Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Nous Research has added GPT-5.6 support to its Hermes Agent, available now through the Nous Portal.

Hermes Agent was not built to be a simple chatbot wrapper. Launched in February 2026, it was designed around persistent memory and skill generation, meaning the system can carry context across sessions and build new capabilities as it operates.

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What GPT-5.6 actually brings to the table OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 family entered limited preview on June 26, 2026, and it is not a single model. It comes in three variants: Sol, the flagship; Terra, the balanced middle option; and Luna, the fast and cost-efficient tier.

Hermes Agent’s Tool Gateway feature allows it to route tasks to external services, and its native desktop applications mean users are not locked into a browser-based workflow. Pairing those features with a model family that scales from cheap-and-fast to expensive-and-thorough lets developers match compute spend to task complexity.

The GPT-5.6 family is positioned around multi-step task handling, with particular strengths in coding and cybersecurity applications.

The Nous Portal’s growing model library The Nous Portal now offers access to over 400 AI models, handling subscription management, billing, and tool integrations like web browsing and image processing through a single interface.

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

Updated Jul 9, 2026, 10:10 p.m. Published Jul 9, 2026, 8:42 p.m.

2 min read

Summary

Grayscale CFO Edward McGee has stepped down after seven years with the firm, with the company appointing Kathryn Masci and Daniel Plourde as interim co-chief financial officers.McGee is the second senior executive to leave Grayscale in recent months, following the departure of Managing Director and Head of Distribution and Partnerships John Hoffman to Ondo Finance.The leadership changes come as Grayscale, the manager of the GBTC bitcoin ETF, has delayed plans for a U.S. IPO amid market conditions.Grayscale's chief financial officer Edward McGee has stepped down after seven years at the crypto asset manager, becoming the latest senior executive to leave the company, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.

McGee resigned effective July 2 for personal reasons and not because of "any disagreement with the company or its operations, policies or practices," the filing said.

The company has named Kathryn Masci and Daniel Plourde as interim co-chief financial officers. Masci will also serve as principal financial and accounting officer and join the board of managers.

Masci joined Grayscale in 2020 and most recently served as senior vice president of finance.

Before that, she held finance and accounting roles at Garrison Capital, Pzena Investment Management and Ernst & Young. Plourde joined Grayscale in 2022 after senior positions at Gabelli Asset Management and State Street Global Advisors. He has also served as assistant treasurer of the Grayscale Funds Trust.

The leadership change follows another executive departure. Last fall, managing director and head of distribution and partnerships John Hoffman left Grayscale, and just joined tokenized asset platform Ondo Finance last month. The company has also added Chief Marketing Officer Ramona Boston and Head of Index Steve Vanourny over the past few months.

The departure comes as Grayscale put its plans to go public on hold. The Stamford, Connecticut-based company confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering in November last year. However, a person familiar with the matter previously told CoinDesk that Grayscale has paused its IPO preparations because of market conditions and is unlikely to restart the process before the fourth quarter.

A Grayscale spokesperson previously declined to comment on the IPO timeline, citing the SEC's quiet period. CoinDesk reached out for comment regarding McGee's departure.

Founded in 2013 and owned by Digital Currency Group, Grayscale has been a key bridge between traditional finance and digital assets through its regulated crypto investment products, most prominently its Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which the firm converted into an exchange-traded fund (ETF) in January 2025. The fund once held about $28.5 billion in assets before becoming an ETF. It now manages roughly $8.5 billion as other, lower-fee ETFs have attracted investor money.

UPDATE (July 9, 2026, 22:48 UTC): Clarifies timeline of Hoffman's departure, adds recent additions to Grayscale team.

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A single compromised oracle just cost someone $292 million. The KelpDAO exploit, which drained 116,500 rsETH through LayerZero’s infrastructure on April 18, marks one of the largest DeFi hacks of the year, and it happened because of something the industry has been quietly ignoring: cross-chain protocols are essentially oracle networks, and oracle networks have single points of failure.

Chronicle Labs CEO Niklas Kunkel put it bluntly. Interoperability protocols like LayerZero and Chainlink CCIP are, at their core, oracles. Every time a project uses cross-chain communication, it’s placing its trust in these verification systems. When that trust gets exploited, the results are catastrophic.

How the attack unfolded The breach targeted LayerZero’s Decentralized Verifier Network, or DVN, which is the infrastructure responsible for validating cross-chain messages. Attackers compromised internal RPC nodes through social engineering, essentially tricking their way into the system rather than breaking through code.

LayerZero Labs published its incident report on May 20, attributing the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean threat actor linked to the Lazarus Group.

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Here’s the thing about LayerZero’s architecture. It separates oracles (verifiers) from relayers to create a system of checks and balances for cross-chain validation. In theory, this dual-layer approach makes attacks harder. In practice, KelpDAO was running a single-DVN configuration, which meant compromising one verification layer was enough to drain the entire protocol.

The oracle problem nobody wanted to talk about LayerZero’s model was supposed to be different. By letting applications choose their own security configurations, including which DVNs to use and how many to require, the protocol positioned itself as more flexible and potentially more secure than monolithic bridge designs. But flexibility cuts both ways. When projects opt for minimal security setups to save on costs or reduce complexity, they’re effectively choosing speed over safety.

The incident report from LayerZero Labs outlined plans to improve security protocols and eliminate single-DVN setups in future deployments.

When you bridge assets across chains, you’re not just moving tokens. You’re trusting an oracle to correctly verify that a transaction happened on Chain A before releasing funds on Chain B. If that oracle lies, or is forced to lie, the money is gone.

Chronicle Labs and the redundancy argument Chronicle Labs, which Kunkel founded after spinning the company off from MakerDAO in 2023, has been building decentralized oracle infrastructure for both tokenized assets and real-world assets. The firm has historically secured over $20 billion in assets and raised $12 million in seed funding in March 2025.

The company’s pitch centers on redundancy and robust verification, which is exactly the opposite of what failed in the KelpDAO exploit. Rather than allowing single points of failure, Chronicle’s approach emphasizes multiple layers of validation that an attacker would need to compromise simultaneously.

What this means for investors and builders Investors with assets deployed across multiple chains need to understand that every bridge interaction carries oracle risk. A protocol using multiple independent DVNs presents a fundamentally different risk profile than one using a single verifier, even if both run on the same underlying LayerZero technology.

For builders, the cost savings from running minimal verification setups now need to be weighed against the existential risk of a complete protocol drain. LayerZero’s commitment to eliminating single-DVN configurations will likely become an industry standard, not a differentiator.

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

Why Is Mantle Moving From LayerZero to Chainlink CCIP? Mantle is migrating its Super Portal from LayerZero’s Omnichain Fungible Token standard to Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Token standard, making it the latest project to replace LayerZero for high-value token transfers.

The move pushes the total value of announced migrations from LayerZero to Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol above $7.24 billion since May. The migration includes MNT, the native token of Mantle’s network, which has more than $2.5 billion in value locked.

Mantle’s Super Portal, co-developed with Bybit, enables transfers of MNT between Ethereum and Solana. Support for additional blockchain networks is planned. During the migration, the portal will be suspended between July 9 and July 15. Existing MNT on Ethereum and Solana, along with MNT activity on Byreal and Bybit, will remain unaffected.

The migration is not only a technical upgrade. It reflects a broader reassessment of cross-chain infrastructure after a year in which bridge security has become one of the most important risk areas in crypto. Bridges allow tokens and data to move between blockchains, but they also concentrate risk because a single failure can expose large amounts of user assets.

How Did The Kelp Exploit Change Bridge Risk? The current wave of migrations began after the $292 million Kelp bridge exploit earlier this year. The incident increased scrutiny of LayerZero-powered bridge configurations and pushed projects managing large pools of wrapped, tokenized, or cross-chain assets to review their infrastructure.

Kelp later announced it would migrate more than $1.5 billion in assets to Chainlink CCIP. Since then, other projects have followed. Solv Protocol migrated $700 million in tokenized bitcoin, Re moved $475 million, Kraken transferred $330 million in wrapped assets, Lombard migrated more than $1 billion, Virtuals Protocol moved $700 million, and Yuzu Money transferred $54.5 million.

The pattern shows how quickly security concerns can reshape infrastructure choices in decentralized finance. Cross-chain systems are no longer peripheral services used only for convenience. They are becoming core rails for tokenized bitcoin, exchange-backed wrapped assets, yield products, and network-native tokens moving across multiple chains.

