Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) became the best-performing large-cap cryptocurrency Monday following the launch of Ripple Labs' USD-backed stablecoin RLUSD.

What happened: The payments-focused cryptocurrency rose 3.51% in the last 24 hours, outpacing the returns of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH).

With the latest push, XRP's monthly gains zoomed to 138%, the biggest among cryptocurrencies in the top 10 by market capitalization.

The rally was likely powered by significant buying interest from whale investors. Noted cryptocurrency analyst Ali Martinez highlighted that whales purchased over 830 million XRP, worth over $2 billion at prevailing market prices.

See Also: If You Invested $1,000 In Bitcoin When The First Bitcoin ETF Was Filed, Here’s How Much You’d Have Today

The readings of moving averages supported the coin’s bullish potential. XRP's price was greater than nearly all of its exponential moving averages and simple moving averages, indicating that investors’ current expectations are higher than their average expectations over the past period.

However, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator, which compares two exponential moving averages, flashed a ‘Sell' signal. 

The Bull Bear Power indicator, used for measuring the strength of buyers and sellers in the market, was ‘Neutral" as of this writing.

Moreover. XRP's Open Interest, a measure of its speculative interest, rose 5.26% in the last 24 hours and nearly 450% since Nov. 5, the presidential election day, data from Coinglass revealed.

About 75% of all Binance traders with an open interest were positioned long on the asset, signaling the expectation of further upsides.

Why It Matters: Optimism around XRP was tied to several factors, with the most notable being the launch of RLUSD from Ripple, a payments company that uses XRP for its operations.

Ripple President Monica Long said Monday that the release marked a new chapter for the XRP Ledger, the blockchain technology powering Ripple's operations.

Ripple planned to position RLUSD for a range of financial applications, including instant cross-border settlements, Treasury operations, and integration with decentralized finance protocols.

Furthermore, with SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s tenure coming to an end and being succeeded by cryptocurrency-friendly Paul Atkins, investors feel more confident about XRP.

Ripple has been locked in a nearly four-year-long legal battle with the SEC over the status of XRP, and any change in the agency’s top leadership is viewed with optimism.

Price Action:  At the time of writing, XRP was exchanging hands at $2.49, up 3.65% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

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UXLink, a Web 3 social network that was targeted in September 2025, is making headlines once again. According to Specter, an on-chain investigator, the attacker responsible for the UXLink exploit has started relocating the stolen assets.

To obfuscate transaction trails, the wrongdoer converted some of the stolen DAI stablecoins into Ethereum [ETH]. Going forward, the illicit actor then deposited roughly $8.1 million worth of ETH into Tornado Cash.

Funds laundered According to the investigator, 46 distinct deposits of 100 ETH each were made as part of the laundering process.

Source: Specter For those unaware, this is a common strategy to conflate illegal funds with legal transactions and make blockchain tracing more difficult.

With this most recent action, the attacker has now reportedly laundered a total of $19.1 million in stolen assets.

However, the fact that the exploiter still has control over about $16 million in funds despite these transfers raises the possibility of further laundering.

How was UXLink attacked?  Well, back in September 2025 the exploiter had made over $800 billion, or 9 trillion $UXLINK. Interestingly, even hours after the original exploit, the hacker kept their access and kept minting more tokens.

The exploiter then started moving the proceeds to centralized exchanges and offloading the fraudulent tokens through decentralized exchanges. This in turn resulted in the depletion of Uniswap’s liquidity.

Source: Specter Notably, the attacker did not stop there, and signed a malicious transaction and lost 542 million UXLINK tokens to another malicious actor—often referred to as “theft stolen from theft.”

Even with this setback, the main exploiter still held about 900 million UXLINK tokens, putting a sizable portion of compromised assets in the hands of malicious actors. 

What’s more? This coincded with ETH declining by 1.01% over the previous day to trade at $1,745.11 at press time. 

In addition, on the 12th of June Humanity Protocol reported a targeted phishing attack against one of its directors.

This had resulted in the attacker using administrative credentials that were stolen to upgrade contracts, transfer tokens across Ethereum, and mint new $H tokens on the BNB Smart Chain. 

Furthermore, on the 15th of June, a suspicious transaction involving the depletion of assets valued at approximately $2.19 million occurred in Aztec Network’s Router contract.

Final Summary From September 2025 to the present time, the attackers have reportedly laundered a total of $19.1 million in stolen assets from the UXLink exploit. Back then, the  exploiter had made over 9 trillion $UXLINK, kept their access, and kept minting more tokens. 

Uniswap Tightens Its Grip on Ethereum and Layer 2@Uniswap remains the dominant liquidity venue in decentralized finance, capturing 67.3% of total DEX volume on Ethereum this week. That concentration is not new, but it is deepening. Data from KuCoin's Ethereum Q1 2026 review shows Uniswap accounted for approximately $85.5 billion in Q1 volume, representing roughly two-thirds of the entire Ethereum DEX ecosystem.

The protocol's reach extends well beyond mainnet. @Uniswap controls 84.6% of DEX market share on Arbitrum and 46.6% on Base, cementing its position across the two most active Layer 2 networks. Uniswap remains the largest spot DEX by every meaningful measure, clearing roughly $73 billion in 30-day volume across Ethereum mainnet and 39 other chains.

Uniswap V4 went live in early 2026, introducing a hooks system that attaches custom logic to pools at swap, deposit, or withdrawal time, enabling features such as on-chain limit orders, dynamic volatility-responsive fees, and gated pools for institutional flows.

$UNI Earns a New Look From Institutional AnalystsThe volume story is only part of what is drawing attention to $UNI in 2026. A structural shift in the token's economics has changed how analysts frame it. With the fee switch now active, UNI can be viewed through a cash-flow lens rather than only as a governance token. The UNIfication proposal passed in late December 2025 fundamentally changed Uniswap's economics: for the first time, protocol revenue is directly captured by the system and used to buy and burn $UNI, aligning token value with actual network usage.

That shift has caught the attention of major financial institutions. Standard Chartered's digital asset research head, Geoff Kendrick, initiated coverage on Uniswap with a long-term price target of $100 for $UNI by 2030, with the bank's thesis centered on the exponential growth of tokenized real-world assets, projected to surge from roughly $340 billion to $4 trillion by 2028. Standard Chartered projects a $UNI price target of $6.50 in 2026, citing Uniswap's position as a dominant DEX to capture fees from tokenized real-world assets.

Institutional involvement is moving beyond price targets. In February 2026, BlackRock made shares of its tokenized US Treasury fund, BUIDL, tradable through UniswapX with Securitize, marking the world's largest asset manager's first step into DeFi. More recently, Fidelity deployed liquidity for its stablecoin, FIDD, on Uniswap. Separately, Bitwise Asset Management filed an S-1 registration statement with the SEC for a spot Uniswap ETF in February 2026, following the earlier creation of a Delaware statutory trust named the Bitwise Uniswap ETF.

Whether that institutional momentum translates into sustained price performance remains an open question. Competition from Solana-based DEXs and other venues is real, and analysts are increasingly evaluating $UNI through the lens of fee capture potential, protocol governance value, and network effects within liquidity provisioning ecosystems, rather than speculative narrative alone.

Sources
KuCoin: Ethereum Q1 2026 Review
Datawallet: What is Uniswap? Features, Fees and More
Talos: State of the Network, Uniswap Fee Switch Analysis

Bitmine Adds to Its Ethereum StockpileTom Lee's Bitmine Immersion Technologies has acquired another 20,000 $ETH worth approximately $35.85 million from FalconX, according to onchain data flagged by Arkham Intelligence. The purchase is the latest move in an accumulation campaign that has made Bitmine (NYSE: $BMNR) the largest known corporate Ethereum treasury in the world.

Bitmine has repeatedly sourced large ETH tranches directly from institutional trading platform FalconX, with onchain analytics confirming the transaction patterns. The firm has also used venues such as Kraken and BitGo to execute purchases worth hundreds of millions of dollars without significantly disrupting spot markets.

Chasing the "Alchemy of 5%" TargetThe latest buy adds to what Bitmine calls its "Alchemy of 5%" initiative, a goal to accumulate at least 5% of Ethereum's entire circulating supply. Bitmine holds 5.54 million ETH worth over $9 billion, with 4.7 million tokens staked. Those staked holdings generate a projected $230 million in annualized staking revenue via MAVAN.

Bitmine recently launched MAVAN, the Made in America Validator Network, an institutional-grade staking platform originally developed to support Bitmine's own Ethereum treasury, with plans to expand and serve institutional investors, custodians, and ecosystem partners.

To fund its buying campaign, Bitmine tapped capital markets. A $280 million 9.50% Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock raise effectively doubles down on Bitmine as an Ethereum treasury and staking vehicle. The financing approach mirrors tools pioneered by bitcoin treasury firm Strategy (MSTR), which has increasingly turned to preferred equity and other yield-bearing securities to fund crypto purchases.

Despite earlier comments about slowing purchases as the firm neared its 5% goal, Bitmine has remained committed to accumulation. Chairman Tom Lee has said the firm is "maintaining a somewhat elevated pace of buying" as the pullback in ETH prices does not reflect the strengthening of Ethereum fundamentals, and expects to reach the Alchemy of 5% sometime in 2026. Lee has also tied long-term Ethereum demand to the growth of artificial intelligence systems and onchain finance, arguing that the network's settlement role will expand as more economic activity moves atop the blockchain.

Sources:
The Block: Bitmine buys $84 million in ETH as Tom Lee calls pullback an attractive entry point
PR Newswire: Bitmine ETH holdings reach 5.54 million tokens
Bitcoin.com News: Tom Lee says AI systems will lift Ethereum demand as Bitmine stacks 5.54M ETH

ENS dropped plans for Namechain, its own Layer-2 network, as the ENSv2 upgrade stays on Ethereum L1. The ENSv2 will remain fully compatible with Layer-2 networks. In a significant strategic shift, the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) has announced that its next-generation protocol, ENSv2, will stayon Ethereum’s Layer-1 mainchain, dropping previous plans of building its own Layer-2 network, Namechain, according to a blog post by ENS co-founder Nick Johnson on February 6.

ENSv2 is the Ethereum Name Service’s upcoming major upgrade,  intended to expand ENS capabilities to a Layer-2 network, providing users with lower fees and faster transactions than the Ethereum mainnet, as well as to provide structural modifications such as hierarchical registries, which give name owners more power and support for numerous chains.

Why ENS Dropped Its Layer-2 Plans Johnson wrote, “ Ethereum is scaling faster than almost anyone predicted two years ago; we’ve seen a 99% reduction in ENS registration gas costs over the past year, coinciding with Ethereum’s gas limit increases from 30M to 60M in 2025. By staying on L1, we’re aligning ENS with the strongest possible infrastructure guarantees, Ethereum itself.”

As Johnson mentioned, ENSv2 will still be released as planned, and halting work on Namechain will not affect the company’s broader roadmap. By having everything on one blockchain rather than two, he expects names to load faster and run more smoothly for users. Also, Johnson noted that the majority of the improvements made to make ENS easier to use over the last two years will stay in place.

