
Ethereum Foundation Shifts Hash Scheme for L1 Security
The Ethereum Foundation is walking away from Poseidon, the hash function it built specifically for zero-knowledge proof systems, in favor of established options like SHA and BLAKE. Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake announced the decision, framing it as the payoff of what he called an “8-year, 8-figure rabbit hole” in post-quantum cryptography, and wrote on X that the move “unlocks ultimate security for lean Ethereum.”
Abandoning Poseidon for SHA and BLAKE
Poseidon emerged in 2019 as a hash function tailored for SNARKs — the succinct proofs that let blockchains verify computation cheaply. Its appeal was cost: processing traditional binary-based hashes inside a SNARK used to be expensive, so specialized functions like Poseidon made more sense. That trade-off has now flipped. According to Drake, advances in binary-field SNARK design mean conventional functions such as SHA-2 and BLAKE2s can match Poseidon’s performance inside proof systems, an outcome he summed up by saying “the key was not SNARK-friendly hashes, but hash-friendly SNARKs.” Research projects including Binius and Flock reportedly helped drive the breakthrough, with Drake citing proving speeds of around 1 million traditional hash calls per second on a laptop. Importantly, this is a roadmap decision for Ethereum’s own Layer 1 — rollups, zkVMs and other projects already running on Poseidon aren’t required to switch.
Post-Quantum Cryptography Roadmap
Why this matters becomes clearer once you factor in Ethereum’s broader defense against quantum computers, which could eventually break the elliptic-curve cryptography securing today’s accounts and consensus layer. Drake linked the hash-scheme pivot directly to that effort, arguing that hash-based signatures — paired with SNARK aggregation to compress many signatures into one compact proof — offer a more battle-tested path than newer post-quantum designs, some of which have reportedly hit setbacks from AI-assisted cryptanalysis. The technical target: a production-grade leanVM in 2027, with deployments spanning Ethereum’s consensus, data and execution layers to follow in 2028. Those dates sit inside Ethereum’s longer-term “Strawmap” coordination document, meaning the timeline still depends on testing and agreement across independent development teams before anything goes live.
Robinhood Chain Surpasses Ethereum in NFT Trading Volume
Robinhood Chain has overtaken Ethereum to become the network with the single largest NFT trading volume, a milestone that says as much about shifting liquidity patterns as it does about Robinhood’s own ambitions. Daily NFT trading on the chain reached $3.13 million, edging out Ethereum’s mainnet — a notable reversal given Ethereum’s long-standing dominance in NFT markets.
Record Daily NFT Volume and TVL Growth
The surge traces back largely to StonkBrokers, a project blending NFTs, meme-coin mechanics and real-world-asset gameplay that has become the breakout hit on Robinhood Chain; at one point its market cap topped that of Bored Ape Yacht Club. The broader network numbers back up the momentum: Robinhood Chain averaged 11.6 million daily transactions last week, a new all-time high and roughly 30% higher week-on-week, while on-chain total value locked climbed 32% to $473 million. That kind of jump in Robinhood Chain NFT volume and TVL in such a short window puts the network among the fastest-growing Layer-2 environments this year — separate data has also shown Robinhood Chain generating more fee revenue than any other Ethereum Layer-2 in its first month live.
Stablecoin Expansion and User Growth Limits
Not every metric is climbing at the same pace, though. Daily active accounts grew just 3.3% and remain 11% below the peak set on July 16 — a gap that suggests the trading-volume and TVL surge hasn’t yet pulled in a proportionally larger user base. Much of the TVL growth appears tied to stablecoins rather than organic adoption: the supply of USDe on Robinhood Chain jumped from $17 million a month ago to $253 million, now making up roughly 43% of the chain’s total stablecoin supply. This matters for anyone gauging Robinhood Chain’s long-term staying power — capital inflows and speculative NFT cycles can move fast, but a stagnant user count is typically the metric that determines whether a network’s growth is durable or driven by a handful of large players.
Innovations in Lending and Token Management
Three separate DeFi protocols rolled out changes this week aimed at putting idle capital to work more efficiently — a theme that’s increasingly defining competition among on-chain platforms.
Hyperliquid Introduces Auto-Earn Lending Interest
Hyperliquid founder Jeff announced that, following the platform’s next network upgrade, HLP will automatically route unused USDC into the HyperCore native lending pool to earn interest rather than sitting idle. The numbers explain why this matters: on-chain data shows HLP holding about $188.7 million in total value locked, of which roughly $148.7 million — nearly 79% of total capital — currently sits as idle cash in the main account, with another $40.06 million spread across seven sub-strategies. Hyperliquid’s native lending pool already has about $176 million supplied and $112 million borrowed, a 63.7% utilization rate that produces a 5% annualized borrowing rate and roughly 2.87% annualized yield for lenders. The change effectively turns HLP from a pool built for market-making and liquidations into a multi-strategy vault with automated capital allocation.
Uniswap Routes Creator Fees to Buy-and-Burn
Uniswap founder Hayden Adams confirmed that tokens created internally by the team during Pools trade testing were never meant to circulate publicly — but once the market found them, Uniswap responded by waiving all creator fees tied to those staff-led tests. Both past and future fees connected to those tokens will now be routed into an auto-buy-and-burn contract, unlocked in ETH that anyone can claim by burning the corresponding tokens. Adams also said he’s considering opening the same buy-and-burn mechanism to other token deployers, which could turn an awkward discovery into a broader tokenomics feature.
