Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Large Wallets Pull Nearly 90,000 ETH From Coinbase PrimeA cluster of newly created wallets has withdrawn a combined 89,396 $ETH, valued at roughly $164.9 million, from Coinbase Prime over the past three days, according to on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain. The latest batch alone accounted for 20,000 $ETH, worth approximately $37.7 million.

The pattern is drawing attention because the wallets involved were created shortly before each withdrawal, a behaviour that analysts often associate with institutional players setting up fresh custody addresses rather than routine retail transfers. Large withdrawals from centralized exchanges like Coinbase typically suggest accumulation strategies by major holders, possibly in anticipation of price moves or to shift assets to decentralised wallets for security or staking purposes.

The latest transactions suggest that whale activity is increasing just as Ethereum begins recovering from its recent correction. Supporting that narrative, Binance's Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) has climbed to its highest level in nearly three months, reflecting sustained spot buying rather than a rally driven purely by leveraged futures traders.

Abraxas Capital Adds to Its ETH PositionAbraxas Capital has also been active. The fund recently withdrew an additional 8,452 $ETH, worth around $16 million, from Binance and Bybit, continuing a months-long pattern of exchange outflows. Pulling Ethereum off two separate exchanges suggests Abraxas wants those tokens in cold storage or a self-custodied wallet, not on a trading desk.

Earlier in 2025, Abraxas reportedly accumulated over $477 million in ETH through a series of purchases, partially financed by borrowing stablecoins. The firm has continued that strategy into 2026, and if Abraxas is genuinely trimming Bitcoin exposure to build Ethereum positions, it joins a growing chorus of institutional capital that has been warming to Ethereum's ecosystem developments.

The broader context matters too. The U.S. government moved nearly $300 million in Ethereum to Coinbase Prime earlier this week, yet private whale wallets have continued accumulating in parallel, suggesting demand is absorbing available supply. Whether the current wave of outflows reflects genuine institutional conviction or simple wallet reorganisation remains unconfirmed, but the scale and frequency of transfers is keeping market participants alert.

Sources:
Crypto Briefing: Abraxas Capital deposits $40M in Bitcoin to Kraken, pulls $15M in Ethereum off exchanges
The Coin Republic: US Moves Nearly $300M in ETH and BTC, But Whales Keep Buying
TradingView: Ethereum Price Breaks $1,900 as Whales Fuel Next ETH Rally

Ethereum News: BlackRock, JPMorgan Builds Make ETH a Wall Street Asset, Tom Lee Argues

Ahmed Barakat

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Ahmed Barakat

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Ahmed Barakat is a journalist and copywriter based in Georgia with a growing focus on blockchain technology, DeFi, AI, privacy, digital assets, and fintech innovation.

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In the lastest Ethereum news, Fundstrat’s Tom Lee is arguing that Ethereum’s next major move has nothing to do with crypto-native speculation, and everything to do with institutional capital that is already deployed and building.

Writing in Bitmine’s July Chairman’s message, Lee pointed to BlackRock BUIDL, JPMorgan MONY, and Robinhood Chain as concrete evidence that Wall Street has moved from observation to construction on Ethereum’s rails. The ETH price currently sits near $1,880, about 60% below its 2025 peak near $5,000.

The gap between that peak and current levels is the central question Lee addresses. His read is that it reflects a regime change, not a structural ceiling, the first era of ICOs, NFTs, ETFs, and stablecoins has run its course, and the institutions now building on Ethereum represent a fundamentally different demand base with longer time horizons and larger capital pools.

Discover: The Best Token Presales

Ethereum News: BlackRock, JPMorgan, and the Tokenization Build-OutLee’s institutional case rests on names that move markets in traditional finance. BlackRock BUIDL, the asset manager’s tokenized Treasury fund, now holds roughly $2.6 billion and has earned Moody’s top money-market rating (Moody’s cited).

JPMorgan MONY extended the bank’s tokenization push that began with Onyx in 2020, adding another institutional-grade vehicle to the Ethereum ecosystem.

Electric Capital data cited by Lee puts nearly 6,000 developers on the EVM stack, ranking Ethereum first among all chains for new builders, a metric that matters more to institutions evaluating long-term platform risk than short-term price momentum.

🧵
1/
Bitmine released its July Chairman's Message titled
"ETH is the Cure for the Uncanny Valley of Wealth"

– Two exponential tailwinds for Ethereum
– The crypto headwinds of 2026 are ending
– Bitmine primed for next bull cycle

Linkhttps://t.co/RHYkprmhCD

— Bitmine (NYSE-BMNR) $ETH (@BitMNR) July 16, 2026 Wall Street is building on Ethereum, Lee argues in the Chairman’s message, contrasting 2022’s crypto bear-market backdrop with continued institution-led development.

In 2025 and 2026, institutional crypto infrastructure has continued to expand even as ETH price fell sharply from its cycle highs. That divergence between on-chain institutional activity and spot price is the core of his thesis. For more on how BlackRock’s ETF flows are reinforcing this dynamic, see this analysis of BlackRock ETF inflows and their ETH price implications.

Discover: The Best Crypto to Diversify Your Portfolio

Robinhood Chain: ETH as Settlement MoneyRobinhood Chain, launched July 1 on Arbitrum, handed Lee one of his more striking data points. Within two weeks of going live, it ranked third among all networks by DEX volume at about $811 million daily, briefly surpassing Ethereum itself according to DefiLlama. Ethereum has since reclaimed that position, and cumulative Robinhood Chain volume has crossed $1 billion.

In the Chairman’s message news, Lee argues that Robinhood Chain’s use of ETH (as described in his discussion of the network’s fees and how it settles) makes it a meaningful Ethereum use case.

Source: Robinhood Chain TVL / DefiLlamaThe counterargument is equally straightforward. Artemis CEO Jon Ma has noted that Robinhood Chain’s volume spike is predominantly meme coin-driven, not institutional flows.

And the fee economics cut against Lee’s framing, Robinhood Chain pays Ethereum’s base layer almost nothing in fees. High DEX volume on an Arbitrum-based chain does not translate 1-for-1 into ETH fee burn at the L1 level.

The Amazon Analogy, and the Conflict It CarriesLee frames the current ETH setup through an Amazon analogy: the stock traded near a split-adjusted $6 for 12 years before climbing to $241 as its total addressable market expanded beyond what early investors could model. He also describes the psychology around sellers at depressed prices.

He also concedes the bearish read directly. ETH has failed twice at the $5,000 level, and skeptics argue that the top of the range could limit upside this cycle.

Source: ETHUSD / TradingviewThe conflict of interest embedded in Lee’s thesis deserves direct acknowledgment. Bitmine’s latest weekly disclosure shows 5.77 million ETH, about 4.8% of the 120.7 million total supply. Lee is among the biggest beneficiaries if institutional adoption confirms his thesis.

That does not make his argument wrong, but it reframes every price target he issues as coming from a holder with an extraordinary financial stake in the outcome.

The institutional infrastructure Lee cites is real. BlackRock BUIDL’s Moody’s rating, JPMorgan’s MONY fund, and Robinhood Chain’s early volume numbers are all verifiable facts, not projections.

Whether they are sufficient to drive ETH from $1,880 back through $5,000 and beyond depends on whether institutional capital deepens from product launch into sustained secondary market demand, a step that none of these programs has yet demonstrated at scale.

Trades Ethereum, and Don’t Miss Out on Our $1,000 USDT Airdrop on ByBit

Enso says it found two real pools, on Ethereum and Polygon, engineered to pass a wallet’s pre-trade simulation with an attractive quote and then execute at a worse rate.

Posted July 16, 2026 at 9:00 am EST.

A new piece of research says some DeFi liquidity pools are built to lie to the software that routes a user’s trade.

Enso, an onchain development firm, published research on Thursday describing what it calls “toxic pools,” malicious pools that show an accurate, attractive price when a wallet or trading app simulates a swap, then deliver a materially worse result once the transaction is mined.

How the trick works Most wallets and aggregators decide which route offers the best price by simulating a trade before sending it. A toxic pool is engineered to game that step: it returns a strong quote during the simulation, so routing systems pick it, then behaves differently on-chain. Unlike ordinary slippage or MEV, the deception targets the quote itself, Enso said.

“The industry has spent years optimizing price discovery,” said Milos Costantini, Enso’s co-founder and chief product officer, in a statement accompanying the report he co-authored. “Our findings suggest the next challenge is verifying execution integrity. If transaction simulations can be manipulated while real execution tells a different story, we need better ways to verify what users actually receive.”

What the data shows Enso documented two cases. A manipulated Curve pool on Ethereum processed more than 129,000 swaps at worse-than-quoted rates, which Enso estimated overstated quotes by roughly $225,000 and burned close to $30,000 in gas on failed transactions. A separate Uniswap v4 hook on Polygon failed 99.1% of the time, repeatedly luring routers before reverting. Enso put the attacker’s realized profit across both pools at about $34,600.