Further, ENS Labs COO Katherine Wu shared a post via her X handle, “It is important to note that ENSv2 is ultimately an upgrade to ENS as it exists today — it’s still ENS! Regardless of where it ultimately gets deployed,” and highlighted new features such as individual registries for each ENS name and new apps currently in testing.

Vitalik Backs ENSv2’s Ethereum L1 Move Vitalik Buterin supported the ENS labs decision by saying, “It’s a good decision!” As he noted that ENS names and records represent a critical on-chain state for the Ethereum ecosystem, should remain easily accessible from anywhere.

Further, he added, “It’s also a semi-financial application, in the sense that buying and holding ENS names has a cost, and ENS names can become very valuable objects. With the expanded scaling roadmap, Ethereum L1 is the ideal place for these applications.”

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May 11, 2026, 12:11 p.m.

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After four years of operating as a sidechain, Ronin is to become an Ethereum L2. Gaming (Mateo/Unsplash) Summary

Ronin, the gaming-focused blockchain behind Axie Infinity, will hard fork on May 12 to migrate from an independent sidechain to an Ethereum layer 2, causing about 10 hours of network downtime.During the migration window, all Ronin transactions and onchain game actions will be paused.The transition to the OP Stack and a new Proof of Distribution model will sharply cut RON token inflation and aim to improve security, scalability and costs after the network’s history-making $625 million bridge exploit.Ronin, the gaming-centric blockchain once synonymous with the industry’s infamous $625 million exploit, is officially shedding its sidechain skin on May 12 to become an Ethereum layer 2 to improve security while maintaining throughput.

Ronin, which announced the migration in April, will execute a hard fork at block 55,577,490, a process that will result in about 10 hours of downtime for users, the network said Monday on X. According to onchain data, the migration is expected to begin on Tuesday around 15:16 UTC.

“Four years ago, we launched Ronin because Axie Infinity needed a faster and more efficient network,” Ronin said when announcing the migration. “It worked. Axie Infinity onboarded millions of gamers to crypto, and Pixels proved that it was possible to do it again.” The time has come to plug "back into the mothership."

While operating as an independent sidechain in mid-May 2022, Ronin suffered what is still today the largest DeFI bridge exploit in history. Layer 2 protocols benefit from tighter links to the underlying blockchain than sidechains, offering benefits that include greater security.

The network's native token, RON, is currently trading at around 11 cents with a market capitalization of about $89.5 million, according to CoinDesk data. While the token remains significantly below its 2024 peak, the migration sparked a rally, with prices climbing 30% over the last 30 days as investors eye a shift in the network's supply dynamics.

“During this downtime window, all network transactions [including transfers, swaps, and smart contract interactions] will be paused,” Ronin said, adding that all games using its network will also be affected. “To avoid any inconvenience, please complete all necessary transactions/onchain game actions on the Ronin Network before the downtime begins.”

During the downtime, a "Proof of Distribution" model will be introduced to reward builders based on active network contribution rather than passive staking, Ronin said. The team noted that “this is fundamentally bullish for RON as it dramatically cuts token inflation from over 20% to below 1%.”

The company also said that transitioning to the OP Stack will allow it to inherit Ethereum’s robust security while maintaining high throughput. The move redirects 90 million RON tokens previously earmarked for staking rewards into the Ronin Treasury, while more than doubling marketplace fees to 1.25% from 0.5%.

Ronin said its narrative is dominated by its pivotal return to Ethereum, a strategic move to reset its economics, secure its bridge infrastructure, and secure its future in an upgrade intended to improve scalability and reduce costs through the use of EigenDA for data availability.

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The foundation council will feature established builders from the Ethereum community, including Polygon Co-founder Sandeep and Sacha from Lido.

Aragon, a platform for building and managing Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), is creating the Aragon Foundation, a new governing body that aims to help the project move past a tumultuous phase and further its development.

The Aragon Foundation will be led by a so-called Strategic Council, a group of high-profile Ethereum community members who are tasked with formulating strategies, allocating funds, advising the Aragon team and fostering developers. Memebers of the council include Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, and Sacha, one of the leading researchers in the Lido ecosystem.

In November 2023, the Aragon Association, which was an entity overseeing the Aragon DAO, announced its motion to dissolve the entity and enable user redemptions of its native token ANT.

The Aragon Foundation will inherit funds left over from the legacy Aragon Treasury that are not redeemed by the ANT Redemption Initiative, which is set to end on Nov. 2. The ANT token is up roughly 35% since the initiative was announced and currently trades at a $280 million fully-diluted valuation.

As of Oct 28, 82.5% of the outstanding supply had been redeemed for ETH.

ANT Price - CoinGeckoThe Aragon Foundation will operate as an ownerless organization that aligns with Aragon's values and mission. The Aragon team will remain independent from the Foundation.

“There is an entirely new governing body, and it is composed of people who have been Aragon supporters and users,” Aragon CEO Anthony Leuteneggar told The Defiant in an interview. “There will be alignment around one singular mission, and you have professional people who can fulfill that mission.”

Aragon, which launched in 2017, provides users with no-code DAO creation and management tools. Through Aragon users can distribute tokens, set governance parameters and authorize wallets for voting simply through its interface.

It believes that “the future of humanity will be decided at the frontier of technological innovation and human collaboration.”

A former Ethereum Foundation contributor has raised alarms about a possible shortfall in support for the network’s foundational development efforts, warning that it could materialize within the next three to nine months. Trent Van Epps, who spent five years at the Foundation until April 2026 coordinating core protocol activities and related funding initiatives, outlined these concerns in a detailed essay published on June 18, 2026.

Van Epps described the situation as a “slow-burning funding crisis” rather than an abrupt cliff.

He pointed to two primary pressures: the recent conclusion of a multi-year client support program and ongoing adjustments to the Foundation’s treasury management strategy.

The Client Incentive Program, which had channeled resources to teams maintaining Ethereum’s execution and consensus clients over four years, wrapped up in April 2026 without a designated successor mechanism in place.

At the same time, the Foundation has been reducing its annual spending rate.

A treasury plan announced in 2025 set a glide path toward lowering outflows from roughly 15 percent of assets per year down to a more sustainable 5 percent endowment-style baseline by 2030.

This shift aims to preserve long-term solvency after years of using treasury holdings to bootstrap the broader ecosystem.

Van Epps estimated that maintaining adequate capacity across more than ten client teams, research groups, and coordination roles requires consistent annual funding in the range of $30 million.

He noted that current and near-term sources for this level of support appear increasingly limited, based on conversations across the core development community.

Without steady resources, he warned of risks including the departure of experienced contributors who hold deep institutional knowledge, delays in tackling complex challenges such as scalability improvements and future-proofing measures, and potential impacts on the network’s track record of reliability.

The former contributor situated the warning within the Foundation’s long-standing “subtraction” philosophy.

This approach deliberately seeks to limit organizational growth inside the Foundation itself and instead encourage value creation and responsibility across the wider Ethereum ecosystem.

While intended to promote decentralization and maturity, Van Epps argued that executing this transition effectively requires proactive planning for new stewardship structures.

He referenced comments from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who has noted that the Foundation’s original scope—focused on early-stage software development through major upgrades—was largely completed years ago and was never designed as a permanent central authority.

Van Epps called for renewed discussion around updated social, political, and economic arrangements among stakeholders to support ongoing protocol maintenance through more scalable and neutral funding channels.

The concerns come amid reports of staff transitions at the Ethereum Foundation and broader debates about sustainable resourcing for public goods in the Ethereum ecosystem. Van Epps emphasized that underinvestment in continuity could prove costly to reverse if symptoms appear 12–18 months from now, and he urged collective attention to building durable mechanisms that match the project’s long-term goals and objectives.

Updated Sep 11, 2025, 7:36 a.m. Published Sep 10, 2025, 6:09 p.m.

2 min read

Summary

Ethereum experienced a rare slashing event on Wednesday, with 39 validators penalized, according to blockchain explorer Beaconcha.in.The validators were tied to the SSV Network, a distributed validator technology (DVT) protocol that decentralizes staking infrastructure by splitting validator keys across multiple operators.Despite the scale of the incident, SSV founder Alon Muroch emphasized that the protocol itself was not compromised. Instead, the penalties stemmed from operator-side infrastructure issues involving third-party staking providers using SSV.Ethereum experienced a rare slashing event on Wednesday, with 39 validators penalized, according to blockchain explorer Beaconcha.in.

The validators were tied to the SSV Network, a distributed validator technology (DVT) protocol that decentralizes staking infrastructure by splitting validator keys across multiple operators.

Despite the scale of the incident, SSV founder Alon Muroch emphasized that the protocol itself was not compromised. Instead, the penalties stemmed from operator-side infrastructure issues involving third-party staking providers using SSV.

One cluster of slashed validators was tied to Ankr, a liquid staking provider. According to Muroch, routine maintenance on Ankr’s systems triggered the event. A second slashing involved a validator cluster that had migrated from Allnodes two months earlier. Investigators believe a secondary validator setup caused the duplicate signing that led to penalties.

In total, 39 validators were slashed, making this one of the largest correlated slashing events since Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake. Each validator slashed faces an immediate ETH penalty and could face inactivity leaks, compounded losses. One validator, backed by a 2,020 ETH stake, lost around 0.3 ETH, or about $1,300 at today’s prices, in the process.

While slashing is built into Ethereum’s design as a deterrent against malicious or negligent behavior, it remains exceedingly rare. Fewer than 500 validators out of more than 1.2 million active have been slashed since the Beacon Chain went live in 2020. Most incidents, including this one, have been traced to operator issues rather than deliberate attacks.

Mass slashings are particularly notable because correlated misbehavior increases the severity of penalties. Ethereum’s protocol enforces additional inactivity leaks when groups of validators are slashed together, amplifying the financial impact.

For Ethereum’s staking ecosystem, the latest wave underscores a familiar but critical lesson: validator safety hinges as much on infrastructure and operator diligence as on the protocol itself. Even when the underlying software is uncompromised, operational errors can have costly and very public consequences.

Read more: ‘Keep It Simple’: Prevent Your Eth 2.0 From Being Slashed

AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.

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 SSV Network, the leading distributed validator technology (DVT) provider on Ethereum, securing over 5.5M ETH, is set to undergo the biggest comprehensive upgrade in its history. The SSV DAO has unveiled a potential path for SSV Staking, a major upgrade that would fundamentally redesign how the network accounts for validator balances and collects fees. If approved, the proposal would introduce SSV Staking delegation and Effective Balance Oracles, integral to the network, and turn the SSV token into an ETH accrual token, allowing SSV stakers to receive ETH rewards accrued from network fees.

At the center of the proposal is a move away from SSV-denominated protocol fees toward a fully ETH-native accounting and reward model that reflects the reality of Ethereum’s validator economy. Validator rewards are earned in ETH, operator costs are priced in ETH, and post-Pectra validator balances can now scale up to 2,048 ETH per validator. SSV Staking is designed to align the protocol — and its token — with that reality. 

