Here are three biggest stories in crypto to look out for this coming week

Less than a month after The Merge, the Ethereum community is set to have a celebration of sorts this coming week with its annual global conference — while also looking at what’s next in store for the blockchain platform. 

At the same time, the crypto industry will be watching for any more big-name exits, as more high-profile crypto executives head for the door. Plus, keep an eye on the drama surrounding Flashbots and how it hopes to make amends.

Watch out for news from Devcon Bogota

It’s Devcon time again. This annual Ethereum event will take place in Bogata, Colombia. The sixth Devcon is scheduled for Oct. 11-14 at the Agora Bogotá Convention Center.

Key speakers include Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum Foundation Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi and Ethereum researcher Danny Ryan. Offchain Labs, Optimism and Matter Labs will all have representatives at the event as discussion around Layer 2 topics becomes more important following the successful implementation of The Merge.

Who will be the next to go?

While the crypto industry’s gravity pulled in a huge amount of talent from the traditional finance and tech sectors during 2021 and early this year, that trend has largely broken down. It’s been replaced with a reckoning of sorts, as many high-profile crypto executives have been stepping down over the last few months, starting with MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, Genesis CEO Michael Moro and Alameda Research Co-CEO Sam Trabucco.

Still, this has reached fever pitch in the last few weeks with departures of Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, Voyager CFO Ashwin Prithipaul, Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky and NYDIG’s CEO Robert Gutmann and President Yan Zhao. Plus we saw FTX US President Brett Harrison moving to an advisory role. Ready your bingo cards as we see who’s next.

Flashbots fallout set to continue

Flashbots has been one of the biggest stories of the day for the last few weeks. It all started when it was made clear that the protocol — used to propose Ethereum blocks for the validators who run the network — was being used to create blocks that censored transactions from sanctioned crypto mixer Tornado Cash. The problem was that Flashbots was dominating the block proposing space, resulting in a lot of censorship on the network.

The Ethereum community reacted strongly, recommending that if Flashbots couldn’t solve the issue, it should shut down. In turn, Flashbots explained its reasoning and set out a path forward, seeking to redeem itself. Yet it’s also struggling internally; Flashbots co-founder Stephane Gosselin revealed that he had resigned from the protocol last month following disagreements with the team. The question for this next week is how will Flashbots continue to manage a difficult situation?

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