Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

The amount of XRP tokens locked in Ripple’s escrow accounts continues to drop, according to XRP advocate and legal expert Bill Morgan. Morgan revealed that the portion of XRP held in escrow has now slipped below 32.5% of the total supply. This figure marks a significant shift, sparking renewed debate over longstanding claims that escrow accounts hold between 35% and 40% of all XRP—a range now proven outdated.

Morgan noted that nearly a year ago, escrow accounts constituted close to 36% of all XRP in circulation, but this share has been gradually decreasing over time. While Ripple unlocks 1 billion XRP from escrow every month, only a fraction is returned to escrow accounts. Naturally, this means the locked balance gets smaller as months pass.

Bill Morgan pointed out that the share of XRP held in escrow has now dipped under 32.5%, yet some market watchers continue to cite outdated figures of 35% or even 40%.

Morgan explained that, on average, around 300 million XRP released each month are not relocked in escrow. These tokens, instead, are deployed in institutional partnerships, liquidity services, and ecosystem development. This use case has steadily reduced the share Ripple holds in escrow accounts over time.

Mini glossary: An escrow account refers to token balances locked under a predetermined schedule and released over time. Ripple uses this system to plan the future supply of XRP entering the market.

Challenge to outdated supply dataDespite blockchain data being publicly available, Morgan expressed concern that outdated supply statistics continue to circulate. He especially called out some Bitcoin supporters who still claim Ripple controls more than half of all XRP, dismissing these assertions as inaccurate in light of current numbers.

Should current trends persist, Morgan estimates that by July next year, the share of XRP in escrow accounts could fall below 29% of total supply. This would mean Ripple’s locked token holdings will exert even less influence on overall XRP liquidity.

The fact that Ripple relocks most of the 1 billion XRP released each month into escrow restricts the net amount entering the market, which helps allay concerns over potential sell pressure.

Market sees limited price impactMorgan’s latest remarks came just after Ripple completed its planned release of 1 billion XRP for July. While such monthly unlocks often raise concerns about possible sell pressure, Ripple’s history shows that most released tokens are relocked rather than sold, mitigating market anxiety.

The most recent event did not trigger a significant negative market reaction. XRP’s price climbed between 3% and 4% to break past $1.10, ultimately reaching $1.12. Persistent demand at higher price levels increased confidence that the $1.10 region may now act as a key support, rather than resistance.

IndicatorLevelCurrent escrow account shareBelow 32.5%Share roughly one year agoClose to 36%Monthly unlock from escrow1 billion XRPAverage not relocked300 million XRPCurrent price$1.12These disclosures have reignited debate around XRP’s tokenomics. Supporters see the dwindling escrow balance as a sign of a more market-oriented and dispersed supply structure, which they argue leads to healthier asset distribution over time.

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.

The wallets of XRP users are currently being drained with the help of a new sophisticated phishing campaign that is based on the distribution of fake non-fungible tokens (NFTs). 

A recent alert from XRP blockchain explorer Bithomp states that scammers are using fake "reward" and "payout" tokens to trick investors into authorizing malicious transactions. 

A single user lost a staggering $15,000 to the exploit in such a way. 

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The screenshots shared by Bithomp show that the transaction type was logged as an NFTokenAcceptOffer. 

The victim believed they were claiming a digital asset called "Ripple Payout Token #7357". 

The code executed a massive withdrawal valued at roughly $15,000 from the victim's balance and transferred it to the scammer's wallet. Obviously, the user ended up with a worthless bogus NFT.

The anatomy of a scam Bad actors exploit the low transaction fees on the XRP Ledger to mint hundreds of such fraudulent NFTs every single day. 

The scammers use highly official-sounding terminology to give the scam some sort of urgency and legitimacy. 

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There is a massive stream of new tokens with the names of the likes of "Securing XRPL Proof", "XRP Earning Permit", "XRP Cashback Card", "Ripple Benefit Badge", "Boosting Ripple Card" and "Ripple Grant Voucher."