Both pools have since gone quiet, with the Polygon one disabled in May and the Curve pool active through late June. But Enso said the same operator deployed other contracts, suggesting the technique can be repeated, and it found the Ethereum pool alternated between honest and manipulated behavior, so a single check would not catch it.

A vendor with a fix The disclosure comes as Enso expands Enso Shield, a product it sells to detect exactly this kind of manipulation. The company, which says it has helped settle more than $15 billion onchain, framed the finding as an industry-wide problem and called for independent validation, noting it worked with contacts at Curve and Oku.

Unchained has previously covered how MEV bots quietly extract value from ordinary DeFi trades.

Related Listen: DEX in the City: Why the Market Structure Bill May Not Be Good for DeFi

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.

T. Rowe Price, which manages nearly $2 trillion in assets, has launched the first active crypto ETF, which provides exposure to crypto assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Hyperliquid. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas had previously said that this launch was notable because the asset manager was the largest active manager to enter the crypto space.

T. Rowe Price Unveils First Active Crypto ETF In a press release, the asset manager announced the launch of the first active crypto ETF, which began trading on the NYSE Arca today under the ticker TKNZ. “The fund is the first actively managed multi-token spot exchange-traded product* offered in the marketplace,” the firm noted.

The T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF notably offers exposure to Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Solana, and Hyperliquid. The Fund will also hold top meme coins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, making it the first U.S. Fund to offer spot exposure to SHIB.

The asset manager also noted that the crypto ETF is designed to capitalize on emerging trends, momentum-driven rallies, and market rotations among crypto assets. Meanwhile, the Fund will offer a net fee waiver, which will be effective until May 31, 2027. The management fee during this period will be 0.75%.

The T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF joins a host of other crypto ETFs that have launched this year, including the Hyperliquid ETFs. As CoinGape reported, Morgan Stanley’s Ethereum and Solana ETFs are about to launch, with the Wall Street giant filing amendments to its S-1.

‘Smart Timing’ For The ETF Launch Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas commended T. Rowe Price for the timing of the launch of its active crypto ETF. “I think they were smart with the timing- waiting till the Oct selloff dust settled a bit,” he said in an X post.

T Rowe Price’s Active Crypto ETF $TKNZ is ready for launch. Any day now, I’d guess Thursday. I think they were smart with the timing- waiting till the Oct selloff dust settled a bit. pic.twitter.com/5LZO5WHrqn

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) July 14, 2026

It is worth noting that the SEC had approved the crypto ETF last month but waited until now to launch the Fund. The asset manager had first filed for the month in October last year, around the time of the infamous crypto crash.

Meanwhile, Balchunas had previously said that the T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF was notable because the asset manager was “by far the biggest active manager to apply their active prowess to this space.”

Crypto Briefing approved image library

ETRADE, a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, has completed its rollout of spot services for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, enabling eligible clients to buy, sell, and hold these cryptocurrencies directly within their brokerage accounts. The service, which comes with a transaction fee of 50 basis points, marks a significant integration of traditional finance with the crypto market. This offering positions ETRADE competitively against other major platforms like Charles Schwab and Coinbase, which have higher fees. While the platform currently does not support transfers to external wallets, such functionality is expected to be added later this year.

Market participants appear to have responded positively to this development, particularly regarding the potential impact on Solana. The move may indicate increased demand and activity, contributing to market expectations of Solana’s price movement. Notably, this development coincides with a broader trend of traditional financial institutions embracing cryptocurrencies, potentially sparking a competitive environment around retail crypto fees.

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The introduction of spot access for these cryptocurrencies by a major financial institution like Morgan Stanley’s E*TRADE suggests increased mainstream acceptance and integration of digital assets. The market’s reaction appears consistent with scenarios where Solana could see heightened demand and volume.

Key Takeaways E*TRADE’s rollout of spot access for cryptocurrencies appears consistent with increased mainstream acceptance of digital assets. Market pricing suggests participants view this as supportive of increased Solana demand, potentially impacting its price. The competitive fee structure could lead to a broader retail crypto fee competition among traditional financial platforms. What to Watch Watch for potential announcements regarding the implementation of external wallet transfers, which could further influence market dynamics. Additionally, observe any strategic responses from competitors like Charles Schwab and Coinbase that may impact fee structures and market share. Solana’s price movements in the coming weeks will provide further insight into the market’s reaction to this integration, particularly if demand and volume increase as expected.

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Term Structure

Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h August 1 2026 11.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.4% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 1.4% — — View market → August 1 2026 1% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.9% — — View market → August 1 2026 3.8% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 8.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 1.2% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 40.5% — — View market →

US spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $107.8 million in net inflows on Wednesday, while their Ethereum counterparts pulled in $53.8 million.

The numbers in context Earlier in July, Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $181.1 million on a single day, July 14. So Wednesday’s figure represents a moderation from that pace, though still firmly positive.

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Cumulative net inflows into US spot Bitcoin ETFs have now surpassed $51 billion since their January 2024 launch.

At $53.8 million, Wednesday’s ether ETF inflows represented roughly half the Bitcoin figure. Ether ETFs launched several months after their Bitcoin predecessors.

Recovery from a rocky start to the year Earlier in 2026, both Bitcoin and ether ETFs experienced multi-week outflow streaks. The summer months have brought a clear reversal, with funds flowing back into both product categories.

BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale have continued to attract the lion’s share of flows.

What this means for investors When the SEC approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, the optimistic projections called for maybe $10 billion in the first year. The actual numbers have blown past even the most bullish forecasts, with cumulative net inflows now exceeding $51 billion.

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

Ethereum is preparing what many developers call its biggest upgrade since The Merge, the 2022 change that moved the network from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.

For context, The Merge was Ethereum's September 2022 switch from crypto mining (proof-of-work) to a system called proof-of-stake, where users lock up ETH to secure the network instead of running power-hungry computers. It cut Ethereum's energy use by more than 99% overnight, one of the largest efficiency gains in the history of computing.

The latest upgrade called Glamsterdam will be activated in the second half of 2026 and aims to make the blockchain itself faster and cheaper. The name blends "Gloas," the consensus-layer component, with "Amsterdam," the execution-layer component, following Ethereum's tradition of pairing a star name with a past Devconnect host city.

What is actually changingGlamsterdam makes two changes to how Ethereum handles transactions.

It changes who controls the order. Every few seconds, Ethereum bundles transactions into a "block." Right now, a small group of specialist firms decides what goes into each block and in what order, and they route those blocks to the network through middlemen. That hands a few players the power to reorder transactions in ways that cost ordinary users money. 

Glamsterdam builds a fairer process into Ethereum's own rules: whoever approves a block can no longer see or rearrange what's inside it, and the contents stay hidden until the block is final. Fewer middlemen, less room to game the order. This proposal is called enshrined proposer-builder separation, or ePBS (EIP-7732).

How Glamsterdam changes transaction ordering and processing. Graphic: TheStreet / Roundtable.

And it lets Ethereum do more at once. Today the network mostly processes transactions one after another. The upgrade lets it spot transactions that don't affect each other and handle them at the same time —think of it like opening extra checkout lanes instead of forcing everyone through one. More lanes means more transactions per block without pushing fees up. This change is known as Block-Level Access Lists (EIP-7928).

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Why this matters for DeFiFor anyone who trades on Ethereum, the ePBS change is the one to watch, because it targets a hidden cost baked into how the network runs today.

"Ethereum's Glamsterdam, viewed by many as Ethereum's most significant upgrade since The Merge, reworks how blocks are built so transactions can run in parallel, raising capacity without sending fees up," said Holly Atkinson, Chief Product and Technology Officer at 1inch, a decentralized trading platform.

The problem ePBS is built to fix sits in plain sight. As Atkinson explains it:

"Most validators don't build their own blocks. They outsource it to a handful of specialized builders through off-protocol, closed-source middleware (relays/MEV-Boost). Those builders see pending transactions and order them to extract value. For an ordinary user this shows up concretely as MEV on token trades, censorship/inclusion risk, and concentration risk."

MEV, short for maximal extractable value, is essentially how insiders skim value from ordinary trades, and it usually reaches users as a worse price when they trade on a decentralized exchange or run a token swap. ePBS, Atkinson said, "shifts control away from a small group of off-chain builders back to the protocol that actually custodies your ETH and tokens," and 1inch "already protects users from MEV impact by default." She called the upgrade "a credible step toward scaling L1 itself, not just via rollups, that reduces reliance on centralized block builders."

1inch is a decentralized trading platform that aggregates liquidity across more than a dozen blockchain networks, helping users find the best price for a swap while keeping custody of their own funds throughout the trade.

An upgrade a frustrated community has been demandingGlamsterdam arrives at a tense moment for the people who steward Ethereum. 

For much of the past year, the Ethereum Foundation, the nonprofit that guides the network's development, has faced sustained criticism that it leaned too heavily on Layer-2 networks while letting the base layer stagnate. 

