Top Stories of The Week
Vitalik Buterin finally pushes back after weeks of staking queue FUD
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has finally addressed some concerns over the lengthening Ethereum staking exit queue, which has now grown to 45 days.
His response came after Galaxy Digital’s head of DeFi, Michael Marcantonio, called the exit queue length “troubling” in X posts and compared it to Solana, which only requires two days to unstake. He has since deleted the posts.
“Unclear how a network that takes 45 days to return assets can serve as a suitable candidate to power the next era of global capital markets,” he added.
40% of Americans would use DeFi with laws in place: Crypto lobby poll
More than 40% of Americans are open to using decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols if proposed legislation is made law, according to a recent survey.
Crypto lobby group the DeFi Education Fund found in a survey released on Thursday that many Americans “are curious about DeFi” as respondents signalled a low trust in the traditional finance system.
The survey was conducted by Ipsos between Aug. 18 and 21, with 1,321 US adults polled. Ipsos Public Affairs senior vice president Alec Tyson said the study found “emerging awareness of cryptocurrency and decentralized finance as many Americans express frustrations with current financial institutions’ ability to deliver security, personalized control and flexibility.”
The poll showed that 42% said they would likely try DeFi if proposed legislation were passed into law, split between 9% who said they were “extremely or very likely” and 33% who responded they were “somewhat likely” to try.
Grayscale prepares to stake Ether holdings amid shifting SEC stance: Arkham
Cryptocurrency asset manager Grayscale is preparing to stake part of its massive Ether holdings, a move that could signal confidence that US regulators will soon permit staking within exchange-traded products.
Onchain data from Arkham Intelligence showed Grayscale transferred more than 40,000 Ether on Thursday, activity consistent with positioning for staking rewards. Arkham noted that if confirmed, Grayscale would be the first US Ethereum ETF sponsor to stake its holdings.
Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust (ETHE) manages more than 1.06 million ETH, valued at over $4.8 billion. The firm launched ETHE in 2017 as a private placement vehicle, and in 2024 rolled out the lower-cost Ethereum Mini Trust through a partial spin-off of ETHE’s assets.
US lawmakers challenge SEC on Tron IPO, press for probe into Justin Sun
Two members of Congress have called on the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to answer questions that could impact how crypto companies go public on US exchanges.
In a Wednesday letter to SEC Chair Paul Atkins and acting director of the commission’s division of corporation finance Cicely LaMothe, Senator Jeff Merkley and Representative Sean Casten questioned the agency’s timing on dropping an enforcement case against Tron founder and CEO Justin Sun.
The Tron founder had been facing a lawsuit filed by the SEC in 2023 over allegations of offering unregistered securities, but the agency asked for a stay in the case in February, a month after the departure of former Chair Gary Gensler.
Gary Gensler doubles down on crypto approach amid SEC sea change
In one of his few media appearances since leaving the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January, Gary Gensler suggested he had no regrets about his approach to crypto enforcement during his four years at the agency.
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In a Wednesday interview, CNBC’s Sara Eisen asked the former SEC chair to respond to the agency under Paul Atkins “reversing a lot of what [he] did” regarding crypto policies, saying many investors were “ecstatic” he was no longer heading the commission.
Gensler said he was “proud” of his time at the SEC, that he had made the right decisions regarding regulating digital assets, and reiterated his assertions that crypto was a “highly speculative, very risky asset.”
“We were consistently trying to ensure for investor protection,” said Gensler, in regard to SEC enforcement actions against crypto companies while he was chair. “And in the midst of it, we had a lot of fraudsters: Look at Sam Bankman-Fried, and he wasn’t alone.”
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