The scammers distribute these tokens to active XRPL wallets or promote them on social media platforms, 

The site prompts them to sign a transaction once they connect their wallets. 

Crypto scam epidemic The scale of cryptocurrency fraud has reached unprecedented levels, with a recent FBI report showing that cryptocurrency-related fraud accounted for the most reported losses among all scam categories last year. Americans lost over $11.3 billion to crypto-related scams in 2025. 

A 2026 report by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis estimates that a record $17 billion was stolen globally through crypto scams. Impersonation scams continue to reign supreme, and the rise of generative AI makes it more challenging to fight the scammers. 

The Ethereum Foundation is making a more direct case to governments and institutions. A new guide from the foundation lays out how Ethereum and EVM-based infrastructure can be used as neutral digital rails for public-sector and institutional systems.

The timing is important. Tokenization, stablecoins, digital identity, and government-backed pilots are all moving from conference topics into actual implementation work. Ethereum wants to be part of that infrastructure conversation rather than just the chain associated with DeFi and NFTs.

For more details, visit the official Blog platform.

TL;DR The Ethereum Foundation published a guide aimed at government and institutional implementations.The guide focuses on Ethereum as open, neutral, and programmable infrastructure.The article strengthens Ethereum’s pitch for real-world public and institutional use cases. Ethereum’s Institutional Pitch Is Changing For years, Ethereum’s institutional story was mostly about DeFi liquidity, staking, and tokenization experiments. The new guide points to something broader: Ethereum as a base layer for systems that need transparency, interoperability, and censorship resistance.

That framing matters because governments and large institutions are unlikely to adopt public blockchain infrastructure simply because crypto traders like it. They need arguments around auditability, standards, neutrality, resilience, and long-term developer support.

Not Just Another Enterprise Blockchain Pitch The Ethereum Foundation’s advantage is that Ethereum already has a large developer base and a widely used execution environment. The challenge is that institutions still have concerns around privacy, compliance, fees, scalability, and operational risk.

A guide does not mean governments are about to migrate core systems overnight. But it does show the foundation trying to speak more clearly to decision-makers outside the crypto bubble. If tokenized assets and public-sector pilots continue to grow, Ethereum wants its open-source standards to be part of the default toolkit.

The Public Chain Argument The Foundation’s case rests on the idea that public infrastructure can be useful even for institutions that need controls. A government or bank may not want every internal process visible to the world, but it may still benefit from public standards, settlement assurances, and a large developer ecosystem.

That is where Ethereum’s modular roadmap becomes important. Institutions can use private or permissioned components while still anchoring certain functions to public infrastructure. The strongest use cases may not look like consumer DeFi at all.

The risk is that institutional adoption becomes a marketing phrase without deployments behind it. The guide gives Ethereum a clearer pitch, but the next proof will come from pilots that produce measurable usage.

For ETH holders, this kind of institutional messaging does not create instant demand. But it supports the longer-term argument that Ethereum’s value comes from being a settlement and coordination layer for many kinds of activity, not only speculative trading.

The cleaner takeaway is to treat this as a specific development inside Ethereum, not as a blanket prediction for the whole market. It gives readers a concrete data point to watch while keeping the limits of the story clear.

This article is based on information from the Ethereum Foundation.

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

Ethereum withdrawals on Binance have caught the crypto world’s attention with one of the most remarkable moves in recent months. According to CryptoQuant data, 166 thousand ETH left the exchange in the past 24 hours, marking the strongest daily outflow recorded since March 2023.

Outflows hit a three-year highThe data show that Ethereum withdrawals from Binance have surged to their highest level in over three years. This move comes as the market is searching for direction and signals a notable shift in investor behavior. As one of the world’s highest-volume crypto exchanges, large withdrawals from Binance tend to be watched closely by market observers.