That makes bridge selection a direct market-structure issue. If token issuers and exchanges lose confidence in a transfer standard, liquidity can shift toward competing infrastructure even when the affected protocol remains widely integrated across the market.

Investor Takeaway The migration wave shows that cross-chain infrastructure is being judged less on distribution alone and more on risk controls. For investors, bridge security has become a key factor in assessing DeFi protocols, wrapped assets, and tokenized asset platforms.

What Does Chainlink CCIP Offer Mantle? Under the new setup, Chainlink CCIP will secure MNT transfers using its decentralized oracle network. Mantle said the migration also gives it direct control over token pools and transfer settings through the Cross-Chain Token standard.

That control matters as Mantle expands MNT to additional blockchain networks and tokenized asset markets. Projects moving assets across chains need transfer infrastructure that can support security controls, supply management, and network expansion without relying entirely on external bridge configurations.

Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Token standard is designed to support token movement across chains while giving issuers more control over how assets are minted, burned, locked, or released. For projects with large token economies, that can reduce operational complexity and make bridge governance more central to token risk management.

“As tokenized financial assets move from concept to scale, the infrastructure that carries them across chains cannot be an afterthought,” Emily Bao, a key advisor at Mantle, said in a statement.

The comment points to a larger shift in the market. Tokenized assets are moving from pilot projects to higher-value deployment, and the infrastructure behind them is being tested against institutional expectations for resilience, monitoring, and operational control.

What Does This Mean For LayerZero And Cross-Chain Competition? LayerZero remains one of the most widely used cross-chain messaging protocols, but the latest migration wave increases pressure on its position in high-value asset transfers. When multiple projects with billions of dollars in assets move to a rival protocol in a short period, the market reads it as a confidence shift even if the technology competition remains open.

The challenge for LayerZero is not only retaining integrations. It must also address concerns around how its bridge configurations are secured, reviewed, and governed after major incidents. For Chainlink, the opportunity is to convert security concerns into market share across tokenized assets, wrapped assets, and DeFi-native liquidity.

For exchanges and institutions, the lesson is direct. Cross-chain infrastructure can affect custody risk, liquidity access, user trust, and regulatory conversations around asset movement. As crypto markets spread across competing blockchains, the protocols that move assets between them are becoming part of the financial plumbing rather than background software.

Mantle’s migration shows that projects with large token economies are willing to pause transfer systems and replace bridge standards when risk reviews point in that direction. The result is a more competitive cross-chain market, but also one where security failures can trigger rapid and costly infrastructure rotation.

Por Que a Mantle Está Migrando da LayerZero para a Chainlink CCIP? A Mantle está migrando seu Super Portal do padrão Omnichain Fungible Token da LayerZero para o padrão Cross-Chain Token da Chainlink, tornando-se o mais recente projeto a substituir a LayerZero em transferências de tokens de alto valor.

A movimentação eleva o valor total das migrações anunciadas da LayerZero para o Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol da Chainlink para além de US$ 7,24 bilhões desde maio. A migração inclui o MNT, o token nativo da rede da Mantle, que possui mais de US$ 2,5 bilhões em valor bloqueado.

O Super Portal da Mantle, desenvolvido em conjunto com a Bybit, permite transferências de MNT entre Ethereum e Solana. O suporte a redes blockchain adicionais está planejado. Durante a migração, o portal ficará suspenso entre 9 e 15 de julho. O MNT já existente em Ethereum e Solana, junto com a atividade de MNT na Byreal e na Bybit, permanecerá inalterado.

A migração não é apenas uma atualização técnica. Ela reflete uma reavaliação mais amplo da infraestrutura cross-chain após um ano em que a segurança de bridges se tornou uma das áreas de risco mais importantes no mercado cripto. As bridges permitem que tokens e dados se movam entre blockchains, mas também concentram risco, já que uma única falha pode expor grandes volumes de ativos de usuários.

Como o Exploit da Kelp Mudou o Risco das Bridges? A atual onda de migrações começou após o exploit de US$ 292 milhões sofrido pela bridge da Kelp no início deste ano. O incidente aumentou o escrutínio sobre configurações de bridges baseadas em LayerZero e levou projetos que gerenciam grandes volumes de ativos wrapped, tokenizados ou cross-chain a revisar suas infraestruturas.

A Kelp anunciou posteriormente que migraria mais de US$ 1,5 bilhão em ativos para a Chainlink CCIP. Desde então, outros projetos seguiram o mesmo caminho. A Solv Protocol migrou US$ 700 milhões em bitcoin tokenizado, a Re movimentou US$ 475 milhões, a Kraken transferiu US$ 330 milhões em ativos wrapped, a Lombard migrou mais de US$ 1 bilhão, a Virtuals Protocol movimentou US$ 700 milhões e a Yuzu Money transferiu US$ 54,5 milhões.

O padrão mostra a rapidez com que preocupações de segurança podem remodelar escolhas de infraestrutura nas finanças descentralizadas. Os sistemas cross-chain deixaram de ser serviços periféricos usados apenas por conveniência. Eles estão se tornando trilhos centrais para bitcoin tokenizado, ativos wrapped garantidos por corretoras, produtos de rendimento e tokens nativos de rede que se movem entre múltiplas chains.

Isso torna a escolha de bridges uma questão direta de estrutura de mercado. Se emissores de tokens e exchanges perderem confiança em um padrão de transferência, a liquidez pode se deslocar para infraestruturas concorrentes mesmo quando o protocolo afetado permanece amplamente integrado no mercado.

Conclusão para Investidores A onda de migrações mostra que a infraestrutura cross-chain está sendo avaliada não apenas pela distribuição, mas cada vez mais por seus controles de risco. Para os investidores, a segurança das bridges se tornou um fator-chave na avaliação de protocolos DeFi, ativos wrapped e plataformas de ativos tokenizados.

O Que a Chainlink CCIP Oferece à Mantle? Sob a nova configuração, a Chainlink CCIP garantirá as transferências de MNT usando sua rede descentralizada de oráculos. A Mantle afirmou que a migração também lhe dá controle direto sobre pools de tokens e configurações de transferência por meio do padrão Cross-Chain Token.

Esse controle é relevante à medida que a Mantle expande o MNT para redes blockchain adicionais e mercados de ativos tokenizados. Projetos que movimentam ativos entre chains precisam de infraestrutura de transferência capaz de suportar controles de segurança, gestão de oferta e expansão de rede sem depender totalmente de configurações externas de bridges.

O padrão Cross-Chain Token da Chainlink foi criado para suportar a movimentação de tokens entre chains, dando aos emissores mais controle sobre como os ativos são emitidos, queimados, bloqueados ou liberados. Para projetos com grandes economias de tokens, isso pode reduzir a complexidade operacional e tornar a governança das bridges mais central na gestão de risco dos tokens.

“À medida que os ativos financeiros tokenizados saem do conceito e ganham escala, a infraestrutura que os transporta entre chains não pode ser tratada como algo secundário”, afirmou Emily Bao, consultora-chave da Mantle, em comunicado.

O comentário aponta para uma mudança mais ampla no mercado. Os ativos tokenizados estão deixando de ser projetos-piloto e passando a implantações de maior valor, e a infraestrutura por trás deles está sendo testada em relação às expectativas institucionais de resiliência, monitoramento e controle operacional.

O Que Isso Significa Para a LayerZero e a Concorrência Cross-Chain? A LayerZero continua sendo um dos protocolos de mensageria cross-chain mais utilizados, mas a atual onda de migrações aumenta a pressão sobre sua posição em transferências de ativos de alto valor. Quando múltiplos projetos com bilhões de dólares em ativos migram para um protocolo rival em um curto período, o mercado interpreta isso como uma mudança de confiança, mesmo que a concorrência tecnológica permaneça aberta.

O desafio para a LayerZero não é apenas manter integrações. A empresa também precisa endereçar preocupações sobre como suas configurações de bridges são protegidas, revisadas e governadas após incidentes de grande porte. Para a Chainlink, a oportunidade é converter preocupações de segurança em participação de mercado nos segmentos de ativos tokenizados, ativos wrapped e liquidez nativa de DeFi.

Para exchanges e instituições, a lição é direta. A infraestrutura cross-chain pode afetar o risco de custódia, o acesso à liquidez, a confiança dos usuários e as discussões regulatórias em torno da movimentação de ativos. À medida que os mercados cripto se espalham por blockchains concorrentes, os protocolos que movem ativos entre elas estão se tornando parte da infraestrutura financeira essencial, e não mais um software de segundo plano.

