Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Phantom Technologies and the Hyperliquid Policy Center filed a joint comment with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission asking the agency to update its rules for onchain market infrastructure.

The comment responds to the CFTC’s request for information on regulations that may limit fintech firms from partnering with financial infrastructure and intermediaries regulated by the Commission.

Phantom and HPC said current rules generally assume a custodial market structure where intermediaries handle customer orders and funds, while onchain markets can allow users to trade directly and retain control of their assets.

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The groups asked the CFTC to confirm that developing or contributing to onchain protocol software does not, by itself, trigger registration with the Commission. They said registration should apply to firms that actually handle customer orders or funds, or enter into transactions with customers, rather than to software protocols or developers standing alone.

Phantom and HPC also asked the CFTC to give registered exchanges, clearing organizations and intermediaries a path to use onchain infrastructure for regulated functions.

The comment said designated contract markets should be able to use onchain protocols for matching and execution, while derivatives clearing organizations should be able to use them for margining, settlement, clearing and default management.

The filing also calls on the CFTC to turn its recent Phantom no action letter into a formal rule. That letter granted relief to Phantom as a non custodial wallet provider whose role is limited to providing technical access to regulated markets. Phantom and HPC said a rulemaking would give similar wallet and front end providers broader certainty.

Phantom said it does not hold user funds, control private keys, execute trades between users or intermediate transactions. HPC described itself as an advocacy group focused on creating a regulated path for Americans to access onchain markets, including those available on Hyperliquid.

Phantom integrates Hyperliquid through its interface, though the functionality is not available to US users. The groups said they are working together to support regulations that would allow Americans to access onchain derivatives markets under CFTC oversight.

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

HYPE trades near $68 after roughly tripling from its March low of $25.64, a run built during one of the most risk-averse stretches crypto has seen since 2022.

Global retail crypto activity contracted for two straight quarters through Q1, yet Hyperliquid’s token set an all-time high at $76.90 in June. Understanding why it outperformed in risk-off conditions explains why a risk-on turn could compound the effect rather than replace it.

Summary HYPE tripled from $25.64 in March to a $76.90 high in June. At peak activity, $2.3M in daily fees funded $11M in HYPE buybacks. Seven of Hyperliquid’s top ten markets by volume are now equities or commodities. Price is coiling between support at $67 and a triple-tested ceiling near $74. Why It Worked in a Risk-Off Market Most crypto assets need risk appetite to rise, because their value rests on future adoption stories that get discounted harder when money turns defensive. HYPE’s value rests on something that gets paid daily: trading fees. And trading volume does not need optimism, it needs movement. The first half of 2026 delivered movement in abundance, from a 22% Bitcoin drawdown in Q1 to an oil shock during the West Asia crisis, and every violent session generated fees regardless of direction.

The mechanism that converts those fees into price support is the buyback. Hyperliquid routes the overwhelming majority of its protocol revenue into an Assistance Fund that buys HYPE on the open market, continuously, with no discretionary committee deciding when. At peak activity this year the platform generated $2.3 million in daily fees, funding $11 million in buybacks. More volume means more fees, more fees mean a larger standing bid under the token, and the purchased supply comes out of circulation. It is the crypto equivalent of an aggressive corporate buyback program, except executed block by block. That bid is why drawdowns in HYPE kept finding buyers while tokens with no revenue link bled without support: part of the demand is mechanical.

The risk-on case stacks on top rather than replacing this. Defensive markets gave Hyperliquid volatility-driven volume in oil, gold, and liquidations. A risk-on turn adds the other engine: expanding crypto speculation, altcoin leverage, and new listings, on a platform that already processes roughly 70% of all on-chain perpetuals volume. HYPE is one of the few large tokens with a credible claim to both regimes.

No Longer a Crypto Exchange That Happens to List Oil The deeper change came through HIP-3, the October 2025 upgrade that lets anyone staking 500,000 HYPE deploy their own perpetual futures markets on Hyperliquid’s infrastructure. Builders used it to list what crypto never had: tokenized Nvidia, Tesla, and S&P 500 contracts, WTI and Brent crude, gold, silver, FX, even pre-IPO names like SpaceX. Open interest across these builder-deployed markets grew from about $790 million in January to over $3 billion by early June, according to OAK Research.

The composition tells the real story. Oil and precious metals alone drove over 67% of HIP-3 volume in Q1, WTI crude perpetuals reached $1.27 billion in daily volume in March, and seven of Hyperliquid’s top ten markets by volume are now equities or commodities rather than crypto pairs. The killer feature is the clock: these markets never close, and when the West Asia crisis broke over weekends with traditional commodity venues dark, traders priced oil on Hyperliquid, pushing HIP-3 to as much as 40% of total platform volume. Non-crypto assets showed 60% trader retention in late March, the signature of a durable product rather than a novelty.

Every one of those barrels and shares feeds the same machine. HIP-3 markets charge roughly double native fee rates, half to the deployer and half to the protocol, so the buyback engine now runs on oil volatility and equity earnings seasons as well as crypto cycles. Deployers also lock 500,000 HYPE each just to participate, removing further supply. The scale of the shift has forced traditional finance to respond: ICE chief executive Jeffrey Sprecher, whose company owns the NYSE, called Hyperliquid “bigger than Nasdaq” at a May conference, while Grayscale Research wrote in June that the platform now looks “more like Amazon Web Services than a stock exchange.”

Coiling Under a Triple-Tested Ceiling The daily chart shows the June blow-off resolving into compression, not breakdown. Price at $68 sits above the rising 50-day moving average at $64.68, with the full average stack still in bullish order after the March-to-June trend tripled the token.

Daily technical analysis chart for Hyperliquid/USD, illustrating current price trends and technical indicators. The structure is a sequence of lower highs, $76.90, then roughly $74, then $71.50, pressing onto a horizontal shelf at $66.50 to $67 that has been defended repeatedly since late June. Below the shelf, a fresh ascending trendline and the 50-day converge, stacking three supports into a $2.50 window between $64.50 and $67. RSI at 53 has reset from overbought to neutral while price gave back little, which is digestion, not distribution. The triggers are clean: a daily close above $71.50 breaks the lower-high sequence and opens the $74 ceiling, with $76.90 the only level beyond it. A close below $64.50 takes out shelf, trendline, and 50-day together, exposing thin air down to the $53 to $54 zone where the 100-day is rising. Between $67 and $71.50, the chart is noise.

Where the Machine Can Break The buyback engine is reflexive, and reflexivity cuts both ways. If volume contracts, fees fall, buybacks shrink, and the mechanical bid weakens exactly when the token needs it most. The flywheel that amplified the rally can amplify a genuine downturn too.

Concentration is the second risk. A single deployer, TradeXYZ, accounts for more than 90% of HIP-3 open interest, so the non-crypto growth story currently rests on one team’s oracles, liquidity management, and continued good standing. HIP-3 markets are also not backstopped by Hyperliquid’s native liquidity pool; each deployer stands alone.

Regulation is the third and largest. The UK’s FCA lists the platform as unauthorized, Singapore has raised its own flag, and CME Group and ICE have formally warned US authorities about 24/7 synthetic markets in strategic commodities forming prices outside regulated frameworks while traditional venues are closed. When the exchanges Hyperliquid is disrupting start lobbying, the compliment is real, and so is the threat. Synthetic stock perpetuals sit in a gray zone that a single enforcement action could darken quickly.

The technical reality suggests HYPE’s next leg could depend on which arrives first: a volume regime that keeps the buyback engine fed, or a regulatory shock that tests the 90%-concentrated foundation. The chart has compressed the decision into a narrow band. Above $71.50, a token with revenue in both risk regimes could trade back toward price discovery. Below $64.50, the market might signal the machine’s output is already priced. What the first half already proved is narrower but real: Hyperliquid no longer needs a crypto bull market to generate demand for its token. A risk-on turn may be simply be the first time both engines run at once.

Starting today, PayPal USD (PYUSD) is issued natively on Polygon Chain through Paxos and available through the Polygon Open Money Stack (OMS), enabling businesses to move federally regulated onchain dollars across borders through a single integration, with regulated payins, payouts, and compliance built in. 

Businesses already processing payments on Polygon can access PYUSD directly, through the same wallets, ramps, and compliance tooling they are already using.

Polygon Chain settles more than $2.5 billion in stablecoin volume every day and has settled more than $2.6 trillion in total stablecoin volume. 

PYUSD joins this infrastructure as a federally regulated dollar stablecoin. Paxos issues it under a national trust charter supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which makes it one of the largest US dollar stablecoins issued by a federally regulated entity. 

For a regulated buyer, that federal backing means PYUSD meets the compliance bar that institutional and enterprise use cases require.

One integration, no assembly requiredPutting a stablecoin into production in your payments app used to mean assembling the pieces yourself. 

A token on one service, payins and payouts through another, with compliance tooling hovering above it all, plus the engineering work of wiring them together. 

We built the Open Money Stack to collapse that into a single integration. With PYUSD now native on Polygon Chain, a business can accept money from a card, bank account, or exchange balance, hold and move PYUSD across borders, and cash out to local currency through a single integration.

That consolidation shows up on the balance sheet. Settlement lands faster. Operational overhead drops because there is one vendor relationship to manage instead of several stitched together.

Who this is forStart with payroll. A company paying contractors across three countries can now run those payouts in PYUSD on infrastructure that already moves serious volume, without standing up its own banking and compliance stack. The same path opens for a marketplace settling with overseas sellers and a remittance app moving money into emerging markets. Fiat to stablecoin settlement and back, one integration, a federally regulated stablecoin at the center.

The people on the receiving end feel it too. Payouts arrive faster. Fewer transactions fail. Money lands in local currency without the delays and fees typical of correspondent banking.