CryptoQuant data revealed that the Ethereum withdrawals on Binance have reached their highest point in more than three years, with 166 thousand ETH leaving the platform in the past 24 hours.

The sharp spike in withdrawals has fueled the view that crypto investors may be choosing to move their assets off exchanges and into long-term storage. The fact that this activity took place while the Ethereum price hovered around $1,500 has fueled speculation that some investors find this zone a compelling buying opportunity.

Mini glossary: CryptoQuant is an analytics platform that tracks the crypto market using on-chain blockchain data and exchange flows. Large outflows from exchanges are at times interpreted as a signal that investors may prefer holding over selling.

Ethereum seeks a recoverySince its latest peak at the start of 2025, Ethereum has faced sustained correction pressure, with its value dropping about 67%. Interestingly, over the same period, Ethereum’s decline has outpaced Bitcoin’s pullback by roughly 15 percentage points.

MetricDataDaily ETH outflow from Binance166 thousand ETHPrevious similar outflow recordHighest since March 2023ETH change since 2025 peak67% declinePrice movement in last 48 hoursApproximately 10% riseDespite this, there have been signs of price recovery over the last two days. Ethereum climbed roughly 10% in 48 hours to again top $1,700. The timing of both the withdrawal surge and rising prices has prompted debate over whether accumulation momentum is returning to the market.

The sharp withdrawal activity in Ethereum took place while the price steadied near $1,500, fueling expectations that some investors view this level as a bargain-buying opportunity.

The latest volatility shows how quickly investor sentiment can shift. Especially for major exchanges, sizable asset outflows offer key signals on how investors are positioning themselves and may hold clues beyond short-term price action.

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.

Altcoins

3 July 2026 | 19:55 The Ethereum derivatives market is flashing a fascinating divergence: trader conviction is recovering much faster than the underlying spot price.

Following a sharp flush out in early June, leverage is quietly returning to the market. However, unlike previous speculative peaks, this rebuilding phase is characterized by localized aggressive positioning rather than market-wide exhaustion.

Key Takeaways ETH funding rates hit 0.016% despite lower prices. Total open interest sits at $4.35B, avoiding overheating. Bullish conviction rebuilds with ETH 15-20% below peaks. Conviction Leading Price The first clear signal of returning bullish sentiment shows up in funding rates, the periodic fee paid between long and short traders to keep perpetual contract prices pegged to the spot index.

Ethereum funding rates across all exchanges. Currently, funding rates across major exchanges have accelerated back to approximately 0.016%. To put this in perspective, this is significantly higher than the 0.009% levels observed in late May, even though Ethereum was trading much higher at the time ($2,000–$2,150).

Late May Pre-Washout vs. Current Stabilization ETH Spot Price: $2,000 – $2,150 in late May vs. $1,730 at the time of writing. Average Funding Rate: ~0.009% in late May vs. ~0.016% currently. Total Open Interest: High peak over $12B in late May vs. ~$4.35B (below the 30-day average) currently. When ETH fell to its early June floor near $1,540, a massive wave of leveraged long positions was wiped clean from the order books, temporarily cooling the market. Crucially, funding rates refused to stay negative for any meaningful duration. Short sellers never took dominant control. Instead, as spot prices consolidated and stabilized around the $1,700–$1,730 liquidity pocket after 9% gain for the week according to CoinMarketCap data, buyers aggressively stepped back in, driving the cost of holding leverage to its highest point in weeks.

ETH/USDT daily technical price chart. The Structural Volatility Shield While funding rates show that active traders are increasingly eager to bet on upside, the second dataset proves that the broader market is not yet dangerously over-leveraged.

Binance’s 30-day Open Interest (OI) Z-Score, which measures how far current leverage volume deviates from its statistical average, currently sits at -0.56, according to report, shared by CryptoQuant. Total open interest across the market is hovering around $4.35 billion, remaining comfortably below the 30-day baseline of $4.81 billion.

