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Yapay zekâ ile blok zinciri teknolojisinin birleşmesi, Web3 ekosisteminde yeni nesil altyapı projelerinin ortaya çıkmasını sağlıyor. Ancak günümüzde veri doğrulama, yapay zekâ şeffaflığı, ölçeklenebilirlik ve kurumsal sistemlerle merkeziyetsiz ağların birlikte çalışabilmesi gibi birçok temel problem hâlâ çözüm bekliyor. House Party Protocol (HPP) ise bu sorunlara çözüm sunmayı hedefleyen, yapay zekâ odaklı (AI-native) bir Layer-2 blok zinciri projesi olarak öne çıkıyor.

Arbitrum Orbit altyapısı üzerinde geliştirilen ve Ethereum güvenliğiyle korunan House Party Protocol, veri kullanılabilirliği (data availability) için EigenDA’dan yararlanıyor. Proje; kurumsal blok zinciri altyapısını, yapay zekâ doğrulama sistemlerini, veri güvenilirliğini ve merkeziyetsiz uygulamaları tek bir ekosistemde birleştirerek gerçek dünya kullanım senaryolarına uygun, modüler ve ölçeklenebilir bir altyapı oluşturmayı amaçlıyor.

House Party Protocol (HPP) Ne Sunuyor? House Party Protocol (HPP), yapay zekâ uygulamaları ve Web3 ekosistemi için geliştirilen AI-native bir Layer-2 blok zinciri altyapısıdır.

Proje, Arbitrum Orbit üzerine inşa edilmiş olup Ethereum tarafından güvence altına alınmaktadır. Veri kullanılabilirliği katmanında ise EigenDA kullanılmaktadır.

House Party Protocol, 2025 yılında tamamlanan topluluk yönetişimi süreci sonrasında kurumsal blok zinciri projesi Aergo’nun dönüşümüyle ortaya çıkmıştır.

Yeni yapı altında dört farklı proje tek ekosistemde bir araya getirilmiştir:

Aergo: Temel blok zinciri altyapısı Alpha Quark: DeFi ve likidite katmanı Booost: İnsan doğrulama ve dijital kimlik çözümleri W3DB: Veri doğrulama ve yapay zekâ odaklı veri altyapısı Bu birleşmeyle birlikte House Party Protocol, yapay zekâ ve blok zinciri teknolojilerini ortak bir altyapıda buluşturmayı hedeflemektedir.

House Party Protocol (HPP) Nasıl Çalışır? House Party Protocol, yalnızca bir Layer-2 ağı olmanın ötesinde uçtan uca çalışan AI odaklı bir veri altyapısı oluşturmayı amaçlamaktadır.

Platform;

Veri üretimi, Veri doğrulama, Yapay zekâ model geliştirme, AI model doğrulama, Merkeziyetsiz uygulama geliştirme gibi süreçleri tek altyapı üzerinde bir araya getirmektedir.

Bu yapı sayesinde hem kurumsal şirketlerin hem de Web3 uygulamalarının aynı ekosistem içerisinde birlikte çalışabilmesi hedeflenmektedir.

House Party Protocol, güvenilir verilerin ve merkeziyetsiz yapay zekâ sistemlerinin geleceğin dijital ekonomisinin temel altyapısı olacağını öngörmektedir.

Bu doğrultuda projenin temel hedefleri şunlardır:

Zincir içi (on-chain) ve zincir dışı (off-chain) sistemleri AI Oracle katmanı ile birbirine bağlamak, Doğrulanabilir veriler kullanarak yapay zekâ çıktılarının güvenilirliğini artırmak, Finans, dijital kimlik ve varlık değerleme gibi alanlarda gerçek kullanım senaryoları oluşturmak, Farklı blok zincirlerini birbirine bağlayan AI-native Bridge Layer geliştirmek. Uzun vadede HPP, yapay zekânın yalnızca uygulamalarda kullanılan bir araç değil, doğrudan blok zinciri altyapısının temel bileşeni haline gelmesini hedeflemektedir.

Yapay Zekâ ve Blok Zinciri Arasında Köprü Kuruyor House Party Protocol’un geliştirilme amacı yalnızca blok zincirlerini birbirine bağlamak değildir.

Proje aynı zamanda yapay zekâ sistemlerinin güvenilir şekilde çalışabileceği merkeziyetsiz bir altyapı oluşturmayı hedeflemektedir.

Bu kapsamda sistem;

Makineler tarafından okunabilir veriler, Bağımsız şekilde doğrulanabilen veri kaynakları, Şeffaf AI modelleri, Denetlenebilir algoritmalar, Açıklanabilir yapay zekâ çıktıları üzerine inşa edilmektedir.

House Party Protocol (HPP) Hangi Problemleri Çözmeyi Amaçlıyor? House Party Protocol, günümüzde AI ve Web3 ekosistemlerinde karşılaşılan çeşitli problemlere çözüm sunmayı hedeflemektedir.

Veri Parçalanması Merkeziyetsiz yapay zekâ sistemleri çoğu zaman güvenilir veri kaynaklarına erişmekte zorlanmaktadır.

Ayrıca farklı platformlar arasında veri toplama, etiketleme ve doğrulama süreçlerinin standart olmaması AI modellerinin gelişimini yavaşlatmaktadır.

HPP bu süreçleri ortak bir altyapı altında toplamayı amaçlamaktadır.

Ölçeklenebilirlik Blok zincirleri yoğun yapay zekâ hesaplamaları için tasarlanmamıştır.

Yüksek maliyetler ve gecikmeler gerçek zamanlı AI uygulamalarını zorlaştırmaktadır.

House Party Protocol ise AI odaklı çalışma mantığı sayesinde bu yükü daha verimli yönetmeyi hedeflemektedir.

Yapay Zekâ Şeffaflığı Günümüzde birçok AI modeli kapalı kutu şeklinde çalışmaktadır.

Verilerin nereden geldiği veya modelin nasıl karar verdiği çoğu zaman doğrulanamamaktadır.

HPP, veri geçmişini ve AI süreçlerini zincir üzerinde kayıt altına alarak daha şeffaf bir yapı oluşturmayı amaçlamaktadır.

Kurumsal Sistemlerle Web3 Arasındaki Uyum Kurumsal şirketler;

Regülasyon, Veri güvenliği, Uyum süreçleri, Kurumsal standartlar nedeniyle doğrudan açık blok zinciri ağlarını kullanmakta zorlanabilmektedir.

House Party Protocol, kurumsal altyapılar ile merkeziyetsiz uygulamalar arasında uyum sağlayabilecek bir köprü oluşturmayı hedeflemektedir.

Birleşik HPP Ekosistemi House Party Protocol, farklı çözümleri tek platform altında toplamaktadır.

Ekosistem;

AI hizmetlerinin oluşturulmasını, Veri doğrulanmasını, Yapay zekâ modellerinin geliştirilmesini, Merkeziyetsiz uygulamaların çalıştırılmasını, Zincirler arası veri paylaşımını tek altyapı üzerinde gerçekleştirmeyi hedeflemektedir.

Bu yapı sayesinde geliştiriciler farklı platformlara ihtiyaç duymadan uygulamalarını oluşturabilecek bir çalışma ortamına sahip olmayı amaçlamaktadır.

House Party Protocol (HPP) AI-Native Bridge Layer House Party Protocol kendisini çok zincirli (multi-chain) geleceğe hazırlanan bir AI-Native Bridge Layer olarak tanımlamaktadır.

Bu altyapı;

Aergo Layer-1, Ethereum, Ethereum Layer-2 ağları arasında birlikte çalışabilirliği destekleyecek şekilde tasarlanmıştır.

Ayrıca ilerleyen süreçte ağa yapay zekâ destekli güvenlik mekanizmaları ve yönlendirme optimizasyonları gibi yeni özelliklerin eklenmesi planlanmaktadır.

House Party Protocol (HPP) Token Ne İşe Yarar? HPP token, ağın temel yardımcı (utility) ve yönetişim tokenidir.

Ekosistem üzerindeki tüm işlemler HPP kullanılarak gerçekleştirilmektedir.

Başlıca kullanım alanları şunlardır.

Ağ İşlem Ücretleri House Party Protocol ana ağı üzerinde gerçekleştirilen;

AI model çalıştırma, AI çıkarım (inference) işlemleri, Akıllı sözleşme yürütme, Veri doğrulama, Zincirler arası işlemler için HPP ile işlem ücreti ödenmektedir.

Bu ücretler ağ güvenliğini sağlamak ve doğrulayıcıları teşvik etmek amacıyla kullanılmaktadır.

House Party Protocol (HPP) ile Yapay Zekâ Hizmetlerine Erişim HPP token;

Eğitim veri setleri, AI destekli varlık değerleme araçları, Model doğrulama servisleri, Analitik hizmetler gibi ekosistem uygulamalarına erişim için kullanılmaktadır.

Ayrıca HPP tabanlı uygulamalarda;

AI işlem hizmetleri, Abonelik sistemleri, Zincir dışı hesaplama (off-chain compute), AI bot hizmetleri gibi çözümlerde de ödeme aracı olarak kullanılmaktadır.

Geliştirici Ekonomisi House Party Protocol, kullanım bazlı gelir modeli benimsemektedir.

Geliştiriciler kullandıkları AI servisleri kadar ödeme yaparken, oluşturulan gelir;

Hesaplama düğümleri, Model geliştiricileri, Veri doğrulayıcıları arasında paylaşılmaktadır.

Böylece ekosisteme katkı sağlayan katılımcılar ekonomik olarak teşvik edilmektedir.

House Party Protocol (HPP) Yönetişim HPP aynı zamanda yönetişim tokenidir.

Token sahipleri;

Yeni AI standartlarının kabulü, Protokol güncellemeleri, Token mekanizmaları, Stratejik teklifler, Topluluk kararları gibi konularda oy kullanabilmektedir.

Staking HPP, ağ güvenliğini sağlayan staking mekanizmasının temelini oluşturmaktadır.

Özellikle Proof-of-Inference sistemi kapsamında;

Veri sağlayıcıları, AI model geliştiricileri, Doğrulayıcılar ağa katılabilmek için HPP stake etmektedir.

