A packed week of crypto project updates brought a mix of governance fights, infrastructure upgrades, legal structuring moves and new product plans. World Liberty Financial, or WLFI, said it is setting up World Liberty Trust Co., N.A. and promoted former general counsel Mack McCain to chief legal officer and chief administrative officer, while also naming him chief trust officer of the planned entity. The project also rolled out its first batch of USD1-denominated RWA perpetual markets on Aster DEX and said it would back them with 250 million WLFI and $12.5 million in USD1 liquidity. Elsewhere, Optimism approved a contentious proposal that redirects 546.9 million OP previously earmarked for user airdrops into a strategic ecosystem fund managed by the Optimism Foundation, after a late 8.486 million OP vote from Test in Prod swung the result. Arbitrum activated the ArbOS 61 "Elara" upgrade, adding optional compliance filtering for Orbit chains and raising the Stylus contract code size cap from 24 KB to 96 KB. Linera said it plans a new product wave around the LNRA token sale and said it wants to become "the next Hyperliquid." The week also included the Ethereum Foundation’s $1 million post-quantum research challenge, Gnosis Chain’s approval of a proposal to transition from an independent L1 to an Ethereum L2, Arthur Hayes’ return to lead Flop Labs, and Harmony’s confirmation of a network rollback that will permanently discard more than 109,000 user transactions.

GnosisDAO has approved a plan to move Gnosis Chain from a standalone layer-1 network to a ZK-proven Ethereum Economic Zone, or EEZ, rollup. The proposal, known as GIP-153, passed with 123,158 GNO in favor, 115 against and 151 abstaining across 54 voters, with total turnout reaching 123,425 GNO and clearing the 75,000 GNO quorum. Under the plan, Gnosis Chain would retire its own validator set and settle directly to Ethereum, effectively becoming a layer-2 network that relies on Ethereum validators for settlement. The first launch is targeted for late 2026 or early 2027, assuming the required EEZ technology is ready. Gnosis and ZisK developed the EEZ framework with funding from the Ethereum Foundation. The design aims to let smart contracts across participating rollups execute synchronously without bridges, while Gnosis Chain would keep its existing apps, balances and xDAI gas token. Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick said the framework could reduce reliance on bridges and improve asset usability across EVM chains.

Gnosis Chain has approved a strategic shift away from operating as a standalone Layer 1 and toward becoming an Ethereum-settled rollup under the Ethereum Economic Zone framework. The proposal, announced by Gnosis Chain and published on the GnosisDAO governance forum, would retire the network’s independent validator set and replace its settlement security model with Ethereum validators. If implemented, roughly 350,000 GNO would be unlocked as the validator set winds down, and the treasury-funded staking subsidy would come to an end. For users, the transition is designed to be minimally disruptive. xDAI would remain the gas token, while wallet addresses, balances, and contract state would continue without a migration to a new chain. The technical draw is synchronous composability with Ethereum, though the first version would only support atomic calls from Gnosis to Ethereum. Calls in the other direction, as well as broader cross-instance composability, are planned for later stages. The proposal does not finalize the technical architecture or request new funding. It does, however, state that Gnosis Ltd will initially operate a centralized composer responsible for transaction ordering, block building, and submission for proving and settlement. The first Ethereum Economic Zone block is targeted for December 2026 or January 2027, with bidirectional composability and real-time proving expected in 2027.

Gnosis Chain has formally passed GIP-153, a proposal to transition the network from a sovereign standalone Layer 1 into a highly Ethereum-aligned Layer 2. The vote cleared the quorum threshold shortly before the deadline after several officially linked addresses, including one associated with Gnosis co-founder StefanDGeorge, cast votes in favor. The proposal was put forward by Gnosis founder tw_tter together with core contributors. Its stated goal is to move Gnosis Chain away from the weaknesses the proposal associates with a traditional Proof-of-Stake Layer 1 model, including limited security and reliance on inflationary subsidies. Under the plan, Gnosis Chain would instead inherit security from Ethereum validators. The proposal also says the network is intended to become the first Ethereum Layer 2 to achieve synchronous composability. The vote marks a formal governance step in reshaping Gnosis Chain’s architecture around closer alignment with Ethereum.

GnosisDAO has formally introduced GIP-153, a governance proposal that asks the community for directional consensus on moving Gnosis Chain away from its current position as an independent Layer 1 and into an Ethereum Economic Zone, or EEZ, rollup. The proposal, written by Gnosis co-founder Friederike Ernst together with Philippe Schommers and Ben Carvill, is notable for saying plainly that Gnosis Chain’s standalone L1 positioning has failed. It argues that the chain’s promise of credible neutrality overlaps too heavily with Ethereum, while Gnosis lacks the scale and liquidity to justify carrying a full security stack on its own. The document lays out the economic pressure behind that conclusion. According to the proposal, Gnosis Chain’s fee revenue does not cover network security costs, forcing GnosisDAO’s treasury to subsidize the gap and causing about 2.3% annual dilution for non-stakers. It also points to a TVL of roughly $91 million and a GNO market capitalization of around $280 million, figures it presents as marginal in the current L1 race. Rather than becoming a standard L2, Gnosis wants to adopt the EEZ framework, whose main pitch is synchronous composability with Ethereum. If implemented, the shift would also unlock about 350,000 staked GNO, remove the existing validator set, and hand sequencing to Gnosis Ltd. Community voting is expected in August to September 2026.

Gnosis Chain is seeking directional consensus from its community on a proposal to move away from its current standalone Layer 1 model and become an Ethereum Economic Zone, or EEZ, ZK Rollup under GnosisDAO’s GIP-153. The proposal, co-authored by Friederike Ernst and others, argues that Gnosis Chain’s positioning as an independent L1 has failed because its “credible neutrality” pitch overlaps heavily with Ethereum while lacking Ethereum’s scale and liquidity. It also says fee revenue has been far too low to cover security costs, leaving those expenses dependent on DAO treasury subsidies and causing about 2.3% annual dilution for non-stakers. Under the proposed design, the network would produce blocks every two seconds, submit a state proof and settle to Ethereum L1 on every Ethereum block, and keep user addresses, balances, and contract state continuous. xDAI would remain the gas token. The plan would also unlock about 350,000 staked GNO, or roughly 27% of circulating supply, remove the current independent validator set, hand sequencing to Gnosis Ltd, and turn existing bridge validators into prover nodes. A GIP vote is expected in August to September, with a genesis block targeted for January 2027.