Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap-up of an important tales in cryptocurrency tech improvement. I am Margaux Nijkerk, CoinDesk’s Tech & Protocols reporter.
On this challenge:
- Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum at Threat If Decentralization Is Only a Catchphrase
- Bitcoin Layer-2 Botanix Mainnet Debuts, Cuts Block Instances to five Seconds
- XRPL EVM Sidechain Goes Reside, Unlocking Ethereum Dapps in XRP Ecosystem
- Securitize, RedStone Pilot ‘Trusted Single Supply Oracle’ to Safe Tokenized Fund NAVs
Community Information
BUTERIN: CRYPTO MUST MATURE: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin desires the crypto trade to develop up quick — stressing that the trade is at an “inflection level.” Talking in front of a packed room on the Ethereum Group Convention, in Cannes, France, Buterin used his keynote to ship a clear-eyed actuality test: decentralization, he argued, should evolve from a catchphrase to a concrete set of consumer ensures — or threat changing into one other hole promise. Because the trade has gone mainstream with endorsements from main firms and political figures, builders must return to the ecosystem’s key beliefs surrounding decentralization and constructing for customers’ wants, Buterin mentioned. In his typical denims and relaxed darkish t-shirt uniform, Buterin laid out sensible “checks” that he mentioned each crypto undertaking ought to go. These embrace 1) the walk-away take a look at. If the corporate behind an software disappears, do customers hold their property? And a pair of) the insider assault take a look at: How a lot injury can rogue insiders or compromised front-ends trigger? And three) whether or not it has a trusted computing base: What number of traces of code should be trusted to guard customers’ funds or information? He warned that too many layer-2 networks, DeFi tasks and “decentralized” front-ends depend on hidden backdoors, on the spot improve buttons or insecure interfaces that may be tampered with and hacked. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
BITCOIN LAYER-2 BOTANIX GOES LIVE: The mainnet of Botanix, a community designed to deliver Ethereum-equivalent utility to the Bitcoin ecosystem, has gone reside, slashing the time it takes so as to add new blocks to 5 seconds from 10 minutes. The community is suitable with the Ethereum Digital Machine (EVM), the software program that powers the Ethereum blockchain, permitting Ethereum-based functions and good contracts to be copied and pasted onto Bitcoin, developer Botanix Labs mentioned in an electronic mail. Botanix is one in every of a number of tasks trying to scale the Bitcoin blockchain and make it a extra conducive venue for decentralized finance (DeFi) by enhancing its utility and programmability. Others embrace Rootstock, Stacks and BOB (“Construct on Bitcoin”), which have all adopted the BitVM computing paradigm that may make complicated computations verifiable on Bitcoin, paving the way in which for smart-contract provision, much like Ethereum’s. The growth of Bitcoin’s utility would enable builders to benefit from the worth held in BTC, which dwarfs that of all other digital assets. — Jamie Crawley Read more.
XRP LEDGER EVM-SIDECHAIN MAINNET LAUNCHES: Ripple formally launched the XRP Ledger’s Ethereum Digital Machine (EVM) sidechain to the mainnet in an bid to enhance the ecosystem’s interoperability and permit builders to deploy their Ethereum-based decentralized applications (dapps) with the XRPL. The event provides EVM-compatible smart contracts while maintaining a connection to the XRPL, giving builders entry to the ecosystem at a low price, Ripple mentioned in a weblog publish. It’s designed to eradicate the trade-off between EVM compatibility and XRPL’s personal benefits, opening the door for dapps to lean into XRP’s funds infrastructure. The sidechain operates as a separate blockchain that’s parallel and linked to the XRP Ledger over the Axelar bridge, an interoperability protocol. XRPL’s native token, XRP, will function the native fuel token for the sidechain. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
SECURITIZE, REDSTONE RELEASE NEW ORACLE MODEL WHITEPAPER: Securitize, one of many largest tokenized asset issuers, and oracle supplier RedStone have launched a whitepaper they are saying introduces a brand new mannequin for securely verifying Web Asset Worth (NAV) information on-chain, tailor-made particularly for tokenized non-public funds. The mannequin, dubbed the Trusted Single Supply Oracle (TSSO), is designed to handle a key hole in decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure: learn how to reliably show that every NAV replace actually comes from the trusted supply — and hasn’t been tampered with as soon as it’s on-chain. In conventional crypto markets, oracles pull information from a number of value feeds to protect towards manipulation or errors. However for personal funds, the NAV is calculated by a single fund administrator. That creates a singular downside: there’s no strategy to double-check the quantity by market aggregation. For DeFi protocols that depend on correct collateral values, this single level of belief has been a sticking level. The TSSO framework solves this by making a cryptographically linked chain of NAV updates, in keeping with the whitepaper. Every replace features a safe digital signature, a timestamp, a reference to the earlier file, and a hash that locks the sequence collectively. The system makes use of two keys: a cold-stored “root key” for main updates and a “chain key” for small, routine modifications that keep inside tight thresholds. This design goals to stability excessive safety with the sensible must refresh NAV information with out fixed handbook work. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.
