Welcome to Protocol, a weekly rap of Coindesk’s most important story in cryptocurrency technology development. I am Margaux Nickelk, a reporter for Coindsk.
In this issue:
- Ethereum developers are targeting Fusaka December
- Plasma launching MainNet Beta Blockchain for Stablecoins
- XRP holders can earn up to 8% through new liquid staking tokens
- As the crypto market catches up, internet computer bets are big on AI
Network News
Fusaka will be coming this December: During the call to all Core Developers Consensus (ACDC), Ethereum Core developers reviewed the interim roadmap for Fusaka, the next major upgrade of the network: the Fusaka. The upgrade, designed to scale the blockchain further, is scheduled for early December, with follow-up changes aimed at more than double the blob capacity in a few weeks. Before Fusaka’s upgrade reaches the Ethereum mainnet, developers will push code through three public test networks in October. If these tests go smoothly, mainnet activation will be targeted on December 3rd. Developers should note that the exact number of epochs and timing will be confirmed in the next few days. Although Fusaka itself does not change the BLOB parameters immediately, Call outlined a step-by-step approach to scaling the availability of BLOBs via the so-called BLOB parameters only (BPO) fork. A week after Fusaka BPO-1 raised the blog’s target/max from 6/9 to 10/15, and a week after, BPO-2 pushes the limit to 14/21. These incremental changes are based on the performance observed in Fusaka Devnet-5 and are intended to safely increase capacity without the need for client-side software updates. Blobs, introduced in the Dencun upgrade in March, will allow Ethereum to store large amounts of rollup transaction data more efficiently, reducing the cost of users of Layer 2 Scaling Networks. – Oliver Night read more.
Plasma blockchain for stubcoin to come: Plasma, a new blockchain built exclusively for Stablecoins, introduced the chain and its native token XPL on September 25th, and will debut for more than $2 billion in liquidity at Stablecoin, a 100 partner whose network has not made aggressive attempts along with aggressive attempts at the General’s offensive attempts, according to a blog post from the team. Backbone for Stablecoin transfers. That’s not an easy feat. Ethereum and Solana already dominate the volume of Stablecoin, but the new chain continues to optimize for similar flows. The Plasma bet is that it is called the Plasma Butto, known as its architecture. The system is designed for fast, configurable stable coin transactions the team said, allowing users to move USDTs at zero rates from launch through Plasma’s dashboard. This is a feature that teams want to stand out in a crowded defi landscape. Before its release, 10% of XPL was on sale through public offerings. At launch, 25 million tokens were allocated to the community, and an additional 2.5 million have been reserved for members of the so-called Stablecoin Collective. Margaux nijkerk read more.
Midas and Interop Lavs are unveiling new liquid staking tokens. Projects focusing on real-world assets (RWA)-based assets (RWA)-based assets, MIDAS and Interop Labs, have announced MXRP, attempts to lead dormant XRP supply to yield burden structures, can generate revenues as high as 8%. Unveiled Monday at XRPL Seoul 2025 and pitched as the first liquid staking product linked directly to the XRP ecosystem, the product is being cast into XRPL’s EVM through an audit agreement. XRP is wrapped around Midas’ tokenized certificate framework. MXRP can be used as a structured vehicle that allows users to slot into existing distributed financial (DEFI) infrastructure, with early strategies such as market production and liquidity provisioning. Targeted net returns are set in the range of 6% to 8%, with results varying depending on the performance of the underlying strategy. — Shaurya Malwa read more.
ICP is a big bet on AI Tech Stack: ICP, a blockchain project that has been trying to differentiate itself from its rivals, has doubled the pitch as the go-to network for on-chain artificial intelligence (AI). This could be the beginning of a new technology stack where AI, not humans, becomes the main developer of applications, according to Dominic Williams, founder of Internet computer developer Dfinity. Williams argued that while crypto prices are driven primarily by market dynamics (Treasury operations, liquidity games, speculation), the underlying technology ultimately forces calculations in an interview with Koindsk. “In the long term, the market will begin to reflect ground reality,” he said. “But we still don’t know what’s going on with the Internet computers reflected in the price of ICPs,” the Internet computer first demonstrated a neural network running as a smart contract in April last year, starting with image classification and subsequent facial recognition, Williams said. They were relatively simple models compared to large-scale language models – the kinds of powering AI tools like chatgpt and gemini – they were proof of concept: AI can be run natively on the blockchain. Williams noted that despite his chatter about “decentralized AI,” other networks have not achieved this. If others rely on off-chain infrastructure like Amazon Web Services, ICP is trying to fully integrate AI development and on-chain execution stacks. Williams describes this as the “self-writing internet.” This is a system that describes what users want, and AI delivers as a working application hosted directly on an Internet computer. The bigger idea, Williams said, is that AI itself will replace much of today’s developer workflow. – Jamie Crowley read more.
