Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

DeFi lending has operated like a savings account from the 1970s for years. Variable rates, constant uncertainty, and the vague promise that things will probably work out. Morpho Midnight is betting that borrowers and lenders are tired of “probably.”

The protocol has officially launched fixed-rate, fixed-term credit markets, offering something that traditional finance takes for granted but that DeFi has struggled to nail down: predictability. The entire system is designed around a single variable, collateral price, which is either the most elegant simplification in DeFi lending or the most ambitious. Possibly both.

How Morpho Midnight actually works The protocol operates through isolated markets, meaning each lending pair exists in its own silo. This is a deliberate architectural choice to prevent the liquidity fragmentation that has plagued earlier attempts at fixed-rate DeFi lending.

The initial market is a cbBTC/USDC pair on Base, Coinbase’s Layer 2 network. Multiple maturity dates will be available from the start, giving users flexibility on how long they want to lock in their terms.

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The protocol uses what Morpho describes as an intent-based lending approach. Rather than dumping liquidity into a pool and hoping the algorithm treats you fairly, participants express specific terms they want: fixed rate, fixed duration, known collateral requirements. The protocol matches those intents without the intermediary complexity that typically eats into returns.

Morpho Midnight is non-custodial, meaning users retain control of their assets throughout the process. The smart contracts handle the matching and settlement, but no central party holds the keys.

The Morpho ecosystem backdrop Morpho has built one of the larger lending infrastructures in DeFi, with Morpho Blue’s total value locked reportedly sitting between $7B and $10B in 2026. Total deposits across the broader Morpho protocol have exceeded $11B.

The whitepaper and codebase for Midnight were released in May 2026, and a beta phase kicked off earlier in the year. The public mainnet launch was targeted for mid-July 2026. Security has been a central focus throughout development, with the team running multiple audits and formal verification processes before going live.

CEO Paul Frambot has positioned Midnight as complementary to Morpho’s existing variable-rate products rather than a replacement.

The roadmap includes phased rollouts of additional features. Vault adapters, which would allow more complex integrations with existing DeFi infrastructure, are planned for future updates. Cross-chain functionality is also on the horizon, which would extend Midnight beyond Base to other networks. Auto-rolling, a feature that would automatically renew positions at maturity, is another planned addition.

What this means for investors Morpho’s approach of isolated markets with a single-variable design reduces the system to collateral price as the only moving piece, removing several layers of risk. Banks and hedge funds understand collateral. They understand fixed terms. They do not understand algorithmic rate curves that shift based on utilization ratios and governance token emissions.

The launch on Base is strategically interesting. Coinbase’s L2 has been gaining institutional attention, and launching a fixed-rate product there signals that Morpho is targeting users who value the Coinbase ecosystem’s compliance and accessibility features. The cbBTC collateral choice reinforces that, as it’s Coinbase’s wrapped Bitcoin product.

The isolated market design helps prevent contagion between pairs, but it also means each market needs to bootstrap its own liquidity independently. If Morpho Midnight can attract even a fraction of the $11B already sitting in Morpho’s broader ecosystem, it will immediately become the largest fixed-rate lending protocol in DeFi.

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

NVIDIA: Major Clients Have Begun Testing Vera Rubin Devices

According to Bloomberg, NVIDIA has announced that its key clients have started testing its Vera Rubin devices. The chipmaker added that its new Vera processor outperforms AMD’s Turin, and that the chips are being delivered on schedule for use in AI data centers.

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Iran's Revolutionary Guard hits U.S. military radar in Kuwait.

According to Iran's Press TV, Iran's Revolutionary Guard hit a U.S. military radar at Kuwait's Al Jaber Base.

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Liang Wenfeng’s Huanfang and Jiuzhang secure the largest share in Changxin Technology’s private placement new share offering, with 113 private equity firms receiving allocations.

The preliminary offline placement results for Changxin Technology show that a total of 2,459 products under 113 private equity firms secured offline placements in the company, with a total of 161 million shares allocated, amounting to 1.436 billion yuan. The announcement notes that offline institutional investors are divided into Category A (public funds, social security funds, pension funds, enterprise annuities, bank wealth management products, insurance companies, QFIIs) and Category B (private equity firms, broker-dealer proprietary trading, trusts, financial companies, etc.). Category A investors, dominated by public funds, received 1.978 billion shares, accounting for 91% of the total offline issuance; while Category B investors, led by private equity firms, secured 196 million shares, making up only 9% of the total offline issuance. Among the private equity placement list, the top ten by number of placement objects are all leading quantitative private equity firms. Shanghai Yanfu has a total of 282 placement objects allocated, ranking first among private equity firms; Century Front, Jiukun Investment, Shanghai Chengqi, and Huanfang Quant have 209, 194, 167, and 153 placement objects respectively; Lingjun Investment, Shanghai Jinde, and Minghong Investment also have over 100 allocated products each, at 107, 105, and 100 respectively. Notably, Liang Wenfeng, founder of DeepSeek and a prominent private equity figure, took the largest share among private equity placements. Public information shows that the actual controllers of two leading 100-billion-yuan private equity firms, Ningbo Huanfang Quant and Zhejiang Jiuzhang Asset Management, are both Liang Wenfeng. This means that through his two private equity firms, Liang Wenfeng has a total of 194 private equity products allocated, with a total of 20.2497 million shares secured, amounting to approximately 175 million yuan. (The Paper)

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Telegram Founder: Will Integrate a Native Non-Custodial Gram Wallet for All Users

Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced in his personal channel that instant, zero-fee cryptocurrency transactions for its more than 1 billion users are set to become a reality. The platform is adding a native, non-custodial Gram wallet to every Telegram application.

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GRAM surges past $1.5, gaining over 9% in 10 minutes.

According to HTX market data, GRAM has broken through $1.5, currently trading at $1.555, up over 9% in 10 minutes. Earlier reports stated that Telegram’s founder said the team is building native non-custodial Gram wallets into every Telegram application.

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Crypto bank Augustus completes $180 million financing round, led by Tiger Global.

Augustus, a startup building a federally chartered clearing bank, announced it has raised $180 million to expand its U.S. dollar payment infrastructure amid stablecoins reshaping the global financial system. The funding round values Augustus at $1 billion. Tiger Global Management led the round, with participation from investors including Hummingbird Ventures, QED Investors, and founders of Nubank, Ramp, Circle, and Deel. The financing comes as banks, fintech firms, and crypto companies race to upgrade cross-border payment infrastructure. While much market focus has centered on stablecoin issuers, Augustus is targeting a less-discussed but critical segment of the financial system: the correspondent banking network. Augustus CEO Ferdinand Dabitz said in an interview: "We believe the distribution of financial services has hit a bottleneck at the clearing bank level." He pointed out that traditional clearing systems are "slow, not available around the clock, take two days to settle, and are closed on weekends."

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Nikkei 225 index gains widened to 3%

According to Bitget market data, the Nikkei 225 index continued to rise in late trading, gaining 3% intraday and currently trading at 66079.56 points.

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ZHIPU has rebounded 31% from its recent low, with new short positions opened against the trend losing nearly 40% of their principal.

According to Hyperinsight monitoring, ZHIPU on Hyperliquid saw a sharp rebound today to $149.52, with a 31.1% gain from its intraday low to high. As of press time, ZHIPU trades at $146.71. Background: Zhipu (ZHIPU) completed a placement of 19.78 million new H shares on July 13. On July 17, Moonshot AI released its 2.8-trillion-parameter open-source model Kimi K3, which intensified market concerns over China’s large language model competitive landscape, leading to a sustained slump. The stock price halved after the H-share offering, and today it has recouped a portion of those losses. During this rebound, an address starting with 0x52e6 took a contrarian short position early today, with all orders opened at the midpoint of the rally. The address initiated shorts when the stock rose ~12% from its low, adding to positions from $127.5 to $143.2. The position then saw continued gains before noon, leaving only ~$17 of buffer to its liquidation price. It currently holds ZHIPU short positions with 5x isolated margin, worth ~$198,700, with a liquidation price of ~$163.83. The position has an unrealized loss of ~$14,100, a return of ~-38.1%, and has nearly lost 40% of its initial margin. Monitoring shows that, aside from this largest loss-making position, there are 7 new ZHIPU positions exceeding $50,000 opened in the last 2-3 hours during today’s rebound—all short positions, totaling ~$953,200 in value, all currently underwater with a combined unrealized loss of ~$70,800. In contrast, among long positions exceeding $100,000, the average cost is ~$149.66, only ~2% above the current price. Currently, only the largest long position near $159.41 faces real liquidation pressure; the cost lines of the other four long positions have already been reclaimed by the current price.