Critics argued that pushing activity and fees onto rollups weakened ETH's own investment case, and that the Foundation put ideology ahead of competitiveness as rival blockchains gained ground. Prominent voices, including researcher Dankrad Feist and journalist Laura Shin, pressed versions of that complaint.

The pressure produced the most significant reorganization in the Foundation's history: a run of high-profile departures that some in the community called a brain drain, a leadership reshuffle, and a slimmed-down mandate. Even Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin publicly questioned whether many of today's Layer-2s still fit the network's model.

Ethereum's price has not reflected much of that ambition. ETH traded around $1,879 on Wednesday morning, up roughly 5% on the day but still down about 40% from a year earlier, when it changed hands near $3,140. It remains far below its all-time high of nearly $5,000, set in August 2025. 

The US government just moved approximately $9.29 million worth of Ethereum to Coinbase Prime, sourced from wallets tied to the FTX and Alameda Research collapse. The transfer, flagged by blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, involved roughly 4,820 ETH and represents the latest chapter in Washington’s slow, methodical approach to offloading billions in seized crypto.

What actually moved, and what else came along for the ride The Ethereum wasn’t traveling alone. Alongside the 4,820 ETH, the government-controlled wallet also relocated around 5.489 billion SHIB tokens, 631.7 thousand POWR tokens, and 1.06 million AERGO tokens to new addresses during the same transaction window.

The assets originated from wallets seized following the spectacular implosion of FTX in late 2022, when Sam Bankman-Fried’s exchange and its sister trading firm Alameda Research collapsed, vaporizing billions in customer funds. Coinbase Prime, the institutional arm of the largest US-based crypto exchange, was selected by the US Marshals Service in 2024 to serve as the custodian for these forfeited digital assets.

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A pattern of controlled deposits This wasn’t a one-off event. The July 15 transfer follows a pattern that has been building throughout 2026. In May, approximately $1.9 million in altcoins from the same FTX/Alameda seizure pool were deposited to Coinbase Prime. Smaller transactions followed in June.

No sales or further movements from the July 15 deposit have been reported as of the latest available data. Moving tokens to Coinbase Prime doesn’t automatically mean they’re being sold. The platform offers custody services alongside trading capabilities, so the government could be repositioning assets for eventual over-the-counter transactions rather than dumping them into the open market order book.

For context, the US government’s total seized crypto portfolio exceeds $20 billion. A $9.29 million Ethereum deposit represents roughly 0.046% of that total.

The FTX aftermath continues to unwind The FTX collapse remains one of the most consequential events in crypto history. When the exchange imploded in November 2022, it triggered a cascade of failures across the industry and left creditors scrambling to recover funds. Bankman-Fried was subsequently convicted and sentenced, but the recovery process for affected users has been grinding forward through bankruptcy proceedings and government asset liquidation ever since.

The May, June, and now July transfers have been relatively modest in size, and there’s no evidence of immediate large-scale selling following any of these deposits. For Ethereum specifically, the 4,820 ETH moved in this transaction represents a tiny fraction of daily trading volume, which routinely exceeds billions of dollars.

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

Japan’s House of Councillors passed an amendment to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, which officially recognizes cryptocurrencies as financial products rather than payment tools.

With this, the country is now planning to cut crypto taxes from 55% to 20% and open the door to Bitcoin ETFs.

Japan Moves Crypto Under Financial Product RulesJapan’s parliament has officially passed a landmark law amendment reclassifying cryptocurrencies as “financial assets.” Until now, cryptocurrencies have been mainly regulated under the Payment Services Act as a payment method. 

Under the new law, Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and other cryptocurrencies will be classified as financial products under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA), bringing them closer to stocks and other investment assets.

The new law also clears the way for spot crypto ETFs in Japan. 

Regulators are aiming to launch them on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by 2027 or 2028, while major firms like Nomura Holdings and SBI Holdings are already preparing crypto ETF products.

List of Changes Under the New LawThe new framework introduces several rules that already apply to traditional financial markets. These include,

Insider trading ban: Trading using non-public information will be strictly prohibited.Annual disclosures: Token issuers must publish annual operational and financial disclosures.Strict penalties: Violators face up to 10 years in prison or 10 million Japanese yen fines.Retail investment cap: High-risk tokens will have a 2 million Japanese yen retail investment limitBigger Fines and Lower Crypto TaxesThe new law also brings stricter rules for the crypto industry. However, the maximum jail term for running an illegal crypto business will increase from three years to 10 years.

And the maximum fine will also increase from 3 million yen to 10 million yen, approximately $18,500 to $61,600. The government says these changes will help make the crypto market safer and protect investors.

Along with the bill, lawmakers are planning to cut the tax on crypto profits from the current maximum of 55% to a flat 20%, the same tax rate used for stock investments.

Another planned change is a three-year loss carryforward. This means investors will be able to use their past trading losses to reduce taxes on future crypto profits. If approved, these tax changes are expected to start in 2028.

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Bitmine Immersion Technologies reported $45.7 million in revenue from Ether staking and validator operations for the most recent quarter, reflecting a major shift in the company’s business model following the introduction of its institutional-grade Ethereum staking platform in March.

Staking dominates revenue streamsFor the three months ending May 31, staking activities contributed approximately 98% of Bitmine’s total revenue, according to the company’s latest 10-Q filing. In contrast, self-mined Bitcoin operations generated $624,000, while consulting services added $168,000.

Bitmine disclosed that it has allocated 85% of its Ether holdings—about 4.9 million ETH—into staking. Chairman Tom Lee stated that this is the largest amount of ETH staked by any single entity worldwide.

Bitmine’s projected annual ETH staking reward reaches $284 million at full scale, when both the company’s and its partners’ Ether are fully staked through MAVAN and affiliated staking operations.

A year ago, Bitmine’s quarterly revenue totaled $2 million, driven mainly by equipment leasing, highlighting how the company’s focus on Ethereum staking has transformed its income structure.

Launch and expansion of MAVAN platformThe launch of MAVAN in March marked a new phase for Bitmine. MAVAN, an institutional-grade Ethereum staking service, manages validator infrastructure on behalf of Bitmine and external customers. The platform emerged after Bitmine’s acquisition of Pier Two Holdings, an Australian operator specializing in non-custodial validator services.

Originally developed to support Bitmine’s own Ethereum treasury, MAVAN has grown to serve institutional investors, custodians, and partners within the Ethereum ecosystem.

Mini dictionary: MAVAN (Made in America VAlidator Network) is a staking and validator infrastructure platform focused on institutional-grade Ethereum staking, supporting both Bitmine’s assets and third-party clients.

Robinhood Chain drives Ethereum growthBitmine’s chairman Tom Lee also pointed to the rapid success of Robinhood Chain, a new decentralized trading platform that launched on July 1. He reported that dollar trading volumes on Robinhood Chain have already surpassed $1 billion.

According to Lee, Robinhood Chain now handles more trading volume than any other decentralized exchange, underscoring both its significance and the utility of Ethereum as the underlying blockchain.

Robinhood Chain, utilizing ETH as its native gas token, has introduced millions of users to Ethereum-based transactions, with all network fees and settlement processes occurring directly on the Ethereum blockchain.

Lee emphasized that Robinhood’s 27 million users are now paying transaction fees in ETH, signaling a shift toward mainstream viewing of ETH as a form of money within the platform’s ecosystem.

Quarter EndedTotal RevenueStaking RevenueBTC MiningConsultingMay 31, 2026$45.7 million$44.8 million$624,000$168,000May 31, 2025$2 millionNot disclosedMajority of revenueMinimalDisclaimer: 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.

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Former members of the Ethereum Foundation's Institutional Privacy Task Force have launched EthSystems, a new for-profit startup that will build privacy infrastructure for banks and other institutions using Ethereum, commercializing work previously developed inside the foundation.The launch is the latest EF spinout following recent organizational changes, joining newly formed entities EthLabs and Ethereum Institutional as the ecosystem restructures its approach to protocol development and institutional adoption.A team of former Ethereum Foundation researchers focused on institutional privacy has launched EthSystems, a new for-profit company aimed at building confidentiality infrastructure for financial institutions using Ethereum.

The startup emerged from the Ethereum Foundation, which spent the past year developing privacy technologies for enterprise use cases while engaging with central banks, regulators, global banks and asset managers.

The spinout comes amid one of the biggest organizational shakeups in the Ethereum Foundation in years. Following months of criticism over leadership, strategy and the foundation's role in supporting Ethereum's increasingly institutional user base, several teams have recently been spun out into independent organizations.

Among them are EthLabs, a nonprofit focused on advancing Ethereum protocol research and scaling, and Ethereum Institutional, a separate nonprofit designed to coordinate institutional adoption and engagement with large financial firms. Together, the organizations represent an effort to distribute responsibilities previously housed within the foundation across more specialized entities.

