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BTC $96,420 +2.34% ETH $3,280 +1.82% SOL $185.40 -0.92% BNB $642.50 +0.45% XRP $2.18 +3.12% DOGE $0.082 -1.50% ADA $1.05 +0.80% AVAX $42.10 +1.15%
04/19/2025

Web3 Weekly Recap (Apr 8–14): Ethereum Restaking Back Online, EigenLayer & Blast Near Mainnet, Base Keeps Surging

The second week of April brought a wave of major developments across Web3: infrastructure upgrades on Ethereum and zkSync, serious security exploits, and heated governance battles in major DAOs. Here's a roundup of the highlights you shouldn't miss. 🔥 Ethereum Restaking Back Online After Dencun Upgrade After more than a month of suspension during the Dencun upgrade, Ethereum has officially re-enabled ETH staking. This milestone not only signals post-upgrade stability, but also unlocks fresh staking capital flows — fueling the growth of restaking solutions like EigenLayer.

Web3 Weekly Recap (Apr 8–14): Ethereum Restaking Back Online, EigenLayer & Blast Near Mainnet, Base Keeps Surging

The second week of April brought a wave of major developments across Web3: infrastructure upgrades on Ethereum and zkSync, serious security exploits, and heated governance battles in major DAOs. Here's a roundup of the highlights you shouldn't miss.

🔥 Ethereum Restaking Back Online After Dencun Upgrade

After more than a month of suspension during the Dencun upgrade, Ethereum has officially re-enabled ETH staking. This milestone not only signals post-upgrade stability, but also unlocks fresh staking capital flows — fueling the growth of restaking solutions like EigenLayer.

🚀 EigenLayer & Blast Approach a Critical Milestone

  • EigenLayer confirmed its Phase 1 mainnet launch for April 15, with an initial focus on enabling the restaking mechanism and bootstrapping Actively Validated Services (AVS).
  • Blast, the L2 ecosystem known for its generous airdrop policy, has completed its audit and is preparing to launch mainnet next week.

🧬 zkSync and the zkRollup Infrastructure Race

zkSync unveiled zkChain — a customizable Layer 3 model built using the ZK Stack toolkit. Much like how OP Stack has driven adoption of Optimism-based L2 networks, zkSync is expanding its Layer 3 ecosystem with high interoperability and ZK proof-backed security.

💥 A String of Hacks & Exploits

  • Bloom lost $1.3M due to a multisig misconfiguration.
  • Holograph was exploited for over 14 million tokens through a smart contract vulnerability.
  • Grand Base and Sonne Finance suffered oracle attacks that allowed token price manipulation.
    These incidents serve as yet another reminder of the security gaps that continue to plague early-stage Web3 projects.

🗳️ Major DAOs in the Spotlight

  • Arbitrum DAO sparked controversy over a proposed STIP Phase 2 worth tens of millions of dollars.
  • Optimism drew community criticism for a lack of oversight and transparency in its RetroPGF distribution.
  • SafeDAO (tied to the Safe wallet) began discussions on activating the $SAFE token after more than a year of dormancy.

📈 Base Keeps Surging — Farcaster and Friend.tech in the Spotlight

Base — Coinbase's Layer 2 — continued its strong growth, driven by social apps like Farcaster. Notably, Friend.tech V2 is gearing up to launch with significant improvements to the user experience and distribution model.

🛠️ Web3 Infrastructure: Upgrades on All Fronts

  • Polygon introduced the Aggregation Layer, a zkL2 tier that consolidates multiple rollups.
  • Celestia partnered with AltLayer to launch Flash Layer, a rollup that can spin up and wind down within 5 minutes.
  • Avail — a direct competitor to Celestia — opened Early Access, aiming to lead the data availability space.
  • Espresso advanced its shared sequencing solution, adding support for both Arbitrum Orbit and Polygon CDK.

Takeaway

This past week, Web3 saw the strong return of Ethereum staking, continued rollup infrastructure momentum, and a flurry of innovation from L2 projects. But alongside the growth came fresh concerns around security and opaque DAO governance — a reminder that Web3 still has significant challenges to work through.