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Spot silver's intraday gain has expanded to 3%

According to Bitget's market data, spot silver's intraday gain has widened to 3%, now trading at $58.1 per ounce.

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Cloud computing startup Fluidstack secures $830 million in Series A funding at a $7.5 billion valuation.

According to official sources, cloud computing startup Fluidstack closed an $830 million Series A funding round in January this year, valuing the company at $7.5 billion. The round was led by Situational Awareness, with participation from multiple prominent investment firms. The company primarily provides infrastructure for leading AI labs, aiming to accelerate the deployment of ultra-large-scale computing power and support the rollout of hundreds of gigawatt-level computing resources.

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UK Parliament Launches Investigation Into Banking Services for Crypto Industry

The UK Parliament’s cross-party Digital Assets Group has launched an investigation into banking services for the local crypto industry. The probe will focus on assessing the difficulties crypto firms face when opening and maintaining bank accounts, as well as the restrictions banks impose on crypto asset-related transactions.

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Hong Kong-listed Zhipu’s shares surged over 30% in afternoon trading, as the company put into operation a 1GW domestic computing power center and completed the acquisition of Zhongke Jiahe.

According to Bitget market data, Hong Kong-listed Zhipu (02513.HK) surged over 30% in the afternoon session. On the news front, the company announced the launch of a 1GW domestic computing power center and concurrently completed the acquisition of Zhongke Jiahe.

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Nikkei 225 index gains widened to 3%

According to Bitget market data, the Nikkei 225 index continued to rise in late trading, gaining 3% intraday and currently trading at 66079.56 points.

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ZHIPU has rebounded 31% from its recent low, with new short positions opened against the trend losing nearly 40% of their principal.

According to Hyperinsight monitoring, ZHIPU on Hyperliquid saw a sharp rebound today to $149.52, with a 31.1% gain from its intraday low to high. As of press time, ZHIPU trades at $146.71. Background: Zhipu (ZHIPU) completed a placement of 19.78 million new H shares on July 13. On July 17, Moonshot AI released its 2.8-trillion-parameter open-source model Kimi K3, which intensified market concerns over China’s large language model competitive landscape, leading to a sustained slump. The stock price halved after the H-share offering, and today it has recouped a portion of those losses. During this rebound, an address starting with 0x52e6 took a contrarian short position early today, with all orders opened at the midpoint of the rally. The address initiated shorts when the stock rose ~12% from its low, adding to positions from $127.5 to $143.2. The position then saw continued gains before noon, leaving only ~$17 of buffer to its liquidation price. It currently holds ZHIPU short positions with 5x isolated margin, worth ~$198,700, with a liquidation price of ~$163.83. The position has an unrealized loss of ~$14,100, a return of ~-38.1%, and has nearly lost 40% of its initial margin. Monitoring shows that, aside from this largest loss-making position, there are 7 new ZHIPU positions exceeding $50,000 opened in the last 2-3 hours during today’s rebound—all short positions, totaling ~$953,200 in value, all currently underwater with a combined unrealized loss of ~$70,800. In contrast, among long positions exceeding $100,000, the average cost is ~$149.66, only ~2% above the current price. Currently, only the largest long position near $159.41 faces real liquidation pressure; the cost lines of the other four long positions have already been reclaimed by the current price.

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Spot silver's intraday gain has expanded to 3%

According to Bitget's market data, spot silver's intraday gain has widened to 3%, now trading at $58.1 per ounce.

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Cloud computing startup Fluidstack secures $830 million in Series A funding at a $7.5 billion valuation.

According to official sources, cloud computing startup Fluidstack closed an $830 million Series A funding round in January this year, valuing the company at $7.5 billion. The round was led by Situational Awareness, with participation from multiple prominent investment firms. The company primarily provides infrastructure for leading AI labs, aiming to accelerate the deployment of ultra-large-scale computing power and support the rollout of hundreds of gigawatt-level computing resources.

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UK Parliament Launches Investigation Into Banking Services for Crypto Industry

The UK Parliament’s cross-party Digital Assets Group has launched an investigation into banking services for the local crypto industry. The probe will focus on assessing the difficulties crypto firms face when opening and maintaining bank accounts, as well as the restrictions banks impose on crypto asset-related transactions.

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Hong Kong-listed Zhipu’s shares surged over 30% in afternoon trading, as the company put into operation a 1GW domestic computing power center and completed the acquisition of Zhongke Jiahe.

According to Bitget market data, Hong Kong-listed Zhipu (02513.HK) surged over 30% in the afternoon session. On the news front, the company announced the launch of a 1GW domestic computing power center and concurrently completed the acquisition of Zhongke Jiahe.

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https://en.spaziocrypto.com/crypto-guide/solana

In a notable liquidity event, $500 million in USDC was minted on the Solana blockchain, as reported by @martypartymusic. This issuance, completed in two tranches of $250 million each, significantly boosts the dollar liquidity available on Solana. With Solana currently holding between $7.74 billion and $10 billion in circulating USDC, this new influx represents a substantial addition to its existing stablecoin supply. The move is perceived to align with increased institutional demand for Solana as a favored platform for decentralized finance (DeFi) and other financial applications.

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The issuance of such a large amount of USDC on Solana may indicate potential shifts in market dynamics. As a result, there is speculation around its impact on Solana’s price, particularly in relation to the ongoing market question of whether Solana will hit $90 within July. Despite the substantial liquidity input, the source tier of the information could affect the degree of market movement.

Key Takeaways The recent issuance of $500 million USDC on Solana appears to suggest growing institutional interest in the platform. Market pricing suggests that the increased liquidity could be supportive of a positive price movement for Solana, yet source credibility may temper immediate impacts. Current market odds for Solana reaching $90 in July have seen some fluctuations, with a recent increase to 9% from 6% just 24 hours ago. What to Watch Observers will be closely monitoring Solana’s price movements in the coming days to see if the increased liquidity translates into upward momentum. Key indicators include any substantial changes in volume or new institutional announcements that reinforce Solana’s role in DeFi. Additionally, developments related to the broader financial environment, such as regulatory changes or macroeconomic shifts, could also influence market sentiment and Solana’s price trajectory.

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Term Structure

Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h August 1 2026 9% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.2% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.9% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.7% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 1.9% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.4% — — View market → August 1 2026 2.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.9% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 21.5% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market →

Crypto has been rescued by the US government exactly once, and the rescue was aimed at something else. The mechanism was an obscure override in banking law, and understanding how it worked in March 2023, and why it may never work that way again, is the closest thing to reading crypto’s actual safety net

Summary

The systemic risk exception is an override in US banking law: normally the FDIC must resolve failed banks at the least cost to its insurance fund, but with extraordinary sign-offs it may spend more to prevent broader financial instability. Invoking it requires a two-thirds vote of the FDIC board, a two-thirds vote of the Federal Reserve board, and the Treasury secretary’s determination in consultation with the president, one of the highest procedural bars in financial regulation. In March 2023 it was invoked for Silicon Valley Bank, making all depositors whole including the uninsured, at a cost to the insurance fund of roughly $16 billion to $17 billion, recovered through special assessments on banks. Circle held $3.3 billion of USDC reserves at SVB; the coin fell to roughly 87 cents over the weekend and recovered when the depositor guarantee landed. Crypto’s only bailout was a side effect of a banking rescue. The channel is narrowing by design: issuers moved reserves away from bank deposits, and watchdogs now warn that a future exception covering a bank heavy with stablecoin reserves could cost more than SVB did, which is exactly why regulators want the exposure shrunk. For one weekend in March 2023, the second-largest stablecoin in the world traded like a distressed bond. USDC, marketed as a dollar in digital form, touched roughly 87 cents, because $3.3 billion of the reserves behind it were trapped inside a bank that had just failed. By Monday morning the peg was back, and the crypto industry drew a comforting conclusion: when things get bad enough, the government steps in. The conclusion is half right and dangerously incomplete. The government did step in, through a mechanism called the systemic risk exception, and it was not stepping in for crypto. Understanding what that mechanism is, the extraordinary process it requires, what it actually did that weekend, and why the same rescue is being engineered out of repeatability, is the closest thing available to an honest map of crypto’s safety net. This guide is that map.

