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Project Overview
Merge is a fintech infrastructure for web3 startups, aiming to provide access to banking, payments, risk management, and compliance via an application programming interface (API).
Cambridge Study: US Hosts ~31% of Ethereum Nodes; Over One-Third Nodes Offline Could Impact Finalization
Odaily Odaily A new study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance reveals that approximately 31% of Ethereum node activity is located in the United States, with another 39% distributed across EU countries excluding the UK, indicating that the geographic distribution of Ethereum nodes remains relatively concentrated in Western nations.Lead researcher Alexander Neumuller stated that while node distribution is not currently concentrated in any single country, it is heavily reliant on a few major cloud service providers, including Hetzner, Amazon AWS, and OVH. Notably, the Ethereum network does not require half of its validators to fail for problems to arise. If more than one-third of validators go offline simultaneously, the network may be unable to finalize block checkpoints (finalization). Neumuller pointed out that nodes and validators do not have a one-to-one correspondence; a single node may run multiple validators. Therefore, it is currently impossible to precisely assess the actual impact on the validator network from the failure of a specific node or service provider.Furthermore, the study reassessed the energy consumption of Ethereum following The Merge. Data shows that Ethereum's current annual energy consumption is approximately 7.9 GWh, equivalent to a continuous power draw of about 1 MW. This represents only about 0.02% of pre-merge levels, a reduction of approximately 99.98%. Currently, over 56% of the energy used by the Ethereum network comes from sustainable sources, exceeding the global average.The study also noted that client software diversity is another potential risk. If a dominant client software has a vulnerability, it could affect a large number of network participants. The report was published by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance and supported by the Ethereum Foundation. (The)
Cambridge Research: 31% of Ethereum Node Activity Located in the US, One-Third of Nodes Offline Can Block Network Finality
According to The Block, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF)'s newly released report "Ethereum After the Merge" shows that approximately 31% of Ethereum node activity is located in the United States, with 39% distributed across the European Union (excluding the UK), presenting an overall Western-centric centralization pattern. The report points out potential centralization risks in the Ethereum network—nodes are highly concentrated among three major hosting providers: Hetzner, AWS, and OVH. Once more than one-third of validators go offline simultaneously, network checkpoints will stop finalization (Finalization). Additionally, the report recalculated Ethereum's energy consumption; annual electricity consumption after the Merge is approximately 7.9 GWh, a decrease of approximately 99.98% compared to before the Merge, with sustainable energy accounting for over 56%, and the cost required to offset its annual carbon emissions is only about $33,500 to $73,800.
ETH Ushers in "Golden July"? Institutions and Supply-Demand Dynamics Could Become New Catalysts for Ethereum's "New Cycle"
Odaily News, Sharplink research director Steven Ehrlich stated on platform X that Ethereum (ETH) has started July 2026 with strong momentum, gaining approximately 11% so far this month. Historical data suggests investors should pay attention to ETH's July performance. Over the past 10 years, ETH has posted gains in July on four occasions, with an average increase of 43% in those months. Since 2020, July has been ETH's strongest-performing month, with an average gain of about 27%, leading all other months.The core advantage of ETH's July performance is not simply volatility but the asymmetry between gains and losses: when July is positive, the average gain is approximately 43%; in losing years, the average decline is only about 5% (2020 to 2025). Historically, strong Julys for ETH have often coincided with Ethereum-specific catalysts:July 2020: Gained 54%, marking the launch of "DeFi Summer." Compound introduced the COMP token, triggering a yield farming frenzy. DeFi total value locked (TVL) surged from about $1 billion to $4 billion within weeks, DEX monthly trading volume grew by 174%, and ETH benefited as the foundational infrastructure of DeFi.July 2022: Gained 58%. The timeline for The Merge upgrade was confirmed on July 14, market sentiment rebounded from the post-LUNA and 3AC crisis low, and approximately $337 million in short positions were liquidated within 3 days.July 2025: Gained 49%. The US GENIUS Act was signed, spot ETH ETFs recorded a record monthly inflow of approximately $5.4 billion, corporate capital accelerated its allocation to ETH, staking rate reached about 30%, and declining exchange balances contributed to supply tightness.Historically, ETH's strong monthly rallies have typically been driven by a combination of "Ethereum-specific catalysts plus supply-demand imbalance." For July 2026, Steven Ehrlich believes the current market environment presents similar opportunities:1. Institutional infrastructure is being built. EthLabs (protocol R&D) and Ethereum Institutional were recently launched to drive institutional participation in the on-chain ecosystem, with participants including Sharplink, BitMine, and Joe Lubin.2. The Ethereum roadmap continues to upgrade. Vitalik Buterin proposed the "Lean Ethereum" plan on July 4, aiming to simplify Ethereum's architecture, increase speed, and enhance quantum resistance over the next 3 to 4 years. Its significance is comparable to The Merge.3. Corporate capital continues to accumulate ETH. Digital asset reserve companies are still actively building their ETH positions. Sharplink currently holds 886,725 ETH, added 10,000 ETH in purchases last week, and stated its goal is to increase the amount of ETH per share.Steven Ehrlich stated that Ethereum is entering a new phase of development, where institutional adoption, technological upgrades, and capital allocation may become key factors driving ETH's price action.
