In today’s crypto news, a pro-crypto political organization has endorsed Andrew Cuomo for the New York City mayoral election. At the same time, Grayscale Investments has launched its staking Solana ETF in the U.S., and the Ethereum Fusaka fork has gone live on its final testnet.
Pro-crypto group supports Andrew Cuomo for NYC mayor as election nears
Innovate NY, a politically active group focused on digital assets and backed by approximately $100,000 in funding ahead of the NYC mayoral election, has thrown its support behind independent candidate and former Governor Andrew Cuomo.
In a notice issued on Tuesday, Innovate NY endorsed Cuomo for mayor, as early voting continues. The group highlighted key areas in its agenda, which encompasses “blockchain, tokenization, public-benefit stablecoins, and artificial intelligence.”
Registered as an independent spender with the NYC Campaign Finance Board, Innovate NY has received funding of $99,500 from a combination of six individuals across two companies as of Wednesday.
As per expenditure records, Innovate NY allocated $30,000 for a flyer promoting Cuomo and opposing Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, who currently leads in polls against the former governor.
The New York City mayoral race has attracted attention from the crypto sector owing to its significance for firms operating in the country’s largest economic center. Voters will cast their ballots for frontrunners Mamdani, Cuomo, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa on November 4.
In the final stretch of his campaign, Cuomo is making concerted efforts to appeal to crypto-minded voters in New York, promising to establish an Innovation Council with advisory committees for crypto, AI, and biotech if elected. Mamdani, while leading in polls, has largely steered clear of engaging with digital assets, focusing instead on cost-of-living issues like childcare and affordable housing.
Grayscale launches Solana ETF, joining Bitwise in the SOL staking ETF market
Grayscale Investments has introduced its staking-enabled Solana spot exchange-traded fund (ETF), thereby widening institutional access to Solana investment opportunities.
According to a Wednesday announcement, the Grayscale Solana Trust ETF has begun trading under the ticker GSOL on the NYSE Arca platform. The ETF features staking, enabling investors to earn rewards through Solana’s proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism.
Inkoo Kang, Grayscale’s senior vice president of ETFs, remarked that the introduction of this new product is “expanding investor choice.” The firm claims to be among the largest managers of Solana (SOL) exchange-traded products (ETPs) in the U.S. based on assets under management.
The launch comes on the heels of Bitwise’s staking Solana ETF debut on Tuesday, which entered the market with $222.9 million in assets under management, while Grayscale launched with $102.7 million.
Ethereum’s Fusaka fork set for mainnet after final testnet launch
Ethereum’s upcoming significant upgrade, Fusaka, has been initiated on the blockchain’s last testnet, Hoodi, on Tuesday, paving the way for its mainnet launch on December 3, which is expected to introduce numerous scalability and security enhancements to the network.
Fusaka will incorporate several Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), including Peer Data Availability Sampling, or PeerDAS, through EIP-7594, allowing validators to access smaller data portions on layer 2 networks instead of entire data blobs, enhancing node efficiency.
EIP-7825 and EIP-7935 are also featured in the upgrade, aimed at increasing the gas limit and enhancing efficiency as Ethereum prepares to enable parallel execution, the simultaneous processing of multiple smart contracts. Additional EIPs in this update focus on advancing zero-knowledge rollups.
This upgrade aims to bolster Ethereum’s scalability, one-third of what is referred to as the “blockchain trilemma” defined by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, which also encompasses decentralization and security.