Introducing Effective Balance Oracles for post-Pectra accounting In parallel, supporting SSV staking and Ethereum’s post-Pectra validator model requires effective balance–aware accounting. Effective Balance Accounting ensures that fees, runway calculations, and liquidation logic scale with the actual stake secured by validators, rather than relying on “per-validator” accounting that has changed with validator consolidation – allowing a single validator to have a balance of 2048 ETH. 

Implementing this model natively requires the protocol to reflect validator effective balances on-chain throughout their lifecycle. To bridge the gap between Ethereum’s consensus layer and on-chain accounting, the protocol introduces Effective Balance Oracles that track validator balances and update the protocol state. 

Operating this oracle layer securely and resiliently is a core protocol function. Under SSV Staking, SSV holders would stake and delegate their tokens to support the selection and operation of oracle participants, aligning economic incentives with protocol security.

From Governance token to ETH accrual asset Under the proposal, SSV holders would be able to stake their tokens in a new staking contract and receive cSSV, a liquid ERC-20 token minted 1:1 to represent a staked position. While holding cSSV, participants would accrue a pro-rata share of ETH-denominated network fees, distributed through the protocol in proportion to staking participation.

Elad Gafni, SSV Foundation, said:

“cSSV is designed to represent more than a staked position; it represents participation.” Adding that: “SSV Staking is a mechanism for SSV holders to help operate and secure a core protocol function through delegation. This is a fundamental shift in how value flows through the network.”

Crucially, holding cSSV preserves full governance and voting rights, while enabling composability across DeFi as a liquid representation of staked SSV.

A new relationship between Ethereum infrastructure and SSV token holders SSV Staking goes beyond introducing yield. It is a full redesign of the network’s economic engine, connecting validator balances, ETH-denominated fees, oracle-backed accounting, and token incentives into a single system.

If approved by the DAO, SSV Staking would mark a shift from SSV as a governance and operator payment token toward an ETH accrual token, tightly coupled to the usage of one of Ethereum’s largest staking infrastructure providers.

About SSV Network SSV Network provides a distributed infrastructure designed to improve the fault tolerance, decentralization, and security of Ethereum validators through Distributed Validator Technology (DVT). SSV Network is the leading provider on Ethereum, securing over 5.5M ETH, worth an estimated ~$16 billion, across nearly 2,000 globally distributed node operators. 

Press contact:

Robert Drage [email protected] Disclaimer: TheNewsCrypto does not endorse any content on this page. The content depicted in this Press Release does not represent any investment advice. TheNewsCrypto recommends our readers to make decisions based on their own research. TheNewsCrypto is not accountable for any damage or loss related to content, products, or services stated in this Press Release.

2026.05.21 11:22:52

May 21. On May 20, the U.S. Spot Hyperliquid ETF notched $25.5 million in net inflows—its largest single-day haul since launch. In the days leading up to that date, the ETF had posted net inflows of $4.4 million on Monday and $11 million on Tuesday. Data shows the 21Shares Hyperliquid ETF (THYP), which launched on May 12, brought in $16.7 million in net inflows that same day—up from the $5.3 million it saw the prior day. The Bitwise Hyperliquid ETF (BHYP), launched on May 14, took in $8.8 million, a jump from the $5.7 million it recorded the day before. Over its first seven trading days, the entire category has pulled in a total net inflow of $54 million. Peter Chung, research director at Presto Research, noted that when adjusted for market capitalization, institutional flows into the HYPE ETF have outpaced the speed of inflows into Bitcoin ETFs so far this year. Dominick John, an analyst at Zeus Research, added that these inflows signal investors are capitalizing on entry points tied to the infrastructure narrative, while recognizing the asset’s transparent, usage-driven revenue model. Fueling this momentum, HYPE’s token price surged 17.3% in the past 24 hours to $55.91, with a current market cap of roughly $13.4 billion. The token previously hit an all-time high of around $59.3 in September 2025. Per CoinGecko data, HYPE’s fully diluted valuation briefly reached about $54.7 billion, momentarily surpassing Solana’s $54.2 billion valuation at the time. Tim Sun, a senior researcher at HashKey Group, believes the sustained inflows into the HYPE ETF show the market is forming a new consensus: decentralized trading platforms are starting to be integrated into broader overhauls of financial infrastructure. Jeff Ko, chief analyst at CoinEx, pointed out that HYPE and its related ETFs have structural investment logic distinct from Bitcoin and Ethereum. He explained: Bitcoin acts as a non-yielding store of value; Ethereum centers on staking rewards; HYPE, meanwhile, operates more like equity in a cash-flow-generating trading platform—since the protocol uses most of its fees for open-market token buybacks, giving investors a more familiar valuation framework to work with. On-chain metrics confirm Hyperliquid has become a dominant player in on-chain perpetual contract and derivative trading. So far this week, the network has captured approximately 42% of total blockchain fees, outperforming Tron (22.6%), Solana (10.6%), and Ethereum (8%) in that key metric.

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A crypto whale holding 120,000 ETH long positions has an unrealized loss of over $77 million, and added $8 million in margin in the early hours.

According to on-chain analyst ai_9684xtpa’s monitoring, a whale holding 120,000 ETH in long positions added $8 million in margin in the early hours. Currently, the total unrealized loss on its ETH long positions across four linked addresses stands at approximately $77.047 million, with an average entry price of around $2,265. Data shows the liquidation prices for the four addresses are $1,174.6, $1,059.1, $1,064.7, and $1,143.6 respectively. Despite the significant paper losses, there remains a large buffer before liquidation, and over 6 million USDC is still held on-chain to replenish margin, resulting in low short-term liquidation risk.

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Some of the most popular companies in the cryptoeconomy have banded together to create an organization that will assess and rate top cryptocurrency projects on the likelihood of these projects being securities per U.S. federal securities laws.

That organization, the Crypto Rating Council (CRC), counts exchange operators like Bittrex, Coinbase, Kraken, and Poloniex-backers Circle among its first members, as well as the firms of Anchorage, DRW Cumberland, Genesis, and Grayscale Investments.

So why the need for such a body?

The so-called Howey Test, which is a test devised by the U.S. Supreme Court to determine if a given asset is a security, commonly leads to “judgment calls, inconsistent results, and … disagreement among legal experts,” the CRC said on the Frequently Asked Questions section of its new website.

Accordingly, the organization’s rating system — which runs from 1 to 5, with 5 indicating an asset bears the hallmarks of a security and 1 meaning the opposite — is being hailed by members as a “compliance tool” that will help bring consistency to their respective asset review processes.

Founded by prominent companies across the crypto industry, our mission is to lead crypto financial services firms committed to practical compliance with the U.S. securities laws. We are the Crypto Rating Council, and we launched today: https://t.co/FbdwfSZN9D

— Crypto Rating Council (@CRC_Crypto) September 30, 2019

“The CRC will publish a simple rating for most assets it reviews to indicate the results of its analysis as a reference for operators, developers, and the public,” the organization said.

With that said, the ratings are utterly non-binding and have been made without involvement from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). So, while clarity is the professed goal, the only thing the CRC has ultimately made more clear is what its members think about the legal status of top cryptocurrencies in America.

“The score does not reflect a legal conclusion and is no indication of qualitative value of an asset or suitability for investment or any other purpose,” the CRC said of its ratings.

How the First Scores Look Don’t expect any surprises when it comes to bitcoin (BTC). The oldest cryptocurrency, which has long been held up by various stakeholders as a standard for decentralized projects, received a 1 rating from the CRC.

Other projects the body deemed to have “few or no characteristics consistent with treatment as a security” included DeFi’s darling Dai stablecoin, the popular Monero (XMR) privacy cryptocurrency, and Litecoin (LTC).

The 2 rating was given to the next rung of projects that the CRC deemed to seem mostly decentralized according to its framework. These projects included Ethereum (ETH), Zcash (ZEC), Numeraire (NMR), ChainLink (LINK), and the fledgling proof-of-stake project Algorand (ALGO).

Getting on up there according to the group were projects like Augur (3.75), EOS (3.75), Stellar (3.75), Tezos (3.75), and XRP (4). The highest inaugural scores were given to Polymath (4.5) and Maker (4.5).

Notably, the SEC announced just hours after these ratings were released that Block.one, the team behind the EOS launch, had settled charges and would pay a $24 million civil penalty for its year-long ICO being an unregistered security offering.

The Commission said the securities status only applied to the “IOU” ERC20 token that was issued during the sale rather than the current EOS cryptocurrency, which lives on EOS now rather than Ethereum.

Are Exchanges Listing Securities? One question that immediately started buzzing through the ecosystem on the heels of the announcement of the CRC was why would exchanges like Coinbase take chances on assets like XRP that appear to bear considerable resemblances to a security in the U.S.?

One possibility is that the group’s members consider “security status is binary,” according to Jake Chervinsky, the General Counsel of DeFi lending project Compound Finance. In other words, anything less than a 5 rating would be fair game accordingly.

My best guess: they'd say security status is binary and as a matter of law it doesn't make a difference how close a token comes to being a security if it's ultimately not one.

On that logic, though, query the value of publishing the five-point score in the first place.

— Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) September 30, 2019

But even if the already rated cryptocurrencies later end up being cleared as “not securities” per the SEC, the CRC rating system can lead to future conflicts of interest, e.g. member exchanges being charitable in their ratings because they stand to gain from trade volume.

In my opinion, this rating system creates a massive conflict of interest. All of the companies that joined this consortium are massively incentivized to rate the vast majority of tokens as non-securities. Coinbase listed some very questionable tokens including XRP, Tezos, EOS

— Larry Cermak (@lawmaster) September 30, 2019

But there’s a silver lining here, according to Blockchain chief executive officer and president Marco Santori. In a Twitter thread on the CRC announcement, Santori said the effort was suspect in some ways but was also a positive attempt at self-regulation in an industry that needs more regulatory clarity in general.

8/ So why on earth would they publish this? Why on earth should we applaud their effort?

Well, actually we should.

As an industry, this stuff is basically the best we've got.

THAT'S RIGHT ITS A TWIST

wait hear me out.

— Marco Santori (@msantoriESQ) September 30, 2019

William M. Peaster

William M. Peaster is a professional writer and editor who specializes in the Ethereum, Dai, and Bitcoin beats in the cryptoeconomy. He's appeared in Blockonomi, Binance Academy, Bitsonline, and more. He enjoys tracking smart contracts, DAOs, dApps, and the Lightning Network. He's learning Solidity, too! Contact him on Telegram at @wmpeaster

Gold-backed crypto sounds straightforward until you check the redemption rules, custody setup, and issuer terms. In practice, two tokens may track the same ounce of gold while offering very different rights to the holder.

That gap between price exposure and holder rights is drawing more attention in 2026 as tokenized gold trading volume rises and products like Pax Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUT) pull in more activity across crypto markets. This guide explains how tokenized gold works, how PAXG and XAUT differ, and what buyers should check before they treat a token like physical bullion.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
➤ Tokenized gold tracks physical bullion, but holder rights, redemption terms, and custody structures can differ sharply between issuers.
➤ Tokenized gold trading volume reached $90.7 billion in Q1 2026, with PAXG and XAUT leading the category’s growth.
➤ Issuer risk, redemption limits, wallet controls, and regional regulations still affect how tokenized gold works in practice.
➤Tokenized gold gives crypto users 24/7 transferability and wallet access, but it does not remove traditional gold-market risks.

