• SEC Chairman advocates for DeFi innovation.

• Uniswap introduces the v4 Hook Design Lab.

• ZKsync launches the ZKsync Gateway.

• EF publishes 1TS initiative report.

SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins delivered remarks during the agency’s DeFi and the American Spirit Roundtable, highlighting that decentralized finance (DeFi) embodies key American values such as economic liberty, property rights, and innovation. He also criticized prior SEC leadership for discouraging blockchain participation. Atkins advocated for formal rulemaking, self-custody, and urged regulators to accommodate issuers and intermediaries using DeFi infrastructure. He also proposed exploring a conditional “innovation exemption” to accelerate the development of compliant DeFi products.

The Uniswap Foundation launched the Hook Design Lab, a pilot grant program designed to accelerate innovation in Uniswap v4 by supporting teams building with hooks. Hooks in Uniswap v4 are smart contracts that enable customizable behavior within liquidity pools, unlocking advanced features such as dynamic fees, just-in-time (JIT) liquidity, vault automation, and rehypothecation. The program's initial cohort of selected projects includes EulerSwap, which integrates JIT liquidity with lending infrastructure; Aegis, a dynamic fee hook developed by Solo Labs; Dynamo DEX by Renzo, which applies dynamic fees to maintain peg stability for LRT assets; and Bunni, which incorporates rehypothecation and automated liquidity management. 

ZKsync launched the ZKsync Gateway, a middleware component that facilitates interoperability between ZKsync Chains within the Elastic Network. ZKsync Chains previously settled individually on Ethereum. The Gateway aggregates multiple proofs into a single proof, allowing ZKsync Chains to access cheaper, shared settlement. The ZKsync Gateway also introduces cross-chain messaging, enabling efficient transfers. With the upcoming v29 upgrade, ZKsync will introduce native interoperability, enabling fast, direct messaging between ZKsync Chains.

The Ethereum Foundation published a report for its Trillion Dollar Security (1TS) initiative, outlining the current security challenges facing Ethereum. The challenges span across user experience, smart contract vulnerabilities, infrastructure and cloud dependencies, consensus protocol resilience, incident response, and governance. Notable issues include blind signing, inadequate privacy, smart contract risks, centralization, and the brittleness of Ethereum’s fork and finality mechanisms. The 1TS initiative aims to raise Ethereum’s security to a level robust enough to securely support trillions of dollars in user, institutional, and governmental assets.

• Aave goes live on Soneium

• CLARITY Act bipartisan support

• CCTP V2 coming to Codex

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