What the partnership means"A stablecoin is only as useful as the places it can go and what it can do when it gets there," said Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs. "Bringing PYUSD natively into the Open Money Stack means a business can take money in, move it across borders, and cash it out in one integration, with compliance built in. When a federally regulated stablecoin is available on infrastructure that already moves money at scale, businesses stop asking whether stablecoin payments are ready and start asking what they can build with them."

"As the regulated issuer of PYUSD, our role is to bring trusted stablecoins to businesses and institutions wherever they need them," said Peter Jonas, Chief Revenue Officer, Paxos. "PYUSD is issued under a national Trust charter supervised by the OCC, and bringing it natively to Polygon puts a federally regulated, dollar-backed stablecoin on one of the most active networks for stablecoin payments. Businesses running on the Open Money Stack can now settle in PYUSD with confidence in the compliance and regulatory oversight that serious money requires."

Get startedPYUSD already operates across several networks and markets. Its native issuance on Polygon Chain connects it to the ecosystem where stablecoin payments are most active, and where the Open Money Stack provides the wallets, ramps, compliance, and cross-chain routing businesses need through a single integration.

For a builder, the next step is short. Point your existing Polygon integration at PYUSD and settle. The wallets, ramps, and compliance tooling you already use carry over.

Businesses and developers can get started at the Open Money Stack.

PYUSD Goes Native on Polygon@PayPal's $PYUSD stablecoin is now live natively on the @0xPolygon blockchain, issued through @Paxos and integrated into Polygon's Open Money Stack (OMS) for global enterprise use. The move marks a meaningful expansion for the dollar-backed token, which launched in August 2023 on Ethereum, expanded to Solana in 2024, and has since reached a wider set of chains.

$PYUSD is a US dollar stablecoin issued by Paxos Trust Company and distributed through PayPal and Venmo. Paxos is regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and its reserves are fully backed by US dollar deposits, Treasuries, and equivalent cash instruments. Circulating supply sat near $3.5 billion in May 2026, up more than fivefold over the prior year.

One Integration for Cross-Border Enterprise PaymentsThe central appeal of placing $PYUSD inside the OMS is operational simplicity. The Open Money Stack is Polygon's stablecoin payments infrastructure, combining fiat on-ramps and off-ramps, wallet infrastructure, compliance, stablecoin orchestration, and onchain settlement in one open, vertically integrated platform. For businesses, that means executing federally regulated cross-border transactions through a single integration, without assembling separate pay-in, payout, and compliance layers.

The architecture addresses a pain point familiar to any payments team that has tried building stablecoin flows: vendor fragmentation. Most institutions currently stitch together separate compliance vendors, wallet providers, bridges, off-ramps, and chains. The Open Money Stack replaces multiple vendors with one integration, handling stablecoin routing underneath: on-ramp, settle, off-ramp.

The infrastructure is already operating at scale. Polygon Chain, the settlement layer of the OMS, can now support up to 5,000 payment transactions per second, putting it in the same throughput tier as traditional major payments networks, at a fraction of the cost. The OMS reports $54 billion in stablecoin transfer volume, 159 million unique wallet addresses, and an average transaction cost of $0.002, with live integrations by Revolut, Stripe, Flutterwave, and others.

The PYUSD integration positions both PayPal and Polygon at the front of an accelerating shift in enterprise payments. By March 2026, PayPal had extended access to users across 70 markets, including the United Kingdom, Singapore, Peru, and Guatemala, moving PYUSD from a US-only product toward a global one. Adding native Polygon support through the OMS gives enterprise clients a regulated, single-stack path to plug into that reach.

Sources
Polygon Open Money Stack, Polygon Technology
Polygon Labs Unveils Open Money Stack, CoinDesk
PayPal PYUSD Goes Global: 70 Markets, FinTech Weekly

Key Takeaways Table of Contents

Key TakeawaysNative PYUSD Integration with Polygon’s Payment InfrastructureStablecoin Transaction Volume Highlights Polygon’s Payment FocusRegulated Stablecoin Settlement Through Paxos PayPal USD arrives on Polygon natively via Paxos for streamlined business transactions. The Open Money Stack from Polygon now supports PYUSD alongside wallets and fiat conversion. Companies gain access to integrated settlement and cash-out capabilities in one platform. Polygon reports handling $2.6 trillion in stablecoin transaction volume. Paxos delivers regulated, dollar-backed PYUSD to Polygon’s payment ecosystem. PayPal’s stablecoin has officially launched on Polygon via a Paxos partnership, marking a significant expansion in its payment capabilities. This development provides companies with native access to PYUSD through Polygon’s comprehensive payment framework. The integration combines regulated dollar-backed settlement with digital wallets, fiat on-ramps, and built-in compliance infrastructure.

Native PYUSD Integration with Polygon’s Payment Infrastructure Paxos has introduced native PYUSD issuance on Polygon, eliminating the need for bridged token versions. Consequently, companies can now leverage the stablecoin across Polygon’s entire payment ecosystem. This framework enables deposits, transfers, settlements, and fiat conversions within a unified architecture.

NEW: @PayPal USD (PYUSD) is now issued natively on Polygon Chain and built into the Open Money Stack.

Send a stablecoin built for payments across borders, and settle it on the chain already doing billions in payments volume every day. pic.twitter.com/5KiUITZqs4

— Polygon | POL (@0xPolygon) July 9, 2026

The Open Money Stack from Polygon integrates digital wallets, fiat gateway services, regulatory compliance features, and stablecoin settlement capabilities. This unified approach allows companies to minimize the need for multiple payment provider integrations. The infrastructure accommodates various payment methods including card transactions, bank transfers, exchange operations, and stablecoin flows.

This integration specifically addresses the needs of organizations requiring accelerated cross-border transactions and simplified operational workflows. Payroll service providers, digital marketplaces, and money transfer services can leverage PYUSD for global payment processing. These companies can transfer value and convert to fiat without developing proprietary banking infrastructure.

Stablecoin Transaction Volume Highlights Polygon’s Payment Focus According to Polygon, its blockchain has facilitated over $2.6 trillion in stablecoin transaction volume. This substantial figure demonstrates the network’s established foundation in payment-oriented stablecoin operations. It also illustrates why integrating PYUSD aligns with Polygon’s comprehensive settlement approach.

Major companies including Revolut and Stripe currently utilize Polygon for payment operations. Businesses already operating on Polygon can incorporate PYUSD without overhauling their existing technology stack. This compatibility reduces technical overhead and accelerates implementation timelines.

According to Polygon Labs, the Open Money Stack enables organizations to accept payments and facilitate cross-border fund movement. It also provides currency conversion to local denominations through a single integration point. This architecture creates a more direct connection between conventional financial systems and blockchain-based settlement.

Regulated Stablecoin Settlement Through Paxos PYUSD is minted by Paxos and maintained through dollar-denominated reserve assets. Paxos states that the stablecoin functions under a national trust charter with OCC oversight. This regulatory framework positions PYUSD among the supervised dollar-backed stablecoins operating in the U.S. market.

The Polygon deployment provides PYUSD with access to another significant blockchain network for payment and settlement operations. This expansion reflects the broader trend of stablecoin integration by payment companies and financial technology providers. Earlier this year in June, Mastercard incorporated PYUSD into its settlement infrastructure across multiple blockchain platforms.

PayPal and MoonPay also unveiled PYUSDx this year for customized stablecoin applications. This platform enables developers to create stablecoins supported by PYUSD reserves without constructing payment infrastructure independently. Collectively, these initiatives demonstrate PYUSD’s strategic expansion into mainstream payment systems.

Oliver Dale

Editor-in-Chief of Blockonomi and founder of Kooc Media, A UK-Based Online Media Company. Believer in Open-Source Software, Blockchain Technology & a Free and Fair Internet for all. His writing has been quoted by Nasdaq, Dow Jones, Investopedia, The New Yorker, Forbes, Techcrunch & More. Contact [email protected]

Every token launched on Pump.fun, every fair-launch memecoin, and a surprising share of DeFi’s core machinery runs on the same idea: a mathematical formula that sets a token’s price from its supply, with a smart contract as the only market maker. This guide explains how bonding curves actually work, the worked math of buying up a curve, the graduation model that industrialized token launches, the sniper and bundler attacks that exploit it, and where the elegant idea breaks.

Summary

Bonding curves use a mathematical formula to set token prices based on supply, allowing tokens to launch without order books or external market makers. Platforms such as Pump.fun use bonding curves to bootstrap liquidity before moving successful tokens into automated market maker pools through a graduation process. While bonding curves make token launches transparent and permissionless, they remain vulnerable to sniper bots, bundled buys and liquidity limitations during exits. Table of Contents

The core mechanism: price as a function of supplyThe worked math: buying up the curveGraduation: the model that industrialized launchesWhere curves came from, and where they wentThe attack playbook: snipers, bundlers, and exit geometryCurves and AMMs: the same family, different jobsThe honest assessmentFrequently asked questions Somewhere in the time it takes to read this paragraph, a new token will be created on a bonding curve. It will have no order book, no market maker, no seeded liquidity, and no listing process, and it will nevertheless be instantly tradable, with a live price, from its first second of existence. The mechanism making that possible is a bonding curve: a mathematical function, enforced by a smart contract, that maps the token’s supply to its price, so that every purchase mints tokens and pushes the price up the curve, and every sale burns tokens and slides it back down.

Bonding curves are among the oldest ideas in decentralized finance, sketched by Simon de la Rouviere in 2017 and formalized in Bancor’s early work, and for years they lived in the ecosystem’s academic corners, pricing continuous tokens and DAO shares. Then the memecoin era found them. Pump.fun built its entire launch machine on a bonding curve, over a million tokens have entered the world through it, and the curve became the defining market structure of an entire trading culture, the trenches, where fortunes are made and lost inside a formula most participants have never read.

This guide reads the formula. It covers what a bonding curve is and how the mint-and-burn mechanism works, the worked arithmetic of buying up a curve, the main curve shapes and what each one incentivizes, the launchpad graduation model that turned curves into an industrial process, the attack playbook, snipers, bundlers, and the exit-liquidity geometry, that exploits them, how bonding curves relate to the automated market makers that power DeFi’s exchanges, and the honest assessment of what the mechanism fixes and what it merely relocates.