In this guide:

What is tokenized gold? How gold-backed crypto works in 2026PAXG vs. XAUT, side by sideDo you own real gold with PAXG and XAUT?Can you redeem PAXG and XAUT for physical gold?Tokenized gold vs. gold ETFs vs physical bullionTokenized gold risks and how to mitigate themHow to buy tokenized gold in 2026Frequently Asked Questions What is tokenized gold? How gold-backed crypto works in 2026 Tokenized gold is a digital token issued on a blockchain that is backed by physical gold stored in audited vaults. Gold has long attracted buyers who want a hard asset outside fiat currencies, but physical settlement, storage, and transfers can be slow or expensive.

This “tokenized” model has brought two markets together that rarely interacted in the past. One is physical gold, which offers a 5,000-year store-of-value record but settles slowly, trades on dealer hours, and is hard to fractionalize. The other is public blockchains, which can settle transactions in seconds, run 24/7, and split assets into tiny units.

A gold-backed token bridges the two by locking real bullion with a custodian and minting transferable claims on it.

What is a troy ounce and London Good Delivery gold?

A troy ounce is the standard unit used in global precious-metals markets and equals about 31.1 grams. “London Good Delivery” refers to large gold bars that meet quality and purity standards accepted by major bullion markets, central banks, and institutional traders.

How tokenization works An issuer such as Paxos or TG Commodities acquires physical gold from refiners or bullion dealers and stores it with a professional custodian. The issuer then creates a matching amount of blockchain-based tokens tied to that gold reserve. Token holders can buy, sell, transfer, or self-custody the assets like other crypto tokens.

When holders redeem tokens through the issuer, the corresponding amount of gold leaves the reserve pool and may be sold, transferred, or delivered physically if redemption minimums are met. Independent attestors or audit firms publish reserve reports on a scheduled basis to verify that the token supply matches the underlying gold holdings.

Why tokenized gold is exploding in 2026 Adoption has accelerated through 2025 and into 2026 as real-world asset (RWA) tokenization moved from pilots to live products. Tokenized gold achieved $90.70 billion in total spot trading volume in Q1 2026, surpassing the $84.64 billion traded throughout 2025, according to CoinGecko’s RWA Report 2026.

Meanwhile, on March 19, 2026, the World Gold Council and Boston Consulting Group proposed a “Gold as a Service” framework designed to standardize custody, reconciliation, compliance, and redemption processes across digital gold products.

Tokenized gold is not a stablecoin. Its price moves with the spot price of gold, so holders gain or lose value as bullion rallies or falls. The “stability” only refers to the 1:1 backing, not a fixed dollar peg.

The combination of rising gold prices, clearer rules in some jurisdictions, and on-chain demand for non-dollar collateral has produced what looks like a structural rather than cyclical lift.

The tokenized gold market includes smaller products such as Kinesis Gold (KAU), Comtech Gold (CGO), VeraOne (VRO), and Matrixdock Gold (XAUM). Even so, market activity and liquidity remain concentrated around Pax Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUT), which makes them useful reference points for how large-scale gold-backed tokens currently operate.

Top tokenized gold products by market cap: CoinGecko PAXG vs. XAUT, side by side Pax Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUT) together hold roughly nine-tenths of the gold-backed token market. They follow the same backing standard, but their regulator, chain support, audit cadence, redemption process, and US availability are not the same.

AttributePAXGXAUTIssuerPaxos Trust CompanyTG Commodities Limited (Tether)RegulatorOCC, U.S. federal oversight; previously NYDFSCNAD, El SalvadorBacking1 token = 1 troy ounce LBMA Good Delivery1 token = 1 troy ounce LBMA Good DeliveryVault locationBrink’s vaults, LondonSwiss vaults via MKS PAMP and LoomisAuditor and cadenceKPMG LLP, monthlyBDO Italia, quarterly ISAE 3000ChainsEthereum (ERC-20)Ethereum, TRON, Polygon, Solana via LayerZero, BNB ChainIssuance and redemption feeTiered 1% down to 0.125%Flat 0.25%Minimum physical redemption430 tokens for a full bar, 1 gram and up via Alpha Bullion430 tokens for a full bar, no fractional partnerOwnership typeAllocated gold with Paxos bar lookupUndivided gold rights with Tether Gold bar lookupReserve and oracle supportPaxos attestations, allocation lookup, and Chainlink reserve-related infrastructureTether Gold attestations, wallet/bar lookup, and Chainlink XAUT/USD market-data feedsUS retail availabilityListed on Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Crypto.comRestricted, not directly available to US retailMarket cap (May 2026)About $2.2 billion per CoinGeckoAbout $2.6 to $2.7 billion per CoinGecko Pax Gold at a glance PAXG launched in September 2019, when Paxos operated under its NYDFS trust-company framework. Paxos later received approval to convert to a national trust charter overseen by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Current PAXG terms say PAXG is issued pursuant to specific OCC approval.

Paxos assures that the underlying gold is stored in Brink’s vaults in London, and each PAXG token is linked to a specific serial-numbered gold bar that holders can verify through Paxos’ allocation lookup tool. KPMG took over the monthly attestation in February 2025, replacing WithumSmith+Brown, and the reports are published on the Paxos site.

Tether Gold at a glance XAUT was launched by TG Commodities Limited in January 2020 and is now operated under a license from El Salvador’s National Digital Assets Commission, known by its Spanish initials CNAD.

The bullion is stored in Swiss vaults, with MKS PAMP and Loomis named in TG Commodities’s attestation materials. XAUT launched on Ethereum and TRON before expanding to additional networks through the XAUT0 cross-chain system. Tether later announced Polygon, Solana, and BNB Chain integrations between late 2025 and early 2026.

BDO Italia issues an ISAE 3000 opinion on the reserves on a quarterly basis.

Fees, audits, and oracle data PAXG’s fee structure has changed over time. As of May 2026, Paxos advertises zero on-chain transfer fees and zero storage fees for PAXG, although its terms still reserve the right to impose storage fees in the future with notice. Its terms also govern conversions into USD, unallocated gold, or allocated gold through the Paxos platform.

XAUT says it charges no custodian fee and applies a one-time 25 basis point fee when verified customers purchase or redeem XAU₮ through TG Commodities.

Chainlink has supported reserve-related infrastructure for PAXG, while Chainlink also provides XAUT/USD market-data feeds. A price feed is not the same as a reserve feed. In both cases, users still need to check issuer attestations, custody disclosures, and official lookup tools rather than relying on oracle data alone.

Do you own real gold with PAXG and XAUT? The short answer is that both products describe gold ownership, but the issuer structure, custody chain, legal terms, and redemption process are not the same.

PAXG gives holders ownership rights to allocated London Good Delivery gold held under Paxos custody. XAUT gives holders undivided ownership rights to gold on specified bars, with bar details available through Tether Gold’s lookup system.

The practical question is not only whether gold backs the token, but how each issuer records, verifies, and redeems that claim.

How ownership is recorded PAXG uses an allocated-gold structure. Paxos says each PAXG represents one fine troy ounce of a London Good Delivery gold bar held in professional vaults. Its terms also say that when a holder is not allocated a full bar, the holder owns a pro rata share of that bar based on their PAXG balance. Paxos’ lookup tool lets eligible on-chain holders view bar details tied to their holdings.

XAUT uses a different legal structure. Tether Gold says XAU₮ gives holders undivided ownership rights to gold on specified bars. It also says the allocated gold is identifiable by serial number, purity, and weight through Tether Gold’s lookup system.

So, the cleaner distinction is not “specific bar versus pool.” Both products describe a bar-level link. The real differences come from issuer structure, custodian arrangements, jurisdiction, disclosure cadence, redemption rules, and the legal terms behind each token.

Bankruptcy remoteness and counterparty risk The difference matters most if the issuer fails. Paxos Trust Company is a New York limited-purpose trust company that holds the bullion as a bailee, a structure designed to be bankruptcy remote, meaning the bullion would not be available to general creditors.

TG Commodities is a private Tether subsidiary under El Salvadoran oversight rather than a US trust company, which leaves the holder’s claim subject to El Salvadoran insolvency rules.

As of May 2026, neither structure has faced a major issuer failure or large-scale court test, so the legal outcome in a stress event remains untested.

Insurance and custody disclosures Paxos says each PAXG is backed by one fine troy ounce of gold held in LBMA vaults in London. Its allocation lookup tool lets holders of PAXG in on-chain Ethereum wallets view serial-number and bar information, though the tool does not apply to tokens held through custodial exchanges or wallets. Paxos also publishes monthly PAXG attestation reports.

XAUT’s terms refer to custodian insurance, but the public disclosures do not itemize coverage at the same level of detail. XAUT’s terms refer to custodian insurance, but they also say there is no assurance that the custodian will maintain adequate insurance, or any insurance.

The public terms do not give the same bar-level insurance detail that a cautious buyer may want before they rely on insurance as a risk control. Holders should review the latest issuer terms, reserve reports, and custody disclosures before they treat insurance as meaningful protection.

Allocated ownership is one of the strongest legal protections available in the gold market, but it depends entirely on the custody chain functioning as advertised. Always read the latest attestation rather than relying on marketing language.

Can you redeem PAXG and XAUT for physical gold? Eligible verified holders can redeem both PAXG and XAUT for physical bullion, but the rules are not necessarily retail-friendly in the same way.

PAXG supports direct full-bar redemption through Paxos and smaller physical-gold redemptions through partnered retailers. XAUT redemptions, by contrast, occur through TG Commodities and must be tied to full gold bars.

PAXG redemption Paxos says holders can convert PAXG into USD, unallocated gold, or allocated gold through the Paxos platform, subject to its terms.

Direct allocated-gold redemption requires at least 430 PAXG plus the applicable fee for each London Good Delivery gold bar. Paxos also says customers with smaller holdings can redeem fractional amounts through partnered gold retailers.

Alpha Bullion, a platform tied to Bullion Exchanges and Paxos, says it lets PAXG holders redeem physical gold in sizes from 1 gram to 1 kilogram.

Note that Alpha Bullion requires account verification before order fulfillment. Because product availability, fees, taxes, and delivery terms can change, holders should check Alpha Bullion’s current checkout terms before they treat PAXG as an easy route to small physical-gold delivery.

XAUT redemption XAUT redemption follows a relatively stricter process. Tether Gold says only KYC-verified customers can redeem through the Tether Gold website, and redemptions can occur only for full gold bars. Since those bars usually range from about 385 to 415 fine troy ounces, holders are generally asked to deposit at least 430 XAU₮ to cover a full-bar redemption.

After redemption, the gold can be delivered to the verified customer’s chosen location in Switzerland, with delivery costs payable by the customer. Tether Gold says it does not currently offer delivery outside Switzerland.

