Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

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Institutional capital isn’t waiting for regulatory perfection. For five trading sessions in a row, U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have absorbed fresh inflows, with Thursday’s total reaching $98.85 million, according to data from SoSoValue. The streak, the longest since mid-July, signals that professional allocators are quietly adding BTC exposure even as Washington debates the future of digital asset legislation.

Spot Ether ETFs didn’t miss the move. They pulled in $49.60 million on the same day, extending their own inflow run to four trading days. The parallel buying suggests the momentum is not isolated to Bitcoin but reflects a broader institutional tilt toward regulated crypto products. While the dollar amounts are modest compared to the blockbuster inflows seen earlier this year, the consistency carries weight at a moment when many have been questioning whether ETF demand had stalled.

A Quiet but Steady Institutional Pulse Daily ETF flow data has become a real-time sentiment gauge for institutional crypto positioning. After a choppy July marred by outflows and macroeconomic jitters, the consecutive inflows indicate that some large players are rebuilding positions. Traders often treat persistent ETF buying as a proxy for conviction, especially when it spans both BTC and ETH products in parallel.

The timing is notable. The Ethereum ecosystem, for instance, remains the most active blockchain by developer count, underpinning the narrative that ETH’s utility supports long-term demand. Meanwhile, networks like Sui are seeing their own institutional traction: an 18% price surge this year was driven in part by institutional staking and a major fintech partnership, as covered in a recent price analysis. These signals suggest that crypto’s institutional chapter is not limited to ETF vehicles alone, but flows into the spot funds remain the cleanest daily pulse check.

Regulatory Uncertainty Still Casts a Shadow Yet the inflows are not happening in a vacuum. Four days before a Senate vote, a landmark crypto bill is facing an eleventh-hour challenge from the banking industry, as noted in a detailed report on the legislation’s fate. The outcome could reshape how custodians, exchanges, and ETF issuers operate in the U.S. market. It’s exactly the kind of policy drama that has historically prompted institutional investors to pause. So far, ETF flows haven’t blinked.

That detachment could mean two things. Either institutional buyers are betting the bill will pass largely intact, or they are simply pricing in a regulatory trajectory that won’t derail the ETF wrapper itself. The latter seems more plausible given that spot Bitcoin ETFs already survived a prolonged SEC battle and have since become a fixture in many portfolios. Ether ETF approval, though more recent, cemented the product class.

What the Flows Signal, and What They Don’t The five-day streak is a positive data point, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Trading volumes in the spot ETFs have been somewhat subdued relative to the first quarter, and the inflows are still far from the billion-dollar days that defined the initial launch frenzy. It’s a steady accumulation phase, not a speculative surge.

The $98.85 million figure, while respectable, is also small enough to be driven by a handful of large allocators rather than broad retail participation. That makes the streak fragile. A single negative macro print or an unexpected regulatory setback could flip flows back to outflows within a day. Still, the pattern of inflows into both Bitcoin and Ether products suggests that institutional conviction is deeper than short-term price action might imply.

As August progresses, market watchers will be looking to see whether the streak can extend through a full week, a threshold that could shift framing from “tactical rebound” to “renewed accumulation.” The macro backdrop—interest rate expectations, dollar strength, and equity market sentiment—remains the wild card. But for now, the inflow data offers a quiet counter-narrative to the regulatory noise: money is still moving in.

AUTHOR

Brenda is a writer with three years of experience specializing in cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. She graduated from the University of Mombasa with a degree in Psychology. She has worked at Cryptopolitan and Blockchain Reporter.

Ethereum remained stable above the $1,900 mark, consolidating between $1,910 and $1,918 in recent sessions. Following a steady climb over the past week, the digital asset preserved its position above the key psychological level, supported by consistent demand and positive market sentiment.

Key technical milestones and investor sentimentThroughout early August, buyers repeatedly defended the $1,840 to $1,850 range, preventing any sustained downward move. Over the last seven days, ETH advanced over 4%, and managed to remain above pivotal moving averages. Specifically, Ethereum now trades above its 20-day moving average at $1,895, its 50-day MA at $1,796, and its 100-day MA at $1,911, though it remains under the 200-day MA situated at $2,061.

Market indicators point to continued bullish momentum. The daily Bull Bear Power index moved into positive territory at 32.07, suggesting a moderate advantage for buyers. The 4-hour Relative Strength Index currently measures 61.74—comfortably above its own signal line, although still below the 70 level that would indicate overbought conditions. Technical observers have identified $2,000 as the primary area of resistance in the near term, with $1,900 marking a key dividing line for trader sentiment.

Market analyst Ted Pillows addressed Ethereum’s recent performance, commenting that spot ETH ETFs collectively accumulated $244.94 million this week—representing the strongest net inflows over the past four months. He noted that despite delays in Clarity Act proceedings, Ethereum remains on solid footing.

The analyst argued that as long as ETH holds its position above $1,900, the market could see a renewed push toward the $2,000 level.

ETF inflows and macroeconomic impactSpot Ethereum ETFs in the United States reported net inflows of $92.15 million on August 6 alone. BlackRock’s ETHA product was the largest contributor, bringing in $50.34 million in a single session. Overall, cumulative net inflows into US-based spot ETH ETFs have exceeded $11.4 billion, underlining robust institutional demand.

Fueling this sentiment, US employment data released on Friday amplified risk appetite in the broader financial markets. The US economy shed 23,000 jobs in July, in sharp contrast to forecasts suggesting an increase of around 80,000. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.1%, beating expectations. These figures have lowered the chances of an additional Federal Reserve rate increase, with futures markets now pricing in about a 56% chance that policymakers will hold rates steady at the next meeting.

Observers noted that disappointing job numbers have softened the outlook for further tightening, which has lent support to risk assets, including cryptocurrencies such as ETH.

Ethereum’s position above multiple key technical levels and continued strong ETF inflows suggest that the asset remains in a favorable environment, especially as macroeconomic conditions reduce the likelihood of stricter monetary policy.

As market participants monitor short-term resistance at $2,000, new solutions continue to remove traditional barriers between asset classes. 1stepSwap stands out with its ability to transfer real-world assets directly onto blockchain, allowing direct access to leading US equities and major commodities like gold and silver through users’ own wallets, without added intermediaries. The platform’s core advantage lies in aggregating market data to source the best prices within seconds, enabling fast transactions and allowing investors to diversify portfolios efficiently.

Liquidation data and future outlookAccording to the latest three-day liquidation heatmap, leveraged positions are concentrated near $1,925, with heavier clusters between $1,945 and $1,955. Persistent upward momentum in ETH could lead to forced liquidation of short positions if price action breaches these levels, possibly accelerating movement toward $1,950.

At the close of Friday’s session, Ethereum settled just below the $1,920 mark, with the $1,900 threshold serving as critical near-term support and $2,000 representing the next technical hurdle. Analyst Michaël van de Poppe has indicated that ETH may outperform Bitcoin should BTC maintain its positive trajectory, with a longer-term ETH target of around $2,400—conditional on a clear break above both $2,000 and the 200-day moving average.

Observers widely agree that near-term momentum hinges on ETH’s ability to sustain its price above $1,900. Price action around $2,000 will be closely watched as a signal for the next stage of the trend.

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

Two of the largest proof-of-stake networks are simultaneously reconsidering how many tokens they print, and the proposed changes aren’t cosmetic. Galaxy Research published an analysis on August 7 outlining how Ethereum’s EIP-8361 and Solana’s SIMD-0550 and SIMD-0553 could meaningfully alter the economic architecture of both chains.

Ethereum’s plan: burn validator rewards based on how much ETH is staked EIP-8361 introduces a mechanism that scales validator reward burns according to the total percentage of ETH staked on the network. If 50% of ETH ends up staked, the proposal would allow up to 100% of validator rewards to be burned.

The practical impact on stakers would be significant. Current consensus-layer yields sit at roughly 2.6%. Under EIP-8361, those yields could decline to approximately 1.2%, effectively halving what validators earn for securing the network.

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The changes would phase in over an 18-month period following inclusion in a future network upgrade. The target timeline places it after the Glamsterdam upgrade, which is expected in fall 2026, meaning the full effects of EIP-8361 likely wouldn’t materialize until 2028.

Solana’s double play: faster disinflation and resource-based burns Solana is attacking the supply question from two angles simultaneously. The first proposal, SIMD-0550, targets the network’s inflation schedule directly. Currently, Solana’s annual disinflation rate sits at 15%, meaning the rate at which new SOL enters circulation decreases by 15% each year. SIMD-0550 would double that to 30%.

The practical consequence: Solana’s inflation would hit its terminal floor by 2029 instead of 2032, shaving three years off the timeline. Galaxy Research estimates this would reduce future SOL emissions by roughly 18.9 million tokens.

The second proposal, SIMD-0553, would overhaul Solana’s fee structure by shifting from flat transaction fees to resource-based pricing. Daily SOL burns currently sit around 650 tokens. Under SIMD-0553, that figure could jump to between 7,500 and 9,000 SOL per day, roughly a 12x to 14x increase in the rate at which SOL gets permanently removed from circulation.

Both proposals have cleared an important governance hurdle, securing the 15% active stake support required to advance into formal discussions and a subsequent voting window. This represents one of the first significant tests of Solana’s on-chain governance system.

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

11h05 ▪ 5 min read ▪ by Luc Jose A.

Summarize this article with:

Institutional capital continues to flow into cryptos despite volatility that keeps retail investors on the defensive. On Thursday, ETFs backed by bitcoin and Ether recorded more than $220 million in net flows, confirming the intact appetite of traditional finance for these assets. Once again, BlackRock concentrates the bulk of subscriptions and strengthens its role as the main driver of this momentum in the crypto ETF market.