The core mechanism: price as a function of supply A bonding curve is, at bottom, one equation: price equals some function of supply, P = f(S). The smart contract implementing it holds a reserve of a base asset, SOL on Pump.fun, ETH or a stablecoin elsewhere, and stands ready, permanently and automatically, to be the counterparty to anyone.

Buying works like this: a user sends the reserve asset to the contract; the contract consults the curve, calculates how many new tokens that payment purchases given the current supply, mints them, and delivers them; the supply is now higher, so the curve dictates a higher price for the next buyer. Selling reverses it: the user returns tokens, the contract burns them and pays out reserve assets at the curve’s current rate, and the price steps down. Nobody quotes prices, nobody provides liquidity, and nobody can refuse the trade; the contract is issuer, exchange, and market maker fused into one piece of code, a vending machine whose price tag adjusts after every sale.

Two properties follow immediately, and they explain the mechanism’s appeal. The first is guaranteed liquidity: because the contract always stands on the other side, a curve-launched token can never be unsellable in the way an order-book token with no bids can; there is always an exit price, however low. The second is deterministic pricing: the formula is public and fixed, so the price impact of any trade can be computed exactly in advance, slippage as a published schedule rather than a surprise. Together they solve the cold-start problem that killed a decade of token launches: how to make a brand-new asset tradable before any market exists for it. The curve is the market, from block one.

The worked math: buying up the curve Numbers make the mechanism honest, so walk one simple example. Suppose a token launches on a linear curve where the price starts at $0.001 and rises by $0.001 for every 100,000 tokens minted. The first buyer spends $100: at prices between $0.001 and roughly $0.0011, they receive a bit over 95,000 tokens, an average price near $0.00105, already above the starting tick because their own purchase moved the curve. A second buyer now spends $1,000 into the higher range and receives proportionally fewer tokens per dollar, perhaps 600,000 tokens at an average near $0.0016. A third spends $10,000 and pushes the price past $0.006.

Notice what the arithmetic did. The first buyer’s 95,000 tokens, bought for $100, are now worth nearly $600 at the marginal price, an unrealized 6x for simply being early, and that is the entire psychological engine of curve trading: the formula converts earliness itself into profit, mechanically, visibly, in real time. Notice also what it did not do: create any external demand. The third buyer’s $10,000 is what values the first buyer’s position, and if the third buyer sells back into the curve, the price retraces down the same path it climbed. A bonding curve is a perfectly transparent game of musical chairs in which the music, the chair count, and everyone’s seat are published on-chain, and it is precisely this transparency that its defenders cite as the fairness: unlike a rigged order book or an insider allocation, the curve cheats no one, because everyone can read exactly what they are stepping into.

The curve’s shape sets the game’s temperature. Linear curves rise gently and reward early buyers modestly; exponential curves, where each purchase raises the price by a percentage rather than an increment, produce the vertical charts and 100x-in-an-hour outcomes that memecoin culture selects for; logarithmic and flattening curves front-load the appreciation then stabilize, a design used when a project wants early supporters rewarded but later prices calm. Bancor-style designs parameterize this with a reserve ratio, the fraction of the token’s market value held as reserve collateral, where lower ratios mean steeper, more explosive, more fragile curves. Every launchpad’s choice of shape is a statement about what behavior it wants, and the memecoin era’s revealed preference has been unambiguous: steep.

Graduation: the model that industrialized launches The design that conquered the market, Pump.fun’s, added one crucial idea to the classic curve: an ending. Tokens on the platform begin life on a bonding curve, and when buying pushes the market value to a threshold, historically in the $60,000-70,000 range, the token graduates: the curve phase closes, and the accumulated reserve is deposited, together with tokens, into a conventional automated-market-maker pool on the platform’s own venue, where the token trades like any other from then on.

Graduation solved the curve’s deepest historical problem, which is that a pure bonding curve is a closed economy: its price can only reflect flows into and out of itself, it cannot arbitrage against external markets, and its reserve is a honeypot whose smart-contract risk grows with size. By using the curve only as a launch chamber, a price-discovery and liquidity-bootstrapping phase, and then handing the survivors to a normal market, the graduation model captured the curve’s cold-start magic while shedding its long-term liabilities. It also created, deliberately, a tournament structure: the overwhelming majority of launched tokens never graduate, dying quietly on their curves, while the few that cross the threshold receive instant liquidity, visibility, and the implicit endorsement of survival. The platform collects fees at every stage, an economics this publication examined through its own token’s stress test, and the tournament runs continuously, thousands of times a day, the purest expression of permissionless market Darwinism crypto has produced.

It is worth being precise about what fair launch means in this structure, because the term does heavy marketing work. The curve guarantees procedural fairness: no presale, no allocation, identical rules for every participant, and a price schedule known in advance. It does not and cannot guarantee distributive fairness, because identical rules reward unequal speed, information, and capital, which is where the attack playbook begins.

Where curves came from, and where they went The bonding curve’s biography explains its present better than any specification. The idea emerged from 2017-era token engineering, de la Rouviere’s continuous organizations, Bancor’s reserve-ratio formalism, as an answer to a governance-age question: how should communities issue and price membership continuously, without discrete sales? The early implementations were earnest and mostly ignored, curation markets, DAO shares, continuous funding for public goods, sophisticated designs waiting for a use case that never arrived at scale. The idea survived the 2018 winter in academic corners and resurfaced wherever cold-start liquidity was the binding problem: SocialFi’s creator keys priced follower access on steep exponential curves during the Friend.tech moment, NFT projects experimented with curve-priced mints, and stablecoin architectures quietly used flattened curves to hold pegs between correlated assets.

Then Solana’s memecoin culture supplied the use case the theorists never imagined: not funding organizations, but manufacturing lottery tickets at industrial scale. Pump.fun’s January 2024 launch stripped the concept to its essentials, one standard steep curve, one graduation rule, one-click creation, and the result processed more token launches in its first two years than the rest of crypto’s history combined. The pattern spread instantly: every major chain grew launchpad clones, incumbent platforms bolted on curve launches, and the bonding curve, born as a tool for patient community capital, became the engine of the fastest, most disposable market ever built. There is a genuine irony in the arc, and also a lesson about mechanisms: the curve did not choose its culture. It priced earliness deterministically, and the market that valued earliness most, the memecoin trenches, adopted it hardest. Mechanisms are amplifiers of the demand they meet, and the curve’s history is the cleanest proof in crypto’s archive.

The creator’s side of the modern launchpad economy deserves its own accounting, because the curve reshaped it too. Launching a token once required capital: liquidity to seed, market makers to hire, listings to buy. The curve reduced the cost to a transaction fee, which transformed token creation from an investment into a lottery ticket, and creators responded rationally by buying thousands of tickets: serial launches, A-B testing of tickers and memes, portfolios of hundreds of attempts awaiting one graduation. Platform fee-sharing programs, paying creators a slice of their token’s trading fees, industrialized the incentive further, producing a professional class of launchers whose economics resemble content creation more than entrepreneurship: volume, iteration, and the occasional viral hit subsidizing the long tail of duds. Whether that economy is a democratization of finance or a spam machine with a fee switch is the debate that follows the launchpads everywhere, and the honest answer is that the curve, as always, executes whichever game arrives.

The attack playbook: snipers, bundlers, and exit geometry Every property that makes curves fair in principle is exploitable in practice, and the exploits are now industries.

The first is sniping. Because the earliest positions on a steep curve capture the largest mechanical gains, bots monitor token-creation transactions and buy within the same block a token launches, frequently faster than the creator’s own community can. The playing field is level in exactly the way a footrace against professional sprinters is level, and the same latency-and-priority infrastructure that powers all on-chain extraction dominates curve entry.

The second is bundling: a launcher, or an attacker, splits a large early buy across dozens of wallets in the launch block, manufacturing the appearance of broad organic demand while concentrating the curve’s cheapest supply in one pair of hands. Bundled launches are the modern rug’s preferred anatomy: the bundler rides the crowd up the curve and exits into it, and because the curve guarantees liquidity, the exit always executes; the guarantee that no holder can be trapped is equally the guarantee that no dumper can be refused. Detection tools now score launches for bundling patterns, and the arms race between bundlers and detectors is a permanent feature of the trenches.

The third is the exit geometry itself, subtler and universal. On any curve, the reserve held by the contract equals the area under the curve up to the current supply, which is always less than the current supply times the current price, the market cap. On steep curves the gap is enormous: a token can show a $60,000 market value while its curve holds a fraction of that in actual reserve, meaning that if every holder tried to exit, the average exit price would sit far below the last trade. The curve never lies about this, the math is public, but the market-cap number is what trades on screens and in heads, and the difference between marked value and extractable value is where most curve-trading losses actually live. It is the same lesson every thin market teaches,the gap between the last price and the liquidation reality, rendered in its mathematically purest form.

One number from the tournament’s own accounting calibrates the odds honestly. Across the launchpad era, graduation rates, the fraction of launched tokens that ever cross the threshold into a real market, have run in the low single digits, and the fraction that sustains any liquidity a month later is a fraction of that fraction. The curve’s defenders and critics both own this statistic: defenders because it proves the tournament filters ruthlessly at near-zero cost per attempt, an efficiency no venture process approaches, and critics because it quantifies the base rate every buyer of a fresh launch is fighting. Neither reading changes the practical arithmetic for a participant: the expected value of a random curve entry is set by that base rate times the payoff distribution, both of which are public, and the traders who survive the trenches are, almost by definition, the ones who stopped treating the odds as someone else’s problem. The curve publishes everything. The tournament’s mortality table is part of everything.