Binance ETH Open Interest Z-Score analysis. What this tells us is that while individual participants are using higher leverage (high funding), the total volume of leveraged positions in the system is still entirely manageable. The speculative excesses of early cycle shifts might be successfully digested.

This localized positioning marks a pivotal shift from the retail-led euphoria that defined the 2025 cycle peaks. In previous rallies, market-wide leverage was often driven by speculative cascades, where retail over-leveraging forced rapid, correlated liquidations. Conversely, the current fragmentation suggests that institutional allocators are re-entering with a more surgical approach.

Data from SoSoValue reinforces this thesis, showing a clear, consecutive ramp in Ethereum Spot ETF inflows, climbing from $14.89M on July 1 to $29.08M by July 2. This reversal follows a grueling nine-day streak of consecutive net outflows, underscores a deliberate, capital-intensive accumulation phase.

For these desks, a non-correlated recovery is actually a health signal; it indicates that the market is currently supported by structural demand rather than reactive, emotion-driven sentiment. By avoiding a broad, systemic blow-up, the market is constructing a more durable floor. This layout makes the current environment significantly more attractive for institutional mandates that prioritize structural stability over parabolic, high-risk exposure.

Will Spot Follow Derivatives? This structural layout sets up a high-stakes race between derivatives conviction and spot market demand.

Positive funding rates are fundamentally healthy during sustained uptrends; they signal an appetite for risk and structural momentum. The underlying risk surfaces when derivatives positioning outpaces spot market accumulation.

If Ethereum’s spot demand strengthens and absorbs this momentum, the rising funding rates could serve as fuel for a clean, sustainable recovery. However, if spot buying fails to break key overhead resistance levels, these newly minted, high-funding long positions will become exposed. A failure to move higher could transform this growing optimism into a localized liquidation trap, prompting short-term cascade liquidations and heightened volatility.

The early June washout effectively cleared the board, but it did not break the underlying risk-on bias of the market. With traders front-running a recovery while ETH still sits 15-20% below its spring highs, all eyes now turn to spot order books to validate the move.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.

Author

Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coindoo and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.

The crypto market is moving through a pivotal period of evolution. Long-term trends surrounding the XRP price prediction and the Ethereum price forecast 2030 continue to guide investor expectations. These projections rely heavily on Ripple’s utility in cross-border financial networks and Ethereum’s reigning dominance over smart contracts and Web3 systems. While both established assets serve as reliable benchmarks for digital currency growth, market participants are intentionally shifting their focus toward early-stage networks that offer significantly higher upside potential.

BlockDAG (BDAG) is rapidly dominating these discussions. It has solidly positioned itself in the best crypto to buy debate by launching a massive 100% World Cup Bonus. This strategic move allows participants to enter at just $0.00000066 per coin while securing up to 100% in extra tokens to maximize their accumulation power. This market momentum is growing even stronger following the launch of BlockDAG’s AI Large Language Model (LLM), an expansion that marks a giant leap forward for ecosystem intelligence, scalability, and network adoption.

Adoption Trends Drive Long-Term XRP Price Predictions Table of Contents

Adoption Trends Drive Long-Term XRP Price PredictionsEthereum Price Forecast 2030 Reflects Network EvolutionBlockDAG’s World Cup Bonus Boosts Token Accumulation PowerKey Insights Ripple’s expanding role in cross-border payments and international financial systems heavily dictates the current XRP price prediction narrative. Engineers designed XRP specifically to settle fast, low-cost international transactions in just a few seconds. This high-speed utility makes it an incredibly relevant asset for global remittance and institutional payment corridors.

Because of these variables, long-term market projections for XRP vary significantly. Conservative analysts suggest that moderate real-world adoption will likely place the asset’s long-term valuation somewhere between $1 and $5.