The rule the exception overrides The systemic risk exception only makes sense against the rule it breaks, and the rule is a scar from an earlier crisis.

After the savings-and-loan disaster of the 1980s drained the deposit insurance system, Congress passed the FDIC Improvement Act of 1991, and at its center sat a discipline called least-cost resolution. When a bank fails, the FDIC must choose the resolution path that costs its Deposit Insurance Fund the least. In practice that usually means insured depositors are paid in full, up to the statutory limit, and uninsured depositors, everyone above the limit, stand in line as creditors of the receivership, recovering whatever the failed bank’s assets eventually yield. The rule exists to make large depositors police their banks: if money above the insurance cap is genuinely at risk, sophisticated customers have reasons to watch where they keep it, and banks that take wild risks lose big deposits before they blow up.

Congress knew the discipline could occasionally be catastrophic, a failure large enough or connected enough that letting uninsured depositors take losses would spread panic to healthy banks. So it built one exit: the systemic risk exception, permitting the FDIC to abandon least-cost and protect broader classes of creditors, including all uninsured depositors, when the cheap path would have serious adverse effects on economic conditions or financial stability.

Then it made the exit door heavy. Invoking the exception requires a written recommendation by two-thirds of the FDIC’s board, a matching two-thirds of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, and a determination by the Treasury secretary made in consultation with the president, with after-the-fact accountability including review of the determination. Three institutions, supermajorities in two, and the White House in the loop: American financial law contains few switches harder to flip, which is the point. The exception is designed to be used the way it reads, exceptionally.

March 2023: the weekend it flipped Silicon Valley Bank failed on Friday, March 10, 2023, in the fastest large-bank run in American history, tens of billions of withdrawal demands in a day, driven at smartphone speed by a depositor base of startups and funds that all read the same warnings at the same time. The failure’s signature problem was concentration above the cap: the overwhelming majority of SVB’s deposits were uninsured, held by companies that used the bank for payroll and treasury. Under least-cost resolution, those depositors faced haircuts of unknown size and timing, and by Saturday the question consuming regulators was not SVB but Monday: whether uninsured depositors at every similar bank would conclude their money was unsafe and run next.

Among those uninsured depositors was Circle, with $3.3 billion of USDC’s reserves, roughly 8% of the total, on deposit at SVB. The disclosure landed Friday night, and the stablecoin market did the arithmetic instantly: if the SVB money took, say, a 20% haircut, the coin was worth visibly less than a dollar. USDC broke, trading down to roughly 87 cents, redemption queues formed, and the depeg transmitted through DeFi, where USDC served as core collateral and as backing for other stablecoins, turning one bank’s failure into a system-wide crypto stress test in under 48 hours. For readers new to the mechanics, crypto.news has also explained the anatomy of the USDC break.

On Sunday evening, the switch flipped. The FDIC and Federal Reserve boards voted, the Treasury secretary determined, and the government announced that all SVB depositors, insured and uninsured alike, would have full access to their money Monday morning, with the identical treatment applied to the simultaneously failed Signature Bank. The Fed added the Fed authority this is often confused with, a new broad lending facility so other banks could borrow against securities at face value rather than fire-selling them. Crucially, the announcement drew a line: depositors were protected, while shareholders and certain bondholders of the failed banks were wiped out, this was a depositor guarantee, not a rescue of the banks as firms. The cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund from protecting uninsured depositors, later tallied around $16 billion to $17 billion, was recovered the way the statute prescribes, through special assessments levied on the banking industry.

USDC’s peg was restored by Monday. Circle’s $3.3 billion was simply there again, whole, because Circle was a depositor and every depositor had been made whole.

Reading the rescue correctly Everything important about this episode lives in the details the celebratory version skips.

The decision-makers were not looking at crypto. The systemic risk determination was about the American regional banking system: the fear that uninsured depositors at dozens of healthy-enough banks would run on Monday, converting one failure into a cascade. USDC’s exposure appeared in the weekend’s inputs mainly as evidence of how far SVB’s depositor base reached, not as an object of policy. The stablecoin was rescued the way a car parked next to a burning building is saved by the fire department: thoroughly, and incidentally.

The mechanism could not have reached crypto directly even if regulators had wanted it to. The exception overrides least-cost resolution of a failed insured bank; it has no application to a failing stablecoin issuer, which is not a bank, holds no insured deposits, and sits entirely outside the FDIC’s resolution machinery. Had the causality run the other way, Circle failing with SVB healthy, there was no switch to flip. The one rescue in crypto’s history worked only because the point of failure happened to be inside the traditional perimeter.

And the episode cut both ways for the industry’s reputation. It proved the deepest link between how reserves connect coins to banks and banking, and it showed regulators exactly what that link costs: a coin’s stability had become an unpriced pass-through of a bank’s uninsured-deposit risk, and the public backstop had absorbed it by accident. Nobody in Washington filed that under precedent to repeat. They filed it under exposure to close.

A note on scale completes the picture, because the exception’s economics are part of why its future use is contested. The Deposit Insurance Fund that absorbed the roughly $16 billion to $17 billion cost is not taxpayer money in the direct sense; it is funded by assessments on insured banks, and the special assessment that recouped the SVB and Signature costs was levied, by design, disproportionately on the largest banks. That structure is why the banking industry itself is a stakeholder in how the exception gets used: every invocation is a bill sent to banks that did nothing wrong, which is both the system’s discipline, the industry insures itself, and the source of its political friction. Now scale the stablecoin version. The sector’s reserves exceed $300 billion, and even a fraction of a major issuer’s backing sitting as deposits at one failing bank could produce an uninsured-depositor guarantee dwarfing 2023’s, with the cost assessed on banks to protect, in economic substance, the customers of a non-bank competitor that pays no assessments at all. That asymmetry, banks funding the accidental backstop of an industry built to disintermediate them, is the sharpest version of the Better Markets warning, and it explains the otherwise puzzling alliance of bank lobbies and consumer watchdogs pressing regulators to keep stablecoin reserves out of bank deposits. The exception’s door is heavy, and the parties who pay when it opens are now watching what stands outside it.

The weekend, hour by hour The compressed timeline of March 10 to 13, 2023 is worth walking in sequence, because the mechanics of how a bank failure became a stablecoin crisis and back again are clearest at ground level, and because the sequence is the template for reading any future episode.

Friday, March 10. California regulators closed Silicon Valley Bank mid-morning and appointed the FDIC receiver, the standard Friday choreography of American bank failure, except at unprecedented speed and size for the era. The default path was least-cost resolution: insured depositors whole within days, uninsured depositors, the vast majority at SVB, issued receivership certificates for the excess, of uncertain value and timing. Through the afternoon, the exposure disclosures began. Circle’s landed that evening: $3.3 billion of USDC reserves at the failed bank.

Saturday. The stablecoin market traded the disclosure. USDC broke decisively below its peg, reaching roughly 87 cents, and the mechanics of the depeg mattered as much as its size: redemptions through Circle were constrained by the banking system being closed for the weekend, so price discovery happened entirely on secondary markets, in an information vacuum, with holders unable to distinguish a weekend liquidity discount from a genuine solvency haircut. The stress propagated through DeFi, where USDC collateralized lending markets and backed other stablecoins, notably DAI, which depegged in sympathy. A crypto-native observer watching only crypto saw a stablecoin crisis; the actual variable was a receivership in Santa Clara.