In brief More than $220 million jointly injected into Bitcoin and Ether ETFs during Thursday’s session. A fourth consecutive day of net inflows (+$128.69 million), bringing the four-session total to $755 million. The IBIT fund crushes the competition on Bitcoin with +$128.33 million, while ETHA largely dominates Ether (+$81.14 million). Despite falling prices, the number of shares outstanding remains stable, reflecting a long-term accumulation strategy rather than immediate speculation. Bitcoin ETF : a fourth consecutive day of gains driven by BlackRock The Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net inflow of $128.69 million across six distinct vehicles, extending the current positive streak to four consecutive sessions for a total of $755 million. Once again, the capital allocation among the various funds shows a marked disparity :

BlackRock (IBIT) : a dominating presence with +$128.33 million captured alone ; Morgan Stanley (MSBT) : an additional inflow of +$14.94 million ; Fidelity (FBTC) : a positive flow of +$11.20 million ; Grayscale : an inflow of +$7.48 million on GBTC and +$6.83 million on the Bitcoin Mini Trust ; Bitwise (BITB) : a modest subscription of +$1.75 million ; VanEck (HODL) & Valkyrie (BRRR) : capital outflows of -$32.77 million for VanEck and -$9.07 million for Valkyrie. Despite these conflicting reallocations among managers, overall activity remained particularly strong in the spot derivatives secondary market. The total daily trading volume for all Bitcoin ETFs reached $1.36 billion on Thursday, while the combined net assets under management closed at $78.77 billion.

Thus, the massive concentration of volumes towards IBIT confirms BlackRock’s dominant position as the primary access channel for institutional investors. These figures reflect the persistence of a solid working capital demand among major players, maintaining a regular liquidity floor despite sometimes hesitant short-term price fluctuations.

The Ether surge and selective altcoin momentum On the side of the market’s second-largest asset, the trajectory was even more explicit with a total net subscription of $92.15 million spread across five funds, with no Ether ETF recording any capital outflow during the session. BlackRock’s ETHA product also dominated by collecting $81.14 million. The remaining amounts were subscribed through Grayscale’s Ether Mini Trust fund at $4.55 million, its historic ETHE fund for $3.07 million, BlackRock’s ETHB vehicle for $1.96 million, and Fidelity’s FETH for $1.42 million. With a traded volume of $435.46 million and net assets reaching $10.64 billion for Ether ETFs, this segment confirms a significant resurgence.

By contrast, the landscape was much more mixed regarding other cryptos. XRP-backed ETFs returned to positive territory thanks to an injection of $3.45 million, mostly driven by Bitwise’s fund at $2.89 million and Franklin Templeton’s (XRPZ) at about $562,000, bringing the sector’s net assets to $964.21 million.

The HYPE ETFs continued their recovery trajectory by attracting $2.84 million via Bitwise’s BHYP product, raising the daily volume to $5.10 million and net assets to $265.04 million. Conversely, Solana ETFs took an opposite course, with Fidelity’s FSOL fund registering a net outflow of $859,450, leaving total combined net assets at $857.24 million.

Lawrence Lepard’s insight on holder maturity Beyond daily cash flows, the ownership structure of these vehicles offers a fundamental reading grid on institutional investor attitudes toward price fluctuations. Commenting on the firmness of subscribers amid recent volatility, Austrian economist and investment manager Lawrence Lepard highlighted the remarkable stability of shares held: “although the value of Bitcoin ETFs has dropped significantly from its peak, the total number of shares outstanding has decreased by a much smaller proportion, indicating very limited net sales from holders”.

This observation reveals a marked divergence between spot market volatility and the long-term commitment of ETF holders. As asset management giants centralize most incoming flows, asset data indicate that a significant fraction of institutional investors view these vehicles as strategic allocation instruments rather than mere short-term speculation tools.

While this financial foundation provides valuable structural support to the ecosystem, it also raises questions about capital concentration in the hands of a limited number of financial conglomerates. Upcoming regulatory developments and evolving demand in altcoin-specific derivatives products will determine whether this selective appetite extends to the broader market or continues to primarily benefit the sector leaders.

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Luc Jose A.

Diplômé de Sciences Po Toulouse et titulaire d'une certification consultant blockchain délivrée par Alyra, j'ai rejoint l'aventure Cointribune en 2019. Convaincu du potentiel de la blockchain pour transformer de nombreux secteurs de l'économie, j'ai pris l'engagement de sensibiliser et d'informer le grand public sur cet écosystème en constante évolution. Mon objectif est de permettre à chacun de mieux comprendre la blockchain et de saisir les opportunités qu'elle offre. Je m'efforce chaque jour de fournir une analyse objective de l'actualité, de décrypter les tendances du marché, de relayer les dernières innovations technologiques et de mettre en perspective les enjeux économiques et sociétaux de cette révolution en marche.

DISCLAIMER

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.

The Lawsuit and Asset Freeze@Bybit_Official has filed a civil lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against North Korea, its Reconnaissance General Bureau, and the Lazarus Group. The action stems from the February 21, 2025 theft of approximately $1.5 billion in $ETH — over 400,000 ETH and stETH stolen from the Dubai-based exchange in what remains the largest cryptocurrency heist on record.

In addition to the lawsuit, Bybit said it won a preliminary injunction freezing certain stolen assets held by a group of unidentified individuals and entities, named in the case as John Doe defendants. The freeze order prevents those parties from transferring or selling the identified assets while litigation continues, giving the civil action real on-chain consequence even as enforcement against a sovereign state remains a longer road.

How the Attack UnfoldedDuring a scheduled transfer from a cold to a hot wallet, the hackers intercepted and rerouted funds to addresses they controlled, quickly converting the loot into Bitcoin and other assets and dispersing them across thousands of blockchain addresses to obscure their trail. The Lazarus Group managed to manipulate the Safe user interface used for Bybit transactions. By injecting malicious JavaScript into the UI, they created the illusion of a legitimate transaction, allowing the attackers to bypass security protocols and facilitate the unauthorized transfer of funds.

The Bybit hack made up the bulk of the $2.02 billion in crypto stolen by North Korea in 2025. In total, North Korean hackers have stolen $6.75 billion worth of crypto, according to data from Chainalysis, with the country widely believed to use stolen funds to finance its weapons program.

CEO @benbybit framed the lawsuit as part of a broader accountability push. "The Lazarus attack wasn't just an attack on Bybit. It was an attack on trust in our industry," he said, adding that Bybit has worked closely with investigators, exchanges, regulators, law enforcement, and now the courts. The civil action is being pursued independently of ongoing criminal investigations.

Sources:
CoinDesk: Bybit Sues North Korea and Lazarus Group, Secures Asset Freeze
FBI IC3: North Korea Responsible for $1.5 Billion Bybit Hack
American Banker: How North Korean Hackers Stole $1.5B in Ethereum from Bybit

A wave of sophisticated thefts has shaken the cryptocurrency community, exposing a critical flaw affecting the core security of widely used web and mobile wallets. Attackers leveraged a longstanding vulnerability in the CryptoJS JavaScript library to brute-force secret seed phrases, compromising user funds with alarming ease.

Flaw in CryptoJS exposes hundreds of walletsThe vulnerability, identified as “Ill Bloom,” has been linked to the theft of assets from over 2,100 wallet addresses on major blockchain networks including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Rootstock, and Polygon. Losses attributed to this exploit have now surpassed $5.7 million.

Normally, a standard 12-word seed phrase is designed to be virtually unbreakable, requiring computational timescales beyond the age of the universe to crack. However, CryptoJS library versions 3.x, specifically those starting with 3.1.2 except for 3.2.0 and 3.2.1, had a critical defect in their random number generation functions.

This bug caused the affected versions to produce only weak pseudo-randomness, drastically reducing the number of possible seed phrase combinations and making brute-force attacks feasible even on ordinary home computers.

Compounding the problem, CryptoJS was quietly embedded within hundreds of software packages. Wallet developers widely integrated it without awareness, inadvertently exposing users across many applications.

More than 2,100 wallet addresses across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Rootstock, and Polygon have fallen victim to Ill Bloom, with total losses above $5.7 million.

The first large-scale incident linked to Ill Bloom occurred on May 27, 2026, when attackers compromised 431 wallets in one day, siphoning off $3.14 million. Bitcoin investors suffered the greatest impact, losing $2.57 million. Ethereum, Rootstock, Tron, and Polygon users also faced significant losses, with values ranging from $23,000 to $286,000 across these networks.

Impacted wallets and user safeguardsBy August, applications confirmed as affected included RWallet (also known as RRWallet), Bexo Wallet, NanChat, Bitcoin Libre, and Milo Wallet. Some projects, notably Milo and RWallet, have ceased operations, leaving users with no dedicated support channels.

Developers of Bitcoin Libre responded by patching the bug in earlier releases. NanChat has issued a new security fix for its users, while an update for Bexo Wallet was still under review in app stores at the time of reporting.

Security researchers warn that updating wallet applications alone is not enough to safeguard user assets. Seed phrases created on versions affected by Ill Bloom remain fundamentally vulnerable, as their entropy was compromised from the start.

Specialists recommend that users review all public addresses potentially exposed, and if risk is detected, immediately transfer funds to freshly generated wallets. They urge the community to avoid storing substantial sums in browsers or mobile wallets whose keys were created with unsafe libraries.

For investors aiming to minimize risks and closely monitor their digital assets, leveraging advanced portfolio tools is vital. CryptoAppsy, for example, eliminates account setup complexity and brings together investments, real-time pricing, and multi-currency management on a single platform. By using features such as smart price alerts, coin-specific news filtering, instant tracking of new altcoins, and macroeconomic data like Fed interest rates, users can remain vigilant and ready to react to changes in market conditions.

Experts emphasize that if a wallet’s seed phrase originated from the defective CryptoJS versions, only migrating to a new wallet that generates fresh keys can restore full security.

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

A Trump-associated Ethereum wallet has reportedly transferred $100 million worth of ETH to Binance. The move, if confirmed, would represent one of the largest single transfers from a politically linked wallet to a centralized exchange in recent memory.

