This week’s edition covers major developments across AI powered crypto infrastructure, wallet security, stablecoin payments, institutional adoption and regulation. Key stories include MetaMask putting AI agents onchain with controlled wallet access, the COLDCARD exploit raising fresh concerns over hardware wallet security, Cloudflare bringing stablecoin payments to AI, Russia advancing landmark crypto regulation, and major shifts in corporate Bitcoin and Ethereum treasuries. We also track Glamsterdam and consensus layer developments, protocol testing, Ethereum security research, podcasts, upcoming events and community updates.

Catch up on last week's edition here.

This Week at a Glance

• MetaMask Agent Wallet Launches AI Agents On-Chain: MetaMask Agent Wallet lets AI agents execute onchain trades with user defined limits, security controls, MEV protection, and self custody.
• BitGo CEO Challenges Claude With 100 BTC Test: BitGo CEO Mike Belshe challenged Anthropic's Claude to move 100 BTC from a BitGo wallet after the company disclosed recent AI cybersecurity evaluation incidents.
• What the COLDCARD Exploit Means for Crypto?: The COLDCARD exploit exposed a critical seed generation flaw that led to the theft of nearly 594 BTC. Here's why the incident is a wake-up call for hardware wallet security and self-custody.
• Bitcoin Treasuries Shift as Corporate Holdings Grow: Strategy sold 1,637 BTC as Strive, American Bitcoin, and Bitmine expanded their Bitcoin and Ethereum treasuries, highlighting diverging institutional strategies.
• Cloudflare Wallets Bring Stablecoin Payments to AI: Cloudflare Wallets introduce stablecoin payments, Virtual Wallets, cloudflare.pay identities, and x402 micropayments to power secure AI agent commerce.
• Putin Signs Russia's Landmark Crypto Regulation Law: Russia has signed a comprehensive crypto law regulating mining, exchanges, investors, digital assets, and market participants, with phased implementation beginning September 1, 2026.
• Crypto Fundamentals Outpacing Prices: Is the Market Missing Adoption?: Crypto veterans say fundamentals now lead prices. This piece explores whether stablecoins, tokenisation, and adoption are being undervalued.

Ethereum Protocol

All Core Developers (ACD)

• Meeting highlights: The ACDC #184 meeting reviewed Glamsterdam Devnet 8 preparations and Hegota EIP proposals, covering EIP 8070 Engine API changes, Quick Slots, FOCIL profiles, blob propagation, LOTAS, issuance changes, and validator withdrawal updates.
• Key decisions: EIP 8070 changes were included for Devnet 8 unless objections are raised. Several Hegota proposals received PFI, while EIP 8333 and the Engine API sync status were deferred to the next ACDC. Polar bear was selected as the Hegota mascot.
• Action items: CL client teams will report their EIP 8070 implementation status before Monday’s ACDT. The community will continue discussions around EIP 8363, with no CFI decision made during the meeting.

AllCoreDevs - Testing #090

• Meeting highlights: ACDT #90 focused on Glamsterdam Devnet 8 preparations, finalizing repricing parameters, reviewing the attestation deadline, and confirming discv5-only networking for the next devnet. The meeting also covered EIP-7702 Engine API requirements, Block Access Lists, and the stability of Devnet 7.
• Key decisions: Repricing parameters were frozen with SLOAD remaining at 2,100, account writes increasing to 9,000, and the execution layer anchor set at 75 Mgas/s. The 3-second attestation deadline will remain for the Glamsterdam fork, with a potential reduction to 2 seconds deferred until after the fork. Discv5-only networking, without discv4 fallback, was approved for Devnet 8 and targeted for mainnet.
• Action items: Client teams will update EIP-8038 repricing numbers and publish the new execution-specs release, add the required discv4 fallback disable flag, gather block propagation and state transition data for the 2-second attestation analysis, and confirm EIP-7702 Engine API specification changes before bringing the topic to the ACDC agenda.

FOCIL Breakout #039

• Meeting highlights: The meeting covered recent FOCIL specification updates, client progress, and testing preparations for the FOCIL only devnet. Changes included Engine API updates and modifications to the inclusion list store.
• Key decisions: A new FOCIL spec release beyond Alpha 13 will be created to include the latest changes before the FOCIL only devnet. The devnet will use the latest stable devnet or testnet with the updated FOCIL specification.
• Action items: Jihoon will update the EL spec tests for the latest Engine API changes and raise the issue at ACDE. He will also open a PR to key the inclusion list store by slot and dependent root.