Curves and AMMs: the same family, different jobs A final clarification earns its place because the terms blur constantly: bonding curves and automated market makers are siblings, not synonyms. An AMM like Uniswap uses a curve, the constant-product formula x*y = k, to price swaps between two tokens that already exist, with liquidity supplied by outside providers who bear the divergence costs of that role. A bonding curve in the issuance sense uses its formula to govern the minting and burning of a token against a reserve, with the contract itself as issuer and sole liquidity source. The mathematics rhyme; the jobs differ: AMM curves make secondary markets, issuance curves make primary ones, and the graduation model is precisely a pipeline from the second to the first. Knowing which kind of curve a token sits on is the first diligence question in this corner of the market, because it determines who holds the reserve, who can change the rules, and what the sell-side guarantee actually is.

One boundary condition also deserves a sentence: curves are single-market objects, and their guarantees end at the contract’s edge. The moment a token graduates, or trades simultaneously on external venues, its price becomes an arbitrage between markets, the curve’s determinism dissolves into ordinary microstructure, and the trader’s toolkit reverts to the standard one of depth, spreads, and flows. The curve is training wheels with perfect physics; the road afterward is the road.

The honest assessment Bonding curves deserve both their reputation and their notoriety, and an honest summary holds both. What they genuinely fixed is real: the cold-start problem is solved, launch gatekeeping is gone, insider allocations are structurally impossible on a pure curve, and pricing is the most transparent in all of finance, a formula anyone can read. What they merely relocated is equally real: the advantage moved from insiders with allocations to insiders with infrastructure, the risk moved from being unable to sell to being mathematically last, and the fairness became procedural while the outcomes stayed as skewed as ever, because the curve prices earliness and earliness is not evenly distributed. The mechanism is a mirror: it executes exactly the game its participants bring to it, faster and more honestly than any structure before it. For a user, the practical wisdom compresses to three habits: read the curve’s shape before buying, because it is the payout table; check the launch block for bundling, because the table may be seated; and never confuse the marked price with the exit price, because the area under the curve, not the last tick, is what everyone is actually fighting over.

A closing thought on where the mechanism goes next, because the design space is not finished. Dynamic curves that adjust steepness to demand, anti-sniping randomization of launch blocks, creator-fee structures that reward holding over flipping, and curve designs that route a share of the ride into locked liquidity or holder distributions are all live experiments across the launchpad ecosystem, each an attempt to keep the cold-start magic while sanding down the extraction. The direction of travel is legible: first-generation curves optimized for launch velocity, and the survivors of the current era are optimizing, under competitive and community pressure, for what happens after the launch, retention, distribution, durability, the boring variables that decide whether a mechanism that can create a million tokens can ever create a lasting one. The formula will keep evolving. The lesson it has already taught is permanent: in permissionless markets, the launch mechanism is the market structure, and reading it is not optional homework but the trade itself.

And for readers who arrived here from a chart rather than a curiosity, the fifteen-second version: find the token’s curve page, note its shape and its distance from graduation, check the launch block for clustered wallets, compare the contract’s reserve to the displayed market value, and size the position as a ticket in a tournament whose mortality table you have now read. The formula will do exactly what it says. Everything else is the crowd.

The bonding curve, in the end, belongs to a small class of crypto inventions, alongside the flash loan and the automated market maker, that could not have existed in prior financial systems: it requires a machine that can hold reserves, enforce a formula, and stand as a tireless counterparty, all without an operator, and it converts the oldest problem in market design, who makes the first market, into a line of arithmetic. That the memecoin era found it first says something about crypto’s culture; that it works, flawlessly and continuously, across millions of launches says something about the technology, and both statements will outlive whatever the trenches are trading this month.

Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Memecoin and DeFi markets are extremely volatile and you can lose your entire investment. Details are current as of July 9, 2026. Always do your own research.

Frequently asked questions What is a bonding curve in simple terms? A bonding curve is a formula, enforced by a smart contract, that sets a token’s price based on how many tokens exist. Buying mints new tokens and pushes the price up the curve; selling burns tokens and moves it down. The contract holds a reserve of a base asset and acts as the permanent counterparty, so the token is tradable from the instant it is created, with no order book or market maker.

How does a bonding curve launch work on platforms like Pump.fun? A creator launches a token onto the platform’s standard curve for a tiny fee. Buyers purchase directly from the curve, moving the price up as supply grows. If demand pushes the token’s value to the graduation threshold, the accumulated reserve and tokens are moved into a normal trading pool and the token trades conventionally from then on. Most tokens never graduate and simply fade on their curves.

Why does the price rise when people buy? Because the formula ties price directly to supply. Each purchase mints tokens, raising supply, and the curve assigns a higher price to every subsequent token. The steeper the curve’s shape, the faster the price accelerates, which is why memecoin launches can multiply in minutes on relatively small inflows.

Can a bonding curve token become unsellable? Not in the order-book sense: the contract always buys tokens back at the curve’s current rate, funded by its reserve, so an exit price always exists. The real risk is that the exit price after others sell is far below what you paid, and that the total reserve is always less than the token’s headline market value, so not everyone can exit near the last traded price.

What is a fair launch, and are bonding curves actually fair? A fair launch means no presale, no team allocation, and identical rules for all buyers from block one, which pure bonding curves deliver procedurally. In practice, speed and infrastructure decide who gets the cheapest supply: sniper bots buy in the launch block and bundlers split large buys across many wallets to disguise concentration. The rules are equal; the race is not.

What is the difference between a bonding curve and an AMM like Uniswap? Both use formulas to set prices, but an AMM curve governs swaps between two tokens that already exist, using liquidity deposited by outside providers, while an issuance bonding curve governs the minting and burning of a token against a reserve held by the contract itself. Launch curves create primary markets; AMMs run secondary ones.

What are the main risks of buying on a bonding curve? Being late on a steep curve, where the mechanical advantage belongs entirely to earlier buyers; bundled launches, where one actor secretly holds the cheap supply and exits into the crowd; smart-contract flaws in the curve itself; and the reserve gap, since the contract’s reserve is always smaller than the token’s marked value. The formula is transparent, so most losses come from not reading it.

Are bonding curves used for anything besides memecoins? Yes. They price continuous tokens and DAO shares, bootstrap liquidity for new projects, structure token sales that replace ICOs, and underpin stablecoin and pegged-asset designs using flattened curves. The memecoin launchpad is the most visible application, but the mechanism is general-purpose market infrastructure.

JP-BLOOMBERG: Eric Trump's Bitcoin investments have resulted in the loss of $600 million in his holdings

July 9, 2026 at 3:47 PM UTC

New Hampshire’s executive council voted down a proposal to bring the first Bitcoin-backed bond to the municipal market.

The bond sale, managed by Jefferies through private placement, failed to win approval on Wednesday from the council that would have allowed a conduit issuer to sell the bonds. The New Hampshire Business Finance Authority’s proposal to sell $100 million of taxable municipal bonds failed to pass, according to results posted on the council’s website.

Bitcoin (BTC) saw intraday highs after Thursday’s Wall Street open as US stocks rebounded on fresh Iran peace hopes.

Key points:

Bitcoin joins a risk-asset rebound as US President Donald Trump said that Iran "wants to make a deal" after the ceasefire breakdown.Crypto short liquidations near $100 million over 24 hours.Traders see important BTC price levels coming as soon as the daily close.Crypto, stocks rise as Trump teases new Iran "deal"Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD rising back above $63,000, up by nearly 1.5% on the day.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

US stocks were in the green across the board, helping to erase Wednesday’s downside as US President Donald Trump said that the Iran peace deal was “over.”

“They called a little while ago; they want to make a deal so badly,” Trump subsequently said in comments quoted by trading resource The Kobeissi Letter and others.

Crypto markets joined the sense of relief, helping push 24-hour short liquidations to nearly $100 million, per data from CoinGlass.

BTC/USD vs. crypto liquidations (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

Commenting on the latest BTC price setup, trader Killa described their view as “not bearish at all.”

“In my view, we still have a few more months of choppy PA,” an X post stated, eyeing $68,000 for a potential short entry.

Source: Killa/X

Fellow trader Jelle saw ongoing strength from bulls, with a support reclaim still possible.

“Looks like bulls aren't giving up on the reclaim just yet,” he told X followers. 

“Get back above, and we likely push for 65-70k again. Reject, and sub-60k is back on the menu for $BTC.”BTC/USD 12-hour chart. Source: Jelle/X

Continuing, trader Daan Crypto Trades emphasized $64,700 for the daily close.

“$BTC is ranging $61.3K-$64.7K range and spent this morning climbing back up after yesterday's risk-off flush,” his latest X analysis read. 

“A daily close above $64.7K flips the story and would make for a larger relief rally across the board. A close under $61.3K opens the road to the lows again and kills the momentum.”BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Daan Crypto Trades/X

As Cointelegraph reported, opinions on the bear-market bottom being in continue to diverge.

This week, analysis described a “textbook” bottom formation now underway, while BTC price-cycle comparisons continued to demand a deeper macro floor.

This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph's Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research.

Singapore’s Temasek Holdings on Wednesday announced that crypto remains off limits as the sovereign wealth fund targets lifts AI exposure from 6% to 15% of its portfolio by 2031.

FTX’s Shadow Still Hangs Over Temasek’s Crypto StanceTemasek President of Global Investments Nagi Hamiyeh told CNBC the firm holds no direct crypto investments and cited regulatory uncertainty as the reason for staying out. 

“I can’t forecast what happens in the future, and the role that crypto is going to play in the main economy, depending on the different regulations that might happen,” Hamiyeh said.

The 2022 FTX writedown of $275 million drew sharp public criticism in Singapore, with then-Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong calling the loss disappointing and damaging to the country’s reputation. 

Temasek’s current focus stays on blockchain infrastructure and what the technology can deliver for the real economy, stopping well short of direct token or exchange exposure.

AI Is Where Temasek Is Putting Its Long-Term ConvictionHamiyeh said when choosing between frontier AI models and AI adoption, he bets on adoption every time. 

