Week in Ethereum News

February 20, 2026

Highlight of the Week

• Ethereum Foundation 2026 Roadmap: The Ethereum Foundation released its Protocol Priorities for 2026, organizing core R&D into three distinct tracks.

Eth R&D Protocol Call(s)

• All Core Devs Testing (ACDT) #70 (February 16, 2026):

  • Devnet-3 Rescheduling: The launch of Pectra devnet-3 has been moved to March 4, 2026, to provide additional time for client teams to implement and test EIP-8037 (State creation gas costs) and EIP-7954 (EVMMAX).

  • Networking Improvements: Developers confirmed that eth/70 is now a prerequisite for eth/71 (sync improvements); Reth and Erigon are currently working toward spec compliance for these updates.

  • Block Access Lists: A proposal for a hard cap on block access lists was discussed to prevent potential Denial of Service (DoS) attacks from malicious builders.

  • Client Status: Teku and Lighthouse reported progress on Gossip envelope processing, though both require roughly another week of development to reach stability for the next devnet phase.

• All Core Devs Consensus (ACDC) #175 (February 19, 2026):

  • Hegotá Headliner Discussion: Developers deliberated on the primary features for the Hegotá upgrade (post-Glamsterdam), with strong support for FOCIL (Fork-Choice Rule-Incentivized Lists) to harden censorship resistance.

  • Glamsterdam Scope: The call finalized the inclusion of Verkle Tries and Parallel Execution as the technical pillars for the Glamsterdam upgrade scheduled for late H1 2026.

Layer 1

• Gas Limit Target: The Ethereum Foundation officially signaled a goal to move the gas limit toward and beyond 100 million during 2026, supported by ongoing benchmarking and the introduction of block-level access lists via EIP-7928.

• Post-Quantum Security: A new dedicated Post-Quantum (PQ) team within the Foundation is actively developing the migration path for Ethereum’s signature schemes to ensure resistance against future quantum computing threats, as part of the "Trillion Dollar Security Initiative".

• Censorship Resistance: Progress on ePBS (Enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation) was highlighted this week as a vital component for the 2026 "Harden L1" track to reduce reliance on external MEV relays and implement FOCIL (EIP-7805).

Research

• Encrypted Mempools: LUCID: Encrypted mempool with distributed payload propagation introduces a design to bridge the gap between includer and proposer while adhering to ePBS and FOCIL.

• Applications & AI: ZK API Usage Credits: LLMs and Beyond by Davide Crapis and Vitalik Buterin proposes a standardized ZK-based credit system for anonymous, verifiable AI model inference.

• Privacy & Agents: PrivateX402: Privacy-Preserving Payment Channels for Multi-Agent AI Systems details a protocol for autonomous economic agents to transact without leaking intent or behavior patterns.

Layer 2

• Base Unveils Unified Architecture: Coinbase’s Layer 2, Base, announced on February 18 that it is transitioning from the Optimism OP Stack to its own unified software architecture. The shift involves a single Base binary for operating nodes, designed to reduce dependence on external providers and accelerate the deployment of new features.

• Ether.fi Migrates to OP Mainnet: Major decentralized banking protocol Ether.fi announced on February 19 the migration of its Cash product from Scroll to OP Mainnet. The move brings approximately 70,000 active cards and over $160 million in TVL to the Optimism ecosystem.

• Arbitrum Ecosystem Expansion: As part of the "Arbitrum Everywhere" campaign, updates on February 18 highlighted the ongoing development of a custom Orbit chain for Robinhood. The dedicated chain aims to facilitate the 24/7 trading of tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs for EU users.

Stuff for Developers

• Foundry:

  • Nightly: Released updates to prevent balance overflow in anvil_addBalance.

  • Nightly: Fixed a variable shadowing bug in Anvil’s transaction markers and performed the weekly cargo dependency update.

• foundry-zksync:

  • Matter Labs released v0.1.7 and subsequent nightlies, featuring debugger updates that display actual gas usage alongside the refund counter and improved Etherscan URL handling.

• AI Smart Contract Focus: OpenAI and Paradigm reportedly signaled a collaborative shift toward smart contract development, aiming to bridge agentic AI workflows with on-chain execution.

Security

• OpenClaw Malicious Skills: Security reports identified over 1,100 malicious skills on the OpenClaw marketplace. These packages were designed to exfiltrate SSH keys, API tokens, and encrypt user wallets by prompting developers to run unvetted terminal commands.

• Figure Data Breach: Blockchain lender Figure suffered a significant data breach. The incident was reportedly enabled by an insider and targeted the protocol’s internal data infrastructure.

Ecosystem

• ETHDenver 2026: The ninth edition of ETHDenver (February 17–21) is currently underway. Participants report a "return to form" with a focus on core technology, privacy, and security audits over marketing hype.

• Institutional Staking: BlackRock filed an amended S-1 registration for its "iShares Staked Ethereum Trust" (ETHB). The fund plans to stake 70% to 95% of its Ether holdings to capture native network yields for institutional investors.

Centralization watch: threatening the value of your ETH

• 🚨 Lido at 23.17%, still too close to the 33.3% threshold.

• Client diversity (via clientdiversity.org):

  • Execution layer: Geth ~41% & Nethermind ~38%

  • Consensus layer: Lighthouse ~50.8% & Prysm ~24.45%

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

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

EIPs/Standards

• EIPs (Core, Networking, Interface):

  • EIP-7805: FOCIL (Fork-Choice Enforced Inclusion Lists) — Formally reached "Specification Freeze Included" status as the consensus-layer headliner for the Hegotá upgrade to harden censorship resistance.

  • EIP-8141: Frame Transaction — standardizes "frames" to enable cross-chain transaction bundles that interact natively with the FOCIL mechanism.

  • EIP-8146: Block Access List Sidecars — A new networking-focused EIP proposed to separate access lists into independent sidecars, reducing block propagation latency.

• ERCs (Application Layer):

  • ERC-8162: Agent Subscription Protocol — Proposed, this standard facilitates recurring on-chain payments between autonomous AI agents and users with cycle-based, tiered access.

  • ERC-8165: Agentic On-Chain Operation Interface — A new interface added to standardize how AI agents interact with decentralized applications and smart contracts.

Onchain Stats

• Fees (via ultrasound.money):

  • Gas: 0.0 to 0.8 gwei, 0.1 gwei average; zero net issuance at 12.4 gwei

  • 18.98k ETH net issuance this week

• ETHUSD: $1,918 – $2,098, currently $1,962, all-time high $4,946

• ETHBTC: currently 0.028 (Flippening at ~0.165)

Regulation/Business/Tokens

• The SEC Division of Trading and Markets issued updated guidance, clarifying capital requirements for broker-dealers. The new staff FAQ allows proprietary positions in "payment stablecoins" to be treated as having a "ready market" under Rule 15c3-1.

• BlackRock filed an amended S-1 for its iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (ETHB) detailing a plan to stake 70% to 95% of its ETH holdings. The filing also revealed a 18% staking fee (a cut of rewards shared with Coinbase) and a temporary sponsor fee waiver to 0.12% for the first 12 months.

Upcoming Dates of Note

• March 4, 2026: Pectra Devnet-3 scheduled launch date.

• Mar 30 – Apr 2, 2026: EthCC 9 (Ethereum Community Conference): Europe’s largest Ethereum-focused conference, with strong research and developer tracks.

• April 29–30, 2026: TOKEN2049 Dubai: major global crypto and Web3 industry conference.

• June 12–14, 2026: ETHGlobal New York at the Javits Center.

• November 3–6, 2026: Devcon 8 Mumbai, the premier global gathering for the Ethereum community.