Crypto World
Crypto’s ‘age of speculation’ is over, says Galaxy CEO Mike Novogratz
Justin Tallis | Afp | Getty Images
Throughout its history, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been subject to significant price fluctuations, whether that’s due to larger macro factors impacting all asset classes or during “crypto winters” tied to industry concerns.
But with a crypto-friendly Trump administration and expectations for passage of a cryptocurrency market structure bill, many onlookers expected another bull run in digital assets to start 2026. However, it’s been the exact opposite. Bitcoin is down more than 21% so far this year, and it fell to $60,062.00 last week — its lowest level in roughly 16 months. That marked a drop of nearly 50% from its record back in October 2025.
What is driving this latest decline? Rather than a single event, Galaxy founder and CEO Mike Novogratz said at the CNBC Digital Finance Forum on Tuesday in New York City that it’s a reflection of a larger industry shift. When bitcoin fell 22% in less than a day back in November 2022 following the collapse of FTX, there was a “breakdown in trust,” Novogratz told CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos at the event. “This time, there’s no smoking gun,” he said. “You look around like, what happened?”
Bitcoin price since the start of 2026
Novogratz did note the wipeout that occurred in October 2025 as a significant event, when more than 1.6 million traders suffered a combined $19.37 billion erasure of leveraged positions over a 24-hour period, a situation that he said, “wiped out a lot of retail and market makers” and put plenty of pressure on prices.
“Crypto is all about narratives, it’s about stories,” he said. “Those stories take a while to build and you’re pulling people in … so when you wipe out a lot of those people, Humpty Dumpty doesn’t get put back together right away,” he said.
But Novogratz also sees something more lasting he expects to come out of the current downturn, saying the recent era of crypto investing, “the age of speculation,” will be phased out going forward as the crypto industry has brought in “institutions where people have a different risk tolerance.”
“Retail people don’t get into crypto because they want to make 11% annualized,” he said. “They get in because they want to make 30 to one, eight to one, 10 to one.”
Some traders will always speculate, Novogratz says, but overall, “it’s going to be transposed or replaced by us using these same rails, these crypto rails, to bring banking [and] financial services to the whole world. And so, it’s going to be real world assets with much lower returns.”
He also pointed to tokenized stocks as assets that will have “a different return profile.”
Sigalos asked Novogratz if the eventual passage of the CLARITY Act could be a catalyst for the industry, with the stall in the crypto market structure bill’s momentum on Capitol Hill at least a short-term headwind. He is confident a crypto market structure bill will eventually become law.
“I talked to [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer two nights ago and he said ‘We’re going to pass the goddamn CLARITY Act,’” Novogratz said. “The Democrats want to pass the act, and the Republicans want to.”
Novogratz said the crypto industry needs the bill for “a lot of reasons,” but notably, “We need it for spirit back in the crypto market.”
Ethereum price action is showing growing downside risk as weakening liquidity and fragile rebounds increase the probability of a deeper rotation toward the $900 range low.
Summary
- Short-term bounces lack conviction, suggesting rallies may be corrective rather than trend-changing
- Liquidity dynamics favor a downside sweep, with clean lows still attracting price
- Volatility likely to expand, if balance breaks and price seeks deeper acceptance levels
Ethereum (ETH) price continues to trade in a vulnerable position, hovering around a critical support zone known as the point of control (POC). While short-term relief bounces have emerged on lower timeframes, these moves have lacked meaningful bullish follow-through. As a result, Ethereum remains exposed to further downside pressure, particularly as untested liquidity continues to build beneath current price levels.
From a broader market-structure perspective, the ongoing consolidation appears less like accumulation and more like a pause before a continuation. Unless buyers can decisively reclaim control, the risk of a deeper corrective move below $1,000 remains firmly in play.
