Neutrl has opened an early redemption program for NUSD and sNUSD holders on Sept. 17, allowing eligible users to exchange their tokens for USDC after a reserve-liquidity problem halted normal protocol operations in August.

Neutrl said holders can connect the wallet containing their NUSD or sNUSD, sign an on-chain message to prove wallet ownership and review the applicable redemption details before submitting a request. Completed redemptions pay users in USDC and burn the corresponding NUSD or sNUSD.

The company did not state a recovery percentage in the announcement. Structured-yield protocol Strata subsequently examined the deployed redemption contract and reported a redemptionRate() value of 510000000000000000, equivalent to a 0.51 reference rate.

NUSD redemption contract points to a 0.51 rate

Strata identified the redemption contract as 0xB3f07D3392102fC23264a78e2A1A8B6421123828 and said the rate visible on-chain was 0.51. The reading supports claims that holders currently face a payout close to half of NUSD’s original $1 reference value, though Neutrl has not described the program publicly as a 50% recovery.

A separate report said Strata treated the contract value as the observable redemption reference under the current program. Eligibility, final payout details and availability remain subject to terms set by Neutrl operator Caverna Auctus Inc.

Neutrl’s own announcement states only that the redemption rate is fixed and based on the liquid reserves previously disclosed by the protocol. Users receive the exact applicable details through the portal before submitting their request.

The program is expected to remain open until Nov. 14, 2026. Neutrl describes that date as an expected deadline subject to applicable terms, meaning it has not presented the date as an unconditional guarantee.

One X user separately claimed users can recover “around 50%” and must accept a “liability waiver.” The first part is broadly consistent with the 0.51 contract reading reported by Strata. No public Neutrl statement or indexed copy of its redemption terms reviewed for this report confirmed the claimed liability-waiver requirement.

Neutrl had disclosed $27 million in liquid reserves

The redemption program follows a reserve problem first disclosed in August. Neutrl said it discovered an issue involving a position held within its strategy that affected the liquidity of part of its reserves.

After consulting legal advisers, the protocol paused affected smart contracts. Neutrl specifically said the incident was “not the result of a smart contract exploit, hack, or code vulnerability.”

By Aug. 28, the protocol disclosed approximately $27 million of available liquid assets. Other strategy positions remained on its books with associated gains or losses, but Neutrl said they could not be liquidated at that stage.

Management said it could not confirm the timing, total amount or recovery value associated with the illiquid positions. Unwinding the remaining positions was expected to take time, leaving the value of any later recoveries uncertain.

The $27 million figure came after the protocol had reported a much larger reserve base earlier in the year. As earlier reserve suspension coverage reported, Neutrl’s dashboard showed roughly $91 million in assets against about $90 million of NUSD as of June 21 before its detailed reserve display was later placed under recalculation.

A separate June snapshot cited by on-chain researchers put the reserve book even higher at roughly $137 million at an earlier point. That figure predates the August freeze and should not be treated as the protocol’s asset value when redemptions opened.

Burn mechanics reduce supply after redemption

Each successful redemption removes the surrendered NUSD or sNUSD from circulation. Neutrl says the tokens are burned after USDC is paid to the holder, preventing redeemed units from remaining outstanding.

The portal requires users to sign a message to verify control of the wallet before they proceed. Neutrl cautioned holders to use only its official redemption URL because recovery programs can attract fake websites and malicious wallet-connection requests.

The company says the new redemption contract underwent review by a third-party security auditor. It has not named the auditor in the Sept. 17 public announcement reviewed for this report or published the audit report through the announcement itself.

Before opening the program, Neutrl said deployment depended on completing a new redemption contract, an independent audit and legal and financial reviews. Its earlier guidance had targeted early September, making the Sept. 17 launch later than the initial schedule.

Structured products built on NUSD are affected as well. Strata said a 0.51 valuation causes its jrNUSD junior tranche to be written down to zero under the Neutrl market structure, while the remaining value flows to the senior srNUSD tranche according to that product’s loss waterfall.

As previous coverage of NUSD supply conditions reported, NUSD circulation had already contracted sharply before the redemption launch, falling from roughly $226 million in February to about $53.6 million in August.

Secondary market prices offer little current signal

CoinGecko currently displays approximately 53.39 million NUSD in circulating supply and a reference price near $0.9983. The data provider warns that NUSD had not traded on its tracked exchanges for an extended period, meaning the displayed price represents an old recorded market value rather than an active price at which holders can currently exit.

For that reason, the near-$1 tracker quote should not be compared directly with the 0.51 redemption-contract reading as if both represented equally accessible markets. CoinGecko states that the token no longer has active trading pairs across its tracked venues.

The reserve issue is especially relevant to NUSD’s original structure. Neutrl marketed NUSD as a synthetic dollar backed through liquid stablecoins, OTC-acquired crypto positions and delta-neutral trading strategies instead of a portfolio limited to cash and Treasury securities.

Its April 2025 fundraising release described a strategy built partly around purchasing locked altcoins at discounts and hedging market exposure with perpetual futures. STIX and Accomplice led the $5 million seed round, with Amber Group, SCB Limited, Figment Capital and Nascent among the other investors.

The company said at launch that the structure could maintain liquidity while using positions normally associated with institutional OTC markets. That description was a company claim made before the 2026 reserve issue and does not establish the liquidity now available under the redemption program.

Neutrl has not provided a final valuation for the illiquid strategy positions or said whether later asset recoveries could produce an additional payment to holders who accept the current redemption program. Its current disclaimer says timing, amounts and recovery outcomes are estimates that can change without notice.

Zcash developers have targeted Nov. 5 for the NU7 mainnet upgrade after ecosystem engineering teams agreed on a package featuring 25-second blocks, version 4 transaction deactivation and a Network Sustainability Mechanism, with testnet activation planned for Oct. 6.

Sean Bowe said in a Sept. 17 community update that the Zcash Foundation, Project Tachyon, Valar Group, ZODL, Shielded Labs and the relevant engineering teams had reached “unanimous agreement” on the planned scope and timetable. The Nov. 5 date remains subject to a final Oct. 20 mainnet decision after developers review testnet behavior.

Zcash NU7 testnet is scheduled for October 6

The current development schedule sets Sept. 30 as the feature-completion cutoff. Code intended for NU7 should be implemented and ready for inclusion in the testnet upgrade by that date, according to Bowe’s timeline.

Testnet activation follows on Oct. 6. Developers then plan to observe network behavior for two weeks before deciding the mainnet activation height on Oct. 20. The current Nov. 5 mainnet date would proceed only after that review.