Vitalik: Ethereum is preparing for its biggest upgrade since The Merge
Odaily Planet Daily reported that Vitalik Buterin stated that Ethereum is preparing for its largest upgrade since The Merge. (Solid Intel)
Vitalik Outlines Ethereum Long-Term Roadmap, "Lean Ethereum" Will Become the Third Major Iteration
According to a post by Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin), Ethereum researchers recently held a meeting in Berlin to update the protocol's long-term development roadmap (strawmap.org). Vitalik pointed out that "Lean Ethereum" is not a single upgrade, but a series of improvements to be implemented in phases over the next three to four years. Its significance is comparable to "The Merge," almost covering the refactoring of every core module of the protocol. The main contents include: • Verification Mechanism: Introduce recursive STARKs to replace the existing direct re-execution method, becoming a first-class core component of the protocol • Quantum Safety: Priority significantly increased, all quantum-vulnerable components will be replaced, quantum-safe Blob design is already underway • Consensus Layer: Decouple availability chains and finality, achieve one to two rounds of finality, with better security and lower latency • State Layer: The existing dynamic state remains unchanged, but new types of state with stronger scalability will be added (such as UTXO storage, ring buffers, etc.). It is expected that by 2030, Ethereum will have 2TB of dynamic state + 100TB of new state. After migration of applications such as ERC20 and NFTs, gas fees can be reduced by more than 10 times • Privacy: Upgraded from an additional feature to a first-class goal, permeating designs such as Mempool and state trees • VM: In addition to EVM, leanISA or RISC-V will be introduced. The long-term goal is for the protocol layer to only directly
Ethereum’s largest-ever upgrade, “Glamsterdam,” enters final development phase, expected to launch in H2
According to CoinDesk, Ethereum core developers have entered the final development phase of the Glamsterdam upgrade and are currently running development networks (devnets) that incorporate all planned Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs); once complete, the upgrade will advance to public testnets. Parithosh Jayanthi, a core developer at the Ethereum Foundation, stated that Glamsterdam “could be the largest fork upgrade since the Merge,” fundamentally altering many foundational assumptions of Ethereum and laying the groundwork for large-scale future scaling. It is expected to go live in the second half of 2026, though the exact date remains undetermined. Key components of this upgrade include: First, embedded Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS, EIP-7732), which moves off-chain block building and proposing processes on-chain to reduce MEV-related manipulation risks and centralization concerns; Second, block-level access lists (EIP-7928), enabling blocks to pre-declare accounts and smart contract data they need to access, thereby improving block execution efficiency and predictability; Third, broad gas fee repricing—costs for high-compute operations will decrease while state storage costs will increase—to more accurately reflect resource consumption and ensure compatibility with zero-knowledge proof-based scaling solutions. Currently, the development team is focused on testing, finalizing specifications, and community communication.
Related news
Cambridge Study: US Hosts ~31% of Ethereum Nodes; Over One-Third Nodes Offline Could Impact Finalization
Odaily Odaily A new study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance reveals that approximately 31% of Ethereum node activity is located in the United States, with another 39% distributed across EU countries excluding the UK, indicating that the geographic distribution of Ethereum nodes remains relatively concentrated in Western nations.Lead researcher Alexander Neumuller stated that while node distribution is not currently concentrated in any single country, it is heavily reliant on a few major cloud service providers, including Hetzner, Amazon AWS, and OVH. Notably, the Ethereum network does not require half of its validators to fail for problems to arise. If more than one-third of validators go offline simultaneously, the network may be unable to finalize block checkpoints (finalization). Neumuller pointed out that nodes and validators do not have a one-to-one correspondence; a single node may run multiple validators. Therefore, it is currently impossible to precisely assess the actual impact on the validator network from the failure of a specific node or service provider.Furthermore, the study reassessed the energy consumption of Ethereum following The Merge. Data shows that Ethereum's current annual energy consumption is approximately 7.9 GWh, equivalent to a continuous power draw of about 1 MW. This represents only about 0.02% of pre-merge levels, a reduction of approximately 99.98%. Currently, over 56% of the energy used by the Ethereum network comes from sustainable sources, exceeding the global average.The study also noted that client software diversity is another potential risk. If a dominant client software has a vulnerability, it could affect a large number of network participants. The report was published by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance and supported by the Ethereum Foundation. (The)
Tom Lee: Traditional Finance and Crypto Finance Will Ultimately Merge into the Same Market
Tom Lee, Chairman of Bitmine, an Ethereum treasury company, stated on the X platform that in the future, traditional finance (TradFi) and crypto finance will no longer be two separate fields, but will gradually merge into a "single market."Analysis suggests that with the development of blockchain infrastructure, tokenized assets, and digital financial tools, the boundaries between traditional assets and crypto assets are continuously weakening. Asset tokenization, on-chain settlement, and the continued entry of institutional investors into the crypto space may drive the financial system towards a more open and digital direction.