Instead of physical delivery, a verified customer may ask Tether Gold to attempt a sale of the gold bar in the Swiss gold market and return the USD proceeds, minus the redemption fee. That sale is subject to available rates and counterparties, and Tether Gold says it has no obligation to repurchase the tokens or gold bars.

How to verify your gold on-chain Both issuers offer on-chain transparency tools. For PAXG, holders enter an Ethereum address into the Paxos lookup page and see the serial numbers of the underlying bars. For XAUT, the Tether site shows the gold attributed to a wallet at a given time.

These tools can help holders check issuer-level allocation data, while Chainlink infrastructure can support market-data or reserve-related checks depending on the token. Users should still treat issuer attestations, custody disclosures, and official lookup tools as the main sources for reserve verification.

That is the redemption side. The next question is how tokenized gold stacks up against the alternatives most investors already know.

Tokenized gold vs. gold ETFs vs physical bullion Tokenized gold is right there in between two long-established options. The table below compares the three on the dimensions that drive most allocation decisions.

AttributeTokenized gold (PAXG, XAUT)Gold ETFs (GLD, IAU, GLDM)Physical bullionCustodyLBMA vault held by issuer custodianLBMA vault held by ETF trusteeSelf-custody or third-party vaultTrading hours24/7/365Stock market hoursDealer hoursAnnual fee0% storage, 0.125% to 1% issuance and redemption0.17% to 0.40% expense ratioDealer spread plus storage and insuranceSettlementSeconds, on-chainT+1Same day at dealerRedemption for physicalYes, with minimumsNo, cash settlement onlyAlready physicalDeFi useCollateral, lending, yieldNoneNoneUS tax treatmentProperty treatment likely, still developingCollectibles 28% per IRS guidanceCollectibles 28% per IRS guidance Fee math at retail scale Headline fees can look simple until you apply them to a real position size. For example, take a $10,000 PAXG buy held for 12 months. If that order falls into Paxos’ 2–25 PAXG fee tier, the 1% entry fee comes to about $100.

Paxos currently advertises zero on-chain transfer fees and zero storage fees for PAXG.

If the position is sold or converted through the Paxos wallet at the same fee tier, the exit fee would add another $100. That puts the direct Paxos round-trip cost at about $200 on a $10,000 position held for one year, before spreads, gas, taxes, exchange fees, or any third-party platform costs.

Cost note: This example assumes direct Paxos wallet creation and sale or conversion at the 1% fee tier. If you buy or sell PAXG through an exchange, your actual cost may come from trading fees, spreads, withdrawal costs, and venue-specific rules instead.

A $10,000 GLD position over the same period pays the 0.40% expense ratio, or about $40, before any broker-specific costs. A $10,000 GLDM position is cheaper still at 0.10%, or roughly $10 for the year.

On direct fees alone, a lower-cost gold ETF such as GLDM can be much cheaper than a direct PAXG round trip at the 1% tier. PAXG’s case becomes stronger only if the holder values features an ETF cannot provide, such as crypto-wallet custody, around-the-clock transfers, DeFi use, or PAXG-specific redemption routes.

Tax treatment In the United States, the Internal Revenue Service classifies physical gold and most gold ETFs as collectibles, which carry a long-term capital gains rate of up to 28% rather than the standard 20%.

As of May 2026, tokenized gold is in a less settled position. Some practitioners argue it should follow the underlying asset and be treated as a collectible, while others apply general property rules for digital assets. UK, EU, and UAE treatments vary and depend on whether the holder uses an exchange domiciled in a regulated venue.

Always confirm with a tax professional before relying on any single framing.

Tokenized gold in DeFi The structural advantage of tokenized gold over an ETF is on-chain usability. PAXG is listed as collateral on the Aave deployment on Ethereum and trades in Curve and Uniswap pools, while XAUT has integrations on TRON-based DeFi venues and emerging yield vaults on platforms such as Falcon Finance.

Yields available in 2026 have ranged from low single digits to mid single digits, depending on the pool and risk tier, with strategies that wrap gold collateral into lending or basis trades.

Tokenized gold risks and how to mitigate them The risks attached to tokenized gold are not the same as the risks attached to physical bullion or to an ETF. Buyers should weigh three categories before committing.

Issuer and depeg risk Both PAXG and XAUT depend on a single issuer to honor redemptions and report reserves. A failure at Paxos or TG Commodities would cap the value of the token at whatever a court determined was the holder’s claim on the bullion.

Token prices can also drift from spot during stress events. PAXG traded at a premium to spot during the February 2025 London bullion shortage as physical delivery times stretched, an episode that reminded the market that on-chain liquidity does not always equal physical liquidity.

Smart contract, sanctions, and wallet freezing PAXG and XAUT contracts both include administrative functions that allow the issuer to freeze tokens in specific wallets. Paxos has used the function to comply with US sanctions enforcement, and Tether has frozen XAUT-related addresses tied to flagged activity. The functions exist for legitimate compliance reasons, but they mean a holder who trips a sanctions flag could lose access to their tokens.

Both tokens can be frozen by the issuer. A buyer who values censorship resistance above gold exposure should consider physical bullion or self-custody alternatives instead.

Regulatory risk Paxos previously operated under NYDFS oversight and is now OCC-regulated as a national trust institution.

XAUT has a narrower U.S. retail access path. Tether Gold says U.S. persons cannot purchase or redeem XAU₮ directly through its issuer platform, which means U.S. users should not assume they can access issuer-level redemption features.

In the European Union, MiCA rules for asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens became applicable on June 30, 2024, while broader crypto-asset service provider rules followed on Dec. 30, 2024. Paxos says it operates under MiCA compliance through FIN-FSA in the EU, but its current PAXG page also says PAXG is unavailable in the EU.

Put simply, access can depend on the issuer, exchange, user location, and product feature. So, as a buyer, you should check current exchange notices and issuer disclosures before they assume PAXG or XAUT is available in the jurisdiction you are in.

How to buy tokenized gold in 2026 Tokenized gold trades on both centralized exchanges and on-chain venues. Most retail buyers start on a centralized exchange for the smoothest path, then move tokens to self-custody or a DeFi position if they want to use the gold as collateral.

Buying on a centralized exchange PAXG is listed on Coinbase, Kraken, Crypto.com, Binance, and Bitpanda, among others. The standard flow is to fund an account with fiat, place a market or limit order against the PAXG pair, and either keep the tokens on the exchange or withdraw them to a personal wallet.

XAUT is listed on a smaller set of venues, with Bitfinex and several non-US exchanges providing the deepest order books. US residents typically cannot buy XAUT directly through a domestic exchange.

Buying on a DEX On Ethereum, PAXG can be bought on Uniswap and Curve pools using ether or a stablecoin, though gas costs and pool depth should be checked before larger trades.

XAUT liquidity tends to sit in TRON-based and non-EVM venues, which makes the operational steps more involved. Buyers who use a DEX should always verify the token contract address from the issuer’s official site to avoid scam tokens.

Other gold-backed tokens worth knowing PAXG and XAUT dominate the market, but several other gold-backed tokens are worth knowing. Kinesis Gold (KAU) and Kinesis Silver (KAG) pay a share of network fees back to holders, which gives them a yield profile unlike PAXG or XAUT. CACHE Gold (CGT) uses a fractional-gram model with on-chain bar serial assignment.

AurusX (AWG) and Matrixdock XAUM are relatively newer entrants targeting cross-jurisdictional retail demand. Comtech Gold (CGO) markets a Shariah-compliant structure aimed at Middle East and South Asian buyers.

Note that liquidity for these smaller tokens is thinner, so always check the on-chain market depth before committing.

Frequently Asked Questions What is tokenized gold and how does it work? Tokenized gold is a digital token on a blockchain that represents ownership of physical gold held in an audited vault. Each token typically equals one troy ounce of London Good Delivery bullion held by a custodian on behalf of the issuer. Holders can transfer the token like any other crypto asset and, in some cases, redeem it for physical metal when minimums and verification rules are met.

Do you own real gold with PAXG? Yes. PAXG uses an allocated ownership model in which each token is mapped to a portion of a specific London Good Delivery bar identified by serial number. Paxos publishes a lookup tool that lets a wallet holder view the bars assigned to their address. The bullion is held in Brink’s vaults in London and is described by Paxos as legally separate from the company’s general balance sheet.

Can you redeem PAXG for physical gold? Yes, with two paths. A holder with 430 PAXG or more can redeem directly through Paxos for a full London Good Delivery bar, subject to Paxos’ terms. Holders below that threshold can use Alpha Bullion’s partner route for smaller physical-gold redemptions from 1 gram upward, subject to identity verification, product availability, taxes, delivery terms, and any current checkout costs.

Can you redeem XAUT for physical gold? Yes, but only at the full-bar level and only in Switzerland. A holder must accumulate at least 430 XAUT, complete identity verification with TG Commodities, and arrange Swiss delivery or cash settlement at spot. There is no fractional retail partner equivalent to Alpha Bullion, so most XAUT holders treat the token as a price exposure rather than a redemption vehicle.

What is the difference between PAXG and XAUT? The main differences are issuer structure, regulatory profile, chain support, audit cadence, and redemption rules. Paxos previously operated under NYDFS oversight and is now OCC-regulated as a national trust institution. PAXG uses monthly attestations and links holdings to allocated London Good Delivery gold. XAUT is issued through TG Commodities, operates under El Salvador’s CNAD framework, uses quarterly assurance reports, and gives holders undivided gold rights with Tether Gold’s bar lookup system. PAXG is Ethereum-based, while XAUT is available across several networks.

Is tokenized gold safe and what are the main risks? Tokenized gold inherits the price behavior of physical gold and adds three risk categories on top. Issuer risk covers the potential failure of Paxos or TG Commodities, smart contract risk covers code or governance failures, and sanctions risk covers the issuer’s ability to freeze tokens in flagged wallets. Holders mitigate these risks by reading the latest attestations, splitting positions across issuers, and avoiding behavior that could trigger a wallet freeze.

StraitsX will launch XSGD and XUSD on Solana in early 2026, targeting on-chain FX, cross-border settlement, and AI-driven payments with x402 support.

Summary

StraitsX will deploy its SGD- and USD-pegged stablecoins XSGD and XUSD on Solana in early 2026, making it the first L1 to host both assets natively.​ The launch targets on-chain FX, instant SGD–USD swaps, and cross-border settlement, leveraging Solana’s high throughput and low fees plus liquidity pools on CEXs and DEXs.​ Both stablecoins will support the x402 payment standard to enable machine-to-machine and AI-agent micropayments in what StraitsX calls the emerging “agentic economy.” StraitsX announced a partnership with the Solana Foundation to deploy its Singapore dollar-backed stablecoin (XSGD) and U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin (XUSD) on the Solana blockchain, with an initial rollout targeted for early 2026, according to a company statement.

The collaboration will make Solana the first Layer 1 blockchain to host both XSGD and XUSD simultaneously, StraitsX said. The company stated the integration is designed to support on-chain foreign exchange use cases and real-time cross-border settlement, utilizing Solana’s high throughput and low transaction costs.