Sunday, March 12. The systemic machinery engaged, aimed at Monday’s banking open, not at crypto. The FDIC and Federal Reserve boards delivered their supermajority recommendations, the Treasury secretary made the determination in consultation with the president, and the announcement guaranteed all depositors of SVB and Signature Bank, with shareholders and certain debtholders wiped out. Simultaneously the Fed unveiled its new broad lending facility for banks, term funding against securities at par, the modern 13(3)-era answer to fire sales. Circle communicated that its exposure would be recovered in full and that the peg would restore when banking rails reopened.

Monday, March 13. Depositors had access. Circle’s $3.3 billion was whole, redemptions resumed through functioning banks, and USDC returned to parity within the day. Total elapsed time from failure to restoration: roughly 65 hours, most of them a weekend.

Read as a template, the sequence teaches four things. Stablecoin depegs driven by reserve exposure trade on disclosure and rumor while the actual determinants, receivership outcomes, official decisions, move on institutional time, so weekend prices are sentiment, not settlement. The transmission runs through whatever fraction of reserves sits at the failed institution, which is why the single most predictive number in any repeat is the issuer’s disclosed bank-deposit concentration. The rescue decision, when it came, was made by banking regulators weighing banking contagion, with crypto’s fate a dependent variable, and any future episode should be read the same way: watch what the FDIC and Fed fear for banks, not what they say about crypto. And the entire arc, break to restoration, required the failure to sit inside the insured perimeter, which is the fact every subsequent reform has been quietly working to make irrelevant.

Why the accident is being engineered out Three developments since March 2023 have narrowed the accidental-bailout channel, and each is worth registering because together they answer the question every holder actually cares about: would it work that way again?

Reserves moved. The proximate lesson issuers drew was that concentrated uninsured bank deposits are the weak joint, and reserve portfolios restructured accordingly, toward Treasury bills, government money market funds, and custody arrangements, with bank deposits reduced to operational cash. The GENIUS Act hardened the direction into law with full-reserve requirements in high-quality liquid assets. The less reserve money sits as uninsured deposits, the less a bank failure can transmit into a peg, and the less a future depositor guarantee would have any stablecoin to save.

The watchdogs did the arithmetic. Better Markets and others have warned that a future systemic risk exception covering a bank holding a major issuer’s reserves could cost the insurance fund more than SVB’s roughly $17 billion, socializing a stablecoin’s back end across assessed banks at a scale the 2023 episode only sketched. That warning is the political immune response to the accident: the argument now on the table is precisely that stablecoin reserve exposure should not be allowed to grow into something the exception would one day be pressured to cover.

And the doctrine hardened. The Fed chair who owned crypto just ruled out saving it, while the FDIC has separately confirmed that stablecoin holders have no deposit insurance of their own, no pass-through, no coverage, a creditor’s claim on the issuer and nothing more. Crypto.news has also examined why holders had no direct protection. The official architecture being built instead, GENIUS’s holder-priority rule and reserve requirements, is a resolution regime: machinery for letting an issuer fail in an orderly way, which is the exact opposite of machinery for rescuing one. The unfinished state of that rulebook, after regulators missed July’s statutory deadline, is the honest asterisk on the whole structure.

The synthesis is clean enough to carry. The systemic risk exception remains on the books, as heavy-doored as ever, and it protects one thing: depositors of failed insured banks, when three institutions and the White House agree that letting them take losses would endanger the system. Stablecoins touched that protection once, through a $3.3 billion accident of account location, and the years since have been a coordinated project, by issuers, by Congress, by regulators, to make sure the next stablecoin crisis is resolved inside crypto’s own machinery rather than caught in banking’s net. Whether that machinery is finished when the test comes is the open question of 2026, and it is the right one to watch, because the fire department has now said clearly which building it covers.

Frequently asked questions What is the systemic risk exception in one sentence? It is the override in US banking law that lets the FDIC abandon its normal obligation to resolve a failed bank at the least cost to the insurance fund, and instead protect broader groups such as all uninsured depositors, when the cheap path would threaten financial stability.

Who has to approve it? Three parties, at one of the highest bars in financial regulation: at least two-thirds of the FDIC’s board, at least two-thirds of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, and the Treasury secretary, who makes the determination in consultation with the president. The multi-institution supermajority design exists to keep the exception truly exceptional.

What happened with Silicon Valley Bank in 2023? SVB failed on March 10, 2023 after the fastest major bank run in US history, with the vast majority of its deposits above the insurance limit. Fearing Monday runs on similar banks, regulators invoked the exception on Sunday and guaranteed all depositors, insured and uninsured, at SVB and Signature Bank, while wiping out shareholders. The uninsured-depositor protection cost the insurance fund roughly $16 billion to $17 billion, recovered via special assessments on banks.

How did that rescue USDC? Circle held $3.3 billion of USDC’s reserves, about 8%, as deposits at SVB. When the failure was disclosed, USDC fell to roughly 87 cents as markets priced a possible haircut on that exposure. The depositor guarantee made Circle whole along with every other depositor, and the peg recovered by Monday. USDC was saved as a depositor of a rescued bank, not as a stablecoin.

Could the exception be used to rescue a stablecoin issuer directly? No. The mechanism applies to the resolution of failed insured banks, and a stablecoin issuer is not a bank and holds no insured deposits. If an issuer failed while its reserve banks stayed healthy, the exception would have nothing to attach to. The 2023 episode worked only because the point of failure sat inside the traditional banking perimeter.

Why might it not work the same way next time? Because the channel is being closed from three directions. Issuers moved reserves out of uninsured bank deposits into Treasury bills, government money funds, and custody, so a bank failure transmits less into any peg. Watchdogs such as Better Markets warn that covering a reserve-heavy bank could cost more than SVB did, building political resistance. And regulators, including the Fed chair this month, have explicitly disclaimed crypto rescues while constructing a resolution regime instead.

What protects stablecoin holders now, if not this? Under the GENIUS Act: full reserves in high-quality liquid assets and a priority rule paying stablecoin holders ahead of other creditors in an issuer’s failure, a strong first claim on the reserve pool. Holders have no deposit insurance and no pass-through coverage, as the FDIC has confirmed. The implementing rules for the new regime remain unfinished after agencies missed the July 2026 statutory deadline, which is the main open risk in the structure.

What should someone watch to judge the safety net today? Three things. Reserve disclosures, specifically how much of an issuer’s backing still sits as bank deposits versus Treasuries and government funds. The GENIUS rulemaking’s completion, since holder priority is only as fast and certain as the redemption and resolution mechanics behind it. And official rhetoric under stress: whether the next mid-sized crypto failure is actually allowed to fail, which is the only true test of the no-rescue doctrine. This is educational information, not financial advice.

Disclaimer: This article is for information and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. It describes past official actions and current law, neither of which guarantees any future action, and regulatory details remain subject to change. Always do your own research. Information is accurate as of July 20, 2026.

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

Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.

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Cross-chain bridge protocol Allbridge has suspended its Core protocol following a flash loan attack, with the attacker stealing approximately $1.65 million in assets from Solana stablecoin liquidity pools. According to analysis from blockchain security firms PeckShield and CertiK, the attacker borrowed $1.12 million in flash loan funds via Solana lending protocol Kamino, then manipulated the price mechanism in Allbridge’s pools through multiple stablecoin swaps to convert assets at a discounted rate before bridging the funds to an Ethereum address. During the attack, the attacker used thousands of dollars in USDT to obtain around $2.24 million in USDC, then bridged the funds to Ethereum and further dispersed them. It remains unclear whether any of the stolen funds can still be recovered. Allbridge said its team suspended the Core protocol for security reasons and is asking affected liquidity providers to withdraw their funds immediately. The attack caused liquidity pool imbalances, allowing some traders to profit from arbitrage opportunities. Allbridge is calling on these users to return their gains, noting the funds will be used to compensate affected LPs. The team added that user funds face no further risk at present, and will release a detailed incident analysis after completing its investigation, while planning to relaunch the Core protocol with liquidity pools removed. This is Allbridge’s second similar flash loan attack. In April 2023, the protocol’s BNB Chain liquidity pool lost approximately $573,000 due to a similar vulnerability; the project later stated it had recovered most of the funds and adjusted its liquidity calculation mechanism.