In Different Information
- Digital brokerage Robinhood (HOOD) has a slate of latest crypto choices, together with its personal blockchain community based mostly on Arbitrum and tokenized inventory buying and selling. The agency this week debuted its inventory token providing, issued on the Ethereum layer-2 Arbitrum, for European customers, giving entry to over 200 U.S. equities and ETFs with around-the-clock buying and selling throughout weekdays. With the launch, Robinhood is increasing its crypto-focused EU app with tokenized shares into an “all-in-one funding app powered by crypto,” the corporate mentioned. The agency additionally confirmed it’s constructing its personal layer-2 blockchain community optimized for tokenized property. The chain will help 24/7 buying and selling, self-custody and cross-chain bridging of tokenized property. A launch date has not been disclosed, however individuals aware of the matter mentioned it may go reside later this yr or early subsequent yr. — Krisztian Sandor Read more.
- Deutsche Financial institution (DB) is planning to debut a crypto custody service subsequent yr, Bloomberg first reported. Germany’s largest financial institution has enlisted cryptocurrency change Bitpanda to assist construct the providing, in keeping with the report, citing individuals aware of the matter. DB’s involvement in crypto custody to now has been largely by Swiss custodian Taurus, of which the financial institution is each an investor and a client. It’s not clear how this relationship would develop ought to DB start its personal service in-house. The financial institution’s different current crypto initiatives have been concentrated in stablecoins, with its asset administration subsidiary DWS planning to issue a euro stablecoin as a part of a three way partnership with Movement Merchants and Galaxy (GLXY). — Jamie Crawley Read more.
Regulatory and Coverage
- With the U.S. Senate’s passage of the invoice meant to hold ahead the majority of President Donald Trump’s coverage agenda, last-minute modifications to the One Big Beautiful Bill did not embrace a proposal to make clear and ease crypto taxation. Although Senator Cynthia Lummis had advocated changes to the U.S. strategy to taxing cryptocurrency transactions, together with waiving capital-gains taxes on small-scale exercise, it wasn’t among the many amendments to the invoice that narrowly handed on a 50-50 vote on Tuesday through which Vice President J.D. Vance needed to step in to interrupt the tie. Senators had labored by the night time Tuesday debating modification after modification, most of which failed, on their approach towards a Republican success. However Lummis’ modification wasn’t amongst them, regardless of Eleventh-hour lobbying efforts from the digital property trade. — Jesse Hamilton Read more.
- New York Legal professional Basic Letitia James sounded the alarm on the U.S. Senate’s stablecoin invoice, warning Congress on June 30 that GENIUS Act — a minimum of because it at the moment stands — “do[es] not comprise the required guardrails to guard the American public.” In an eight-page letter, James urged Congress to decelerate its efforts to go stablecoin laws and “take the time essential to draft laws that may improve innovation whereas defending our banking system that’s the envy of the world.”— Cheyenne Ligon Read more.
Calendar
- June 30-July 3: EthCC, Cannes
- July 16-18: Web3 Summit, Berlin
- Sept. 22-28: Korea Blockchain Week, Seoul
- Oct. 1-2: Token2049, Singapore
- Nov. 17-22: Devconnect, Buenos Aires
- Dec. 11-13: Solana Breakpoint, Abu Dhabi
- Feb. 10-12, 2026: Consensus, Hong Kong
- Might 5-7, 2026: Consensus, Miami