The moment PlayStation Portable Firmware 3.50 was released in North America, various homebrew developers claimed that they had already decrypted it without the help of Team C D.
However, Mathieulh commented that the community should beware as Sony implemented various changes in the prx formats. After being quiet for some time, new updates regarding the decryption progress as well as that of the next custom firmware have emerged.
Accordingly, Mathieulh and Dark AleX are indeed working on CFW 3.50 OE and the project is already 5 complete. Reports mentioned that the two started working on it only yesterday just after DAX's school exams.
The following information was lifted from PSP-Gen's update with Mathieulh. The original French text was run through a web translator, so what follows might be a bit hard to understand:
The innovations are very simple, the 3.50 OE will allocate quite simply the use of the kernel 3.50. New demonstrations now require this firmware, various plays will not delay before being provided with the kernel 3.50 obligatory. In light, no large innovation, if it is not the passage to the 3.50.