In other news
- Important metrics tied to IBIT of the Spot BTC Exchange-Traded Fund registered with BlackRock’s NASDAQ have been flashing warning signs for the second consecutive month. According to data source market Chameleon, Ibit’s one-year Put-Call skew tested positive for market sentiment or pessimism on July 25th, exceeding zero since. That’s a bearish put bias for the second month in a row. In other words, traders have consistently supported protecting bullish calls for two months, offering a sustained prudent or risk aversion outlook. A similar put option bias was observed from March 8th to April 21st this year. This is a period characterized by a sharp decline in both spot prices and IBIT, driven primarily by weaknesses caused by trade wars on Wall Street. – Omcal Godball read more.
- Key support for the Bitcoin (BTC) break has prompted a gust of winds from social media “buy a Dip” calls. However, the liquidity trend suggests a deeper decline. BTC fell by more than 3% this week to $111,590, stimulating the widely tracked simple 50-day and 100-day moving averages (SMA). Both indicators have lost their upward momentum for the first time since April, but are now flatlined to signal the bull’s attention. Meanwhile, the mention of “Buy The Dip” on social media has skyrocketed to the highest level in almost a month, according to data tracking platform Santiment. The platform uses the “Buy The Dip” to analyze the volume of keywords and phrases related to Reddit, Telegram, and X (formerly Twitter). The spikes in these references are considered the opposite signal by santiment. This means that it could deepen the ongoing price pull in BTC. – Omcal Godball read more.
Regulation and policy
- The US Commodity Futures Trade Commission will launch initiative as tokenized collateral to meet margin needs in the vast derivatives market, and will invite industry input on how such policies can be brought online. In the latest move to encryption into the US financial sector, CFTC’s representative Caroline Femme continues to move forward with policies to ensure that President Donald Trump’s current candidate does not become former chairman Brian Quintz, chairman. As Quintenz’s confirmation process remains plagued by delays and several public disputes, Pham regularly announces the initiative as part of the “Crypto Sprint” and works with Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins. “For years, I’ve said collateral management is a stupid ‘killer app’ in the market,” Fam said in a statement. “We look forward to announcing the launch of this initiative and working closely with stakeholders to enable the use of tokenized collateral, including Stablecoins.” Pham last year called for a so-called regulated sandbox for tokenization. When he served as commissioner in the previous administration and took over as acting chairman, he announced his pursuit of a pilot programme for tokenization through Stablecoin. – Jesse Hamilton read more.
- The US Treasury is moving forward in a narrow comment window on its preliminary formal efforts to solidify the recently established stubcoin law into a set of regulations. This division of President Donald Trump’s administration has opened what is known as “advance notice of proposed rules creation.” In this case, the government is seeking data to construct data on the introduction and establishment of the US National Innovation Law (genius) Law (genius) Law (genius) Law, including issuer bans, sanctions obligations, national laundry compliance, balance between state and federal oversight, tax issues, and further needs from industry. Currently, a one-month period is open, allowing companies to close these complex issues to the public (and encrypted companies) before closing on October 20th. Notices include: “Do you need additional clarity as to the extent that reserve assets are required or whether they should be detained?” “Is there a regulatory or supervisory regime or development regime for foreign payment stubcoins that could rival those established under the Genius Act?” – Jesse Hamilton read more.
calendar
- September 22nd to 28th: Korea Blockchain Week, Seoul
- October 1st-2: Token2049, Singapore
- October 13th-15th: Digital Assets Summit, London
- October 16th-17th: European Blockchain Convention, Barcelona
- November 17th-22nd: DevConnect, Buenos Aires
- December 11th-13th: Solana Breakpoint, Abu Dhabi
- February 10-12, 2026: Consensus, Hong Kong
- March 30th – April. 2: Ethcc, Cannes
- May 5-7, 2026: Miami, Consensus