“Not every situation needs frontier models. It’s all about the applications, and it’s all about the companies that embrace AI and build a moat,” he said.

His longest-term wager is on the physical side of AI, covering automation, robotics, and industrial process optimization. 

Temasek invests across the full AI value chain including energy infrastructure and data centers, where long-term contracts with highly rated counterparties keep risk low. 

The firm wants AI at 15% of its portfolio by 2031, up from 6% in the fiscal year ended March 2026.

Europe Is Temasek’s Second Largest Allocation After The USTemasek deployed roughly 12 billion euros, or about $14 billion, into Europe over the past two years, second only to the US.

Hamiyeh pointed to European luxury brands, consumer names, energy transition plays, and family-owned industrials as areas where Temasek brings patient long-term capital.

On the Middle East, Hamiyeh said the long-term transformation story remains intact but the full consequences of the current conflict haven’t played out yet. 

On defense, Temasek takes a case-by-case approach, focusing on dual-use technologies with civilian applications while ruling out biological and chemical weapons entirely. Its only current defense exposure is ST Engineering.

Image: Shutterstock

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Michael Saylor’s company Strategy has launched an interactive credit model, enabling investors to assess the company’s debt resilience in real time. The announcement landed just two days after Strategy confirmed it had sold 3,588 BTC for $216 million to bolster dollar liquidity and cover preferred share payments. Formerly known as MicroStrategy, the company is widely recognized for holding significant amounts of Bitcoin on its balance sheet as part of its enterprise software and treasury operations.

Credit model introduced after Wall Street scrutinyThe new simulator comes as a direct response to renewed risk debates on Wall Street about Strategy’s business model. It is designed to provide analysts with tangible data on how long the company can sustain its debt obligations even if there’s no significant uptrend in Bitcoin’s value.

Strategy emphasizes that converting reserves to cash is not a desperate move but rather part of a broader capital structure it describes as the digital credit capital framework.

The model released by Strategy allows investors to see exactly under what circumstances the company can meet its dividend and coupon commitments, even if Bitcoin growth comes to a standstill.

Cash buffer for 30 years takes the spotlightThe underlying data in the simulator reveals the limits of Strategy’s current capital structure. Even in a scenario where Bitcoin’s value stagnates for decades, the company’s $52.87 billion in crypto reserves and $2.55 billion in USD reserves would allow all dividend payments to be honored for a full 30 years without interruption.

One particularly notable metric is the annual breakeven return. According to the BTC Breakeven ARR, Bitcoin does not have to stage a dramatic rally for Strategy to meet all its coupon and dividend payments without tapping new capital—an average annual increase of just 3.33% would keep the commitments solvent.

IndicatorDataBTC sold3,588 BTCSales proceeds$216 millionCrypto reserves$52.87 billionUSD reserves$2.55 billionPayment buffer30 yearsAnnual breakeven growth3.33%Debt commitments and new financial toolsStrategy is currently managing $6.714 billion in convertible bond debt and an additional $15.464 billion tied to preferred shares. These obligations bring its total debt load to $22.178 billion, while the company’s BTC Rating—a measure of assets to liabilities—stands at 2.7 times.

Michael Saylor’s long-standing approach centered on relentless Bitcoin accumulation. However, the arrival of the STRC debt instrument has altered this dynamic. As of July, the volume-weighted average market price of STRC shares fell below their par value of $100, prompting the company to increase the dividend rate to 12.00% in order to defend market prices.

The company acknowledged that higher dividend rates require consistent fiat cash inflow, so it has utilized up to $1.25 billion worth of BTC-to-cash conversion, as approved by its board of directors.

This shift signals a move away from passive holding towards a more flexible asset management strategy. Strategy’s new interactive model aims to limit the influence of traditional credit agencies and provide investors with a transparent, data-driven view of debt sustainability—even in a non-rallying crypto market environment.

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.

MARA Holdings has expanded its AI and digital infrastructure footprint by acquiring a 1,200-acre powered land site in Texas, helping lift its shares more than 12% as the Bitcoin miner continues to outperform many publicly traded crypto companies.

Summary

MARA has acquired a 1,200-acre powered site in Texas with up to 2 GW of planned grid capacity. The company plans to build an AI and high-performance computing campus alongside Bitcoin mining operations. MARA shares jumped more than 12% after the announcement, extending gains to over 45% this year. According to a company press release, MARA has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Texas property from HIF. The site is expected to provide access to an initial 1 gigawatt of grid capacity by October 2027, with total available capacity projected to reach 2 gigawatts by April 2028.

The company said the location is designed to support large-scale digital infrastructure alongside its existing Bitcoin mining operations.

The announcement extends MARA’s investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure, an area that has attracted increasing attention from Bitcoin miners looking to diversify revenue sources. 

Yahoo Finance data showed MARA shares climbing to $13.77 following the announcement, leaving the stock up more than 14.6% on the day and over 53% year to date despite continued weakness across much of the crypto mining sector.

Source: Yahoo Finance Texas site adds capacity for AI and Bitcoin mining Beyond expanding its mining operations, MARA said it plans to develop the property with Starwood Digital Ventures into a large-scale digital infrastructure campus capable of supporting high-performance computing workloads, flexible compute services and Bitcoin mining. The company added that the site has already generated interest from potential high-performance computing tenants.

Once an HPC lease is executed, MARA said HIF will retain a minority ownership stake in the project. Construction is expected to begin in phases later this year, subject to regulatory approvals.

Earlier this year, MARA strengthened its digital infrastructure portfolio by acquiring Long Ridge Energy & Power in a $1.5 billion transaction, adding another large energy asset to support its computing strategy. The Texas purchase builds on that expansion as the company continues investing in facilities that can serve both blockchain and AI workloads.

Bitcoin miners continue expanding AI infrastructure MARA joins a growing list of publicly traded Bitcoin miners investing in AI-focused infrastructure instead of relying solely on cryptocurrency mining. As crypto.news reported earlier, IREN Limited recently completed its acquisition of Spain-based Ingenostrum, also known as Nostrum Group, adding roughly 490 megawatts of secured grid-connected power and establishing its first operating base in Europe for AI cloud services.

Meanwhile, crypto.news previously reported that TeraWulf signed a 20-year data center lease with AI company Anthropic. According to TeraWulf, the agreement could generate nearly $19 billion in revenue over its lifetime, highlighting the growing commercial demand for high-performance computing capacity.

The trend extends beyond infrastructure operators into corporate Bitcoin treasury strategies. Earlier this week, crypto.news reported that American Bitcoin Corp. increased its Bitcoin holdings to more than 8,000 BTC.

BitcoinTreasuries data ranked the company among the largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holders in the United States, ahead of GD Culture Group and Galaxy Digital, illustrating how companies across the sector are pursuing different approaches to strengthen their positions as institutional interest in digital assets and AI computing continues to grow. 

JPMorgan just told investors to stop worrying about the wrong thing. The bank’s latest analysis, led by analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, argues that Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) isn’t the structural threat to Bitcoin that everyone keeps nervously eyeing. The real risk? Institutional blockchain adoption that routes entirely around public chains like Bitcoin, funneling trillions through private, permissioned networks instead.

Strategy is big, but not the boogeyman Strategy has accumulated roughly $8.2 billion worth of Bitcoin in 2026 alone. That figure accounts for approximately 70% of estimated net digital asset inflows this year, according to JPMorgan’s analysis dated July 9. The company’s total holdings now represent about 4.2% of Bitcoin’s entire supply. A July 2 report from the same bank flagged “two-way flow risks” stemming from Strategy’s updated monetization policy, which now allows for selective BTC sales to cover corporate obligations.

The quiet rise of permissioned chains JPMorgan’s own Kinexys platform, a permissioned blockchain network, has now processed over $4 trillion. That’s not a pilot program. That’s real institutional plumbing moving real money at scale, entirely outside the public blockchain ecosystem.

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The JPMorgan analysts’ July 9 note emphasizes that this pattern, where institutional adoption of blockchain bypasses permissionless networks altogether, represents a more fundamental structural risk to Bitcoin’s long-term value proposition than any single holder’s trading behavior.

Why this matters more than it sounds JPMorgan’s analysis challenges the argument that as blockchain technology goes mainstream, the rising tide lifts all boats, including native tokens on public networks. If the world’s largest banks and financial institutions adopt blockchain at scale but exclusively through permissioned systems they control, the technology wins but the tokens don’t necessarily come along for the ride.

JPMorgan has every incentive to promote a world where Kinexys matters and public blockchains matter less. But the $4 trillion in processed transactions is hard to wave away. If institutions satisfy their blockchain needs through private networks, the institutional demand that was supposed to drive Bitcoin’s next leg up might not materialize the way bulls expect.

What investors should actually watch Strategy’s selective selling policy introduces short-term volatility risk, but the company has been transparent about its approach, and the market has had time to digest the implications of a single entity controlling over 4% of Bitcoin’s supply.

Investors should monitor how quickly platforms like Kinexys expand their capabilities into areas that currently rely on public chains, particularly in tokenized assets, cross-border payments, and settlement infrastructure. If permissioned networks start absorbing those use cases, the impact won’t show up as a dramatic crash. It’ll show up as a persistent discount to where Bitcoin trades based on adoption metrics that no longer apply.

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

COINTELEGRAPH: Can Bitcoin hold $62K ahead of Friday's $1.4 billion options expiry?

MARA Holdings (MARA) Shares Surge 11% on Major Texas Land Acquisition

Bitcoin climbed above $63,000 on Thursday, following Wall Street’s opening rally and a broader recovery in risk assets. Accelerated buying in US equities helped spark a wave of short position liquidations across the cryptocurrency market, mirroring the newfound optimism seen in traditional markets.

The BTC/USD pair advanced about 1.5% during the day, pushing price past $63,000. Markets responded to statements from former US President Donald Trump, who indicated that, after a recent breakdown in ceasefire, Iran was once again seeking a new agreement. This fueled hopes that geopolitical tensions might de-escalate, encouraging increased risk-taking across markets.