What the blockchain says Arkham Intelligence, the blockchain analytics firm that tracks wallets belonging to public figures and institutions, has been monitoring multiple Ethereum addresses associated with Trump and his decentralized finance venture, World Liberty Financial (WLFI). The firm has documented a range of transactions from these wallets, including purchases as large as $10 million in ETH and smaller transfers to exchanges like Coinbase for apparent liquidity purposes.

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What Arkham has not publicly confirmed, however, is a single $100 million ETH movement to Binance. Historically, Trump-linked wallet activity has consisted of more modest transfers to centralized exchanges, with larger sums typically tied to WLFI operations rather than direct exchange deposits.

The Trump crypto empire in context Financial disclosures from mid-2026 show the former president holding over $100 million in Bitcoin and more than $55 million in Ethereum. Those are personal holdings alone.

Then there’s WLFI, which has reportedly generated over $1.4 billion in crypto-related gains during certain reporting periods. Roughly 85-87% of USD1, the stablecoin associated with WLFI, is concentrated on Binance, suggesting that Binance isn’t just a trading venue for Trump-linked assets but the primary infrastructure partner.

Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao following his 2024 conviction, and Binance subsequently ramped up promotional support for WLFI products.

Why a $100M transfer to Binance would matter If a Trump-controlled wallet genuinely moved $100 million in ETH to Binance, the most straightforward interpretation would be preparation for a sale. There’s also the possibility that this is an operational transfer rather than a sell signal. WLFI could be moving funds to Binance for staking, lending, or as collateral for USD1 minting. Given how much of the USD1 ecosystem already lives on Binance, a large deposit to that platform doesn’t automatically mean someone is heading for the exit.

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

Circle has launched native USDC and its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol on OKX’s X Layer, expanding access to regulated dollar-based payments and DeFi applications.

Circle Brings Native USDC to OKX’s X Layer Circle announced that native USDC is now available on X Layer, an Ethereum-compatible layer-2 network developed by OKX. The integration allows developers, businesses, and applications on X Layer to use Circle-issued USDC without relying only on bridged versions.

Native USDC can support decentralized finance applications, payments, trading platforms, and other blockchain-based financial services. Circle said the integration also gives qualified businesses access to USDC issuance and redemption through Circle Mint.

X Layer supports Ethereum-based applications while offering lower fees and faster settlement. The network targets use cases across decentralized finance, payments, real-world asset tokenization, and artificial intelligence applications.

CCTP Enables Cross-Chain USDC Transfers The integration gives users access to CCTP for moving USDC across supported blockchain networks. Circle designed the protocol to transfer USDC between chains without relying on traditional wrapped versions of the stablecoin.

CCTP is now available across 26 blockchains, while native USDC is supported on 36 networks following the X Layer integration. The expansion allows developers to build applications that require access to USDC liquidity across multiple blockchain ecosystems.

X Layer will continue supporting bridged USDC from Ethereum. However, Circle and the X Layer ecosystem are encouraging users and applications to move toward native USDC over time.

USDC Targets DeFi, Payments and AI Applications Native USDC on X Layer also supports payment and financial applications within the network. Payment service providers, fintech companies, decentralized applications and AI agents can use the stablecoin for automated transactions and settlement.

The integration also connects with X Layer’s x402 ecosystem, which supports automated payments between AI agents and services. Developers can use USDC for payments involving application programming interfaces, digital services and other automated transactions.

Qualified businesses can also access USDC issuance and redemption through Circle Mint on X Layer. The service provides businesses with a direct route to use Circle’s stablecoin infrastructure for institutional settlement.

Circle has continued expanding its blockchain infrastructure alongside the X Layer launch. The company recently announced founding validators for its Arc blockchain, including BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, Mastercard, Visa, Standard Chartered and other financial and technology companies.

For more ways to spend digital dollars in the real world, investors can explore stablecoin debit cards supporting native USDC integrations.

Canaan has authorized management to sell part of its Bitcoin and Ethereum holdings to finance share repurchases under an existing $30 million program.

Summary

Canaan’s crypto treasury was worth about $130 million as of Aug. 3. The miner held 1,915 BTC and 3,952 ETH at the end of June. Canaan had spent $2 million on buybacks as of May 19. Its Nasdaq-listed shares must regain the $1 minimum bid price by Jan. 11, 2027. Canaan opens crypto treasury to fund buybacks Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin miner Canaan has authorized management to monetize part of its digital asset treasury and use the proceeds to repurchase its American depositary shares.

The purchases will fall under an existing program that allows Canaan to buy back up to $30 million of its ADSs or Class A ordinary shares during the 12 months beginning Dec. 12, 2025, according to the company’s Aug. 4 announcement.

Canaan did not disclose how much cryptocurrency it intends to sell or when any sales will occur. The company also did not commit to using the entire remaining authorization.

Canaan did not disclose how much cryptocurrency it intends to sell or when any sales will occur. The company also did not commit to using the entire remaining authorization.

Further transactions will depend on Canaan’s share price, broader market conditions, working capital requirements, and board approval. Repurchases may take place through open-market transactions, block trades, or privately negotiated deals.

As of May 19, Canaan had spent approximately $2 million to repurchase 2.8 million ADSs. This left a nominal $28 million under the authorization at the time, although the company has not disclosed whether it completed additional purchases before the latest announcement.

Crypto holdings reached $130 million Canaan held 1,915 BTC and 3,952 ETH at the end of June. The company valued the combined portfolio at approximately $130 million using market prices from Aug. 3.

Its Bitcoin balance increased by 49 BTC in June after accounting for operating costs and BTC received as payment for mining-machine sales. Canaan mined 64 BTC during the month.

Chairman and CEO Nangeng Zhang said the company’s mining operations provide a continuing source of Bitcoin that can be used as capital.

“At current trading levels, we believe Canaan’s market value does not fully reflect the value of our digital asset holdings, cash position, and the strength of our underlying business.”

Canaan said it was trading below the combined value of its cryptocurrency holdings and the cash and cash equivalents reported at the end of March. However, the comparison does not account for the company’s liabilities or restrictions affecting parts of its treasury.

At the end of March, Canaan held $43.5 million in cash. It also reported that 905 BTC had been pledged against secured term loans, while another 100 BTC had been transferred to a fixed-term product.

Mining efficiency improves as capacity stays idle The decision follows improvements in Canaan’s North American mining efficiency despite underused capacity.

Canaan achieved fleet efficiency of 17.9 joules per terahash across its North American non-joint venture operations in May. It marlet, an 11% improvement from the previous year and a roughly 4% gain from the 18.7 J/TH recorded in March and April.

Operating activity nevertheless remained below installed capacity. At the end of May, Canaan had 10.05 exahashes per second of installed non-joint venture capacity, while only 6.47 EH/s was operating after a hosting agreement expired.

By June, non-joint venture operating hashrate had fallen further to 3.36 EH/s. Joint venture operations recovered to 4.09 EH/s following wildfire-related disruption at facilities in West Texas.

Nasdaq compliance remains a risk Canaan’s ADSs were trading near $0.19 on Aug. 6, well below Nasdaq’s $1 minimum bid-price requirement. Each ADS represents 15 Class A ordinary shares.

Nasdaq granted the company an additional 180 days, until Jan. 11, 2027, to regain compliance. Canaan must maintain a closing bid price of at least $1 for a minimum of ten consecutive business days.

The company has not directly linked the buyback decision to its listing deficiency. Still, repurchases could reduce the number of outstanding shares and offer price support, while selling cryptocurrency would lower the reserves available for mining operations, debt obligations, and working capital.

Two-thirds of every dollar borrowed onchain now runs through Ethereum. According to Messari data, Ethereum and its liquid staking tokens account for 67% of all DeFi borrowing activity, a share that grew even as the broader lending market shrank by half.

The numbers behind the squeeze Total outstanding onchain lending sits at roughly $23 billion, according to Galaxy Research. That figure is a steep drop from the $46 billion highs reached in 2025, representing an approximately 50% decline by May 2026.

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The composition of that 67% is worth noting. It isn’t just vanilla ETH serving as collateral. Liquid staking tokens, think stETH from Lido and similar derivatives, make up a meaningful chunk of the borrowing base. Stakers are essentially double-dipping: earning staking yield while simultaneously using their staked assets as collateral to borrow against.

Aave’s quiet engine room If Ethereum is the highway, Aave is the toll booth collecting fees on most of the traffic. The lending protocol remains the dominant venue for DeFi borrowing and a primary driver of Ethereum’s outsized market share.

What a halved market reveals Liquid staking tokens play a particularly interesting role in this dynamic. They represent a form of collateral that generates its own yield, making loans backed by these assets inherently more attractive to both borrowers and lenders. A borrower posting stETH as collateral is effectively reducing their net borrowing cost by the staking yield they continue to earn.

What this means for the DeFi landscape A 67% market share in a $23 billion lending market positions Ethereum as the backbone of decentralized credit. As more ETH gets staked and tokenized, the pool of high-quality DeFi collateral grows, deepening liquidity and making the collateral more attractive to lending activity.

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

Ethereum Foundation is recruiting a protocol security researcher to use artificial intelligence, fuzz testing, and manual audits to find vulnerabilities across Ethereum’s core infrastructure.

Summary

The researcher will examine Ethereum’s execution, consensus, networking, specifications, and client software. Responsibilities include AI-assisted vulnerability mining, hard fork reviews, fuzzing, audits, and disclosure coordination. The global remote opening follows the Foundation’s decision to cut 54 roles during a broader restructuring. Ethereum’s security team recently confirmed that its AI agents had identified real protocol bugs. Ethereum security role covers the full protocol According to the job posting, the researcher will join the Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol Security team and investigate weaknesses across several parts of the network.

The work covers the execution layer, which processes transactions and smart contracts, and the consensus layer, which coordinates validators. It also extends to Ethereum’s peer-to-peer network, technical specifications, and the client programs that implement protocol rules.

