Coindesk

The Ethereum Foundation has laid off some members of its research and development team as part of a broader restructuring effort aimed at refocusing on critical protocol design challenges, the organization said in a blog post Monday.The shake-up comes as the Switzerland-based nonprofit grapples with ongoing criticism over its management and strategic direction. Some in the Ethereum community have warned for over a year that failure to address key technical hurdles could threaten Ethereum's status as an industry leader, and the organization has already undergone leadership changes in part to address these concerns.The foundation is rebranding its Protocol Research and Development division under the simplified name “Protocol,” and is repositioning the group around three main priorities: scaling Ethereum’s base layer,...

A new ranking of crypto-friendly U.S. states puts New Hampshire at the top despite its steep electricity prices and lack of bitcoin mining activity. The state scores high due to its zero capital gains tax, lack of restrictive crypto regulation and a dense network of crypto-accepting businesses and ATMs.The study, conducted by digital mining hardware maker ASICKey, evaluated all 50 states using seven weighted factors: capital gains tax, regulatory environment, crypto adoption in business, job availability, ATM density, electricity cost, and mining presence. Tax policy and business usage were given the most weight.New Hampshire earned the highest score — 71.22 out of 100 — with 4.4 crypto businesses and 9.3 ATMs per 100,000 people. Wyoming followed with a score of...

Geopolitical tensions and regulatory uncertainty continue to shape cryptocurrency markets as Cardano ADA experiences volatile price action between $0.664 and $0.690. Despite strong network fundamentals, including surpassing 110 million total transactions, ADA faces downward pressure amid broader market concerns about inflation and monetary policy decisions.Technical AnalysisADA-USD exhibited a volatile 24-hour trading range of 0.026 (3.85%), forming a consolidation pattern between $0.664 and $0.690.Significant resistance encountered at $0.690 with high-volume rejection during the 01:00 hour.Strong support established at $0.665 with notable buying pressure emerging at the 10:00 and 12:00 hours.4-hour moving average suggests a slight bearish bias, with price currently testing mid-range level around $0.672.Clear resistance zone formed around $0.676, with peak volume during the 13:36-13:40 period.Pullback to $0.668 at 14:00...

Consensys, the Ethereum infrastructure company behind the popular MetaMask wallet, said it has acquired Web3Auth, a provider of wallet infrastructure, in a move aimed at improving usability and developer accessibility across its platforms.Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.The acquisition is designed to modernize MetaMask’s onboarding experience and tackle one of the most persistent challenges facing self-custodial crypto wallets: seed phrase management. According to Consensys, internal data indicates that 35% of MetaMask users fail to back up their seed phrases — a key vulnerability that can result in permanent loss of funds.Web3Auth’s technology, already integrated across some 8,200 decentralized applications, offers login and recovery tools that mirror Web2-style user flows. With this integration, MetaMask users will have the option...

Riot Platforms (RIOT) has hired industry veteran Jonathan Gibbs as its Chief Data Center Officer, marking a strategic move by the bitcoin miner to branch out beyond crypto into the broader data infrastructure business.Gibbs brings over 15 years of experience and a résumé that includes designing and building more than one gigawatt of data center capacity across North America, Europe and Asia. He most recently served as Executive Vice President at Prime Data Centers, where he led projects across the U.S.Now, he’s tasked with launching Riot’s new data center platform aimed at companies that require massive computing power to support cloud services and artificial intelligence. The company plans to build out non-bitcoin-focused facilities, leveraging 1.7 gigawatts of power capacity it...