Doğru ve güvenilir hizmet sağlayan katılımcılar staking ödülü kazanırken, yükümlülüklerini yerine getirmeyen katılımcılar için token kesintisi (slashing) uygulanabilmektedir.

Proof-of-Inference Sistemi House Party Protocol’un dikkat çeken bileşenlerinden biri de Proof-of-Inference sistemidir.

Bu sistem;

Zincir dışı AI hesaplamalarının doğruluğunu kontrol eder, Sonuçların tarafsızlığını doğrular, Hesaplama süreçlerinin güvenilirliğini artırır. Bu mekanizma sayesinde merkeziyetsiz yapay zekâ hizmetlerinin daha güvenilir şekilde çalışması hedeflenmektedir.

Zincir Üzeri Denetlenebilirlik Platform üzerinde gerçekleştirilen;

AI çıktıları, Veri setleri, Model sonuçları, İşlem geçmişi zaman damgasıyla zincir üzerine kaydedilmektedir.

Bu yapı tam denetlenebilirlik ve şeffaflık sağlamayı amaçlamaktadır.

House Party Protocol (HPP) Tokenomics HPP token dağılımı şu şekildedir:

Instant Swap %41 Ekosistem %23 Topluluk %22 Rezerv %8 Takım ve Danışmanlar %5 Yatırımcılar %1

Resmi Bağlantılar Website X (Twitter) Whitepaper Son Dakika kripto para haberleri için hemen tıkla.

Konu ile ilgili yorumlarınızı bize yazabilirsiniz. Ayrıca, bu tarz bilgilendirici içeriklerin devamının gelmesini isterseniz, bizleri Telegram, Youtube ve Twitter kanallarımızdan takip edebilirsiniz.

Banxa Brings Fiat On-Ramp Access to Arbitrum's USDCArbitrum has announced that users can now purchase $USDC directly on the Arbitrum network through Banxa, the regulated fiat-to-crypto payment gateway. The integration covers bank transfers, debit and credit cards, and local payment methods, broadening the ways users can fund positions on one of Ethereum's most active Layer 2 networks.

The move lowers a practical barrier for new and existing users. Rather than acquiring USDC on a centralised exchange and bridging it across, buyers can now land the asset directly on Arbitrum in a single step. Circle launched USDC natively on Arbitrum One in June 2023, adding support for its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol, which enabled direct minting and burning of USDC between Ethereum and Arbitrum One. As of March 2025, there was over $3.5 billion of USDC in circulation on Arbitrum.

Banxa's Global Payment ReachBanxa is available in more than 180 countries, with support for over 30 fiat currencies and local payment methods worldwide. The company operates as a fiat-to-crypto payment gateway primarily serving crypto exchanges, wallets, and other blockchain platforms that require compliant and secure fiat on-ramps, with a focus on regulatory compliance, fraud prevention, and user verification.

The Arbitrum integration adds to a growing list of blockchain networks where Banxa has established a presence, which already includes Ethereum, Base, Solana, Polygon, Avalanche, and others. Purchase eligibility for $USDC on Arbitrum is subject to applicable order conditions, and availability may vary by region.

For the Arbitrum ecosystem, the partnership represents a more direct path from fiat to on-chain activity, particularly for users in markets where access to centralised exchanges is limited or where local payment rails are preferred over card-based options.

Sources:
Arbitrum Docs: USDC on Arbitrum One
USDC.com: How to Get USDC on Arbitrum
Banxa: On-Ramp and Off-Ramp Solutions

In a recent setback for DeFi ecosystem participants active on Arbitrum, the perpetuals trading platform AFX Trade experienced a substantial security breach targeting one of its proprietary bridges. Blockchain security firm Blockaid first identified the incident around 21:30 UTC on July 22, 2026, reporting that attackers had extracted approximately $24.15 million in USDC from the affected contract.

AFX Trade operates as a USDC-settled derivatives exchange on the Arbitrum network, offering users leveraged trading opportunities across various assets.

Deposits and withdrawals typically route through its dedicated bridge infrastructure, which held roughly $24.2 million in USDC prior to the event—nearly its entire locked value according to DeFiLlama data.

The exploit effectively emptied most of these funds, highlighting vulnerabilities that can arise even in established Layer-2 environments.

Blockaid detected an exploit at 2026-07-22 21:30 UTC targeting @AFX_XYZ, a protocol on @arbitrum. The exploit was specific to a bridge that AFX operates. Approximately 24.15M USDC has been drained thus far from the protocol.

Our team has been working with the incredible folks on… https://t.co/0Qd9ve5gPB

— Blockaid (@blockaid_) July 22, 2026

Importantly, the breach was confined to AFX Trade’s own bridge implementation and did not involve Arbitrum’s native bridge infrastructure.

Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of Offchain Labs (the team behind Arbitrum), quickly addressed community concerns.

He confirmed that the suspicious transaction originated from a third-party protocol and emphasized that Arbitrum’s core bridging system remained secure and uncompromised.

The Arbitrum team is actively investigating alongside affected parties.

Blockaid has been collaborating closely with Arbitrum developers and AFX Trade to manage the response, investigate the root cause, and explore options for containing or recovering the stolen assets.

On-chain observers, including PeckShield and Lookonchain, tracked the attacker’s subsequent moves: the drained USDC was rapidly bridged to Ethereum mainnet and converted into roughly 12,467 ETH at an average price near $1,937.

The funds now sit in an attacker-controlled address, a common tactic to obscure trails and hinder immediate recovery efforts.

This event underscores the persistent challenges bridges face in DeFi. These components often custody large asset pools while relying on intricate smart contract logic and cross-chain messaging, making them attractive targets.

AFX Trade’s bridge had seen growing deposits in recent weeks, rising from about $19.3 million in mid-June, which likely increased its visibility to potential adversaries.

The incident follows other recent security events on Arbitrum, such as the mid-July exploit affecting Ostium’s vault.

While no official statement from AFX Trade had appeared on its social channels shortly after the breach, users and the broader ecosystem await updates on compensation plans, enhanced security measures, or any forensic findings.

Market reactions remained relatively contained in the immediate aftermath, with minimal movement in ARB and ETH prices.

However, such exploits can erode confidence in protocol-specific infrastructure and prompt heightened scrutiny of bridge designs across Arbitrum-based projects.

Developers and users alike are reminded of the importance of rigorous audits, ongoing monitoring, and diversified risk management in decentralized trading environments.

As investigations continue, this case serves as yet another concerning reminder of the evolving threat landscape in Layer-2 DeFi. Protocols must prioritize robust, isolated security for auxiliary components like bridges to safeguard user funds and maintain ecosystem trust.

Two major cross-chain bridges suffered security breaches in July 2026, with attackers stealing over $31 million from AFX Trade and VerusCoin in separate but closely timed incidents. Blockchain security firm Blockaid identified and publicized both exploits as they were in progress, increasing concerns about ongoing vulnerabilities in the bridge infrastructure supporting decentralized finance (DeFi).

AFX Trade bridge hacked for $24 million on ArbitrumBlockaid first detected an attack on the Arbitrum-based AFX Trade protocol at 21:30 UTC on July 22. The hacker managed to compromise five hot-validator signatures on AFX’s custody bridge, bypassing the required quorum and executing an unauthorized transfer of $24.15 million in USDC tokens.

Security teams revealed that the stolen USDC was moved to an Ethereum wallet, then swapped out for 12,467.5 ETH. PeckShieldAlert traced the movement of these funds, which remain in the address 0x6276…ebAC.

Blockaid stated it had identified a targeted exploit affecting a bridge operated by AFX on Arbitrum. The incident enabled an attacker to drain approximately $24.15 million in USDC from the protocol in a single operation.

AFX paused bridge operations as soon as the breach was discovered, clarifying that neither its core trading infrastructure nor the wider Arbitrum network was affected. Steven Goldfeder, representing the Arbitrum Foundation, separately confirmed that Arbitrum’s native bridge had not been compromised, attributing the unauthorized withdrawal to a third-party protocol integration.

AFX disclosed that all stolen funds are still located in the attacker’s wallet. Security firm SlowMist reported the wallet address to the Crypto Defense Alliance, an industry network tracking stolen digital assets, while Zellic, which previously audited the bridge’s code, joined the ongoing investigation.

AFX pledged to provide frequent updates as more facts are verified and as recovery efforts continue.

Mini dictionary: Arbitrum is a layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum that aims to provide faster and cheaper transactions by processing them off the Ethereum main chain and then settling the results back onto the mainnet.

VerusCoin bridge loses $7.5 million in recurring exploitBlockaid also flagged a breach in the VerusCoin Ethereum Bridge, resulting in a further loss of roughly $7.54 million. The attacker manipulated the bridge’s import mechanism to trigger payouts that lacked the necessary asset reserves, siphoning off multiple cryptocurrencies, including ETH, tBTC, USDC, USDT, EURC, MKR, and scrvUSD. The stolen funds were transferred from the bridge contract to a wallet ending in C142D54.

Analysis revealed similarities between this attack and a previous incident on the same bridge in May 2026. Both leveraged an identical vulnerability, but July’s exploit appeared to originate from a different attacker using a new wallet.

Blockaid noted this latest breach exploited the same contract and entry path as the May attack, and described both incidents as sharing an identical bug class, pointing to persistent flaws in validation logic for bridge transfers.

PeckShieldAlert reported that the attacker soon began laundering the stolen assets through Tornado Cash. At the time of the incident, VerusCoin had not yet released any public statements.

The May incident on the VerusCoin bridge involved a manipulation of its cross-chain export process, enabling the attacker to extract $11.58 million for a relatively low transaction fee.

Mini dictionary: VerusCoin is a blockchain platform focused on privacy and interoperability, allowing users to move assets across different chains through its bridging technology.

BridgeDate of ExploitAmount StolenAssets AffectedAFX Trade (Arbitrum)July 22, 2026$24.15 millionUSDCVerusCoin Ethereum BridgeJuly 23, 2026$7.54 millionETH, tBTC, USDC, USDT, EURC, MKR, scrvUSDVerusCoin Ethereum BridgeMay 2026$11.58 millionMultiple currenciesSecurity sector response and ongoing investigationsThese incidents have brought renewed scrutiny to the recurring vulnerabilities affecting cross-chain bridges, which have previously experienced high-profile breaches including those involving Wormhole and Nomad in 2022.