The announced scope does not introduce a new transaction format. Bowe said wallets are not expected to require major changes from NU7 itself, while full nodes, indexers and block explorers may need adjustments to handle the new consensus rules.

The current Zcash ZIP repository still describes NU7 proposals as candidates and says the deployment ZIP will determine the final package. That repository has not yet replaced the draft deployment process with a finalized mainnet specification, so the Oct. 20 decision remains an important step before activation.

As previous governance coverage reported, the latest coinholder poll involved nearly 2.4 million ZEC, representing roughly 66% of the eligible Ironwood balances at the voting snapshot.

NU7 would cut block times from 75 to 25 seconds

ZIP 218 proposes reducing Zcash’s target block spacing from 75 seconds to 25 seconds, which would produce roughly three times as many blocks over the same period. The proposal keeps daily ZEC issuance unchanged by reducing the subsidy paid per block to account for the faster schedule.

The draft says a first confirmation would arrive after an average target interval of 25 seconds instead of 75 seconds. Developers present the change as useful for payments, exchange deposits and cross-chain operations that currently wait for one or more block confirmations.

Faster blocks would come with new action limits. ZIP 218 sets a maximum of 330 actions across all pools per block, including no more than 330 Orchard actions, 300 combined Sapling inputs and outputs, and 25 Sprout JoinSplits.

The draft estimates that the configuration would lift Orchard throughput from roughly 2.9 transactions per second to 6.6 for two-action transactions. At the same time, its model reduces maximum shielded-wallet synchronization bandwidth under the specified denial-of-service scenario from 271 MB per day to 169 MB.

More blocks create extra overhead. ZIP 218 estimates wallets would download around 200 KB more compact-block header data per day. Full-node synchronization demand rises because three times as many blocks must be processed over a comparable period.

Testing examined the increased stale-block risk. The draft estimates a theoretical stale rate near 3.26% at 25-second spacing. A devnet with 99 geographically distributed Zebra nodes and 2 MB blocks produced a 4.86% stale-block rate and 0.37% fork rate during testing.

The proposal remains classified as Draft, meaning the technical specification can still change before final deployment.

Halvings stay while NSM reissuance waits until 2031

The latest governance results rejected replacing Zcash’s existing halving schedule with the original issuance-smoothing proposal.

Coinholders representing 2,375,932.375 ZEC voted to preserve halvings, compared with 22,384.875 ZEC supporting a smooth issuance curve. The result gave the halving option roughly 98.9% of participating ZEC on that question.

For when ZEC removed through the Network Sustainability Mechanism should begin returning to circulation, 2,319,643.750 ZEC backed February 2031. Roughly 70,240 ZEC favored starting as soon as possible, while 6,283 ZEC selected February 2027.

Zcash Foundation, Project Tachyon, ZODL, Shielded Labs and Valar Group subsequently agreed to use February 2031, describing it as the most conservative reading of the mixed community polls. They said another vote could revisit that date later.

Bowe’s NU7 timeline therefore references an alternative NSM implementation that preserves halvings while allowing future reissuance to start in 2031. The ordinary ZIP 234 draft still describes smoothing the subsidy through an exponential-decay formula, so it should not be confused with the configuration selected after the September vote.

ZIP 235 specifies that at least 60% of transaction fees would be removed from circulation, with the remaining 40% available for miners. The removed ZEC is designed to return later through future block subsidies instead of being permanently destroyed.

The selected February 2031 timetable means fee-derived ZEC collected through the NSM could remain outside circulation for years before reissuance begins, assuming the planned rules survive final technical review.

Version 4 shutdown would stop Sprout spending

NU7 is expected to disable version 4 transactions when the upgrade activates. ZIP 2003 states that v4 deactivation prevents Sprout funds from being spent because the newer v5 transaction format does not support the original Sprout shielded pool.

The proposal does not technically burn or unissue remaining Sprout balances. Its specification leaves open the possibility that developers could later restore a recovery mechanism, but no such future retrieval feature is promised.

Sprout has been largely unused for years. Zcash Foundation’s governance material said the pool held less than 23,000 ZEC and accounted for under 0.1% of transaction volume when the NU7 questions were put to voters.

Coinholders backed immediate v4 deactivation at NU7 in the September poll. The decision follows Zcash’s migration toward Sapling, Orchard and the newer Ironwood architecture, which became active with NU6.3 earlier in 2026.

Zebra’s current production releases already support NU6.3, while the Foundation has spent 2026 hardening node behavior ahead of later upgrades. Earlier Zebra releases widened the local rollback window from 99 to 1,000 blocks as a defense against prolonged consensus splits.

ZEC rallies while the mainnet date remains conditional

ZEC has risen sharply during the governance process, though the market move cannot be attributed solely to NU7.

CoinMarketCap data showed ZEC trading near $1,485 early Sept. 18, up roughly 9.6% over 24 hours, with trading volume above $2.6 billion. The token had already received other market catalysts during September, including institutional activity and the recent U.S.-listed Zcash investment product.

In recent ZEC market coverage, crypto.news reported that ZEC climbed more than 20% on Sept. 16 to around $1,337, with network-upgrade optimism cited alongside other trading factors.

Earlier in September, ZEC crossed $1,000 after Grayscale converted its Zcash Trust into the ZCSH exchange-traded product on NYSE Arca. Previous ETF coverage reported that the fund launched with roughly $304 million in assets before growing further as ZEC prices increased.

For NU7 itself, Sept. 30 is the next engineering checkpoint. Features not ready by that cutoff can be removed from the upgrade under the approach favored by coinholders, followed by the Oct. 6 testnet activation and the Oct. 20 mainnet decision.

The mainnet activation height has not yet been finalized. Developers plan to set it on Oct. 20 after reviewing the testnet upgrade, leaving Nov. 5 as the current scheduled date subject to that decision.

Input Output Group has warned Cardano users to avoid its YouTube channel on Sept. 18 after an apparent takeover resulted in a suspected AI-manipulated Charles Hoskinson livestream promoting a cryptocurrency giveaway.

Input Output said through its official X account that users should avoid interacting with the channel “until further notice,” while warning people not to click links, transfer funds or provide personal information through material appearing there.

The warning came while the channel was carrying a livestream presented as a Project Catalyst town hall. The broadcast used footage resembling Hoskinson and promoted an offer that claimed viewers could “double your wealth” by following instructions linked through a QR code. No evidence reviewed shows Hoskinson or Project Catalyst authorized the promotion.