Donald Trump stated that Iran was expressing interest in reaching a deal, reinforcing market expectations that tensions would not escalate further.

A broad rally unfolded across US stock indexes, reversing some of the selling pressure that dominated the previous session. This positive sentiment also spilled over into digital assets. According to data from CoinGlass, nearly $100 million worth of crypto short positions were liquidated in the past 24 hours, signaling wide-scale repositioning as derivatives traders scrambled to cover bets. CoinGlass is regarded as a leading platform tracking liquidations in crypto derivatives markets.

Glossary: Short position liquidation occurs when trades expecting a price drop are forcibly closed due to an adverse market move. This can spark a surge in buying, causing prices to jump higher in a short period of time.

Traders eye crucial price levels at the daily closeMarket analyst Killa commented that the current structure does not appear distinctly bearish, noting the likelihood of ongoing price swings in the coming months. Killa suggested that $68,000 may serve as a key level to watch if traders attempt new short positions in the near future.

Market watcher Daan Crypto Trades highlighted that Bitcoin is moving between $61,300 and $64,700, with prices recovering this morning after yesterday’s risk-off selling.

Another analyst, Jelle, pointed out that buyers have not fully surrendered, maintaining that reclaiming support remains a possibility and that bullish momentum persists. Daan Crypto Trades emphasized that the $64,700 mark could be decisive for today’s closing direction, while the $61,300 range is being tracked as a key area of support.

Traders identified several pivotal price points: the featured intra-day price above $63,000, range support at $61,300, daily close to watch at $64,700, and a potential short position zone at $68,000.

Divergent views on Bitcoin’s bottom formationConsensus is lacking on whether Bitcoin has established a significant long-term bottom. Some analysts highlight classic bottoming patterns emerging on the technical charts, while others believe comparisons to previous market cycles suggest the possibility of a deeper macro base.

As a result, despite the recent recovery, investors continue to monitor both daily closing levels and the durability of renewed risk appetite. Geopolitical developments and trends in US markets are expected to remain crucial in determining Bitcoin’s next direction.

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.

Table of contents

What looks like a textbook breakout setup on the XRP chart has yet to deliver anything for traders. According to a market update from CoinDesk, XRP held the $1.00-$1.05 support zone firmly this week, but the near-term picture remains capped below a cluster of resistance levels as analysts track larger wedge and channel patterns.

The price has spent weeks drifting inside a narrowing range, compressing volatility in a way that often precedes a sudden expansion. The longer-term patterns—a descending wedge and a parallel channel—have been drawn and redrawn on trading screens for months. The theory is simple: a convincing push above the upper boundary could trigger a fast move toward the $1.30 region. But every probe higher so far has been sold into, leaving the asset stuck just above a psychological line in the sand.

Why the Breakout Keeps Getting Delayed One glance at the broader landscape explains why XRP hasn’t been able to escape gravity. The regulatory cloud that has followed the token for years still hasn’t lifted. Even as technical patterns suggest a potential upward move, the legislative environment remains a tangled mess. Just this week, banks are pushing to derail the most significant U.S. crypto legislation four days before a Senate vote, demonstrating the political headwinds that continue to buffet digital assets. For an asset like XRP—whose legal status has been at the center of a yearslong fight with the SEC—any sign of drawn-out regulatory wrangling keeps institutional capital on the sidelines.

Traders are essentially waiting for a catalyst that aligns the technical setup with the messy on-the-ground reality. A definitive court ruling or a legislative surprise could be the spark, but for now, the chart is doing all the work while the news flow offers little help.

The Bigger Altcoin Picture and What to Watch XRP’s sideways motion is not the story across the entire altcoin landscape. A look at this week’s top crypto gainers reveals tokens like TON and SIREN surging over 80% and 70%, respectively. Rotation is alive and well, just not in XRP’s favor right now. That divergence matters because it shows that traders are willing to deploy capital—they’re simply putting it into assets with fresher narratives or clearer catalysts.

Meanwhile, the XRP Ledger’s underlying fundamentals haven’t deteriorated. Data on weekly developer activity across major blockchains shows steady contribution and maintenance work, a signal that infrastructure building continues even when price charts are dull. For long-term believers, that’s the argument for patience: the network isn’t collapsing, and the wedge pattern will eventually resolve.

What remains uncertain is how much longer the market will wait. Prolonged consolidation near a major support tends to erode bullish conviction, and a clean break below $1.00 would likely accelerate selling, opening a path toward the next liquidity zone near $0.85. On the upside, a daily close firmly above $1.20 remains the simple trigger that many breakout traders are watching. Until one of those levels gives way, XRP will continue to test the patience of anyone holding a ticket for the long-awaited move.

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.

XRP Price Prediction: Going Mainstream as Kansas Athletics Announces Strategic Jersey Patch Altcoin News

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5 hours ago

Ripple just pulled off one of crypto’s more surprising mainstream moves. XRP price action has stayed calm, but prediction models now face a fresh wildcard. Meanwhile, XRP trades near $1.09 after slipping from this week’s highs. Traders have seen enough victory laps before the race even starts.

Kansas Athletics signed a multi-year partnership with Ripple, placing its branding across football, basketball, baseball, volleyball, softball, rowing, and other programs. That gives Ripple regular exposure during Big 12 broadcasts and social media highlights. It is a branding push aimed at credibility, not a sprint for new users.

A shared commitment to innovation and excellence. 🤝

Kansas Athletics is proud to announce a new groundbreaking partnership with Ripple, bringing the XRP brand to Jayhawk uniforms. pic.twitter.com/ucTnIk12QG

— Kansas Jayhawks (@KUAthletics) July 8, 2026 For XRP holders, the interesting part starts after the applause fades. Brand awareness is nice, but markets usually demand proof before handing out rewards. A logo on a jersey will not magically unlock buy orders, even if the mascot suddenly becomes crypto curious.

That leaves XRP trading in familiar territory around the $1.00 to $1.20 range. A sustained move higher will likely need stronger adoption or fresh institutional demand. Until then, this partnership is a welcome headline, but price charts still refuse to clap on cue.

Discover: The Best Token Presales

XRP Price Prediction: Break $1.20 on Mainstream Momentum?XRP is still stuck in consolidation, and price prediction has become more about patience than excitement. The token trades near $1.09 after a modest weekly gain. Recent swings look more like traders arguing over lunch than picking a clear direction.

Technically, the chart still favors a wait-and-see approach. Support sits around $1.00 to $1.05, while resistance remains near $1.15 to $1.20. XRP is parked between those levels, leaving neither bulls nor bears with much to celebrate. Market capitalization stands near $68 billion, with roughly 62.5 billion XRP in circulation.

A bullish breakout would likely require more than fresh headlines. Ripple’s Kansas Athletics partnership could improve brand recognition, but traders usually want stronger catalysts before chasing higher prices. A decisive move above $1.20, backed by solid volume, could shift momentum toward the $1.40 area.

The base case still points to sideways trading between $1.05 and $1.15. Meanwhile, macro events, regulatory developments, or fresh institutional demand could eventually tip the balance. Until then, XRP looks content to keep chart watchers glued to the same candles.

On the downside, losing the $1.05 support would put the $1.00 level under pressure. A clean break below that mark would weaken the current setup and raise the risk of a deeper pullback. Strong fundamentals help, but even good stories eventually need buyers to reach for their wallets.

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

LiquidChain Targets Early Mover Upside as XRP Tests Key LevelsXRP at $1.09 with a $68 billion market cap is a legitimate position, but the upside math is what it is. Doubling from here means a $136 billion market cap, which requires a macro bull run and sustained institutional inflows.

Traders hunting asymmetric returns on the current cycle are rotating earlier in the stack. That’s the structural case for looking at infrastructure plays while large-caps consolidate.

LiquidChain ($LIQUID) is a Layer 3 infrastructure project built around a single thesis: fragmented liquidity across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana is the persistent bottleneck for serious cross-chain execution.

Its Unified Liquidity Layer fuses BTC, ETH, and SOL ecosystems into one execution environment, so developers deploy once and access all three networks, with verifiable settlement and sub-second finality baked into the architecture. The presale has raised $890K at a current price of $0.01478 per $LIQUID.

Research LiquidChain’s presale details here.

Discover: The Best Crypto to Diversify Your Portfolio

Open interest in XRP futures has plunged to its lowest level in over three months, signaling a major shift in sentiment. According to Binance data, open positions have dropped to around 397 million XRP. Meanwhile, the price of XRP has retreated close to $1.09 during the same period, adding to the cautious mood in the market.

Cautious approach dominates the derivatives marketThis sharp decline points to investors scaling back on risk in XRP futures. Weakness across the broader cryptocurrency market, ongoing geopolitical tensions, and increased risk aversion have all contributed to higher selling pressure on XRP.

Despite this, the total open interest across perpetual futures markets has remained higher than the figures reported by Binance alone. Across various derivatives platforms, open interest averages around 2.14 billion XRP. The modest increase from 2.09 billion XRP seen earlier in the week suggests that individual investor interest has not completely vanished.

Despite weakness on major exchanges, open interest lingering at 2.14 billion XRP in perpetual futures markets shows that individual investors are holding onto their positions.

Institutional investors have taken a more cautious stance. Outflows from spot XRP exchange-traded funds have come into focus, underscoring that professional players are being more selective about risk exposure.

Technical indicators reinforce this somber outlook. XRP is trading below its 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day exponential moving averages, which has limited attempts at short-term recovery. The first resistance zone stands at $1.14, with the 50-day EMA positioned at roughly $1.17.

IndicatorLevelBinance XRP open interest397 million XRPOverall perpetual futures open interest2.14 billion XRPInitial resistance1.14 dollars50-day exponential moving average1.17 dollarsNetwork updates and lawsuit developments under the spotlightWhile price pressure continues, technical updates within XRP Ledger are also being closely watched. As the open-source blockchain backbone of the Ripple ecosystem, XRP Ledger sees growing use not only in payments but also in various verification and recordkeeping scenarios.

