Weekly Project Updates: Aave Rolls Out Fixed-Rate Lending, WLFI Plans Token Buyback, Base Deploys Denim Upgrade, etc

1. Ethereum Foundation Warns of Glamsterdam Compatibility Risks, Urges Developers to Audit Contracts link

The Ethereum Foundation stated in a post on November 6 that security auditor ChainSecurity recently discovered that some projects may face smart contract compatibility and security risks following the Glamsterdam upgrade. This is because EIP-8037 and EIP-8038 will adjust the gas costs of certain operations and the gas charging mechanism for state storage, which may break the execution assumptions relied upon by existing contracts. Based on these findings, Ethereum core developers previously decided to postpone the Hoodi testnet hard fork and move forward only after the issues are resolved. The Foundation has released eight categories of potentially affected execution assumptions and inspection examples on GitHub, urging smart contract developers and auditors to audit projects, including on-chain contracts and off-chain services. The Ethereum team is conducting reviews together with multiple audit firms and will assess whether revisions to the relevant EIPs are necessary based on the scope of impact.

2. Solana Foundation Revises Validator Delegation: 12-Month Terms, 100 Validator Cap link

The Solana Foundation announced rule changes to its Validator Delegation Program (SFDP), effective immediately, to boost support for new validators. Under the new rules, participation is limited to 12 months. Validators with non-SFDP staking exceeding 300,000 SOL must exit the program, and the cap for the number of validators receiving delegation support is set at 100. Each validator starts with a base delegation of approximately 5,000 SOL and receives a matching delegation equal to 50% of its external stake, with a maximum total SFDP delegation of 50,000 SOL per validator. Participants must operate validator nodes themselves and control their software and keys; white-label or third-party managed services are prohibited, though third-party server hosting is permitted. Existing participants that fail to comply with the new rules will exit in weekly batches. Validators that are exiting or have exited may apply for renewal.

3. Aave Labs Acquires Onchain Lender Avon’s Team and Tech, Plans Fixed-Rate Lending link

Aave Labs, the core development firm behind Aave, has acquired the team and technology of on-chain lending project Avon to expand its fixed-rate lending business. The acquisition includes Avon’s fixed and floating-rate lending protocols, on-chain order book, domain name and related assets, with the specific transaction amount undisclosed. Three members of Avon will join Aave Labs, two of whom will join the engineering team and one the business development team. Stani Kulechov, CEO of Aave Labs, stated that fixed-rate products will help Aave expand its reach to institutions, fintech firms and retail users. Aave disclosed that its network deposits exceed 30 billion US dollars and active loans surpass 12 billion US dollars.

4. Zcash NU7 Upgrade Activated, Targeting 25-Second Block Times link

Zcash activated the NU7 upgrade at block height 3,543,405, reducing the target block interval from 75 seconds to 25 seconds. As of 04:59 UTC, the actual average interval of blocks after the upgrade stood at approximately 39 seconds, with mining difficulty still adjusting. The upgrade also caps privacy transaction activity per block to ease wallet scanning loads. Forty percent of transaction fees go to miners, and sixty percent are directed to a reserve for future block rewards. NU7 additionally disables the Sprout privacy pool, rendering roughly 12,224 ZEC temporarily unusable, and a recovery plan has not yet been approved.

5. WLFI Plans Token Buyback, Possibly Funded by USD1 Reserve Fees link

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the crypto project backed by the Trump family, announced plans to launch a new WLFI token buyback program. Initial funding may include fee revenue generated from the USD1 stablecoin reserve and other sources. WLFI stated that the buyback is designed to encourage holders to actively participate in governance and further concentrate voting power among long-term holders. The project intends to make buybacks part of its long-term strategy, with subsequent buyback scale and pace adjusted based on ecosystem growth and governance participation. No specific buyback amount or execution timeline has been disclosed so far.

6. Base Completes Denim Upgrade, Retires Flashblocks for 200ms Blocks link

Base mainnet has completed its fourth standalone upgrade, Denim, officially retiring Flashblocks in favor of producing a full canonical block every 200 milliseconds, equivalent to five blocks per second. This upgrade also introduces BaseTime, which provides millisecond-resolution Unix timestamps for smart contracts while retaining the original second-level precision of block timestamps, and delivers millisecond timestamps for blocks, transactions and logs via new RPC fields. In addition, Denim updates transfer and compliance controls for the B20 token standard, enabling reuse of compliance policies through the NOT operator, extending transfer executor restrictions to direct transfers, and prohibiting transfers to a token contract’s own address, token minting or seizure operations. Applications previously relying on Flashblocks need to migrate to the standard canonical block subscription mechanism.

7. Lido Launches Token Swaps on Ethereum, Arbitrum and Base link

Lido announced the launch of a token swap feature on its interface powered by CoW Swap, allowing users to swap tokens on Ethereum, Arbitrum and Base networks via the built-in interface. In addition, the Lido Swap component automatically adds an extra price protection layer for larger swaps and leverages Chainlink price oracles to help users avoid abnormally unfavorable exchange rates.

8. ZetaChain to Halt Layer 1 Blocks on Dec 9; ZETA Migrates 1:1 to Solana link

ZetaChain has launched an on-chain governance vote proposing to permanently halt block production on its Layer 1 network on December 9 and migrate the native ZETA token to Solana at a 1:1 ratio as an SPL token. The proposal also plans to roll out ZetaLabs, a privacy-focused AI application for financial markets, at the same time, where ZETA will be used for AI service payments, feature unlocking and product governance. In addition, the project plans to burn approximately 55 million ZETA originally allocated for validator rewards in batches throughout 2027. Voting will conclude on November 7.

9. Scroll to Pivot to Privacy-Focused AI Network; SCR Moves to Ethereum link

Scroll, an Ethereum Layer 2 project, released a protocol upgrade proposal on its official governance forum on November 3. It plans to transform the existing permissionless general-purpose L2 network into a permissioned dedicated network focused on privacy AI applications and migrate the SCR token to Ethereum mainnet, with the token supply and overall tokenomics unchanged. Scroll stated that operating a general-purpose network cannot guarantee sustained demand while the underlying infrastructure still incurs maintenance costs, so it intends to build new network demand around AI products including Compass, CENO and USX. According to growthepie data, Scroll’s on-chain net profit stands at merely around $42.50, representing a roughly 92% drop over the past year.

10. Zilliqa Moves to Ethereum Layer 2, Launches Permissioned Market for Regulated Institutions link

Zilliqa announced that it will transition from an independent Layer 1 to Zilliqa Institutional Layer (ZIL), an Ethereum Layer 2 targeted at regulated institutions. Zilliqa stated that usage on the original chain was insufficient to sustain standalone operations. The new network will rely on Ethereum for settlement security, feature built-in identity and compliance mechanisms, and host permissioned markets for verified institutional trading. Its token will remain ZIL. Zilliqa said token holders do not need to take any action for now, and relevant technical details will be released before the transition. Founded in 2017 by a research team from the National University of Singapore (NUS), Zilliqa is an early public chain project that deployed sharding technology. It raised approximately 22 million US dollars through a seed round and ICO between late 2017 and early 2018, with major investors including Polychain Capital, FBG Capital and NGC Ventures.