A migração da Mantle mostra que projetos com grandes economias de tokens estão dispostos a pausar sistemas de transferência e substituir padrões de bridges quando as revisões de risco apontam nessa direção. O resultado é um mercado cross-chain mais competitivo, mas também um cenário em que falhas de segurança podem desencadear rotações de infraestrutura rápidas e onerosas.

Crypto wallet provider Phantom and the Hyperliquid Policy Center have urged the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to exempt blockchain protocol developers and non-custodial wallet providers from regulations designed for traditional financial intermediaries.

In response to a CFTC request for information on regulations affecting fintech firms, the companies asked the agency to confirm that blockchain protocol developers do not have to register solely for creating onchain software, issue guidance allowing regulated derivatives firms to use blockchain infrastructure, and codify exemptions preventing non-custodial wallet providers from being treated as introducing brokers.

The companies argued that existing CFTC regulations were designed for custodial financial intermediaries that hold customer assets and process trades, while onchain protocols allow users to transact directly without intermediaries controlling funds or executing orders.

Letter to the CFTC. Source: Hyperliquidpolicy.org

They said registration requirements should apply to entities that handle customer funds or execute trades, rather than to developers who create blockchain software or contribute to open-source protocols without controlling how the software is used.

The groups also asked the CFTC to clarify that registered derivatives exchanges, clearinghouses and intermediaries can use onchain infrastructure for functions including trade execution, clearing, settlement, margining and recordkeeping, provided they continue to comply with existing regulations.

The groups said the alternative to adopting the recommendations is the status quo, in which "American users continue to be walled off from onchain derivatives markets," while innovation continues to take place offshore.

Regulatory debate over onchain derivatives intensifiesThe letter comes as crypto companies and traditional exchanges press US regulators over how blockchain-based derivatives should be regulated, with both sides seeking greater clarity on the agency's approach.

In May, Intercontinental Exchange and CME Group reportedly urged regulators to scrutinize Hyperliquid's expansion into commodity-linked perpetual futures, arguing that the decentralized platform's energy derivatives posed market integrity and manipulation risks.

Two weeks later, ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher called for a "level playing field" that would allow regulated exchanges to offer 24/7 onchain perpetual futures, saying existing regulations were preventing traditional exchanges from competing with platforms such as Hyperliquid. Sprecher also said ICE had held exploratory discussions with Hyperliquid to better understand onchain derivatives markets.

CME, meanwhile, has continued expanding its own regulated crypto derivatives business. This year, the exchange announced futures tied to Avalanche and Sui, launched CFTC-regulated Bitcoin volatility futures and introduced the Nasdaq CME Crypto Index futures, a market-cap weighted contract tracking seven digital assets.

Despite that expansion, CME sued the CFTC in June over the agency's approval of crypto perpetual futures, arguing the regulator exceeded its authority under the Commodity Exchange Act.

Magazine: The 5 types of real world assets being tokenized fastest onchain

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The joint filing asks regulators to turn Phantom's March no-action relief into a formal rule covering all non-custodial wallet providers.

The Hyperliquid Policy Center and wallet provider Phantom filed a joint comment with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Thursday, arguing the agency's registration rules for exchanges and brokers should not apply to onchain protocol software or non-custodial wallets, according to HPC's own post on X.

The filing responds to a request for information the CFTC and SEC issued jointly in mid-June, seeking industry input on rules that hinder financial-technology innovation.

Three RequestsHPC and Phantom laid out three asks. First, confirmation that publishing onchain protocol software alone does not trigger registration as an exchange or clearinghouse. Second, a clear path for firms already registered with the CFTC to run regulated functions, like matching and clearing, on onchain infrastructure. Third, and most concrete, turning the no-action relief the CFTC granted Phantom in March into a formal rule that would extend to other non-custodial wallet providers.

"The Commission's preexisting rules were built for legacy markets," HPC and Phantom wrote, arguing that onchain markets let users hold their own funds and trade directly, without the chain of intermediaries that broker-dealer rules assume.

The filing lands under CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, who took office in December and has since approved the first U.S.-regulated bitcoin perpetual futures contract in May and opened the door to more onshore perps trading. CME Group has separately sued the CFTC over that approval, arguing perpetual futures should be classified as swaps.

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The push to get U.S. regulators to adapt their rulebooks to onchain reality just gained new momentum. Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC) and Phantom submitted a joint comment letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as detailed in the original report. The letter asks the agency to modernize its regulatory framework so that publishing onchain protocol software does not, by itself, trigger registration requirements.

The filing arrives at a delicate moment for decentralized exchange infrastructure. Hyperliquid has grown into a leading derivatives venue built entirely on a self-custodial model, while Phantom’s non-custodial wallet reaches millions of users across Solana, Ethereum, and Bitcoin. Together they represent a growing cohort of protocols that argue the CFTC’s existing rules were written for custodial intermediaries—centralized order books, brokers, and clearinghouses—not for code that users interact with directly. This push mirrors a broader legislative struggle where traditional financial interests have attempted to derail landmark crypto bills just days before Senate votes.

The Core Request: Software Publication as a Non-Registrable Act The letter makes three specific demands. First, clarify that merely publishing onchain protocol software does not require registration with the CFTC. Second, create a clear pathway for regulated exchanges and clearinghouses to adopt onchain infrastructure without running afoul of legacy rules. Third, codify the Phantom Technologies non-action letter into a formal rule. That 2024 non-action letter signaled that certain self-hosted wallet activities would not face enforcement, but leaving it as agency guidance creates uncertainty for builders.

The legal argument is straightforward. Under current interpretations, a developer could be treated like a traditional market operator simply for deploying smart contracts that users control. The HPC-Phantom letter contends that the self-custodial and transparent nature of onchain markets makes that analog inappropriate. Transactions settle onchain, assets remain in user wallets, and the software does not hold customer funds. Those structural differences, they argue, demand a different regulatory posture.

Why the CFTC’s Framework Feels Outdated The CFTC’s rulebook was largely designed during an era when centralized exchanges and derivatives clearing organizations acted as trusted intermediaries holding customer margin and controlling trade execution. Onchain protocols disrupt that model by removing the intermediary. Yet the agency has not formally addressed whether the act of writing and releasing code is itself a regulated activity. This ambiguity chills development and forces projects to weigh legal exposure against innovation.

It’s not just a philosophical debate. The uncertainty has practical consequences for the U.S. market. Onchain derivatives platforms often choose to restrict access from American IP addresses rather than risk a regulatory fight. That pushes liquidity and users offshore, exactly the outcome the CFTC presumably wants to avoid. As other jurisdictions like the EU move ahead with MiCA-style frameworks that offer clearer guardrails, the pressure on U.S. agencies to provide similar clarity is mounting. In recent weeks, tokenized real-world assets crossed $20 billion on-chain, as highlighted in a market update, further underscoring the need for rules that accommodate automated, smart-contract-driven settlement.

What This Means for Exchanges and Onchain Markets If the CFTC moves toward formalizing the requested clarifications, it could open a more defined path for centralized exchanges like CME or Coinbase Derivatives to integrate onchain components without triggering full registration of those software layers. The letter explicitly calls for a framework that lets regulated entities adopt distributed ledger technology for clearing and settlement. That would mark a significant shift from the current posture, where any move toward onchain rails is often met with regulatory caution.

At the same time, a formal rule codifying the Phantom non-action letter would provide non-custodial wallet providers and protocol developers with a baseline of legal comfort. That could speed up product launches and reduce the reliance on case-by-case relief that leaves everyone guessing. For developers, the line between publishing code and operating a market would become less of a legal gray zone.

Still, the request does not address every pain point. Questions remain about how liability attaches when software is modified by third parties or used to facilitate illicit activity. Neither the letter nor current CFTC precedent provides a clean answer, and that gap is one reason the debate is likely to extend well beyond this comment period. The underlying protocol activity shows why this matters now: developer engagement across top chains remains robust, as tracked in recent weekly metrics, reflecting the pace of onchain infrastructure growth that regulators can no longer ignore.

The Road Ahead The letter lands at a time when the CFTC is signaling openness to updating its approach. The agency has brought enforcement actions against decentralized platforms before, but those often involved allegations of unregistered derivatives trading rather than the mere act of publishing code. The HPC-Phantom submission attempts to draw a bright line between software publication and market operation—a distinction that, if accepted, would reshape enforcement priorities.