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TLDR: GENIUS Act’s one-year rule deadline passed on July 18, 2026, with zero final rules issued. Stablecoin supply grew 18.6% to $308.1 billion despite the unfinished regulatory framework. USDT and USDC together control 83% of the stablecoin market as rules remain drafts. Full regulatory effect now shifts to January 18, 2027, regardless of rulemaking progress. The GENIUS Act reached its first anniversary on July 18, 2026, without a single final rule published by regulators. The statutory deadline for completing payment stablecoin regulations passed with eight proposals still pending across several federal agencies.

Meanwhile, the stablecoin market expanded from $259.7 billion to $308.1 billion over the same period, an 18.6% increase recorded entirely under an unfinished regulatory framework. The law’s full effect now shifts to January 18, 2027, regardless of rulemaking progress.

Market Growth Outpaces Regulatory Progress On-chain data pulled on July 19 confirmed the scale of the gap between law and enforcement. Total stablecoin supply climbed from $259.7 billion at signing to a May peak above $320 billion. It settled at $308.1 billion by the missed deadline, showing steady expansion despite regulatory delays.

Four agencies hold responsibility for finalizing GENIUS Act rules, and none has completed the process. The OCC proposed a broad implementing rule in March covering reserves, capital and custody standards. The FDIC and NCUA submitted separate prudential and licensing proposals, while Treasury addressed state-level regulation in April.

Market concentration adds weight to the delay, since two issuers control most circulating supply. USDT and USDC together represent about 83% of the stablecoin market, meaning any final rule shapes their operations directly. USD1, the World Liberty Financial token, has grown into the fifth-largest stablecoin despite limited scale a year ago.

An institutional cohort has expanded inside this regulatory gap throughout the GENIUS Act’s first year. PayPal’s PYUSD, BlackRock’s BUIDL, Ripple’s RLUSD and Paxos-backed USDG all grew without finished federal guidance. These issuers built market share while the rules meant to govern them remained in draft form.

Stablecoin Issuers Face Uncertainty Ahead Of 2027 Deadline Congress built a backstop into the original legislation covering scenarios where deadlines slip. The Act takes effect on the earlier of January 18, 2027, or 120 days after final rules publish.

Since no rule finalized after September 20 can move that date earlier, January 18 now stands as the effective start.

Draft proposals outline requirements without yet carrying legal force for issuers. Reserves must sit one-to-one in cash and short-dated Treasuries under current drafts.

Redemptions would need processing within two business days, alongside a five-million-dollar capital floor from OCC language.

Individual issuers face different exposure depending on their current structure and market. Circle’s USDC has the most riding on final capital and reserve requirements. Tether launched USAT, a US-compliant token, anticipating rules that remain unpublished a year later.

Stablecoins function as the settlement layer beneath most crypto market activity today. Every DEX pair and on-chain treasury operates on infrastructure lacking finished US legal grounding. The market added $48 billion in new supply without waiting for regulatory certainty to arrive.

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The GENIUS Act’s one-year implementation deadline passed on July 18, 2026, without any final regulatory rules for stablecoins being enacted, leaving major issuers and the broader market operating in a state of uncertainty.

Regulatory delays persist as market expandsEight regulatory proposals remain unfinished across several federal agencies, despite a statutory requirement to finalize rules within one year of the Act’s signing. Currently, no agency has completed its obligations under the legislation, and the process shows no clear sign of resolution.

Meanwhile, the total supply of stablecoins grew by 18.6% over the past year, climbing from $259.7 billion to $308.1 billion. On-chain data collected July 19 indicates the market briefly peaked above $320 billion in May before settling just over $300 billion ahead of the regulatory deadline.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) introduced a wide-ranging proposal in March, addressing reserves, capital requirements, and custody standards. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) presented distinct approaches for prudential oversight and licensing, while the US Treasury Department focused primarily on state-level regulatory coordination in its April proposal.

Market share in the stablecoin sector remains highly concentrated. Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC collectively account for approximately 83% of circulating stablecoins. Any forthcoming rules will therefore have direct consequences for these two dominant issuers. Notably, World Liberty Financial’s token, USD1, grew into the fifth-largest stablecoin after only a year in limited circulation.

StablecoinMarket Share (%)Status (July 2026)USDT~50Operational, awaiting rulesUSDC~33Operational, awaiting rulesUSD1N/AGrew to 5th-largestEmergence of new stablecoins amid uncertaintyThe lack of finalized regulation has not deterred innovation. Over the first year of the GENIUS Act, a number of institutional stablecoins expanded their presence. PayPal launched PYUSD; BlackRock introduced BUIDL; Ripple rolled out RLUSD; and Paxos issued USDG—all during a period when regulatory frameworks remained incomplete.

These issuers built significant market share while the rules designed to guide their operations were still undergoing agency review.

Mini dictionary: GENIUS Act, the first comprehensive US federal law targeting payment stablecoin regulation, introduced requirements for reserves, licensing, redemption timelines, and capital standards, with oversight from multiple federal agencies.

Congress structured the GENIUS Act so that all provisions automatically take effect on the earlier of January 18, 2027, or 120 days after final rules are published by regulators, regardless of how incomplete the process remains.

Key provisions from draft rule proposals specify that stablecoin issuers must hold reserves one-to-one in cash and short-term treasuries, with redemptions processed within two business days and a $5 million capital requirement. However, since these rules remain in draft form, they do not yet have the force of law.

Challenges and new timelines for issuersStablecoin issuers face differing exposure to the proposed regulations, depending on their operational structure. Circle’s USDC, for example, may face stricter capital and reserve requirements once rules are finalized. Tether’s launch of USAT, aimed at US regulatory compliance, also reflects efforts to anticipate new standards now postponed at least another six months.

No agency issued a final rule before September 20, 2026, which locks January 18, 2027, as the date when the GENIUS Act will fully take effect, even if agencies remain behind on rulemaking.

The stablecoin market added $48 billion in new supply while regulatory uncertainty persisted, highlighting the scale of trading and settlements occurring without finalized US rules.

Stablecoins underpin activity on every decentralized exchange and power much of the crypto market’s infrastructure, all while operating in the absence of a concrete federal legal framework. The sector’s significant growth underlines ongoing demand despite protracted delays in regulation.

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.

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Analysis: South Korean chip stocks have fallen beyond their fundamentals; US tech giants' earnings reports may serve as a catalyst for a rebound.

Global semiconductor stocks have plunged sharply recently, with securities analysts noting that the price declines have far exceeded levels reflected by fundamentals. Lee Jaeman, a researcher at Hana Securities, stated: "Even when factoring in market concerns about the cyclical volatility of semiconductors, the recent sharp plunge in stock prices appears excessive." The researcher pointed out: "We believe the catalyst for a rebound in semiconductor companies' stock prices will be the financial results to be released successively by U.S. hyperscale cloud service providers starting from late July." He added: "The combined capital expenditure growth rate of Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon is projected to rise from 80% in Q1 2026 to 83% in Q2 and 92% in Q3." He also said: "Given the growth in investment demand, semiconductor companies can sustain high operating profit margins." (Jinshi)

3 minutes ago

Ansem buys PUMP, bullish on it becoming a beneficiary of Solana's retail cycle.

Renowned crypto investor Ansem posted that he bought PUMP when its price rebounded to retest its previous support level, at an entry price of approximately $0.001675. His bullish thesis is primarily based on Pump.fun generating $30 million to $40 million in monthly revenue even during the bear market, and his view that Solana will again dominate retail on-chain activity in this cycle, with Pump.fun likely emerging as a key beneficiary. If Pump.fun launches an airdrop of over 300 million tokens, it could follow the incentive model of Jito and Jupiter in 2023, driving a rebound in on-chain trading volume, user attention, and activity. Additionally, Pump.fun is currently competing with high-profit crypto protocols including Hyperliquid and Polymarket. Ansem also noted that the Pump.fun team holds a large amount of PUMP tokens, which recently entered the unlock phase, and given the platform’s core business of driving retail participation in token speculation, the team has incentives to boost the token’s performance. If PUMP breaks below its previous low of approximately $0.0014, the above thesis will be invalidated.