Blockaid indicated that the root causes in the VerusCoin exploits involved missing checks on incoming transfer values, a class of bugs observed previously in the sector. Security firms, including SlowMist and PeckShieldAlert, are actively monitoring the stolen funds and collaborating with exchanges and other ecosystem partners to track suspicious wallet activity.

Neither AFX nor VerusCoin has provided a date for restoring bridge operations. Both investigations remain open, and recovery or remediation plans have not yet been announced as authorities and security teams work to follow the movements of the stolen assets.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

Three separate crypto protocols got carved up within a single 24-hour window, with combined losses topping $35.5 million. The victims span three different chains, three different attack vectors, and one very familiar story: bridges remain the soft underbelly of decentralized finance.

The largest hit landed on AFX, an Arbitrum-based protocol that lost approximately $24.15 million in USDC through a bridge exploit on July 22. BSquaredNetwork on BNB Chain saw $3.86 million in B2 tokens drained. And the Verus cross-chain bridge on Ethereum hemorrhaged $7.55 million, a wound made worse by the fact that Verus had already been exploited for roughly $11.58 million back in May.

How each exploit played out The AFX breach was the headliner. Attackers siphoned $24.15 million in USDC from the protocol’s bridge infrastructure on Arbitrum, then moved the funds to Ethereum and swapped them into around 12,467.5 ETH.

BSquaredNetwork’s exploit was smaller in dollar terms but arguably messier for holders. The $3.86 million in stolen B2 tokens were exchanged for more than 5,000 WBNB, which were then converted into roughly 1,128 ETH. The sell pressure from the dump sent B2’s price cratering more than 15%.

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Then there’s Verus. The $7.55 million loss on July 23 is concerning on its own, but context makes it worse. This is the same cross-chain bridge that suffered an approximately $11.58 million exploit in May 2026. That means Verus has lost north of $19 million in roughly two months to what appear to be related security vulnerabilities.

PeckShield, the blockchain security firm, was among the first to flag each incident on-chain.

A brutal quarter for crypto security These three exploits didn’t happen in a vacuum. According to data from TRM Labs, the first half of 2026 saw a record 207 security incidents. Q2 alone accounted for $764 million stolen across 67 separate incidents, with operational weaknesses cited as a primary attack surface.

Vitalik Buterin flagged bridge security risks as far back as 2022, arguing that multi-chain futures would not be secured by the same trust assumptions as single-chain applications.

What this means for investors B2’s 15%-plus price drop is the most direct example of immediate market impact. When three protocols get exploited in a single day, it puts a chill on risk appetite across the broader DeFi ecosystem.

The $764 million stolen in Q2 2026 alone represents real capital permanently removed from the ecosystem. That’s money that funded development, provided liquidity, and backed lending markets.

For individual investors, the Verus situation is particularly instructive: a protocol that gets exploited once and doesn’t fully remediate its vulnerabilities before getting hit again is broadcasting something important about its security posture. The first hack might be bad luck. The second one is information.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

THE BLOCK: Arbitrum protocol AFX Trade hit by $24 million bridge exploit: Blockaid

Updated Jul 23, 2026, 5:16 a.m. Published Jul 23, 2026, 5:01 a.m.

2 min read

Arbitrum-based AFX Trade drained of $24 million after bridge keys compromised. (Kevin Ku/Unsplash)Summary

AFX Trade, a decentralized perpetuals exchange on Arbitrum that settles in USDC, was drained of about $24.15 million after an attacker compromised validator signing keys for a bridge the protocol operates.Arbitrum’s native bridge was not breached, and security firm Blockaid said the on-chain logic functioned as designed, with five hot-validator signatures meeting the quorum needed to authorize the withdrawal.The attacker moved the stolen USDC to Ethereum and swapped it for roughly 12,467 ETH, nearly emptying AFX’s total value locked amid a broader wave of high-profile crypto hacks on Arbitrum-based protocols.Another week, another multi-million-dollar hack in DeFi, and once again, it’s an off-chain compromise rather than a smart contract exploit.

AFX Trade, a decentralized perpetuals exchange that settles in dollar-pegged stablecoin USDC, was drained of about $24.15 million on Wednesday after an attacker compromised the validator signing keys behind a bridge the protocol operates on Arbitrum, blockchain data shows.

In other words, the smart contract did what it’s supposed to do – verify the signature and execute the transaction. The problem was with the private keys that generated those signatures, as attackers compromised the private validator signing keys (hot keys held offchain by the bridge operators or validators).

Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of Offchain Labs, which develops and maintains the network, said the Arbitrum native bridge "has not been hacked or exploited in any way" and that the transaction originated from a third-party protocol.

A hack of Arbitrum's own bridge would signal risk across the entire layer-2 network, but a compromised protocol running on top of it is a contained failure.

Nothing in the bridge's own code logic was broken. Bridges are blockchain-based tools for transferring tokens between various networks, including those they were not initially supported on.

Security firm Blockaid said the on-chain logic was not bypassed. Instead, five of the bridge's hot-validator signatures, the approvals that authorize a withdrawal, signed off on moving 24,150,000 USDC to the attacker's wallet, clearing the roughly two-thirds quorum the bridge requires.

This incident, therefore, is similar to the roughly $285 million Drift Protocol loss in April, where attackers spent months working their way to privileged access rather than breaking any contract.

The loss lands amid a punishing stretch for crypto security, with Q2 among the worst quarters for hacks on record and a run of Arbitrum-based protocols, including the oracle exploit that drained a separate $18 million from RWA platform Ostium a week earlier, hit in quick succession.

Most of the hacks and exploits this year have targeted offchain components rather than vulnerabilities in smart contracts themselves.

Blockaid detected an exploit at 2026-07-22 21:30 UTC targeting @AFX_XYZ, a protocol on @arbitrum. The exploit was specific to a bridge that AFX operates. Approximately 24.15M USDC has been drained thus far from the protocol.

Our team has been working with the incredible folks on… https://t.co/0Qd9ve5gPB

— Blockaid (@blockaid_) July 22, 2026 The contract treated the withdrawal as valid and released the funds after a 200-second dispute period. The bridge did exactly what it was designed to do, but the keys authorizing the withdrawal were apparently in the wrong hands.

The attacker then bridged the stolen USDC to Ethereum and swapped it for about 12,467 ETH, worth roughly $24 million, which on-chain trackers say now sits in a single wallet.

AFX's trading activity had been climbing sharply in the run-up to the attack, with daily perpetuals volume spiking to multi-month highs in mid-July, according to DefiLlama, as the protocol drew in users and, with them, deposits.

The roughly $24 million drained was almost the entirety of the protocol's total value locked, meaning the attacker emptied the vault at close to the moment it was fullest.

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Crypto Flows, Share and the Selective Rotation

Crypto Flows, Share and the Selective Rotation

Markets repositioned since June, but Binance held share (~55% user funds, ~24% spot) and drew net inflows in early July while the tracked market saw outflows.

20 hours ago

Markets repositioned since June, but Binance held share (~55% user funds, ~24% spot) and drew net inflows in early July while the tracked market saw outflows.

Why it matters:

Markets repositioned since June, but Binance held share (~55% user funds, ~24% spot) and drew net inflows in early July while the tracked market saw outflows.

Attackers used an AFX-powered bridge within Arbitrum and stole around $24.15 million worth of USDC and converted it into Ether. This brought the total losses due to hacks in July to around $97 million, surpassing that of June. A new and significant hack on a bridge system is just another problem in the string of problems affecting the crypto world this month. AFX Trade, which runs on Arbitrum, lost $24.15 million worth of USDC. Attackers exploited AFX’s bridge, and several blockchain security firms detected the attack almost immediately. They have been tracking the transaction of the hacked money on various blockchain networks. Offchain Labs confirmed that attackers exploited AFX’s bridge without compromising Arbitrum’s native bridge.

Blockaid detected an exploit at 2026-07-22 21:30 UTC targeting @AFX_XYZ, a protocol on @arbitrum. The exploit was specific to a bridge that AFX operates. Approximately 24.15M USDC has been drained thus far from the protocol.

Our team has been working with the incredible folks on… https://t.co/0Qd9ve5gPB

— Blockaid (@blockaid_) July 22, 2026 The breach was spotted by blockchain security firm Blockaid at around 21:30 UTC on July 22, after which they began working together with Arbitrum on their investigation. The hacker moved the stolen money to the Ethereum blockchain shortly after hacking the system. As a result, according to PeckShield security experts, the hacker converted the hacked money into roughly 12,467.5 ETH, moving the entire amount into one single wallet address.

Arbitrum Confirms Safety of Its Native Bridge The hack caused significant concern across the Arbitrum community, since bridge hacks often sow doubt about blockchain technology itself. Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of Offchain Labs, stated clearly that hackers managed to compromise a bridge created by AFX, but not the official Arbitrum bridge. Goldfeder said that there was no attack or compromise of the native Arbitrum bridge. This clarification was very important for distinguishing the problem associated with the protocol from the safety of the Arbitrum blockchain network.

We're aware of a report of a bridge hack on Arbitrum and are investigating. We can confirm that the transaction in question originated from a third party protocol, and the Arbitrum native bridge has not been hacked or exploited in any way.

We will coordinate with the third…

— Steven Goldfeder (@sgoldfed) July 22, 2026 Bridge Hacks Keep On Leading To Losses For Cryptocurrencies This latest hack is one in many that has made the security situation in the decentralized finance community very difficult this month. Before the AFX hack, DefiLlama reported 13 cryptocurrency hacks in July, resulting in a total loss of around $72.6 million. The AFX bridge hack is the 14th one to take place in July, bringing the total July losses to about $97 million.

This loss has already surpassed the $75.32 million lost in June in various cryptocurrency hacks. This recent hack also highlights the ongoing pattern of hackers targeting bridges between blockchains rather than attacking the protocol directly. Investigations have begun for the Ethereum that was stolen, waiting to see if recovery becomes possible at all.