Jupiter Launches Lend v2 on Solana
Solana-based lending protocol Jupiter has launched Lend v2, letting deposited and borrowed assets double as trading liquidity so the same capital earns both lending yield and swap fees simultaneously. The release adds two optional features: Smart Collateral, which automatically deploys USDC, USDT, SOL or JupSOL into highly correlated liquidity pools, and Smart Debt, which lets borrowed assets accrue trading fees that offset part of the borrowing cost. Jupiter Lend currently holds around $1.9 billion in deposits and roughly $823 million in active loans, putting it among the more heavily used lending markets in the Solana ecosystem.
ENS DAO Formalizes Governance Structure
ENS DAO has voted to turn the ENS Foundation into a full operating body, marking one of the more significant governance shifts in recent Ethereum-adjacent history. Token holders passed and executed the “Next Era of ENS DAO” proposal, establishing a formal foundation with a full-time executive director, dedicated staff and a five-member board of directors.
Creation of ENS Foundation with Executive Director and Board
This shift in ENS Foundation governance separates administrative and external-facing duties from core protocol work. The Foundation will now handle engagement with standards bodies including ICANN, IETF and W3C, push forward the .ens top-level domain, run regulatory outreach and manage brand protection — while ENS Labs stays focused on protocol and product development. Token holders retain significant control: the DAO still holds 54.6% of total ENS token supply, and only a one-time allocation of 1 million ENS tokens has moved to the Foundation to cover staff compensation. Additional guardrails include a nine-day timelock on ENS Endowment transactions and authority for the ENS Security Council to block any operations that exceed the Foundation’s approved scope. The inaugural board comprises Executive Director Alexander Urbelis, ENS founder Nick Johnson, and directors Kartik Talwar, Brett Sun and Anthony Leutenegger — all appointed and removable by token holders, keeping ultimate authority inside the DAO even as day-to-day operations professionalize.
Security Vulnerabilities Among Major Payment Providers
A study presented at the 35th USENIX Security Symposium delivered an uncomfortable finding for the crypto payments sector: every one of 15 major x402 payment service providers tested — including Coinbase, PayAI and Mogami — violated at least one security rule. Researchers logged 49 rule violations and 31 distinct vulnerabilities across the group, which together accounted for 99% of x402 transaction volume and 98% of payment value during the study period.
The research sorted risks into four categories: free acquisition of goods or services, asset theft, service disruption and gas-fee abuse, and the team validated six attack paths under constrained test conditions without actually moving provider-held assets. Coinbase, PayAI and Mogami collectively acknowledged six vulnerabilities, with some already patched and others still in progress. What remains unclear is how far those fixes have actually rolled out across live x402 infrastructure — a gap that matters given how much transaction volume flows through these platforms daily.
Stablecoin USDm Supply Plunges and Token Launch Delays
Two very different stories this week point to the same underlying lesson: on-chain activity and geopolitics can both reshape token economics fast.
MegaETH Native Stablecoin Supply Drops Over 95%
The supply of USDm, a stablecoin launched jointly by MegaETH and Ethena, has fallen to roughly $18 million — a drop of more than 95% from its approximately $600-million peak in May. USDm deploys its reserve capital into BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, with the yield generated used to buy back and burn the MegaETH token. Castle Labs estimates that at the current $18-million supply and a 3.6% SOFR rate, USDm can still generate about $650,000 in annual yield, but it attributes the sharp contraction directly to declining on-chain usage across MegaETH.
World Liberty Financial Postpones Maldives Resort Token Launch
World Liberty Financial and its partners have delayed the digital-token issuance tied to a Trump-branded resort development in the Maldives, developed by UK-listed firm DAR Global. The token, originally slated for a spring launch, was designed to give investors a share of proceeds from financing loans tied to the resort — one of World Liberty’s flagship real-world-asset tokenization efforts, following earlier discussions about tokenizing real estate, investment funds, oil and gold. The rollout has been pushed back amid regional travel disruptions stemming from the Iran-related conflict, and no new launch date has been set.
FAQ
Why is the Ethereum Foundation abandoning Poseidon for Ethereum L1?
Advances in binary-field SNARK design now let traditional hash functions like SHA and BLAKE deliver performance comparable to Poseidon, supporting Ethereum’s broader post-quantum cryptography roadmap.
How has Robinhood Chain outperformed Ethereum in NFT trading volume?
Robinhood Chain reached $3.13 million in daily NFT volume, surpassing Ethereum, driven largely by popular projects like StonkBrokers and a fast-expanding stablecoin supply, even though its active user base has grown only modestly.
What is Hyperliquid’s new lending feature?
Hyperliquid will automatically deploy idle USDC from its HLP liquidity pool into a native lending pool to earn interest, turning HLP into a multi-strategy vault with automated capital allocation.
What security issues were found among x402 payment providers?
A USENIX study found that all 15 major providers tested, including Coinbase, violated at least one security rule, uncovering 49 rule violations and 31 vulnerabilities in total, with some fixes already applied and others still pending.
Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.
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