Ethereum zkEVM security milestones as ETH tests trendline

Ethereum’s core teams pushed two parallel themes into focus this week: stronger zkEVM security standards and a key technical resistance test on ETH’s 8 hour chart. The Ethereum Foundation outlined 2026 milestones for “provable security,” while traders tracked whether ETH can break a downtrend line that has capped rebounds since October.

Ethereum Foundation sets 2026 zkEVM security milestones

The Ethereum Foundation said it wants zkEVM teams to shift focus from proving speed to provable security, after progress on real time proving. In its Dec. 18 post, the Foundation said performance bottlenecks eased, but it now treats security as the central constraint for an L1 zkEVM that must operate on mainnet.

The post argued that many STARK based zkEVMs still rely on unproven assumptions to claim security levels. It pointed to recent research that challenged some foundational conjectures and said the safer approach is “provable security,” with 128 bit security as the target. The Foundation said a soundness failure would not be like other bugs because a forged proof could let an attacker create assets, rewrite state, or steal funds.

To standardize how teams measure security, the Foundation introduced “soundcalc,” a tool that estimates zkVM security using current cryptographic bounds and proof system parameters. It set an end of February 2026 deadline for participating teams to integrate their proof system components and circuits with soundcalc, so teams can compare security assessments on the same basis.

Next, it set an end of May 2026 milestone tied to the Glamsterdam timeframe, calling for 100 bit provable security as estimated by soundcalc, a final proof size at or below 600 KiB, and a compact description of recursion architecture with a soundness sketch. Then, it set an end of 2026 milestone called “H star,” calling for 128 bit provable security, proof size at or below 300 KiB, and a formal security argument for recursion soundness.

The post also said proof size and security sit in tension because stronger security often increases proof size, while proofs must remain small enough to propagate across Ethereum’s peer to peer network reliably. It highlighted recursion as a key area because zkEVMs combine many circuits with custom recursion designs, and it said documenting that architecture and its soundness is essential to system security.

Ethereum nears multi month trendline test on 8 hour chart

Meanwhile, Ethereum traded near $3,030 on the ETH USDT 8 hour Binance chart as it pushed toward a descending trendline that has capped rebounds since early October, based on a TradingView snapshot shared on X on Dec. 22.

Ethereum Trendline Breakout Setup. Source: TradingView/X

The chart shows lower highs under the same sloping resistance line, while price built higher lows from late November into late December. As a result, the range tightened into the trendline, setting up a key technical test.

Captain Faibik wrote that Ethereum sits “on the verge” of a multi month trendline breakout and cited a January target of $4,220 if price clears the line. The move remains unconfirmed until ETH breaks above the trendline and holds above the recent swing area near $3,300.