Key Highlights

  • The Ethereum Foundation launched Clear Signing, an open standard replacing raw hexadecimal transaction data with plain-language descriptions of what a wallet approval actually does before users confirm it.

  • Ledger, Trezor, MetaMask, and Fireblocks have already committed to adopting the standard, which targets blind signing, the practice of approving unreadable transaction data that has been exploited in major hacks, including the $1.5 billion Bybit breach in February 2026.

  • Alongside the standard, the foundation launched a $1 million audit subsidy program for open-source projects, covering professional security reviews for codebases that lack the resources to fund them independently.

The Ethereum Foundation launched Clear Signing on May 12, an open standard that replaces the raw hexadecimal transaction data most crypto wallets currently display with human-readable descriptions of what a transaction actually does. The standard targets blind signing, the practice of confirming wallet approvals without being able to understand their contents, which the foundation identified as the primary mechanism behind a wave of phishing attacks and large-scale wallet drains over the past two years.

Under the new system, wallets that adopt Clear Signing show users plain-language information before any transaction is confirmed, including which assets are moving, who receives them, and what contract permissions are being granted. Ledger, Trezor, MetaMask, and Fireblocks have already committed to implementation. The Ethereum Foundation's Trillion Dollar Security Initiative said it would oversee the underlying registry infrastructure and push for adoption across the broader ecosystem of wallets and decentralized applications.

The foundation pointed to the February 2026 Bybit hack as a concrete example of how blind signing can be exploited at scale. In that incident, attackers used spoofed transaction data to trick Bybit's multi-signature signers into authorizing the movement of assets they believed were in a routine internal transfer. The resulting loss of approximately $1.5 billion was the largest single security breach in crypto history and accelerated industry calls for standardized wallet transparency requirements.

Alongside the Clear Signing rollout, the foundation announced a $1 million audit subsidy program for open-source projects, funding professional code reviews for codebases that lack the budget for them independently. The combined package frames the initiatives as part of a longer effort to bring Ethereum's security posture closer to the standards required for infrastructure handling trillions of dollars in value, rather than treating security as an afterthought in a fast-moving development environment.