Today, in the crypto industry, a pro-crypto political group endorsed Andrew Cuomo in the New York mayoral race. Meanwhile, Grayscale Investments launched its staking Solana ETF in the US, and the Fusaka fork of Ethereum went live on its final testnet.
Cryptocurrency advocacy group supports Andrew Cuomo in New York mayoral race as election approaches
Innovate NY, a self-described “pro-digital asset” political group that received about $100,000 in funding ahead of New York’s mayoral election, is backing independent candidate and former governor Andrew Cuomo.
Innovate New York endorsed Cuomo for mayor in a statement Tuesday, and the race is already in the midst of early voting. The political group listed topics including “blockchain, tokenization, public interest stablecoins, and artificial intelligence.”
The organization is registered as an independent spender with the New York City Campaign Finance Commission and has received $99,500 in funding from six individuals through two companies as of Wednesday.
Spending records show Innovate NY spent $30,000 on fliers supporting Mr. Cuomo and against Democratic candidate Zoran Mamdani, who is currently leading against the former New York governor in many polls.
New York City’s mayoral race has drawn the attention of many in the crypto industry due to its potential impact on companies operating in the nation’s largest economic hub. Voters will choose between front-runners Mamdani, Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa on November 4.
In the final weeks of the campaign, Mr. Cuomo reached out to crypto-minded New York voters, promising to create an Innovation Council with advisory boards for crypto, AI, and biotech if elected. Mamdani, who leads in polls against Cuomo, has largely avoided making digital assets part of her campaign, focusing instead on cost-of-living issues like child care and affordable housing.
Grayscale Debuts Solana ETF, Joins Bitwise in SOL Staking ETF Race
Cryptocurrency asset management firm Grayscale Investments has expanded access to Solana exposure for institutional investors with the launch of the staking-enabled Solana Spot exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The Grayscale Solana Trust ETF began trading on the New York Stock Exchange Arca platform under the ticker GSOL, according to an announcement Wednesday. The product includes staking functionality, allowing investors to earn rewards through Solana’s proof-of-stake (PoS) network.
Inku Kang, senior vice president of ETFs at Grayscale, said the new products “expand options for investors.” The company said it is now one of the largest Solana (SOL) exchange traded product (ETP) managers in the U.S. based on assets under management.
The launch follows the debut of Bitwise’s Staking Solana ETF, which launched on Tuesday with $222.9 million in assets under management. Grayscale was launched with a $102.7 million seed, less than half that of Bitwise.
Ethereum’s Fusaka fork is ready for mainnet after final testnet debut
Fusaka, Ethereum’s next major upgrade, went live on the blockchain’s final testnet, Hoodi, on Tuesday, setting the stage for the mainnet launch on December 3rd, which is expected to add several scalability and security improvements to the network.
Fusaka adds several Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) via EIP-7594, such as Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS), which allows validators to read small pieces of data on the layer 2 network instead of full blobs, improving node efficiency.
EIP-7825 and EIP-7935 are also included in the update, which aims to increase gas limits and improve efficiency as Ethereum prepares to unlock parallel execution that processes multiple smart contracts simultaneously. Other EIPs included in the update focus on improving the Zero Knowledge Rollup.
The upgrade aims to improve Ethereum’s scalability, improving one-third of the so-called “blockchain trilemma” proposed by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, which also includes decentralization and security.