Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap of a very powerful tales in cryptocurrency tech growth. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, a reporter at CoinDesk.

On this challenge:

• ZKsync Proposal Goals to Tie ZK Token to Community Income
• Olas Unveils Pearl v1, the First ‘AI Agent App Retailer’
• Ethereum Builders Lock In Fusaka Improve for Dec. 3 With PeerDAS Rollout
• The Graph Builders, Edge & Node, Unveil “ampersend” Dashboard to Handle AI Agent Funds

Community Information

PROPOSAL TO CHANGE ZKSYNC TOKENOMICS: The creator behind the Ethereum layer-2 community ZKsync launched a proposal to rework its ZK token from a governance instrument right into a token with actual financial utility. The proposal, “From Governance to Utility: ZK Token Proposal, Half I,” printed by Alex Gluchowski within the ZKsync neighborhood discussion board, outlines how community utilization and enterprise licensing may instantly feed worth again into the token’s economic system. The transfer may shift how ZKsync’s ecosystem will generate and distribute worth. As an alternative of ZK functioning purely as a governance token, the proposal would make community exercise, like interoperability and enterprise use, instantly affect its economic system. The proposal argues that the community’s rising ecosystem, which now contains modular chains, non-public “Prividium” networks and a cross-chain interoperability layer referred to as the Elastic chain, wants a token mannequin that evolves with it. “The ZK token started as a device for governance,” the put up says. “By means of governance, it may now grow to be the heartbeat of an incorruptible economic system.” Underneath the plan, ZKsync would introduce two essential income streams. The primary would come from onchain interoperability charges, charged when customers transfer belongings or messages between the rollups within the ecosystem. The second can be offchain licensing income from enterprise instruments comparable to compliance or reporting modules tailor-made for establishments constructing on the protocol. — Margaux Nijkerk Learn extra.

OLAS UNVEILS FIRST AI AGENT APP STORE: Olas unveiled Pearl v1, a decentralized “AI agent app retailer” that lets customers personal and function autonomous AI brokers, mixing, it stated, the convenience of Web2 with the self-sovereignty of Web3. Not like centralized AI platforms that lease entry to customers, Pearl provides full management and transparency: each agent motion is verifiable onchain. Customers can begin with acquainted logins like Google or Apple, fund brokers by way of card and retain full information custody. Constructed on rules of possession, curation and transparency, Pearl gives a rising library of brokers for finance, artistic and social use instances. The introduction follows a beta success story the place Modius, a decentralized finance buying and selling agent, earned over 150% return on funding in 150 days. “Centralized infrastructure has achieved international attain and efficiency, but this focus means choices or faults can strip customers of their information and work utterly. Because of this possession is so necessary,” David Minarsch, a founding member of Olas, stated within the launch. — Will Canny Learn extra.

FUSAKA ON ETHEREUM MAINNET INKED IN: Ethereum builders formally inked within the long-awaited Fusaka improve for Dec. 3 in the course of the community’s bi-weekly coordination name. The choice kicks off the countdown to Ethereum’s second arduous fork of 2025. The improve’s headline characteristic is PeerDAS. PeerDAS, one among 12 enhancements included within the launch, permits validators to confirm solely parts of knowledge, quite than complete “blobs,” considerably decreasing bandwidth necessities and reducing prices for each validators and layer-2 networks. This may make Ethereum sooner and cheaper, each for customers making transactions and builders constructing on the community. The choice was finalized throughout the All Core Builders Consensus Layer (ACDC) name #168, simply two days after the improve was efficiently deployed on Hoodi, the third and last testnet, with none points. The improve will activate on the Ethereum mainnet when the blockchain reaches slot 13,164,544, anticipated to happen at 21:49 UTC on Dec. 3. — Margaux Nijkerk Learn extra.

EDGE & NODE COME OUT WITH AMPERSEND: Edge & Node, the crew that created The Graph, launched ampersend, a administration platform for coordinating how autonomous AI brokers function and transact, the corporate stated. Constructed on Coinbase’s x402 cost protocol and Google’s A2A communication framework, ampersend provides automation, observability and compliance controls to what’s turning into referred to as the “agentic economic system.” As AI brokers start to deal with funds, information and communication on behalf of customers and organizations, the dearth of standardization has made their operations tough to watch. Coinbase launched x402, its agentic funds protocol earlier this 12 months. It’s an open-source system that allows on the spot stablecoin funds on any web site. The addition of ampersend gives a single dashboard the place firms can set spending limits, handle insurance policies, and monitor exercise throughout networks. Edge & Node developed the platform alongside Coinbase, Google, and the Ethereum Basis’s decentralized AI crew. The system additionally integrates with rising Ethereum requirements like ERC-8004, designed for agent discovery and repute monitoring. – Ian Allison Learn extra.