EthSystems said it plans to commercialize work it began inside the foundation, including confidential stablecoin transfers, private bond issuance, cross-chain settlement systems and open-source protocol specifications.

"Commercial engagements need a commercial counterparty," the company said in a post on X, explaining its decision to operate as a for-profit business. "The model is simple: we continue the work we've been doing, only now we charge for it."

The launch reflects growing institutional interest in using public blockchains for financial infrastructure beyond cryptocurrency investing. While firms have increasingly embraced tokenized assets and stablecoins, many remain reluctant to transact on fully transparent public ledgers, creating demand for privacy-preserving infrastructure.

EthSystems argues that confidentiality is one of the key barriers preventing banks and asset managers from moving real-world financial flows onto Ethereum. The company said its approach will focus on modular privacy systems that allow participants to selectively disclose transaction information while maintaining Ethereum's security guarantees.

The company is also backed by BitMine, SharpLink, Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin, SNZ and other Ethereum-focused investors.

Read more: Ethereum Institutional launch draws support from across the Ethereum ecosystem

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Binance has released its 44th proof-of-reserves report, showing that customer Bitcoin holdings increased during June while Ethereum and Tether balances declined. 

Summary

Binance users raised Bitcoin holdings 1.22%, adding 7,715 BTC during June, the latest snapshot showed. Ethereum and Tether balances declined, while Binance continued publishing monthly reserve data for customer verification. Reserve snapshots show account balances, but they cannot explain whether users bought, sold, or withdrew. The report used a snapshot taken on July 1 and compared the figures with customer balances recorded on June 1.

Customer Bitcoin holdings rose 1.22% to about 640,000 BTC, an increase of 7,715 BTC. Ethereum holdings fell 1.41% to around 4.08 million ETH, a decline of 58,591 ETH. Customer Tether holdings dropped 1.51% to about 33.7 billion USDT, falling by roughly 510 million USDT.

Binance customer Bitcoin holdings continue rising The July figures extend the rise in customer Bitcoin balances reported one month earlier. Binance users added 25,838 BTC in May, lifting their total holdings by 4.26% to about 630,000 BTC in the exchange’s 43rd proof-of-reserves report.

The latest increase was smaller than the previous month’s gain, but it kept customer BTC balances moving higher. The report does not show whether the change came from purchases, deposits, transfers between Binance services, or movements from other assets. It records balances at one point in time rather than individual customer activity.

Ethereum and USDT balances decline Ethereum moved in the opposite direction after recording a strong increase in the previous report. Customer ETH holdings had risen 10.17% in May to about 4.14 million ETH. The July snapshot showed that the total fell by 58,591 ETH during June.

USDT balances also declined for a second monthly report. Binance users held about 34.3 billion USDT in the June 1 snapshot after balances fell by roughly 460 million tokens in May. The latest decrease brought the total to about 33.7 billion USDT. Lower stablecoin balances do not confirm that users converted USDT into Bitcoin or withdrew funds.

A similar pattern recently appeared at other major exchanges. As reported by crypto.news, Bybit and OKX recorded higher customer Bitcoin holdings while USDT balances fell in their latest reserve snapshots. However, the reports did not identify the reasons behind the balance changes.

Binance says customer assets remain backed Binance states on its proof-of-reserves page that it holds customer assets on a 1:1 basis, along with additional reserves. The exchange uses Merkle Trees and zero-knowledge proofs to let customers check whether their account balances were included in the total liabilities covered by each report.

A proof-of-reserves report can show whether listed wallets hold assets linked to customer balances at the time of a snapshot. However, it does not provide a complete financial audit or explain every off-chain liability. A recent proof-of-reserves explainer noted that useful disclosures should remain recent, frequent and matched against customer liabilities.

The figures should therefore be read as a record of asset backing and customer balances on a specific date. They do not show the exchange’s complete financial position or the reasons customers moved assets between accounts, platforms or private wallets.

Report follows braoder changes at Binance The latest reserve report arrived after a month of active derivatives trading. Binance recorded about $1.63 trillion in futures trading volume during June, its highest monthly total of 2026, according to CryptoQuant data.

Binance also introduced service changes for some European users when the European Union’s MiCA transition ended on July 1. As previously reported, the exchange said affected users could continue using options already communicated to them, including withdrawals where available. The date matched the snapshot used for the latest reserve report.

Earlier reserve rankings placed Binance ahead of other major exchanges. As reported by crypto.news, CoinMarketCap data ranked the platform first in January 2026 with about $155.6 billion in proof-of-reserve assets. The July report adds a new monthly view of customer balances, with BTC rising while ETH and USDT moved lower.

@chainlink has crossed 900,000 non-empty $LINK wallets on Ethereum, an all-time high, with roughly 20,000 new addresses added in the past month alone. The milestone lands while the token trades near local lows in the $7.80 range, a gap that on-chain analytics firm @SantimentData describes as quiet accumulation: holders building exposure while the price stays flat and broader market attention sits elsewhere.

Wallets Rising, Price Not Following The divergence is not new to Chainlink watchers. Santiment data shows $LINK added more than 8,000 non-empty wallets in just five days earlier this month, pushing the total holder count toward 900,000. That kind of wallet growth at a price near local lows typically signals accumulation rather than speculation. The broader trend also extends to larger holders. The number of Chainlink wallets holding at least 100,000 $LINK climbed to a fresh all-time high earlier in 2026, with 805 such addresses on record. Over a seven-week stretch, that cohort expanded by 8.2%, marking the fastest pace of accumulation since the metric was tracked.

Santiment classifies these as whale-tier addresses, typically associated with institutions, high-net-worth individuals, and long-term strategic holders. The growth in this bracket does not come from short-term speculation. A wallet holding nearly $1 million in a single altcoin is likely structured around a multi-month or multi-year thesis.

Adoption Running Ahead of the Chart The on-chain activity sits against a backdrop of expanding real-world integrations. Robinhood activated its Ethereum-based layer 2 blockchain mainnet on July 1, 2026, and selected Chainlink to provide data feeds, data streams, and its cross-chain interoperability protocol from the initial block, powering tokenized stock tokens and on-chain products for millions of users. The DTCC also selected Chainlink's technology in May 2026 to power a new collateral system targeted for the fourth quarter, while more than fifty banks across sixteen countries joined Chainlink's Project Pangea in June 2026 to build faster foreign exchange settlement.

Chainlink has had one of its biggest institutional stretches of the year, and the price has barely noticed. The broader pattern is clear: $LINK has fallen around 20% over the past three months despite positive ecosystem announcements, showing that the market has been discounting good news and focusing more on macro and technical pressure than on long-term adoption headlines. Whether the steady build in holder counts eventually translates into price momentum remains the central question for Chainlink in the months ahead.

Sources:
Blockchain Reporter: Chainlink Whale Wallets Hit All-Time High, Signaling Solid Accumulation
Crypto Briefing: Chainlink Posts Two Highest Network Growth Days of 2026
MEXC: Chainlink LINK Price Prediction July 2026

The Foundation's security team used coordinated AI agents to uncover a remotely triggerable crash, then spent most of its effort weeding out convincing false positives.

Posted July 13, 2026 at 6:19 am EST.

The Ethereum Foundation pointed a fleet of coordinated AI agents at the software that runs the network and came away with a genuine security flaw: a remotely triggerable crash that could take a validator offline until an operator restarts it. The bug was fixed and disclosed as CVE-2026-34219.

In field notes published July 9, the Foundation’s Protocol Security team, writing through researcher Nikos Baxevanis, walked through how it ran the agents and vetted their output.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

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The more striking finding was about the work itself. Baxevanis wrote that little effort went into finding bugs and most went into separating the real ones from findings that only looked real. Unlike a fuzzer, which returns a crash and a stack trace, an AI agent returns a persuasive narrative, complete with a call chain, a severity rating, and working code, and it reads the same whether the bug is genuine or invented.

That gap has practical stakes as AI reshapes the security threat model. The team catalogued recurring false positives: crashes that only occur in test builds, attacks that work only if a value is planted by hand, and formal proofs that pass without proving anything useful. Agents also struggle with exploits that unfold across a sequence of individually valid steps, the pattern behind several of this year’s costly DeFi attacks, so the Foundation now uses agents to suggest which sequences to test rather than to render a verdict.

The experiment fits a broader shift at the Foundation, which has said it will lean more on AI-assisted verification after deep staff cuts. Its conclusion echoes work by Anthropic and Cloudflare on agent-driven security research: the models can cover far more ground than humans alone, but a person still has to decide what counts as a real bug and what gets disclosed.

Related Listen: Ex-Ethereum Foundation Researchers Launched Their Own Lab: Uneasy Money

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.