Ethereum price key technical points
- Ethereum is trading at the point of control, a critical balance level
- Low-volume bounces signal weak demand, raising bull trap risk
- Untapped liquidity sits below range lows, increasing downside probability
Ethereum’s recent bounce from the point of control has been shallow and short-lived. On the lower timeframes, price has shown temporary stabilization, but these moves have not been supported by strong bullish volume. In trending markets, sustainable reversals typically require expanding participation and aggressive buying, neither of which is currently present.
This type of weak rebound often signals a potential bull trap, in which the price briefly moves higher before rolling over and resuming the dominant trend. As long as Ethereum fails to reclaim higher resistance levels with conviction, short-term rallies remain vulnerable to rejection.
Liquidity below price remains unresolved
One of the most important factors influencing Ethereum’s downside risk is the presence of untouched liquidity beneath current price levels. Clean lows remain intact below the market, suggesting that stop-loss orders and resting sell-side liquidity are concentrated beneath support.
Markets naturally gravitate toward areas of liquidity, particularly during corrective or range-bound conditions. Until this liquidity is addressed, Ethereum remains susceptible to a rotation lower, designed to flush out weak positioning and rebalance the market structure.
Loss of point of control signals expansion risk
The point of control represents the price level at which the most trading activity occurs and often acts as a stabilizing force during consolidation phases. However, once the price loses the POC on a closing basis, it typically signals a shift from balance to imbalance.
If Ethereum decisively loses this level, the probability of an accelerated move increases. In this context, that would likely mean a capitulation-style rotation lower as price seeks the next major area of acceptance. Historically, such moves tend to be swift and volatile, particularly when liquidity below price remains untested.
$900 range low comes into focus
From a high-timeframe perspective, the next major downside target sits near the $900 level. This zone aligns with the value area low and the lower boundary of Ethereum’s broader trading range. Previous interactions with this region have resulted in strong reactions, making it a critical area for potential stabilization or reversal.
A move toward $900 would likely coincide with heightened volatility and emotional selling, characteristics often associated with capitulation events. While such a move may appear bearish in the short term, it could ultimately serve as a necessary reset before a more sustainable base can form.
What to expect in the coming price action
From a technical, price-action, and market-structure perspective, Ethereum remains at risk of trading below $1,000 if current support fails.
The combination of weak bounce attempts, unresolved liquidity, and the potential loss of the point of control favors downside continuation toward the $900 range low.
For this outlook to improve, Ethereum would need to regain control with strong volume confirmation and demonstrate acceptance above higher value areas.
Feeding Claude AI carefully structured prompts unlocks explosive price projections for XRP, Cardano, and Ethereum in 2026.
According to Claude, all three could hit fresh ATHs over the next eleven months.
Below we examine whether Claude’s claims are justified by technical signals and the news cycle.
XRP ($XRP): Claude Maps a Long-Term Route Toward $8 by 2027
In a recent blog post, Ripple confirmed XRP ($XRP) remains central to its vision to make the XRPLedger an institutional-grade payments infrastructure.
Already known for lightning fast settlement and negligible costs, XRPL also offers what could be the two biggest use cases in crypto: stablecoins and real world asset tokenization.
Currently trading near $1.43, Claude predicts XRP could climb to $8 by the end of 2026, a nearly 6x increase.
From a technical standpoint, XRP’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) is uptrending from 31, indicating that investors are buying back in after a period of heavy selling rocked the entire market.
Institutional inflows through newly approved U.S.-based XRP exchange-traded funds, combined with Ripple’s expanding partner network and the potential passage of the U.S. CLARITY bill this year, could even propel XRP beyond Claude’s bull case.
Cardano (ADA): Claude Projects a Potential 1,100% Upside
Created by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson, Cardano ($ADA) leverages peer-reviewed development, security, scalability, and sustainability.
With a market cap around $10 billion and more than $127 million in TVL Cardano’s growing ecosystem supports its long-term growth.
Claude says ADA could rise over 1,100%, from its current price of $0.26 to $3.25 by Christmas, pushing it comfortably above its 2021 ATH: $3.09.
That said, ADA is currently trading at its lowest level since October 2024. Given the year’s unpredictability so far, another downturn could see ADA slipping the $0.20 to $0.25 support level.
