The Protocol: Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT alleges Axiom employee conducted insider trading

Also: Ethereum’s “strawmap”, Robinhood chain update and OpenAI + smart contracts

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What to know:

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's weekly wrap of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, a reporter at CoinDesk.

In this issue:

• ZachXBT alleges Axiom employee conducted insider trading
• Ethereum Foundation drops most ambitious roadmap in years, targets finality in seconds by 2029
• Robinhood vs. Vitalik: Why the trading app is building its own L2 while Ethereum founder cools on them
• Sam Altman's OpenAI unveils ‘EVMbench’ to test whether AI can keep crypto’s smart contracts safe

Network News

AXIOM EMPLOYEE ACCUSED OF ALLEGEDLY INSIDER TRAINING BY ZACHXBT: Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT said a senior employee at onchain trading platform Axiom Exchange allegedly abused internal access to user data to track private wallets and potentially trade memecoins using inside information. In a thread posted to X, ZachXBT said Broox Bauer, a New York-based senior business development employee at Axiom, used internal dashboards to look up sensitive user information — including linked wallet addresses — and shared that data with a small group that mapped trades of prominent crypto influencers. Axiom, founded in 2024 by Mist and Cal and a member of Y Combinator’s Winter 2025 cohort, has generated more than $390 million in revenue to date, according to the investigator. ZachXBT said he was retained to investigate allegations that internal tools were being misused. He did not say who retained him. In audio clips shared in the thread, a person said to be Bauer allegedly claims he can track “any Axiom user” by referral code, wallet address or UID and “find out anything to do with that person.” In the same recording, he describes initially researching 10–20 wallets and gradually increasing activity “so it does not look that suspicious.” — Oliver Knight Read more.

EF ‘STRAWMAP’ ROADMAP RELEASED: Ethereum Foundation published a roadmap that reads like it's building for the next decade, not surviving the current quarter. The document, called the "strawmap" and released Wednesday by EF researcher Justin Drake, lays out a plan for seven hard forks through 2029. Hard forks are network-wide software upgrades that every node must implement or get left behind, making them the highest-stakes type of change Ethereum can make. The plan is organized around five goals described as “north stars.” These include a faster layer 1 with transaction finality in seconds; dramatically higher layer-1 throughput capable of around 10,000 transactions per second (referred to as “gigagas” scale); Layer-2 networks reaching “teragas” levels of throughput, or roughly 10 million TPS; post-quantum cryptography and built-in privacy through shielded ETH transfers. — Shaurya Malwa Read more.

ROBINHOOD CHAIN TESTNET UPDATE: Robinhood's (HOOD) testnet logged 4 million transactions in the first week its testnet chain went live, the investment platform's CEO Vlad Tenev said on X. The Robinhood Chain, which focuses on tokenization and trading, comes as centralized exchanges are looking to build their own blockchain infrastructure even as the broader Ethereum ecosystem debates its future. “Developers are already building on our L2, designed for tokenized real world assets and onchain financial services,” Tenev wrote. Testnets are risk-free environments for developers to test code and experimental features before the mainnet goes live. The two stages of a network's development can be compared to a flight simulator and a commercial flight. The Robinhood Chain's testnet has arrived against the backdrop of a larger reckoning in the Ethereum world. Earlier this month, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin declared that the protocol’s long-held layer-2 (L2) rollup-centric roadmap “no longer makes sense,” arguing that many rollups have fallen short of full decentralization and that Ethereum’s base layer is scaling faster than expected. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.

OPENAI DIPS ITS TOES INTO SMART CONTRACTS: OpenAI is stepping deeper into crypto security with the debut of EVMbench, a testing framework designed to measure how well artificial intelligence can understand and potentially secure smart contracts on Ethereum and similar blockchains. Smart contracts, the self-executing code deployed on blockchains like Ethereum, underpin decentralized exchanges, lending protocols and a wide range of onchain financial applications. Because these contracts are typically immutable once deployed, vulnerabilities can be serious. EVMbench is OpenAI’s attempt to see whether modern AI systems are up to the task of helping prevent those issues. Built in collaboration with crypto investment firm Paradigm, the benchmark draws on real-world smart contract vulnerabilities already uncovered through audits and security competitions. The system measures performance across three core abilities: identifying security bugs, exploiting those bugs in a controlled environment and fixing the vulnerable code without breaking the contracts. OpenAI says the goal is to establish a clear standard for evaluating AI systems in blockchain security, especially as decentralized finance continues to secure billions of dollars in user funds. The stakes for smart contracts are only rising. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.