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In brief AFX Trade, a perpetuals exchange on Arbitrum, was drained of about $24 million in an exploit that hit a USDC bridge the protocol itself operates. The exchange said the breach was isolated to that bridge and the exact attack vector is still under investigation; on-chain trackers say the funds were swapped for 12,468 ETH. AFX has halted the bridge and publicly offered the attacker a deal—return 70% of the funds and keep the rest as a "white hat bounty." AFX Trade, a decentralized perpetuals exchange on Arbitrum that settles in the stablecoin USDC, was drained of $24.15 million on Wednesday in an exploit that hit a bridge the protocol operates, security firm Blockaid said.

In a tweet, AFX said the exact attack vector remains under investigation. The on-chain money trail shows that the attacker bridged the stolen USDC to Ethereum and swapped it for 12,468 ETH, now sitting in a single wallet, PeckShield said.

AFX is aware of an incident involving the AFX-operated USDC custody bridge on Arbitrum.
Upon detecting the incident, we immediately suspended bridge operations and initiated our incident response procedures. Our engineering and security teams are actively investigating the root…

— AFX Trade (@AFX_XYZ) July 23, 2026

Arbitrum moved fast to put distance between itself and the protocol. Co-founder Steven Goldfeder said the network's native bridge "has not been hacked or exploited in any way," and that the transaction came from a third-party protocol. A breach of Arbitrum's own bridge would ripple across the entire layer-2; a compromised app sitting on top of it is a contained failure.

AFX suspended bridge operations and said the damage looked "isolated to the AFX-operated custody bridge," noting that neither its trading infrastructure and mainnet, nor the Arbitrum network itself, had been compromised.

The firm added that it was working with ecosystem partners and security firms to trace the stolen assets. Hours later, AFX's head of growth, Ken C, offered the attacker a way out: return 70% of the haul and keep the other 30% as a "white hat bounty." Such public pleas have become a recurring feature of crypto exploits—Solana's Drift Protocol tried the same after its $285 million hack in April.

The theft extends a brutal year for DeFi, which has lost more than $840 million to hacks in 2026. It lands close to home, too, with fellow Arbitrum perpetuals venue Ostium drained of $18 million through a compromised oracle key just a week earlier.

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An attacker drained nearly all of AFX Trade’s funds by compromising the signing keys to a bridge the Arbitrum protocol operates, in another off-chain crypto exploit.

Original Image Credits: Pixel-Shot / Shutterstock.com

Posted July 23, 2026 at 6:25 am EST.

AFX Trade, a decentralized perpetuals exchange that runs on Arbitrum and settles in the stablecoin USDC, was drained of roughly $24.15 million on Wednesday after an attacker exploited a bridge it operates.

The exploit was not a smart contract failure. Five of the AFX’s custody bridge’s hot-validator signatures approved the withdrawal, clearing the roughly two-thirds quorum the bridge requires, according to Legalblock security chief Vladimir S.. After a 200-second dispute window, the contract released the funds as designed. The attacker then bridged the stolen USDC to Ethereum and swapped it for about 12,467 ETH, now sitting in a single wallet, according to PeckShield.

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Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of Offchain Labs, which builds Arbitrum, said the native Arbitrum bridge “has not been hacked or exploited in any way.”

The loss fits the pattern that has defined crypto security in 2026: attackers targeting private keys and other off-chain components rather than the code itself. It echoes the roughly $285 million Drift Protocol loss in April, in which attackers spent months working toward privileged access, and it lands just a week after an oracle attack drained $18 million from Arbitrum-based Ostium.

Arbitrum protocols have been targeted repeatedly this year. In April, the network’s Security Council took the unusual step of freezing $71 million in ETH tied to the Kelp DAO bridge exploit, raising questions about how far a supposedly decentralized network’s emergency powers should reach. This time, the attacker’s move to Ethereum may put the funds further out of reach.

Related Listen: Why Any DeFi Protocol ‘Lives and Dies by Its Oracle’ and How to Strengthen Them

AI-assisted content: This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and was reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by a member of the Unchained editorial team before publication.

The exploit targeted a bridge operated by derivatives exchange AFX and emptied nearly all of the USDC locked in the contract, according to security firm Blockaid. Arbitrum co-founder Steven Goldfeder said the network's native bridge was not affected.

AFX Trade, a derivatives exchange that settles trades in USDC, was exploited for approximately $24.15 million on July 22 after an attacker targeted a bridge the protocol operates on Arbitrum, according to security firm Blockaid.

Blockaid said it detected the exploit at 21:30 UTC and published the transaction on Arbiscan. "The exploit was specific to a bridge that AFX operates," the firm wrote, adding that it is working with the Arbitrum team "to respond to the incident, to engage with the affected protocol, and to help them contain the stolen funds."

The attacker moved the funds to Ethereum and swapped them for 12,467 ETH at an average price of $1,937, according to onchain analytics account Lookonchain, which linked to the exploiter's address on Arkham.

AFX had not published a statement on its X account as of the time of writing. The Defiant reached out to AFX for comment.

Arbitrum Says Native Bridge UnaffectedSteven Goldfeder, co-founder of Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs, said the exploit did not compromise Arbitrum's own infrastructure.

"We're aware of a report of a bridge hack on Arbitrum and are investigating. We can confirm that the transaction in question originated from a third party protocol, and the Arbitrum native bridge has not been hacked or exploited in any way," Goldfeder wrote. "We will coordinate with the third party team and will report more details when we have them."

Nearly All Bridge Deposits DrainedThe AFX bridge contract on Arbitrum held about $24.2 million in USDC before the attack, according to DefiLlama, meaning the exploit drained nearly all of the funds locked in the contract. Deposits in the bridge had grown from about $19.3 million in mid-June.

AFX, short for Anti-Fragile Exchange, describes itself as a sovereign Layer 1 blockchain built for decentralized derivatives, offering USDC-margined perpetuals with up to 100x leverage on crypto assets, equities, ETFs and commodities, according to its website. User deposits enter the protocol through the Arbitrum-based bridge contract that was targeted in the attack.

The attack follows a string of exploits targeting protocols on Arbitrum in July. On July 15, perpetuals exchange Ostium halted trading after an attacker manipulated its oracle system to drain up to $18 million in USDC from its liquidity vault.

Markets showed little immediate reaction. ETH was trading at about $1,928, roughly flat over 24 hours, while ARB was down 0.3% at $0.0806, according to CoinGecko. ARB set an all-time low of $0.0705 on June 26.

AFX suffered a $24.15 million USDC loss after an attacker targeted a cross-chain bridge linked to the trading protocol on July 22.

Summary

AFX’s cross-chain bridge lost $24.15 million USDC while Arbitrum’s native bridge remained unaffected during attack. The exploiter moved stolen USDC to Ethereum and converted the proceeds into 12,467.5 ETH afterward. Security firms are tracing the stolen funds as AFX and Arbitrum teams investigate the breach. The incident triggered an investigation by Blockaid and the Arbitrum team, while on-chain trackers followed the stolen funds to Ethereum.

The attack did not affect Arbitrum’s native bridge. AFX operates its own sovereign Layer 1 for perpetual trading but accepts USDC deposits through Arbitrum. The affected infrastructure was a third-party bridge operated by AFX rather than Arbitrum’s core bridge.

AFX bridge loses $24.15 million USDC Blockaid said it detected the exploit at 9:30 p.m. UTC on July 22. The firm said the attack targeted a bridge operated by AFX and drained about 24.15 million USDC. An Arbiscan record shows a successful transfer of 24,150,000 USDC from the bridge contract to the recipient address at 9:30:25 p.m. UTC.

Blockaid detected an exploit at 2026-07-22 21:30 UTC targeting @AFX_XYZ, a protocol on @arbitrum. The exploit was specific to a bridge that AFX operates. Approximately 24.15M USDC has been drained thus far from the protocol.

Our team has been working with the incredible folks on… https://t.co/0Qd9ve5gPB

— Blockaid (@blockaid_) July 22, 2026 The security firm said it was working with the Arbitrum team to respond, contact the affected protocol and help contain the stolen funds. Based on the public updates reviewed at publication time, no recovery had been confirmed. 

AFX had also not published a verified technical postmortem explaining how the attacker gained authorization to withdraw the funds. The protocol had not announced a recovery plan.

Offchain Labs co-founder Steven Goldfeder confirmed that the suspicious transaction came from a third-party protocol. He also separated the AFX incident from Arbitrum’s own bridge infrastructure.

“We’re aware of a report of a bridge hack on Arbitrum and are investigating. We can confirm that the transaction in question originated from a third-party protocol, and the Arbitrum native bridge has not been hacked or exploited in any way,” Goldfeder said. 

He added that the team would coordinate with the third-party protocol and share more details when available.

AFX uses Arbitrum as a route for USDC deposits while running its trading system on a dedicated Layer 1. AFX describes itself as a decentralized derivatives platform built around a sovereign execution environment. A recent protocol post also said users could deposit USDC from Arbitrum before accessing its perpetual markets.

Exploiter converts stolen USDC into ETH PeckShield said the attacker moved the stolen USDC from Arbitrum to Ethereum and converted the proceeds into 12,467.5 ETH. Lookonchain separately reported that the exploiter bought about 12,467 ETH at an average price near $1,937 per ETH after moving the funds.

The conversion moved the stolen value from a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin into Ether, exposing the holdings to ETH price movements. Security teams continued tracing the funds after the swap. At publication time, the reviewed sources did not confirm that Circle had frozen the USDC before conversion or that any of the ETH had been recovered.

The attack adds to several bridge-related security incidents this year. As crypto.news previously reported, Stake DAO closed its vsdCRV bridge after an unauthorized mint on Arbitrum in May. The project said it secured the token’s mainnet backing and contained the incident to the affected bridge.

Earlier in April, a larger exploit hit Kelp DAO’s LayerZero-powered bridge. Attackers drained roughly 116,500 rsETH worth about $292 million. Arbitrum later froze more than 30,000 ETH linked to that attacker after the funds moved onto Arbitrum One.

Investigation focuses on AFX-operated infrastructure The investigation now centers on the AFX-operated bridge and the authorization process behind the 24.15 million USDC withdrawal. The confirmed transaction shows that the bridge contract finalized the transfer, but public statements do not yet establish the verified root cause. A full postmortem may determine whether the incident involved compromised validator credentials, faulty access controls or another weakness.