Mini glossary: A validator is a node on the blockchain network that confirms transactions and maintains the latest copy of the ledger. A node refers to the underlying software or server infrastructure connected to the network.

XRP Ledger’s applications outside of payments are expanding. Made In USA Inc. has begun using the network to store authenticity certificates for domestic products. Yet, uneven adoption of the version 3.2.0 software update among validators has raised questions about network coordination. While a significant portion of official validators have updated, active nodes are lagging behind in switching to the latest release.

The staggered progress of the software update is being closely monitored, as it affects the stability of the infrastructure relied on by exchanges and custody providers.

On the legal front, Ripple continues its proceedings with the SEC, arguing for any potential fine to be limited. Throughout this drawn-out process, XRP remains traded at well over 70 percent below its 52-week peak of $3.65 reached in July 2025. From the start of the year, its value has fallen by more than 42 percent, and in the past twelve months, it has lost over 50 percent of its value.

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.

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

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$560 million in daily trading volume hits Robinhood Chain as the CashCat token drives new wallet activity.Bitwise removes Polkadot and Avalanche from its 10 Crypto Index, replacing them with Stellar (XLM) and Hyperliquid.40 BTC moves from a wallet untouched since 2010, worth $2.54 million at current prices.Spot Bitcoin ETFs post a $221 million net inflow on July 9, ending a 10-day outflow streak.CPI and PPI data due July 14 to 15, followed by the Fed's July 28–29 meeting, will test Bitcoin's path toward $100,000.How the CashCat meme coin pushed Robinhood's new blockchain to $560 millionThe new Robinhood Chain blockchain, launched just a week ago, is already going through its first major hype cycle. Speculative excitement around the Cash Cat meme coin (CASHCAT) pushed daily trading volume on local DEXs to a massive $560 million, according to Dune data.

In just one day, users created almost 16,000 new tokens on the network, while the number of active wallets jumped to 200,000 — and for most of them, it was their first-ever transaction on the chain.

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The market fever was partly triggered by Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev himself. On X, he dropped a short but striking comment: "Although we built Robinhood Chain as the best network for serious assets (RWA)… it works great for meme coins too."

Cash Cat (CASHCAT) market capitalization chart, Source: DexscreenerThat was enough for the market capitalization of the network's flagship meme coin, CASHCAT, to break above $140 million at its peak. In one day, it gained more than 1,000%, and by morning its price had settled around $0.083.

This surge instantly turned a couple of early investors into millionaires. According to Lookonchain, one trader bought a batch of CASHCAT 20 days ago for just $838, then during the hype withdrew $917,600 in pure profit, while leaving another hundred thousand dollars in tokens.

But behind the beautiful screenshots lies a harsh reality. The total liquidity pool of CASHCAT is only $2.6 million, which means only a few people could actually pull real millions out of the system. Social media is already full of fake claims, such as allegations that Uniswap creator Hayden is heavily buying the token, or that Robinhood's CFO put the "cash cat" on his avatar — in reality, the description in his profile had always been there.

Robinhood CFO Shiv Verma's official X profile with Cash Cat mention, Source: XIn the end, Robinhood Chain got the perfect start for any new blockchain: wild activity and a lot of money in fees. The only question is whether anyone will stay once this "cat token" stops delivering multiples.

Hyperliquid pushes the old guard out of Bitwise's top-10 indexThe major crypto index fund, the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index ETF (BITW), has carried out a tough portfolio cleanup — Polkadot (DOT) and Avalanche (AVAX) were completely removed. Their places were taken by Stellar (XLM) and, much more notably, the young token of decentralized exchange Hyperliquid (HYPE). 

The newcomer received a weight of about 0.95% and now trades in the same lineup as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP.

Institutions are clearly shifting priorities. Instead of promise-based blockchains, they are choosing projects that generate real revenue right now. Hyperliquid posted massive numbers in the first half of 2026: $1.34 trillion in trading volume and $320 million in net revenue. 

The HYPE token itself has gained 165% since January. On top of that, the platform runs the HIP-3 upgrade, under which 99% of fees go toward token buybacks and burns. 

Bitwise 10 Crypto Index ETF performance, Source: BitwiseFor large players, this looks like a classic and straightforward stock buyback.

The index urgently needed fresh blood. BITW has been sliding for almost a year: in September 2025, it peaked at $78.74, by April it had fallen to $44.92, and now it trades around $41.01. One positive point is that the fund remains highly stable, with its spread on NYSE Arca staying within 0.2%, meaning there are no liquidity problems.

For Bitwise, this is a logical move. In May, it had already launched a separate spot ETF on Hyperliquid, beating Grayscale and VanEck. Now HYPE has officially secured its status as a new "blue chip".

A Bitcoin investor from the Satoshi era wakes up for a seven222-digit profitA few hours ago, an ancient wallet woke up on the blockchain when an unknown miner fully transferred 40 BTC, worth about $2.54 million, after leaving them untouched since August 3, 2010, according to on-chain data. This is the deep "Satoshi era" — the time when Bitcoin's creator was still online and coins were mined on ordinary home CPUs.

The main point of this news is pure mathematics. In 2010, Bitcoin was worth cents, so the starting price of this wallet's position is listed by analysts as roughly $0. After almost 16 years of waiting, the owner's net profit reached +105,742,020%. At the same time, they paid a tiny network fee to move millions of dollars in block 957220 — just 2,210 satoshis, or about 10 sat/vB.

Satoshi-era whale "waking up" with 40 BTC for the first time since August 2010, Source: Arkham The event prompted the crypto community on X to debate once again how many "lost" bitcoins really exist. Galaxy Digital head of research Alex Thorn summarized the awakening briefly: "'Lost coins' are more myth than you think."

On-chain data shows that the wallet had previously received a "dusting attack" marked as Salomon Client Dusted, in which tiny transactions are sent in an attempt to deanonymize an address.

The movement of 40 BTC does not mean they will be dumped into an exchange order book right now. Most often, ancient whales wake up for basic security reasons: to move funds from old legacy addresses to newer and better-protected formats.

Crypto market outlook: ETF reversal and volume hold BTC ahead of the inflation testBuyers successfully defended a strong historical trading zone above local support after 10 days of outflows from spot ETFs. The strength of this technical structure will be determined by the U.S. CPI/PPI reports and the Fed meeting, which will either confirm the market’s readiness for a move toward $100,000 or trigger a liquidation cascade toward $54,000.

Key checkpoints:

The end of ETF capitulation and a reversal into inflows: After 10 days of aggressive capital outflows from spot BTC ETFs totaling $2.73 billion, the funds recorded a net inflow of $221 million on July 9. The reversal in the institutional trend signals that open-market selling pressure is being exhausted.Leverage wipeout and Bitwise forecasts: The current market drawdown has officially been described by Bitwise experts as a classic leverage squeeze. They note the formation of a local bottom and confirm a Bitcoin price target of $100,000 by year-end, supported by the cleanup of the derivatives market.Solana dominates the RWA race: The Solana network set a historic record by attracting $1 billion in net capital into the real-world asset tokenization sector in just 30 days. That is more than three times the result of its closest competitor, BNB Chain, which attracted only $292 million over the same period.The nearest inflation trigger, CPI/PPI, arrives on July 14–15: The publication of the U.S. Consumer Price Index will be the first hard filter for risk assets. If the report shows inflation cooling below consensus expectations, it could trigger a major short squeeze in BTC. Hot data, by contrast, would strengthen sellers.The Fed interest rate decision comes on July 28–29: The final FOMC meeting of the month will close July and define the monetary vector for the second half of the year. Any hints of policy easing, or a pivot, would give Bitcoin a powerful impulse to break out of its current consolidation zone toward new highs. You Might Also Like

XRP’s price has approached $1 in recent weeks, and now the key question is whether that level can halt the decline.

Ripple (XRP) Price Predictions: Analysis Key support levels: $1

Key resistance levels: $1.3, $1.6, $2

 Sellers are Returning After a short relief rally towards $1.18, sellers have returned and seem to have full control over XRP. In the last four days, the price has been falling without any bounce and appears ready to test the key support at $1 again.

In late June, the price hovered just above $1 for several days before buyers managed to push XRP higher. However, this could turn out to be a dead cat bounce before new lows. That’s because the overall trend remains bearish.

Source: TradingView Buyers Vanished Since last Sunday, buyers have vanished from the order book. As soon as the price touched $1.18, buy pressure collapsed, paving the way for sellers to take control.

The only positive thing about XRP right now is the falling volume. Even if sellers appear in control, the volume continues to decline. This indicates a lack of conviction, which could mean that buyers are waiting for an opportunity to return.

Source: TradingView Daily RSI Remains Bearish This summer, the RSI on the daily timeframe made two attempts to move beyond 50. However, each time, the price did a full reversal, erasing any hopes of a sustained rally. This can be interpreted as bearish.

On the other hand, the RSI is making higher lows and higher highs. This is encouraging, but unless the price does the same, it will remain a bullish divergence that is not confirmed.

Source: TradingView Tags:

Updated July 9, 2026. The seven US spot XRP ETFs now hold roughly $1 billion in assets and about 970 million XRP after an eighth straight week of net inflows — even as the XRP token price has barely moved. Here is the latest on flows, AUM, and which funds are leading.