Key responsibilities include developing fuzzing tools, reviewing changes scheduled for hard forks, manually auditing protocol updates, and coordinating the responsible disclosure of confirmed vulnerabilities. The researcher will also use AI systems to support automated vulnerability discovery.

Ethereum Foundation outlines duties for its AI security researcher role | Source: Ethereum Foundation Such a combination reflects the limits of fully automated security testing. AI tools can generate large numbers of possible findings, but researchers must reproduce each issue, assess its impact, and separate genuine vulnerabilities from false positives.

Candidates need extensive knowledge of the Ethereum protocol. The Foundation said it prefers engineers who have contributed directly to protocol development or understand execution-layer and consensus-layer specifications.

Relevant programming languages include Go, Rust, Java, C#, Nim, and Python. The remote position is open to candidates in Europe and other regions globally.

AI tools have already found Ethereum bugs The hiring follows the Ethereum Foundation’s recent tests of coordinated AI agents against protocol code, cryptographic software, and other systems used by the network.

In a July 9 technical post, the Protocol Security team said the agents had uncovered genuine flaws.

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

One confirmed finding was a remotely triggered panic in libp2p’s gossipsub component, part of the peer-to-peer layer used by Ethereum consensus clients. Developers fixed the flaw before it was disclosed as CVE-2026-34219.

However, the team said most of the work involved determining which AI-generated findings were real. Researchers required reproducible evidence, proof-of-concept code, and human review before treating a report as a vulnerability.

The new role formalizes that workflow by combining automated discovery with manual verification and disclosure management.

Hiring follows Ethereum Foundation restructuring The recruitment comes less than a month after the Foundation dissolved its Protocol Support team as part of a restructuring that eliminated 54 positions, or about 20% of its workforce.

Protocol Support previously coordinated core developer meetings, tracked network upgrades, helped contributors navigate Ethereum Improvement Proposals, and operated training programs for new protocol developers.

Several former Foundation researchers have since moved into independent organizations. Former employees Mo Jalil, Oskar Thorén, and Aaryamann Challani created EthSystems, a for-profit company developing confidential Ethereum infrastructure for regulated institutions. Bitmine, SharpLink, and Consensys CEO Joe Lubin backed the venture.

Former Foundation researcher Francesco D’Amato also joined independent protocol research group Ethlabs on July 16.

The latest opening suggests the organization is still adding specialized staff in areas it considers essential, even as some development and coordination work shifts outside the Foundation.

Security remains central to Ethereum governance The Foundation also appointed security researcher Pascal Caversaccio to its board on July 29 for an initial one-year voluntary term. His appointment expanded the board to four members and reinforced its stated focus on security, privacy, and censorship resistance.

For U.S. investors, protocol security has direct relevance because Ethereum supports spot exchange-traded funds, stablecoins, tokenized assets, and financial applications used by American institutions. A flaw affecting consensus or client implementations could disrupt infrastructure far beyond the Foundation itself.

The hiring process does not indicate that a new vulnerability has been discovered. Instead, the role expands the team responsible for reviewing future hard forks and finding weaknesses before protocol changes reach the main network.

Trust in crypto exchanges has been a work in progress since late 2022, when FTX’s collapse taught everyone that “your funds are safe” can mean very different things. Binance’s latest Proof of Reserves report, based on a snapshot taken August 1, offers its answer to that lesson: on-chain wallets holding more than the platform owes users, across every major asset it tracks.

The numbers are straightforward. Bitcoin is backed at 100.25%, Ethereum matches that figure exactly, and the stablecoin picture is even more comfortable, with USDT at 103.62%, USDC at 107.64%, and USD1 at 112.80%.

What the numbers actually say The snapshot was taken at August 1, 2026, at 00:00:00 UTC, pegged to Bitcoin block height 962079. That level of specificity matters. It makes the data point-in-time verifiable rather than a vague general claim.

On the Bitcoin side, Binance’s net user account balances stood at 656,644.187 BTC, while on-chain wallets held 658,293.119 BTC. In English: the exchange keeps slightly more Bitcoin on-chain than users are collectively owed, which is exactly the point of the exercise.

Ethereum net balances came in at approximately 3.98 million ETH, also covered at 100.25%. The USDT position is the largest in dollar terms, with net holdings valued at roughly $32.9 billion, backed at 103.62%.

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SOL sits at exactly 100.00%, which is the minimum acceptable threshold. It passes, but there is no cushion there worth celebrating.

The methodology behind these figures is worth understanding. Binance uses two overlapping verification tools: Merkle tree proofs and zk-SNARKs, a form of zero-knowledge cryptography. The Merkle tree approach lets any individual user verify their own balance is included in the total. The zk-SNARK layer proves the aggregate math is correct without exposing anyone’s private account data.

How Binance got here Binance started publishing Proof of Reserves in late 2022, directly in response to FTX. The early versions relied on third-party audits, which had their own limitations, including auditor liability concerns that led some firms to quietly walk away from crypto attestations during that period.

The shift to a self-verified zk-SNARKs system was a technical upgrade, not a retreat from accountability. Zero-knowledge proofs, when implemented correctly, are mathematically stronger than a traditional audit because they do not rely on trusting the auditor’s methodology or independence.

The BTC holdings figure tells a growth story as well. Net balances on the platform stood at around 591,000 BTC in early 2025. The jump to 656,644 BTC by August 2026 represents a meaningful increase in user deposits.

What investors should watch The $32.9 billion USDT position is significant. Tether remains the dominant stablecoin for crypto trading pairs, and a 103.62% backing ratio at that scale means Binance is holding reserves in excess of what users could theoretically withdraw all at once.

USDC’s 107.64% backing and USD1’s 112.80% ratio follow the same logic. Higher overcollateralization in stablecoins reduces the risk of a run scenario where user withdrawals outpace available reserves.

The growth in BTC holdings from 591,000 to 656,644 between early 2025 and August 2026 is the kind of concrete, time-stamped data point that appears in custody assessments and counterparty risk reviews.

The one area worth watching going forward is the SOL position sitting precisely at 100.00%. A collateralization ratio at the floor with no buffer means any increase in net user balances, even a small one, would theoretically put it below par before the next rebalancing.

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

First production Layer 2 to stream EIP-7928@worldnetwork says it will become the first production Layer 2 to stream EIP-7928 block access lists, going live on mainnet on August 17. The network will stream full block access lists inside every flashblock, allowing validators to begin verifying transactions while blocks are still being assembled. That inverts the usual approach, where nodes must replay everything sequentially after a block is complete.

Block-Level Access Lists (BALs) function like a map for the network, detailing which parts of the database will be accessed before the work begins. The execution layer stores the full Block Access List, including every account change that the transactions will touch, along with the final results of those changes. Because they give instant visibility into which transactions do not overlap, BALs allow nodes to perform parallel disk reads, fetching information for many transactions simultaneously.

Unlike Ethereum's planned implementation of EIP-7928, which is expected to arrive as part of the Glamsterdam upgrade, World Chain is deploying the feature through a runtime flag rather than a hard fork. This approach allows client operators to upgrade software ahead of the August 17 mainnet rollout without requiring a coordinated network-wide upgrade.

Throughput target and the Glamsterdam connectionInternal benchmarking on World Chain test networks showed validation latency remained effectively stable even as throughput increased substantially, reaching up to one gigagas per second using standard cloud infrastructure. According to the results, higher transaction throughput can be achieved without a corresponding increase in the computing resources required for independent chain verification.

The implementation is designed to address one of the blockchain industry's key scaling challenges: boosting transaction capacity without compromising decentralization by forcing validators to use increasingly powerful hardware.

For @ethereum, EIP-7928 is central to its own roadmap. Glamsterdam is Ethereum's next major network upgrade after Fusaka, combining the Gloas consensus layer fork and the Amsterdam execution layer fork. It is headlined by two changes: enshrined proposer-builder separation (EIP-7732), which moves block building into the protocol, and Block-Level Access Lists (EIP-7928), which enable parallel transaction execution. Glamsterdam is Ethereum's next hard fork after Fusaka, targeting activation at the end of August 2026.

World Chain's early rollout gives the broader Ethereum ecosystem a live production data point on EIP-7928 ahead of that hard fork, potentially informing how the feature performs under real network conditions.

Sources:
World Chain to launch streamed EIP-7928 block access lists - CoinJournal
Glamsterdam upgrade overview - Ethereum.org
Ethereum Glamsterdam upgrade: what changes for infrastructure - Chainstack

The Ethereum Foundation has awarded funding through its Trillion Dollar Security (1TS) initiative to the Freedom of the Press Foundation to expand development of WEBCAT, an open-source front-end verification tool designed to protect users from compromised websites.

According to a Wednesday statement, the grant will support bringing the technology directly into Ethereum wallets and decentralized applications, allowing wallets to verify that an application’s code matches a developer-signed version.

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The foundation said the project addresses a major security weakness affecting browser-based applications. Although HTTPS secures website connections, it cannot detect whether malicious code has been injected into a site’s front end.

Such attacks can alter transaction details, replace recipient addresses, or manipulate what users are asked to sign. According to the foundation, WEBCAT prevents this by validating website code against signed release manifests and blocking pages that fail verification.

The grant also covers research into compatibility with Chromium-based browsers, assistance for developers implementing the technology, an independent security review, and development of a new Ethereum Request for Comments (ERC) standard for wallet integrations.

The foundation said WEBCAT complements its ongoing Clear Signing work by combining transaction transparency with front-end code verification.

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

Velo taps Zebec for branded card rollout@Veloprotocol has named @Zebec_HQ as the exclusive infrastructure partner for its new branded card experience. The deal connects Velo's PayFi settlement layer directly to the Zebec Card network, giving users a path to convert on-chain holdings into purchasing power at merchant terminals around the world.