TLDR: Uniswap daily fees reached about $5.2 million in 24 hours, placing the decentralized exchange near the top of current crypto fee rankings. Robinhood Chain supplied roughly $4.38 million of the total, far exceeding Ethereum and Base during the same measured period. Only about $73,454 counted as 24-hour protocol earnings, as most swap fees still flowed to liquidity providers rather than UNI holders. Governance proposals could extend protocol fees and the UNI token burn system to v4 pools and Robinhood Chain after community approval. Uniswap daily fees reached about $5.2 million in 24 hours, placing the DEX near the top of crypto fee rankings. Founder Hayden Adams highlighted the figure on X, saying only USDC and USDT generated more fees. DefiLlama recorded $5.16 million during the same period, supporting his estimate. 

Robinhood Chain supplied most of that total after launching on July 1. The sharp increase shows how quickly new networks can redirect trading activity. UNI traded near $3.62, up about 35% from its early-July low near $2.70. Yet the token still sits roughly 92% below its 2021 peak.

Uniswap Daily Fees Surge as Robinhood Chain Takes Lead Robinhood Chain contributed about $4.38 million of the reported Uniswap daily fees. Ethereum produced roughly $296,000, while Base added about $288,000. That distribution marks a sudden shift from Uniswap’s traditional Ethereum-led activity.

The Arbitrum Orbit network launched with Uniswap v2, v3, v4, and UniswapX available from day one. Cumulative swap volume crossed $1 billion by July 10, according to a Uniswap governance post. The chain also recorded a 24-hour Uniswap volume peak near $500 million during its first week.

Across seven days, Robinhood Chain generated $10.98 million of Uniswap’s $20.1 million in total fees. That share made the new network Uniswap’s largest short-term fee source. It also placed Robinhood Chain above Ethereum and Base during the measured period. The fee spike shows how concentrated short-term trading activity can become.

Uniswap daily fees reflect charges paid through swaps, but they do not equal protocol income. DefiLlama listed only $73,454 in 24-hour earnings for Uniswap. Most trading fees still flow to liquidity providers instead of the treasury or UNI holders.

The distinction matters when comparing Uniswap with stablecoin issuers or centralized exchanges. Annualizing one strong day would imply almost $1.9 billion in fees. Still, that calculation does not show how much value the protocol retains.

UNI Burn Vote Tests the Value of Rising Protocol Activity Uniswap governance is now considering a wider protocol fee rollout. One proposal would activate fees across v4 pools on several supported networks. Another would extend fee collection and UNI burns to Robinhood Chain.

The Robinhood Chain temperature check runs from July 10 through July 15. It covers v2, v3, and v4 deployments on the network. On-chain votes would follow if the Snapshot proposals pass.

Under the UNIfication system, collected protocol fees move into TokenJar contracts. Searchers can claim those assets after supplying UNI of equivalent value for burning. The process permanently removes the submitted UNI from circulation.

Higher Uniswap daily fees could expand the amount available for this mechanism. Yet liquidity providers may receive slightly lower returns when protocol fees activate. That trade-off could influence where they place capital across competing pools.

Uniswap v4 adds programmable hooks that let developers customize pool logic. These tools support dynamic fees, specialized liquidity rules, and other trading features. Wider v4 adoption could increase activity across more chains.

8h05 ▪ 6 min read ▪ by Ghiles A.

Summarize this article with:

The cryptocurrency market has experienced mixed developments in recent days, but Ether stood out with a 3% increase between Thursday and Friday. This rise occurs in a context marked by the growth of tokenization, the successful launch of Robinhood Chain, and continued purchases by several companies. Despite this favorable dynamic, surpassing the 1,800-dollar threshold remains out of reach. On-chain data and indicators from derivative markets still show signs of weakness, limiting short-term growth potential.

In brief Ether advanced 3% in one week, supported by the rise of Tokenization and institutional purchases. Robinhood Chain has already attracted 106 million dollars in deposits and strengthens the Ethereum ecosystem. Ethereum retains 47% of the real-world assets (RWA) market, confirming its lead in tokenization. On-chain indicators and derivative markets remain weak, hindering a sustained breakthrough above 1,800 dollars. BitMine has accumulated 198,370 ETH in 30 days, illustrating continued purchases by institutional investors. Ether Rallies as Tokenization and Robinhood Chain Drive Fresh Optimism The recent rise of Ether is first based on the rapid development of initiatives related to asset tokenization. Robinhood notably launched Robinhood Chain, a layer 2 solution using ETH as the native gas token. This new infrastructure quickly strengthened user interest in the Ethereum ecosystem. At the same time, the platform is expanding its offer of tokenized stocks to an international clientele, consolidating the adoption of EVM-compatible infrastructures.

Here are the main figures illustrating this dynamic:

106 million dollars in deposits already recorded on Robinhood Chain. 120 countries now have access to the tokenized stocks offered by Robinhood. 47% market share for Ethereum in the real-world assets (RWA) sector. 260 billion dollars of total value locked (TVL) on Ethereum. 210 billion dollars capitalization for Ether, a level below the network’s TVL. Tokenization thus continues to strengthen Ethereum’s dominant position in the real-world asset market. Apart from stablecoins, assets like Tether Gold (XAUT), Ondo US Dollar Yield (USDY), and Franklin Templeton iBENJI government bonds illustrate this evolution. Tokenized stocks STRCx from Strategy and CRCLon from Ondo also rank among the main sector references.

This dynamic feeds specialist analyses. Leon Waidmann, research director at Lisk, believes the gap between the network’s total value locked and Ether’s capitalization reflects a relatively lower valuation than observed during the 2022 bear market. This interpretation fuels debate on the asset’s current positioning without changing the network fundamentals.

On-Chain Indicators Continue to Limit the Recovery Despite this improvement in Ether’s price, several indicators show network activity remains less dynamic than before. Layer 2 solutions continue their development, and institutional investments hold steady, but overall demand on the blockchain remains limited. The 2026 bear market reduced activity across several segments, while some competing blockchains strengthened their presence in synthetic perpetual futures and automated yield vaults.

The main on-chain data illustrating this slowdown of activity on Ethereum are as follows:

11 million dollars in weekly revenue generated by DApps, compared to 20 million dollars in Q1 2026. Sky: 3.1 million dollars in weekly revenue. Titan Builder: 2.4 million dollars in weekly revenue. Chainlink: 1.1 million dollars in weekly revenue. Active addresses dropped from 5.4 million to 3.2 million, confirming the decline in on-chain activity. Weekly revenues of Ethereum DApps, in USD (left) vs active addresses (right). Source: DefiLlama
This evolution limits Ether’s ability to immediately extend its rebound. Even if tokenization fundamentals remain solid, network usage metrics do not grow at the same pace. Investors therefore continue to monitor these indicators to determine if the recent price rise can be accompanied by a sustained recovery of activity on Ethereum.

Institutional Purchases Provide Fresh Support to the Market Derivative markets also provide a more measured signal. According to Laevitas data, the annualized funding rate of Ether perpetual futures contracts fell back to 3% on Saturday, after reaching 12% the previous day. This level remains below the neutral threshold set at 6%, indicating weaker demand for long positions. This development suggests that operators remain cautious despite the recent price rise.

Annualized funding rate of ETH perpetual futures contracts. Source: Laevitas
At the same time, institutional flows continue to support the market. Arkham Intelligence identified a withdrawal of 20,500 ETH, representing about 36 million dollars, from Galaxy Digital to a new wallet. This movement corresponds to a pattern previously observed during purchases attributed to Tom Lee via BitMine Immersion. Over the last thirty days, BitMine has accumulated 198,370 ETH, bringing the total value of its reserves to 10.3 billion dollars.

These acquisitions offer additional market support, although they are not enough to erase the more cautious signals seen on technical and on-chain indicators. Tokenization continues to expand use cases for the network, while institutional investments maintain steady demand. However, actual blockchain activity remains below the levels observed at the beginning of the year.

Future movements will therefore depend on the balance between these factors. If tokenization continues its development and institutional purchases hold steady, Ether could maintain a solid base. Conversely, a sustained recovery will also require improvement in on-chain indicators and derivative markets to confirm a return of broader demand across the ecosystem.

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Tom Lee has reaffirmed that Ethereum will play the central role as traditional finance and cryptocurrency converge into a single market.

Summary

Tom Lee says traditional finance and crypto will eventually merge into one market, with Ethereum at the center. His comments come as Bitmine’s Ethereum treasury has grown to 5.74 million ETH, equal to 4.8% of the total supply. Lee also links Ethereum’s outlook to the CLARITY Act and expanding layer-2 payment activity involving Visa and Shopify. According to a post published by Bitmine chairman Tom Lee on X, he believes the line separating traditional financial markets and digital assets will eventually disappear, with Ethereum positioned at the center of that transition.

— Thomas (Tom) Lee (not drummer) FundstratDirect.com (@fundstrat) July 10, 2026 Lee shared the view while responding to a post from Fundstrat Capital head of distribution Carrie Presley, who recalled telling him during an interview nearly six years ago that she was highly optimistic about Ethereum and blockchain technology. Lee acknowledged the exchange and reiterated that he remains bullish on Ethereum.

