🎉 Big news, Rocket Pool community! 🥳 The SEC just approved the first Ethereum ETF, and our #trading room on Discord is buzzing with excitement! Imagine Eth, our beloved decentralized hero, getting a shiny new badge of approval from the big leagues. It's like seeing our favorite digital star finally getting its moment in the spotlight! Picture the scene: the Rocket Pool crew, all gathered in the #trading room, decked out in virtual party hats, celebrating with confetti made of smart contracts, and raising glasses of pixelated champagne. 🥂 This ETF approval is more than just a win; it's a milestone worthy of a moonwalk! 🌕✨ Now, investors—whether they're new to the crypto world or seasoned pros—can jump into Ethereum as easily as buying a stock. It's like Eth has rolled out the red carpet, making it simpler than ever to be part of the revolution. And let's not forget the memes—oh, the glorious memes! Get ready for an onslaught of "ETH to the moon" jokes and celebratory GIFs flooding the chat. So, grab your virtual popcorn and join the fun in the #trading room. Eth's future is shining brighter and looking more mainstream than ever. 🚀💫 Here's to new beginnings and even bigger crypto dreams! 🥳🎉

Rocket Pool node operators utilized their Smart Node Upgrade POAPs they had earned from January to April 2024 for a chance to win RPL tokens and their name featured on the commemorative POAP. woh.eth, deukey.eth, corethereum.eth, and haloooloolo.eth were victorious during the raffle! This POAP was given to all raffle participants.

Ether first crossed $4,000 in October 2021, at the time it was near the end of a wild bull run. Today we passed $4k for the second time, nearly 30 months later, with a totally new perspective: this feels more like the beginning of a new bull cycle than the end of one. Congratulations to developers, operators, and community members who worked hard to bring value to Ether. Art by /u/Few-Bake-6463, POAP developed by superphiz.

In this Smartnode update, Geth has been hotfixed to v1.13.8 to address a regression impacting v1.13.6 and v1.13.7. Besu is now at v23.10.3-hotfix, fixing a bug on the mainnet at block 18947893, while Nimbus is updated to v24.1.1 to resolve an issue introduced in v24.1.0. Smartnode changes include the implementation of RPIP-30 rewards calculation changes starting at interval 18. Notably, the update removes the web3.storage dependency and introduces a new "Rewards Tree Custom Download URLs" configuration field. Smartnodes will automatically download missing rewards tree files from trusted sources, but users can now specify additional sources. The update also eliminates the envsubst dependency, adopting a new standard for template files with credit to the contributor Patches. Rocket Pool node operators that updated their software within 24 hours received this POAP.

The user 'rpl-benefactor' returned to Rocket Pool's Discord #trading channel on December 1st, 2023 to announce that they had 535 RPL (worth >$15,000) to distribute to the community over the coming days. Funds were donated by: Waq donated $3000, with the caveat that the whole community must rally to reach $10,000 in total donations. Once that amount was reached, the RPL Benefactor would distribute the equivalent value in RPL to members of the community. 62 Community members bought the POAP priced at 0.05 ETH. https://poap.gallery/event/159708 In addition to Waq and POAP buyers, the final amount also included generous donations from Thomasg and an Anon whale. The Benefactor only had only one rule: "message me. make case. i decide if you get rpl". Distribution by RPL Benefactor & Sleety. POAP design by Sleety.