The integration supports native funding through $USDT and $USDC across @BNBCHAIN, @Ethereum, and @TRONDAO, keeping the entry point flexible for users already active on those chains. Two card tiers are on offer: Silver and Carbon. Both support multi-currency balances in $USD, $EUR, and $GBP, and the cards work with Apple Pay and Google Pay out of the box.

Zebec's card infrastructure and Velo's settlement ambitions Zebec Cards allow users to spend cryptocurrencies in fiat environments via physical or virtual debit cards linked to user wallets. When a purchase is made, the selected cryptocurrency is converted to fiat in real time through liquidity providers, with the transaction then processed over the Mastercard network. The cards operate in 97 countries and already include Apple Pay and Google Pay support across their card tiers.

Velo, for its part, is building an alternative payments system that merges regulated fiat infrastructure with blockchain-based liquidity to create a unified PayFi network enabling instant settlement and single-system transaction flow. The protocol's roadmap includes the launch of virtual crypto debit cards and direct fiat off-ramps in Q2 2026, followed by cross-chain functionality and merchant payment tools in Q3 2026.

The partnership positions both projects squarely in the growing PayFi sector, where the core proposition is giving on-chain asset holders a direct, low-friction route into everyday spending without manually off-ramping funds in advance.

Sources:
Velo Protocol: 2026 PayFi Strategic Product Roadmap
Gate Learn: What Is Zebec Protocol (ZBCN)?
Zebec Network Official Site

Altcoins

5 August 2026 | 10:49 Ethereum researchers are considering a new reward-burn mechanism that would let validator issuance decline at high staking levels, aiming to reduce dilution and weaken incentives for excessive concentration.

Key Takeaways Draft requires approval and a future hard fork. Burn reaches 100% at 60.25 million ETH. Issuance peaks near 20% staking participation. Largest operators face weaker incentives to expand. Idealised deductions preserve validator performance incentives. Lower issuance may reduce unstaked holders’ dilution. Under draft EIP-8363, called Tapered Issuance Burn, a growing share of validator rewards would be burned as staking participation rises.

At 60.25 million ETH in active stake—a saturation balance designed to represent approximately half of ETH’s supply at activation, the burn would offset 100% of the idealised consensus rewards covered by the mechanism.

The proposal remains a Core EIP draft rather than an approved Ethereum upgrade. It would require a hard fork because it changes Ethereum’s consensus-layer state transition, although no changes to the execution layer or existing smart contracts would be needed. Its technical and economic details may still change, and discussion is continuing on the Ethereum Magicians forum.

The Proposal Would Let Yield Limit Staking Growth Ethereum’s current issuance curve reduces the return earned by individual validators as more ETH enters staking. However, it never completely removes the financial incentive to add more stake.

According to the proposal, the existing curve retains a yield floor of roughly 1.5% even at extremely high participation. The market can therefore reach an equilibrium only if the return demanded by the next potential validator remains above that floor.

That required return may continue falling as institutional custodians, liquid-staking protocols and professional infrastructure providers reduce the operational, liquidity and technical costs that previously discouraged holders from staking. The trend is already visible in proposed institutional products: Morgan Stanley’s planned Ether trust intends to stake between 50% and 80% of its ETH through external providers if the product launches.

Unstaked holders are also diluted when the protocol creates new ETH for validators. As staking becomes easier, accepting that dilution may become less attractive than moving ETH into a staking service or yield-bearing derivative.

EIP-8363 would allow net consensus yield to keep declining rather than stopping at a protocol-defined minimum. After rewards are calculated through the existing system, a growing portion would be deducted and burned.

Annual consensus issuance would stop rising continuously with the staking ratio. It would peak when approximately 19.8% of ETH is staked and decline as participation moved beyond that level.

60.25 Million ETH Is Not a Staking Cap The saturation balance is an economic reference point rather than a hard limit. The proposal would not reject new validators, force existing participants to exit or prevent more than 60.25 million ETH from entering staking.

At that balance, the consensus issuance earned by a correctly performing validator from the duties covered by the mechanism would be fully offset by the burn. Validators could still receive execution-layer income from priority fees and maximal extractable value, or MEV.

The proposed burn rises with staking participation and reaches 100% at the 60.25 million ETH saturation balance. Source: Draft EIP-8363. The authors do not expect the market to reach saturation under ordinary conditions. Validators generally require a positive return to compensate for infrastructure, maintenance, downtime, liquidity restrictions and slashing exposure.

As net yield declines, some participants would stop entering while others could exit. The expected equilibrium would therefore sit below 50%, where the remaining return matches the compensation demanded by the next validator.

High Staking Can Increase Concentration Risks More stake raises the nominal value exposed to slashing during an attack, but the proposal argues that the additional security benefit becomes progressively smaller as staking participation rises.

A high staking ratio can also move more ETH into exchanges, custodians, liquid-staking protocols and institutional products because many holders cannot or do not want to operate validators directly. Validator power may consequently become concentrated among a limited number of professional operators.

Concentration creates an operational risk beyond the issuance debate. If more than one-third of validators go offline together, Ethereum loses finality until the required two-thirds majority is restored. That makes the network’s 33.3% threshold especially important when validators cluster around the same clients, hosting providers or jurisdictions.

The authors are particularly concerned that a dominant provider could become systemically difficult to slash. If a large operator suffered a major slashing event, its customers could have enough financial and political influence to seek intervention rather than accept the losses.

High participation could also weaken Ethereum’s ability to coordinate against a colluding validator group. Social slashing depends on the wider economy supporting an alternative chain, which becomes harder when a large percentage of ETH is controlled through custodians and staking intermediaries.

The Curve Turns Scale Against Large Operators The current issuance system continually rewards expansion: an operator that adds validators increases its share of active stake while total issuance also grows with network participation. There is no operator size or staking ratio at which another validator reduces that operator’s consensus income. The tapered burn would change that relationship because, once issuance peaks near a 20% staking ratio, an expanding operator would claim a larger share of a shrinking reward pool.

For the largest operators, the decline in the total reward pool could eventually outweigh the benefit of controlling more validators. The EIP calculates that an operator holding half of all active stake would stop increasing its consensus income through expansion once approximately 31% of the ETH supply is staked.

Smaller operators would reach the same turning point closer to the 50% saturation balance. The mechanism would therefore weaken consensus-layer economies of scale sooner for entities that already control the largest share of stake.

The mechanism would not eliminate every advantage enjoyed by large operators because it would not affect MEV or priority-fee income.

Solo Stakers Face a Different Tax Equation The proposal’s authors argue that the existing curve creates a separate disadvantage for solo validators. Dilution reduces the real return earned by every staker, while individuals in jurisdictions that tax staking rewards as income may still owe tax on their full nominal rewards.

Some institutional investors and holders using accumulating exchange-traded products, non-rebasing liquid-staking tokens or wrapped tokens may not face the same immediate tax burden. Solo participants could therefore reach negative dilution-adjusted returns sooner, encouraging them to close validators or move their ETH into an intermediary and potentially increasing concentration.

By limiting issuance growth, EIP-8363 attempts to reduce that disadvantage. It would not change tax law or remove the operational benefits enjoyed by professional providers, but it could lower the dilution component that affects solo stakers earlier.

Critics See the Opposite Risk for Solo Stakers Not everyone accepts the proposal’s argument that lower issuance would reduce the disadvantages faced by solo stakers. Mike Silagadze, co-founder and CEO of ether.fi, argues that the mechanism could produce the opposite result.

In an August 4 post, Silagadze criticised what he described as a 48-hour comment window for a major change to Ethereum’s network economics. He argued that lower rewards could push independent validators out while leaving large centralised operators with lower capital and operating costs in a stronger position.

This is so disappointing on every level.

EIP released with 48 hours notice for comments. Realistically 4 months before it goes live. For a major network economics change with far reaching implications for all of DeFi.

Every builder on Ethereum opposes this. Why is this a focus?… https://t.co/qQbCui8aju

— Mike Silagadze🛡 (@MikeSilagadze) August 4, 2026

Silagadze also warned that declining staking returns could drive capital away from DeFi protocols built around staking and potentially encourage large amounts of ETH to be withdrawn. In his view, that could increase the amount of ETH available to enter the market rather than support its price through lower issuance.

Silagadze’s predictions remain unproven, but they expose the key question facing the proposal: whether lower rewards would weaken large staking operators or leave independent validators unable to compete with them.

Why the Burn Uses Idealised Rewards The deduction would be based on the reward attached to an assigned duty, regardless of whether the validator completed it successfully. An offline validator would therefore pay the burn alongside the normal penalty for failing to participate, preventing operators from avoiding the deduction by switching off.

If Ethereum instead burned only part of the reward actually earned, the financial difference between completing and missing a duty would shrink as the burn increased. At a burn fraction represented by b, the marginal reward for correct performance would fall to 1-b of its current level.

EIP-8363 avoids that problem by calculating the deduction from what a perfectly performing validator would have earned under the network’s actual participation conditions. Correct performance therefore retains the same advantage over failure.

The mechanism includes an exception for an inactivity leak, Ethereum’s recovery mode when the chain has failed to finalise for more than four epochs. Because attestation rewards are withheld during an inactivity leak, EIP-8363 would suspend the attestation portion of the burn, while proposer and sync committee deductions could continue where the corresponding rewards are still paid.

Lower Dilution Could Support ETH as Neutral Money By reducing net issuance, EIP-8363 would lessen the pressure to stake merely to preserve a holder’s share of the ETH supply. The proposal’s authors argue that this could support ETH’s role as neutral collateral, a settlement asset and a unit of account.

At high staking participation, liquid-staking tokens and other yield-bearing derivatives can become more attractive than unstaked ETH for savings, collateral and payments. Applications adopting them also inherit the smart-contract, governance and counterparty risks associated with their issuers.

Greater use of competing derivatives could fragment liquidity and increase the influence of the organisations that issue and govern them. Lower dilution would allow unstaked ETH to compete without requiring holders and applications to adopt an intermediated substitute.