IOG warns users away from its compromised YouTube channel

At the time of the warning, the suspicious livestream had remained online for close to two hours, according to reporting on the incident. IOG did not state publicly how access to its channel had been obtained or identify the party behind the apparent takeover.

Its security message focused on preventing further interaction. Users were told not to follow links, send cryptocurrency or submit personal details until the organization confirmed that its YouTube presence was safe again.

No subsequent official post located during this review confirmed that the channel had been fully recovered. Current search results still surface IOG’s ordinary historical videos, but their availability does not by itself establish that administrative control has been restored.

IOG has not published a wallet address associated with the fraudulent broadcast. It has likewise not disclosed whether anyone sent ADA or another asset after viewing the stream, leaving any claimed losses unverified.

No credible blockchain-forensics firm or security researcher reviewed for this report had published a verified attribution, scam-wallet balance or transaction trail tied specifically to the Sept. 18 incident.

Fake Hoskinson livestream followed an old scam pattern

The format closely resembles a type of fraud that Cardano has warned users about for years.

Cardano’s official scam-awareness guide specifically describes ADA giveaway schemes in which scammers promise to double a user’s holdings after receiving an initial transfer. The guidance says fraudulent streams frequently use fake videos of Charles Hoskinson or other well-known figures to make the offer appear authentic.

Cardano warns that legitimate giveaways never require users to send cryptocurrency first. Once ADA is transferred to a scam address, blockchain transactions cannot simply be reversed by Cardano’s developers or ecosystem organizations.

The Cardano Foundation documented the same technique as early as 2020. In a community notice, it said scammers had been hijacking YouTube accounts with established audiences, impersonating Cardano organizations and promoting offers that claimed users would receive more crypto after making a deposit.

The Foundation stated that neither it, EMURGO nor Input Output would promote giveaways requiring users to send ADA or another asset.

Community reports have since documented multiple fake Hoskinson streams. One 2024 report described an impersonation channel using what the user characterized as AI-generated Hoskinson footage to promote a giveaway. That community report did not establish who created the video.

Project Catalyst branding gave the stream a legitimate appearance

The Sept. 18 broadcast was presented as a Project Catalyst event, using branding associated with Cardano’s community-funding program.

Project Catalyst is a genuine Cardano initiative. Its official site describes the program as a community funding system through which Cardano users submit, review and vote on proposals. The platform says 2,221 proposals have received funding across its completed rounds.

Input Output has historically played a direct role in Catalyst. A February 2026 Catalyst update identified IOG as the program’s operator at that time while responsibilities were being reorganized with the Cardano Foundation and Intersect.

By June, Intersect said administration had transferred from IOG to the Cardano Foundation, with remaining milestones from one IOG Catalyst project canceled and 2.06 million ADA returned to the treasury.

Using Catalyst branding therefore gave the fraudulent livestream a recognizable Cardano context even though no official Catalyst source reviewed for this report announced a legitimate town hall matching the giveaway broadcast.

The use of a familiar project name combined with apparent Hoskinson footage follows the social-engineering pattern described in Cardano’s scam guidance: genuine-looking ecosystem material is combined with a malicious payment request.

Cardano has dealt with compromised official accounts before

The incident is not the first time a prominent Cardano-linked social account has been compromised.

As previous Cardano account breach coverage reported, the Cardano Foundation’s X account was compromised in December 2024 and used to publish a false claim that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had sued the organization. The attackers falsely told users that support for ADA would cease.

Hoskinson responded at the time by identifying the posts as unauthorized. The fake announcement was unrelated to the current YouTube incident, but both cases involved trusted Cardano-branded communication channels carrying content that did not originate from the organization controlling the account.

Scam reports involving YouTube stretch back even further. Cardano’s community forum contains reports from users who said they lost ADA after encountering fake livestreams offering to return twice the amount sent. One 2022 user reported transferring 10,000 ADA after seeing a fraudulent Hoskinson-themed broadcast. That loss was self-reported by the user and was not independently verified.

Another forum thread describes the attackers’ recurring method: taking control of established YouTube channels, replacing their content with crypto giveaway livestreams and directing viewers toward payment addresses or external sites.

Suspected AI manipulation has not been independently verified

The latest video has been described as AI-manipulated, but no technical forensic report reviewed for this update has confirmed how the Hoskinson footage was produced.

The distinction remains relevant because scam operators can use several methods, including edited historical footage, altered audio, synthetic voice generation or fully generated video.

Cardano’s current security guidance explicitly warns that improvements in artificial intelligence are making impersonation scams more sophisticated. Its giveaway section names fake livestreams featuring Hoskinson as a recurring risk.

IOG itself has been experimenting publicly with AI-generated content. In June, Hoskinson defended an AI-generated influencer post published through an Input Output account, saying it formed part of experiments around AI agents and Midnight City. Earlier coverage of IOG’s AI content tests reported that some community members objected to the synthetic content.

That legitimate experimentation is unrelated to the Sept. 18 suspicious livestream. IOG’s warning expressly told users not to interact with the compromised YouTube channel, while the giveaway itself has not been endorsed by the company.

At the time of this review, IOG had not announced how the channel was compromised, whether multi-factor authentication was bypassed, whether other corporate accounts were affected or whether the attacker obtained access to internal systems beyond YouTube.

Its official instruction remains to avoid the channel until the organization issues another notice confirming that normal control has been restored.

Ethereum developers have confirmed an Oct. 6 Glamsterdam activation on Sepolia while warning that cheap test ether could let malicious builders repeatedly win block auctions and withhold their transaction payloads during the public test phase.

Ethereum’s Sept. 17 All Core Developers Consensus transcript shows participants accepted the Oct. 6 date after reviewing recent Glamsterdam devnet results, though developers simultaneously raised concerns about how Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation could behave on a public network where test ETH carries no meaningful economic cost.

Ethereum Glamsterdam test could face cheap builder attacks

At the center of the warning is EIP-7732, Glamsterdam’s Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation design. Ethereum.org describes ePBS as a protocol change that separates the job of assembling transaction payloads from the validator’s consensus duties, moving a relationship that currently relies heavily on external infrastructure into Ethereum’s consensus rules.

Under the design, builders can submit bids for the right to supply an execution payload. Once a proposer commits to the winning bid, the builder is expected to release the transactions behind it. Ethereum’s consensus specification defines builders as separate staked actors that submit signed execution-payload bids before broadcasting the corresponding payload envelope.