What happens next depends on how the CFTC weighs the comment and whether it moves to propose a rulemaking or issue further guidance. Congressional action could also force the issue, though the legislative path remains tangled, as ongoing battles over crypto market structure bills demonstrate. For now, the industry’s push is simply to get the agency to say, in a durable form, that writing code is not a crime.

AUTHOR

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

One week. That’s all it took for Robinhood’s new Ethereum Layer-2 network to dethrone Hyperliquid as the top decentralized exchange by 24-hour trading volume. On July 8, Robinhood Chain posted between $560 million and $570 million in daily DEX volume, eclipsing what had been the dominant perps-and-spot platform in DeFi.

The catalyst wasn’t some blue-chip DeFi protocol or a revolutionary new trading primitive. It was a memecoin called Cash Cat.

A chain launch turbocharged by a cat token Robinhood Chain went live on July 1 as a permissionless Ethereum Layer-2 network built on the Arbitrum stack. It integrates Uniswap for trading, Chainlink for oracles, and Morpho for lending.

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CASHCAT, a memecoin trading on Uniswap WETH pairs on the new chain, surged to an all-time high above $0.14. Its market cap ballooned to somewhere between $100 million and $150 million in a single day. The token alone accounted for roughly $98 million in 24-hour trading volume, acting as the rocket fuel that pushed Robinhood Chain’s total DEX numbers past Hyperliquid’s.

The numbers behind the surge Daily active addresses on Robinhood Chain approached 200,000, with more than 140,000 of those being first-time users.

The chain’s total value locked crossed $100 million within its first week, driven primarily by Morpho lending activity.

For context on what Robinhood Chain was up against: Hyperliquid had accumulated $330.8 billion in combined spot and perpetual trading volume by July 2025. Robinhood’s overall crypto trading volume sat at $237.8 billion over the same period.

Traditional finance meets permissionless chaos Robinhood Chain is built on the Arbitrum stack, integrating Uniswap for trading interfaces, Chainlink for price feeds, and Morpho for lending. The permissionless nature of the chain means anyone can deploy tokens and create trading pairs, which is how Cash Cat emerged organically rather than through a corporate partnership announcement.

What this means for investors Trading volumes on Robinhood Chain have already begun to stabilize at lower levels since the July 8 peak. The $100 million-plus in TVL from Morpho lending is a distinct signal: lending activity suggests users are deploying capital for yield, not just flipping tokens.

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

Hyperliquid’s quarterly notional trading volume has fallen roughly 35% since October 2025, a steep decline for a platform that was setting records just months ago. But buried inside that headline number is a more interesting story: real-world asset trading now accounts for about 30% of total volume on the platform, and that share keeps climbing.

The volume decline in context During Q1 2026, the platform still managed $633 billion in total trading volume.

Hyperliquid has also maintained between 32% and 44% of the perpetual DEX market throughout this period. Losing volume while keeping market share means the whole category contracted, not just one player.

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RWA trading fills the gap RWA volume now constitutes approximately 30% of total platform activity, up meaningfully from prior quarters. At certain points during Q1 and Q2 2026, that figure peaked between 44% and 47% of total volume. In other words, nearly half of all trading on a crypto-native DEX was happening in assets like crude oil, gold, silver, and the S&P 500.

Open interest in RWA perpetuals hit an all-time high of $2.6 billion in May 2026, doubling from $1.3 billion just two months earlier in March.

If you want to hedge an S&P 500 position at 2 AM on a Sunday, your options in traditional finance range from limited to nonexistent. Hyperliquid’s RWA perpetuals fill that gap with 24/7 liquidity, no brokerage account required.

What this means for investors For HYPE token holders specifically, the token serves as the backbone of the ecosystem, used for staking, governance, fee payments, and user incentives, with a maximum supply capped at 1 billion. A decline in overall volume would normally be bearish for a platform token, since less trading typically means less fee revenue. But the growth in RWA trading introduces a new revenue stream and a new user base that could prove more durable than crypto-native speculation.

The risk to watch is regulatory. Traditional financial instruments trading on decentralized platforms exists in a gray area that regulators haven’t fully addressed. Hyperliquid’s 32% to 44% market share makes it a large enough target to attract attention.

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

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

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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The Ethereum Foundation's Protocol Support Team has been disbanded.

The Ethereum Foundation’s Protocol Support Team (EF Protocol Support) announced on X that the team has been disbanded. The group was primarily responsible for coordinating Ethereum protocol development, including organizing and coordinating core developer meetings, tracking Ethereum network upgrades, supporting EIP advancement, and operating the Ethereum protocol.

7 minutes ago

Security firm: Large number of scam tokens detected on Robinhood Chain

Security protocol Relay Protocol has issued a warning that a large number of scam tokens have emerged on the newly launched Robinhood Chain, putting investors at risk of total loss of funds after purchase. Relay Protocol confirmed it has received multiple user reports stating that after buying certain tokens, the assets immediately vanished from their wallets and cannot be sold or transferred. These honeypot tokens are restricted via smart contract code, allowing buys but blocking sales, leading to permanent locking of investors’ funds. The surge in scam tokens has coincided with the recent explosive growth in user activity and token creation volume on Robinhood Chain.

7 minutes ago

OKX to list Solstice (SLX) spot trading

According to official announcements, OKX will launch spot trading for Solstice (SLX) at 20:00 on July 10. Users can start depositing assets at 10:00 the same day, pre-place orders for SLX/USDT between 19:00 and 20:00, and withdrawals will open at 22:00.

7 minutes ago

The AI arms race has driven record bond issuance by tech giants, with six major tech companies issuing $182 billion in investment-grade bonds this year.

The Kobeissi Letter noted in a post that the AI arms race is driving large technology companies to borrow at record levels. Data shows that since the start of 2026, Amazon, Alphabet, Nvidia, Meta, Oracle, and SpaceX have issued a record $182 billion in investment-grade bonds, a 1,300% jump from roughly $13 billion in the same period of 2025. These six firms account for nearly 15% of total U.S. corporate bond issuance so far this year, and contribute over 50% of the growth in this year’s corporate bond market. Meanwhile, the U.S. market has seen a record seven bond transactions worth $25 billion or more, matching the total number of such deals between 2019 and 2025. Six of these seven large bond deals came from the aforementioned six companies, with the remaining one from Salesforce. AI-related capital demand is reshaping the corporate bond market.

7 minutes ago

MiniMax Founder: Will No Longer Draw a Salary, Allocates 5% of Personal Company Shares for Team Incentives and Open-Source Support

MiniMax founder and CEO Yan Junjie has released an internal all-staff letter addressing recent market volatility, stressing the company’s long-term direction remains unchanged. In the letter, Yan announced that effective immediately, he will forgo all salary from the company until the day MiniMax achieves AGI. Over the next four years, he will allocate 4% of his personal shareholding in the firm to incentivize team members who have long stood by the company and co-created value. Additionally, he will set aside 1% of his shares to establish a special fund to continuously support the development of relevant open-source communities. (Jinshi)

7 minutes ago

South Korea’s KOSPI index climbed more than 4% intraday, with Samsung Electronics surging over 5%.

According to Bitget data, South Korea’s KOSPI index rose 4.52% intraday, now standing at 7596.58 points. In terms of individual stocks, SK Hynix gained 2.6% and Samsung Electronics increased by over 5%.

7 minutes ago

Bitdeer Technologies has unveiled a $36 million manufacturing facility in Nevada, bringing production of its SEALMINER Bitcoin mining machines to the United States.

Summary

Bitdeer will invest $36 million in a Nevada factory to produce SEALMINER Bitcoin mining machines. The new Sparks facility is expected to begin commercial production by the end of 2026. Bitdeer shares jumped 14.1% as the company reported stronger U.S. manufacturing and 921 BTC mined in May. According to Bitdeer, the new plant in Sparks, Nevada, will manufacture key components for the company’s SEALMINER mining rigs, with commercial production scheduled to begin before the end of 2026. The company said the facility will strengthen its manufacturing capacity inside the United States while reducing its dependence on outside suppliers for critical mining equipment.

Shares of Bitdeer responded positively to the announcement, climbing 14.1% on Thursday to $14.33. Even after the rally, the stock remains about 27% below its June peak, although it has gained roughly 26% since the beginning of the year.

Nevada incentives support local manufacturing expansion Details released by Bitdeer show the Singapore-based company worked with Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo’s administration and local officials before selecting Sparks for the project. According to comments made by Bitdeer CEO Catherine Guo to local media, the state approved tax incentives, including reduced qualifying sales taxes, as part of the investment package supporting the facility.