In Different Information

• Cryptocurrency trade Gemini (GEMI) is planning a transfer into the prediction market sector, Bloomberg reported. The trade based by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss mentioned unveiling merchandise as quickly as potential, in keeping with the report, citing folks conversant in the matter. Gemini, which grew to become a publicly traded firm on the Nasdaq International Choose Market in September, is eyeing a transfer into an business that has gained appreciable traction within the final 12 months. Market leaders comparable to Polymarket and Kalshi shot to prominence in the course of the 2024 U.S. election marketing campaign throughout which greater than $8 billion in bets have been made on the previous’s platform. This has prompted an array of different companies within the monetary, expertise and media sectors focusing on entries into the market. Trump Media & Expertise Group (DJT), the mother or father firm behind President Donald Trump’s social platform Reality Social, stated final month it deliberate to roll out predictions markets in partnership with Crypto.com. — Jamie Crawley Learn extra.
• The U.S. Treasury imposed recent sanctions on a gaggle of North Korean bankers and establishments accused of laundering tens of millions in cryptocurrency tied to cyberattacks and illicit IT work schemes that assist fund Pyongyang’s weapons applications. The Workplace of Overseas Belongings Management (OFAC) stated eight people and two entities have been designated for “laundering funds derived from cybercrime and data expertise employee fraud,” together with proceeds linked to ransomware and crypto thefts. “North Korean state-sponsored hackers steal and launder cash to fund the regime’s nuclear weapons program,” stated Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Monetary Intelligence John Ok. Hurley in a press launch. — Oliver Knight Learn extra.

Regulatory and Coverage

• Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s possibilities of getting a recent trial appear to be dwindling, judging by the pointed questions of an appellate courtroom throughout a listening to in Manhattan. Bankman-Fried’s push for a brand new trial largely hinges on his long-standing argument that as a result of the vast majority of FTX collectors have been made complete within the chapter course of — which relied closely on the sale of illiquid belongings together with actual property and enterprise capital investments — there was, in truth, no precise theft. Throughout protection lawyer Alexandra Shapiro’s presentation, the appellate judges repeatedly minimize in to query her arguments. “There’s a proper to current proof as to his intent, completely, however I don’t perceive what you’re saying about there [being] goal corroboration, when the target corroboration appears to be that, effectively, after the chapter, more cash was made,” stated Circuit Decide Eunice Lee. When Shapiro responded saying that it was clear on the time of the chapter that there have been “very helpful belongings within the FTX property that corroborated Mr. Bankman-Fried’s view that [FTX and Alameda Research] have been solvent,” one other decide, Circuit Decide Maria Araújo Kahn, pushed again, saying: “However [Bankman-Fried’s] misrepresentations have been to not solvency, however liquidity … a part of the federal government’s concept of the case is that the defendant misrepresented to traders that their cash was protected, was not being utilized in the way in which that it was the federal government claims and the jury convicted it was, in truth, used. So it wasn’t a problem of solvency, proper? It was a problem of liquidity, whether or not they may get their cash in the event that they requested for it.” — Cheyenne Ligon Learn extra.
• President Trump reiterated his declare that he would not know who Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao is throughout an interview with CBS Information. Trump granted Zhao a presidential pardon in October, practically a 12 months after the manager pleaded responsible to violating the Financial institution Secrecy Act and served a four-month jail sentence. Trump advised CBS’s Norah O’Donnell that Zhao “was handled actually badly by the Biden administration,” describing the previous Binance CEO as a “sufferer of weaponization by authorities.” The president stated he had been advised Zhao “was arrange,” and that his pardon was supposed to make sure the U.S. remained aggressive within the cryptocurrency sector. “I don’t know the person in any respect. I don’t suppose I ever met him,” Trump stated in the course of the interview with CBS. “Perhaps I did. Or, , any person shook my hand or one thing. However I don’t suppose I ever met him. I don’t know who he’s. I used to be advised that he was a sufferer, identical to I used to be and identical to many different folks.” Through the CBS interview, Trump dismissed questions on conflicts of curiosity, emphasizing his deal with retaining the U.S. “primary in crypto” and insisting his sons’ enterprise ventures have been separate from authorities. — Sam Reynolds Learn extra.

Calendar

• Nov. 17-22: Devconnect, Buenos Aires
• Dec. 11-13: Solana Breakpoint, Abu Dhabi
• Feb. 10-12, 2026: Consensus, Hong Kong
• Feb. 17-21, 2026: EthDenver, Denver
• Mar. 30-Apr. 2, 2026: EthCC, Cannes
• Apr.15-16, 2026: Paris Blockchain Week, Paris
• Might 5-7, 2026: Consensus, Miami