3 minutes ago

Institutions: AI industry revenue has reached a critical tipping point, with hundreds of billions of dollars in AI investment starting to generate commercial returns.

According to a report from research firm Exponential View, the artificial intelligence (AI) industry has reached a critical revenue inflection point, marking initial validation of the business model where tech companies have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into building AI infrastructure in recent years. The report shows that AI-related revenue from global hyperscale and emerging cloud service providers has hit roughly $25 billion, marking the second consecutive quarter that this figure has exceeded the estimated depreciation costs of AI data centers and chips, which stand at around $21 billion. This milestone means revenue generated by the AI industry has started to offset cost pressures from infrastructure capital investment, as the AI economy transitions from an expansion phase relying solely on capital expenditure to a revenue validation stage. Exponential View notes that current AI revenue primarily stems from AI cloud services, GPU computing power rentals, large language model APIs, enterprise AI software, and generative AI applications. As corporate clients continue to increase their AI spending, AI commercialization is accelerating. However, the report also points out that the AI industry is still far from achieving high profitability. Due to high costs for GPUs, data centers, electricity, and model development, industry profit margins remain limited; current revenue is more about validating the sustainability of infrastructure investment rather than generating large-scale profits. The core competition in the AI industry will shift from "whether real demand exists" to "which companies can achieve large-scale profitability amid fierce competition". As model capabilities improve and costs decline, AI service prices may fall further, so enterprises need to boost profit margins through more efficient application scenarios and business models.

3 minutes ago

84 million BANK tokens have been transferred from the foundation to the Aster deposit address, valued at approximately $13.7 million.

Arkham data shows that 84 million BANK tokens (of Lorenzo Protocol) were transferred from the BANK Foundation address to a newly created wallet, then moved to an Aster deposit address, valued at approximately $13.7 million. Market data indicates BANK has rallied more than 3 times over the past three days, briefly topping $0.21, and is now trading at $0.163 with a 24-hour gain of 53.7%.

19 minutes ago

World Cup Predict.fun Final Launches 30-Point Market, 260,000 USDT Prize Pool Up for Grabs

Predict.fun’s World Cup Finals have officially kicked off. Centered on the Argentina vs. Spain match, 30 fan token markets are now live, covering multiple dimensions including match outcome, score, goals, corner kicks, and player performance, with nearly 200,000 fan tokens released in total. Supporters of the eventual winning team will split the 260,000 USDT final prize pool based on their points rankings.

19 minutes ago

Analysis: Bitcoin will not bottom out this quarter; the current sideways consolidation is a false stability, with the real bottom and accumulation window arriving in October.

Market analyst Noname has published a post refuting the current "bottom is already here" narrative, arguing that calling a bottom is premature. The current sideways consolidation essentially reflects indecision, with "hesitation at this level usually preceding a downward breakout before an upward move." The analyst outlined a clear path forecast for the second half of 2026: July will see "false stability" and a bear trap rally, with volatility to flush out weak positions; August will mark the start of the real decline, testing the $50,000 level for the first time; September will extend downward pressure, with a W-bottom structure beginning to form; October will be the actual bottom and accumulation zone, at which point participation strategies will turn aggressive; November will show initial signs of recovery, with prices starting to rebound from the bottom; December will bring the possibility of returning to $100,000 for the first time since the bear market began. The analyst emphasized that the final sell-off is still imminent, though most refuse to believe it. "Don’t let the sideways movement fool you." In terms of rhythm, the decline since the June high is a full liquidation of the three-year rally. Previous bear cycles all ended with corrections of over 80%; the current price is roughly 50% down from its all-time high, so if history repeats, lower targets should still be within expectations. The analyst predicts the final bottom will not drag into the fourth quarter—this cycle will complete in the third quarter. An oversold zone with expanding volume may be observed between August and September, followed by a breakout in the fourth quarter, and returning to $100,000 by year-end will be the minimum rebound target needed for bulls to repair structural damage.

19 minutes ago

Smart money address 'gritsa.eth' has opened a long position of 50 BTC, valued at approximately $3.22 million.

According to OnchainLens monitoring, the smart money address "gritsa.eth" has just opened a long position on Hyperliquid for 50 BTC, worth approximately $3.22 million. The trader’s cumulative profit exceeds $2.83 million.

19 minutes ago

CZ teases in a post: Even being inactive doesn’t hurt gaining followers – could the bear market be nearing its end?

Binance founder CZ posted, "Inactivity doesn’t seem to affect follower growth at all. Is the bear market almost over?" According to the tweet CZ cited, his current follower count on X stands at 11.98 million, soon to cross the 12 million threshold.

19 minutes ago

US Secretary of Energy states that military operations against Iran will continue.

U.S. Energy Secretary Wright has stated that U.S. military operations against Iran will continue until President Trump achieves his military objectives. In an interview, Wright said the Trump administration’s goal is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and weaken its ability to threaten neighboring countries and global commercial activities. "Therefore, this mission will continue until its task is completed," (CCTV)

19 minutes ago

17h05 ▪ 6 min read ▪ by Mikaia A.

Summarize this article with:

Stablecoins have been suffering a historic hemorrhage for two months now. Guess which stable crypto emerges victorious from this financial chaos? More than 12 billion dollars have left the sector, the sharpest contraction since 2022. Tether holds strong, Sky Dollar collapses, and Global Dollar explodes. The stable crypto market is changing face.

In brief 12.4 billion dollars have left stablecoins since mid-May, an unprecedented contraction since 2022. Tether and USDC resist, Sky Dollar crashes 12%, Global Dollar explodes 9%. Hyundai completes international stablecoin transfers in 7 minutes versus 4 hours. Visa sees stablecoins dominating micro-payments in the AI agents economy. $12B Vanished : Stablecoins’ Biggest Bloodbath Since 2022 Since May 17, 2026, stablecoins have lost 12.4 billion dollars, their largest contraction since 2022. Just last week, 1.5 billion dollars vanished from the sector. The total market capitalization of the stablecoin market has now fallen to about 311 billion dollars, down 0.61% over seven days. 

However, this decline is not a typical panic. Bitcoin and major altcoins held steady during this period. If fear had truly dominated the markets, digital assets would have fallen together. 

This is not the case, raising questions about the real causes of this movement. The current contraction appears less related to fear and more to a deep structural evolution in the sector. 

Stablecoins no longer play the simple role of dollar parking. They now compete on yield, features, and utility. Capital moves towards assets offering attractive returns. 

Those offering only stability are losing ground. The market is silently reshaping itself.

The Giants Hold Their Ground While Challengers Jostle for Position Tether (USDT) resists with 184.055 billion dollars, down only 0.06% for the week. Circle (USDC) follows at 73.376 billion, down 0.04%. These two heavyweights now dominate 82% of the stablecoin market. 

Yet behind this apparent stability, a silent war rages. Sky Dollar (USDS) falls 12.30%, a dizzying drop that pushed it below 7 billion dollars. World Liberty Financial (USD1) loses 4.59% of its capitalization. BlackRock BUIDL drops 8.68%, a significant decline for an institutional player. 

Conversely, Global Dollar (USDG) explodes 9.08%, reaching 3.164 billion dollars. PayPal (PYUSD) climbs 1.60% to 2.877 billion dollars. This striking divergence reveals a fundamental antithesis in the market. 

Yield-bearing stablecoins attract capital seeking returns. “Parking” stablecoins lose ground. The market no longer rewards simple stability. It now demands yield and utility.

Hyundai in 7 Minutes, Visa Sees the Future : The Big Players Are Here Hyundai became the first South Korean conglomerate to use Avalanche for international stablecoin transfers. A 20,000-dollar transfer from Hyundai Motor America to Hyundai Motor Mexico was completed in just 7 minutes. Compared to 3 to 4 hours via traditional banks, the difference is striking. 

Hyundai plans to expand this system to its European subsidiaries, with Circle (USDC) and Visa as partners. Institutional adoption of stablecoins is accelerating significantly. 