The deployment aims to enable near-instant swaps between SGD and USD without traditional intermediaries, according to the announcement. StraitsX said the launch will facilitate instant currency conversion and settlement for businesses and developers operating on-chain, allowing users to move between SGD and USD within a single ecosystem.

Stablecoin leading crypto infrastructure push Both stablecoins will support the x402 payment standard, enabling machine-to-machine payments, automated transactions, and AI-agent micropayments, the company said. StraitsX described this functionality as positioning the stablecoins for use within the emerging “agentic economy,” where software agents and machines transact autonomously.

StraitsX plans to collaborate with centralized and decentralized exchanges to establish liquidity pools for XSGD and XUSD on Solana, stating that liquidity provisioning will be prioritized to ensure efficient foreign exchange swaps and settlement at scale.

The Solana expansion follows previous issuance of XSGD on Ethereum, Polygon, and Coinbase’s Base Layer 2, extending the stablecoin’s multichain presence.

StraitsX operates as a Major Payment Institution licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The company reported its stablecoins have processed more than $18 billion in cumulative on-chain transaction volume to date. The firm stated the Solana deployment aims to combine regulatory-grade stablecoins with high-performance public blockchain infrastructure for use cases including cross-border payments, foreign exchange settlement, programmable finance, and AI-driven transactions.

Multi-chain decentralized trading platform Nexera has suffered a $1.5 million exploit, forcing it to stop all trading operations.

Decentralized crypto exchange Nexera — also known as AllianceBlock Nexera — has fallen victim to a hacker attack, resulting in a loss of $1.5 million worth of liquidity. The breach was first reported by blockchain forensic firm Cyvers through a post on X, which flagged a “suspicious transaction” involving Nexera’s proxy contract.

https://twitter.com/cyversalerts/status/1821069428630679920?s=61

According to Cyvers, the attacker managed to gain control over Nexera’s proxy contract, subsequently upgrading it with new permissions. This allowed the hacker to utilize the withdraw admin function to transfer all NXRA tokens. Cyvers says the hacker is actively selling all the exchange’s liquidity for Ethereum (ETH), and some of the funds “have already been bridged to the BNB chain.”

Announcement

The team is investigating an exploit involving smart contracts containing NXRA tokens.

While we are still finalizing our findings, there are already a couple of things that we can share:
1️⃣ The $NXRA token contract has already been paused. Trading is halted on…

— Nexera (@Nexera_Official) August 7, 2024 Shortly following the attack, the Nexera team confirmed the exploit in a separate X post, saying the team is “investigating an exploit involving smart contracts containing NXRA tokens.” While the exact nature of the hack remains unclear, the NXRA token contract has been paused, with trading halted as the exchange’s team is still finalizing its “findings.”

“We continue to investigate the exploit now and will come back here ASAP with follow-up steps. Thank you for your understanding and patience while we sort this out with the utmost priority.”

Nexera

Nexera, established in 2018 by Rachid Ajaja and Matthijs de Vries, facilitates trading between the Ethereum network and the Arbitrum layer-2 solution. The platform’s native token, NXRA, is used for various functions including transaction fees and rewards within the ecosystem. Following the news of the exploit, the value of NXRA plummeted by over 40%, now trading at $0.037, per data from crypto.news.

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Ripple chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty says the recent filing by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in its case against Ripple Labs does not appeal the ruling that XRP is not a security.

Alderoty’s comments follow an Oct. 16 Form C filing by the SEC with a pre-judgement statement against certain aspects of the court’s summary judgment. 

Alderoty Says Court Decision Regarding XRP’s Security Status “Stands As The Law Of The Land” Ripple defense attorney James Filan shared the filing on Oct. 17. In their appeal, the SEC asks the court to review its decisions related to Ripple’s XRP sales through exchange platforms. It also requests the court to review the ruling on the personal sales executed by Ripple executives Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen.

The SEC went on to argue that Larsen and Galinghouse violated securities laws by offering and selling XRP. It also said that they both “aided and abetted Ripple’s violations of those provisions.”

Alderoty responded to the SEC’s request by saying that the court’s decision regarding XRP’s security status “stands as the law of the land.” He added that the fintech firm intends to file its own Form C next week.

No surprises here — once again it’s been made clear. The Court’s ruling that “XRP is not a security” is NOT being appealed. That decision stands as the law of the land.

Stay tuned for Ripple’s Form C to be filed next week. https://t.co/m9molUGSBv

— Stuart Alderoty (@s_alderoty) October 18, 2024

SEC Ripple Case Expected To Continue Through July 2025 According to a timeline shared by Fox Business producer Eleanor Terret on X, the Ripple SEC case could carry on well into July next year. After Ripple files its own Form C next week, both the regulator and Ripple Labs will need to “agree on a briefing schedule.” 

🚨NEW: Just had a great chat with @s_alderoty of @Ripple who gave me a rundown of the appeals timeline.

📌The @SECGov’s last day to file Form C (which will give some level of detail about what it plans to appeal) is tomorrow.

📌Seven days later, Ripple will file its own Form…

— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) October 15, 2024

Thereafter, the SEC will have up to 90 days to file its first brief according to Terrett, who cited Alderoty. She added that Alderoty believes the regulator will take advantage of this period, and try to only make its filing at the end of the 90 days. Thereafter, the full briefing process “will go through July 2025,” according to the Ripple legal chief.

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Ethereum and BNB chain bridge Router Protocol just closed an oversubscribed funding round to extend the bridge to more networks.

Router Protocol, a modular cross-chain framework for building interoperable applications. By connecting different blockchain ecosystems, bridges play a crucial role in creating a more cohesive and streamlined network.

It was launched in 2022 on the Polygon and BSC chains with the objective of making life easier for future Web3 users.

Router Protocol said in a press release that it has recently raised more than expected funds for further development—but didn't disclose exactly how much. The investment realized from this raise will be used to fuel its own fully operational layer 1 blockchain, thus breaking away from the Binance and Polygon ecosystem.

“Router Chain embodies the evolution of our unwavering vision to build the universal interconnectivity layer between fragmented L1/L2 networks,” Ramani Ramachandran, CEO of Router Protocol, said in a press release.

The goal, he added, is to do away with complexity.

The team is “laser-focused on delivering seamless and intuitive user and developer experience for multi-chain applications,” he added.

According to Shubham Singh, the CTO of Router Protocol, the ecosystem has experienced tremendous growth with cross-chain projects like FolioX and StakeEase, which have decided to take advantage of the Protocol’s unique characteristics to make a name for themselves.

In another development, Router Protocol has achieved a significant milestone with the successful launch of Router Nitro. This cross-chain bridge leverages an innovative reverse-verification method to deliver speed and gas efficiency.

Since its launch, the Nitro bridge has facilitated over $350 million in volume, processed more than 650,000 transactions, and attracted nearly 300,000 unique users within four months.

This underscores the growing demand for seamless cross-chain interactions.

The Protocol will soon launch an Ecosystem Grant for projects with future prospects that build on the Router Chain.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.

Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin is now available in the Cardano ecosystem through an integration by the cross-chain bridge Wanchain. This development comes amid the Cardano ecosystem’s plans to integrate more stablecoins on the network, while Ripple is also eyeing expansion of its stablecoin beyond the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and Ethereum.

Ripple’s RLUSD Now Available On The Cardano Network In an X post, Wanchain revealed that its cross-chain bridge now supports the RLUSD stablecoin. With the integration, users will be able to bridge the stablecoin directly from the XRPL network to the Cardano network. Furthermore, they can bridge the stablecoin from Ethereum to Cardano.

Additionally, users can bridge Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin on XRPL or Ethereum to Wanchain and then route it from the bridge to the Cardano network. The bridge also enables bridging from the XRPL to the top Layer-1 network, Ethereum.

It is worth noting that RLUSD is currently issued natively only on the XRPL and Ethereum networks. However, Ripple announced plans last year to expand the stablecoin to Ethereum layer-2 networks, including Base, Optimism, Unichain, and Ink. The firm also noted that testing on these chains will begin in partnership with Wormhole.

RLUSD currently ranks as the 8th largest stablecoin, with a market cap of $1.5 billion. Most of the stablecoin’s supply currently sits on the Ethereum network, while 382 million tokens are in circulation on the XRP Ledger.

Boost For Cardano’s Ecosystem Ripple’s RLUSD becomes the second tier-1 stablecoin available to Cardano users, following USDC’s launch on the network earlier this year. It is worth noting that Cardano’s stablecoin market cap has climbed to $50 million following the launch of USDC.

The network’s DeFi TVL had also climbed when USDC launched on the network and could rise again, with network users now able to access RLUSD through the cross-chain bridge. Interestingly, Cardano’s founder, Charles Hoskinson, has long teased plans to integrate RLUSD natively into the network, though that has yet to happen.

Meanwhile, amid RLUSD gaining access to the Cardano ecosystem, Cardano stakeholder Input Output has put nine proposals forward in a bid to scale the network. Notably, none of them focuses on stablecoin integrations, with the highlight being the Leios upgrade, which developers aim to use to scale the network to 27 million monthly transactions by 2030.

Zcash has completed a two-phase emergency network upgrade to fix a critical vulnerability in its Orchard shielded pool — a flaw that sat undetected for four years, could theoretically have allowed unlimited undetectable counterfeit ZEC creation, and triggered a 50% price collapse before the network’s swift response began restoring confidence and driving a recovery in ZEC’s price.

Josh Swihart, CEO of Electric Coin Company — the primary developer of Zcash — posted on X on June 7 confirming the fix was complete and the network secure, as ZEC began its recovery from the lows reached after the vulnerability’s disclosure.

The post arrived at a critical moment for the asset: ZEC had crashed approximately 50% from a June 4 peak of $624 to $309 on June 5, wiping more than $3 billion from its market capitalization, per the BitMEX Blog’s documented timeline of the incident.

ZEC's price trends to the upside over the past 48 hours, as seen on the daily chart. Source: ZECUSD on Tradingview How The Zcash Bug Was Found — And What It Was The vulnerability was discovered on May 29, 2026 by security researcher Taylor Hornby during a protocol audit commissioned by Shielded Labs. Hornby identified a “soundness” flaw in Zcash’s Orchard zero-knowledge proof circuit — specifically an under-constrained element in the Orchard Action circuit that could allow invalid state transitions, creating a theoretical double-spending risk within the shielded pool.

The discovery was made using Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8 AI model alongside a custom analysis suite, per Shielded Labs’ official disclosure. Hornby and the AI developed a working proof-of-concept that successfully generated unlimited, completely undetectable counterfeit ZEC in a local test environment — described by one independent analyst as “about the worst kind of bug a cryptocurrency can have,” per Yahoo Finance’s reporting of the disclosure.

Critically, the flaw did not permit inflation of the total ZEC supply on the live network. Zcash’s internal turnstile accounting mechanism — which tracks the total value moving into and out of the shielded pool — confirmed no unauthorized value creation occurred while the flaw was active, per Shielded Labs’ official statement.