Ethereum ($ETH): Claude Identifies a Possible 5x Setup
Ethereum ($ETH), the world’s leading smart contract platform, underpins most of the DeFi/Web3 infrastructure.
With a market capitalization of around $243 billion and more than $56 billion locked across DeFi protocols, Ethereum remains the primary settlement layer for blockchain commerce.
Its proven security, dominant position in stablecoins, and early leadership in real-world asset tokenization position Ethereum well to capture increased institutional demand.
However, substantial inflows depend on whether U.S. lawmakers approve the CLARITY bill, which will provide the regulatory certainty institutions need to deploy capital on the network, either through stablecoins or tokenized real-world assets.
ETH trades around $2,000, with heavy resistance expected near the $5,000 level after reaching an ATH of $4,946.05 last August.
If Claude’s bullish outlook materializes, a clean breakout above $5,000 could pave the way for multiple new ATHs in 2026, with Claude capping ETH’s growth at a heady $7,500 in a full-scale bull market.
Maxi Doge: Roll Over, Dogecoin! Maxi’s The New Alpha of Memesville!
Finally, while Claude sees XRP, Cardano and Ethereum as relatively safe bets, investors chasing old school crypto upside will want to allocate a small portion of their portfolio to new high-volatility meme coins.
Maxi Doge ($MAXI) is one of the most discussed meme coin presales of 2026 so far, raising $4.6 million before launch.
The project’s mascot is an louche, high-energy parody (and distant cousin) of Dogecoin, blending gym-bro intensity with degen humor to revive the irreverent meme culture that shot Dogecoin and Shiba Inu to stardom.
MAXI is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum’s proof-of-stake network, giving it a smaller environmental footprint compared to Dogecoin’s proof-of-work model.
Presale participants can currently stake MAXI tokens to earn yields of up to 68% APY, with rewards decreasing over time as the staking pool grows.
The token is $0.0002803 in the current presale stage, with automatic price increases triggered at each funding milestone. Purchases are supported via MetaMask and Best Wallet.
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SkyBridge Capital’s Founder, Anthony Scaramucci, said Wednesday that he is buying bitcoin amid the falling market, while calling Donald Trump a crypto President.
“So 10 days ago, we were buying Bitcoin at 84,000 last week, you’re buying Bitcoin at 63,000 Bitcoin this week, we’re buyers of Bitcoin in this market, again,” Scaramucci said during a conversation with Bullish’s CEO Tom Farley at Consensus Hong Kong.
He added that buying bitcoin in a downward-trending market is akin to catching a falling knife.
Bitcoin recently crashed to nearly $60,000, after hitting a peak of over $126,000 in October this year. Prices have recovered slightly to $69,000 since then amid signs of capitulation in the bitcoin ETF market.
Scaramucci called President Donald Trump a much better President for crypto than his predecessor, but added that Trump’s geopolitical shenanigans, such as his Greenland ambitions, embolden rival Democrats to oppose him on various policies, including those that affect digital assets.
“I’ll just say to you that, like, the Greenland stuff, believe it or not, is actually tied to the industry. If he does stuff like that, it upsets the opposition to the point where they’re like, You know what? We don’t want him to win on anything, and even if it’s going to spite ourselves and cut our own horses off, we will vote against the crypto bill to hurt Donald Trump,” he explained.
Speaking of Layer 1s, Scaramucci said that programmable blockchain Solana will be one of the biggest market share gatherers.
Former SafeMoon CEO Braden Karony has been sentenced to 100 months in prison for stealing $9 million from the crypto platform’s liquidity pool in 2021 to fund a “lavish lifestyle.”
The sentence on Monday comes nine months after Karony was convicted by a federal jury on charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering in May 2025.
“Not only did Braden John Karony abuse his position as CEO, but he also betrayed his investors’ trust by stealing more than nine million dollars in digital assets from his company to fund his lavish lifestyle,” FBI assistant director James C. Barnacle, Jr. said.
