Ethereum Hits Record Usage as Fees Fall, ERC-7779, Vitalik Targets “Trust-Me” Wallets, Ethereum's Post-Quantum Security Team

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The latest news we’ll cover:

Ethereum Hits Record Usage as Fees Fall, Easing Network Conditions
ERC-7779 Brings Safe Wallet Migration to EIP-7702 Accounts
Vitalik Buterin: 2026 Is the End of “Trust-Me” Wallets
Ethereum Forms Post-Quantum Defense Team with $2M Prize Programs

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Ethereum Hits Record Usage as Fees Fall, Easing Network Conditions

Ethereum has reached record daily transaction activity while average costs continue to drop, signaling stronger network conditions and sustained user engagement, according to Decrypt.

On-chain data shows that daily transaction counts have climbed past previous cycle peaks from the 2021 bull market, while average fees have fallen to levels not seen in years. Over a recent two-week period, daily transactions climbed from around 1.8 million to 2.1 million, even as average gas costs slid to a fraction of their historical norms.

This combination of higher throughput and lower costs reflects the impact of Ethereum’s scaling architecture, including modular upgrades and enhanced data throughput for Layer 2 rollups that allow more activity to settle cheaply on the mainnet. Most of the increased usage appears to be driven by stablecoin transfers and payments, with Tether’s USDT volume on-chain running roughly twice that of Circle’s USDC.

Validator dynamics also point to network confidence: with roughly 30% of all ETH staked and the validator exit queue at zero, there is no immediate rush to leave staking positions, suggesting staking economics remain balanced.

While some analysts caution that a portion of low-value stablecoin transfers may reflect dusting or address-poisoning campaigns rather than organic activity, the broader picture shows Ethereum handling unprecedented usage at reduced cost, underscoring its growing role as a resilient settlement layer across diverse applications.

ERC-7779 Brings Safe Wallet Migration to EIP-7702 Accounts

The ERC-7779 draft introduces standardized interfaces to make EIP-7702 delegated EOAs interoperable across wallets, addressing storage collision risks and broken redelegation flows. It defines how smart accounts expose their storage bases and identity so users can safely migrate between wallet implementations without losing sovereignty or bricking their accounts.

The proposal assumes widespread adoption of EIP-7702, where EOAs temporarily delegate execution to smart contract logic for features such as gas sponsorship, batch execution, and automated flows. Because these delegated accounts use custom storage, switching wallets can cause storage collisions that lead to locked funds or security vulnerabilities, which ERC-7779 aims to prevent through standardized discovery and verification of storage bases.

To solve this, ERC-7779 introduces the InteroperableDelegatedAccount interface with two core methods: accountId() for human-readable wallet identity, and accountStorageBases() for returning all historical storage base slots used by the account. Wallets must check these values before redelegating to ensure the new implementation will not collide with previous storage layouts.

Storage bases must be appended to a shared array located at a deterministic slot derived from keccak(“InteroperableDelegatedAccount.ERC.Storage”), and computed using keccak256() to reduce collision risk. This creates a persistent audit trail of all storage namespaces the account has used, allowing wallets to verify redelegation safety instead of relying on hash probability alone.

The rationale compares this storage validation model to how ERC-2535 Diamonds verify facet storage layouts, arguing that explicit checks are safer than assuming low collision probability. It also notes that delegated EOAs require stronger guarantees than smart accounts, because EOA users already expect seamless wallet migration.

Security guidance warns that accounts may falsely claim compliance, so wallets should verify known implementations. The standard enforces keccak-based storage derivation, forbids replay-protection resets during redelegation, and recommends best-effort storage cleanup while acknowledging architectural limits.

Vitalik Buterin: 2026 Is the End of “Trust-Me” Wallets

Vitalik Buterin claims 2026 will be the year Ethereum begins ending the dominance of “trust-me” wallets — wallet experiences that implicitly rely on centralized RPC providers and other off-chain trust assumptions.

Buterin argues that over the past decade, while Ethereum’s protocol remained trustless, user defaults drifted toward convenience-first compromises, including wallets depending on centralized servers for blockchain data and applications becoming tied to cloud endpoints that can leak user information. He frames this as a reversion point where the ecosystem should make trust-minimized paths the default experience.

The article outlines a menu of infrastructure fixes aimed at making trustless behavior easier than trusting intermediaries. These include verified RPC clients that convert remote RPC responses into locally verifiable data, private information retrieval (PIR) to protect query privacy, and fork-choice-enforced inclusion lists (FOCIL, EIP-7805) to structurally enforce censorship resistance in block building.

A central example of this effort is Helios, a light client that can sync quickly and serve verifiable blockchain data locally, reducing reliance on third-party RPC providers. The CryptoSlate report notes Helios can run a local JSON-RPC endpoint and serve proof-verified responses to wallets and apps.

The Ethereum Foundation’s Kohaku project is highlighted as the delivery vehicle for these changes, with plans to integrate Helios and other primitives into a reference wallet that can be used as a model or SDK for other wallets. Making such tooling default would shift user experience toward trust-minimized operation rather than implicit reliance on centralized infrastructure.

Ethereum Forms Post-Quantum Defense Team with $2M Prize Programs

The Ethereum Foundation has launched a dedicated Post-Quantum (PQ) Security team, formally elevating quantum resistance to a top strategic priority for the protocol. The initiative is led by Thomas Coratger, with Emile from leanVM joining as a core contributor, and is backed by $2 million in research prizes aimed at hardening Ethereum against future quantum threats.

In a public statement, Ethereum researcher Justin Drake confirmed the strategic shift, writing:

“After years of quiet R&D, EF management has officially declared PQ security a top strategic priority.”

The funding is split into two major initiatives: the $1M Poseidon Prize, focused on strengthening the Poseidon hash function used in zero-knowledge systems, and the $1M Proximity Prize, which supports broader quantum-resistant cryptography research. Drake added that Ethereum is “betting big on hash-based cryptography to enjoy the strongest and leanest cryptographic foundations.”

Ethereum has already deployed multi-client post-quantum consensus devnets, with early participation from Lighthouse, Grandine, and experimental clients. Weekly PQ interoperability calls are coordinating development across teams, while a new PQ All Core Devs breakout focused on transactions, account abstraction, precompiles, and signature aggregation will begin next month.

The Foundation is also expanding education and research through international PQ workshops, a multi-part ZKPodcast series, and a forthcoming public roadmap, which aims to deliver a full transition to post-quantum security with zero downtime and zero loss of funds.

Together, the team, funding, devnets, and roadmap mark Ethereum’s shift from long-term quantum theory into active protocol-level engineering, positioning PQ security as a core pillar of Ethereum’s future architecture.

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