At the same time, Visa published a report with Artemis on the AI agents economy. According to this report, cards will remain suited for macro-transactions. Stablecoins will dominate micro-payments, especially those below 1 dollar, in the automated economy. Visa sees cards and stablecoins not as rivals but parts of the same system. 

The heavyweights of traditional finance are now entering the game. This institutional movement could disrupt the balances of the stablecoin market.

$12B have fled stablecoins. Tether stands its ground, USDS is tanking, USDG is taking off. Hyundai and Visa are now joining the dance.

The 12 billion contraction signals not weakness but a transition to unprecedented maturity. Hyundai and Visa are only the first signs of a structural adoption transforming stablecoins into payment tools, not just value reserves. 

Yet, the path is fraught with pitfalls: regulation, with the CLARITY Act or MiCA in Europe, could redefine the rules for stablecoin issuers. Players like Tether, who dominate through liquidity, will need to adapt to an environment where yield and transparency become decisive criteria. 

The success of Global Dollar and PayPal PYUSD proves it: capital now rewards innovation and utility. The stablecoin market ceases to be a calm ocean. It becomes a battlefield where only the most agile will survive. 

The question is no longer who dominates today, but who will be able to evolve tomorrow. The reshuffling is only beginning.

Key figures of the shuffle: 12.4 billion evaporated in two months; USDT dominates at 184 billion; USDS drops 12.3%; USDG explodes 9.08%. The United States can pride itself on its dominance over stablecoins. But on the European side, a cloudy sky looms with this rain of digital money. The BIS warns against rampant dollarization of emerging economies, driven by the expansion of stablecoins.

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Mikaia A.

La révolution blockchain et crypto est en marche ! Et le jour où les impacts se feront ressentir sur l’économie la plus vulnérable de ce Monde, contre toute espérance, je dirai que j’y étais pour quelque chose

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.

Solana sees $70B USDC surge: Bullish catalyst or ‘hidden’ risk for SOL?

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Changxin Technology's IPO winning numbers have been released, totaling 7,702,207.

According to an announcement by Changxin Technology, the company’s initial public offering (IPO) and listing on the STAR Market has released its offline preliminary placement results and online lottery results. The offering price is RMB 8.66 per share, with an initial share offering size of approximately 6.688 billion shares. A total of 7,702,207 winning lottery numbers have been issued, and each winning number entitles holders to subscribe for 500 Changxin Technology A-shares.

4 minutes ago

Renowned trader closes all crypto short positions, resumes buying Bitcoin spot

Renowned crypto trader Doctor Profit announced in a post that he has closed all his cryptocurrency short positions, including Bitcoin shorts established in the $115,000–$125,000 range, another Bitcoin short in the $79,000–$82,000 range, and over 100 altcoin shorts opened in recent months, noting that all these positions have generated significant profits. He also said he has repurchased Bitcoin spot at $64,000, marking his first long-term allocation since September 2025. His plan is to invest 5% of his planned capital daily in spot Bitcoin purchases when the price is in the $54,000–$64,000 range, for up to 20 days total; if the price approaches $54,000, he will increase his buying activity. Doctor Profit pointed out that the current market is showing clear "herd behavior": investors who were previously bullish on Bitcoin up to $150,000 at high levels are now widely waiting for the cryptocurrency to drop to $40,000–$50,000, and are targeting September or October as the bottom of the four-year cycle. When a large number of investors are waiting for the same price level and time point, the market may not move as expected, so he chose to build positions in advance and judges that this cycle’s bottom may arrive earlier than the market’s general expectation. He also cited regulatory clarity, asset tokenization infrastructure, and progress in institutional adoption as the structural reasons for his shift to buying, and retracted his previous prediction that Bitcoin would fall to $40,000–$50,000. However, he still holds all his S&P 500 short positions, arguing that the crypto market has completed a large repricing, while U.S. stock valuations remain elevated.

4 minutes ago

Binance Wallet’s Meme Rush adds new launchpad filter options for Robinhood Chain-based projects including Virtuals Protocol, Flap, and Bankr.

According to official announcements, Binance Wallet’s Meme Rush has added new launchpad filter options for Robinhood chain projects including Virtuals Protocol, Flap, and Bankr, helping users discover more on-chain token opportunities. Users can now track tokens across BSC, Solana, ETH, Base, and Robinhood chains via Meme Rush, with a single feed to stay updated on multi-chain hotspots.

4 minutes ago

Zcash launches Zakura full node, aiming to boost its privacy transaction throughput to 50,000 per second.

Zcash has launched its new full-node client Zakura 1.0.0, the first implementation component aimed at scaling its private transaction throughput from the current ~1 transaction per second (TPS) to payment-network-level capacity. Maintained by Sean Bowe, an early Zcash zero-knowledge cryptography contributor, and Dev Ojha, head of Valar Group, the client operates independently of the Zcash Foundation and is funded via private ZEC donations. Built on the Zcash Foundation’s Zebra client, the team provides an ~11GB blockchain snapshot, allowing new nodes to sync up in two minutes—an approximately 680x speed improvement. Its compatibility mode also replicates the legacy zcashd interface, enabling wallets and exchanges to continue operating after the original client’s maintenance ends on July 18. The team notes that Visa and Mastercard process over 50,000 transactions per second, a benchmark it has set as its minimum target. To reduce the verification burden of large-scale private transactions, Bowe’s Tachyon project is developing recursive proofs, which let nodes validate thousands of proofs with a single proof. Valar Group is building private information retrieval (PIR) technology, allowing wallets to access relevant transaction data without exposing their query content. Zakura is also testing a fast block propagation system that delivers new blocks to all nodes in half a second. Its upcoming testnet is the Ironwood upgrade, set to activate on the mainnet on July 28. Ironwood will use a "rotating door" mechanism to restrict inflows and outflows of the Orchard privacy pool, mitigating risks of fake ZEC entering circulation due to prior zero-knowledge proof vulnerabilities.

4 minutes ago

Moonshot (Kimi)’s technological breakthrough triggers sell-offs in AI stocks, with leveraged products amplifying market volatility.

According to Bloomberg, Chinese AI startup Moonshot has achieved an unexpected technological breakthrough, triggering sharp declines in global AI and semiconductor stocks on Friday and prompting markets to once again reference the 2025 "DeepSeek Moment". The semiconductor benchmark index has fallen roughly 20% from its June peak, entering a bear market; the triple-leveraged semiconductor ETF SOXL has dropped more than 50% over the same period. This sell-off demonstrates that when rapid advances in AI technology reshape market perceptions of winners and losers, leveraged ETFs, options, single-stock funds, and crypto-related products may be liquidated simultaneously. Bloomberg Intelligence data shows leveraged ETFs make up around 13% of U.S. ETF trading volume but only 1.2% of industry assets. When accounting for embedded leverage, their share of the U.S. stock market remains less than 1%. While these products are generally small in overall size, their holdings are concentrated in AI chips, volatile stocks, and newly listed firms. When leverage, concentration, and volatility rise at the same time, the funds' daily rebalancing turns them into active trading forces that further amplify existing market trends. The South Korean market offers a clear recent case: local retail investors have heavily purchased leveraged products tied to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, and as market sentiment turned weak, the related funds were forced to sell an estimated tens of billions of dollars worth of SK Hynix positions.

4 minutes ago

Bloomberg: South Korea's stock market is emerging as a key bellwether for global AI stock trading.

According to Bloomberg, South Korea’s roughly $4 trillion stock market has become a key window for fund managers in London, New York and Tokyo to gauge global AI risk appetite. Stock fluctuations in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix continue to ripple through global chip stocks, and some Japanese traders have added the KOSPI index to their daily watchlists. The correlation between South Korea’s market and U.S. tech stocks has grown significantly. Bloomberg data shows the 60-day correlation coefficient between the KOSPI index and the Nasdaq 100 has risen to 0.46, near a two-year high—about three times the 0.16 average over the past five years. Last week, South Korea’s market fell nearly 9% at one point amid renewed doubts about AI demand prospects, with the selloff later spreading to Wall Street; SK Hynix’s American depositary receipts dropped 9.3%. However, high-leverage trading in South Korea has amplified volatility. The KOSPI index has fallen 25% from its June peak, erasing roughly $1 trillion in market capitalization, with both Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix down at least 30%. South Korea recently suspended the launch of new single-stock leverage trading products to curb speculation and market volatility. Even so, the KOSPI index is still up 62% year-to-date, ranking among the top of major global markets. Given Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix’s critical positions in the global memory chip supply, multiple institutional players believe that as long as the AI rally persists, South Korea’s stock market will remain an important barometer for global AI and semiconductor trading.