Karony used the stolen proceeds to purchase a $2.2 million home in Utah, an Audi R8 sports car, a Tesla, a custom Ford F-550 and Jeep Gladiator pickup trucks.
“Karony lied to investors from all walks of life — including military veterans and hard-working Americans,” US Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. said, adding:
“Today’s sentence demonstrates that there are significant consequences for financial crimes. Our Office will continue to vigorously prosecute economic crimes that harm investors and weaken societal trust in the stability and security of digital asset markets.”
Karony was ordered to forfeit approximately $7.5 million, the Department of Justice said, while the amount of restitution to the victims will be determined at a later date.
Two SafeMoon execs convicted, one at large
SafeMoon’s former chief technology officer, Thomas Smith, pleaded guilty in February 2025 to conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud and is awaiting sentencing.
SafeMoon platform’s creator, Kyle Nagy, remains at large, the DOJ added.
Karony is one of many former crypto executives who have now been convicted and sentenced for crimes committed during the 2021-2022 market cycle, when retail market participation was at its peak.
Others who have been convicted include former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky, who are currently serving 25-year and 12-year sentences, respectively.
Related: Crypto PACs secure massive war chests ahead of US midterms
US President Donald Trump said on Jan. 8 that he wouldn’t pardon the former FTX boss, despite having pardoned former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao in October.
Bankman-Fried hasn’t given up, having asked a federal appeals panel for a new trial on Thursday.
Magazine: The critical reason you should never ask ChatGPT for legal advice
Robinhood has launched the public testnet for Robinhood Chain, a financial-grade Ethereum Layer-2 built on Arbitrum. Johann Kerbrat, SVP and General Manager of Robinhood Crypto, announced the testnet at Consensus Hong Kong on Wednesday, marking the first public development phase of a chain first teased at the company’s Cannes keynote last year.
In an interview with BeInCrypto in Hong Kong ahead of the announcement, Kerbrat outlined the company’s vision for the chain, including tokenized real-world assets, 24/7 trading, and a $1 million developer hackathon program.
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Why Build Its Own Chain
The testnet opens access to network entry points, developer documentation, and full compatibility with standard Ethereum development tools. Ecosystem partners, including Alchemy and LayerZero, are already building on the chain.
The launch comes at a critical moment. Robinhood disclosed $1.28 billion in fourth-quarter revenue on Tuesday, missing analyst expectations of $1.35 billion. Crypto transaction revenue fell to $221 million from $268 million the previous quarter as Bitcoin dropped 23% during the period. The company’s stock has slid from an all-time high of $154 in October amid the broader crypto downturn.
Robinhood first brought tokenized US equities to EU customers in July 2025 through a partnership with Arbitrum, offering commission-free tokens linked to more than 200 US stocks and ETFs. The product now covers over 1,000 stock tokens across the EU and EEA. But the company always intended to migrate to its own chain.
“It was a two-step process from the beginning. Arbitrum’s technology allows you to launch first on Arbitrum One and then migrate to your own proprietary chain,” Kerbrat told BeInCrypto.
The central motivation is customization. General-purpose Layer 2 networks handle compliance at the smart contract level, but Robinhood Chain embeds regulatory requirements directly into the chain layer. This distinction matters for tokenized securities, where minting and burning stock tokens must comply with different rules across jurisdictions.
The chain itself remains permissionless — anyone can build on it — but the products Robinhood develops on top are designed specifically for regulated financial services.
From Stock Tokens to Real-World Assets
Tokenized public equities were the starting point, but Robinhood’s ambitions extend well beyond listed stocks. Kerbrat said the company’s tokenization engine is designed to eventually support private equity, real estate, art, and other real-world assets.
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A key part of the value proposition is expanding trading hours. Robinhood’s stock tokens currently trade 24 hours a day, five days a week. The migration to Robinhood Chain is expected to enable 24/7 trading — removing the remaining gaps tied to traditional market schedules.