Commercial production is expected to begin by year-end, allowing Bitdeer to manufacture more of its mining hardware domestically instead of relying as heavily on third-party suppliers. The company said the plant will focus specifically on Bitcoin mining equipment rather than artificial intelligence hardware.

Although the new factory centers on mining machines, Bitdeer has also expanded into AI cloud computing and high-performance computing services in recent years. According to the company, those businesses will continue separately from the Nevada manufacturing operation.

Bitcoin miners continue adding AI businesses Across the industry, publicly traded Bitcoin miners are investing beyond cryptocurrency mining as they seek additional revenue from power-intensive computing businesses.

MARA Holdings announced on Thursday that it plans to acquire a Texas site capable of supporting up to 2 gigawatts of capacity for AI and digital infrastructure projects. The company said the expansion will increase its ability to serve artificial intelligence workloads alongside its existing mining operations.

Earlier in the week, TeraWulf announced a 20-year data center lease agreement with AI startup Anthropic. According to TeraWulf, the contract could generate about $19 billion in revenue over its lifetime, highlighting the growing interest among mining companies in long-term AI infrastructure deals.

While several competitors are directing more resources toward AI data centers, Bitdeer continues expanding both its mining operations and supporting infrastructure. The Nevada facility adds manufacturing to that strategy by giving the company greater control over the production of its own mining hardware.

Separately, Bitdeer’s latest production update showed the company mined 921 Bitcoin during May. According to Bitdeer, the figure represents a 370% increase compared with the same month a year earlier, underscoring the rapid growth of its mining business as it adds new infrastructure and equipment.

The combination of higher Bitcoin production and domestic manufacturing comes as mining companies continue adjusting their business models after the latest Bitcoin halving. While many firms are pursuing AI-related contracts to diversify earnings, Bitdeer’s latest investment keeps its manufacturing expansion closely tied to its core Bitcoin mining business while increasing its presence in the United States.

Bitcoin’s downside support is getting stronger, even as a trillion-dollar AI spending spree and stalled crypto legislation create headwinds for the market. That’s the read from Bitwise’s Juan Leon, who laid out a surprisingly bullish case on July 9 for why the largest cryptocurrency’s price floor keeps ratcheting higher.

Leon, Bitwise’s Senior Investment Strategist, pointed to a split among institutional investors that tells an interesting story. One camp is treating recent price pullbacks as a buying opportunity. The other is parked on the sidelines, waiting for US regulators and lawmakers to provide the operational clarity they need before deploying capital.

The institutional tug of war During previous market downturns, institutional holders of Bitcoin ETFs, including Bitwise’s own BITB product, displayed what the firm describes as “diamond hands.” They held through volatility rather than panic-selling, a behavior that naturally creates a rising floor under the asset’s price.

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The more cautious players are waiting specifically for movement on the Clarity Act and other pending crypto legislation that has been grinding through Congress. These are the types of allocators who need a clear legal framework before their compliance teams will sign off on meaningful positions.

AI is eating crypto’s lunch, at least temporarily Hyperscale companies have been pouring money into AI infrastructure at a staggering rate, with capital expenditure in the AI sector projected to exceed $1 trillion across 2025 and 2026. For asset allocators with finite budgets and limited risk appetite, AI has been the shinier object.

Leon acknowledged this dynamic but framed it as temporary rather than structural. The AI boom doesn’t diminish Bitcoin’s value proposition, it just delays the timeline for broader institutional adoption.

Stablecoins tell the real story By mid-June 2026, the total stablecoin market cap had reached $322 billion, a figure that reflects deep and growing institutional engagement with on-chain finance. Stablecoins serve as the plumbing of the crypto economy. When their market cap expands, it typically means more capital is being parked on-chain, more transactions are flowing through decentralized rails, and more institutions are experimenting with tokenization.

What this means for investors The risk is that regulatory clarity takes longer than anyone expects, or arrives in a form that disappoints. If the Clarity Act gets watered down or delayed into 2027, the cautious institutional capital sitting on the sidelines stays there.

Bitwise’s positioning here is also worth noting. The firm manages the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF and has a direct commercial interest in institutional adoption of crypto. The most useful signal isn’t what any single strategist says. It’s the behavior of the ETF holders themselves, who have consistently chosen to hold through drawdowns rather than exit.

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

Table of contents

Bitcoin miner equity valuations used to move almost lockstep with the price of BTC. That story is now changing fast. According to a market note from CoinDesk, Compass Point analysts Michael Donovan and Ed Engel argue that AI compute contracts—not bitcoin mining economics—are becoming the primary valuation driver for publicly traded miners.

The analysts name Cipher Mining and TeraWulf as standout examples. Both stocks, they say, trade below the implied value of their signed AI hosting leases. Despite billions of dollars already locked into multi-year contracts, equity investors are applying a steep discount—a gap that the Compass Point team calls irrational.

The pivot toward AI infrastructure is not happening in isolation. Across the broader tech landscape, decentralized computing networks are attracting serious capital—partnerships like UXLINK and Origins Network show how scalable AI compute is being built on Web3 rails, while demand for AI data storage is turning projects like Filecoin into serious infrastructure plays. Bitcoin miners with low-cost power and industrial-scale cooling are well positioned to serve these clients, yet the market still prices them like pure-play crypto proxies.

Why the Contracts Are Being Ignored One reason is inertia. Wall Street has spent years modeling miners as leveraged bitcoin bets. Analysts and traders still reflexively mark their positions when BTC moves 5%, ignoring the fact that a growing slice of revenue is now dollar-denominated and uncorrelated to crypto spot prices. At Cipher and TeraWulf, existing AI hosting agreements cover multiple years and carry creditworthy counterparties. Compass Point’s work suggests that summing the net present value of those contracts alone yields a figure well above the companies’ enterprise values.

The market is treating those leases as aspirational rather than binding, perhaps because many miners entered the AI space hastily, converting surplus capacity without a track record. Yet the commitments are legally enforceable and, in several cases, involve blue-chip technology tenants. If anything, the infrastructure bottlenecks facing AI labs mean that miners with ready-to-use data center space command stronger negotiating power than the equity market credits them for.

The repricing of miner stocks echoes a larger trend where traditional asset classes are bleeding into on-chain value—real-world asset tokenization just crossed $20 billion, and institutions are now pricing everything from treasury bills to compute power as tokenized contracts. Mining companies that can bridge that gap between physical energy and digital contracts sit at a structural inflection point.

What Remains Uncertain Still, buying the miners on an AI thesis is not risk-free. Reconfiguring a bitcoin facility for high-density AI compute requires substantial capital upgrades—power distribution, networking, redundancy—and the execution has not been flawless across the sector. Permitting delays, equipment lead times, and the sheer complexity of operating in a 24/7 hyperscale environment separate the potential from the reality.

There is also the question of contract durability. AI demand is white-hot now, but if the hyperscaler capex cycle cools, extensions and escalators built into today’s leases could look less attractive. Compass Point assumes reasonable renewal probabilities, but the early-stage nature of the market means that even sophisticated models carry wide error bars. Investors will need to watch quarterly updates for conversion rates from signed intent to live revenue-generating racks.

For now, the disconnect between contract value and stock price is glaring. If the Compass Point analysis is even directionally correct, Cipher and TeraWulf represent mispriced optionality in a theme that is only just beginning to reshape the mining industry. The catalyst may not come from bitcoin’s next move, but from the next earnings call that proves AI cash flows are already here.

AUTHOR

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

[SINGAPORE] Bitcoin has fallen about 28 per cent this year, with its latest slide to a 21-month low sparked by Strategy unloading the cryptocurrency.

The world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin sold 3,588 tokens worth about US$216 million between Jun 29 and Jul 5 to fund dividends on its digital credit securities. The trades work out to an average of US$60,000 per Bitcoin.

The disposal marked its largest Bitcoin sale since 2022, despite long-time Bitcoin advocate and company chief Michael Saylor’s repeated declarations that the company would not sell its holdings.

The move has raised concerns that if Strategy continues to trim its Bitcoin holdings to raise cash, it could trigger prolonged volatility in the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

Even so, market observers believe the latest weakness is temporary, with some saying the recent pullback could present a buying opportunity for investors in South-east Asia.

A headwind or a tactical move?The optics of a staunch Bitcoin advocate liquidating a not-insignificant amount of tokens have raised fears that cash-raising sales could become a structural headwind.