During Thursday’s developer call, consensus developer Potuz warned that the economics change on a testnet because attackers can obtain test ETH without paying its mainnet market value. A malicious operator could create many builder identities, submit bids far above legitimate competitors and then refuse to provide the promised payload after winning.

“I can just spin up a thousand builders,” Potuz said, explaining that the attacker could rotate them, bid aggressively and withhold payloads. He later added, “Any teenager can do this.”

The developer framed the concern as a public-testnet availability problem, not a new route to steal mainnet ETH. On mainnet, a participant can already pay to produce an empty block, but the economic cost of obtaining block space limits the behavior. Test ETH makes persistent disruption much cheaper.

Clients may need builder-level circuit breakers

Existing safeguards may not be sufficient for the Sepolia environment. Potuz told developers that some client circuit breakers fall back to locally built blocks only after several payloads are missed, while he was not aware of universal protections that could reject individual abusive builders.

His concern centered on attackers returning under fresh identities. Even if a client reacts to missing payloads, disposable builders could continue bidding unless the defensive logic identifies and restricts the behavior quickly enough.

Developers did not present the builder attack as a confirmed exploit against Sepolia. The discussion concerned a scenario they expect public testing could expose once outsiders can participate under ePBS conditions. Potuz argued that Ethereum’s testnets need stronger safeguards because application and infrastructure teams rely on them to test software against functioning blocks.

Ethereum.org notes that Sepolia uses a permissioned validator set controlled by client and testing teams, while Hoodi has an open validator set intended for staking and protocol testing. Sepolia’s structure gives Ethereum developers more operational control if the first long-lived public Glamsterdam deployment encounters problems.

As previously reported by crypto.news, developers had tentatively selected Oct. 6 before the latest call, with the date still dependent on another stable private-devnet transition. The Sept. 17 consensus call moved that timetable forward after Devnet-11 completed its scheduled fork rehearsal.

Devnet-11 tested 200 million gas before Sepolia

Glamsterdam Devnet-11 was created as a controlled “happy-path” rehearsal rather than an adversarial attack network. Its official specification scheduled genesis for Sept. 14, the Gloas transition for Sept. 16 and a block gas-limit increase from 60 million to 200 million shortly afterward.

The test network used 84,000 validators across a multi-client configuration and carried the same core EIP set planned for Glamsterdam testing. Its organizers explicitly excluded deliberate attacks from the Devnet-11 scope, keeping adversarial experiments on the longer-running Platåberget environment.

CoinDesk reported that Devnet-11 completed the transition and moved the gas limit toward 200 million without losing finality. The 200 million setting is a test parameter, not a confirmed mainnet gas-limit commitment.

Ethereum’s own Glamsterdam roadmap says the upgrade is designed to increase Layer 1 capacity while changing how blocks are built and verified. EIP-7732 extends the execution-payload propagation window from roughly two seconds to around nine seconds, giving nodes more time to distribute and validate larger payloads.

The upgrade includes Block-Level Access Lists and a series of gas-pricing changes as well. Earlier Glamsterdam compatibility coverage reported that wallets, indexers and gas estimators using fixed assumptions can require changes because new-account creation and some state-heavy operations receive different gas treatment under the planned fork.

A separate smart-contract risk review found that contracts using fixed gas stipends or gas-sensitive execution patterns may require testing before the upgrade reaches mainnet.

Sepolia client review window falls to seven days

The Oct. 6 schedule gives client teams less review time than Ethereum’s normal upgrade process recommends.

During the Sept. 17 call, developer Fredrik Svantes told participants that the standard process calls for at least 14 days between release-ready client software and the first public testnet activation. He said those two weeks are normally used for internal security reviews, bug-bounty exposure and possible external security work.

With Sepolia approaching, developers discussed a Sept. 29 latest date for client releases. Seven days between Sept. 29 and Oct. 6 would leave half of the normal review period. Participants accepted that risk for Sepolia partly because its validator set is relatively centralized and the network can be recovered more easily if software breaks.

Core developer Alex Stokes urged teams to release software earlier where possible so more reviewers could examine it. Once release-ready clients are available, they can enter Ethereum’s bug-bounty process immediately.

The compressed schedule follows several earlier testing problems. A Sept. 3 developer agenda recorded non-finality during the Devnet-8 Gloas activation affecting multiple consensus clients, while later Devnet testing examined fixes and additional edge cases.

Another testing call recorded problems in which a Platåberget scenario knocked 12 of 13 Besu nodes offline and slowed Erigon and Ethrex nodes. Devnet-9 experienced unplanned non-finality, pushing teams into further iterations before Devnet-11.

Mainnet activation still has no confirmed date

Ethereum’s public roadmap continues to list Glamsterdam for the fourth quarter of 2026 but states that the mainnet date has not been confirmed. The next published milestone is the Oct. 6 Sepolia fork.

Hoodi is expected to follow Sepolia because it provides an open validator environment for staking and upgrade testing. Developers discussed the Hoodi stage during the Sept. 17 call but tied its timing to Sepolia’s progress, meaning problems on the first public testnet could move subsequent dates.

Ethereum’s draft mainnet incident-response plan still contains no activation epoch or timestamp. The document instead leaves the upgrade information fields blank while listing the client and coordination roles that will be filled before mainnet deployment.

As earlier crypto.news Glamsterdam coverage reported, the upgrade centers on ePBS, Block-Level Access Lists and gas repricing designed for higher Layer 1 throughput. Developers have continued treating successful multi-client testing as a prerequisite before setting the mainnet fork.

For now, client teams face the Sept. 29 software deadline discussed on the call, followed by Sepolia’s Oct. 6 activation. Ethereum developers have not published a mainnet epoch or final activation timestamp.

Circle has introduced Arc Studio, an AI coding agent that generates full stack onchain applications, smart contracts and agents from natural language prompts.

According to an Arc announcement on Sept. 17, Studio can produce frontend interfaces, backend logic and smart contracts from a description of what a user wants to build, with generated applications available for testing across nine blockchain networks.

The product arrives days after Arc moved to public mainnet, extending Circle’s developer tools around a network built for stablecoin payments, financial applications and automated software agents.

Arc Studio builds onchain apps from prompts

Arc Studio is designed to handle parts of blockchain development that would normally require developers to separately configure wallets, gas, contracts, protocol integrations and testnet infrastructure.

Users can describe an application in plain language and have Studio assemble its components into a working prototype. Developers can then export the generated code to their own repositories, inspect the underlying logic and use their own credentials and infrastructure for production deployments.