Instant settlement and self-custody are also on the roadmap, along with integration with liquidity pools and lending protocols. Together, these features represent a significant upgrade from the current tokenized stock product, which relies on Arbitrum One infrastructure.
Developer Ecosystem and DeFi Focus
In the near term, Robinhood is focused on attracting developers to build decentralized exchanges, perpetual trading platforms, and lending protocols on the chain. These are natural extensions of its existing brokerage and crypto products.
To jumpstart the ecosystem, the company is planning a series of hackathons across multiple geographies with a total prize pool of $1 million. Kerbrat said the focus will be squarely on financial applications.
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Asia-Pacific Expansion
The testnet launch at Consensus Hong Kong coincides with Robinhood’s deepening push into the Asia-Pacific region. Robinhood completed its $200 million acquisition of Bitstamp in June 2025, gaining access to the exchange’s more than 50 active licenses and registrations worldwide, as well as its institutional crypto-as-a-service business.
Kerbrat said the event provided an opportunity to meet Bitstamp’s Singapore-based clients in person. Through the acquisition, Robinhood now holds licenses in Singapore and Indonesia. It also acquired two smaller Indonesian companies to build a local presence.
Indonesia, with roughly 13 million crypto users, is a priority market. Kerbrat said early conversations with Indonesian regulators have been positive, with discussions centering on AML compliance and risk disclosures rather than resistance to the company’s entry.
Robinhood’s regulatory track record — spanning FINRA, New York DFS, MiCA in the EU, and MAS in Singapore — gives the company confidence in navigating different jurisdictions, Kerbrat said.
Diversifying the Revenue Model
The Q4 earnings miss underscores a persistent concern: Robinhood’s heavy reliance on transaction-based revenue, particularly from crypto trading. The company is working to diversify on multiple fronts.
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Staking, launched in the US in 2025, has reached approximately $1 billion in staked assets. The Robinhood Chain itself is intended to generate new forms of infrastructure-driven revenue over time.
On the trading side, Robinhood has invested in advanced tools to attract high-frequency and high-volume traders — a segment that provides a more stable revenue baseline even in softer markets, according to Kerbrat. The company also expanded its fee tiers from three to seven, with rates as low as 0.03% for high-volume traders.
The institutional channel is also growing. Bitstamp’s crypto-as-a-service offering lets banks, hedge funds, and family offices provide their clients with access to crypto. Kerbrat noted that institutions tend to enter the market during downturns, providing a countercyclical buffer.
Meanwhile, prediction markets have emerged as a bright spot. CEO Vlad Tenev said at a company event in December that prediction markets are Robinhood’s “fastest-growing product line by revenue ever,” with 11 billion contracts traded by more than one million customers.
What’s Next
The public testnet is the first phase of a multi-step rollout. Robinhood plans to migrate its existing stock token products to the chain before eventually transitioning to the mainnet. No specific timeline for the mainnet launch has been disclosed.
“Our vision hasn’t changed: we are building the financial superapp,” Tenev said in the company’s Q4 earnings statement.
CNBC’s Jim Cramer claimed the Trump administration may buy Bitcoin for a proposed U.S. Strategic Reserve, reportedly targeting a $60,000 entry price amid recent market volatility — a statement denounced by George Noble, former aide to famed investor Peter Lynch.
Summary
- Cramer suggested on CNBC that the U.S. government would buy Bitcoin at $60,000.
- The assertion drew backlash from George Noble, who called the claim “complete nonsense” and noted Cramer’s history of inaccurate market predictions.
- Treasury testimony and blockchain data confirm the government cannot legally buy Bitcoin with public funds; current holdings come only from criminal seizures, and wallets have remained unchanged.
Noble described Cramer’s assertion as “complete nonsense,” highlighting that the remarks came at a time when Bitcoin had fallen 52% from its October high, wiping out over $1.2 trillion in market value. “No source. No evidence. No documentation. Just ‘I heard,’” Noble wrote on X.com, criticizing Cramer’s history of inaccurate market predictions, including his prior calls on Bear Stearns and Silicon Valley Bank.