The Transition Would Take About 18 Months Applying the permanent burn curve immediately would sharply reduce returns at the staking ratio used in the draft’s calculations.

At the roughly 34% staking level shown by ValidatorQueue, the draft’s model indicates that an immediate transition could cut net consensus yield from around 2.6% to 1.2%. A sudden decline of that size could trigger a substantial validator exit.

To reduce the shock, the effective base reward factor would begin at 128, twice its current value of 64, and gradually return to 64 over 123,300 epochs, or approximately 18 months.

The temporary increase would scale rewards, penalties and the burn together, allowing net yield to begin near its existing level before moving toward the permanent curve.

The reduction would occur through 65 small steps, with each level lasting approximately 1,927 epochs, or 8.6 days.

The transition would give validators approximately 18 months to reassess their costs and exit through the normal process before the permanent reward curve took full effect.

MEV Remains but Issuance Still Dominates Yield Execution-layer income from priority fees and maximal extractable value, or MEV, would remain outside EIP-8363. As consensus issuance declined, these rewards would account for a larger share of validator income.

According to the EIP authors’ calculation, payments to proposers recorded through MEV-Boost relays totalled approximately 72,600 ETH across 2.42 million blocks during the year ending July 31, 2026. That equals an average of roughly 0.030 ETH per block.

The authors then applied the same average to approximately 190,000 locally built blocks. They describe this as an upper-bound assumption because locally built blocks generally receive lower execution-layer rewards. The calculation places total execution-layer rewards below 78,300 ETH for the period.

Using approximately 40 million staked ETH as the calculation base, the proposal estimates that these execution-layer rewards represented a return of no more than 0.20%. Consensus issuance was substantially larger at approximately 1.054 million ETH annually, equivalent to a return of around 2.62%.

Based on those estimates, consensus issuance accounted for at least 93% of total staking yield. Even if the staking ratio settled at 40% under the proposed curve, the authors calculate that issuance would still represent at least 80% of validator yield.

MEV would nevertheless continue rewarding operator expansion because expected execution-layer income grows with an operator’s share of block proposals. EIP-8363 does not directly remove that incentive, which is why the draft presents MEV burn research as a complementary approach that could reduce validator income and shift equilibrium toward a lower staking ratio.

Lower Issuance Would Not Guarantee Deflation EIP-8363 would reduce net consensus issuance and permanently destroy ETH deducted from validators, but it would not automatically cause the total supply to decline.

The mechanism would complement the fee burn introduced by EIP-1559. EIP-1559 removes Ethereum’s base transaction fee from circulation, while EIP-8363 would burn part of the ETH calculated as consensus-layer rewards.

If staking settled below the saturation balance, validators would continue receiving positive consensus issuance. Whether Ethereum became inflationary or deflationary would depend on whether transaction-fee burning exceeded that remaining issuance.

Supply could therefore continue growing during periods of low network activity and contract when transaction demand was stronger. The proposal aims to limit consensus issuance, not guarantee permanent deflation.

The Proposal Still Has to Pass Review The authors have completed a draft implementation for the Prysm consensus client, although formal test vectors had not yet been included in the reviewed draft. Client code demonstrates technical progress but does not determine whether the EIP will enter a future hard fork.

The outcome would depend not only on technical review but also on validator operating costs, tax treatment, MEV income, liquidity preferences and the return investors demand for staking risk. Rather than selecting a fixed staking target, EIP-8363 attempts to remove the permanent yield floor and let those market conditions determine where participation settles.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, legal or tax advice. EIP-8363 remains a draft proposal and has not been approved for inclusion in an Ethereum upgrade. Its design, parameters, calculations and implementation may change during technical and community review. Methodology: This article is based primarily on the draft EIP-8363 specification, its Ethereum EIPs pull request and the related Ethereum Magicians discussion. Supporting information comes from official Ethereum and Flashbots documentation, the draft Prysm implementation, published MEV burn research, current staking data, public information on proposed institutional staking products and statements from industry participants, including ether.fi co-founder Mike Silagadze. Issuance, staking-yield and execution-layer reward estimates are attributed to the EIP authors and were not independently reconstructed from on-chain data. Author

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

The euro has quietly been colonizing the blockchain world. Euro-denominated stablecoins now operate across 20 different networks, with Ethereum hosting roughly 69.5% of the total supply. That’s a footprint that would have seemed absurd just two years ago, when the entire euro stablecoin market was worth around €50 million.

Today, total euro stablecoin supply sits at $774.2 million as of mid-May 2026. That represents a ninefold increase from early 2024 levels.

Ethereum’s grip and the multi-chain push Euro stablecoins are now deployed across networks including Solana and the XRP Ledger, mirroring a pattern that USD stablecoins pioneered years ago.

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Circle’s EURC leads the pack with a market cap of $430.4 million, reflecting 109.8% growth. SG-FORGE’s EURCV, backed by Société Générale’s digital assets arm, has also expanded aggressively across multiple chains.

Even at $774.2 million, euro stablecoins are a rounding error compared to USD stablecoins, which command a market cap exceeding $250 billion. The euro’s share of the stablecoin universe is roughly 0.3%. For context, the euro accounts for about 20% of global foreign exchange reserves in traditional finance.

MiCA changed the math MiCA-compliant euro stablecoins now account for approximately $673.9 million of the total supply. That’s 128% year-over-year growth for the regulated segment specifically.

ING and UniCredit are reportedly planning to introduce their own euro stablecoin products by the second half of 2026, which would bring some of Europe’s largest banking names directly into the arena.

What this means for investors As euro stablecoin liquidity deepens, DeFi protocols that support euro-denominated lending, borrowing, and trading pairs become more viable. This creates opportunities in protocols positioned to capture European DeFi volume, a market that has historically been underserved because most on-chain liquidity has been denominated in dollars.

When major European banks enter the stablecoin market, they bring distribution networks that crypto-native issuers can’t easily replicate. ING alone serves tens of millions of customers across Europe.

There’s also the question of whether regulatory clarity becomes regulatory burden. MiCA compliance isn’t free. The capital requirements, reporting obligations, and operational standards that make institutional investors comfortable also raise costs for issuers. Smaller players may find themselves squeezed out, potentially concentrating the market among a handful of bank-backed tokens.

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

Aave founder and CEO Stani Kulechov has spoken out against the EIP proposal, which has surfaced within the Ethereum community and aims to limit staking returns. Kulechov argued that the regulation would not deliver the intended results and could instead harm the Ethereum ecosystem and ETH’s attractiveness as an investment asset.

The proposal envisages reducing the staking return to 0% if the staked ETH ratio exceeds 50% of the total supply. According to Kulechov, this structure could make staking revenues unpredictable, rendering the activity uneconomical for many participants.

Aave CEO Kulechov stated that institutional investors, in particular, value predictable cash flows when building ETH positions. He noted that if returns become uncertain, these investors might turn to alternative blockchain networks offering more stable income, which could create a significant adoption cost for Ethereum.

Kulechov also argued that reducing staking yields to zero would render lending and yield strategies conducted via ETH largely ineffective. In such a scenario, he stated, the primary use case for ETH borrowing might be limited to short selling.

Kulechov stated that investors using ETH-linked yield products might turn to stablecoins or other interest-bearing assets, suggesting that the proposal could significantly shrink Ethereum-based lending and yield markets.

In his personal assessment, Kulechov stated that the proposal would weaken ETH’s viability as an asset and limit its long-term potential. Expressing his hope that the proposal would not proceed, the Aave CEO said that otherwise, many market participants might shift their interest to other blockchain networks.

Kulechov argued that Ethereum should not be penalized for its growth, noting that any changes to the network’s economic incentive structure should be carefully considered in terms of their impact on DeFi, staking, and institutional adoption.

*This is not investment advice.

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Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest banking group, has significantly changed the composition of its crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) holdings, according to its latest mandatory disclosure to US regulators.

Sharp reduction in Bitcoin ETF exposureAccording to the Form 13F filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on July 31, the bank’s common shareholding in the iShares Bitcoin Trust fund fell dramatically between March and June. The reported position decreased from 646,809 shares on March 31 to 40,723 by June 30, marking an approximate 94% reduction.

Intesa Sanpaolo also reduced its exposure through call options. The underlying share count tied to these positions fell steeply, from 2,496,500 to 18,000, which reflects a drop of over 99%. Additionally, the June filing introduced a new put option tied to 500,000 underlying shares, a position that did not appear in earlier disclosures.

Asset/PositionMarch 31 HoldingsJune 30 HoldingsChange (%)iShares Bitcoin Trust (Common Shares)646,80940,723-93.7%iShares Bitcoin Trust (Call Options)2,496,50018,000-99.3%iShares Bitcoin Trust (Put Options)0500,000New PositionThe Form 13F report, a quarterly filing required by institutional investment managers with at least $100 million in assets under management, only reveals positions held as of the end of the reporting period. It does not specify strike prices, expiry dates, or whether options were sold short, leaving the bank’s precise strategy and risk exposure open to interpretation.

Intesa Sanpaolo is Italy’s leading financial institution, with operations spanning commercial banking, asset management, and insurance in Europe and beyond.

Ethereum positions surge as Solana holdings all but disappearWhile reducing its Bitcoin ETF exposure, Intesa Sanpaolo increased its stake in the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust fund. The bank tripled its holding, from 116,200 shares on March 31 to 349,600 shares at the end of June.

Meanwhile, its investment in the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF was almost entirely eliminated, dropping from 2,817 shares to just seven between quarters. Holdings of the Grayscale XRP Trust ETF remained steady at 712,319 shares, showing little to no movement after accounting for possible trading activity that left the quarter-end balance unchanged.

ETFMarch 31 SharesJune 30 SharesChangeiShares Staked Ethereum Trust116,200349,600+201%Bitwise Solana Staking ETF2,8177-99.8%Grayscale XRP Trust ETF712,319712,3190% Intesa Sanpaolo reported a sharp reduction in both its Bitcoin ETF and call option positions, while increasing its staked Ethereum fund exposure more than threefold. The bank’s Solana holdings nearly vanished, with XRP balances remaining unaltered over the quarter.