However, the organization acknowledged directly that due to the privacy properties of Orchard and the nature of the bug, there is no definitive cryptographic way to determine whether exploitation occurred — a limitation inherent to the shielded pool’s design that became its own source of market concern. The vulnerability had been present since Orchard’s activation in May 2022 — four years — without detection.

The Emergency Response Zcash’s development ecosystem responded with unusual speed. The first phase was an emergency soft fork deployed through Zebra 4.5.3, activated at block 3,363,426 on June 2, which temporarily disabled all Orchard transactions to remove the attack path while developers prepared the permanent fix.

Transparent and Sapling transactions continued operating normally throughout, per the Zcash Foundation’s official announcement on X. The second phase arrived on June 3 through the NU6.2 hard fork — activated at block 3,364,600 via Zebra 5.0.0 — which introduced a corrected circuit and a new verifying key, patching the flaw and re-enabling Orchard transactions, per the Foundation.

The market’s initial reaction to the hard fork was positive. ZEC rose from $544 on June 2 to $603 on June 3, continuing to $624 on June 4 — its highest level since the rally began. Then Arthur Hayes publicly disclosed he had exited his entire ZEC position intraday on June 4 — the same day as the peak — citing five macro factors including higher energy prices and upcoming AI IPOs, per his X post covered in prior reporting. The combination of Hayes’ exit and lingering uncertainty about whether exploitation had occurred before the patch sent ZEC to $309 on June 5.

The Recovery And What It Means Swihart’s June 7 X post — reassuring the community that total ZEC supply remained intact throughout and that the network had passed through the emergency without confirmed exploitation — appears to have been the catalyst for the recovery now underway. The swift two-phase response, combined with the Foundation’s transparent disclosure and Swihart’s direct communication, provided the confidence signal the market needed.

This development marks a pivotal and genuinely uncomfortable moment for Zcash’s long-term positioning in the nascent sector. A four-year-old vulnerability in the Orchard pool — the very component that defines ZEC’s core privacy value proposition — has been fixed cleanly and without confirmed exploitation.

But the structural irony that the privacy properties that make Zcash valuable also make it impossible to confirm the vulnerability was never used will remain a question mark the community will need to address as the recovery continues.

As of this writing, ZEC trades at around $430, recovering from its June 5 lows as confidence in the network’s security response gradually rebuilds.

Cover image from Grok, ZECUSD Chart from Tradingview

Ethereum Glamsterdam Upgrade Moves Toward 200M Gas Limit Roadmap

TL;DR Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade work is moving through devnet planning ahead of a projected H2 2026 mainnet window. EIP-7732, or enshrined proposer-builder separation, is one of the key pieces being tracked by developers. EIP-7928, covering block-level access lists, is another major component tied to parallel execution and higher throughput. The headline target is a path toward a much higher gas limit, but the exact mainnet package remains subject to Ethereum’s normal testing and governance process. Glamsterdam Moves Into Focus Ethereum’s next major upgrade cycle is now turning toward Glamsterdam, a protocol package expected to define the network’s post-Pectra scaling and block-production roadmap. The upgrade is being watched closely because it touches two of Ethereum’s biggest long-running constraints: who builds blocks, and how much execution capacity the base layer can safely support.

Developer materials and EIP discussions point to enshrined proposer-builder separation and block-level access lists as two of the most important items in the Glamsterdam conversation. Together, they help frame a longer-term path toward higher throughput without simply asking every node operator to absorb more load without structural changes.

What ePBS Tries To Fix EIP-7732, commonly described as enshrined proposer-builder separation, would move part of the current external block-building market into Ethereum’s protocol design. Today, block construction often depends on external relay infrastructure and specialized actors. That system has helped the network manage maximum extractable value, but it has also raised concerns about centralization and censorship pressure.

By bringing proposer-builder separation closer to the protocol layer, Ethereum developers are trying to reduce reliance on off-protocol arrangements and create a cleaner separation between validators proposing blocks and builders assembling them. It is a technical change, but it also speaks directly to Ethereum’s decentralization goals.

Why Block-Level Access Lists Matter EIP-7928, covering block-level access lists, is aimed at making execution more predictable by identifying state access patterns at the block level. In plain English, validators and clients could get better information about what a block needs to touch before processing it. That matters because parallel execution is difficult when the system does not know which transactions are likely to conflict.

If block-level access lists work as intended, they could help Ethereum process more activity without turning every block into a heavier, less predictable burden for nodes. That is why the proposal is often discussed alongside higher gas-limit targets and broader L1 scaling.

A 200M Gas Limit Is The Big Headline The most attention-grabbing part of the Glamsterdam narrative is the potential path toward a 200 million gas limit. That would be a major increase from today’s base-layer capacity and would represent a very different Ethereum L1 if it can be achieved safely. But the wording matters: this is a roadmap and testing target, not a guarantee that every detail is locked for mainnet exactly as discussed in current devnet materials.

Ethereum upgrades usually move through a long process of specification, client implementation, devnets, testnets and final coordination. That process is slow by design. Glamsterdam is important because it shows the network is still trying to scale the base layer itself, not only pushing activity to rollups. The risk is that aggressive capacity increases without careful client and node work could weaken the decentralization properties Ethereum is trying to protect.

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

Manifold Finance's FOLD token crashes to 64 cents from a $87 peak amid product disappointment.Founder Sam Bacha goes quiet, responds to concerns with memes and jokes.Once-promising startup raised $2.5 million from VCs before downward spiral.Manifold Finance, a onetime buzzy crypto project, has plunged into turmoil.

Its erratic founder is unreachable, the price of its token is plummeting, and frustrated supporters are pleading for updates.

Manifold’s token, FOLD, hit an all-time low of 64 cents on November 8 — 98% off its 2022 peak of $87 — even as crypto markets surged on the election of Donald Trump as the US president.

Fold’s worth peaked at more than $87, and it was trading above $30 as recently as April. In 2022, the venture’s market value topped $128 million. Now it’s only $2 million.

Disappointing responseThe token has crashed amid a disappointing response to Manifold’s year-old liquid staking product, which was meant to compete with the likes of crypto giants Lido and Rocket Pool.

It has also suffered as a prominent backer stopped providing liquidity for the token on decentralised exchange SushiSwap earlier this year.

Meanwhile, founder Sam Bacha has not provided regular updates on a forthcoming product meant to reverse Manifold’s declining fortunes. Self-imposed deadlines have come and gone.

Bacha has occasionally commented in a 2,500-person Telegram chat without offering any explanation as to his whereabouts or Manifold’s progress, instead cracking jokes and sharing irrelevant memes, infuriating some supporters.

Lost supportEven one of Manifold’s most prominent investors, crypto influencer Jordan Fish, better known as Cobie, said in the group Telegram chat that he has lost faith in the company.

“I invested in it in 2021, and at the top, it was worth like $5m and now it’s worth 0,” Fish told DL News. “I don’t know what to tell you, yeah, seems like it failed, crypto investments are risky, maybe I should’ve sold the top, it is what it is.”

‘When did you last talk to Sam? He still alive?’

—  Supporter on TelegramPhilipp Zahn, a co-founder of Manifold partner 20squares, declined to comment to DL News, but called the company a “former client.”

Bacha and Alexander Bradley, Manifold employee, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Manifold isn’t Bacha’s first project to go sideways.

His last crypto startup, Block Array, appears to be defunct, and has been dogged by allegations of fraud. What’s more, this isn’t the first time he’s gone weeks without providing the status updates that are de rigueur in the crypto industry.

But with the collapse of Manifold’s token and supporters’ anger boiling over, Bacha’s behaviour has taken a more ominous tone.

It’s the latest example of the pitfalls that come with crypto’s freewheeling culture.

Past troubleBacha graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2013, according to his LinkedIn account, which noted he had stints at AT&T and Amazon before founding his first blockchain-based startup in 2017.

Block Array’s website and white paper were inaccessible on Friday. The X account for its Freight Trust product has been suspended. Freight Trust’s token, EDI, is seldom traded and, despite a total supply of 600 million, had no market value Friday, according to Etherscan. Block Array’s token, ARY, is also worthless, according to Etherscan.

Malicious botsManifold was founded in 2021 to help crypto traders avoid front-running from malicious bots. It raised $2.5 million from P2P.org, Marshland Capital, and several other venture investors.

A version of that anti-front running software was developed for SushiSwap, a decentralised crypto exchange.

But it was quickly shelved due to software bugs. SushiSwap declined to integrate a retooled version of the software, opting to pursue development of an in-house version instead.

After forays into other crypto middleware, Manifold eventually pivoted to liquid staking, a multibillion-dollar business long dominated by DeFi giant Lido.

But Manifold’s liquid staking token, mevETH, saw little uptake after its launch a year ago; the market value peaked at $36 million in March.

Certain transactionsSince then, it has been working in collaboration with German research firm 20squares on a new product, XGA.

XGA is meant to ensure prompt confirmation of certain transactions, which sometimes wallow on Ethereum when a user doesn’t pay a sufficient fee.

Manifold investors held out hope XGA would lift the company from its doldrums. Without warning, however, Bacha stopped providing regular updates on his company’s work.

‘Where were you for the last 30 days? Why not a single reply here in the channel?’

—  Supporter in Telegram channelCrypto security firm KebabSec had started an audit of XGA’s code, Bacha said in a September 2 update shared in the Telegram group chat. It is unclear whether that audit has been completed.

Bacha also said Manifold would begin testing XGA on an Ethereum-based test network September 17. A revamp of FOLD’s so-called tokenomics would be detailed by the end of that month, he added.

None of that appears to have happened.

“When did you last talk to Sam? He still alive?” one supporter asked in the Telegram chat on October 28.

Later that day, Bacha broke his silence to ask for feedback on Manifold’s revamped website. And he promised he would promptly share more information.

“I will post the long awaited update today comrades,” he wrote.

That update never came.

Dim moodOn October 30, Bacha took to Manifold’s seldom-used governance forum to propose the Manifold community move its conversation to social media app Discord.

The proposal was panned by supporters, who said that was the least of their concerns.

“Where were you for the last 30 days? Why not a single reply here in the channel? The mood is pretty dim,” one wrote.

“I was being vetted to become Trump’s new Crypto Czar,” Bacha replied in an apparent joke.

Missed deadlinesIn a subsequent message, he took aim at supporters who had accused him of blowing past self-imposed deadlines.

“Deadlines proclaimed by me in Telegram do not constitute any sort of binding agreement,” he wrote.

After the November 5 election, Bacha returned to the chat to share a meme derived from the film “Superman II” in which a supervillain commands, “Kneel before Zod!”

Supporters fear the worst.

“We don’t know if Sam is even coding. We don’t even know if there’s anything happening,” one wrote.

Two possibilitiesThere were two possibilities, the commenter continued: either the company was about to fold and “they don’t know how to tell us,” or “they’re working tirelessly” to release XGA.

On November 11, Matthew Land, a partner at Marshland Capital, an investor Manifold, said in a separate Telegram channel he had spoken with Bacha over the preceding weekend.

Land declined to comment when contacted by DL News Friday.

