MetaMask launches its agent wallet, Glamsterdam Testnet goes public, a lattice-crypto attack draws doubt, NEAR Intents unifies liquidity

#web3 #blockchain #ethereum

Welcome to our weekly digest, where we unpack the latest in account and chain abstraction and the broader infrastructure shaping Ethereum.

This week: MetaMask launches a self-custodial wallet built for AI agents; Ethereum core devs send Glamsterdam to a public testnet while Frame Transactions pick up client support for Hegota; a new quantum attack on lattice-based cryptography draws quick skepticism; and NEAR Intents grows into a single cross-chain liquidity layer.

MetaMask Launches Its Agent Wallet
Glamsterdam Testnet Goes Public as Hegota Advances
A Lattice-Crypto Attack Draws Doubt
NEAR Intents Becomes a Unified Liquidity Layer

Please fasten your belts!

MetaMask Launches Its Agent Wallet

MetaMask launched its Agent Wallet, a self-custodial wallet built for AI agents to execute onchain actions inside rules the user sets. It lets traders and builders connect an agent framework, then define spend limits, allowlisted protocols, and a risk profile before the agent acts.

The pitch is that safety is the product. Agent Wallet is not blind delegation, so supported transactions pass through MetaMask’s security pipeline, including transaction simulation, Blockaid-powered threat scanning, and MEV protection, and anything outside policy pauses for two-factor approval.

Users pick between two modes. Guard Mode, the default, enforces daily spend limits, allowlists, and human approval for out-of-policy actions, while opt-in Beast Mode reduces approval interruptions but still runs security checks and still stops flagged transactions.

On capabilities, agents can connect frameworks like Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor and execute across HyperLiquid and EVM chains such as Robinhood and Monad. They can run ERC-7821 batch swaps, and they never need a chain’s native gas token, since MetaMask settles the fee in the token being moved.

This is account abstraction in a very practical form. Spend limits, allowlists, gasless execution, and batching are exactly the programmable account features that let an agent act autonomously without holding unchecked control of a wallet.

Glamsterdam Testnet Goes Public as Hegota Advances

During All Core Developers Consensus Call #184, developers decided Glamsterdam’s Devnet 8 will launch as a named, temporary public testnet, opening the upgrade to external validators and operators for the first time. They also closed the August 6 submission window for Hegota’s non-headliner proposals.

Closing the window does not mean approval. The submitted EIPs only entered a Proposed for Inclusion stage, where client teams will weigh their benefits, costs, and fit before any real inclusion decision, with FOCIL still the confirmed headliner for censorship resistance.

The new proposals widen Hegota’s possible scope. They include EIP-8198 (Quick Slots), which would cut slot time from 12 seconds to about 10, several networking upgrades built on PeerDAS, and EIP-8363, a contested tapered issuance burn that would push staking rewards toward zero as the staked share of ETH approaches half of supply.

The most relevant development for us happened around the call rather than in it. Nethermind announced that it has reviewed EIP-8141 Frame Transactions, contributed to the specification, completed an initial implementation, run a testnet, and now supports Frame Transactions as a Hegota headliner.

That matters because Frame Transactions are the native account abstraction enabler on Ethereum, the same primitive behind the trustless clear signing and modular Frame-Transaction accounts we covered recently. A major client team backing them as a headliner is a real step toward native AA landing in a future upgrade.

A Lattice-Crypto Attack Draws Doubt

A new paper on the IACR ePrint archive presented a fresh quantum cryptanalysis aimed at lattice-based cryptography, the math behind leading post-quantum schemes like Kyber and Dilithium. A working quantum attack on those foundations would be significant, since they are front-runners for securing systems, including Ethereum, against future quantum computers.

The claim drew fast skepticism. Quantum researcher Pierre-Luc Dallaire-Demers said the paper appears to contain several problems and broken theorems, and cryptographer Daniel J. Bernstein treated it cautiously, framing it as another bullet possibly dodged rather than a confirmed break.

The takeaway is not that lattice cryptography is broken. It is a reminder that post-quantum schemes are still young and under active attack, which is why cryptographers advise conservative parameters and keeping multiple independent approaches alive.

For Ethereum, the episode underlines why crypto-agility matters. One goal of native account abstraction through Frame Transactions (EIP-8141) is to make post-quantum signatures usable on Ethereum and to let accounts swap schemes as the field evolves, so no single algorithm becomes a permanent dependency.

NEAR Intents Becomes a Unified Liquidity Layer

NEAR is positioning NEAR Intents as a single liquidity and execution layer that the rest of crypto can route into. Its chain-abstraction system now spans 31 chains and more than 100 assets, with cross-chain settlement typically taking about 30 seconds.

The model changes what an app interface has to do. Instead of picking a bridge, switching networks, and arranging destination-chain gas, a user states the outcome they want, and competing solvers quote and execute the best route behind the scenes.

The target is liquidity fragmentation, the problem of the same assets being scattered across networks behind different wallets and bridges. A wallet or app that integrates Intents can offer access to assets on other chains without building every cross-chain route itself, through a widget or an API.

The numbers suggest it is past the experimental stage, with NEAR reporting more than $24 billion in cumulative Intents volume. As wallets, DeFi apps, and AI agents handle more transactions on their own, intent-based routing that hides the underlying chains fits neatly alongside the account-abstraction trend.

Start exploring Account Abstraction with Etherspot!