His latest comments arrive as Bitmine continues expanding one of the largest corporate Ethereum treasuries in the market. The company said last week that it held 5,742,237 ETH, equal to about 4.8% of Ethereum’s circulating supply of roughly 120.7 million ETH. Bitmine added that its combined crypto holdings, cash, marketable securities, and other investments were valued at about $11.1 billion.

Bitmine continues expanding its Ethereum treasury Recent disclosures show Bitmine has steadily increased its Ethereum holdings throughout the year. Crypto.news previously reported that the company added another 27,084 ETH in its latest weekly purchase, pushing its treasury above 5.7 million ETH before the newest holdings update confirmed the total at more than 5.74 million ETH.

Beyond Ethereum, Bitmine reported holding 206 Bitcoin alongside $527 million in cash and marketable securities. The company also disclosed equity investments in Beast Industries and Eightco Holdings as part of its balance sheet.

Lee has repeatedly linked Ethereum’s long-term outlook to changing U.S. crypto regulation. In earlier comments released by Bitmine, he said investors had become more optimistic about the chances of the CLARITY Act advancing through Congress, arguing that clearer rules could support smart contract platforms as digital assets become more integrated into payment systems and financial services.

Ethereum adoption continues to expand into financial services While discussing Ethereum’s role in financial infrastructure, Lee pointed to existing commercial activity already taking place on Ethereum layer-2 networks. According to his earlier remarks, companies including Shopify and Visa already process USDC-related activity through Ethereum scaling networks, demonstrating practical use beyond speculation.

Presley’s recent reminder of their conversation from nearly six years ago also highlighted how long Lee has maintained his positive view on Ethereum. Responding publicly on X, Lee confirmed that his conviction has remained unchanged, adding that he still expects Ethereum to become the foundation connecting traditional finance with the crypto economy as both markets continue moving closer together.

At press time, Ethereum (ETH) was trading at around $1,800, little changed over the past 24 hours and up 2.2% over the previous seven days.

16h05 ▪ 6 min read ▪ by Ghiles A.

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The Ethereum network continues to evolve, but its geographical distribution remains a subject of monitoring for researchers. A new study from the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance shows that a significant share of nodes operates in North America and Europe. This snapshot of the network highlights several technical and legal issues. It also reminds us that the location of infrastructures can influence the protocol’s resilience. The updated data finally sheds new light on the network’s energy consumption after the merge.

In brief 31% of Ethereum nodes are hosted in the United States, compared to 39% in the European Union excluding the United Kingdom. The network can stop finalizing its transactions if more than a third of validators become simultaneously inactive. The concentration of infrastructures and client software remains a major issue for Ethereum’s resilience and decentralization. Ethereum’s energy consumption has dropped by about 99.98% since the merge, according to the new Cambridge study. Ethereum’s Geographic Distribution Is Dominated by the United States and Europe The new study indicates that 31% of Ethereum activity is now hosted in the United States. The European Union, excluding the United Kingdom, concentrates about 39% of this activity. In a statement attributed to the daily show The Starting Block, Alexander Neumuller, head of research at the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, estimates that the distribution remains heavily oriented towards Western countries. However, it does not indicate excessive concentration in a single state.

Researchers also observe that nodes rely heavily on three major hosting providers: Hetzner, AWS, and OVH. Alexander Neumuller recalls that Hetzner’s terms of use previously prohibited operating blockchain services. However, he notes that this policy may have evolved. This concentration of infrastructures therefore deserves ongoing attention, even if the data do not show a unique national imbalance.

The study also emphasizes that the relationship between nodes and validators remains difficult to measure precisely. The same access point can indeed host several validators. Researchers explain that it is therefore impossible to know exactly the number of validators associated with each infrastructure.

The One-Third Threshold Remains a Key Concern for the Network The analysis conclusions remind us of an important characteristic of Ethereum’s operation. Contrary to some misconceptions, the network does not need to lose half of its validators to encounter a problem. As soon as more than a third of validators simultaneously cease their activity, checkpoint finalization may be interrupted.

This situation explains why the distribution of Ethereum nodes represents a strategic element for the network’s stability. An interruption affecting a widely used infrastructure could slow down overall operation. However, Alexander Neumuller specifies that the available data do not allow a direct link to be established between each node and the exact number of validators it hosts.

Concentration concerns not only physical infrastructures. According to the researcher, client software diversity also plays a crucial role. A technical defect affecting a dominant client could quickly spread to a large part of the network. The report thus presents detailed data on the distribution of consensus clients and execution clients to illustrate this other risk factor.

A New Energy Estimate and Ongoing Legal Challenges The location of nodes goes beyond the simple technical framework. In 2022, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) estimated that it could claim jurisdiction over Ethereum. The authority notably relied on the fact that a majority of the network’s infrastructure was then hosted on U.S. soil. This issue therefore continues to fuel reflections on the legal framework applicable to transactions.

Alexander Neumüller nonetheless presents the current geographical distribution as a balance he considers positive, while specifying that it is his personal assessment. According to him, better geographical distribution is an advantage for a decentralized network.

Geographical distribution is a real asset for the network’s resilience, even if the community must continue to monitor its evolution. At the same time, a strong concentration of client software could amplify the consequences of a bug affecting the most used client.

Alexander Neumuller, Head of Research at the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, Source: The Block. He also believes that a strong concentration of client software risks quickly spreading the effects of a bug affecting the network’s main client. On this, the community must continue to closely follow this development.

The report also updates Ethereum’s energy estimates thanks to a new methodology. Researchers now use empirical data on node distribution between residential and commercial hosting, rather than theoretical assumptions. This approach takes into account software changes made after the merge, which can modify equipment consumption.

The new estimates assess the annual network consumption at about 7.9 gigawatt hours, equivalent to a continuous power of one megawatt. This corresponds to the consumption of about 2,000 British households. The study also estimates that this consumption remains about 99.98% lower than levels observed before the merge. Finally, the share of sustainable energy used by the network now exceeds 56%, compared to an estimated global average of 43%.

Researchers also estimate the theoretical cost of fully offsetting annual emissions through high-quality carbon credits. This would be between 25,000 and 55,000 pounds sterling, an amount Alexander Neumuller compares to the price of a car. He indicates that this estimate is the result that surprised him most. The Ethereum Foundation supported this study, while researchers specify that their analyses on decentralization reflect their own interpretation. Upcoming observations will measure whether this geographical distribution continues to evolve while preserving network resilience.

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More than $5 million has been stolen from the Hedera Network after hackers exploited the DeFi lending platform Sauce Protocol. The attack caused the HBAR coin price to fall by nearly 3% as the stolen crypto was quickly moved to Ethereum. 

So far, the attacker has not been identified, and the Hedera Network team has not released an official statement.

Sauce Protocol Exploit Drains Over $5 MillionAccording to PeckShield, the attacker exploited the Sauce Protocol by manipulating its price oracle after depositing collateral into the lending platform.

By changing asset prices, the hacker borrowed nearly 6.6 million USDC and 35 million HBAR before swapping the stolen tokens on SaucerSwap.

The attacker then used LayerZero to bridge the stolen funds from the Hedera Network to Ethereum, making it more difficult to recover the assets.

The total loss is estimated at more than $5.25 million, with the funds already transferred off the Hedera Network.

Stolen Funds Moved to EthereumOn-chain investigator Specter said the hacker first stole the funds from Sauce Protocol on the Hedera network. After that, the attacker used LayerZero to transfer the stolen crypto from Hedera to Ethereum, where it is easier to swap and move the funds.

The hacker’s Ethereum wallet now holds around 2,068 ETH, worth nearly $3.7 million, along with 15.58 WBTC, bringing the total stolen assets to more than $5 million.

Blockchain records also show the attacker making several transactions, repeatedly moving Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) to another wallet, likely an attempt to hide the money trail.

More than $5 million has been stolen from Hedera’s DeFi ecosystem after hackers exploited Sauce Protocol in an oracle manipulation

Before carrying out the exploit, the hacker funded the wallet 0x9A4…6a494 with just 1 ETH from Tornado Cash. Attackers often use Tornado Cash to cover their tracks before launching an exploit.

HBAR Coin Price Falls After AttackFollowing the news, HBAR dropped around 3.5%, falling to nearly $0.0670 as investors feared a more serious breach.

Although the exploit targeted Sauce Protocol rather than the Hedera network itself, the incident has raised concerns across decentralized finance (DeFi) applications built on the blockchain.

The investigation is still ongoing, yet there is no official announcement or post from the Hedera network team.

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US spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $90.4 million in net inflows on July 10, while their Ethereum counterparts added $18.4 million. That translates to roughly 1,791 BTC and 10,550 ETH worth of fresh capital flowing into regulated crypto investment products in a single day.

The recovery after a record-breaking exodus June 2026 set an unwelcome record: approximately $4 billion in net outflows from US spot Bitcoin ETFs. That’s the largest monthly withdrawal since these products launched in January 2024.