Fast Confirmation Rule #012

• Meeting highlights: The meeting reviewed FCR client implementation progress, Glamsterdam Devnet testing, safeBlockHash behavior, and FCR changes for the post-Gloas slot structure.
• Key decisions: No change was made to safeBlockHash fallback behavior when FCR is disabled. The proposed PTC based FCR improvement for post-Gloas was also not pursued, as Decoupled Consensus is expected to replace the current FCR approach.
• Action items: Mikhail Kalinin and Justin Traglia will share thoughts on FCR fuzzing and coordinate with the EF security team on an agent swarm review. Once Prysm and Teku are production ready, Mikhail will ask EthPandaOps to rerun cross client historical comparison simulations.

Client & Infrastructure Updates

• Execution Layer:

  • Nethermind 1.39.3
  • Geth 1.17.5
  • Erigon 3.5.4
  • Besu 26.7.1
  • Reth 2.4.1
  • EthereumJS 10.1.2

• Consensus Layer:

  • Teku 26.7.1
  • Nimbus 26.7.0
  • Prysm 7.1.8
  • Lodestar 1.45.0
  • Lighthouse 8.2.1

• Latest from Clients:

1. Nethermind: Stellar makes Noir zk proof verification dramatically more efficient, cutting costs from 224.8M to 80M CPU instructions and freeing 80% of the transaction budget for applications.
2. Erigon: Erigon is making RPC infrastructure faster and more scalable with 4x smaller chaindata, parallel block execution, faster startup, and consistent performance under heavy request loads.

Podcasts

1. Is Any Cold Wallet Safe? Inside the Coldcard Hack's Wave Three | Austin Campbell | Ram Ahluwalia | Christopher Perkins | Alex Thorn
   The podcast examines the Coldcard exploit, explaining how a flaw in key generation exposed users’ Bitcoin and led to a large scale self custody breach. It also explores what the incident reveals about hardware wallet security, code review, and future threats such as quantum computing.
2. Should Tokenized Stock Only Come From Issuers? Yes, Says Carlos Domingo | Laura Shin | Carlos Domingo
   Wall Street's transfer agents want issuers, not outside platforms, to control tokenized stock. Securitize's CEO says the alternative invites insider trading.

Good Reads

• Why Smaller Countries Are Embracing Crypto Faster?: Discover why Bhutan, El Salvador and other small nations are turning to crypto for growth, remittances, investment and global financial access.
• Is Crypto Dying, or Is the Speculation Era Finally Ending?: Is crypto dying, or is it finally maturing? Explore why NFTs, GameFi, and the metaverse declined while stablecoins and tokenized assets continue to gain traction.
• Ethereum’s Issuance Debate: Could Staking Rewards Fall to Zero?: EIP-8363 has ignited a wider Ethereum debate over staking rewards, issuance policy, solo-staker economics & how controversial proposals move from discussion to mainnet.
• All you need to know about Ethereum Hegota Upgrade: Curated resources by EtherWorld for Hegota Upgrade
• All you need to know about Ethereum Glamsterdam Upgrade: Curated resources by EtherWorld for Glamsterdam Upgrade

Upcoming Events

• ETH Enugu Conf '26(Aug 17-22)
• ETH Belgrade 2026 (Aug 26-27)
• ETHOnline 2026 (Sep 4-16)
• ETHTaipei (Sep 13-15)
• ETHTokyo Week 2026 (Sep 19-27)
• ETHGlobal Tokyo 2026 (Sep 25-27)
• ETHPrague 2026 (Sep 2026)
• Pragma Tokyo 2026 (Sep 26)
• ETHSafari 2026 (Sep 2026)
• Token2049 Singapore (7-8 Oct)
• Pragma Mumbai (Nov 5)
• Devcon 8 in Mumbai (Nov 3–6)
• ETHGlobal Mumbai (Nov 6–8)
• ETHIndia 2026 (Dec 2026)

Jobs

• Announcing the Avarch Internship Program: A professional internship program by Avarch offering students real project experience, open-source contributions, expert mentorship & industry-ready portfolio development.

Community Spotlight

The Ethereum Foundation is backing WEBCAT with a new security grant to make it easier to verify that the code running on a website is the same code its developers actually published. The goal is to strengthen the security of Ethereum wallets and apps and reduce the risk of malicious changes reaching users.

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