The SEC's Division of Corporation Finance released updated FAQs stating that token buybacks on working networks, liquid staking tokens, and funding network upgrades don't automatically make crypto assets securities. The guidance provides clarity on when digital assets may qualify as commodities rather than securities.
Canary Capital's TRXS began trading on Cboe on September 9, 2026, marking the first US exchange-traded fund that stakes Tron's TRX token for yield. The fund launched with $50.25 million in assets and stakes 90% of its holdings, though carries a 1.10% fee above competing staking funds.
Kinetiq, which controls approximately 82.5% of Hyperliquid's liquid staking market, announced the launch of Elysium, a new Layer 2 chain built on top of the Hyperliquid ecosystem. The L2 aims to improve HyperEVM performance, revive spot trading, and create a new KNTQ buyback engine using HYPE as the gas token.
Six Ethereum researchers, including Ethereum Foundation's Justin Drake, have submitted EIP-8361 proposing to progressively burn validator rewards as staked ETH increases, potentially reducing issuance to zero when staking reaches approximately 60% of supply. The proposal has sparked debate within the community, with Ether.fi responding by removing restaking from its weETH token.
Liquid restaking protocol ether.fi is allocating $100 million to Plume's real-world asset vault, enabling its customers with over $6 billion in deposits to access institutional RWA yield opportunities through the partnership.
A coalition of DeFi protocols including Aave, Compound, and others unveiled a detailed technical plan to eliminate bad debt and restore full backing for exploited rsETH tokens following the $290 million Kelp DAO hack, with pledges totaling over $300 million in recovery funds.
On April 26, 2026, the Ethereum Foundation deposited 17,035 wstETH into Lido's unstETH contract — just short of its 70,000 ETH staking target and days after its Bitmine sale — sparking community speculation about an impending sell-off. No confirmed sale had occurred at time of reporting.
Mantle, EtherFi Foundation, Golem Foundation, Lido DAO, Ethena, LayerZero, Ink Foundation and Tyrdo pledged combined 43,000 ETH to 'DeFi United' recovery effort to restore rsETH backing following the $292 million Kelp DAO exploit.
Sui-based liquid staking platform Volo Protocol was exploited for approximately $3.5 million from its WBTC, XAUm, and USDC vaults. The team has pledged to absorb losses and frozen affected assets while conducting an investigation.
Attackers drained approximately 116,500 rsETH (roughly $292-293 million) from Kelp DAO's LayerZero-powered bridge, causing emergency freezes across multiple DeFi protocols including Aave, SparkLend, Fluid, and Upshift. The exploit represents 2026's largest crypto hack to date and impacted at least nine protocols.