A 10-day consecutive outflow streak from Bitcoin ETFs finally snapped on July 2, after hemorrhaging a cumulative $2.73 billion during that stretch alone.

Earlier in the month, Bitcoin ETFs recorded a single-day inflow of $265.7 million, driven primarily by BlackRock’s IBIT. The $90.4 million on July 10 is more subdued, but it reinforces the narrative that capital is rotating back in rather than continuing to flee.

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Who’s winning the ETF fee war BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC continue to dominate inflows on the Bitcoin side. On the Ethereum front, BlackRock’s ETHA and Fidelity’s FETH have carved out similar positions.

Grayscale’s higher-fee products have faced persistent outflows as investors migrate to cheaper alternatives. Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust, which converted from a closed-end fund, carried significantly higher fees than competitors who entered the market with aggressive pricing, resulting in a steady asset transfer from Grayscale to BlackRock and Fidelity.

Since spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in January 2024, total net inflows have surpassed $50 billion, reaching approximately $51.3 billion by July 2026.

Macro backdrop and what’s driving sentiment Bitcoin prices have been hovering between $56,000 and $64,000 in early July. Easing inflation expectations have provided some tailwinds for risk assets broadly, and crypto ETFs appear to be catching that breeze.

The $18.4 million flowing into Ethereum ETFs is notable because Ethereum ETFs have historically struggled to match Bitcoin’s momentum in attracting capital. The fact that both products are seeing positive flows simultaneously suggests the recovery isn’t limited to Bitcoin; it’s a broader re-engagement with crypto as an asset class.

What this means for investors For investors watching the competitive landscape, the continued dominance of BlackRock and Fidelity products is worth tracking. The earlier $265.7 million inflow day in July shows the capacity for larger moves when conditions align.

A $4 billion monthly outflow in June demonstrates how quickly sentiment can reverse. With Bitcoin trading between $56,000 and $64,000, investors should watch whether the July inflow trend accelerates or fizzles. If daily inflows consistently stay positive and gradually increase, it would mark a meaningful shift in the institutional positioning that drove the June selloff.

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

Cover image via U.Today Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.

According to recent data from Ripple Stablecoin Tracker, Ripple USD (RLUSD) supply on the Ethereum network has shrunk to about $692 million as Ripple continues to adjust the stablecoin's circulating supply through token burns.

At the start of July, RLUSD supply on Ethereum was above $727 million; now this figure has decreased, with millions in Ripple USD burned on the Ethereum network in the last seven days.

$115.4 million was burned on the Ethereum blockchain in the last seven days as seen on the Ripple Stablecoin Tracker website, while $49.3 million was minted in the same timeframe. On July 29 alone, $25.9 million was burned on the Ethereum blockchain while $6.2 million in RLUSD was minted.

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The last 30 days saw significant RLUSD redemptions on the Ethereum blockchain; a total of $369.4 million was burned while $167.6 million was minted.

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On the XRP Ledger, a total of $324.1 million was minted in the last 30 days and $217.6 million was burned. The total circulating supply of the RLUSD stablecoin is currently $1.556 billion.

RLUSD expands footprint on XRP LedgerWith RLUSD supply on Ethereum shrinking to $692 million, XRP Ledger remains ahead, hosting more RLUSD than Ethereum network. RLUSD's footprint on XRP has increased significantly, overtaking Ethereum supply for the first time in June.

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RLUSD in circulation on the XRP Ledger grew from roughly $20 million at the end of 2024 to about $800 million by late June 2026, which is a 40-fold rise, with the largest increase occurring in May and June 2026.

Ripple USD is currently one of the most-traded issued assets on XRP. Its share of all on-chain trading climbed from under 1% to about 12% in 2026, and the RLUSD/XRP pair alone has cleared roughly $900 million over the last six months.

This week, Ripple received authorization of its Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) license from Luxembourg's Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). The authorization confirms Ripple as fully MiCA-compliant, with its solutions underpinned by XRP and RLUSD made available to financial institutions, corporates and businesses across all 30 countries of the European Economic Area.

The Ethereum Foundation has dissolved its Protocol Support team as part of a broader restructuring that recently cut about 20% of the nonprofit’s workforce.

Summary

Ethereum Foundation dissolved Protocol Support after five years coordinating upgrades, developer meetings and fellowship programs worldwide. Several team members lost their roles following the Foundation’s broader 20% workforce reduction announced recently. Core protocol work continues under Ethereum Foundation’s new structure, but some support programs face uncertainty. Protocol Support coordinated several parts of Ethereum’s development process. Its work covered core developer meetings, network upgrade tracking, Ethereum Improvement Proposal support and programs that trained new protocol contributors.

The Protocol Support account confirmed the team’s closure on X. It also invited Ethereum organizations seeking experienced developers to contact former team members.

the EF Protocol Support team has been dissolved 🖖

— EF Protocol Support (@EFprotocol) July 9, 2026 Mario Havel, who worked with Protocol Support for more than five years, said he remains at the Ethereum Foundation. However, he confirmed that the rest of his team had been dissolved and that several colleagues had lost their roles.

“I am still part of EF, continuing my work and figuring out what’s most needed in the future,” Havel wrote on X. “However, all of my team, Protocol Support, that I have been part of for 5+ years, has been dissolved.”

I was getting questions about recent EF layoffs and my situation so I should share something public as well.

I am still part of EF, continuing my work and figuring out what's most needed in the future. However, all of my team, Protocol Support, that I have been part for 5+… https://t.co/KRgKxiXQpa

— Mario Havel (@TMIYChao) July 8, 2026 Havel described the closure as the “bitter end” of a team that had supported Ethereum’s core development process through several forms and leadership changes.

Team managed key Ethereum developer programs Protocol Support helped organize All Core Developers meetings, where client teams and researchers discuss proposed upgrades. It also supported breakout calls, tracked network fork readiness and helped contributors understand Ethereum’s technical roadmap.

The team maintained Forkcast, a public platform that tracks Ethereum upgrades, proposed EIPs, testnet launches and mainnet activation plans. Former team lead William Morriss said the restructuring had ended his Ethereum Foundation role.

Protocol Support also ran the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship. The program trained developers seeking to contribute to Ethereum’s core protocol and connected participants with client teams, researchers and other technical groups.

Havel said he and former colleague Josh Davis built the fellowship over four years. The program has since brought dozens of new developers into Ethereum’s core development community.

The Foundation had opened applications for the seventh Ethereum Protocol Fellowship cohort in April. The available statements did not explain whether the current cohort will continue under another team.

Closure follows wider Foundation layoffs The team’s dissolution follows the Ethereum Foundation’s new organizational structure, announced on June 23. The Foundation cut 54 positions, equal to roughly 20% of its workforce, after a months-long review of its activities and spending.

As previously reported by crypto.news, the Foundation reorganized its work into five main areas: protocol, access, user, community and institutional layers. Separate groups handle operations and management.

The Foundation said affected workers would receive severance, career transition support and grants for related expenses. It described the changes as necessary to focus its staff and resources on work that the organization must perform over the coming years.

The latest closure also follows earlier changes to Ethereum’s research and development structure. The Foundation reduced its Protocol Research and Development team in 2025 and renamed the remaining group Protocol.

Core protocol work remains active The new protocol cluster remains responsible for Ethereum’s underlying technology. Its stated tasks include shipping upgrades safely, reducing technical complexity and improving privacy, security and censorship resistance.

Ethereum developers are also working on the Glamsterdam upgrade. The planned update includes changes to block construction, data access and network performance, as crypto.news previously reported.

However, the Foundation has not publicly detailed where every Protocol Support responsibility will move. The future management of developer meetings, Forkcast, fellowship programs and EIP support therefore remains unclear.

Protocol development does not depend on one Foundation team because Ethereum client developers, researchers and independent contributors work across several organizations. Still, Protocol Support provided coordination services that connected many of those groups during network upgrades.

In brief Ethereum Foundation researchers are using AI agents to red-team critical network infrastructure. The agents helped uncover a peer-to-peer software vulnerability that was later disclosed. AI-assisted audits have already surfaced bugs in blockchain projects, including Zcash. The Ethereum Foundation is using swarms of AI agents to attack Ethereum—before someone else does.

In a blog post on Thursday, Ethereum Foundation researchers on the Protocol Security team said they have deployed a series of AI agents against the software Ethereum relies on, hunting for vulnerabilities in cryptographic systems, protocol code, and smart contracts.

“We've been running coordinated AI agents against the kinds of systems the network depends on, like systems software, cryptographic code, and contracts that have to be right,” the researchers wrote. “The agents found real bugs.”

One of the bugs discovered included a remotely triggered panic in libp2p’s gossipsub, part of the peer-to-peer layer used by Ethereum consensus clients. The issue was fixed and disclosed on Github as CVE-2026-34219.

