Flashbot's BuilderNet Kicks Off Ethereum’s Second Decade

As Ethereum marked its 10th anniversary on July 30, 2025, the first block of its second decade was produced by BuilderNet, a decentralized block-building network build by Flashbots and powered by trusted execution environments (TEEs). BuilderNet tackles one of Ethereum’s most complex challenges: making block construction more fair, neutral, and accessible. Instead of playing negative-sum order flow games, it redistributes MEV back to users, already paying out over $1 million per month and surpassing 1,000 ETH in cumulative refunds. It’s a fitting symbol of how far Ethereum’s infrastructure has come, not just scaling, but decentralizing and aligning incentives. The 10-year milestone itself prompted reflection across the ecosystem. In a blog post, Vitalik Buterin reminded us of a powerful yet often underappreciated metric: Ethereum has never gone down. Amid all the dashboards tracking TVL, active users, and protocol revenue, this may be the most remarkable stat of all: a decentralized network that has run continuously, without oversight, for a full decade. The anniversary also sparked the viral "Believe in SomETHing" campaign, with dozens of projects expressing not just celebration, but conviction in Ethereum’s long-term vision. The network has grown from a whitepaper into the foundational layer for DeFi, NFTs, and DAOs, and is now becoming the primary home for stablecoins and RWAs, signaling that the next decade will be just as transformative.

Terminal Attracts $163M Ahead of Converge Launch

Terminal Finance, the liquidity layer for reward-bearing assets on Converge, has attracted over $163 million, including $109M in USDe, $37M in WETH, and $16M in WBTC, with more than 30,000 users participating. All pre-deposits take place on Ethereum mainnet, and funds will be bridged to Converge at launch. Users receive receipt tokens (e.g., tUSDe), which earn “Roots” rewards that scale with deposit size and duration. On top of that, USDe deposits earn 30× Ethena multipliers, while WETH earns 2× ether.fi loyalty points. Yield generated during the pre-launch period is routed to a dedicated smart contract, to be reinvested into future Terminal infrastructure on Converge. Together with Ethereal (over $1B) and Strata ($35M), Terminal’s pre-deposits reflects the growing excitement around the upcoming launch of Converge and underscores the expanding role of Ethena and USDe, which in the meantime has surpassed $8.5 billion in supply.

Base Surpasses Solana in Token Creation

In a major shift, Base has officially surpassed Solana in daily token launches, driven by the explosive rise of Zora’s Coins, a new onchain primitive where every user profile and posts become tradable assets. Unlike typical launchpads, Zora operates as an onchain social network, blending attention and liquidity: each post launches a new token paired with the creator’s profile coin, creating a reflexive loop where more content fuels more trading activity. This flywheel was supercharged by the integration into the new Base App, where every post is instantly minted as a token. As a result, Zora has hit all-time highs in posts, active users, volume, and trading fees, with nearly 3 million traders, 1.6M coins created, and over $470 million in volume. The Creator Coin model is simple but powerful. Each coin has a fixed 1 billion supply, half streamed to the creator over five years, half open to the market. Every trade sends 1% in $ZORA back to the content originator, linking engagement directly to earnings. While debate continues over whether content coins are a fad or the future, one thing is clear: Base’s memecoin and creator economies are growing fast, and Zora is at the center of it.

Linea Unveils Ethereum-Aligned Economic Design

Linea has unveiled the economic design for its token $LINEA, cementing its role as an Ethereum-aligned Layer 2, not just scaling the network, but reinforcing its foundation. Linea will be the first L2 to burn ETH at the protocol level: 20% of all net transaction fees (paid in ETH) will be burned, directly reducing ETH supply, supporting L1 value accrual, and increasing the value of ETH. The remaining 80% of fees will be used to burn LINEA. Bridged ETH is also natively staked, turning it into a yield-bearing asset that compounds value across both layers. The token distribution echoes Ethereum’s original ethos: 85% goes to the ecosystem, including a landmark fund for public goods, research, and builders. A snapshot for the upcoming airdrop has already been taken, likely explaining the absence of a sudden spike in activity often seen after such announcements. Still, network usage has remained strong and steady: over 263 million transactions, more than 7 million addresses, nearly 2 million contracts deployed, all with median fees at just $0.02. Linea is proving that scale, alignment, and Ethereum values can coexist.

Stablecoin Yield Agent Fungi Hits $77M

Fungi, the AI-powered DeFi agent for stablecoin yield optimization, launched in April 2025 on Base and has already surpassed $77 million in total volume, with over $20 million routed through Morpho vaults alone, its top-performing yield source. It allocates USDC across Aave, Morpho, Moonwell, and Fluid, rebalancing daily based on APYs, incentives, gas costs, and protocol-specific risk. Each user operates their own smart contract account with automation permissions managed via session keys, ensuring full control and non-custodial security. Fungi integrates with top vault curators like Gauntlet, ExtraFi, Clearstar, and Steakhouse, and has over 322,000 USDC in assets under management. Its rapid growth and tiered execution model reflect a broader trend in DeFi toward personalized, automated yield strategies, blending stablecoin utility, AI-driven decision-making, and smart account infrastructure to serve both retail users and onchain treasuries.

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