Citing Treasury testimony and blockchain analytics, Noble emphasized that the federal government has no legal authority to buy Bitcoin with public funds. A 2025 executive order limits government-held Bitcoin to assets obtained from criminal seizures, and blockchain firm Arkham reports government wallets holding 328,000 BTC have remained untouched for over a month.
“Zero on-chain evidence. Zero official confirmation. Zero legal authority,” Noble wrote, urging investors to question motives behind media narratives during market panic. He contrasted Bitcoin’s performance with gold, noting that while Bitcoin lost half its value, gold surged to $5,020 an ounce, highlighting its role as a stable store of value.
Noble concluded with a lesson from Lynch: “When someone tells you to buy during a panic, ask what they own. If they can’t show you receipts, they’re showing you the exit.”
The exchange underscores ongoing scrutiny over cryptocurrency commentary and raises questions about the influence of high-profile financial media figures on investor behavior during volatile markets.
TLDR:
- Saylor identifies regulatory support from five federal agencies as a major bullish signal for Bitcoin
- Banking sector adoption will legitimize Bitcoin, reduce volatility, and boost utility across markets
- MicroStrategy will not issue equity to buy Bitcoin if it decreases Bitcoin per share going forward
- Company maintains two to three years of dividend coverage for STRC to ensure creditworthiness stability
Michael Saylor addressed MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin strategy during the Q4 2025 earnings call on February 6. The founder identified regulatory support as a primary driver behind Bitcoin’s price appreciation.
He emphasized that favorable conditions from federal agencies create an unprecedented environment for digital assets.
Banking sector adoption represents another critical factor that could enhance Bitcoin’s legitimacy and reduce market volatility.
Regulatory Framework and Institutional Adoption Drive Bitcoin Growth
Saylor stated that “regulatory support is a fundamental catalyst for Bitcoin’s price rise.” He noted the current landscape is the most constructive ever, involving the Fed, Treasury, CFTC, SEC, and White House Digital Asset Lead.
He described “these five factors are a major bullish signal” for the digital asset market. Their coordinated approach marks a departure from previous uncertain regulatory stances.
The banking sector’s involvement constitutes the second major catalyst for Bitcoin advancement. Saylor explained that “as major institutions allow trading, custody, and Bitcoin-backed lending, it will legitimize the asset, reduce volatility, and boost utility.”
This integration brings traditional finance credibility to digital assets. Additionally, institutional participation should decrease price volatility over time.
Management views these developments as transformative for Bitcoin’s market position. The combination of regulatory clarity and banking infrastructure creates sustainable growth conditions.
Unlike previous cycles driven by speculation, current momentum stems from institutional validation. This shift represents a maturation phase for the entire digital asset industry.
The earnings call focused heavily on MicroStrategy’s evolving Bitcoin acquisition strategy. Analysts questioned various aspects of the company’s approach to managing its digital treasury.
Management addressed concerns about balancing Bitcoin yield with overall holdings growth. These discussions revealed the complexity of corporate Bitcoin adoption at scale.
Strategic Capital Allocation and Credit Quality Considerations
The company acknowledged executing dilutive transactions during the quarter. Management explained these moves aimed to eliminate problematic debt instruments and build USD reserves.
Credit quality improvement took priority over short-term Bitcoin per share metrics. Management stated that “going forward, equity would not be issued to buy Bitcoin if it decreases Bitcoin per share, unless it’s essential to defend the company’s credit.”
Tom Lee raised important questions about quantum computing threats to Bitcoin wallets. Management declined to advocate specific technical solutions but expressed support for community consensus.
They believe the network will address technological challenges through established governance mechanisms. This approach maintains the company’s focus on treasury operations rather than protocol development.
Analysts explored how capital allocation might shift under changing Federal Reserve leadership. Management outlined a responsive strategy tied to market conditions.
They monitor investor appetite for equity versus credit instruments closely. Capital market programs adjust based on actual demand signals rather than policy predictions.