Form 13F filings reveal only a snapshot at the end of each quarter, presenting limited insight into daily trading or rationale behind trades. The filings do not capture written or short option strategies and lack detail concerning strike prices or expiration dates.

Due to these disclosure gaps, outside observers cannot definitively calculate the bank’s net exposure to any crypto asset based only on publicly available records.

Nevertheless, the data show Intesa Sanpaolo’s declared crypto investments now favor staked Ethereum over Bitcoin, with dramatically reduced exposure to Solana and steady XRP holdings.

Mini dictionary: Form 13F, a quarterly report that US institutional investment managers managing at least $100 million in certain securities must file with the SEC, disclosing their equity holdings as of the quarter’s end.

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

Bitmine Immersion Technologies said its crypto, cash, marketable securities and strategic investments reached $11.3 billion as the company continued expanding its position as the largest corporate Ethereum holder.

The company held 5,797,813 ETH as of August 2 after purchasing another 10,399 ETH during the previous week. The position was valued at approximately $10.9 billion using an Ethereum price of $1,880.

Bitmine said its holdings represent 4.8% of Ethereum’s total supply of approximately 120.7 million ETH, bringing the company closer to its goal of controlling 5% of the network’s supply.

Its remaining holdings include 209 Bitcoin, $173 million in cash and marketable securities, a $180 million investment in Beast Industries and a $61 million stake in Eightco Holdings.

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Bitmine also repurchased 4.5 million common shares during the past week. The purchases brought its total repurchases since July 1 to 16.1 million shares under a previously authorized $4 billion program.

Chairman Tom Lee said management considers Bitmine shares attractively valued following Ethereum’s strong performance against technology stocks. Ethereum outperformed the Nasdaq 100 by 25 percentage points in July, according to the company.

Lee said periods of strong Ethereum performance relative to the Nasdaq 100 have previously been followed by Bitmine shares outperforming Ethereum during the following month.

Bitmine described the repurchases as the largest common stock buyback conducted by a crypto digital asset treasury company. That characterization is based on the company’s own assessment.

The company has also staked 4,917,189 ETH, representing about 85% of its Ethereum treasury and approximately $9.2 billion at the price used in the announcement.

Bitmine projects that its existing staked position could generate approximately $247 million in annual revenue based on an annualized seven day yield of 2.67%.

If its entire Ethereum position were staked at the same yield, the company estimates annual staking rewards could reach $291 million. These estimates remain dependent on Ethereum prices, network rewards and the performance of its staking infrastructure.

A portion of the holdings is staked through MAVAN, Bitmine’s institutional Ethereum validator network. The company plans to expand the platform to serve custodians, institutional investors and other ecosystem partners.

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

In brief BlackRock launched a tokenized money market fund for stablecoin reserve management. The fund records ownership on Solana, Ethereum, and Tempo while investing entirely in cash and short-term U.S. Treasuries. The product targets institutional investors as tokenized Treasury funds continue to grow. BlackRock is expanding onto Solana with a new money market fund designed for stablecoin reserves, adding the blockchain to its list of tokenized investment products.

The world's largest asset manager on Monday launched the BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle (BRSRV) alongside tokenized on-chain shares of its existing BlackRock Select Treasury-Based Liquidity Fund (BSTBL).

"Cash remains a foundational building block for investors, corporations, and financial institutions," Jon Steel, Global Head of Product and Platform for BlackRock's Cash Management business, said in a statement. “As demand grows for high-quality reserve assets to support stablecoins and other tokenized financial products, these funds provide clients with additional choice in how they access and use money market fund investment solutions across traditional and digital markets.”

In a prospectus filed with the SEC on Friday, BlackRock said ownership is recorded on Solana, Ethereum, and Tempo, with investors holding shares through approved wallets managed by transfer agent Securitize.

“The Fund issues OnChain Shares through a permissioned system that operates in connection with one or more public, permissionless blockchains, which, as of the date of this Prospectus, include Ethereum, Tempo, and Solana, and may include other supported networks in the future,” BlackRock wrote.

The fund invests entirely in cash, short-term U.S. Treasury securities, and overnight repurchase agreements backed by Treasuries.

According to BlackRock, the fund does not invest in cryptocurrencies.

“The Fund will continue to invest in accordance with the requirements in Rule 2a-7 under the 1940 Act and the terms of this Prospectus,” BlackRock wrote. “The Fund will not invest in any digital assets, including any virtual currencies.”

Wallets must be whitelisted and tied to verified identities, allowing the transfer agent to restrict transfers or, in some cases, freeze, revoke, or reissue tokenized shares. The fund also has a $3 million minimum initial investment.

BlackRock said the fund is structured to qualify as an eligible reserve asset under the GENIUS Act, the U.S. law governing payment stablecoins. Its prospectus also notes that future regulatory changes could affect whether stablecoin issuers can continue using the fund as a reserve asset, while blockchain outages or smart contract flaws could disrupt transactions.

The launch builds on BlackRock's broader tokenization strategy. The firm introduced the BUIDL tokenized money market fund in March 2024, which now manages more than $2.6 billion in assets.

BlackRock joins Morgan Stanley, and Fidelity, which have also introduced products aimed at stablecoin reserve management following the passage of the GENIUS Act.

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Coinbase increased its Bitcoin holdings during the first half of 2026 even as the overall value of its digital asset portfolio declined. The latest figures show the exchange continues to strengthen its Bitcoin treasury while slightly reducing its Ethereum exposure, signaling a cautious shift in its balance sheet strategy as market conditions remain volatile.

Bitcoin Holdings Rise While Ethereum SlipsAs of June 30, Coinbase held 17,311 BTC, up 12.5% from 15,389 BTC at the end of 2025. The company added 1,922 BTC during the first six months of the year, reinforcing its long-term confidence in Bitcoin.

Ethereum holdings, however, moved in the opposite direction. Coinbase ended the period with 150,279 ETH, down 0.6% from 151,175 ETH at the end of last year. While the reduction is relatively small, it highlights a noticeable divergence in the company’s allocation between the two largest cryptocurrencies.

Despite accumulating more Bitcoin, the fair value of Coinbase’s crypto portfolio dropped from $1.99 billion to $1.47 billion, reflecting the broader decline in digital asset prices during the first half of 2026.

Stronger Treasury, But Business Faces PressureCoinbase recently reported its second-quarter financial results, offering more insight into the company’s performance before entering August.

Revenue came in at $1.22 billion for the quarter ended June 30, down 14% quarter-over-quarter and 19% year-over-year as crypto trading activity slowed across the industry.

The company posted a GAAP net loss of $359 million, although much of the loss stemmed from non-operating items, including a $209.5 million non-cash markdown on crypto assets, $52.4 million in restructuring charges, and $238 million in stock-based compensation.

On an adjusted basis, Coinbase remained profitable, reporting Adjusted EBITDA of $208 million.

Although overall crypto trading activity weakened, Coinbase continued gaining market share. Its share of global crypto trading volume increased to 10.3%, up from 9.1% in the previous quarter, setting a new company record.

The exchange also continued expanding beyond trading. Subscription and services revenue reached $555 million, accounting for 48% of total net revenue. Coinbase noted that 88% of its net revenue now comes from businesses outside Bitcoin spot trading, including staking, stablecoins, subscriptions, derivatives, and other products.

August Remains a Key TestOn the other hand, Coinbase stock entered August after gaining 6.76% in July, recovering from June’s weakness. However, August has historically been its weakest month since listing on Nasdaq.

The stock fell 19.28% in August 2023, 18.27% in August 2024, and 19.38% in August 2025, making this month another important test for investor sentiment.

Wall Street also remains divided. Rosenblatt maintained an Outperform rating with a $240 price target, expecting growth from derivatives and prediction markets. Meanwhile, JPMorgan lowered its target from $283 to $196, citing concerns that Coinbase’s revenue-sharing agreement with Hyperliquid could reduce future income from USDC reserves.

With Bitcoin holdings increasing and Ethereum exposure remaining largely unchanged, Coinbase’s treasury strategy is showing a stronger preference for Bitcoin. Whether that allocation trend continues through the second half of 2026 could become an important development for the market.

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Blockchain security firm CertiK has noted that on July 23, 2026, an attacker successfully targeted the Ethereum cross-chain bridge of the Verus Protocol, extracting roughly $7.44 million in assets that included ETH, tBTC, various stablecoins, and MKR. The exploit hinged on a fundamental difference in how Verus and Ethereum processed notarization data.

CertiK added that by embedding malicious duplicate state-root entries within otherwise valid notarizations that were signed by legitimate Verus notaries and then forwarded to Ethereum, the attacker overwrote the trusted state root.

This allowed submission of a forged bridge import proof that authorized large withdrawals, even though the original export involved only a negligible 0.01 VRSC transfer.

A Verus notarization functions as a signed cross-chain checkpoint that sets the reference root used to validate subsequent transaction and export proofs.

It records details such as the system or currency involved, the notarization height, one or more proof roots (including system ID, chain height, state or proof root, block hash, accumulated power, and currency or converter state), a link to the prior notarization, and proposer or node information.

These roots draw from publicly available Verus and Ethereum chain data.

While anyone can propose or relay a candidate notarization, acceptance requires spending the correct notarization-thread UTXO and providing necessary consensus evidence.

Notary signatures form part of the public evidence that can be retrieved and relayed.

The attack unfolded in several stages. First, the attacker poisoned notarizations on the Verus network.

Starting from a genuine notarization, successive transactions spent the previous accepted output while secretly incorporating extra malicious state-root entries.

Verus processed the serialized roots by loading them into a vector and inserting them into a map, effectively overlooking the duplicates in its own view.

Legitimate notary software then validated the initial legitimate roots, after which notaries signed the full raw data—including the ignored malicious entries.