On the other hand, more optimistic outlooks push the XRP price prediction up to $10 or even higher. Achieving these higher price levels depends heavily on clearer global regulatory frameworks and deeper integration into institutional banking systems. Ultimately, the long-term future of XRP remains tied to liquidity demands and practical banking adoption.

Ethereum Price Forecast 2030 Reflects Network Evolution The Ethereum price forecast 2030 depends entirely on the network’s established role as the world’s leading smart contract platform. It serves as the primary backbone for decentralized finance (DeFi), NFTs, and decentralized applications (dApps). Because its ecosystem hosts the majority of decentralized protocols, Ethereum benefits from continuous network activity and high developer engagement.

Long-term valuation models show that the Ethereum price forecast 2030 sits comfortably between $8,000 and $20,000. Reaching these targets requires steady institutional participation, rising global adoption, and successful network upgrades.

These ongoing technical upgrades are designed to increase transaction throughput and lower gas fees during peak congestion periods. As blockchain technology integrates into mainstream industries, Ethereum’s capability to maintain a reliable, scalable infrastructure will dictate its long-term financial position.

BlockDAG’s World Cup Bonus Boosts Token Accumulation Power BlockDAG is capturing widespread attention as it rolls out advanced features and expanding utility. This rapid growth strengthens its reputation as the best crypto to buy for individuals targeting early network momentum. The primary catalyst driving this market interest is the limited-time 100% World Cup Bonus. This promotional structure dramatically boosts coin accumulation by granting buyers an extra 50% to 100% in BDAG tokens, successfully doubling their initial positions at activation.

With a current entry price of $0.00000066 and an anticipated buyback benchmark set at $0.03, BlockDAG presents a wide valuation gap. This difference underscores the substantial upside potential available as the ecosystem matures and market demand scales upward.

Activating this time-sensitive World Cup Bonus provides an immediate advantage by increasing a user’s total token holdings from the very beginning. This allows participants to gain deeper exposure to the network’s growth early on, rather than relying solely on future market price action.

Furthermore, the introduction of BlockDAG’s AI LLM represents a major technological milestone. This AI integration will improve overall ecosystem intelligence, optimize user interactions, and boost application scalability. It will also maximize operational efficiency and foster highly adaptive network use cases. Backed by a reported $500 million valuation increase, this technological leap reflects strong market confidence in BlockDAG’s long-term scaling capacity.

Key Insights The crypto landscape continues to adjust around the utility-driven XRP price prediction and the institutional Ethereum price forecast 2030. XRP maintains its focus on cross-border payment efficiency, while Ethereum relies on its massive smart contract ecosystem. Both legacy assets move within long-term adoption cycles that depend heavily on regulatory progress and institutional capital.

However, market capital is flowing toward newer ecosystems that offer faster development cycles and powerful near-term catalysts. BlockDAG is leading this shift with its 100% World Cup Bonus, offering an entry reference of $0.00000066 paired with a $0.03 buyback framework. Supported by an expanding AI LLM and rapid ecosystem development, BlockDAG is solidifying its place as the best crypto to buy for those seeking maximum upside.

Presale: https://purchase.blockdag.network

Website: https://blockdag.network

Telegram: https://t.me/blockDAGnetworkOfficial

Discord: https://discord.gg/Q7BxghMVyu

Disclaimer: This is a Press Release provided by a third party who is responsible for the content. Please conduct your own research before taking any action based on the content.

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.

Dog-themed cryptocurrency Dogecoin is eyeing its first short-term golden cross in the month of July as indications hint at such a setup on the hourly chart.

As seen on the hourly chart, the MA 50 has shifted upwards and might cross above the MA 200 in the next few hours. This setup indicates a potential golden cross, interpreted as a positive signal for price.

DOGE/USD Hourly Chart, Image By TradingViewThis follows as cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin, see a rebound towards the weekend. The crypto market is ending the week in a better position than where it started, with Dogecoin up 2.84% in the last 24 hours to $0.0756 and 2.84% weekly.

