Spotlight: Your Go-To Content Hub for Tezos News & Insights

The Tezos ecosystem is constantly evolving, and staying up to date with the latest news, discussions, and innovations can sometimes feel like a challenge. That’s where Spotlight comes in.

Spotlight is a dedicated content hub built to serve the Tezos community, featuring original articles, videos, and curated content from key voices across the ecosystem. Whether you’re looking for deep dives into Tezos-powered projects, insights from industry leaders, or updates on protocol governance, Spotlight has it all in one place.

This week, we’re featuring an article written by Cryptonio, one of our own, covering Arthur Breitman’s recent panel talk at the Digital Assets Forum.

Arthur Breitman on Tokenized Assets & Uranium.io

At this year’s Digital Assets Forum in London, industry leaders gathered to discuss the real-world adoption of tokenized assets. Arthur Breitman took the stage to cut through the hype and lay out what actually matters: composability, accessibility, and market impact.

Tokenization Isn’t Just About Putting Assets On-Chain

Tokenization has been a buzzword for years, but as Arthur pointed out, many projects miss the point by simply wrapping off-chain assets in a tokenized format without integrating them into decentralized financial ecosystems.

“A lot of tokenization projects to date have taken the form where some company does the tokenization, and every single holder just has an account with that company. So, you basically have a glorified transfer agent that sometimes puts a transaction on-chain, and that’s not very useful.”

For tokenized assets to have real value, they need to interact with DeFi, plugging into DEXs, lending protocols, and financial primitives to create real liquidity and utility.

Uranium.io: A First-of-Its-Kind Tokenized Commodity

One of the most tangible examples of real-world asset tokenization done right is Uranium.io, a new Tezos-powered platform for on-chain uranium trading.

Arthur explained why this is a game-changer:

“Uranium is a massively important asset for the future of energy. Everyone knows about it. It captures the imagination. It’s big. And somehow, there was just no good option to access the uranium market for retail investors, until now.”

Built on Etherlink (Tezos L2), Uranium.io removes the barriers of traditional financial markets, allowing for a global, on-chain uranium marketplace that’s frictionless, accessible, and composable within DeFi.

Regulation & The Future of Tokenization

While the promise of tokenization is clear, Arthur noted that regulatory hurdles remain one of the biggest challenges. Many institutions still view tokenized assets as “crypto,” which complicates adoption.

“If you tokenize uranium, that’s just uranium. If you tokenize real estate, it’s still real estate. The underlying rails shouldn’t matter, but because of mindset, they do.”

Beyond regulation, privacy remains a major concern, especially for institutional investors who require confidentiality in trades. While privacy-focused technology exists, regulatory pressure makes deployment tricky.

“From the perspective of regulators, privacy is bad. But from the perspective of investors, privacy is essential.”

The Long-Term Vision: Tokenization Will Be ‘Boring’ (And That’s a Good Thing)

Arthur closed with a refreshing take—tokenization doesn’t have to be exciting. Instead, it should become as ubiquitous and essential as accounting.

“Tokenization is boring today, but that’s fine. Accounting is boring too, and it’s also incredibly important. Not everything has to be exciting.”

What makes tokenization exciting is not the technology itself, but the markets it opens. That’s why Uranium.io stands out—it’s a fully on-chain market for an asset that was previously inaccessible, proving that Tezos isn’t just following the tokenization trend, it’s leading it.

Read More on Spotlight

Arthur’s insights at the Digital Assets Forum highlight the real impact of tokenization and how Tezos is pioneering new financial markets. To dive deeper into the discussion, read the full article on Spotlight, where you’ll find even more great content from across the Tezos ecosystem.

Tezos Upgrade: Rio Moves to the Exploration Phase – Bakers, It’s Time to Vote

While Spotlight is keeping the Tezos community informed with in-depth content, the network itself continues to evolve through on-chain governance. The latest protocol proposal, Rio, has officially moved into the Exploration phase, marking another step toward improved scalability and staking efficiency.

After successfully passing the proposal phase, Rio now requires:

✅ 80% supermajority
✅ 49.96% quorum

Right now, we’re at 100% supermajority in favor, but the quorum is at 31.41%—which means more participation is needed to ensure Rio advances to the next stage.

What’s in Rio? A Focus on Scalability & Staking

Rio is the 18th Tezos protocol upgrade proposal, introduced by Nomadic Labs, Trilitech, and Functori to improve staking operations, scalability, and governance participation. Here’s what it brings:

• Shorter Cycles – Network cycles now last one day instead of three, allowing for faster staking updates and quicker unstaking periods.

• Updated Rewards Model – 10% of participation rewards will fund the Data Availability Layer (DAL), a key piece of Tezos’ L2 scalability strategy. Bakers who participate in DAL receive these rewards.

• Stricter Baker Inactivity Rules – Bakers now become inactive after two days instead of eight, making the network more responsive. Reactivation is also faster, taking just two days.

• Slight Gas Fee Adjustment – Transactions between wallets will see a 0.0002 tez increase to better reflect storage costs, while smart contract fees remain unchanged.

Bakers: Your Vote Matters

Tezos upgrades only happen through on-chain governance, and every vote counts in shaping the network’s future. To vote in the Exploration phase, Bakers can use the following command in the Octez client:

octez-client submit ballot for YOUR_ADDRESS PsRiotumaAMotcRoDWW1bysEhQy2n1M5fy8JgRp8jjRfHGmfeA7 VOTE

The last day to vote in the exploration phase is March 19th. Make your voice heard and help Tezos continue evolving.