In Other News

• Meta, the U.S. tech giant helmed by Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, aims to enter the stablecoin space later this year, pending successful integration with a third-party firm to facilitate payments using the dollar-pegged token technology, according to three people familiar with the plans. The tech giant, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram and has more than 3 billion users, wants to begin its stablecoin integration early in the second half of this year, said one of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans are not public. Meta is planning to integrate a vendor to help administer stablecoin-backed payments and implement a new wallet, the person said. A second person said that Meta has sent out a request for product (RFP) to third-party firms and mentioned Stripe as a likely candidate for piloting the stablecoin. Introducing stablecoins would let Meta open payment rails to its massive user base while bypassing expensive traditional banking fees, and potentially position it as a global leader in "social commerce" and cross-border remittances. — Ian Allison Read more.
• American Bitcoin (ABTC), the bitcoin mining company backed by the family of President Donald Trump, said it lost $59 million in the fourth quarter as the plummeting price of the largest cryptocurrency eroded the value of its holdings. The company, which went public in September, less than a month before the largest cryptocurrency hit a record high, is pursuing a dual strategy of mining and purchases, with roughly one-third of its BTC coming from mining operations. The rest comes from open-market purchases and strategic transactions, funded in large part by selling stock. The company, which is 20% owned by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr, generated $150.5 million through an at-the-market stock offering during the quarter. The capital allowed it to boost its per-share bitcoin exposure by nearly 50%. It now holds more than 6,000 BTC, it said. During the quarter, it mined bitcoin at a 53% gross margin, suggesting production costs were significantly below spot prices even as the price of the cryptocurrency fell. Revenue rose 22% from the third quarter. — Francesco Rodrigues & James Van Straten Read more.

Regulatory and Policy

• The Indiana state legislature authorized public retirement and savings plans to gain exposure to digital assets and spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs), while affirming residents’ access to crypto investments. Governor Mike Braun is expected to sign HB 1042 into law within the next 10 days. Indiana joins at least seven other states, including Wyoming, Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona, that have moved to integrate crypto-linked products into public investment frameworks. Almost half of the state governments in the U.S. are either on a path toward putting some of their money into crypto or already have, with much of this trend developing since President Donald Trump directed his administration to establish a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve. — Olivier Acuna Read more.
• The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned a Russian company, Operation Zero, and the individuals behind it, including Sergey Sergeyevich Zelenyuk, after accusing them of buying stolen cyber tools for millions in cryptocurrency and reselling those technologies, which were created for U.S. government use. The tools were said to be originally stolen by an Australian national, Peter Williams, who once worked at the defense contractor that made the national-security focused software "for the exclusive use of the U.S. government and select allies." Williams pleaded guilty last year to selling trade secrets. "Treasury will continue to work alongside the rest of the Trump Administration to protect sensitive American intellectual property and safeguard our national security," said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in a statement. Zelenyuk and the others are said to be the first people to be sanctioned under the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act. — Jesse Hamilton Read more.

Calendar

• Mar. 24-26, 2026: Digital Asset Summit, New York City
• Mar. 30-Apr. 2, 2026: EthCC, Cannes
• Apr.15-16, 2026: Paris Blockchain Week, Paris
• Apr. 29-30, 2026: Token2049, Dubai
• May 5-7, 2026: Consensus, Miami
• Sept. 29-Oct.1, 2026: Korea Blockchain Week, Seoul
• Oct. 7-8, 2026: Token2049, Singapore
• Nov. 3-6, 2026: Devcon, Mumbai
• Nov. 15-17, 2026: Solana Breakpoint, London

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