Plus: Solana’s latest phase, OP token buybacks and EF post-quantum security team.

Jan 28, 2026, 4:03 p.m.

What to know:

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, a reporter at CoinDesk.

In this issue:

• Ethereum unveils new rules to make AI agents trustworthy
• Solana’s new phase is "much more about finance," says Backpack CEO Armani Ferrante
• Optimism community begins vote on OP token buybacks
• Ethereum Foundation makes post-quantum security a top priority as new team forms

Network News

ETHEREUM’S NEW AI AGENT STANDARD: Ethereum developers are preparing to roll out ERC-8004, a new standard designed to help software agents find each other, prove who they are and decide who to trust when they operate across different systems. The proposal introduces a simple idea: If AI agents are going to transact, coordinate and execute tasks autonomously, they need persistent identities and a shared way to build credibility — much like users, wallets or smart contracts do today. It comes as large companies race to deploy AI agents internally. Most systems still rely on closed identity lists, API keys or bilateral trust agreements. That works inside a firm, but breaks down once agents need to coordinate across vendors, chains or jurisdictions. ERC-8004 defines three lightweight registries that can live on Ethereum mainnet or layer-2 networks. The first is an identity registry, which assigns each agent a unique on-chain identifier using an ERC-721-style token. That identifier points to a registration file describing what the agent does, how to reach it and which protocols it supports. Ownership of the identifier can be transferred, delegated or updated, giving agents portable, censorship-resistant identities. The second is a reputation registry, where clients — human or machine — can submit structured feedback about an agent’s performance. The registry stores raw signals on-chain, while allowing more complex scoring and filtering to happen off-chain. The goal isn’t to rank agents directly but to make reputation data public and reusable across applications. The third is a validation registry, which lets agents request independent checks of their work. Validators could include staked services, machine learning proofs, trusted hardware or other verification systems. These results are stored on the blockchain so other users can see what was checked and by whom. — *Shaurya Malwa *Read more.

**SOLANA’S LATEST PHASE IS FOCUSED ON BUILDING: **Solana’s latest phase looks a lot less flashy than its memecoin-fueled highs, and that may be the goal. Armani Ferrante, CEO of crypto exchange Backpack, told CoinDesk in an interview the Solana ecosystem has spent the past year doubling down on a more sober focus: financial infrastructure. After years of experimentation as the wider crypto industry focused on NFTs, games and social tokens, attention is now shifting back toward decentralized finance, trading and payments. “People are really starting to think about blockchains as a new kind of financial infrastructure,” Ferrante, who will be speaking atCoinDesk’s Consensus Hong Kong conference next month, said. “It’s less about NFTs, less about random moonshot-like games, and much more about finance.” That shift has made Solana feel dull to some outside observers, but Ferrante framed it as a sign of maturity. The network is increasingly positioning itself around high-throughput onchain trading, market structure and settlement, what some have dubbed as “internet capital markets.”The pivot comes amid a stark divide between crypto sentiment and traditional finance. While crypto prices remain subdued and crypto-native investors remain cautious, Ferrante said institutional interest has rarely been stronger. “If you ask anyone on Wall Street, they’ve never been more bullish,” he said, pointing to growing momentum around tokenization, stablecoins and onchain settlement.— *Margaux Nijkerk *Read more.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW

OPTIMISM BEGINS VOTING ON OP TOKEN BUYBACKS: The Optimism community started voting on a governance proposal linking the value of the OP token more directly to the economic performance of the Superchain, a growing network of Ethereum layer-2 blockchains built using the OP Stack. If approved, the plan introduced by the Optimism Foundation will dedicate half the ether revenue generated by the Superchain sequencer to monthly buybacks of the OP token over an initial 12-month period. The foundation said the plan represents a significant evolution for OP, which has primarily functioned as a governance token, and expects it to translate into structural demand for OP. “Every transaction across every OP Chain expands the base from which buybacks operate,” the proposal states, framing OP as a token increasingly aligned with network usage in addition to its governance role. Voting opened last week and members have 6 days to vote on the proposal. — *Margaux Nijkerk *Read more.

EF UNVEILS POST QUANTUM COMPUTING AS PRIORITY: The Ethereum Foundation (EF), a nonprofit organization that supports Ethereum’s development, is turning its long running post-quantum research into a public engineering push, forming a dedicated “Post Quantum” team and calling the effort a top strategic priority for the network. EF researcher Justin Drake said the new group will be led by researcher Thomas Coratger, who Drake described as a key talent behind "leanVM." Drake framed leanVM as a core part of Ethereum’s broader approach to post-quantum security, arguing that timelines are accelerating and that Ethereum should move into a build phase rather than keep work in the background. The announcement comes as crypto markets have become more sensitive to quantum risk headlines, even if the practical threat remains a longer dated problem. Quantum computing uses new types of processors that could one day break today’s encryption much faster than normal computers. Blockchain developers worry it could eventually expose wallet keys, forcing networks to upgrade cryptography well before that risk becomes real. The bigger issue for large networks is not a single breakthrough moment but the time it takes to ship a safe transition, update wallets and move users onto new formats without breaking daily usage. Drake outlined several near-term steps. A biweekly developer session focused on post-quantum transactions is expected to start next month, led by Antonio Sanso. The agenda is aimed at user-facing defenses, including dedicated cryptographic tools inside the protocol, account abstraction paths and longer-term work on aggregating transaction signatures using leanVM. - *Shaurya Malwa *Read more.