Circle said Studio can be accessed through its web interface or used as a subagent from coding tools including Claude Code, Codex and Cursor. The product is built specifically around Arc and Circle’s developer infrastructure instead of operating as a general purpose coding assistant.

Supported Circle products include Cross Chain Transfer Protocol, or CCTP, Contracts, Gateway and Wallets. Studio can work with live protocols and assets while applications can be tested on Arbitrum, Arc, Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, Monad, OP Mainnet, Polygon and Unichain.

The platform can write Solidity contracts, perform initial reviews and deploy them to Arc Testnet or eight other EVM testnets. Its interface provides access to contract read and write functions, while a tracing system records RPC calls, transactions, decoded events and offchain HTTP requests generated by an application.

Circle warns that AI generated code may contain errors, security weaknesses or incomplete output and should be independently reviewed and tested. Studio does not sign, fund or submit mainnet transactions on behalf of users, leaving production deployment to developers using their own credentials and infrastructure.

USDC payments sit at the center of Arc Studio

Circle has positioned Studio around applications that involve USDC flows, including payments, swaps, wallets, bridges, lending, staking and programmable payouts.

A developer could use a prompt to build a cross border payout application with an administrative interface and wallet functions, according to Arc. Other examples include stablecoin payments for digital goods, usage based SaaS billing settled in USDC and payment systems through which AI agents can pay each other or purchase computing resources.

Protocol integrations extend the available building blocks. Studio supports composable services from Aave, Morpho and Uniswap, allowing generated applications to incorporate existing DeFi infrastructure without requiring developers to manually connect each integration.

Circle has been expanding the underlying infrastructure that handles such transactions. A CCTP update released in September added upfront fee payments for Fast Transfer, allowing applications to quote and collect cross chain USDC fees on the source network while keeping the amount delivered to the recipient unchanged.

CCTP uses a burn and mint system for moving native USDC between supported networks. Circle’s newer Quote API can combine eligible protocol fees into a signed, time limited quote, while prepaid fees can be settled in USDC or the source network’s native gas asset.

Studio’s launch comes as Circle is developing another use case around payments initiated by autonomous software. In August, Circle said 99.3% of payment volume measured through the x402 agent payment protocol during the second quarter settled in USDC.

The x402 payment activity covered the protocol measured by Circle and did not represent the same share of all AI agent payments. Circle’s Agent Stack, launched in May, had more than 900 paid services by the end of the second quarter.

Arc Studio follows the network’s mainnet launch

Arc Studio is being released alongside a larger expansion of the Arc ecosystem following the blockchain’s Sept. 16 public mainnet launch.

As crypto.news previously reported, the Arc mainnet launch brought Circle’s Layer 1 network online with USDC used for transaction fees, deterministic settlement in under one second and support for Ethereum Virtual Machine applications.

Arc launched with Circle and 11 named institutional founding validators, including BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, ICE, Mastercard, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Corporation, Visa and Worldpay, which is part of Global Payments.

More than 100 applications and over 100 institutional and ecosystem builders were live on the network at launch, according to Circle. The company said Arc began with integrations spanning banks, asset managers, payment companies, exchanges, custodians, wallets, DeFi protocols and AI platforms.

The network supports 22 fiat stablecoins, while tokenized funds including BUIDL, USYC, JAAA and JTRSY were available at launch. Arc’s connection with CCTP and Circle Gateway provides routes for moving supported assets and accessing liquidity across more than 20 blockchain networks.

Circle has built Arc around an EVM compatible environment, allowing developers to use Solidity and existing Ethereum development tools. USDC serves as the native asset for gas accounting, removing the requirement to hold a separate network token to pay ordinary transaction fees.

Before the public launch, Arc had operated as a private mainnet with more than 100 institutional and ecosystem participants. Its earlier public testnet had processed more than 700 million transactions by the time the mainnet opened, according to Circle.

Circle is expanding Arc’s developer and agent tools

Studio is one of several products Circle is placing around Arc as it builds services for developers, institutions and autonomous agents.

Arc App Kits provide packaged components for common financial functions such as payments, swaps, onramps and yield. Arc Portal gives users an interface for funding agent wallets, setting spending limits and delegating specific onchain tasks.

Circle Agent Stack provides policy controlled wallets and nanopayments, while its Agent Wallets are designed for software that can hold, trade and bridge USDC within spending rules established by humans. Supported networks include Arbitrum, Arc testnet, Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, Monad, OP Mainnet, Polygon PoS and Unichain.

Institutional functions have been developed alongside those developer products. Circle disclosed plans for confidential smart contract capabilities earlier this year, with Arc Privacy designed to keep selected financial information private while retaining access needed for audits and compliance reviews.

Circle has identified payroll, treasury management, tokenized assets, trading and lending among the potential uses for confidential contracts.

Studio is available through its web interface, while developers working in existing coding environments can use it as a subagent. Generated applications remain exportable, allowing teams to review the code and move it into their own repositories before using their own keys and infrastructure for deployment.

dtcpay has completed a $25 million Series A on Sept. 18 after SBI Group joined the Singapore stablecoin payments company as a strategic investor alongside existing and new backers.

dtcpay said SBI participated through SBI Ventures Asset Pte. Ltd. and the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund, extending a funding round that began with a $10 million tranche led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India earlier in 2026.

The company did not disclose how much SBI invested, the ownership stake attached to the transaction or a new valuation. Genedant Capital and existing investor Kwee Liong Tek participated in the completed round, according to dtcpay.

dtcpay Series A grows from $10 million to $25 million

Vertex Ventures announced the initial $10 million Series A on March 17, with the capital intended for product development, infrastructure work and entry into newly licensed jurisdictions. dtcpay’s Sept. 18 announcement now puts the entire Series A at $25 million.

The two disclosed totals show another $15 million was added after the first tranche, but public materials do not allocate that amount among SBI, Genedant Capital, Kwee or any other participant. SBI Ven Capital’s current portfolio page lists dtcpay as an investment dated Sept. 18 and identifies both SBI Ventures Asset and the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund among its investment vehicles.

Founded by Alice Liu and Band Zhao, dtcpay provides infrastructure for accepting, holding, converting and transferring stablecoins alongside fiat currencies. The company plans to spend the fresh capital on its payment products, merchant network and international operations.

Through the remaining months of 2026, dtcpay said its product roadmap includes a redesigned business portal for enterprise clients and new functions inside its consumer app. It did not give individual launch dates for those features.

Liu said the company raised the money to “fundamentally change how money moves across borders.” Chairman Band Zhao described the next stage as being “about scale,” citing infrastructure, financial-institution partnerships and regulated-market expansion among its priorities. Both statements describe management’s plans, not guaranteed business outcomes.