Carsten Menke, head of next-generation research at Julius Baer, wrote in a Jul 2 note: “Forced selling by treasury companies is an overhang not only for Bitcoin, but digital assets more broadly.”

However, Vincent Chok, chief executive of digital assets custodian First Digital, pointed out that Saylor’s sale was likely a tactical manoeuvre designed to satisfy traditional credit rating agencies, rather than a fundamental loss of conviction. 

Hassan Ahmed, Singapore country director of crypto platform Coinbase, also noted that the sale has not triggered a broader change in strategy among other large corporate holders. Danny Chong, co-chairman of non-profit Digital Assets Association (DAA), agreed that there is no evidence of broad institutional capitulation. “Some institutional selling is inevitable as Bitcoin becomes more widely held by funds, corporates and treasury investors,” he noted.

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Instead, he said the key question is whether the selling is driven by a loss of conviction or simply by liquidity needs, portfolio rebalancing or treasury management.

So why is Bitcoin low now?Ahmed attributed Bitcoin’s near-term softness to broader macroeconomic forces. The cryptocurrency is a highly liquidity-driven asset, making it sensitive to hawkish US Federal Reserve signals.

Chong echoed this sentiment, cautioning against attributing the recent drop to a single factor. While Strategy’s sale may have triggered headlines, Chong pointed out that the broader drivers are macro conditions, capital flows and risk sentiment.

“As institutional participation grows, Bitcoin is increasingly affected by portfolio allocation decisions that also influence equities, gold and other major asset classes,” Chong said.

Despite the price drop, the underlying structure of the largest cryptocurrency’s market is showing signs of resilience, said experts.

Ahmed said that Bitcoin has matured significantly as an asset class. Because it now takes substantially more capital to move the market, historical volatility is dampening.

While previous market cycles suffered drawdowns of 60 to 80 per cent, Ahmed suggested that the current cycle’s maximum drawdown might cap out much lower, potentially around 53 per cent from its peak.

Chong agreed that Bitcoin’s fundamentals have not weakened.

“Adoption continues to grow, institutional participation is increasing, and market infrastructure is much more mature than before,” he said, noting that recent price movements reflect sentiment and positioning rather than a deterioration in Bitcoin itself.

Because Bitcoin is becoming more institutionalised and access is improving through regulated products, Chong said that long-term investors may be encouraged to step in during periods of weakness, “making a sustained trend of lower lows less likely over the medium to long term”.

Rebound to comeDespite the short-term fear, sentiment remains opportunistic for Bitcoin.

First Digital’s Chok expects Bitcoin to begin rebounding around or after the end of the year, projecting a near-term price floor around US$52,000 to US$53,000. The cryptocurrency was trading at about US$63,000 on Thursday (Jul 9).

Ahmed pointed to a potential market turnaround by late Q3 or Q4, provided macro indicators such as inflation and jobs data begin to ease.

South-east Asian investors are also increasingly viewing the recent dip as an entry point, said Chok.

They have historically been more open to the relatively newer asset class and often favour holding tokens natively in cold wallets, he added.

For retail and South-east Asian investors navigating the current market, DAA’s Chong said that short-term institutional selling should not automatically alter a long-term investment thesis. However, investors must remain realistic about the inherent volatility.

Ultimately, while the temptation to sell now and buy back lower is high, both Ahmed and Chok warned against actively trading the volatility. 

“Time in the market is just way more important than timing the market,” said Ahmed.

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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PANews, July 10 – According to CoinDesk, in June alone, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw net outflows of $4 billion, led by BlackRock’s IBIT, as funds rotated into AI trades and the SpaceX IPO, among other opportunities. Bitcoin fell about 14% in the second quarter, dipping below $60,000 and recording its third consecutive quarterly loss. However, these outflows pale in comparison to the $2 trillion private credit market. In Q2, private credit redemption requests hit $15.6 billion, with 10 out of 16 business development companies (BDCs) breaching the 5% quarterly cap, and most investors received only partial payouts. Fitch expects redemptions to persist in the coming months, and unmet requests will keep many firms under sustained pressure.

Bitcoin ETFs are highly liquid, and outflows directly impact BTC prices; private credit BDCs, by contrast, are illiquid, long-duration instruments. The simultaneous redemption wave reflects broad market anxiety over liquidity and risk. Energy markets are also flashing risk-off signals, with the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve at its lowest level since 1983. QCP Capital summed it up: “Different asset classes, same pattern: market buffers are shrinking.” It noted that the SPR near empty, Strategy selling BTC for the first time to pay dividends, and private credit redemptions breaching thresholds all point to a tougher environment for risk assets.

OKX to list Solstice (SLX) spot trading

According to official announcements, OKX will launch spot trading for Solstice (SLX) at 20:00 on July 10. Users can start depositing assets at 10:00 the same day, pre-place orders for SLX/USDT between 19:00 and 20:00, and withdrawals will open at 22:00.

8 minutes ago

The AI arms race has driven record bond issuance by tech giants, with six major tech companies issuing $182 billion in investment-grade bonds this year.

The Kobeissi Letter noted in a post that the AI arms race is driving large technology companies to borrow at record levels. Data shows that since the start of 2026, Amazon, Alphabet, Nvidia, Meta, Oracle, and SpaceX have issued a record $182 billion in investment-grade bonds, a 1,300% jump from roughly $13 billion in the same period of 2025. These six firms account for nearly 15% of total U.S. corporate bond issuance so far this year, and contribute over 50% of the growth in this year’s corporate bond market. Meanwhile, the U.S. market has seen a record seven bond transactions worth $25 billion or more, matching the total number of such deals between 2019 and 2025. Six of these seven large bond deals came from the aforementioned six companies, with the remaining one from Salesforce. AI-related capital demand is reshaping the corporate bond market.

8 minutes ago

A whale opened a long position on SK Hynix worth $22.8 million, likely betting that its US ADRs will continue rising after tonight's market opening.

According to on-chain analyst firm Yu Jin Monitoring, half an hour ago, crypto whale "AllegraSeam" transferred 20.32 million USDC to Hyperliquid and opened a long position in SKHX (SK Hynix) worth roughly $22.8 million at a price of $1,480. The day before yesterday, another whale also opened a long position in SKHX valued at around $30 million at $1,411. The market appears to be betting that SK Hynix’s US-listed ADR will continue rising after tonight’s opening. SK Hynix’s US ADR is priced at $149, corresponding to a Korean stock price of approximately $1,490, and SKHX’s current price is near this level.

8 minutes ago

MiniMax Founder: Will No Longer Draw a Salary, Allocates 5% of Personal Company Shares for Team Incentives and Open-Source Support

MiniMax founder and CEO Yan Junjie has released an internal all-staff letter addressing recent market volatility, stressing the company’s long-term direction remains unchanged. In the letter, Yan announced that effective immediately, he will forgo all salary from the company until the day MiniMax achieves AGI. Over the next four years, he will allocate 4% of his personal shareholding in the firm to incentivize team members who have long stood by the company and co-created value. Additionally, he will set aside 1% of his shares to establish a special fund to continuously support the development of relevant open-source communities. (Jinshi)

8 minutes ago

South Korea’s KOSPI index climbed more than 4% intraday, with Samsung Electronics surging over 5%.

According to Bitget data, South Korea’s KOSPI index rose 4.52% intraday, now standing at 7596.58 points. In terms of individual stocks, SK Hynix gained 2.6% and Samsung Electronics increased by over 5%.

8 minutes ago

Whale Who Previously Shorted 16 Altcoins to Net $3.5 Million Suspected of Selling $13.69 Million Worth of ETH Again

On-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa) has detected that the Hyperliquid whale—who previously shorted 16 altcoins to pocket $3.5 million—is suspected of continuing to offload Ethereum (ETH). The address 0x410…75d08 withdrew 7,863 ETH from Spark an hour ago, worth roughly $13.69 million, then deposited all of it into Binance, likely for selling. A week prior, the same address transferred 6,860 ETH, valued at approximately $10.8 million, to a trading platform.

8 minutes ago

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.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA.

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.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA.

XRP has recorded a slump in its Volume Z-Score on Binance as Open Interest declines to a 3-month low amid the ongoing downtrend.

XRP remains under pressure as the broader crypto market continues to trend lower. The ongoing decline has pushed prices down by more than 40% this year, putting the altcoin on track for its biggest yearly loss since the 2022 bear market. 