The main confirmed point is that the exploit affected infrastructure operated by AFX rather than Arbitrum’s native bridge. Blockaid and Offchain Labs both made that separation clear in their initial responses. The Arbitrum network continued operating, and reviewed reports showed no loss from its native bridge.

The incident also places attention on AFX’s deposit infrastructure. The protocol has promoted USDC deposits from Arbitrum as an entry route into its trading platform. Any changes to deposits, withdrawals or bridge operations will depend on the protocol’s response and the ongoing investigation.

The case remains developing. The confirmed loss stands at about $24.15 million in USDC, while on-chain trackers have traced the stolen value into roughly 12,467 ETH on Ethereum. Further updates are expected from AFX, Blockaid and the Arbitrum team as they review the breach and track the attacker’s funds.

The Arbitrum Foundation has proposed a $43 million operating budget for 2027, opening another debate over how major DAOs fund growth, operations, and ecosystem support without draining their treasuries too aggressively.

The proposal is currently in the Arbitrum governance forum for delegate feedback. It has not been finalized, which is an important distinction.

The request is designed to cover operational, administrative, and growth initiatives for the Foundation through 2027. But because Arbitrum is one of the largest Layer 2 ecosystems, any major budget request naturally draws attention from DAO participants.

The bigger story is not just the number. It is the question behind it: how much should a major crypto foundation spend to keep its ecosystem competitive?

TL;DR The Arbitrum Foundation is seeking $43 million for 2027 operations. The proposal is still under delegate discussion and has not been finalized. The debate highlights growing pressure on DAOs to balance treasury discipline with ecosystem growth. DAO Budgets Are Getting More Serious Crypto governance used to focus heavily on token launches, grants, and technical upgrades.

Now, large DAOs increasingly face ordinary but difficult budgeting questions. They need to pay teams, fund ecosystem work, support developers, manage legal and administrative costs, sponsor growth programs, and communicate with users and partners.

That is not as exciting as a new protocol launch, but it is essential.

Arbitrum is a major Layer 2 network with a large ecosystem of DeFi apps, infrastructure providers, developers, and users. The Foundation plays a role in supporting that ecosystem. But every dollar requested from governance or tied to DAO resources needs to be justified.

A $43 million budget request gives delegates something concrete to evaluate.

They will want to know what the money funds, how spending is measured, what outcomes are expected, and whether the Foundation’s budget is aligned with Arbitrum’s long-term goals.

That scrutiny is healthy.

Growth Costs Money, But Treasuries Are Not Infinite The difficult part for any DAO is that growth requires spending, but treasury assets are not unlimited.

If a DAO spends too little, it may fall behind competitors. Developers may move to other ecosystems. Apps may launch elsewhere. Users may follow incentives to rival chains. Infrastructure may weaken.

If a DAO spends too much, tokenholders may worry about waste, weak oversight, or unnecessary dilution of treasury resources.

Arbitrum sits in a competitive Layer 2 market. It competes with Base, Optimism, zkSync, Starknet, Polygon, and other scaling ecosystems for builders, liquidity, users, and institutional attention.

That competition is expensive.

Ecosystems need developer relations, grants, marketing, enterprise outreach, security work, integrations, and governance support. A Foundation budget is one way to coordinate those functions, but the DAO still needs visibility into how funds are used.

Delegate Feedback Will Matter Because the proposal is still in the forum stage, the next step is delegate review.

Delegates may support the broad idea while pushing for more detail. They may ask for clearer reporting, milestone-based releases, spending caps, audits, or category-level transparency.

That is often where governance becomes useful.

The forum process gives tokenholders and delegates a chance to refine the budget before it moves further. It can also reveal whether the Foundation has enough trust from the community to secure continued funding at the requested level.

Arbitrum’s governance has already seen major debates over treasury use in previous cycles. That history makes budget clarity even more important.

The Foundation needs enough flexibility to operate effectively, but the DAO needs enough oversight to feel comfortable approving large allocations.

Arbitrum’s 2027 Plan Comes At A Competitive Moment The timing matters.

Layer 2 networks are moving from early adoption into a more mature competition phase. Fees are lower, app ecosystems are deeper, and users are more comfortable bridging between chains. That means network loyalty is not guaranteed.

Arbitrum needs to keep proving it can attract serious DeFi, gaming, infrastructure, and institutional activity.

A 2027 budget is partly about keeping that machine running.

But the market will judge Arbitrum not by the budget request itself, but by what the spending produces. More developers, stronger apps, deeper liquidity, better tooling, and sustained user activity would support the case. Weak results would make future funding harder to defend.

For now, the proposal gives the Arbitrum community a clear governance question to work through.

How much should the ecosystem spend to stay competitive, and what level of transparency should come with that spending?

That is no longer a side issue for DAOs. It is becoming one of the main tests of whether decentralized networks can manage themselves at scale.

This article is based on the Arbitrum governance forum proposal for continued Foundation funding.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

A brief panic rippled through the Arbitrum ecosystem on July 15 when on-chain watchers flagged a suspicious $24 million USDC withdrawal that looked, at first glance, like a bridge exploit. It wasn’t. Arbitrum’s native bridge remains intact, and the real victim was Ostium, a decentralized exchange focused on real-world asset trading that got drained through a compromised oracle key.

The distinction matters enormously. A bridge hack would signal systemic risk across the entire Layer 2 network. An oracle manipulation attack on a single protocol, while painful, is a contained problem. But the roughly $24 million that walked out the door still represents a significant blow, both to Ostium and to confidence in oracle-dependent DeFi protocols.

How the attack worked The attacker gained access to a compromised oracle signer private key, specifically one tied to a PriceUpKeep role within Ostium’s system. The falsified reports contained future-dated price entries. The system treated these bogus reports as legitimate, which allowed the attacker to generate phantom profits on positions. Those fake gains were then withdrawn as very real USDC from Ostium’s liquidity vault, known as the OLP.

The damage was substantial. Estimates place the total loss between $18 million and $24 million USDC, with some on-chain analysis pinpointing the figure at approximately $23.75 million across multiple transactions. Given that the OLP vault held roughly $63 million in total value, the attacker managed to siphon off about 28% of the entire pool.

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On-chain security firm Blockaid detected the suspicious activity and alerted the community. Ostium responded by halting all trading operations and freezing affected positions while launching a full investigation.

Why the bridge confusion happened The initial alarm bells rang because the stolen funds were transferred from Arbitrum to Ethereum, which naturally drew attention to bridge infrastructure. But the transfers used authorized routes, primarily through MetaMask, and were validated by the network’s validators as legitimate transactions. The bridge did exactly what it was designed to do: process valid withdrawal requests. The problem was upstream, in how those funds were illegitimately obtained in the first place.

That said, the ARB token still took a hit, declining approximately 4% in the aftermath.

Ostium’s track record and what’s at stake Ostium isn’t a fly-by-night protocol. The platform had previously raised $27.8 million in funding and processed over $50 billion in cumulative trading volume. That pedigree makes the exploit more surprising, not less.

What makes this particular incident notable is that it wasn’t a flash loan attack or a price manipulation scheme using on-chain liquidity pools. It was a key compromise. Someone either stole, phished, or otherwise obtained access to a private key that had elevated privileges within the oracle system.

What this means for investors For Arbitrum holders, the good news is straightforward: the network’s core infrastructure wasn’t breached. The 4% ARB decline looks more like a knee-jerk reaction than a fundamental repricing of risk.

For Ostium liquidity providers, the situation is considerably grimmer. Losing 28% of a vault’s value in a single incident is the kind of event that permanently reshapes a protocol’s risk profile.

Investors should be scrutinizing how protocols manage oracle infrastructure with the same intensity they apply to smart contract audits. Look at how many signer keys exist, what privileges they carry, whether multi-signature requirements are enforced, and what happens if one key is compromised.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Hong Hao: The correction in AI stocks is far from complete, and the rotation of capital from overheated sectors to undervalued sectors has not yet ended.

Renowned economist Hong Hao recently stated that the current pullback in AI sector stocks is a mid-cycle correction, not the end of the trend. Judging from South Korea’s KOSPI index, the overall sector correction is far from complete. Stock prices have already overpriced fundamentals in advance; technical adjustments will continue, with sharp short-term volatility and a temporarily downward-biased trend. Hong Hao believes market capital is rotating from overheated new tech sectors like AI and semiconductors to previously neglected old economy/traditional tech sectors—internet giants including Tencent, Alibaba, and Meituan have already posted notable gains. Logically, if one is bullish on AI’s productivity-boosting effect, one should also be optimistic about the old economy (as economic growth will ultimately drive consumption), expecting a broad-based rally rather than narrow speculation.

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South Korean President Lee Jae-myung will hold meetings with executives from multiple global AI giants in San Francisco during his visit to the U.S. this week, aiming to strengthen South Korea’s position in the global artificial intelligence sector and advance substantive cooperation. It is reported that Lee will meet separately with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan. Additionally, he will attend the San Francisco AI Summit and witness the signing of cooperation agreements between South Korean enterprises and the tech giants. Executives from South Korea’s Samsung Electronics (chief Lee Jae-yong), SK Group, Hyundai Motor, Naver, and other local firms will also hold meetings with the aforementioned AI leaders. Analysts note that Lee’s initiative will strengthen South Korea’s role in the global AI industrial chain, particularly in areas including high-bandwidth memory (HBM), GPUs, AI infrastructure, and generative AI services. The summit will send a strong signal to the market, boosting confidence in AI infrastructure investment, especially amid the current tech stock correction. (The Korea Times)

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Samsung Electronics announced at Galaxy Unpacked 2026 that Samsung Wallet will support stablecoins in the future, integrating payments, rewards, and digital assets into the Galaxy ecosystem. The tech giant noted it is poised to become one of the first major smartphone makers to natively support stablecoins. Samsung also unveiled the Samsung Galaxy Card, co-developed with Barclays and Visa, which will launch first in the U.S.

