ZK Industry News: September 18th to 24th, 2025
✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨
We're bringing you industry highlights each week so you can stay aligned with the latest developments in ZK.
Here's what happened from September 18th-24th, 2025.
The Fusaka upgrade has been tentatively targeted for Ethereum's mainnet activation on December 3, 2025
Ethereum core developers have scheduled this tentative timeline. It will first go live on Holesky (October 1), Sepolia (October 14), and Hoodi (October 28). Mainnet client releases are planned for early November. Fusaka introduces scaling improvements through PeerDAS, enhancing data capacity and reducing costs for rollups.
Important decisions were made on today's Ethereum developer call, ACDC #165. Developers confirmed the public testnet schedule and BPO hard fork schedule for Fusaka.
— Christine D. Kim (@christine_dkim) September 18, 2025
Let's get into it. pic.twitter.com/mNrYMYyDj2
The Ethereum Foundation has committed $500,000 per year for the next three years to the Columbia-Ethereum Research Center on Blockchain Protocol Design
The Center will support research across computer science, engineering, economics, and policy, and will offer fellowships, bootcamps, and workshops to foster education and innovation in these fields.
0/ The Ethereum Foundation is committed to supporting the ‘Columbia-Ethereum Research Center on Blockchain Protocol Design’ by matching up to $500,000 in donations each year for the first three years. https://t.co/7zoC1XfvY8
— Ethereum Foundation (@ethereumfndn) September 18, 2025
Vitalik Buterin published an article about how low-risk DeFi can be for Ethereum what search was for Google
It emphasizes that low-risk DeFi provides valuable, permissionless access to global financial systems, aligning with Ethereum's cultural goals. This model, offering secure, stable financial products, enhances Ethereum's ecosystem while supporting global economic inclusion and cultural integrity.
Low-risk defi can be for Ethereum what search was for Googlehttps://t.co/6xIxCrOToQ
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 20, 2025
Powdr team posted an article on Accelerating Ethereum with Autoprecompiles
The article discusses how Powdr's autoprecompiles aim to replace manual precompiles and improve ZK proofs for Ethereum block verification. Benchmarks show autoprecompiles outperform manual ones in some cases, suggesting a future where manual precompiles are obsolete.
In our latest article about powdr autoprecompiles, we ask ourselves 2 questions:
— powdr labs (@powdr_labs) September 22, 2025
- Can we make manually written precompiles obsolete?
- How do autoprecompiles improve the state-of-the-art of ZK proofs for Ethereum block verification?
More in the article or below👇 pic.twitter.com/6rdsYu6LL5
NuConstruct team launched the TOOL Testnet
TOOL is Ethereum's Hyperscale Co-processor: a permissionless, customizable network based on Ethereum L1. It offers Soft Finality, transforming Ethereum into a 1-second block time chain, enabling fast trade, payments, and enhanced DeFi leadership with verifiable privacy.
1// We're proud to announce TOOL Testnet launch! pic.twitter.com/pogTDg2q8p
— 0xprincess (@0x9212ce55) September 24, 2025
Ben Adams published an article about Building ZK Proofs for Ethereum with Nethermind Client
The article discusses Nethermind's progress in building ZK proofs for Ethereum, highlighting key milestones like execution witness, stateless executor, and minimal EVM binary. The next steps include integrating with Zisk and supporting RISC0 and SP1.
— Ben {chmark} Adams ⟠ (@ben_a_adams) September 23, 2025
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