Singapore license covers six payment services

dtcpay operates in Singapore through Digital Treasures Center Pte. Ltd., which the Monetary Authority of Singapore currently lists as a Major Payment Institution. MAS records show authorization for account issuance, domestic money transfers, cross-border money transfers, merchant acquisition, e-money issuance and digital payment token services.

The regulatory record independently confirms the Major Payment Institution status cited in dtcpay’s funding announcement. MAS states that major payment institutions face requirements beyond those applied to standard payment institutions because they can operate above specified transaction or stored-value thresholds.

In Europe, dtcpay says its Luxembourg subsidiary holds an Electronic Money Institution license. A Bank of Lithuania regulatory register identifies dtcpay Luxembourg S.A. as an EU electronic money institution permitted to provide services in Lithuania without establishing a branch, while CSSF rules require Luxembourg entities issuing electronic money or providing covered payment services to hold written authorization.

Vertex’s March funding announcement said the Luxembourg EMI authorization was intended to support regulated services across the European Economic Area. The funding release separately said dtcpay maintains licenses or registrations in Hong Kong, Australia, the U.S. and Canada, though the exact permissions differ by jurisdiction.

Singapore’s own stablecoin rules remain under development. As reported in recent Singapore stablecoin regulation coverage, MAS proposed Payment Services Act changes this month covering stablecoin issuers, reserve requirements and foreign-issued tokens. dtcpay’s payment-services license should not be treated as evidence that every stablecoin processed through its platform carries an MAS-regulated stablecoin designation.

SBI adds another stablecoin payments investment

SBI’s dtcpay investment comes as the Japanese financial group builds several businesses around blockchain settlement and digital payments.

In June, SBI Remit partnered with Fasset on stablecoin infrastructure for international remittances and payment services. As SBI Remit stablecoin infrastructure coverage previously reported, the companies said the work could extend into wallets, cards and settlement products across international corridors.

A month later, SBI Holdings reached an agreement with the Solana Foundation covering stablecoins, tokenized assets and payments in Japan and other Asian markets. SBI and Solana partnership coverage reported that the planned work includes cross-border payments and institutional onchain services, though separate regulatory approvals may be required for individual products.

SBI’s new dtcpay investment does not come with a publicly announced joint product or launch timetable. Eiichiro So, CEO of SBI Ven Capital, described the transaction as the start of a strategic partnership and said SBI wants to develop digital-asset links between Japan and Southeast Asia.

Neither dtcpay nor SBI disclosed whether their partnership will lead to a Japan-specific stablecoin payment product, an SBI-branded card or a dedicated settlement corridor.

dtcpay already connects stablecoins to retail payments

Before closing the Series A, dtcpay had built merchant and card integrations around stablecoin spending.

WalletConnect confirmed in October 2025 that dtcpay became its first Major Payment Institution partner for point-of-sale payments. WalletConnect said its network supported more than 700 wallets, allowing compatible users to connect existing wallets to merchant checkout flows.

The integration has since moved into retail deployment across Asia, according to WalletConnect. Its payment documentation says dtcpay merchants can accept assets including USDC and USDT through existing point-of-sale equipment without requiring customers to install a separate payment app.

dtcpay separately launched its Digital Treasures Visa Infinite card in February 2025. The company said the card converts supported stablecoin balances for fiat settlement when customers spend through Visa’s network. Its original release cited more than 150 million merchant locations.

Visa’s own network figures have since increased. A May 2026 Visa report put its global acceptance network above 175 million merchant points, while a September update said more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs were operating globally during Visa’s fiscal second quarter.

As recent Visa stablecoin card coverage reported, Visa said payment volume across those programs had risen nearly 200% year over year and its stablecoin settlement activity had passed a $20 billion annualized rate. Those figures cover Visa’s global stablecoin business, not dtcpay specifically.

For physical retail, dtcpay says Singapore department-store operator Metro accepts stablecoins including USDT and USDC through its infrastructure. The company’s March 2025 case study identifies Metro Paragon as one location using the payment service.

The firm has worked with other institutional infrastructure providers as it expands. In June, BitGo Singapore agreed to provide custody and digital-asset infrastructure for dtcpay’s payment operations. As earlier BitGo and dtcpay coverage reported, the companies said the arrangement would support dtcpay’s operations and asset-security processes while it expands its payment network.

dtcpay’s funding announcement claims its real-time swap engine can settle stablecoin and fiat transactions faster and more cheaply than conventional correspondent banking. The release does not publish a transaction sample, average settlement cost or independently audited comparison supporting the phrase “at a fraction of the cost.”

The company’s current Global Pay product page says transfers can reach more than 100 countries, with supported fiat currencies including USD, SGD, GBP, EUR and HKD and stablecoins including USDT and USDC. It describes transfers as generally completing within the same day and says fees and exchange rates are displayed before transactions are confirmed.

No public valuation accompanied the $25 million Series A completion, and dtcpay did not disclose revenue, payment volume, merchant count or a timetable for a future funding round in its Sept. 18 announcement.

Bolivia has committed to developing a regulatory and supervisory framework for cryptocurrencies as part of its economic program with the International Monetary Fund, with the government seeking to limit illicit capital outflows through digital asset markets.

The Bolivian Ministry of Economy and Public Finance set out the commitment in its Sept. 10 Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, grouping virtual asset oversight with reforms covering monetary and foreign exchange markets, pension risks and anti money laundering controls.

The document calls for a “robust” framework for regulating and supervising virtual assets to reduce the risk of improper capital outflows and protect financial resilience. It does not provide a deadline for introducing the rules or identify a single agency that would oversee the sector.

Bolivia’s crypto plans form part of a 36 month economic program agreed with the IMF. Staff from the fund and Bolivian authorities reached an agreement in July on an Extended Fund Facility, subject to approval by the IMF Executive Board. The program covers fiscal policy, foreign exchange reforms, international reserves, financial supervision and measures to strengthen anti money laundering controls.

Bolivia crypto regulation targets capital outflows

Under the memorandum, authorities plan to strengthen supervision of virtual assets alongside changes to the country’s monetary and exchange rate systems.

The government said the crypto framework would be designed to prevent illicit capital leakage through digital asset markets while supporting financial stability. Details on licensing, reporting requirements or rules for crypto exchanges and other service providers were not specified.

No decision has been disclosed on whether the framework will be introduced through legislation, an executive decree or administrative regulations. The document similarly does not identify which regulator would take primary responsibility for virtual assets.