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According to a report by the Nikkei, Japan is expected to launch a Bitcoin ETF as early as 2028. With the revised Financial Instruments and Exchange Act bringing crypto assets under the regulatory scope of financial products, Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) plans to adjust rules related to investment trusts to allow funds and ETFs to hold crypto assets as their primary investment target, with multiple asset management firms already considering participation. Interest in crypto assets among Japanese institutional investors is on the rise: a survey by Nomura Holdings and Laser Digital shows that around 79% of institutional investors and family offices plan to invest in crypto assets over the next three years. However, unlike U.S. Bitcoin ETFs which are driven primarily by institutional capital, Japan’s institutional investor base is relatively small, and household financial assets in the country have a high cash proportion, meaning funds from individual investors are likely to be the main source of inflows. Analysts project that Japan’s Bitcoin ETF could attract up to 3 trillion yen in inflows by fiscal 2028.

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Arbitrum just quietly became one of the most important places to park stablecoins in DeFi. The Ethereum Layer 2 network now hosts between $3.7 billion and $4 billion in stablecoin supply, and Spark Savings has expanded its yield-bearing vaults to capture the vast majority of it.

Spark’s ERC-4626 vaults on Arbitrum now support USDC, USDS, and the recently added USDT0, an omnichain version of Tether. Together, those three stablecoins represent over 90% of Arbitrum’s total stablecoin supply. That means roughly $3 billion or more in stablecoins can now be deposited into yield-generating vaults without users needing to swap tokens or navigate convoluted bridging processes.

What Spark Savings actually does The vaults follow the ERC-4626 standard, which standardizes how deposits, withdrawals, and yield accounting work, making these vaults composable with other protocols. Developers can plug Spark’s vaults into broader DeFi strategies without building custom integrations from scratch.

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Spark initially expanded to Arbitrum in early 2025, supporting USDC and USDS. The addition of USDT0 happened within the last 7-10 days as of mid-July 2026, completing the trifecta of major stablecoins on the network. USDT0 differs from regular USDT in that it’s designed to move natively across multiple chains, eliminating the friction that typically comes with bridging Tether between networks.

The Spark Savings Vaults V2 uses a continuous per-second rate accumulator, meaning there’s no batch processing or epoch-based distribution. Yield grows continuously, and rates are adjusted based on governance decisions.

What this means for investors For stablecoin holders on Arbitrum, three major stablecoins now operate under one vault standard with continuous yield accrual, removing the need to bridge to Ethereum mainnet or search across multiple protocols.

The USDT0 integration is notable because Tether remains the largest stablecoin by market cap globally, and its omnichain variant removes friction around moving USDT between networks without bridge fees or wrapped token complexity.

Concentration risk is the obvious concern. When a single protocol handles yield for over 90% of a network’s stablecoin supply, any smart contract vulnerability or governance misstep could have outsized consequences.

The governance-driven yield adjustment model also introduces uncertainty. Rates are determined by governance votes, which means yield could shift based on political dynamics within the Spark community rather than pure supply and demand.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Ostium Halts Trading After $18M Oracle Key Breach

Arbitrum-based perpetuals exchange Ostium has suspended trading after an $18.4 million exploit tied to a compromised off-chain oracle key, highlighting again how vulnerable trading venues can be when price infrastructure fails.

The attack did not appear to stem from a direct breach of Ostium’s smart contract code. Instead, the validated source material points to manipulation of price feed reports through a compromised oracle private key. That distinction matters because it shows the risk was not only in on-chain contracts, but in the off-chain infrastructure feeding data into the system.

Perpetuals exchanges depend on accurate prices. If the price feed can be manipulated, the entire trading venue becomes exposed.

Ostium’s response was to halt trading while investigating the incident.

TL;DR Ostium suspended trading after an $18.4 million exploit. The attack involved a compromised off-chain oracle private key. The incident highlights oracle key-management risk rather than a direct smart contract breach. https://x.com/OstiumLabs/status/1814981204853092352

Why Oracle Failures Are So Dangerous Perpetuals markets need reliable prices.

A trader’s collateral, liquidation level, profit and loss, funding exposure, and settlement value all depend on price data. If that data is wrong, the market can be exploited even if the core trading contracts behave exactly as designed.

That is why oracle infrastructure is one of DeFi’s most sensitive layers.

It sits between real-world or market data and on-chain execution. A protocol may have audited contracts, but if the data feeding those contracts can be manipulated, the system is still vulnerable.

In Ostium’s case, the issue appears to involve a compromised off-chain oracle key. That means the attacker was able to interfere with the trusted reporting path rather than simply finding a normal contract bug.

That kind of failure can be harder for users to understand because the problem is not always visible in the same way as a contract exploit.

The blockchain may record the transactions, but the weak point may be the infrastructure behind the data.

The Smart Contract Was Not The Only Risk The distinction between smart contract risk and oracle risk matters.

Crypto users often ask whether a protocol’s contracts are audited. That is important, but not sufficient. A trading protocol also depends on pricing systems, administrative keys, keeper networks, bridges, liquidation bots, front ends, and operational security.

Any one of those layers can become a weak point.

If an oracle private key is compromised, attackers may not need to break the smart contract. They can feed the contract bad information and profit from how the system reacts.

That is why DeFi security has to be broader than code review.

Protocols need key management, monitoring, alert systems, circuit breakers, fallback feeds, and clear emergency procedures. The faster a venue can detect abnormal prices and pause dangerous operations, the more damage it may prevent.

Ostium’s trading halt shows that emergency controls are still essential.

Arbitrum DeFi Faces Another Security Test Arbitrum remains one of the most active Ethereum layer-2 ecosystems for DeFi.

That activity brings liquidity, traders, and innovation, but it also attracts attackers. Perpetuals venues are especially attractive because they concentrate collateral and rely on real-time pricing.

An $18.4 million exploit is large enough to matter for the ecosystem, even if it does not threaten Arbitrum itself.

The incident should not be framed as an Arbitrum network failure. The issue is specific to Ostium’s oracle infrastructure. But for users, every exploit adds to the broader question of how safe layer-2 DeFi venues are in practice.

That question matters as more capital moves to faster and cheaper networks.

Layer-2 scaling lowers transaction costs, but it does not remove application-level risk. Users still need to evaluate each protocol’s design, security model, and operational controls.

What Comes Next For Ostium The immediate priority is investigation, containment, and user communication.

Ostium needs to explain what happened, which systems were affected, whether user balances are recoverable, how trading will restart, and what controls will change before reopening.

For traders, the most important question is whether the oracle system has been rebuilt or secured enough to prevent a repeat.

A trading venue can survive an exploit if the response is transparent and the fix is credible. It becomes much harder if users are left unclear about where the failure occurred or whether the same path remains exposed.

The broader market should also pay attention.

Oracle key risk is not unique to one exchange. Any protocol relying on off-chain signing, price feeds, or privileged reporting paths needs to think carefully about compromise scenarios.

The lesson is straightforward: DeFi systems are only as strong as the weakest trusted component.

Ostium’s contracts may not have been directly breached, but the market still suffered a major exploit. That is why oracle security remains one of the most important issues in on-chain trading.

This article is based on Ostium’s public statement and Arbiscan transaction data.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

Altcoins

21 July 2026 | 20:11 Robinhood Chain has become one of the fastest-growing networks in crypto, and Arbitrum is positioned to be a direct beneficiary.

Key Takeaways Robinhood Chain reached roughly 10 million daily transactions within three weeks of its July 1 mainnet launch. The chain routes 10% of protocol net revenue to the Arbitrum ecosystem: 8% to the DAO treasury, 2% to the Developer Guild. A 90-day gas subsidy is driving activity, keeping current fee revenue minimal until it expires in late September. Early volume is dominated by memecoins and DeFi rather than the tokenized stocks the chain was built for. The Layer 2, built on Arbitrum’s technology stack, reached roughly 10 million daily transactions less than three weeks after its public mainnet opened, and it contributes a share of its revenue back to the Arbitrum ecosystem.

The mechanism is real. The current dollar amounts are not yet meaningful. Understanding both is what separates this story from the version circulating on social media.

A 10 Million-Transaction Chain, With an Asterisk The clearest picture comes from Token Terminal, which wrote on X that “daily transactions on Robinhood Chain reach ~10m, while average block times fall to ~100ms,” calling the result a consumer-grade user experience onchain. The firm’s chart shows the ramp was not a single spike: daily counts climbed through early July and have held between roughly 7 million and 11 million since July 8, with several sessions above 10 million, while average block times collapsed from about 3 seconds at launch to a flat line near 100 milliseconds. Counting methods vary by tracker but every source points the same direction, and Token Terminal’s earlier comparison, cited by CoinDesk, showed the chain overtaking Coinbase’s Base in daily transactions within two weeks of launch.

Robinhood Chain daily transactions and block times. Two caveats keep that figure honest. First, Robinhood is covering all user gas fees for the chain’s first 90 days, which brings the cost of transacting to near zero and inflates activity that might not persist once users pay their own way from late September. Second, the composition is not what the chain was built for: DefiLlama data as of mid July shows memecoins and stablecoins dominating a network holding only about $12.8 million in tokenized real-world assets, against total value locked in the hundreds of millions. The pattern echoes Base’s 2023 launch, where speculation arrived first and durable applications later.

Ten million transactions is also not ten million users. Automated contract interactions, swaps and application-generated activity can all produce multiple transactions per participant. The milestone is evidence of technical capacity, not equivalent adoption. For how tokenized stocks and funds actually work as products, see our guide to RWA tokenization platforms.

How Robinhood Activity Becomes Arbitrum Revenue The economic relationship needs a clarification that most coverage skips. Robinhood Chain does not transfer 10% of every transaction’s value to Arbitrum. Under the Arbitrum Expansion Program, it contributes 10% of the protocol net revenue generated by the chain: 8% to the ArbitrumDAO treasury and 2% to the Arbitrum Developer Guild, routed through the program’s fee infrastructure and incorporated into the DAO’s financial reporting, according to the official ArbitrumDAO factsheet.

The connection to ARB is indirect but real. ARB holders vote on how the DAO treasury is used, including ecosystem funding and treasury allocation. The arrangement includes no automatic ARB buyback and no direct distribution to token holders; it adds revenue to a treasury governed through ARB-based voting.

