The Protocol: Vitalik Buterin's Latest Proposal – Transaction Gas Cap - BTCinsider

In this issue:

Vitalik Buterin’s New Proposal Seeks 16.7M Gas Cap on Ethereum to Rein In Transaction Bloat
Jack Dorsey Unveils Bitchat: Offline, Encrypted Messaging Inspired by Bitcoin
Volkswagen ADMT Taps Solana-Based Hivemapper Bee Maps for Driverless Data
Eigen Labs Axes 25% of Staff to Focus on Building EigenCloud

Network News

In Other News

Bit Digital (BTBT) is now the owner of more than 100,000 ether (ETH) after swapping out its bitcoin stack along with a $172 million capital raise for even more of the world’s second-largest crypto. From a holding of 24,434 ETH as of the end of March, Bit Digital now has some 100,603 ETH ($189.2 million) making it one of the largest corporate ETH holders, the company said. Bit Digital revealed its plans to focus solely on ETH staking last month in a move that wasn’t entirely unexpected given the more challenging environment bitcoin miners have experienced since last year’s halving. — Jamie Crawley Read more.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s Media & Technology Group (NASDAQ: DJT) filed to list a crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) that would track a selection of digital assets, the latest in a string of such efforts tied to the Trump brand. The proposed “Truth Social Crypto Blue Chip ETF” would hold a portfolio of five tokens: bitcoin

BTC$109,110.81

, ether (ETH), solana (SOL), XRP (XRP) and cronos (CRO), according to a filing with the SEC. Eighty-five percent of the fund’s holdings would be split between bitcoin and ether. Solana would make up 8%, cronos 5% and XRP 2%. — Helene Braun Read more.

Regulatory and Policy

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control’s (OFAC) sanctions against privacy tool Tornado Cash cannot be discussed at the upcoming trial of developer Roman Storm, a federal judge ruled. At a status conference in Manhattan on Tuesday, District Judge Katherine Polk Failla initially waffled on whether she would allow expert witnesses to testify about the sanctions, which were first imposed in August 2022, removed this March and subsequently found illegal by a Texas court. After hearing arguments from both prosecution and defense, Failla decided to grant Storm’s motion in limine moving to prohibit testimony about the sanctions entirely, arguing that it would simply be too confusing for a jury to do what she described as the “mental gymnastics” of understanding why the sanctions were imposed and ultimately removed. — Cheyenne Ligon Read more.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charged two individuals for their role in OmegaPro, a crypto and investment Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of over $650 million. Michael Shannon Sims, a founder and promoter of OmegaPro, and Juan Carlos Reynoso, who led OmegaPro’s operations in Latin America and some parts of the U.S., were charged on conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, according to documents published. OmegaPro was an international investment scheme that collapsed in 2022. In 2024, Andreas Szakacs, the co-founder of the scheme, was arrested in Turkey for his involvement with OmegaPro. — Parikshit Mishra Read more.