Ethereum researcher Justin Drake unveiled the “Lean Ethereum” proposal on July 31 that reframes the base layer around the imperatives of survivability against nation-state and quantum threats and orders-of-magnitude performance gains without sacrificing decentralization.

The new guidelines were dubbed “fort mode” and “beast mode,” respectively.

Published on the Ethereum Foundation blog, the vision argued that the network can simultaneously harden security and radically scale by anchoring the mainnet in hash-based cryptography and restructuring all three protocol sublayers, which are consensus, data, and execution.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Drake recently addressed the concept during an ETH-focused event in Berlin.

Fort mode and beast mode

Drake’s security thesis highlights that Ethereum must run for decades, even centuries, under adversarial conditions. 

According to the roadmap, “if the internet is up, Ethereum is up” is the goal. On performance, Lean Ethereum targets roughly 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) on mainnet via aggressive vertical scaling and approximately 1 million TPS on layer-2 (L2) blockchains via expansive horizontal scaling. 

He added that enabling “moon-math” is no longer aspirational, suggesting real-time zero-knowledge virtual machines (zkVMs) for execution and data availability sampling (DAS) for data throughput. 

A complementary usability aim is full-chain verification on consumer devices, such as browsers, phones, and wallets.

Three “lean” sublayers

Lean Ethereum proposes coordinated upgrades across three different layers. The first is “Lean consensus,” or Beacon Chain 2.0, focused on hardening the Beacon Chain for maximum security and decentralization, with near-instant finality measured in seconds.

Lean data (Blobs 2.0) is the second layer. The goal is to enable post-quantum “blobs” with granular sizing to preserve a calldata-like developer experience while boosting throughput.

Lastly, Lean execution (EVM 2.0) consists of a minimal, SNARK-friendly instruction set that preserves EVM compatibility and network effects but accelerates proving and verification.

Together, these changes aim to deliver “performance abundance” under non-negotiable continuity and simplicity constraints.

Hash-based crypto as the standard fabric

Lean Ethereum treats the hash function as the fundamental primitive across layers. Aggregate signatures in consensus supplanting Boneh-Lynn-Shacham (BLS), hash-based commitments replacing Kate, Zaverucha, and Goldberg (KZG) in the data layer, and hash-centric zkVMs streamlining execution verification. 

The approach is designed to simultaneously future-proof against quantum adversaries while harmonizing with the rapid rise of SNARKs across the stack.

Drake said that Lean Ethereum is as much an engineering aesthetic as a roadmap. The concept is based on minimal modules, encapsulated complexity, formal verification, and provable security and optimality. 

The emphasis on “lean craft” seeks to prune legacy complexity while standardizing on primitives that are easier to reason and verify.

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On-chain data shows that Bitcoin’s (BTC) “ancient supply” is increasing faster than new BTC daily issuance, according to a June 18 research by Fidelity Digital Assets.

The report treats ancient supply as Bitcoins that have remained unmoved for at least a decade, and it counted an average of 566 BTC entering the 10-year-plus cohort daily since April 2024, surpassing the 450 BTC miners currently add to circulation every day.

The milestone arrived less than a year after the 2024 block-reward halving cut issuance in half, redefining the network’s supply dynamics. 

Ancient supply represents more than 17% of all mined Bitcoin, about 3.4 million BTC worth roughly $360 billion at $107,000 per coin, up from near zero when the metric was first calculated at the start of 2019. 

Satoshi Nakamoto holds 33% of this stash, while another unknown portion may be irretrievably lost. However, analysts note that any coin can still be brought back into active use.

Conviction and volatility

Daily declines in the 10-year bucket occur less than 3% of the time, but the share rises to 13% when the threshold drops to five-year holders. 

The report highlighted that the post-2024 US election period increased churn among even the most steadfast wallets. Since November, the ancient supply has shrunk on 10% of trading days, quadrupling its historical average. 

Movement from 5- to 10-year holders appears more sensitive. Coins aged at least five years exited their bucket on 39% of days over the same span, triple the norm. 

The report linked that surge to first-quarter sideways prices, arguing that heightened distribution from older cohorts can mute short-term upside even while net scarcity rises.

HODL rate turns positive

Fidelity also assessed the “HODL rate,” defined as the ancient supply inflows minus new issuance.

The measure flipped positive in April 2024 and averages positive 116 Bitcoin per day, reinforcing the idea that a hardening core of holders is absorbing circulation faster than miners can replace it. 

Because Bitcoin’s issuance schedule is programmed to decrease with halvings, the firm projects that the circulating supply will reach 20% of all Bitcoin by that year and 25% by 2034, based on current trends.