Cambridge Research: 31% of Ethereum Node Activity Located in the US, One-Third of Nodes Offline Can Block Network Finality
According to The Block, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF)'s newly released report "Ethereum After the Merge" shows that approximately 31% of Ethereum node activity is located in the United States, with 39% distributed across the European Union (excluding the UK), presenting an overall Western-centric centralization pattern. The report points out potential centralization risks in the Ethereum network—nodes are highly concentrated among three major hosting providers: Hetzner, AWS, and OVH. Once more than one-third of validators go offline simultaneously, network checkpoints will stop finalization (Finalization). Additionally, the report recalculated Ethereum's energy consumption; annual electricity consumption after the Merge is approximately 7.9 GWh, a decrease of approximately 99.98% compared to before the Merge, with sustainable energy accounting for over 56%, and the cost required to offset its annual carbon emissions is only about $33,500 to $73,800.
ETH Ushers in "Golden July"? Institutions and Supply-Demand Dynamics Could Become New Catalysts for Ethereum's "New Cycle"
Odaily News, Sharplink research director Steven Ehrlich stated on platform X that Ethereum (ETH) has started July 2026 with strong momentum, gaining approximately 11% so far this month. Historical data suggests investors should pay attention to ETH's July performance. Over the past 10 years, ETH has posted gains in July on four occasions, with an average increase of 43% in those months. Since 2020, July has been ETH's strongest-performing month, with an average gain of about 27%, leading all other months.The core advantage of ETH's July performance is not simply volatility but the asymmetry between gains and losses: when July is positive, the average gain is approximately 43%; in losing years, the average decline is only about 5% (2020 to 2025). Historically, strong Julys for ETH have often coincided with Ethereum-specific catalysts:July 2020: Gained 54%, marking the launch of "DeFi Summer." Compound introduced the COMP token, triggering a yield farming frenzy. DeFi total value locked (TVL) surged from about $1 billion to $4 billion within weeks, DEX monthly trading volume grew by 174%, and ETH benefited as the foundational infrastructure of DeFi.July 2022: Gained 58%. The timeline for The Merge upgrade was confirmed on July 14, market sentiment rebounded from the post-LUNA and 3AC crisis low, and approximately $337 million in short positions were liquidated within 3 days.July 2025: Gained 49%. The US GENIUS Act was signed, spot ETH ETFs recorded a record monthly inflow of approximately $5.4 billion, corporate capital accelerated its allocation to ETH, staking rate reached about 30%, and declining exchange balances contributed to supply tightness.Historically, ETH's strong monthly rallies have typically been driven by a combination of "Ethereum-specific catalysts plus supply-demand imbalance." For July 2026, Steven Ehrlich believes the current market environment presents similar opportunities:1. Institutional infrastructure is being built. EthLabs (protocol R&D) and Ethereum Institutional were recently launched to drive institutional participation in the on-chain ecosystem, with participants including Sharplink, BitMine, and Joe Lubin.2. The Ethereum roadmap continues to upgrade. Vitalik Buterin proposed the "Lean Ethereum" plan on July 4, aiming to simplify Ethereum's architecture, increase speed, and enhance quantum resistance over the next 3 to 4 years. Its significance is comparable to The Merge.3. Corporate capital continues to accumulate ETH. Digital asset reserve companies are still actively building their ETH positions. Sharplink currently holds 886,725 ETH, added 10,000 ETH in purchases last week, and stated its goal is to increase the amount of ETH per share.Steven Ehrlich stated that Ethereum is entering a new phase of development, where institutional adoption, technological upgrades, and capital allocation may become key factors driving ETH's price action.
Vitalik: Ethereum is preparing for its biggest upgrade since The Merge
Odaily Planet Daily reported that Vitalik Buterin stated that Ethereum is preparing for its largest upgrade since The Merge. (Solid Intel)
Vitalik Outlines Ethereum Long-Term Roadmap, "Lean Ethereum" Will Become the Third Major Iteration
According to a post by Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin), Ethereum researchers recently held a meeting in Berlin to update the protocol's long-term development roadmap (strawmap.org). Vitalik pointed out that "Lean Ethereum" is not a single upgrade, but a series of improvements to be implemented in phases over the next three to four years. Its significance is comparable to "The Merge," almost covering the refactoring of every core module of the protocol. The main contents include: • Verification Mechanism: Introduce recursive STARKs to replace the existing direct re-execution method, becoming a first-class core component of the protocol • Quantum Safety: Priority significantly increased, all quantum-vulnerable components will be replaced, quantum-safe Blob design is already underway • Consensus Layer: Decouple availability chains and finality, achieve one to two rounds of finality, with better security and lower latency • State Layer: The existing dynamic state remains unchanged, but new types of state with stronger scalability will be added (such as UTXO storage, ring buffers, etc.). It is expected that by 2030, Ethereum will have 2TB of dynamic state + 100TB of new state. After migration of applications such as ERC20 and NFTs, gas fees can be reduced by more than 10 times • Privacy: Upgraded from an additional feature to a first-class goal, permeating designs such as Mempool and state trees • VM: In addition to EVM, leanISA or RISC-V will be introduced. The long-term goal is for the protocol layer to only directly