Bolivia is pursuing the changes while dealing with severe pressure on its public finances and access to foreign currency. Government officials have described the economic conditions inherited by the current administration as the country’s most serious crisis since the 1980s.

The IMF program is intended to rebuild international reserves, reduce fiscal and external vulnerabilities and modernize monetary and exchange rate frameworks. IMF staff said in July that financial sector reforms would cover stronger supervision, monitoring of banking and systemic risks, crisis preparation and closer coordination between government agencies.

Bolivia’s government has put the financing package at roughly $1.9 billion over 36 months. The accompanying economic program includes plans to reduce the fiscal deficit and continue moving toward a market based exchange rate system.

USDT use has grown during Bolivia’s dollar shortage

Crypto use has expanded as Bolivia has faced shortages of U.S. dollars and pressure on its foreign currency reserves.

USDT has become particularly visible as residents and businesses look for dollar denominated alternatives. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in August that use of the stablecoin was increasing in Bolivia and several other economies experiencing monetary instability.

As crypto.news previously reported, Bolivia’s central bank publishes a reference USDT exchange rate based on weighted peer to peer trading activity on Binance. The country recorded an estimated $14.8 billion in crypto activity between July 2022 and June 2025, according to Chainalysis data cited in the report on USDT adoption in Bolivia.

The government has meanwhile been considering a more formal role for the stablecoin. Officials have been evaluating a plan that could allow USDT to operate within the national payment system alongside the boliviano and U.S. dollar.

A proposal reported in July would permit USDT as a payment option, while local lenders Banco Unión and Banco FIE were already providing services linked to the stablecoin. Authorities had not published final implementation rules at the time.

State involvement with crypto predates the payment proposal. In March 2025, state owned energy company YPFB received government authorization to use crypto for fuel imports as the shortage of U.S. dollars made conventional payments more difficult.

Capital controls face pressure from stablecoins

Bolivia’s concern over capital movements comes as international financial institutions examine how dollar backed stablecoins interact with foreign exchange restrictions in emerging economies.

Research covered in July found that stablecoin inflows across economies showed little response to conventional capital controls. Bank for International Settlements researchers examined flows across more than 130 economies and compared stablecoin activity with foreign currency bank deposits.

The findings pointed to growing use of dollar backed tokens in countries facing inflation, weak domestic currencies or limited access to foreign exchange. Stablecoins can be transferred through blockchain networks without relying on the same banking channels used for conventional foreign currency transactions.

The IMF raised a related issue in August, warning that locally issued stablecoins could make access to digital dollars easier if users can move between domestic tokens and dollar backed assets onchain. Nearly 99% of stablecoins were denominated in U.S. dollars, according to figures cited by the fund in its assessment of stablecoin dollar adoption.

For Bolivia, the planned virtual asset framework sits alongside commitments covering foreign exchange policy and financial supervision. The government has not specified whether future crypto rules would place restrictions on stablecoin transactions, introduce limits on conversions or establish reporting requirements for transfers.

Bolivia faces FATF monitoring over financial controls

Anti money laundering reforms are another part of the government’s financial sector commitments.

Bolivia remains under increased monitoring by FATF, commonly referred to as the FATF grey list. The country made a high level political commitment in June 2025 to work with FATF and the Financial Action Task Force of Latin America to address weaknesses in its anti money laundering and counter terrorism financing system.

FATF said in its June 2026 review that Bolivia had made progress but still needed to complete several measures. Authorities were asked to strengthen risk based supervision in designated nonfinancial sectors, enforce sanctions for breaches of beneficial ownership requirements and increase money laundering investigations and prosecutions in line with the country’s risks.

The organization’s standards for virtual assets require countries to identify and address money laundering and terrorism financing risks linked to the sector.

Bolivia’s memorandum calls for improving the effectiveness of the country’s anti money laundering and counter terrorism financing system while financial regulators strengthen oversight of virtual assets.

The government has yet to publish the institutional structure, legislative route or implementation timetable for the planned crypto framework.

XRP Power is developing a cloud-based computing platform aimed at making blockchain participation more accessible to digital asset users.

As digital assets continue to develop, access to computing infrastructure has become an increasingly important part of blockchain-related activities. For users interested in participating in the digital asset ecosystem without purchasing and maintaining physical mining equipment, cloud-based computing power offers an alternative approach.

XRP Power is building its platform around this model, combining digital asset services with cloud-based computing power solutions designed to provide users with a more accessible way to participate in blockchain activities.

Bringing computing power services to digital asset users

Established in 2023 and headquartered in the United Kingdom, XRP Power describes itself as a technology platform focused on digital assets and computing power services. The platform integrates global computing resources with intelligent systems through its website and mobile service ecosystem.

Rather than requiring users to purchase mining machines or deploy their own hardware, XRP Power allows users to select a suitable computing power contract through its platform.

The company says it handles computing power scheduling, equipment management, and maintenance, while revenue settlement is completed according to predefined rules. This model is designed to reduce some of the technical and operational requirements traditionally associated with running mining hardware.

A cloud-based approach to computing power

The cloud-based model allows users to access computing power without directly managing physical mining equipment.

For users exploring digital asset-related computing services, this approach can provide a simpler entry point by moving equipment deployment, maintenance, and operational management to the platform.

XRP Power says its service ecosystem is designed to lower the barrier to entry while improving the overall efficiency of computing power services.

The platform also states that it works with partners to promote the use of renewable energy sources, including solar, wind, and hydropower, while optimizing computing equipment configuration and operational efficiency through resource integration and supply-chain coordination.

Security and platform infrastructure

As cloud-based digital services increasingly handle user accounts and service information, security remains an important consideration.

According to XRP Power, the platform uses EV SSL encryption technology and multi-layer network protection mechanisms to support secure data transmission and stable system operation. The company also says it operates in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.

These measures form part of the platform’s broader approach to providing users with access to digital asset and computing power services through an online environment.

Access through web and mobile services

XRP Power has developed a service ecosystem that extends beyond its website.

The platform provides mobile access through applications for both Android and iOS, allowing users to manage their accounts and access available services from mobile devices.

For users who prefer managing digital services through mobile devices, this provides another way to interact with the platform without being tied to a desktop environment.

Lowering the barrier to computing power services

The growing interest in digital assets has also increased attention around the infrastructure supporting blockchain networks.

For many users, operating mining equipment independently can involve hardware costs, technical setup, electricity management, and ongoing maintenance. Cloud computing power services approach these requirements differently by allowing users to access computing resources through contracts while the platform manages the underlying equipment and operations.