Why the Numbers Are Still Small Here is where the thesis meets the ledger. During the subsidy period, the chain’s daily protocol fees have run at approximately $4,000, and FalconX estimated in April that Robinhood Chain could generate about $1.1 million in fees over six months. Ten percent of net revenue on figures that size is not a treasury-moving number for a DAO of Arbitrum’s scale.

The revenue thesis is therefore a forward-looking one. It depends on activity surviving beyond the subsidy, on fee-paying usage replacing subsidized speculation, and on tokenized securities and payments growing into the volumes that speculative trading currently occupies. If those conditions hold, the recurring flow to Arbitrum grows with them. If activity collapses in October, the 10% share applies to very little.

The Real Boost: A Blueprint for More Chains The larger value to Arbitrum may not be this chain’s fees at all, but what its launch demonstrates. Robinhood opened the mainnet on July 1, 2026 after a February public testnet that, according to the Arbitrum Foundation, processed more than 200 million transactions before production. The company first launched its Stock Tokens on Arbitrum One in 2025, validated the product on shared infrastructure, then migrated to a dedicated chain, the “launch-and-migrate” model described in Arbitrum’s announcement.

Technically, the chain runs first-come, first-served sequencing with roughly 100-millisecond preconfirmations, settles to Ethereum using blob data availability per the official documentation, and is fully EVM-compatible: it uses ETH for gas, supports standard Ethereum wallets, and assets move in over standard infrastructure of the kind covered in our guide to the Arbitrum Bridge and its alternatives. It is also permissionless, meaning external developers deploy without Robinhood’s approval, per Robinhood’s support documentation. The 100-millisecond figure describes ordering and preconfirmation speed, not final Ethereum settlement.

For Arbitrum, a household-name brokerage proving that model at this scale is a sales document for every other institution weighing its own chain. Each additional Expansion Program chain adds another revenue stream to the same treasury. That compounding pipeline, more than this quarter’s fees, is the realistic version of the “Robinhood boosts Arbitrum” story.

The competitive stakes are visible elsewhere: as our analysis of Solana’s second quarter showed, roughly 97% of tokenized-equity trading currently runs through Solana. Robinhood Chain is the most credible attempt yet to pull that market onto Ethereum-aligned rails.

Confirming the Thesis Transaction counts and active addresses in October, after the subsidy expires; sustained seven-figure daily activity on paid fees would convert the launch spike into a business. The share of activity coming from tokenized securities, visible in the chain’s TVL composition. The actual revenue contributions appearing in ArbitrumDAO’s financial reporting, which will put a public dollar figure on what the 10% share is worth. Until then, Robinhood Chain has proven the technology scales and the revenue pipe exists. Whether meaningful money flows through it is a question the coming months will answer.

Source: Based on Robinhood and Arbitrum official documentation and announcements, the ArbitrumDAO factsheet, and network data from Token Terminal and DefiLlama, checked July 21, 2026.

This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.

Author

Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work at Coindoo has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem. To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.

Arbitrum has been an important part of the Velvet ecosystem for years.

Most recently, when we launched Hyperliquid on Velvet, Arbitrum became one of the primary networks for depositing to and withdrawing from Hyperliquid, giving traders one of the fastest and lowest-cost ways to move capital into perpetual trading.

Today, we’re expanding that relationship even further.

Arbitrum spot trading is now live on VelvetX.

Join VelvetX

You can now discover, analyze, and trade Arbitrum-native tokens while continuing to use Arbitrum as a seamless gateway into Hyperliquid—all from a single terminal.

Arbitrum has become a preferred network for many Velvet users thanks to its fast transactions and low fees.

Whether funding a Hyperliquid account or moving capital across chains, Arbitrum has played an important role in the Velvet experience.

Now, we’re expanding beyond deposits and withdrawals.

You can trade Arbitrum-native tokens directly on VelvetX while continuing to use Arbitrum as a seamless gateway into Hyperliquid.

Whether you’re rotating capital into perps, swapping across chains, or discovering the next opportunity on Arbitrum, everything now happens in one place.

Arbitrum has established itself as one of Ethereum’s leading Layer 2 ecosystems.

With billions in TVL, a thriving DeFi landscape, and hundreds of applications, it has become one of the most active destinations for onchain traders.

From blue-chip DeFi protocols to newly launched tokens, Arbitrum continues to attract builders, liquidity, and users looking for lower fees and faster execution.

Now you can access the entire ecosystem directly through VelvetX.

Getting into Arbitrum shouldn’t require multiple bridges, wallets, and applications.

With VelvetX, you can cross-chain swap directly into Arbitrum using the assets you already own.

Move funds seamlessly from:

Solana

Base

BNB Chain

Ethereum

Robinhood Chain

And other supported networks

All within a single transaction.

No manually bridging assets.

No switching between multiple applications.

No unnecessary friction.

Simply swap into Arbitrum and start trading immediately.

VelvetX brings together the tools active traders rely on every day.

Discover new tokens before they trend.

Track smart wallets and top traders.

Monitor whale activity.

Follow emerging narratives.

See what’s gaining momentum across the ecosystem.

Execute trades in seconds.

Instead of jumping between explorers, trading interfaces, analytics dashboards, and social feeds, everything lives inside a single trading experience.

Every ecosystem generates an overwhelming amount of information.

Thousands of wallets.

Hundreds of new tokens.

Millions of transactions.

Velvet’s AI helps turn that information into actionable intelligence.

Analyze tokens.

Track wallet behavior.

Surface emerging narratives.

Monitor ecosystem activity.

Helping you spend less time searching and more time finding opportunities.

Arbitrum joins a rapidly growing list of ecosystems available on VelvetX.

Trade seamlessly across:

Solana

Base

Ethereum

BNB Chain

Hyperliquid

Robinhood Chain

Arbitrum

And move between them in just a few clicks.

One interface.

One portfolio.

One workflow.

Whether you’re trading spot, rotating capital across ecosystems, or funding your Hyperliquid account, VelvetX gives you a unified experience across every major chain.

The future of onchain trading isn’t confined to a single blockchain.

The best opportunities will emerge across many ecosystems, and traders need tools that move as quickly as the market.

VelvetX is built for that future.

By combining AI-powered discovery, seamless cross-chain swaps, and support for every major ecosystem, VelvetX lets you focus on finding opportunities instead of navigating infrastructure.

Arbitrum is now live on VelvetX.

Start exploring the Arbitrum ecosystem today.

Join VelvetX

Pendle’s Boros platform just rolled out a funding rate market for the SK Hynix perpetual contract on Hyperliquid, and the timing is anything but accidental. With SK Hynix ADRs trading at a premium exceeding 20% over their Korean-listed shares, and a conversion window set to reopen on July 29, traders are scrambling to position for what could be a rapid price convergence.

The new market lets traders fix, hedge, or speculate on the funding rates attached to the SKHYNIX perp, a contract that has averaged annualized funding rates of roughly 64% since listing. In English: holding a long position on this perp has been absurdly expensive, and now there’s finally a tool to manage that cost.

The arbitrage play driving the launch Here’s the setup. SK Hynix, the South Korean memory chip giant, raised approximately $26.5 billion through a US ADR offering priced at $149. The offering was massively oversubscribed, which created a supply squeeze on the American-listed shares.

That squeeze pushed ADR prices well above the equivalent Korean share price, creating a premium of more than 20%. The classic trade is straightforward: buy the cheaper Korean shares, short the expensive ADRs, and wait for the prices to converge.

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The catch is that the ADR-to-share conversion mechanism, which would naturally close this gap, has been temporarily locked. That window reopens on July 29. Once it does, traders expect the premium to compress as new ADR supply enters the market through conversions.

But there’s a wrinkle. Traders using Hyperliquid’s SKHYNIX perp to express this view face wildly unpredictable funding costs. On a single day, funding rates have oscillated between -452% and +276% annualized. That kind of volatility can obliterate a carefully constructed arbitrage position before the thesis even has time to play out.

How Boros works and why it matters Boros, built by the Pendle team on Arbitrum, creates markets specifically for perpetual contract funding rates. Traders can use tokenized yield units to effectively convert their variable funding rate exposure into a fixed rate, or vice versa.

For the SKHYNIX market specifically, early implied APRs on the Boros platform ranged between 18.99% and 40%. Initial trading volumes were modest, roughly $30,000 to $42,000.

The practical application looks something like this. A trader running the Korea-to-ADR arbitrage might be long Korean shares through a traditional broker and short the SKHYNIX perp on Hyperliquid. That short position earns or pays funding depending on the rate. By using Boros to lock in a fixed funding rate, the trader can calculate their exact cost of carry and determine whether the arb is profitable before entering.

Without Boros, that same trader is flying blind on funding costs. With average rates around 64% annualized, the margin for error is razor thin.

There’s also a pure yield play available. Traders can go long the funding rate on Boros if they believe rates will stay elevated, effectively creating a synthetic fixed-yield position.

The bigger picture: crypto rails for equity trades Perpetual funding rates have historically been one of the few truly unhedgeable costs in crypto trading. Boros changes that equation by allowing fixed-rate trade outcomes through tokenized yield units. The fact that its first major use case involves a traditional equity — a Korean semiconductor stock trading as a US ADR — reflects the growing intersection of on-chain infrastructure with traditional equity strategies.

For the SK Hynix trade specifically, the July 29 conversion date is the key catalyst. If the ADR premium compresses as expected, traders who locked in favorable funding rates through Boros will have a cleaner, more predictable return profile than those paying variable rates on a perp that swings hundreds of percentage points intraday.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.

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Analysts at Bernstein have raised their price target on Robinhood Markets, based on their investment thesis that the online brokerage’s next phase of growth will be driven by tokenized equities and prediction markets rather than traditional crypto trading.

In a Monday research note, Bernstein raised its price target on Robinhood (HOOD) stock to $160 from $130 per share and maintained its Outperform rating. HOOD stock was last seen trading around $101.

The analysts said prediction markets are poised to become Robinhood’s fastest-growing business, forecasting segment revenue to reach $1.7 billion by 2028, representing a 64% compound annual growth rate.