Key facts

Seven US spot XRP ETFs are trading; combined AUM sits near $1 billion (~$988M) with roughly 970.9 million XRP locked as of July 8, 2026. Cumulative net inflows have held near $1.4 billion since the November 2025 launch. The funds logged their eighth consecutive week of net inflows, including +$6.55 million on July 2 (after a small -$1.86M outflow on July 1). Leaders: Bitwise XRP ETF (1XRP) ~$245.3M AUM; Canary XRP ETF (2XRPC) ~$225.9M; Franklin XRP ETF (3XRPZ) ~$167.9M. Seven spot XRP ETFs now hold about $1 billion The US spot XRP ETF complex has grown to seven funds since the first products launched in November 2025, and their combined assets under management now sit near the $1 billion mark — about $988 million as of July 8, 2026, according to fund-flow trackers. Together the funds have pulled roughly 970.9 million XRP off the open market and into regulated custody, a figure that has kept climbing even through XRP’s price weakness.

That growth answers a question a lot of traders are still searching: yes, spot XRP ETFs are live and trading in the US, and the line-up has expanded from the original five funds to seven, with additional issuers filed. The wrappers give institutions a compliant way to hold XRP without managing keys or custody themselves — the same structural shift that reshaped Bitcoin and Ether demand a cycle earlier.

Eight straight weeks of net inflows The headline for flows is consistency. US spot XRP ETFs have now recorded their eighth consecutive week of net inflows, with a +$6.55 million day on July 2 following a minor -$1.86 million outflow on July 1. Cumulatively, the funds have absorbed close to $1.4 billion since launch, peaking above $1.5 billion earlier in the spring before settling into a steadier accumulation pace.

The pattern matters because it is spot demand, not leverage: an ETF creation removes real XRP from circulation into a custodial wrapper, so a sustained inflow streak shrinks the effective float regardless of short-term price action.

The divergence: institutions keep buying while the price stalls The most striking part of the story is the gap between flows and price. XRP ETFs have logged eight straight weeks of inflows and nearly a billion dollars in assets, yet the XRP token has stayed weak, drifting rather than rallying on the institutional bid. Analysts frame it as a coiled-spring setup — accumulation building under a flat price — but it is equally a caution: inflows alone have not been enough to move spot while the broader crypto market trades cautiously into the Federal Reserve’s July 28–29 meeting.

For a fuller view of the bull and bear scenarios behind the token itself, see our XRP price prediction.

Which XRP ETF is the biggest? Fund Ticker Approx. AUM Bitwise XRP ETF 1XRP ~$245.3M Canary XRP ETF 2XRPC ~$225.9M Franklin XRP ETF 3XRPZ ~$167.9M AUM figures as of early July 2026; the remaining funds make up the balance of the ~$1B complex. Source: XRP ETF flow trackers.

What to watch next Three things decide whether the flows finally translate into price. First, whether the inflow streak extends into a ninth and tenth week — the longer institutions accumulate through weakness, the more constrained the float becomes. Second, the July 28–29 FOMC meeting, the nearest macro catalyst for all of crypto. Third, seasonality: July has historically been XRP’s strongest month, with an average return near +10%, so a break in the current stall would fit the calendar. Watch the daily flow prints and the custody-token count — those are the leading indicators of demand between now and the next catalyst.

FAQ Are there spot XRP ETFs trading in the US in 2026?
Yes. Seven US spot XRP ETFs are live, up from the original five, holding roughly $1 billion in combined assets as of July 2026.

How much have XRP ETFs pulled in?
Cumulative net inflows are near $1.4 billion since the November 2025 launch, with an eighth consecutive week of net inflows through early July 2026.

How much XRP is locked in ETF custody?
About 970.9 million XRP across the seven funds as of July 8, 2026 — a figure that has kept rising even as the token price stayed weak.

Which XRP ETF is the largest?
The Bitwise XRP ETF (1XRP) leads with roughly $245 million in AUM, followed by Canary (2XRPC) and Franklin (3XRPZ).

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. ETF AUM and flow figures are third-party estimates and change daily. Cryptocurrency investments carry risk, including the possible loss of principal. Always do your own research and consult a licensed adviser. Sources: XRP ETF flow trackers, U.Today, TradingNews (July 2026).

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

An abnormal capital rotation has been recorded inside the XRP Ledger, with the volume of payments between autonomous AI agents in XRP rising by 77%, while the turnover of Ripple USD (RLUSD), the dollar stablecoin, declined by 32%, according to the new hub from t.54.

The movement of funds coincided with anomalous activity from the financial protocol ClawBank, whose 67 connected services processed 7,630 transactions over the past 24 hours. Before this daily spike, the project had accumulated only 8,469 operations over its entire lifetime, meaning the system generated around 90% of its historical activity in just one day, choosing the network's native token for settlements in most cases.

Why millions of AI transactions are forcing a pivot back to XRPFor those unfamiliar with the technical side, the integrated x402 protocol allows AI agents to make automated payments, choosing between XRP and RLUSD when paying for data or renting computing power. 

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Current statistics show that during periods of high network activity, AI agents give priority to the native XRP token because of its fixed low fees and fast transaction processing.

State of AI agent economy on XRP Ledger, Source: XRPL AI HubThe 32% decline in RLUSD turnover indicates that the software temporarily set aside the digital dollar as a passive protective asset and moved its main operational settlements into XRP.

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At the moment, the total AI economy of XRP Ledger has already exceeded the one-million-transaction mark, while the main volume of operations is divided between two major players. 

The leader of the ecosystem remains the DePIN network Heurist Mesh, with 405,492 transactions, providing GPU capacity for neural networks, while second place is held by the operating system LucyOS, with 359,839 transactions, working in a high-frequency exchange mode.

The shift toward XRP clearly confirms that under peak daily loads and the acceleration of the AI economy, algorithms prioritize the speed and low fees of the native coin.

A small team working out of Larkspur, California, thinks they’ve cracked one of the oldest problems in commodity investing: how do you own oil without dealing with the messy, expensive machinery of futures contracts? Their answer is to stick it on Ethereum.

Energy Substantiation Partners is launching $WTIC, an ERC-20 token where each unit represents one barrel of physical West Texas Intermediate crude oil, backed 1:1 by independently verified energy receipts. In English: it’s a stablecoin, but instead of being pegged to the dollar, it’s pegged to a barrel of the stuff that makes the world go round.

How $WTIC actually works The mechanics are straightforward, at least by crypto standards. Minting a $WTIC token requires a USDC deposit plus a 0.10% fee. Each token is substantiated by what the company calls Volumetric Energy Receipts, which are held by an independent custodian and audited on a monthly basis.

Token holders can redeem their $WTIC daily for either USDC or, if they’re feeling particularly ambitious, actual physical delivery of crude oil. The token is priced against the daily WTI benchmark, and the company claims zero tracking errors against that price.

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That last detail is the real selling point. Anyone who has ever held a commodity ETF knows the pain of “rollover costs,” the fees that accumulate when a fund has to continuously sell expiring futures contracts and buy new ones. The United States Oil Fund (USO), the most well-known oil ETF, has historically suffered significant tracking drift from the actual price of crude for exactly this reason.

$WTIC sidesteps that entirely by being backed by physical barrels rather than paper derivatives. It also trades 24/7, which means no waiting for the NYMEX to open if oil prices spike on a Sunday night due to geopolitical chaos.

The team and the governance question The project is led by CEO JP Thieriot and Executive Chair Donald Putnam, with a core team that includes Wil Harris, Lucas Harris, Chris Ericksen, and Katie Oates.

Wayne Christian, a sitting Texas Railroad Commissioner, serves on the company’s board. The Texas Railroad Commission, despite its quaint name, is the state’s primary regulator of the oil and gas industry. Having an active regulator of the oil sector sitting on the board of a company that tokenizes oil is, to put it diplomatically, a governance arrangement that has raised eyebrows.

As of April 2026, public scrutiny has centered on potential conflicts of interest stemming from Christian’s dual role. Texas produces more crude oil than any other US state, and the Railroad Commission holds significant authority over permitting, production, and environmental compliance.

The broader RWA tokenization wave Energy Substantiation isn’t operating in a vacuum. The real-world asset tokenization market has been one of the fastest-growing sectors in crypto, with major players like BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Ondo Finance already tokenizing Treasury bills and other fixed-income products on-chain.

Energy Substantiation’s approach, using audited Volumetric Energy Receipts and independent custodians, represents an attempt to solve that verification problem. The company says its process allows energy suppliers to monetize their inventories without disrupting operations.

The roadmap doesn’t stop at crude oil. The company plans to launch two additional tokens by Q3 2026: HHC, backed by Henry Hub natural gas, and BRNTc, backed by Brent crude.

What this means for investors The compliance framework matters too. Energy Substantiation says it conducts sanctions screenings and maintains audit trails. During the oil price collapse of April 2020, WTI futures briefly traded negative. A token backed by physical barrels wouldn’t face the same dynamic, since physical oil always has some positive value, but the redemption mechanisms would face their first real stress test during exactly the kind of market dislocation that tends to break new financial products.

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

Initial claims for US unemployment benefits came in at 215,000 for the latest reporting period, barely budging from the prior week’s 217,000.

The numbers behind the non-event The 2,000-claim decline keeps the four-week moving average parked in the low-to-mid 210,000s, a range that has held remarkably steady through late June and early July. Claims briefly ticked up to 226,000 in mid-June, a reading that came in slightly above forecasts. Even that modest spike didn’t signal any meaningful deterioration.

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The June non-farm payroll report showed the US economy added 57,000 jobs, a figure that exceeded most forecasts.

Why a flat labor market moves crypto prices Bitcoin pushed above $60,000 in early July following the stronger-than-expected employment data. The move wasn’t driven by any crypto-native catalyst, no ETF approval, no protocol upgrade, no whale accumulation. It was pure macro.

The Fed factor and what comes next Analysts broadly anticipate the Federal Reserve will begin easing monetary policy later this year, a view that the combination of stable jobless claims and modest job growth only reinforces.

Bitcoin and Ethereum tend to benefit most directly from rate cut expectations because they’re the assets institutional investors are most comfortable buying. Smaller altcoins and DeFi tokens can lag or diverge based on protocol-specific developments.

A sustained reading below 220,000 on initial claims would likely cement rate cut expectations heading into the second half of the year.

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