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Konstantin Lomashuk, the founder of the Lido staking protocol, has teased his intention to build a “Second Foundation” to advance Ethereum’s ecosystem.

Over the past several days, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined plans for a major restructuring of the Ethereum Foundation (EF), the nonprofit organization responsible for supporting Ethereum’s development. In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), Buterin shared details of the reorganization, which he said would streamline decision-making processes and address inefficiencies.
The announcement has sparked criticism, with some arguing that Buterin’s central role in the restructuring process undermines Ethereum’s ethos of decentralization.
The Ethereum Foundation, however, has long been scrutinized for its own centralizing influence within the Ethereum ecosystem. Over the past year, the organization has faced mounting pressure to define a clearer vision for Ethereum’s future as competing networks like Solana make strides.
Read more: Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Goes on Offense Amid Major Leadership Shake-up
The EF has also been criticized for its “rollup-centric” roadmap, which prioritizes “layer-2” networks that enable faster and cheaper transactions atop Ethereum. While these layer-2 rollups have boosted Ethereum’s throughput, they’ve also drawn concerns about potential trade-offs, such as diminished security guarantees and a notable dent in Ethereum’s base fee revenues.

Lomashuk, who has previously voiced concerns about the Ethereum Foundation’s direction, hinted at the concept of a “Second Foundation” in a December post on X. “The idea of a ‘Second Foundation’ is more about creating competition between different groups, giving the community a choice,” Lomashuk wrote. “EF is super deep, and it’s almost impossible for outsiders to contribute without building long-term research muscle. Without competition, we risk losing the right path.”
On Wednesday, Lomashuk published another X post sharing a newly established account for “Second Foundation.”
Representatives for Lomashuk did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Martin Köppelmann, a prominent Ethereum developer close to Lomashuk, told CoinDesk that the “Second Foundation” proposal is authentic.
“He is certainly seriously thinking about it,” Köppelmann said. “The goal of course is to make it open to anyone who subscribes to the same ideas – roughly that Ethereum needs to scale better and faster.”
Lido, the protocol founded by Lomashuk, allows users to pool their ETH to participate in Ethereum’s staking mechanism, which lets users “stake” (lock up) crypto with the network in exchange for interest. Stake correlates to power in Ethereum’s governance system, making Lido a pivotal entity in the ecosystem: Currently, Lido accounts for around 28% of Ethereum’s staked ETH, making it the network’s single-largest validator.
In addition to Lido, Lomashuk co-founded P2P Validator, a company providing infrastructure for Ethereum validators, and cyber.Fund, a venture capital firm he operates alongside another Lido co-founder. His growing influence raises questions about the potential dynamics between a “Second Foundation” and the existing Ethereum Foundation as the network continues to evolve.

An industry-wide debate over crypto institutional adoption and centralized custody risk will trigger a surge of interest in self-custody, OKX’s President Hong Fang said in a recent interview with CoinDesk.
While institutional adoption and the increasing popularity of crypto ETFs are a net positive for the industry, there may be a shift in industry narrative to caution against custody concentration risk, Fang argued. She predicts that most native crypto users will adopt self-custody this year.

On OKX, assets held in its self-custody wallets (almost $50 billion) exceed assets on its centralized exchange ($30.8 billion).
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“The tension between adoption and concentration risk will come under a spotlight,” said Fang, who will be a speaker at Consensus Hong Kong in February. “Against this backdrop, I anticipate more industry campaigns to educate why self-custody is important and how to use it, and more products to make it easier for the masses to use self-custody and alleviate the risks accordingly.”

According to Fang, OKX DEX volume has increased 20 times. But she argues that DEXs and centralized exchanges are complementary.
“The crypto-native audience will want to be able to use CEX for reliability and DEX for catching innovations,” she said. “Such supply-demand dynamics will drive further adoption of DEX to enable innovation while supporting the gradual maturity of the crypto regulatory framework.”
A bitcoin strategic reserve?
A national bitcoin strategic reserve, a policy touted by the new Trump administration, would serve to centralize the leading cryptocurrency. But many in crypto doubt it will actually happen, if bettors on Polymarket are any guide (as of Jan. 22, they were putting the chances of Trump creating such a reserve in the first 100 days of his administration at just 30 percent.)
Fang agrees with this sentiment.
“I personally find it hard to believe that major sovereign countries like the U.S. will officially adopt bitcoin strategic reserve at the federal level at this stage, but it is very possible that smaller sovereign countries or states could,” she said.
But, this being crypto, anything is possible.
Very unexpected events — like a lack of follow through by the Trump administration on its crypto promises — could dampen the bull run quickly, she said. But the biggest risk according to Fang remains over-centralization.
For that risk there’s a vaccine: self-custody. Which, according to OKX, the market is quickly adopting.

An industry-wide debate over crypto institutional adoption and centralized custody risk will trigger a surge of interest in self-custody, OKX's …

TITLE: Lido Co-Founder Teases 'Second Foundation' for Ethereum Amid Community Backlash DEK: Vitalik Butern's proposal for an Ethereum Foundation …

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Coinbase has petitioned a U.S. appeals court to rule on whether or not the crypto trading activity on its platform should be subject to securities laws.

In a Tuesday court filing, lawyers for Coinbase urged the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to hear its case, arguing that it “presents the single best opportunity to decide the fundamental legal question of how to treat the secondary trading of digital assets.”
“This case cries out for the Court’s immediate attention,” lawyers for Coinbase wrote in their petition. “Whether secondary-market trading of digital assets falls within the federal securities laws is a question of immense importance to the crypto industry, consumers, financial institutions, and lower courts in need of guidance. This case presents an ideal vehicle to address that question and provide clear rules for this multi-trillion-dollar industry.”
Coinbase argued that crypto trading on its platform should not actually trigger federal securities laws because secondary crypto transactions don’t meet all the prongs of the Howey test, the long-standing legal framework used to decide what qualifies as an “investment contract.” Because buyers and sellers on Coinbase’s platform are matched in a blind bid-ask system and are therefore anonymous to each other, there can be no common enterprise between them, the filing said.

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The exchange’s petition comes two weeks after the Southern District of New York (SDNY) issued a rare stay in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) case against Coinbase, allowing Coinbase time to appeal to a higher court for clarity.
The SEC sued Coinbase in June 2023 for allegedly acting as an unregistered securities exchange, broker and clearing agency. When Coinbase attempted to get the suit dismissed, the district court judge overseeing the case denied its motion, finding that the SEC had made a “plausible” argument that the exchange was violating federal securities laws. On Jan. 7, however, the judge punted the question to a higher court, writing “conflicting decisions on important legal issues necessitate the Second Circuit’s guidance.”
The SEC’s case against Coinbase will be put on pause while the exchange seeks answers from the Second Circuit.
The same day Coinbase’s petition was filed, the SEC – now under the leadership of Republican Acting Chair Mark Uyeda – announced the formation of a crypto task force spearheaded by crypto-friendly Commissioner Hester Peirce. The move signals a shift away from the agency’s “regulation by enforcement” approach to crypto under former Chairman Gary Gensler.
“To date, the SEC has relied primarily on enforcement actions to regulate crypto retroactively and reactively, often adopting untested legal interpretations along the way,” the SEC said in a statement. “Clarity regarding who must register and practical solutions for those seeking to register, have been elusive. The result has been confusion about what is legal, which creates an environment hostile to innovation and conducive to fraud. The SEC can do better.”

Coinbase has petitioned a U.S. appeals court to rule on whether or not the crypto trading activity on its platform should be subject to securities …