Meanwhile, market data reveals a slowdown in trading activity on Binance. Recent figures show that both XRP’s Binance Volume Z-Score and Binance Open Interest have dropped significantly. 

Binance XRP Volume Z-Score Shows Lower Trading Activity The Binance XRP Volume Z-Score (30D) shows that XRP trading activity on Binance has fallen below the exchange’s average trading volume over the past 30 days.

The latest reading puts the Volume Z-Score at about -0.59, while XRP trades near $1.13. This negative reading means that current trading volume sits below the monthly average. In simple terms, fewer traders are actively participating in the market.

The data also shows that the indicator climbed above 3 several times in recent months. Those spikes matched periods of heavy trading volume and sharp price swings. 

XRP Volume Z-Score | CryptoQuant Since then, however, the Volume Z-Score has gradually returned to negative territory. This change confirms that XRP is seeing weaker momentum and lower market participation.

Investors Wait for Fresh Market Catalysts Lower trading volume does not automatically mean the market has turned bearish. Notably, it often shows that investors are taking a wait-and-see approach as they look for new developments that could bring fresh liquidity into the market.

If the Volume Z-Score stays below its average for a long period, the lower level of participation could weaken the strength of the current price trend, whether the market moves up or down. With fewer traders entering the market, price moves often lose some of their momentum.

Binance Open Interest Falls to a Three-Month Low XRP is also witnessing similar trends in the futures market. Specifically, data from Binance shows that open interest in XRP futures contracts has dropped in recent days to about 397 million XRP, its lowest level in more than three months.

This decline comes as XRP trades around $1.09, down 5.4% this week, and shows that futures market activity has slowed as the price continues to fall. The trend suggests that fewer traders are taking leveraged positions than they were earlier this year.

XRP Open Interest on Binance | CryptoQuant A drop in open interest means the total number of outstanding futures contracts has fallen. This usually happens because traders close existing positions or because fewer new positions enter the market. 

Although lower open interest does not automatically indicate more downside, it does show that fewer traders are participating in XRP’s futures market. This environment develops when investors reposition themselves while waiting for a clearer market direction.

If open interest starts rising again alongside a recovery in XRP’s price, it could indicate that liquidity is returning and that trading activity is picking up again. On the other hand, if open interest continues to fall, it may show that traders remain cautious and prefer to wait for stronger signals before opening new positions.

DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.

Table of contents

Seven different XRP exchange-traded funds now trade on US exchanges. The five primary spot funds alone held $927.78 million in combined net assets as of early June 2026, while cumulative net inflows across the XRP ETF complex have reached roughly $1.47 billion since the first fund launched in November 2025. If you’ve searched for a specific ticker — XRPI, XRPC, GXRP, TOXR — and come away more confused about which fund is which, you’re not alone: these products launched within months of each other in late 2025 and early 2026, each from a different issuer, with different fee structures and, in one case, futures-based rather than spot exposure. Here’s the complete breakdown.

Key Takeaways Seven XRP ETFs currently trade in the US: Bitwise (XRP), Canary Capital (XRPC), Franklin Templeton (XRPZ), Grayscale (GXRP), REX-Osprey (XRPR), 21Shares (TOXR), and Volatility Shares (XRPI) Six of the seven hold spot XRP directly in institutional custody; XRPI is a futures-based product tracking CME XRP futures contracts rather than holding spot XRP directly Fees range from 0.19% (Franklin Templeton’s XRPZ) to 0.75%, with several issuers running temporary fee waivers to attract early assets All can be bought through standard brokerage accounts — Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, Robinhood — without needing a crypto wallet or private keys Grayscale’s GXRP originated as a private trust before converting to ETF structure, which is why it sometimes appears in searches as “Grayscale XRP Trust” The Complete List of XRP ETFs TickerIssuerStructureExpense RatioCustodianLaunchXRPBitwiseSpot0.34%Coinbase PrimeNov 19-20, 2025XRPCCanary CapitalSpot0.50%Gemini Trust + BitGo TrustNov 12-13, 2025XRPZFranklin TempletonSpot0.19%—Late 2025GXRPGrayscaleSpot (converted trust)~0.35%—Early 2026TOXR21SharesSpot (ETP structure)~0.34%—Nov 2025XRPRREX-OspreySpot~0.75%—Late 2025XRPIVolatility SharesFutures-based (1x)0.94%—May 22, 2025 Fee and custodian figures for Bitwise and Canary Capital are confirmed via SEC filings and fund provider data. Figures for the remaining five issuers are drawn from secondary reporting and haven’t been independently verified against primary sources — always confirm current terms directly with the issuer or your brokerage before investing.

What Actually Happened, and Why So Many Launched at Once Spot XRP ETFs became possible only after the SEC resolved the long-running legal uncertainty around XRP’s regulatory status in 2025. Once that cleared, approvals came in a wave rather than one at a time — multiple issuers had registration statements sitting ready, and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse described the resulting rush of near-simultaneous launches as a “pre-Thanksgiving rush” when Bitwise’s fund debuted in November 2025. Bitwise’s XRP ETF became the first mover and quickly the most liquid, reporting over $100 million in inflows in its opening days. Canary Capital’s XRPC and 21Shares’ TOXR followed within the same window.

Demand has been uneven but persistent since launch. May 2026 was the strongest month yet for the complex, with $131.94 million in net inflows, and as of late June the funds had strung together eight consecutive weeks of positive flows. Retail investors have driven the bulk of that demand — accounting for roughly 84% of inflows by some estimates — while larger institutional participation has moved in fits and starts; Goldman Sachs, for instance, built and then fully exited a $153.8 million XRP ETF position within two quarterly filings. For the latest on how these funds are trading, see today’s XRP news.

XRPI Is Different From the Others — Here’s What to Know Most searches for individual XRP ETF tickers assume every fund works the same way: hold XRP, track its price 1:1. That’s true for six of the seven funds, but not for XRPI. Volatility Shares’ product, which launched earliest of the group on May 22, 2025, doesn’t hold spot XRP at all — instead, it invests principally in XRP futures contracts traded on the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) through a wholly-owned Cayman Islands subsidiary, a structure commonly used by futures-based crypto ETFs to manage tax treatment. It targets 1x daily XRP performance, not a leveraged or amplified return, but the futures-based mechanics mean its returns can still diverge from spot XRP over time due to factors like futures roll costs — a nuance that doesn’t apply to the six spot-holding funds on this list. Volatility Shares separately offers a genuinely leveraged 2x product under a different ticker (XRPT), which is a distinct fund from XRPI and worth not confusing with it. If you’re looking for the most direct XRP price exposure, one of the six spot funds tracks the underlying asset more cleanly; XRPI is a futures-based alternative for investors who prefer that structure specifically.

Grayscale’s GXRP: Trust-to-ETF Conversion Explained Grayscale’s XRP product has a different history than the others. It originated as a privately-traded trust — the kind of structure Grayscale has long used to offer crypto exposure to investors before spot ETFs existed for a given asset — and later converted into a standard ETF. That conversion matters practically: trust shares often trade at a premium or discount to the underlying asset’s actual value, while properly functioning ETFs use a creation/redemption mechanism that keeps share price closely tied to net asset value. Now that GXRP trades as a converted ETF, that discount/premium dynamic has largely resolved, giving holders cleaner price tracking than the legacy trust structure offered.

How to Buy an XRP ETF Every fund on this list trades on standard US exchanges (NYSE, Nasdaq, or Cboe BZX) and can be purchased the same way you’d buy any stock or ETF:

Open or log into a brokerage account — Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, and Robinhood all support these tickers Search the specific ticker symbol (XRP, XRPC, XRPZ, GXRP, TOXR, XRPR, or XRPI) Place a standard buy order, same as purchasing any equity ETF No crypto wallet, exchange account, or private key management is required — the fund’s custodian (Bitwise uses Coinbase Prime; Canary Capital splits custody between Gemini Trust and BitGo Trust; other issuers use their own arrangements) holds the underlying XRP, and your brokerage account holds shares representing your claim on it.

Frequently Asked Questions What is XRPI? XRPI is Volatility Shares' XRP ETF, and the earliest-launched fund on this list (May 2025). Unlike the other six funds, it doesn't hold spot XRP — it invests in CME XRP futures contracts and targets 1x daily XRP performance. It's a different structure than a leveraged product, but futures-based mechanics mean returns can still diverge from spot XRP over time.

What is XRPC? XRPC is Canary Capital's spot XRP ETF, one of the first XRP ETFs to launch in the US in late 2025. It holds XRP directly in institutional custody and trades on Nasdaq.