XRP Power’s model is built around this approach, providing users with a way to explore computing power services without directly purchasing or deploying mining machines.

About XRP Power

XRP Power was established in 2023 and is headquartered in the United Kingdom. The company describes its platform as focused on digital assets and computing power services, integrating global computing resources with intelligent systems.

According to the company, XRP Power has served more than 3 million users worldwide and continues to develop its technology, infrastructure, and service ecosystem.

The platform provides cloud-based computing power solutions, with equipment scheduling, management, and maintenance handled by the platform according to its service model.

Users can learn more about XRP Power, review available services, and access its mobile applications through the company’s official website.

For more information, visit the official website.

Ethereum Institutional has backed a proposal to cut Ethereum’s 12 second block time as developers consider bringing the first reduction to 10 seconds through the Hegotá upgrade.

Ethereum Institutional said Friday that Ethereum needs to become faster as more financial activity moves onto public blockchains, throwing its support behind Ethlabs’ work on EIP 8198, known as Quick Slots.

“Make Ethereum faster,” the nonprofit wrote on X, arguing that shorter block times are becoming more important as “more institutional activity moves onchain.”

EIP 8198 would make Ethereum’s slot duration configurable, allowing developers to gradually shorten the time between blocks instead of committing the network to a large reduction at once. Ethlabs is initially pushing for a move from 12 seconds to 10 seconds, with further reductions possible after developers assess network performance.

Support from Ethereum Institutional follows feedback gathered by Ethlabs from 20 decentralized finance founders. The research group said Thursday that the responses showed broad support for Quick Slots and its potential inclusion in Hegotá.

Ethereum block time proposal moves toward Hegotá

EIP 8198 was authored in March and formally proposed for Hegotá during an Ethereum core developer meeting on Aug. 6.

Ethlabs has since begun merging the proposal’s specifications into Ethereum’s main codebase while examining dependencies that could affect implementation. The group said the work is intended to help Quick Slots “meaningfully enter Hegotá’s scope.”

Hegotá is Ethereum’s planned upgrade following Glamsterdam. Ethereum developers have been sorting through proposals for the upgrade, covering block production, account abstraction, privacy, validator economics and Layer 1 scaling.

As crypto.news previously reported, Ethlabs placed Quick Slots among its priorities for Hegotá alongside censorship resistance, native account abstraction and continued Layer 1 scaling.

At the time, EIP 8198 used eight seconds as a placeholder slot duration, while Ethlabs said Ethereum could initially reach 10 second slots through Hegotá. The exact timing remains subject to testing and agreement among Ethereum client teams.

Quick Slots has not been confirmed for Hegotá. Ethereum developers were still narrowing the upgrade scope in August, when FOCIL remained the only proposal formally scheduled for inclusion and EIP 8198 was still under consideration.

Reducing slot duration would increase how frequently Ethereum can produce blocks. Under the existing design, Ethereum uses 32 slots per epoch, meaning a shorter slot time could reduce the duration of each epoch if the number of slots remains unchanged.

Institutional Ethereum activity drives support

Ethereum Institutional’s backing brings an institutional adoption group into the debate over Ethereum’s execution speed.

The organization launched in July as an independent nonprofit focused on helping banks, asset managers, custodians, fintech companies, market infrastructure providers and sovereign institutions use Ethereum and its Layer 2 ecosystem.

BitMine Immersion Technologies, SharpLink and Ethereum co founder Joe Lubin were among the contributors supporting the organization at launch. Its work covers institutional education, market intelligence, standards, technical requirements and events.

Ethereum Institutional said at the time that Ethereum hosted around $180 billion in stablecoins on mainnet, representing roughly 60% of total stablecoin supply, along with around two thirds of tokenized real world assets.

Institutional use has continued developing alongside Ethereum’s technical roadmap. Ethereum researchers this week reported sub one second propagation for a simulated 1 MiB execution payload under EIP 8411, compared with roughly five seconds when the same payload was transmitted as a single message.

EIP 8411 takes a separate approach from Quick Slots. The draft networking proposal divides execution payloads into smaller chunks that nodes can verify and forward before receiving the entire payload. Tests involved 500 simulated nodes and prototype client code, meaning the results were not measurements from Ethereum mainnet.

Glamsterdam comes before Hegotá

Ethereum developers are currently focused on Glamsterdam, the network upgrade scheduled ahead of Hegotá.

Glamsterdam is designed to increase Layer 1 capacity and change parts of Ethereum’s block construction process. Developers confirmed this week that the upgrade is set to activate on Sepolia on Oct. 6, following testing on private development networks.

Devnet 11 completed its Glamsterdam transition while raising its gas limit from 60 million to 200 million for testing. The network used 84,000 validators across multiple clients, although developers excluded deliberate attacks from the test and kept adversarial experiments on the longer running Platåberget environment.

Client teams have been asked to release Sepolia ready software by Sept. 29. Developers have not confirmed a mainnet activation date for Glamsterdam, while earlier discussions have considered a possible December rollout.

Hegotá development would follow Glamsterdam, leaving EIP 8198 subject to further testing and decisions by Ethereum’s core development teams before any shorter slot configuration could reach mainnet.

Rival networks are already cutting block times

Ethereum’s discussion comes as other Layer 1 networks pursue shorter block or slot intervals.

Solana reduced its target slot time from 300 milliseconds to 250 milliseconds on Sept. 18, increasing targeted slot production from roughly 3.3 to four slots per second. The latest Solana speed upgrade forms the third stage of SIMD 0525, which started from a 400 millisecond target and is intended to eventually reach 200 milliseconds.

The nearly 17% reduction does not produce a corresponding increase in Solana’s overall transaction capacity because computation and data limits are reduced proportionally as slots become shorter.

Solana began the staged rollout in August by cutting slots to 350 milliseconds before moving through the 300 millisecond and 250 millisecond stages. Each reduction uses a separate feature activation so developers and validators can assess network behavior before advancing to the next setting.

At 250 milliseconds, a validator’s four slot leader window has fallen to one second from 1.2 seconds under the previous configuration. Solana has not set a mainnet date for the final reduction to 200 milliseconds.

Zcash is considering a similar change on a different scale. A majority of ZEC holders this week backed reducing the network’s target block time from 75 seconds to 25 seconds as part of discussions surrounding its NU7 upgrade.

Ethereum’s EIP 8198 remains a draft proposal, with its initial 10 second target dependent on further implementation work, testing and approval before it can become part of Hegotá.