Questions about STRC focused on reserve requirements and derivative product risks. Management explained they “target two to three years of dividend coverage” for reserves.
They actively monitor leveraged products built around STRC. The company “can’t lower the rate more than 25 basis points a month” according to management. Rate adjustments aim “to keep STRC between $99-101″ within acceptable trading ranges.
The credit rating achievement opened new institutional channels for MicroStrategy. Analyst Andrew Hart inquired about opportunities following this milestone.
Management reported positive market reception and expects increased institutional participation. Regarding convertible notes, the company would consider early refinancing one year before put events. However, management views existing converts as manageable rather than problematic.
Ethereum wallets have evolved fast—but permissions haven’t.
We went from single private keys to smart contract wallets, from EOAs to Account Abstraction, from manual signing to automation. Yet one core problem keeps resurfacing:
Wallet access is still mostly all-or-nothing.
ERC-8004 exists to fix that.
The Problem With Today’s Wallet Permissions
Most wallets today operate on a blunt security model:
If you give access to a bot, dApp, or automation tool, you’re often granting far more power than intended. That’s why:
Smart wallets became programmable—but permissions stayed primitive.
What ERC-8004 Proposes
ERC-8004 is a proposed Ethereum standard designed to introduce fine-grained, programmable permissions for smart wallets.
Instead of blanket approval, wallets can define explicit constraints, such as:
-
Who can act on behalf of the wallet
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Which contracts can be interacted with
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Spending caps per transaction or time window
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Allowed function calls
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Expiration times
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Gas or sponsorship rules
In plain English:
ERC-8004 lets you say “yes, but only like this.”
Why This Matters for Account Abstraction
ERC-8004 pairs naturally with ERC-4337 (Account Abstraction).
ERC-4337 changes how transactions are executed.
ERC-8004 pairs naturally with ERC-4337 (Account Abstraction).
ERC-4337 changes how transactions are executed.
ERC-8004 defines what is allowed to be executed.
Together, they enable:
Without a permission layer like ERC-8004, Account Abstraction wallets remain powerful—but dangerous.
The Automation & AI Angle
DeFi’s next phase isn’t more dashboards. Its agents.
Bots that:
But automation without constraints is a liability.
ERC-8004 allows:
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Bots that can trade, but not withdraw
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Agents that operate only on approved protocols
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Limits that cap damage from bugs or exploits
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Time-boxed permissions that self-revoke
This is the difference between autonomy and recklessness.
Current Status: Early, But Inevitable
Important reality check:
That said, the direction is unavoidable.
As wallets become the control layer for capital, identity, AI, and on-chain automation, permission abstraction becomes mandatory, not optional.
Why ERC-8004 (or Something Like It) Will Win
Crypto doesn’t fail because of a lack of power.
It fails because power is unsafe to use.
ERC-8004 introduces:
In the long run, users won’t ask:
“Can my wallet do this?”
They’ll ask:
“Can my wallet do this safely?”
ERC-8004 is one of the first serious attempts to answer that question.
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Balancer’s security team had earlier posted a 20% one-time offer to the attacker behind the November exploit.
Balancer’s community approved a proposal to offer up to 10% as a bounty for information or returned assets tied to the decentralized automated market maker’s exploit in November, with the vote reaching quorum and passing in this round of governance.
Proposal BIP-908 passed unanimously in a Feb. 10 snapshot vote, with 100% of participants in favor and a quorum of 158%, although only nine votes were cast and a single vote represented over 76% of the total voting power.
The proposal, submitted by Balancer DAO executor Maxyz, sets the bounty at a maximum of 10% of the recovered value. It’s worth noting that the Balancer security team initially offered a 20% one-time whitehat bounty right after the hack, which this proposal cuts in half.
The November 2025 attack drained roughly $128 million from Balancer V2 pools by exploiting a rounding and precision bug in composable stable-pool math and using batch-swap mechanics to quickly extract funds. The losses affected several networks, including Ethereum, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Sonic and Berachain.
