Network News
LIVE “ALPENGLOW” UPGRADES FOR TESTING ON SOLANA: Solana developer Anza said Alpenglow, the network’s largest consensus overhaul to date, is live on a community test cluster, marking a major step toward a potential mainnet rollout. The update means that validation operators can now test software designed to transition Solana from its current consensus system, which combines Proof-of-Stake with TowerBFT and Proof-of-History, to a new architecture intended to significantly reduce time-to-finality and improve network responsiveness. “Alpenglow is live on the community test cluster,” Anza wrote on X. “The biggest consensus change in Solana history, now running on validator infrastructure before mainnet.” Today, Solana leverages Proof-of-History, a cryptographic clock that timestamps transactions, alongside TowerBFT, a voting mechanism that validators use to agree on the state of the blockchain. Although the design helped Solana achieve high throughput and low fees, some have pointed to outages and network instability during periods of high demand. — Margaux Nijkerk Learn more.
LAYERZERO APOLOGY FOR KELP DAO INCIDENT: LayerZero said it “made a mistake” by allowing its own verification infrastructure to secure high-value crypto assets in a vulnerable setup, marking a notable change in tone after weeks of blaming developer Kelp DAO for a $292 million hack linked to North Korean attackers. The admission marks a notable shift after weeks of public pointing between LayerZero and Kelp over responsibility for the April hack, which LayerZero initially presented as an application-level configuration failure by Kelp. “First of all: a long overdue apology,” LayerZero wrote in a blog. LayerZero initially blamed Kelp, arguing that the protocol chose a risky “1 on 1” setup in which a single decentralized verification network, or DVN, had to approve cross-chain transfers, creating a single point of failure. A DVN is part of the infrastructure that verifies whether a transaction transferring assets between blockchains is legitimate. “We made a mistake in allowing our DVN to act as a 1/1 DVN for high-value transactions,” the company said. “We didn’t control what our DVN was securing, which created a risk that we simply didn’t see. We own it.” — Sam Reynolds Learn more.
RONIN TRANSITING TO LAYER-2: Ronin, the gaming-centric blockchain once synonymous with the industry’s infamous $625 million 2022 exploit, is officially shedding its sidechain skin on May 12 to become a layer 2 of Ethereum to improve security while maintaining throughput. Ronin, which announced the migration in April, will execute a hard fork at block 55,577,490, a process that will result in approximately 10 hours of downtime for users, the network announced Monday. “Four years ago, we launched Ronin because Axie Infinity needed a faster, more efficient network,” Ronin said when announcing the migration. “It worked. Axie Infinity brought millions of players to crypto, and Pixels proved it was possible to do it again.” Now is the time to “reconnect with the mothership.” While operating as an independent sidechain in mid-May 2022, Ronin underwent what is still today the largest DeFI bridge exploit in history. Layer 2 protocols benefit from closer ties to the underlying blockchain than sidechains, providing benefits that include greater security. — Olivier Acuna Learn more.
ETHEREUM DEVELOPERS RELEASE “A CLEAR SIGNATURE”: The Ethereum Foundation and a group of major crypto wallet developers are rolling out a new security standard designed to prevent users from accidentally giving up their funds, a problem that has fueled some of the industry’s biggest hacks and scams. The initiative, called “Clear Signing,” aims to replace the confusing walls of code users currently see when approving Ethereum transactions with simple, human-readable explanations of what they are actually agreeing to. This effort comes after years of phishing attacks and wallet leaks that often boil down to the same problem: users unknowingly approve malicious transactions they don’t understand. The Ethereum Foundation cited incidents such as the Bybit hack as examples of how attackers exploit “blind signing,” where users approve transactions filled with unreadable technical data. Right now, signing a crypto transaction can feel like clicking “accept” on a terms of service page written in another language. Wallets often display long strings of code that only highly technical users can decipher, leaving ordinary traders vulnerable to fake apps, malicious links, and compromised websites. — Margaux Nijkerk Learn more.
In Other news
- Charles Schwab, the brokerage giant that manages approximately $12 trillion in client assets, has begun rolling out its cryptocurrency spot trading service to retail clients in the United States. An initial group of customers can now trade bitcoin and ether (ETH) on the Schwab Crypto platform, the company posted on The Westlake, Texas-based company already offers crypto investments through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and futures trading. — Jamie Crawley Learn more.
- JPMorgan (JPM) is preparing to launch a tokenized money market fund, the latest sign that major financial institutions and Wall Street asset managers are accelerating efforts to move traditional assets onto the blockchain rails. A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) outlines plans for a blockchain-based money market fund, investing exclusively in short-term U.S. Treasury bills, cash, and overnight repurchase agreements backed by government securities. The fund, called JPMorgan OnChain Liquidity-Token Money Market Fund (JLTXX), will maintain blockchain-based token balances linked to investors’ ownership records, allowing approved users to submit purchase, redemption and transfer requests through Ethereum, the filing said. The underlying blockchain infrastructure will be operated by Kinexys Digital Assets, the blockchain unit of JPMorgan, formerly known as Onyx. — Christian Sandor Learn more.
Regulation and policy
- Legislation that could fully insert the U.S. crypto industry into the regulated financial system has emerged in its latest form, with the Senate Banking Committee unveiling the text of the Market Structure bill just after midnight on Tuesday, ahead of this week’s hearing expected to advance the effort. The latest version isn’t expected to offer many surprises to the crypto industry that has already had a chance to review it privately, but it does include still-controversial language on stablecoin yield and maintains legal protections for decentralized finance (DeFi) developers, keeping this corner of the crypto sector happy (so far). Industry insiders have been waiting for the release late into the night, and they will still have to study the language to ensure their expectations will be met. “This bill reflects serious, good faith work in the committee and provides the certainty, safeguards, and accountability that Americans deserve,” committee Chairman Tim Scott said in a statement. “It puts consumers first, fights illicit finance, cracks down on criminals and foreign adversaries, and safeguards the future of finance here in the United States.” — Jesse Hamilton Learn more.
- The Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors on Tuesday, moving closer to President Donald Trump’s choice to become the next chairman of the U.S. central bank. Lawmakers approved Warsh by a vote of 51 to 45. Senator John Fetterman (Democrat of Pennsylvania) was the only Democrat to support the nomination. Warsh still must win a separate vote in the Senate to become Fed chairman, which is expected Wednesday. Governors serve a 14-year term while the president has a four-year term. If confirmed as chairman, Warsh, 56, would replace Jerome Powell, whose eight-year term as head of the Fed ends Friday. Powell said, however, that he plans to stay on the board until the conclusion of a federal investigation into the Fed headquarters renovations. — Helene Braun Learn more.
Calendar
- June 2-3, 2026: Proof of Talk, Paris
- June 4, 2026: Stability Summit, New York
- June 8-10, 2026: ETHConf, New York
- September 29-October 1, 2026: Korean Blockchain Week, Seoul
- October 7 and 8, 2026: Token2049, Singapore
- November 3-6, 2026: Devcon, Mumbai
- November 15-17, 2026: Solana Breakpoint, London