In his Telegram message, Land said he had told Bacha of “the importance of communication” and of resolving FOLD’s liquidity issue.

“As I said before, ball’s in Sam’s court and on Sam’s timeline,” Land said.

“He understands what’s up imo but we have no impact on his decisions/timeline to address them unfortunately.”

Correction, November 15: A previous version of this story stated that Matthew Land spoke to Sam Bacha about FOLD’s price. It has been corrected to state they spoke about FOLD’s liquidity issues. This story was also updated to note that Land declined to comment.

Aleks Gilbert is a DeFi correspondent based in New York. Have a tip? Contact him at [email protected].

2026.04.20 09:49:47

Saturday, April 20 — The LayerZero cross-chain bridge for rsETH (a liquidity re-staking token from Kelp DAO) was hacked, marking the largest DeFi hack of 2026 to date. The attacker forged LayerZero cross-chain messages to withdraw 116,500 rsETH directly from the bridge contract, then deposited the tokens into Aave and other lending platforms to borrow WETH—creating significant uncollateralized bad debt risk. Below is a roundup of responses from major DeFi protocols to the rsETH hack: Aave has shared an update on the rsETH incident: rsETH on the Ethereum mainnet is fully collateralized. The token remains frozen on Aave V3 and V4, while WETH reserves are frozen in affected markets including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, and Linea. Aave is actively verifying details and evaluating potential resolutions. Ethena has officially extended the suspension period for its LayerZero OFT cross-chain bridge. Additionally, the protocol released updated reserve proofs confirming its USDe stablecoin maintains a collateralization ratio above 100%. LayerZero stated it has fully grasped the rsETH vulnerability and has been collaborating with the Kelp DAO team on fixes since the hack occurred, while continuously monitoring the situation. All other applications remain secure, and the protocol will publish a comprehensive post-incident analysis report alongside Kelp DAO once all relevant information is compiled. Fluid announced the launch of its aWETH redemption protocol, which enables ETH borrowers to: redeem for wstETH or weETH (restoring liquidity immediately and reducing liquidation risk); redeem in full if they only borrowed ETH; or seamlessly convert ETH collateral to wstETH/weETH while keeping other debts intact. The protocol’s initial capacity is capped at $1 billion worth of ETH. Morpho has temporarily suspended its MORPHO LayerZero OFT cross-chain bridge on Arbitrum until the root cause of the rsETH incident is identified. The protocol noted its smart contracts are secure and operating normally; risk exposure is limited (only ~$1 million worth of ETH was borrowed using rsETH as collateral, spread across two isolated markets out of thousands total). Thanks to Morpho’s fully isolated market design, all other vaults remain unaffected. Curve Finance announced it has suspended its LayerZero infrastructure, impacting: CRV bridging from BNB, Sonic, Avalanche, Fantom, Etherlink, and Kava (bridging from other chains still uses native bridges); and crvUSD quick bridging (L2 slow bridging remains operational). Reserve issued an official update: Its DTF holders are unlikely to be affected. RSR stakers in the Reserve Protocol’s USD3 and eUSD may qualify for "first-loss capital" protection, though the impact is minimal and RSR’s overcollateralization is sufficient to cover any potential losses. ETH+ and bsdETH contain no rsETH collateral, making them zero-risk. As a precaution, Reserve has temporarily paused minting, rebalancing, and RSR unstaking for eUSD and USD3—redemption functionality remains operational. Maple Finance stated all USDT provided on Aave Mantle using syrupUSDT has been withdrawn. Its syrupUSDC and syrupUSDT products are not impacted by the rsETH exploit. Polygon has been actively monitoring the rsETH exploit. The Polygon chain, Agglayer, and entire ecosystem (including Katana and Vaultbridge) have not been impacted by the incident. EtherFi announced its protocol’s liquidity pool remains unaffected by the Kelp rsETH exploit, and pool users will not suffer any fund losses. Hyperliquid’s DeFi project Hyperwave announced it has temporarily suspended all LayerZero bridging of Hyperwave assets as a precautionary measure.

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Posted: September 15, 2019

AirSwap reported that their development team had detected a ‘critical vulnerability’ in a recently launched AirSwap smart contract. According to a blog released on medium, AirSwap, a decentralized token-trading platform built on the Ethereum blockchain, revealed that on 12th September, the internal security review team recognized a major flaw in the mainnet of the smart contract.

The vulnerability would have allowed any hacker to perform a swap with another party without requiring their signature. It was stated that the tainted code was active in the system for less than 24 hours and only a few addresses were affected. The article stated,

“When the issue was detected, the team immediately rolled back AirSwap Instant to use the original smart contracts. Both the AirSwap Instant and Trader products are no longer affected by the vulnerability.”

The AirSwap team also carried out a few remediations after the vulnerability was reported. Dev team initiated identification of affected users and started the process of de-risking [process of protecting user asset without alerting the network]. All vulnerable components were removed from the production AirSwap UI and from all related tools.

AirSwap released a statement of apology and remarked,

“We would like to deeply apologize to our affected users for any inconvenience these vulnerabilities may have caused, and hope that the important lessons we continue to learn throughout these processes form the basis for a more open, secure, and efficient trading environment.”

Posted: October 1, 2019

Dubbed by many the fastest growing Ponzi scheme on Ethereum, the smart contract FairWin has emptied its account, according to data from Etherscan. Just a few days ago, the account possessed almost 50,000 ETH (~$9 million).

While the nature of the withdrawal has not been confirmed, the total volume of withdrawing addresses suggests that concerned users had taken their funds out after multiple crypto-users on social media speculated that the smart contract was actually a Ponzi scheme. 

It is unclear whether the contract was drained by its owner, some malicious actors or concerned users, but the multitude of withdrawing addresses suggests the latter.

According to Horizon Games’ Blockchain Researcher & Developer Philippe Castonguay, the “scheme” contains critical vulnerabilities which put the funds at risk.

The https://t.co/1HHnXNCWsL Ponzi Scheme contains critical vulnerabilities that put all funds at risk.

Spread knowledge (especially in Asia) ? Users need to withdraw their funds and stop interacting with the contract ASAP.

Details on the exploits will be published soon.

— Philippe Castonguay (@PhABCD) September 27, 2019

Later, Castonguay expanded on the details of the three main vulnerabilities he’d discovered on the Ethereum smart contract. One allowed the owner or administrator to drain the account and another allowed the admin to lock withdrawals. The third vulnerability allowed anyone to steal the deposits.

CTO of Kleros, Clement Lesaege, also posted a detailed explanation concerning the vulnerabilities on Reddit.

After the vulnerabilities were publicly announced, FairWin’s team responded to Lesaege by stating,

“Thank you for your suggestion. We have already found the vulnerability, but we don’t think it is a vulnerability. The contract is judged and the invitation code generated by the user for the first time will be used as the final invitation code. So the loophole is invalid.

In addition, we have real-time monitoring on our side. Once it is entered, it will be invalid. The intruder, we will alert at the first time, and then exclude the intruder.”

According to Castonguay’s more detailed blog post on the matter, there is no evidence to say that the funds were withdrawn by malicious attackers. The last successful withdrawal took place yesterday at around 9.21pm +UTC.

Ahmed Barakat

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Ahmed Balaha 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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June 22, 2026

A tax proposal posted to the Ethereum Research forum by Kleros founder Clément Lesaege would let ETH validators vote to redirect up to 10% of staking rewards to public goods funding. If a majority of validators signal above zero, that rate becomes mandatory for every validator on the network, including those who voted for none.

For Bitmine (BMNR), which has staked 4.72 million ETH through its MAVAN platform and projects $258 million in annual net staking revenue, the exposure range is $50–100 million in lost income per year.

Ethereum Validators Face 10% Staking Reward Redirect Plan for Ecosystem Funding

A new proposal on Ethereum's $ETH research forum wants validators to redirect up to 10% of their staking rewards toward ecosystem funding. If a majority signals support, the contribution becomes… pic.twitter.com/16PgRfEBd5

— BSCN (@BSCNews) June 22, 2026 That figure is not speculative padding. It represents the direct arithmetic of applying a forced yield reduction to the single largest ETH staking position held by any public company. The proposal is still a forum post, not an EIP. That distinction matters – but so does the direction of travel.

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The ETH Validator Redirected Revenue Tax ProposalLesaege’s post, titled “Validator Redirected Revenue,” frames the mechanism as a solution to a coordination failure. According to his ETH tax proposal, Ethereum’s shared infrastructure generates value for everyone but is funded by no one in a structured, protocol-level way.

His proposed fix is a signaling system embedded in the consensus layer. Each validator declares a preferred redirect rate between 0% and 10% of their staking rewards. If more than 50% of total staked ETH signals are above zero, a single rate is selected and applied universally.

Ethereum ResearchNow, a validator that voted for 0% redirection does not retain its full yield if the majority crosses the threshold, as it gets swept into the mandatory rate alongside everyone else. Funds flow automatically to an allocation smart contract, with a splitter routing capital to designated recipients such as Gitcoin, Octant, and audit organizations.

Lesaege explicitly described the post as a conversation-starter: “We seek further feedback before working on a technical implementation to put forth as an Ethereum Improvement Proposal.” As of now, no EIP number has been assigned.

A parallel mechanism called Validator Revenue Redistribution (VRR), presented by Ethereum Foundation researcher Devansh Mehta at EthCC, provides the technical plumbing layer. Mehta described the threshold dynamically, “If 51% put their flag up, all 100% of stakers have to part with a portion of their rewards.”

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Bitmine’s MAVAN Platform: The $258M Revenue Thesis Exposed to Protocol GovernanceBitmine’s May 8-K reported 4,718,677 ETH staked via MAVAN, or 87% of its 5.42 million ETH total holdings and 4.49% of total ETH supply. The 7-day annualized yield at that date was 2.73%, against a CESR benchmark of 2.81–2.84%. At full deployment, Bitmine projects $296 million in gross staking rewards and $258 million in net staking revenues annually.

Photo by Brett Sayles on PexelsThe math for a protocol-level redirect is straightforward. Each 1 percentage point reduction in effective annual yield on 4.72 million ETH costs approximately $94 million per year in gross rewards at an ETH price around $2,000.

However, a 10% redirect of the current 2.73% yield diverts 0.27 percentage points, translating to $25 million per year flowing away from BMNR’s validators. At this rate alone, the direct hit is meaningful but not existential.

The $50–100 million exposure range reflects a wider scenario set. If the mandatory redirect rate compounds with any secondary compression in overall validator economics like reduced participation incentives, institutional validators exiting to restaking or L2 yield strategies, or ETH price movement, the effective yield impact on 4.72 million ETH staked.

Staking revenue is not a secondary income line for Bitmine. It constituted more than 93% of quarterly revenue in Q2 FY2026, and the company declared a $0.01 annual dividend in January 2026. Bitmine is the first large-cap crypto company to do so, funded directly by staking income.

A material yield cut would pressure that commitment in a way that no operational decision by management can offset. The ETH validator tax is not a cost Bitmine can engineer around; it is a protocol-level deduction from the asset class itself.

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