As The Defiant reported earlier, Gnosis Chain, also affected by the Balancer hack, chose to implement a hard fork to return funds that had been frozen because of the exploit.
While recovery teams have already returned some funds, a significant portion still sits in attacker addresses.
Balancer is currently ranked 11th among DEXs by daily volumes, with just over $203 million traded in the past 24 hours.
HONG KONG — Robinhood launched its public testnet for its own Ethereum layer-2 blockchain on Wednesday with plans for broader launch later this year as the brokerage app aims to move more trading activity onchain.
The new network, called Robinhood Chain, is built on Arbitrum and is designed to support tokenized real-world assets, including equities, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other assets. Developers will be able to publicly build on the network for the first time after six months of private testing, ahead of a future mainnet launch, the company announced at CoinDesk’s Consensus Hong Kong conference.
With the chain, Robinhood aims to allow users to trade 24/7 and self-custody their assets in Robinhood’s own crypto wallet. Users will also be able to bridge across different chains and to decentralized finance (DeFi) applications on Ethereum , the company said in a press release.
The timing comes as Ethereum’s core roadmap shifts more attention back to the base layer. Certain upgrades have already lowered transaction costs, and further improvements are expected to continue easing congestion, a development that weakens the case for layer-2s as a pure scaling necessity.
Robinhood’s approach suggests it is already operating under that assumption.
“I think Vitalik [Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum] was always pretty clear on this, that L2s were not just here to scale Ethereum,” said Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood’s senior vice president and general manager of crypto, in an interview with CoinDesk.
“For us, it was never really about scaling Ethereum or doing faster transactions,” Kerbrat added.
The move builds on Robinhood’s earlier steps into tokenization. Last year, the company rolled out token versions of U.S. stocks and ETFs for European users with dividend payments and extended market hours.
Those assets — almost 2,000 stocks and ETFs, according to data by Entropy Advisors on Dune Analytics — were initially issued on Arbitrum. However, the $15 million in total value of the equity tokens Robinhood minted is lagging behind leading issuers xStocks and Ondo Global Markets.
When rollups — ways of processing transactions on layer-2 networks to ease congestion on the base network — first gained traction, they were widely framed as Ethereum’s answer to high fees and limited throughput. As Ethereum’s layer-1 capacity improves, that narrative is giving way to a different one: layer-2s as customizable, application-specific environments that can embed features difficult to implement on Ethereum itself.
“What we wanted was the security of Ethereum, the liquidity that is available on EVM chains and the Ethereum ecosystem,” Kerbrat said. “But we were also wanting to have a way to customize the chain and to make it really optimized for traditional assets being tokenized.”
Rather than competing with other high-speed trading-focused rollups, Robinhood Chain is being designed around tokenized equities and other regulated financial products, where compliance requirements vary by jurisdiction.
“The complexity to recreate the entire financial system, and on top of that to bring more things on it, makes it that I think chains are going to specialize,” Kerbrat said. “You’ll see chains that are more specialized for payments, and you’ll see chains like ours that are going to be more specialized around tokenized equity.”
Buterin has recently argued that some rollups may need to accept different decentralization trade-offs, particularly when compliance or real-world assets are involved, a view that has stirred debate across the ecosystem.
For Robinhood, Kerbrat said, that shift does not materially change its strategy.
“It doesn’t really change anything for us,” he said. “We’ve always been building with the idea that there are different compliance requirements based on the jurisdiction, and all these things can be embedded into the chain.”
Robinhood first announced plans for its own blockchain in June 2025, positioning the project as part of a broader push into tokenization and onchain finance. Since then, development has largely taken place out of public view.
With the testnet now live, developers can access network entry points, documentation, and standard Ethereum development tools. Ahead of mainnet, Robinhood plans to expand testnet functionality to include test-only assets, including stock tokens, along with deeper integrations with its wallet and other onchain financial tooling.
Read more: Robinhood explains building an Ethereum layer-2: ‘We wanted the security from Ethereum’
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