crypto news June 25, 2026

Ethereum Reorgs Around Cheaper L1, Account Abstraction as Token Unlocks Hit

The Ethereum Foundation cuts 20% of staff and reorganizes into five clusters, while mainnet fees stay below a cent and EIP-7702 makes smart wallets practical. Meanwhile, Humanity Protocol and Sahara AI face large token unlocks this week.

2 min read 10 claims web-cited

The Ethereum Foundation believes that making the base layer cheaper and easier to use will drive growth. On June 23, the EF announced a new team setup with five groups. These groups cover protocol, access, user, community, and institutional layers. The EF is also letting go of 54 workers, about 20% of the team [^claim_581]. This change shows a new plan: Ethereum is not just a base for other networks. It is working to make its own layer cheaper and more useful.

Fees are already lower. As of May 5, 2026, basic gas costs about 0.15 gwei. Daily averages were near 0.5 gwei through April. A simple ETH transfer now costs less than one cent [^claim_582]. This is a big shift from 2021–2023. It comes from a series of updates. Dencun (March 2024) added EIP-4844. This gave rollups their own data lane with a separate fee market. It cut down on competition with regular traffic [^claim_583]. Pectra (May 7, 2025) raised blob space from 3 target / 6 max per block to 6 target / 9 max. This made cheap data for L2s more available [^claim_584]. Fusaka (December 3, 2025) added PeerDAS. This lets validators sample blob data instead of downloading every blob fully [^claim_585].

The biggest change for builders may be EIP-7702, which came with Pectra. It lets a regular wallet act like a smart account. Users can batch actions, sponsor gas, use session keys, recover accounts, and use passkeys. They do not have to move to a new account [^claim_586]. This means wallet improvements that were once only on L2s or apps are now possible on mainnet. The plan continues: Glamsterdam is being built for H2 2026. Enshrined proposer-builder separation is a main feature for 2026. Proposed block-level access lists aim to make larger L1 blocks safer to process [^claim_587]. Further ahead, EIP-8141 (Frame Transactions) is being considered for Hegotá. It splits validation, execution, and gas payment into frames [^claim_588].

On the market side, token unlocks are a short-term supply event. Humanity Protocol will release 266.47 million H tokens on June 25. This is worth $54.77 million and is 9.41% of the total released supply [^claim_589]. The next day, Sahara AI plans to unlock 1.03 billion SAHARA tokens. This is worth $14.75 million and is 30.10% of the released supply [^claim_590]. These unlocks can affect liquidity and price for those assets.

The main point: Ethereum is changing its engineering and economics around the idea that L1 can be cheap and powerful. EIP-7702 makes account abstraction real on mainnet today. Glamsterdam and enshrined PBS aim to scale blocks safely. The EF’s smaller team suggests a sharper focus on execution. Watch for wallet adoption of EIP-7702 features and the H2 2026 delivery of Glamsterdam.

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10 claims web-cited

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[1] Ethereum Foundation said it is reorganizing into five clusters—protocol layer, access layer, user layer, community layer, and institutional layer—plus operations and management support, and the change includes 54 fewer colleagues, roughly 20% of the EF. web-cited