New Week in Ethereum 2026-01-23

Week in Ethereum News

January 23, 2026

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Highlight of the Week

• The Ethereum Foundation published Checkpoint #8: Jan 2026 (Jan 20), a high-level core-dev roundup covering Fusaka + BPO forks, Glamsterdam’s scoped headliners (ePBS + BALs), and the start of Hegotá headliner proposals (deadline noted as Feb 4)

Eth R&D Protocol Call(s)

• All Core Devs – Testing (ACDT) #66 (call: Jan 19; notes posted Jan 19)

  • Fusaka / BPO forks:

    • Reviewed mainnet BPO outcome and related follow-ups (per agenda + notes).

  • Glamsterdam devnets (BALs + ePBS):

    • Discussed bal-devnet-0/1 updates, scope, and an epbs-devnet-0 update.
    • Devnet-2 readiness: target to launch “around Wednesday” pending merges / client readiness (per meeting summary).
    • Agreed to aim for a local devnet with simplified scope (e.g., no external builders / no p2p bid broadcast caveats called out in notes).

  • Spec / testing process & action items:

    • “Next steps” included updating specs with caveats, pinging for images/releases, and beginning testing plans for ePBS.

• All Core Devs – Consensus (ACDC) #173 (call: Jan 22; notes posted Jan 22)

  • Glamsterdam: ePBS devnet-0 planning:

    • Reviewed ePBS implementation progress across clients and set a target for “devnet zero” by end of February; discussed a contingency of proceeding with an EL-only fork if ePBS isn’t ready.

  • Glamsterdam: BALs plumbing:

    • Discussed an Engine API item related to block-level access lists (BALs) and asked clients to review/implement related work.

  • Consensus-client engineering / risk:

    • Reviewed recent Teku performance issues and mitigations (including DB-related next steps).

  • Consensus data structures / “partial cell proofs” workstream:

    • Compared client implementation status and agreed to roll out via devnet → testnet → client stable releases; flagged follow-ups (prototype/de-risk notes included).

  • Hegotá:

    • Reminder: headliner proposals due Feb 4 (noted in agenda/summary).

Layer 1

• Unified “SlowBlock” metrics across clients proposed a cross-client execution metrics spec (with a linked draft spec) to make performance comparisons and protocol decisions more data-driven (e.g., repricing analysis, network health monitoring).

Research

• Staking decentralization & ops resilience:

  • Native DVT for Ethereum staking proposed protocol-enshrined DVT: allowing a single validator (with enough balance) to register multiple keys with an m-of-n threshold, aiming to reduce operational complexity vs. off-protocol DVT while improving security/decentralization properties.

• Execution-layer scalability & worst-case behavior:

  • Worst-Case Block Size and Calldata Repricing for Glamsterdam analyzed a new worst-case block-size construction and discussed repricing directions (incl. access-list and calldata-floor repricing ideas) in the context of higher gas limits / blob counts and future PBS timelines.

• Applications / UX bridging physical ↔ onchain:

  • Crypto Native Cash: Bridging physical Cash and DeFi proposed using ERC-4337-style account abstraction + NFC-bound “physical possession” keys and a multi-key governance model to approximate cash-like transfer UX while retaining onchain controls (e.g., freezing/recovery).

Layer 2

• Arbitrum’s Open House 2026 announced a global builder program with $800K in prizes, starting with an NYC edition and an online phase beginning Jan 29.
• ArbOS “Dia” upgrade went live on Arbitrum, with the Foundation highlighting smoother fee behavior during spikes, foundations for higher throughput, passkey onboarding, new interop tokens, and “Ethereum Fusaka support.”

Stuff for Developers

• Foundry v1.6.0 (rc1) (release candidate) shipped with Osaka as the default EVM hardfork, parallelized stateless fuzzing + configurable invariant check intervals (claiming up to 3.6× faster deep runs)

  • Experimental: a Rust rewrite of foundryup was introduced to improve install/upgrade UX over time.

• Hardhat v3.1.5 included small but practical DX improvements: better Solidity test display, a bumped viem across packages, and new/updated Solidity build hooks

Security

• Makina Finance exploit: a flash-loan-driven price manipulation attack drained ~1,299 ETH (~$4M), with Decrypt reporting MEV dynamics where a builder frontran portions of the flow; reported root cause was classic oracle/spot-price manipulation around a liquidity pool.

Ecosystem

• Vitalik Buterin on “new designs” for DAOs: Cointelegraph reports Vitalik arguing DAOs should move beyond simple token-voting treasuries toward designs that can support harder problems like onchain dispute resolution/courts and oracles.

Centralization watch: threatening the value of your ETH

• 🚨 Lido at 23.65%, still too close to the 33.3% threshold.

• Client diversity (via clientdiversity.org):

  • Execution layer: Geth ~41% & Nethermind ~38%
  • Consensus layer: Lighthouse ~37.6% & Erigon ~26%

• Any client bug over 33.3% could mean loss of finality.

• Better geographic diversity is optimal, particularly outside of North America & Europe.

EIPs/Standards

• EIPs (Core, Networking, Interface)

  • EIP-7892: Execution Layer Triggerable Withdrawals

    • Status: Moved to Final — Specifies execution-layer–initiated withdrawals, completing the standard for validator withdrawal control.

  • EIP-7910: Beacon Block Root in the EVM

    • Status: Moved to Final — Exposes the beacon block root to the EVM, enabling native cross-layer verification.

  • EIP-7934: Block-Level Access Lists (BALs)

    • Status: Moved to Final — Finalizes block-level access lists, a key building block for ePBS and future block construction.

  • EIP-7823: Execution Payload Bodies V2

    • Status: Moved to Final — Defines a revised execution payload body format to support future PBS designs.

• ERCs (Application Layer)

  • ERC-7935: Human-Readable Chain Names

    • Status: Moved to Final — Standardizes human-readable chain identifiers for better UX and interoperability.

Onchain Stats

• Fees (via ultrasound.money):

  • Gas: 0.0 to 3.9 gwei, 0.1 gwei average; zero net issuance at 12.3 gwei
  • 121.4k ETH net issuance this week

• ETHUSD: $2,898– $3,361, currently $2,952, all-time high $4,946

• ETHBTC: currently 0.033 (Flippening at ~0.165)

Regulation/Business/Tokens

• Gemini Trust Company, LLC: the SEC filed a joint stipulation to dismiss (with prejudice) its civil enforcement action against Gemini; the release cites the “100 percent in-kind return” of Earn investors’ crypto assets and related settlements.
• Purpose Ether ETF (ETHH) staking implementation: Purpose says it will begin staking the ETF’s ether “on or about January 30, 2026” and will charge a staking service fee (previously approved by unitholders).

Upcoming Dates of Note

• February 17-21, 2026: ETHDenver BUIDLWeek - The world's largest Web3 developer conference and hackathon in Denver, Colorado.
• Mar 30 – Apr 2, 2026: EthCC 9 (Ethereum Community Conference): Europe’s largest Ethereum-focused conference, with strong research and developer tracks.
• April 29–30, 2026: TOKEN2049 Dubai: major global crypto and Web3 industry conference.

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