Known as red teaming, the practice involves companies deploying security researchers to attack their own systems, attempting to infiltrate or disrupt networks to uncover weaknesses before malicious hackers find them. While red teams attack a system, it's up to blue teams to defend it.

Human researchers have traditionally searched for vulnerabilities by reviewing code manually—but AI agents can scan entire codebases, test potential exploits, and generate findings for review.

“Agents finding bugs wasn't the surprise,” the team wrote. “The surprise was how little of the work went into finding them, and how much went into telling the real bugs from the ones that just looked real.”

According to the Ethereum Foundation, the agents are organized into specialized roles, including reconnaissance, hunting, gap-filling, and validation. Some search for possible attack paths, while others attempt to reproduce failures and verify whether they work against production code.

“The schema is there for a reason,” they wrote. “It forces a specific, testable claim and a clear definition of done. An agent that has to write down an observable proof can't fall back on "this looks risky."

The growing role of AI in vulnerability research was demonstrated in April, when a preview version of Anthropic’s Claude Mythos discovered 271 vulnerabilities in Mozilla’s Firefox browser.

The researchers compared AI agents to fuzzers, or tools that test software for flaws. However, unlike fuzzers, AI agents can generate vulnerability reports, assess impact, and create proof-of-concept tests.

But detailed does not always mean correct. AI-generated findings can appear convincing even when they are wrong, leaving researchers to filter out duplicates, false positives, and vulnerabilities that cannot actually be exploited.

"One rule matters more than any other. A candidate isn't a finding until there's a self-contained artifact that reproduces the failure against the real code, and that runs for someone who didn't write it," the researchers wrote. "The reproducer doesn't read the write-up, and it doesn't care how confident the model sounded. It either runs or it doesn't."

AI tools have already helped security researchers uncover flaws in blockchain networks.

In May, security researcher Taylor Hornby used Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8 during an AI-assisted audit that found a critical vulnerability in Zcash’s Orchard privacy pool. The flaw had existed for roughly four years and could have allowed an attacker to create counterfeit ZEC without an obvious on-chain trace. A network upgrade to restore confidence in Zcash’s supply is still in the works.

The Ethereum Foundation’s experiment brings the technology in-house, using AI agents to test its own code to find vulnerabilities.

“AI didn't replace the security researcher. It moved the work,” the Ethereum Foundation said. “Agents let us cover far more ground than we could by hand. In exchange, they ask for more careful judgment, across a much bigger pile of confident-sounding claims.”

“That's a trade worth making,” they added, “as long as you remember that the judgment is the real product.”

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Public markets rarely get a direct window into a company’s crypto conviction. Eightco Holdings (NASDAQ: ORBS) just pried that window open. The firm’s July 8 snapshot shows total holdings of roughly $397 million, a figure built from an unusual mix of AI equity stakes and liquid crypto assets. The treasury includes an indirect $90 million position in OpenAI, $18 million in Beast Industries, 16,278 ETH, and 283 million WLD tokens—valued at $149 million at the time of disclosure.

For a Nasdaq-listed entity, the composition reads less like a traditional balance-sheet hedge and more like a concentrated bet on AI infrastructure and on-chain identity. The Ethereum stack alone is large enough to place Eightco among the more exposed public-company ETH holders, even if it still trails dedicated crypto treasury companies by a wide margin. Meanwhile, the Worldcoin (WLD) position dwarfs many crypto-native funds’ allocations to the token and directly ties the company’s fortunes to the adoption curve of the World Network.

What the Treasury Actually Holds The numbers matter because they’re unusually granular. Most corporate disclosures round crypto exposure into a catch‑all “digital assets” line. Eightco separated equity from tokens and named the projects. That level of detail is uncommon and forces the market to price not just crypto volatility but also private AI valuation risk. The $90 million indirect OpenAI stake raises immediate questions about how that valuation was derived—secondary market pricing for OpenAI equity has been choppy, and liquidity is thin. Beast Industries, a smaller position at $18 million, adds another layer of exposure to the AI hardware and robotics sector.

On the crypto side, 16,278 ETH represents roughly $36 million at current prices, assuming a ballpark $2,200 per ether. The bulk of the reported value, however, sits in 283 million WLD tokens. WLD’s fully diluted valuation and trading volumes have swung dramatically over the past year as the project rolled out biometric verification hubs across emerging markets. Holding that many tokens—likely acquired through grant agreements, market purchases, or strategic allocations—creates a direct link between Eightco’s balance sheet and World Network user growth numbers.

A Corporate Treasury Without the Usual Guardrails Public companies that hold crypto typically stick to bitcoin or ether, often citing their liquidity and regulatory clarity. Eightco’s decision to allocate heavily to WLD sits outside that playbook and reflects a different thesis. Instead of treating crypto as a store of value or inflation hedge, the treasury appears structured around ecosystem participation—staking, governance, or alignment with a protocol’s long-term infrastructure play. The Ethereum position and the Worldcoin exposure both point toward a conviction that identity protocols and AI-native distribution rails will accrue value faster than general-purpose smart contract platforms alone.

That approach aligns with a broader shift in institutional thinking tracked by recent tokenization and treasury moves. As real-world asset tokenization crosses $20 billion on-chain and traditional finance firms settle Treasury trades directly on public ledgers, the line between equity holdings and token allocation blurs. Eightco’s structure may look aggressive now, but it’s increasingly part of a pattern where a balance sheet becomes a portfolio of protocol positions.

What Stays Unanswered The press release leaves several holes. There is no disclosed cost basis for the ETH or WLD, making it impossible to judge whether the treasury is deep in profit or exposure is concentrated near entry. The indirect OpenAI stake is not explained—whether through a special-purpose vehicle, secondary purchases, or a fund commitment. Liquidity for that position is unknown, and so is any lockup or redemption schedule.

For WLD, the lack of detail on how tokens were sourced matters. If they came from early grants tied to network contributions, selling restrictions could limit balance-sheet flexibility. If they were purchased on secondary markets, volatility cushions are thinner. Regulatory risk also hovers over Worldcoin in multiple jurisdictions where biometric data collection by a private network continues to attract scrutiny from data protection authorities. A sudden enforcement action would not only hit the token price but could reshape the company’s entire book value overnight.

The disclosure arrives during a week when Ethereum itself sat near the top of developer activity rankings, reinforcing the idea that infrastructure value and treasury allocations are becoming harder to separate. For Eightco, the market now has a clear view of a $397 million wager that mixes two of the most volatile and politically sensitive corners of tech into a single public-company filing. The numbers are big enough that every subsequent quarterly update will be watched for changes in token balances and valuation marks.

AUTHOR

Max delves deep into the cryptocurrency realm, with a passion for altcoins and NFTs. Convinced of crypto's transformative potential, he envisions a decentralized financial future. Max's background in the financial sector grants him unique insights into global monetary systems. In his leisure, Max embraces the thrill of adventures and is an avid sports enthusiast, finding balance and rejuvenation away from work.

AI Agents Enter the Security LabThe @ethereumfndn security team has been running coordinated AI agents directly against Ethereum's core protocol code, and the experiment has produced tangible results. Among the confirmed findings was a flaw at the peer-to-peer (P2P) network layer, which has since been patched and publicly disclosed as a CVE. The Ethereum Foundation published a detailed account of the exercise on its blog on July 9, 2026.

The effort is part of a broader push to harden Ethereum's Layer 1 infrastructure ahead of a busy period of protocol upgrades. The Foundation has also been funding AI-powered protocol security research through its grants program, which aims to move tooling beyond basic static analysis into protocol specification auditing and active vulnerability detection.

The Signal-to-Noise ProblemThe more instructive finding, however, was not the bugs themselves. It was the volume of noise that surrounded them. The AI agents produced a large number of confident-sounding reports, and the majority turned out to be wrong, duplicated, or pointing to code paths that are unreachable in practice.

That dynamic is not unique to Ethereum. Across the broader security industry, AI-assisted discovery is driving a sharp rise in reported vulnerabilities, but the subset that genuinely requires action remains far smaller. The challenge has shifted from finding bugs to sorting them. Triage, validation, and response are now the bottlenecks, and human capacity for that work remains limited.

The lesson from the Ethereum Foundation's exercise reflects that reality. AI can scan a codebase at a scale no manual team could match, but the credibility of any finding still depends on an experienced human reviewer at the end of the pipeline. Getting that balance right will likely define how effective AI-assisted security becomes across the broader blockchain ecosystem.

Separately, the Foundation raised its maximum bug bounty from $250,000 to $1,000,000 for critical protocol vulnerabilities, with reports acknowledged within 48 hours and an initial assessment completed within one week. That expanded program signals how seriously the Foundation is treating protocol security as a strategic priority.

Sources:
Ethereum Foundation Blog: Triage Is the Product
Ethereum Foundation ESP: AI-Powered Protocol Security Research Grant
Ethereum Foundation Bug Bounty Raised to $1 Million