4 minutes ago

Compromised oracle credentials let false market prices pass Ostium’s verifier as legitimate reports. Eight payouts to one wallet helped confirm the final loss of 23,752,746 USDC from the protocol’s OLP vault. Trader collateral stayed isolated, but open positions remain frozen until a secure relaunch is ready. Most stolen USDC became 12,084 ETH before entering Tornado Cash, making recovery efforts more difficult. Ostium has confirmed that its July 15 security breach drained 23,752,746 USDC from the protocol’s liquidity-provider vault. According to the report, the attacker compromised offchain pricing infrastructure and submitted false reports that appeared legitimate to the platform.

An update on where things stand:

What happened

On July 15, Ostium’s LP (liquidity provider) vault was exploited for 23,752,746 USDC. Based on our ongoing investigation, the attacker compromised off-chain infrastructure related to the system that feeds prices into the protocol.…

— Ostium (@Ostium) July 19, 2026

Those reports enabled positions to open and close at fabricated profits paid from the Ostium Liquidity Pool. Trading remains suspended while the Arbitrum-based platform strengthens safeguards and prepares a restart.

How Compromised Credentials Converted Fake Prices Into USDC Ostium offers perpetual contracts linked to stocks, commodities, currencies, indices, and cryptocurrencies, with transactions settling in USDC on Arbitrum. To support these markets, external systems supply the prices used for entries, exits, liquidations, and profit calculations.

Meanwhile, liquidity providers deposit USDC into the OLP vault, which covers profitable trader positions. As a result, the vault became the payout source when fabricated gains passed through the protocol’s settlement process.

Galaxy Research traced eight payments to a single wallet, including transfers worth approximately $11.86 million, $4.49 million, and $3.59 million. Further payouts of $2.7 million and $1.08 million also supported Ostium’s final loss calculation of nearly $23.75 million.

However, the exploit did not depend on market volatility or a direct failure within the core trading contracts. Instead, the attacker obtained credentials connected to two privileged components in the platform’s pricing system.

According to Galaxy, Ostium’s verifier checked whether each price report carried a signature from an approved oracle signer. Nevertheless, the system did not independently confirm whether the submitted price accurately reflected the wider market.

The attacker reportedly controlled both an authorized signer credential and a registered PriceUpKeep forwarder. Together, those privileges allowed future-dated price reports to pass the protocol’s checks before repeated position cycles generated artificial gains.

🚨 Blockaid detected an @Ostium Vault exploit on Arbitrum.

An attacker used a registered PriceUpKeep forwarder and future-dated authorized oracle reports to create artificial trade profit, triggering a ~$18M USDC payout from the vault.
More details in 🧵

— Blockaid (@blockaid_) July 15, 2026

Consequently, the contracts continued operating according to their programmed rules, but they relied on compromised data. In effect, legitimate credentials made false market information appear valid, converting manipulated prices into real USDC payouts.

Trading Stays Frozen as Investigators Track the Funds Although the liquidity vault suffered major losses, Ostium said trader collateral remained protected in a separate, isolated contract. Open positions remain frozen, and users cannot adjust their margins during the shutdown.

When trading eventually resumes, the protocol will value positions using the reopening price rather than prices recorded during the suspension. This approach reduces the impact of market movements that traders could not respond to while the platform remained unavailable.

Ostium said it paused trading and froze the affected contracts within 60 minutes of the first malicious transaction. Since then, the platform has worked with Mandiant, zeroShadow, Collisionless, SEAL 911, law enforcement, exchanges, bridges, and stablecoin issuers.

Meanwhile, investigators continue tracing the stolen assets and reviewing the infrastructure needed for a secure relaunch. Ostium has also promised to provide users with at least 24 hours’ notice before trading contracts are reopened.

The funds, however, have already moved through several stages. Lookonchain reported that the attacker exchanged 23.75 million USDC for approximately 12,084 ETH at an average price of about $1,966.

Most of the ether later entered Tornado Cash, which obscures links between deposits and subsequent withdrawals. As a result, recovering the stolen assets has become more difficult for investigators and participating service providers.

The attack affected a platform that had reported more than $50 billion in cumulative trading volume across 75 supported markets. Ostium also raised $24 million in December 2025, bringing its total disclosed funding to $27.8 million.

Ultimately, the incident shows how compromised offchain infrastructure can weaken otherwise functional onchain contracts. Ostium’s recovery will therefore depend on stronger credential controls, independent price verification, and tighter operational safeguards.

OKX Europe has opened a one-way conversion route across 30 EU and EEA countries, allowing customers to deposit USDT and exchange it for MiCA-compliant USDC.

Summary

OKX Europe now lets users deposit USDT and convert it into MiCA-compliant USDC. Tether continues to reject MiCA approval over concerns about the framework’s reserve requirements. Binance’s European retreat has left licensed exchanges competing for users affected by MiCA restrictions. According to an OKX announcement, eligible customers can send Tether’s USDT to their OKX Europe accounts before converting the tokens into Circle-issued USDC. OKX also promoted an 8% deposit bonus for customers moving funds to the platform.

Unlike automatic conversion programs introduced by some platforms, OKX said its service allows users to decide when to exchange their holdings. The company positioned the feature as an option for customers whose current platforms have stopped accepting USDT or plan to convert remaining balances after a deadline.

Operating under a Markets in Crypto-Assets license, OKX Europe currently serves customers across 30 countries in the European Union and European Economic Area. The authorization allows the exchange to offer regulated crypto services throughout those markets under the EU framework.

MiCA restrictions push USDT holders toward USDC European platforms have reduced support for USDT because Tether has not secured authorization to issue the stablecoin under MiCA. Since the regulation’s final transition period ended on July 1, exchanges have restricted deposits, removed trading pairs and directed customers toward approved alternatives.

Circle’s USDC has become one of the main options available to those users because it operates under the EU framework. OKX’s new tool supports deposits only in USDT and conversions only into USDC, meaning customers cannot use the feature to exchange USDC back into USDT.

Despite the European restrictions, DefiLlama data shows that USDT remains the world’s largest stablecoin. Tether controls about 59% of the nearly $310 billion stablecoin market, with USDT holding roughly $184 billion in market value, compared with around $73 billion for USDC.

Source: DeFiLlama Revolut has also announced plans to stop supporting USDT for customers in the EEA and Switzerland. According to the digital banking platform, users have until Aug. 31 to sell or withdraw their holdings before Revolut converts any remaining tokens into each customer’s base currency.

Tether holds its ground as Binance retreats Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has repeatedly defended the company’s decision not to seek MiCA approval, arguing that the framework’s reserve rules could expose stablecoin issuers to additional risks. MiCA requires issuers to hold part of their reserves with European credit institutions.

During an earlier interview, Ardoino described the rules as “very dangerous when it comes to stablecoins,” while acknowledging that refusing authorization could reduce USDT’s availability on European exchanges.

Tether maintained the same position in July 2025, when Ardoino wrote on X that the company would reconsider an application only “when MiCA becomes safer for consumers and stablecoin issuers.”

When MiCA becomes safer for consumers and stablecoin issuers, then we might reconsider.

— Paolo Ardoino 🤖 (@paoloardoino) July 23, 2025 Tether was not the only major crypto company affected by the EU framework. Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, withdrew its MiCA license application in Greece after failing to secure approval and began suspending services in several EU countries when the 18-month transition period ended.

Binance’s retreat has left Coinbase, OKX and other MiCA-licensed exchanges competing for European customers as regulated platforms take a larger role in the region. For OKX, the USDT-to-USDC route gives affected holders a voluntary conversion option while European support for Tether’s stablecoin continues to decline.