Public corporations may accelerate the trend. Twenty-seven listed companies now collectively hold more than 800,000 BTC. 

Fidelity’s model predicted that the ancient supply will exceed 30% of the float by 2035 if firms with 1,000 BTC or more continue to hold coins on their balance sheets. 

Despite the suggested scarcity, it does not guarantee higher prices without the appropriate level of demand to absorb it.

However, a durable rise in long-term controlled coins tightens the float available to traders and increasingly ties price discovery to marginal flows. 

Fidelity concluded that Bitcoin now stands apart from commodities with elastic supply.

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Monday’s trading session has declined as one of the most unstable since Covid Crashion in March 2020, showing no impulse to retreat as the US and China counter tariffs global markets get caught up in crossfire.

Just as the equity market went well, volatility spilled into all asset classes. For example, Bitcoin (BTC) has given up to 10% to desirada. But the real focus lies in the yield of the US 10-year Treasury. It’s what is called a risk-free interest rate, and the Trump administration said it wanted to go down as it tries to refinance trillions of citizen debt.

Yields fell to 3.9% from 4.8% last week after President Donald Trump strengthened trade tensions with import tariffs and increased demand for Treasury bills.

Bond prices usually rise, and yields will be lower when Wall Street avoids risk. Unusually, as risk aversion increased on Monday, yields increased, jumping to 4.22%.

The spikes were not limited to the US. The UK has experienced the most sharp rate jump since the Liztrus era pension crisis in October 2022, showing rising globally, indicating increased instability and reduced trust in sovereign debt and currency.

Ole S Hansen, head of Saxobank’s product strategy, pointed to the scale of the long-standing Treasury movement as a sign of something potentially unfolding.

“The US Treasury struggled with a massive sale yesterday. Turbulence has risen the longest since turbulence during the pandemic outbreak. This includes potential signs of large foreign owners, as well as assets sales and resends. From a low of nearly 3.85% the previous day, 4.17%.”

Hansen was fingering in foreign sales, particularly in China, which is said to have offloaded the $50 billion Treasury Department, but Jim Bianco, president of Bianco Research, challenged the story.

“No, foreigners weren’t selling the Treasury to punish the US (Trump),” he wrote, instead pointing to a sharp rally on the dollar index (DXY), rising 2.2% in just three days.

“If China or other foreigners were selling the Treasury… they’ll need to convert those dollars into foreign currency. Otherwise it’s pointless to sell the Treasury and leave money to a US bank.

“This suggests that foreign money had moved to the US. We haven’t left there…the sales were more domestic and we were more concerned about inflation.”

Despite these views, unconfirmed reports on sales in China continue to spread. As of January 2025, China still holds approximately $761 billion in debt from the US government, the largest owner after Japan.

The story of a 10 and 30-year yield surge in Chinese is unconvinced, as most of the official Chinese investment in dollar-induced assets are not long-term instruments, but agent bonds, short-term invoices, and bank deposits.

China is aware that it can gain leverage in the trade war through the holdings of US Treasury notes. That’s not necessarily true.

As the economist and author of “Great Rebalance: The Dangerous Path for Trade, Conflict and the World Economy,” Michael Pettis has long argued.

It’s no surprise that China has brightened its Treasury investment since 2013, with current account surplus peaking during the crash in 2008.

On February 20, a Singapore court announced the sentence after she pleaded guilty to 44 charges, including fraud and money laundering.

While overseeing payroll at WeChain, which managed salary payments for Bybit, Ho exploited her position by altering financial records. She redirected payments into four cryptocurrency wallets under her control, transferring a total of $4.2 million over several months. She then converted the stolen funds into traditional currency.

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Her fraudulent activities went undetected for months, allowing her to continue diverting funds. In early 2023, WeChain discovered irregularities and reported Ho to authorities, which led to her arrest two months later.

Authorities found that Ho used the money to fund a luxury lifestyle, including placing a $750,000 deposit on a penthouse and purchasing designer items. Despite a court order to stop using the stolen funds, she continued spending and was sentenced to an additional six weeks in jail for contempt of court.

Bybit recovered over $1.1 million in Tether
USDT


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During questioning, Ho attempted to mislead investigators by claiming that an individual named “Jason Teo” was responsible for the illegal transfers. Authorities later confirmed that this person did not exist.

Ho’s lawyer requested a reduced sentence, citing her role as a mother of two young children. However, prosecutors argued that her repeated offenses and attempts to deceive investigators warranted a harsher punishment.

Meanwhile, a US court recently confiscated around $1 billion in assets from Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried. What were they? Read the full story.