When were XRP ETFs approved? The SEC approved the first spot XRP ETFs in late 2025 after resolving prior legal uncertainty around XRP's regulatory status. Bitwise's fund launched first on November 20, 2025, with Canary Capital, 21Shares, Franklin Templeton, Grayscale, and REX-Osprey following within the subsequent months.

What is Grayscale's XRP ETF called? Grayscale's XRP product trades under the ticker GXRP. It originated as a private trust before converting to a standard ETF structure, which is why some searches reference it as the "Grayscale XRP Trust."

How many XRP ETFs are there? As of mid-2026, seven XRP ETFs trade in the US: Bitwise (XRP), Canary Capital (XRPC), Franklin Templeton (XRPZ), Grayscale (GXRP), REX-Osprey (XRPR), 21Shares (TOXR), and Volatility Shares (XRPI). The five primary spot funds held a combined $927.78 million in net assets as of early June 2026, with cumulative net inflows across the complex reaching roughly $1.47 billion since November 2025. Contentgoogle_us_solana-wallet-tracker_serp-overview_2026-07-08_14-01-09.csvcsvgoogle_us_usd1-stablecoin_serp-overview_2026-07-08_14-01-17.csvcsvgoogle_us_usd1-stablecoin_matching-terms_2026-07-08_14-13-16.csvcsvgoogle_us_usd1-stablecoin_matching-terms_2026-07-08_14-13-53.csvcsvgoogle_us_usd1-stablecoin_related-terms_2026-07-08_14-13-23.csvcsvgoogle_us_usd1-stablecoin_related-terms_2026-07-08_14-14-13.csvcsvgoogle_us_usd1-stablecoin_related-terms_2026-07-08_14-14-22.csvcsvgoogle_us_usd1-stablecoin_serp-overview_2026-07-08_14-12-12.csvcsvblockchainreporter.net-dogecoin-price-conten_2026-07-08_14-23-12.csvcsv-content-gap-us_2026-07-08_14-43-13.csvcsvblockchainreporter.net-organic-keywords-sub_2026-07-08_15-14-10.csvcsvblockchainreporter.net-top-pages-subdomains_2026-07-08_15-14-01.csvcsvblockchainreporter.net-organic-keywords-sub_2026-07-08_23-25-57.csvcsvblockchainreporter.net-top-pages-subdomains_2026-07-08_23-25-52.csvcsvblockchainreporter.net-organic-keywords-histo_2026-07-09_02-58-12.csvcsvblockchainreporter.net-organic-keywords-sub_2026-07-09_19-02-46.csvcsvblockchainreporter.net-top-pages-subdomains_2026-07-09_19-02-42.csvcsvblockchainreporter.net-content-gap-domain-us_2026-07-09_19-08-38.csvcsvgoogle_us_societe-generale-euro_serp-overview_2026-07-09_19-12-42.csvcsvgoogle_us_xrp-etf-news_matching-terms_2026-07-09_19-33-14.csvcsvgoogle_us_xrp-etf-news_related-terms_2026-07-09_19-33-21.csvcsvgoogle_us_xrp-etf-news_serp-overview_2026-07-09_19-32-05.csvcsvgoogle_us_xrpc_serp-overview_2026-07-09_19-35-29.csvcsvgoogle_us_xrpi_serp-overview_2026-07-09_19-35-13.csvcsvgoogle_us_xrp-etf-inflows-2026_serp-overview_2026-07-09_19-45-33.csvcsv

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XRP price has climbed about 1.6% after SWIFT announced a blockchain payments pilot involving 17 banks, including several with Ripple ties.

Summary

XRP gained around 1.6% after SWIFT launched a blockchain payments pilot involving Ripple-linked banks. Spot XRP ETFs recorded $7.29 million in outflows, the largest daily withdrawal since March 2026. Technical indicators and derivatives data suggest sellers still hold the upper hand despite the rebound. According to SWIFT, the pilot will evaluate whether distributed ledger technology can support international payments across participating financial institutions. Among the banks involved are Standard Chartered and UBS, both of which have existing business ties with Ripple through crypto custody services or cross-border payment infrastructure built on the XRP Ledger.

The announcement follows Ripple Treasury’s entry into the SWIFT Certified Partner Program in April 2026, a step that strengthened the company’s relationship with the global payments network. Even so, the announcement has also sparked debate over whether the project has any direct implications for XRP itself.

An analyst on X argued that the pilot should not automatically be viewed as bullish for the token because SWIFT’s proposed settlement model relies on tokenized bank deposits rather than XRP. The analyst stated that the blockchain network would use tokenized deposits as the bridge asset instead of a layer-1 gas token, suggesting the initiative does not create direct demand for XRP.

"enabling 24/7 cross-border payments using tokenized deposits across six continents."

Sorry $XRP holders, but the "bridge currency" and "liquidity" is tokenized deposits; not a L1 gas token, which is used to charge a very very small fee to prevent free spam on your chain.

The… https://t.co/b99c7mSUA3

— Fishy Catfish (@CatfishFishy) July 9, 2026 Despite those reservations, XRP (XRP) traded around $1.09 at the time of writing, posting modest daily gains as traders reacted to the banking partnership news.

Institutional demand has weakened despite the price bounce At the same time, institutional positioning has moved in the opposite direction. Data from SoSoValue shows that spot XRP exchange-traded funds recorded $7.29 million in net outflows on July 8, the largest single-day withdrawal since March 2026.

The outflows indicate that institutional investors have reduced exposure even as XRP attempts to stabilize above the $1 level. If buying interest continues to soften, the psychological $1 support could come back into focus during the next leg lower.

Derivatives markets also paint a cautious picture. CoinGlass data shows XRP’s long-to-short ratio has slipped to 0.96, meaning bearish positions now slightly outnumber bullish bets. Open interest has also fallen from $2.58 billion on July 5 to $2.33 billion on July 9, suggesting speculative traders have been closing positions instead of opening new ones.

Technical indicators continue to favor sellers Price action on XRP’s charts remains mixed despite the latest recovery. On the 4-hour chart, XRP is trading below the Supertrend indicator while repeatedly failing to reclaim a descending trendline. The token is also struggling near the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement level around $1.094, which has become immediate resistance after the recent selloff.

XRP 4-hour price chart — July 10 | Source: crypto.news Additional resistance levels sit near the 61.8% and 50% Fibonacci retracement zones at roughly $1.114 and $1.127. A sustained move above those levels would be needed to weaken the current bearish structure.

The daily chart also suggests buyers have yet to regain control. Although the MACD remains above its signal line, the histogram has started to fade, indicating bullish momentum is slowing. At the same time, the Chaikin Money Flow has turned only slightly positive, pointing to limited capital inflows rather than strong accumulation.

XRP daily price chart — July 10 | Source: crypto.news Taken together, the technical setup aligns with the latest derivatives and ETF data. While the SWIFT announcement has helped lift sentiment in the short term, XRP still faces resistance from weakening speculative demand, institutional outflows, and a chart structure that continues to favor sellers unless key resistance levels are reclaimed.

Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.

XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) is seeing fresh enterprise adoption even as derivatives activity cools, and Binance open interest plunges to three-month lows.

Made In America Picks XRPLAccording to a SEC filing on June 26, Made in USA Inc. is developing a blockchain-based product authentication platform on XRPL to verify the origin of American-made goods and combat counterfeit products.

The company acquired the platform’s technology stack from an affiliate in a $25 million all-stock transaction, TheStreet reported on Thursday.

The system, which remains under development, combines AI-powered verification with public and private XRPL infrastructure alongside Hyperledger technology.

The platform is designed to help manufacturers, distributors and retailers securely track product origin while anchoring authenticity records on a public blockchain.

This step expands XRPL’s enterprise use cases beyond payments into supply-chain verification and digital certification.

XRP Activity On BinanceIn an X post on July 9, CryptoQuant data shows XRP futures activity on Binance has cooled considerably.

Open interest has declined to roughly 397 million XRP, the lowest level in more than three months, alongside XRP’s slide toward $1.09.

A decline in open interest typically indicates traders are closing positions or opening fewer new futures contracts. Combined with falling prices, it often reflects weaker risk appetite, declining leverage and reduced participation from derivatives traders.

While lower open interest is not inherently bearish, it frequently signals a period of market repositioning as investors await stronger directional catalysts.

The contrasting trends highlight a divergence between XRP’s long-term utility story and short-term speculative positioning.

Image: Shutterstock

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