Beyond prediction markets, Bernstein identified tokenized equities as a major long-term opportunity, pointing to Robinhood’s investment in blockchain infrastructure. The firm highlighted Robinhood Chain, the company’s Arbitrum-based layer-2 network, as its proprietary infrastructure for tokenized real-world assets, enabling the platform to build on-chain financial products without relying on third-party blockchains.

Bernstein said that tokenization is emerging as a foundational layer for capital markets, projecting that the value of onchain real-world assets will grow to between $2 trillion and $4 trillion by 2030 from roughly $35 billion today. The analysts expect tokenized equities to account for an increasing share of that growth as adoption expands beyond Treasury securities and private credit.

Robinhood is competing across key “battleground” asset classes, including prediction markets, perpetual futures and tokenized RWAs. Source: Bernstein

Wall Street expands tokenization infrastructureThe Bernstein report comes as financial institutions continue to expand infrastructure for tokenized securities.

On Monday, brokerage infrastructure provider Alpaca and financial technology company Broadridge Financial Solutions announced they had integrated Broadridge’s shareholder governance tools into Alpaca’s Instant Tokenization Network. The integration adds capabilities such as proxy voting, investor communications and regulatory disclosures for tokenized securities, aiming to give token holders governance rights comparable to those of traditional shareholders.

The announcement follows last week’s partnership between tokenization platform Securitize and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald to develop infrastructure for blockchain-based initial public offerings and follow-on equity offerings within existing US securities regulations.

The institutional push comes as tokenized stocks continue to gain traction. The asset class has grown to nearly $2 billion in market value this year, according to RWA.xyz.

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Uniswap, the decentralized exchange protocol, is moving forward with two major governance proposals that could activate protocol fees on several chains and strengthen the UNI token burning mechanism. The community is set to vote on these initiatives, with the window closing on July 26.

Key proposals target UNI Burn and protocol fee expansionHayden Adams, founder of Uniswap, indicated that the potential approval of these proposals could have a substantial impact on the UNI Burn mechanism. The measures are designed to introduce fee collection for certain liquidity pools for the first time on Uniswap v4 and expand fees on v2 and v3 pools operating on Robinhood Chain.

In a statement on social media, Adams outlined the specifics: one governance proposal seeks to enable protocol fees in Uniswap version 4 liquidity pools across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, BNB Chain, Polygon, Optimism, and Robinhood Chain. A secondary proposal will address additional v4 chains, given Uniswap’s GovernorBravo contract’s technical constraint of 10 actions per proposal.

Both voting initiatives, if approved, will implement protocol fee collection on static fee pools, continuous clearing auction pools, and aggregator hooks pools, providing more streamlined fee management across supported chains for Uniswap’s newest iteration.

Technical structure and planned rolloutUniswap v4 introduces flexible pool fees based on a hook system, allowing fees to vary from block to block for more responsive management. The proposal includes organizing pools into “families,” so standardized rules could dictate fee structures for different pool types, minimizing the need for separate votes on each individual pool.

Uniswap v2 and v3 pools, meanwhile, continue to rely on fixed fee rates per protocol rules. Under the latest proposals, these versions would see fees activated specifically on Robinhood Chain, which is backed by Arbitrum blockchain infrastructure.

Robinhood Chain, launched as an Ethereum Layer-2 mainnet on July 1, is a blockchain secured by Arbitrum technology. It integrates directly with the Robinhood trading ecosystem, and since launch, its decentralized exchange volume reached roughly $3.1 billion within the first week, largely driven by active trading in memecoins.

Mini dictionary: Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain utilizing the Arbitrum architecture, is built to support fast and cost-efficient transactions and is connected to the Robinhood trading platform.

Uniswap VersionFee StructureTargeted ChainsProposal Scopev2/v3FixedRobinhood ChainActivate protocol feesv4Flexible (by hooks)Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, BNB, Polygon, Optimism, Robinhood ChainActivate protocol feesGovernance, UNI burning and network expansionHistorically, Uniswap governance decided in December to burn 100 million UNI tokens from its treasury after a vote passed with 99.9% support, enabling protocol fees for v2 and v3 pools on Ethereum mainnet. However, protocol fees for v4 were delayed as its infrastructure was not yet in place. The recent push expands the fee system across 11 blockchains, reflecting Uniswap’s larger strategy to increase platform revenues and enhance token scarcity through regular burning events.

In the past month, Uniswap set a record by burning nearly 186,000 UNI in a single day. Both new proposals leverage Uniswap’s accelerated governance framework, implemented through the Unification upgrade. This process allows for faster progression to on-chain voting, provided proposals pass an initial five-day Snapshot poll. The expanded protocol fee discussions have been underway since February.

Should the proposals be approved, the resulting fees from operations across multiple blockchains are set to directly support the token burn mechanism, reinforcing a governance upgrade that was already implemented across other versions of the platform.

Since the launch of Robinhood Chain’s Ethereum Layer-2 mainnet on July 1, Uniswap’s cumulative swap volume on the network surpassed $6 billion by July 10, reflecting the high user engagement and liquidity infusion driven by this integration.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

Arbitrum (ARB), a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum, is attracting greater market attention as bullish indicators mount and buying interest increases. Stronger technical signals and expanded infrastructure developments are supporting expectations for a potential upward price movement.

Bullish momentum builds as technicals improveARB is currently priced at $0.08794 with a 24-hour trading volume of $83.15 million and a market capitalization of $560.21 million. The cryptocurrency has displayed stability in the last 24 hours, and its price structure suggests potential for a reversal. Market participants have observed growing signs that ARB could be entering an early bull phase, buoyed by advances in technical patterns and persistence above key daily moving averages.

Crypto analyst Michael van de Poppe noted that technical indicators across several timeframes are strengthening, highlighting bullish divergences relative to both the US dollar and Bitcoin. The formation of a higher low in the ARB price is viewed as supporting evidence that buyers are maintaining control.

Analysts point out that, despite recent consolidation, Arbitrum has defended a key support zone and continues to register increased trading volume, reflecting upward pressure from traders and speculators.

The accumulation phase may be underway, with increased participation suggesting that ARB could be in the initial stages of a new market cycle.

WalletConnect and Arbitrum partnership boosts ecosystemWalletConnect, a widely adopted communication protocol for connecting decentralized applications with mobile wallets, has expanded its integration with Arbitrum. This cooperation aims to make on-chain application development faster and more cost-effective for organizations operating on the Arbitrum network.

The enhanced partnership allows for more seamless wallet interactions, improved user experiences, and lower transaction fees. Developers can now more efficiently deliver services to end users due to these improvements.

Arbitrum supports an ecosystem with over $17 billion locked in its protocols and liquidity exceeding $4 billion in stablecoins, making it a prominent option for larger enterprises seeking blockchain solutions.

Transaction fees on Arbitrum remain below $0.01, further contributing to its suitability for deploying scalable decentralized applications.

Mini dictionary: WalletConnect, a protocol that enables easy and secure connection between decentralized applications and cryptocurrency wallets without requiring users to reveal private keys.

MetricValueCurrent ARB price$0.0879424-hour trading volume$83.15 millionMarket capitalization$560.21 millionTotal value locked (TVL)$17 billionStablecoin liquidity$4 billionAverage transaction feeLess than $0.01Market outlook remains cautiously optimisticDespite optimistic forecasts and new integrations, ARB’s price continues to face downward pressure. Broader market trends, however, are showing signs of improvement, and analysts suggest that a reversal could occur if favorable conditions persist.

Significant resistance levels remain, but renewed accumulation by large holders and expanding ecosystem partnerships—such as the growing collaboration with WalletConnect—are cited as potential catalysts for a new uptrend.

Expectations for increased bullish sentiment rest on persistently high trading volumes, enhanced network partnerships, and signs of continued whale accumulation, all of which support the prospect of a trend reversal for ARB.

Nonetheless, market participants continue to monitor Arbitrum’s progress closely in light of the volatile nature of the cryptocurrency sector.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

@RobinhoodCrypto's Ethereum Layer 2 network is only 16 days old, and it is already moving serious money. Robinhood Chain recorded $5.254 billion in weekly DEX volume, a 490% jump week over week, according to DefiLlama data. For a chain that only opened its public mainnet on July 1, 2026, the numbers are difficult to ignore.

Uniswap Is Doing Almost All of the Work The volume story is largely a single-protocol story. @Uniswap accounted for $588.93 million of the $594.74 million traded on the chain in the most recent 24-hour window, making every other protocol on Robinhood Chain a rounding error by comparison. That concentration reflects Uniswap's position as the designated public liquidity layer on the network, a role it was given at launch alongside infrastructure partners including Chainlink, BitGo, and Morpho.

Robinhood Chain was built on Arbitrum's Orbit technology and settles to Ethereum as an optimistic rollup. The chain was unveiled at Robinhood's "The World Is Flat" event in London and was positioned from the outset as infrastructure for tokenized real-world assets, offering stock tokens available in more than 120 countries alongside a DeFi lending product called Robinhood Earn, which routes user deposits into a Morpho-powered USDG vault at an estimated 7% annual yield.

Strong Flows, But TVL Lags the Volume The gap between trading activity and capital locked on the chain is wide. DeFi TVL stands at $220 million against $5.25 billion in weekly volume, with $816 million bridged into the network. The chain itself booked $175,178 in revenue in a single day, a meaningful figure for a network still in its first weeks.

The chain's stated focus on tokenized real-world assets remains a small part of the actual activity. Early volume has been driven heavily by speculation, including a surge in meme coin trading, rather than the tokenized stock use case Robinhood originally advertised. Still, the raw throughput has been enough to push Robinhood Chain into the top tier of DEX networks globally. On July 12, the chain ranked second in 24-hour DEX volume across all networks, trailing only Solana, according to DefiLlama data.

The chain launched with a built-in distribution advantage that most new L2 networks do not have. Robinhood operates a brokerage serving nearly 28 million customers, giving the network a ready-made audience from day one. Whether that early volume converts into sustained DeFi activity and genuine RWA adoption will be the question to watch in the weeks ahead.

Sources
Robinhood Chain on DefiLlama: TVL, Volume and Revenue
CoinDesk: Robinhood Rolls Out Public Blockchain
Bitcoin.com: Robinhood Chain Surges Past $3 Billion in DEX Volume