The attacker harvested these signatures via RPC calls and packaged them for use on Ethereum.

On the Ethereum side, the attacker relayed the notarizations through calls to the bridge’s setLatestData function.

During deserialization, the proof roots were processed in a loop that overwrote the state root for every matching system ID entry.

Consequently, the genuine Verus root was replaced by the attacker-controlled value.

With this compromised root in place, the attacker initiated a minimal 0.01 VRSC export request through the Bridge.vETH contract, which the converter and associated pool processed into a batch transfer.

Finally, a crafted submitImports call on Ethereum used a fabricated hashtransfers value matching the desired large drains, along with adjusted input counts and selectively reused proof components.

The remaining elements of the Merkle Mountain Range proof were constructed so that the final root matched the previously injected malicious state root.

The core vulnerability stemmed from inconsistent cross-chain semantics: Verus interpreted the notarization bytes as containing a valid genuine checkpoint, while Ethereum treated the same data as establishing an attacker-controlled one.

Once Ethereum accepted the false root, any export proof derived under it passed verification.

CertiK further explained that an additional shortcoming in the Ethereum bridge contract was the absence of checks confirming that the requested payout amount matched the value actually exported on Verus.

A fabricated hashtransfers field proved sufficient to clear the relevant verification.

After the drain, the attacker converted the stolen assets into approximately 2,778.87 ETH through a relay service and deposited the proceeds into Tornado Cash.

Blockchain security firm CertiK also mentioned that the episode underscores the risks inherent in cross-chain systems where subtle differences in data interpretation between chains can enable significant losses, highlighting the need for stricter consistency checks and amount-validation logic in bridge designs.

Stellar XLM has strengthened its position as a leading blockchain for tokenized real-world assets, with the network now hosting $3.06 billion in such assets across 70 products. This growth firmly places Stellar XLM as the second-largest blockchain for tokenized assets, trailing only Ethereum, based on data shared by wallet platform Scopuly.

Stablecoin growth and asset accumulationThe latest figures reflect deepening institutional interest in Stellar as a payment and tokenization network. Over the past month, Scopuly observed a 5.88% increase in tokenized real-world assets on the network, highlighting robust ongoing adoption from asset issuers and stablecoin providers.

According to Scopuly, Stellar’s stablecoin supply expanded by 38.3% during the same period, marking another significant milestone. This rise comes amid growing demand from issuers leveraging Stellar’s infrastructure for both retail and institutional use cases.

Monthly transaction volume for stablecoins on Stellar climbed to $6.45 billion, underlining the network’s role as a major payment rail within the digital asset ecosystem. Despite this increase in stablecoin activity, total real-world asset transfer volume dropped to $386 million during the same interval, indicating a shift towards asset accumulation versus immediate trading or transfers.

Scopuly identified this pattern as characteristic of Stellar’s current development phase, noting that assets are building up on the blockchain faster than they are being moved or exchanged. The platform expects the next strategic shift to focus on turning these holdings into higher transaction activity as institutional infrastructure projects further mature.

Tokenized real-world assets on Stellar XLM have reached $3.06 billion across 70 products, positioning the blockchain as the second-largest for real-world asset tokenization after Ethereum. Monthly stablecoin volume also achieved $6.45 billion amid rising issuance from major providers.

Upcoming integrations, such as with Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, are expected to drive more asset flow on Stellar. Meanwhile, the network is becoming increasingly attractive to tokenized treasury operators and stablecoin issuers aiming for efficient settlement solutions.

For those closely watching market data and technical patterns, new all-in-one tools like CryptoAppsy provide a comprehensive user experience by merging real-time prices, detailed charts, and portfolio management. Investors can react instantly with smart price alerts, filter news for specific coins, explore new altcoin launches, and monitor macroeconomic data including Fed decisions—all within a single screen environment, allowing them to stay at the forefront of market movements.

Technical outlook for XLM priceOn the technical analysis front, crypto trader CG_trades presented an alternative scenario for XLM price movement based on Elliott Wave theory. The analysis suggests that XLM is tracing a multi-year macro inverse ABC cycle. Under this framework, wave A concluded at the 2017 peak, with XLM currently residing in an ascending triangle formation as part of wave B.

This chart pattern reflects a lengthy accumulation stage before potential upward movement. According to CG_trades, wave E could finish near the 2020 trendline at a price range of $0.11 to $0.12. Should XLM rally after completing wave E, the next target for cycle wave C may extend between $8.36 and $32, offering a wide potential range for future appreciation.

The current technical setup sees XLM forming an ascending triangle as part of a broader macro cycle. If the price maintains support above the 2020 trendline, longer-term targets between $8.36 and $32 are possible, pending a reversal after wave E completes.

This technical perspective gives an alternative to the fundamentally driven outlook from Scopuly, with one focusing on network usage and asset value while the other leans on previous market cycles and pattern recognition. Both approaches highlight varying, potentially complementary views as analysts assess Stellar XLM’s future role in the blockchain sector.

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

Ethereum has turned 11, and the network’s birthday arrives with a very Ethereum-style contradiction: it is still one of the most important settlement layers in crypto, but its base-chain revenue has cooled sharply.

The validated July 31 notes show Ethereum hosting roughly $148.8 billion in stablecoins and around $15.5 billion in tokenized real-world assets. At the same time, daily mainnet revenue was reported near $330,000, with base-chain fees around $734,000 over a 24-hour period.

That combination tells the real story better than a birthday tribute would.

Ethereum is still deeply important. Stablecoins, DeFi, tokenized assets, Layer 2 settlement, and institutional infrastructure all continue to orbit around it. But the economics of the base chain are changing as activity moves across rollups, alternative chains, and cheaper execution environments.

Ethereum is not disappearing. Its revenue model is evolving.

For more details, visit the official Etherscan platform.

TL;DR Ethereum turned 11 on July 30, 2026. The network hosts about $148.8 billion in stablecoins and roughly $15.5 billion in tokenized real-world assets. Mainnet revenue has cooled, showing the trade-off between scaling and base-layer fee capture. Ethereum’s First Decade Was About Survival And Expansion Ethereum’s first 11 years have been unusually eventful.

The network launched as Frontier in July 2015. Since then, it has survived the DAO crisis, hard forks, congestion cycles, NFT manias, DeFi booms, stablecoin growth, competing Layer 1s, regulatory pressure, and the Merge to proof-of-stake.

It also became the default home for much of crypto’s financial experimentation.

Stablecoins grew on Ethereum. Lending markets scaled there. DEXs became serious there. Tokenized assets, DAOs, NFTs, and Layer 2 ecosystems all built around Ethereum’s developer base and security assumptions.

That is why the stablecoin figure matters.

A $148.8 billion stablecoin base is not just a vanity metric. It shows that Ethereum remains a major settlement environment for dollar-denominated crypto activity, even as cheaper networks compete for transaction volume.

The Fee Drop Is Not Automatically Bad Lower mainnet revenue can be read in two ways.

The bearish reading is that Ethereum is losing economic value. If users are paying less to transact on mainnet, ETH fee burn declines, validator economics change, and the network may capture less direct revenue from activity.

That matters.

But the more balanced reading is that Ethereum scaling is working in a way that changes where activity happens. Rollups and Layer 2 networks were designed to make transactions cheaper and move execution away from the congested base chain. If users can transact more cheaply, mainnet fees should fall.

That is the trade-off.

Ethereum wanted scaling. Scaling reduces fees. Lower fees reduce direct mainnet revenue. The question is whether Ethereum captures enough value through settlement, data availability, ETH monetary premium, and Layer 2 alignment to offset lower base-chain activity.

That is now one of Ethereum’s central debates.

Stablecoins Are The Anchor Stablecoins remain one of Ethereum’s strongest anchors.

Speculative applications come and go, but stablecoins have become core financial plumbing. Traders use them. Exchanges use them. DeFi protocols use them. Payment companies use them. Treasury desks and market makers use them.

If Ethereum continues to host a large share of stablecoin value, it remains strategically important even if some transaction execution migrates elsewhere.

The same is true for tokenized real-world assets.

A reported $15.5 billion RWA base is still small relative to traditional finance, but meaningful within crypto. Tokenized treasuries, credit products, funds, and other on-chain assets have become one of the more serious institutional narratives in the market.

Ethereum’s role is less about being the cheapest chain and more about being a trusted settlement layer with deep liquidity, developer tooling, and long-running infrastructure.

Layer 2s Changed The Revenue Conversation Ethereum’s Layer 2 strategy is both its strength and its complication.

On one hand, rollups make Ethereum more usable. They reduce congestion, lower transaction costs, and allow applications to scale without every user touching mainnet directly.

On the other hand, they fragment liquidity and reduce direct fee pressure on the base chain.

That creates a new valuation question for ETH.

In the old model, high demand for blockspace translated into high fees and more burn. In the newer model, activity may happen across many Layer 2s, while Ethereum earns through settlement and data-related demand. That can be healthier for users but harder for investors to model.

The network’s 11th birthday therefore comes at an important moment.

Ethereum is no longer proving that smart contracts matter. That battle was won years ago. Now it is proving that a modular scaling strategy can still support strong ETH economics.

Ethereum’s Next Chapter Is About Value Capture Ethereum’s position remains strong, but the easy narrative is gone.

It is not enough to say Ethereum has the most developers or the deepest DeFi history. Competitors are faster, cheaper, and more specialized. Layer 2s create both scale and fragmentation. Mainnet fees no longer tell the whole story.

The better question is where value ultimately settles.

If stablecoins, RWAs, DeFi collateral, and rollups continue depending on Ethereum security, then lower fees may be part of a successful scaling path. If too much activity and value drift away without returning economic benefit to ETH, the market will care.

That is why the current data is so interesting.

Ethereum at 11 is still foundational, but the business model of the base layer is being rewritten in real time.

This article is based on public Ethereum network data and July 2026 stablecoin, RWA, and fee metrics.

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