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In Other News

• Tether, the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin, has been buying physical gold at a pace of up to two tons a week as it builds one of the world’s largest bullion stockpiles. The company’s CEO, Paolo Ardoino, told Bloomberg that Tether intends to continue purchasing gold at that rate for at least the next few months. At current prices, that equates to more than $1 billion in buys every month. The purchases are delivered to a high-security former nuclear bunker in Switzerland, which Ardoino described as “a James Bond kind of place.” Tether’s gold holdings now total around 140 tons, worth an estimated $24 billion, making it one of the largest known holders of gold outside of governments, central banks and major ETFs. Most of that gold represents the company’s own reserves, while some backs its gold-backed stablecoin, which currently has a $2.7 billion market capitalization according to CoinGecko. — *Francisco Rodrigues *Read more.
• Stablecoins are moving beyond crypto experimentation and into trusted financial infrastructure, OKX said, as it announced the launch of a new debit card in Europe. “Momentum is building fast,” Erald Ghoos, CEO of OKX Europe, told CoinDesk. “Regulators are putting real guardrails in place, major banks are not only taking them seriously for payments and settlements but are participating in industry-wide EU initiatives to become issuers, and everyday users are choosing faster, cheaper digital payments.” European regulators have accelerated that momentum through the rollout of the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework, which brings stablecoin issuers and crypto service providers under a single, bloc-wide regulatory regime. Ghoos’s comments accompanied OKX’s announcement that it has rolled out a new crypto payments card in Europe, allowing users to spend stablecoins directly at Mastercard-accepting merchants. The OKX Card connects self-custody wallets with real-world payments, offering fee-free spending, though there is a 0.4% market spread applied at the point of conversion, and crypto rewards. Unlike most crypto cards that require manual conversions or preloading funds, the OKX Card lets users pay with stablecoins held in their wallets. The assets are converted only at the time of purchase. Users earn crypto rewards of up to 20% during a limited promotional period. — *Olivier Acuna *Read more.

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Regulatory and Policy

• The digital asset market is facing a critical fork in the road, according to crypto asset management firm Bitwise. In a blog post, the investment manager warned that the stalling of the Clarity Act in Congress could shift the market from a speculative bull run into a grueling "show me" phase. The Senate Agriculture Committee postponed its crypto market structure markup hearing from today to Thursday, citing the winter storm that hit much of the U.S. over the weekend. According to Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan the Clarity Act is essential for cementing a current pro-crypto regulatory environment into permanent law. Without it, the industry remains vulnerable to the whims of future administrations. Hougan pointed out that market sentiment on whether the bill will become law has soured recently. While Polymarket traders in early January priced in an 80% chance of the bill passing, those odds have plummeted to roughly 50% after figures like Coinbase (COIN) CEO Brian Armstrong labeled the current draft unworkable. Armstrong said his firm pulled support for a sweeping digital assets bill after finding provisions that could have harmed consumers and stifled competition. Should the legislation stall, Hougan argued that crypto must follow the path of disruptive giants like Uber and Airbnb, which survived regulatory grey areas by becoming too popular for lawmakers to ignore. — *Will Canny *Read more.
• Even as the U.K.‘s crypto regulations work their way through the system, most of the country’s banks are still blocking their customers’ access to even registered crypto exchanges. The Financial Conduct Authority’s list of crypto asset companies, which certifies they meet the country’s anti-money laundering and terrorism financing regulations, now numbers 59, including exchanges like Coinbase (COIN), Kraken and Gemini (GEMI). Still, clients wanting to invest on those platforms are likely to find themselves stymied by their banks. In a report published, lobby group UK Cryptoasset Business Council found that seven out of the 10 top exchanges operating in the country perceive increased hostility from national banks over the past year. The remaining three said things remain unchanged. A full 80% of the exchanges reported an increase in customers experiencing blocks or limits to bank transfers in 2025 and 70% described the banking environment as more hostile now than 12 months ago. The survey found that 40% of transactions were blocked or delayed. "The debanking of the UK’s digital asset economy is a major obstacle to its growth," the group wrote in the report. "... almost all of the major UK banks and payments services firms currently impose blanket transaction limits or complete blocks to cryptoasset exchanges. This trend is steadily worsening - with new restrictions being implemented ..."— *Olivier Acuna *Read more.

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Calendar

• Feb. 10-12, 2026: Consensus, Hong Kong
• Feb. 17-21, 2026: EthDenver, Denver
• Feb. 23-24, 2026: NearCon, San Francisco
• Mar. 30-Apr. 2, 2026: EthCC, Cannes
• Apr.15-16, 2026: Paris Blockchain Week, Paris
• May 5-7, 2026: Consensus, Miami
• Nov. 3-6, 2026: Devcon, Mumbai
• Nov. 15-17, 2026: Solana Breakpoint, London

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