Latest from Margaux Nijkerk
The Protocol: ETH Exit Queue Gridlocks As Validators Pile Up
Also: DeFi’s Future on Ethereum, EF Creates dAI team, and Amex Blockchain-Based Travel Stamps.
Solana Veteran Joins Ava Labs to Spearhead Avalanche Growth
Prior to Ava Labs, Arielle Pennington was the head of communications at the Solana Foundation since April 2023.
Ethereum Faces Validator Bottleneck With 2.5M ETH Awaiting Exit
The backlog pushed exit wait times to more than 46 days on Monday, the longest in Ethereum’s short staking history, dashboards show. The last peak, in August, put the exit queue at 18 days.
Is Ethereum’s DeFi Future on L2s? Liquidity, Innovation Say Perhaps Yes
Ethereum is in the midst of a paradox. Even as ether hit record highs in late August, decentralized finance (DeFi) activity on Ethereum’s layer-1 (L1) looks muted compared to its peak in late 2021. Meanwhile, layer-2 (L2) networks like Arbitrum and Base are booming, with billions in total value locked (TVL).
Boundless Launches Mainnet on Base, Ushering in Universal Zero-Knowledge Compute
The milestone builds on the network’s incentivized testnet, which went live in July and stress-tested Boundless’ architecture under real-world conditions.
Yield Hunters Flock to HyperLiquid Staking Ecosytem to Farm Kintetiq's Airdrop
Total value locked on Kinetiq has jumped from roughly $458 million in July to over $2.1 billion today. Part of the increase can be attributed to a rise in the price of HYPE, and the other big driver has been raw deposits.
The Protocol: SwissBorg’s SOL Earn Wallet Exploited for $41.5M
Also: Ledger CTO Warns of NPM Exploit, Backpack EU opens, and Polygon PoS Chain Reports Finality Lag
Ethereum Rare Mass Slashing Event Linked to Operator Issues
The validators were tied to the SSV Network, a distributed validator technology protocol that decentralizes staking infrastructure.
Kiln Exits Ethereum Validators in ‘Orderly’ Move Following SwissBorg Exploit
Kiln described the ETH validator exits as a precautionary step to safeguard client assets in the wake of the SwissBorg event.
Ledger CTO Warns of NPM Supply-Chain Attack Hitting 1B+ Downloads
According to Guillemet, the malicious code — already pushed into packages with over 1 billion downloads — is designed to silently swap crypto wallet addresses in transactions. That means unsuspecting users could send funds directly to the attacker without realizing it.