Check the latest voting progress on Tezos Agora.

Celebrating Tezos Art: Pixel Art Anthology Coming This Summer

While governance and protocol upgrades drive the future of Tezos, the Tezos art community continues to showcase why the ecosystem remains a hub for creativity. This summer, Tezos Art Review: Pixel Art Anthology will be released, highlighting 50+ artists and their diverse styles, all made possible with support from Trilitech and the Tezos Foundation.

Edited by Kyle Flemmer (WildMissingNos), the anthology is set to be a visually rich collection of pixel art from some of the most recognized artists in the Tezos ecosystem. The book not only celebrates the vibrant and growing pixel art movement on Tezos, but also highlights how decentralized, artist-friendly platforms have fostered new creative communities.

A Preview of the Artists

The book features an incredible lineup of Tezos-native artists, including:

🎨 Bombadil
🎨 Green Ginger
🎨 Pinkyblu
🎨 Kit Valo
🎨 NiftyMonki
🎨 Spøgelsesmaskinen
🎨 Rata Yonqui
🎨 Haydiroket
🎨 Lubitel Bliznih
🎨 Manytle

…and many more!

Leading up to the release, Kyle, is revealing artist profiles, offering a glimpse into the creative minds behind the works. The first profiles, featuring Haydiroket, Tornado Ilus, and Rata Yonqui, are already available to explore at Electric Chronicles.

The Tezos art scene has always been known for its community-driven spirit, accessibility, and support for independent artists. With the release of the Pixel Art Anthology, it’s clear that this movement isn’t slowing down. Stay tuned for more details as we get closer to its launch this summer!

This Week in the Tezos Ecosystem

This week, the Tezos community tuned in for Tezos Town Hall #7, where key contributors from Nomadic Labs discussed the latest protocol upgrades and ecosystem developments. Hosted by Cryptonio (Tezos Commons), the discussion featured:

🎙️ Yann Régis-Gianas – Head of Engineering, Nomadic Labs
🎙️ Vincent Poulain – Manager of Tech User Relations, Nomadic Labs
🎙️ Zaynah Dargaye – Core Layer 1 Engineering Manager, Nomadic Labs

The conversation focused on protocol governance, recent upgrades like Rio, and the broader technical roadmap for Tezos. With Rio now in the Exploration phase, the panel broke down how the proposal’s shorter cycle times, staking refinements, and DAL incentives will impact Bakers and developers moving forward.

Beyond protocol updates, the team also touched on ongoing improvements to Tezos’ developer experience, including enhancements in tooling and infrastructure to make it easier to build on Tezos.

For those who missed the live discussion, the full recording is available on YouTube.

Tezos Town Halls continue to be an essential touchpoint for the community, offering direct insights from the teams driving Tezos forward. Stay tuned for details on the next session!

Etherlink Expands with GoldSky Integration & Instant L1 Withdrawals

Etherlink continues to push the boundaries of scalability and data accessibility, and this week brought two major updates that further enhance its capabilities.

GoldSky Integration: Real-Time Blockchain Data for Developers

Etherlink has officially integrated with GoldSky, bringing real-time blockchain indexing, instant subgraphs, and custom data streaming pipelines to developers building on Tezos’ Layer 2. With GoldSky’s infrastructure, teams can now easily access, filter, and analyze blockchain data in real-time, enabling more efficient dApps, DeFi protocols, and NFT platforms.

For those looking to get started, GoldSky’s developer documentation is now available at docs.goldsky.com.

Trustless, Instant L1 Withdrawals Are Coming

Etherlink also showcased a live demonstration of instant, trustless withdrawals from Etherlink to Tezos L1, a major milestone in making funds more accessible across layers. Expected to go live later this month, this feature will allow users to seamlessly transfer assets back to Tezos L1 without relying on centralized intermediaries.

With GoldSky’s powerful data tools and frictionless L1 withdrawals, Etherlink is steadily evolving into a robust, developer-friendly Layer 2 for Tezos. More updates are on the horizon—stay tuned!

Introducing Etherlink Builder: A New Era for Web3 Development

The biggest news of the week? Etherlink Builder is officially live! This all-in-one development hub provides everything Web3 developers need to build, scale, and deploy games, apps, and blockchain experiences on Etherlink.

With powerful infrastructure and frictionless tooling, Etherlink Builder streamlines development, removing many of the hurdles that typically slow down Web3 innovation. Whether you’re working on DeFi, NFTs, gaming, or entirely new blockchain applications, Etherlink Builder provides the foundational tools to accelerate development.

Start building today at go.sequence.xyz/etr

🔴 Now Streaming: Tezos, Baking & Web3 Gaming with Billy Housh

This week on TezTalks Live, we’re joined by Billy Housh, Tezos baker, educator, and gaming enthusiast. Billy shares his insights on the state of the Tezos ecosystem, the role of baking, and the challenges and opportunities of bringing Web3 gaming to life.

Our special guest is Billy Housh, who is bridging Tezos, education, and game development.

🔍 In this episode, we’ll explore:

Tezos Baking & Beyond: - Billy’s journey into Tezos, operating as a baker, and why he’s helping others get started.

The State of Tezos in 2025: - A deep dive into where the ecosystem stands and what’s ahead.

Web3 Gaming’s Potential: - Why gaming is seen as a key use case for blockchain and what’s holding it back.

Challenges & Adoption: - How blockchain can fit into the gaming world and what’s needed to overcome resistance.

Looking Ahead: - The intersection of Tezos, gaming, and education, and what’s next for Billy Housh.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.