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Positive catalysts, including weak U.S. jobs data which reduced expectations for a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase, contributed to the price rebound.

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Lighter-than-expected jobs data had suggested that the Federal Reserve could hold off on hiking rates. In this light, the Federal Reserve is now expected to hold its benchmark rate steady in the 3.50%–3.75% range at both the July and September meetings, with the first 25-basis-point hike now priced in for October.

This lifted risk assets and precious metals, with most cryptocurrencies now trading in the green.

$0.1 next?Dogecoin rebounded from Tuesday's low of $0.069, extending its recovery into the third day.

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Dogecoin's open interest has risen 6.11% in the last 24 hours, tallying 14.34 billion coins worth $1.09 billion in monetary terms, the highest since May 16. This figure has been increasing since June 28, a sign of renewed demand for leverage.

The $0.1 level, which coincides with the daily MA 200, remains a key level to be watched. This level has capped Dogecoin's rise since 2026, with price trading below it since November 2025. The $0.089 level, which is the daily MA 50, remains an immediate hurdle to surmount in the short term.

However, the broader market structure remains bearish across most crypto assets following a succession of lower highs and lower lows.

This implies that further buying pressure will be needed to sustain a move higher. Unless this happens, any bounce that appears is more likely a short-term technical reaction than the beginning of a trend reversal.

The Cardano Foundation has reassured the community that Cardano’s involvement in the emerging Open USD (OUSD) ecosystem could extend well beyond the project’s initial launch announcement.

In its congratulatory message following the Open USD stablecoin launch, the Foundation highlighted its early alignment with the new stablecoin initiative. Specifically, it emphasized that its partner, Brale, joined Open USD as a launch partner.

This connection is significant because Brale already maintains a working relationship with the Cardano ecosystem. In 2025, Brale partnered with the Cardano Foundation to support compliant and native stablecoin issuance on the network. As a result, the Foundation views Brale’s participation in Open USD as a potential bridge linking the stablecoin initiative to Cardano. 

Notably, the Foundation revealed that it is exploring additional integration options, signaling that Brale may represent only one of several possible pathways into the OpenUSD ecosystem. The organization added that it would share further details as discussions progress.

Community Concerns Intensify Over Cardano’s Absence The Foundation’s comments arrived amid growing criticism from community members after Cardano failed to appear among the organizations publicly associated with Open USD.

The consortium includes major financial and payment firms such as Visa, Ripple, MoonPay, and Mastercard. Their participation prompted questions about why Cardano and its founding organizations were absent from the official list despite the network’s increasing focus on real-world financial applications.

Meanwhile, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson attributed the situation to governance decisions made by delegated representatives (DReps). According to Hoskinson, the community had previously rejected proposals designed to accelerate Cardano’s commercialization efforts through on-chain voting. 

In his view, those governance outcomes have directly influenced the ecosystem’s ability to pursue strategic business partnerships and broader market adoption. 

DRep Calls for Stronger Commercialization Efforts Amid the ongoing debate, prominent Cardano DRep Dori publicly reconsidered his previously cautious stance on treasury-funded commercialization initiatives.

Dori argued that the ecosystem can no longer depend exclusively on the efforts of the Cardano Foundation and EMURGO to drive business adoption and ecosystem expansion.

Consequently, he urged governance participants to become more supportive of commercialization proposals to empower Input Output Global if Cardano hopes to remain competitive with rival blockchain networks.

Stablecoin Growth Remains a Key Priority In the meantime, the Cardano community continues to advocate for a robust stablecoin ecosystem capable of accelerating decentralized finance activity on the network.

The introduction of the USDCx stablecoin earlier this year helped push Cardano’s stablecoin market valuation above $60 billion. However, that figure has since declined slightly, standing at $59.1 billion at press time.

Against this backdrop, the Foundation’s suggestion that additional OpenUSD integration pathways remain under consideration has attracted considerable attention, as many community members view a stronger stablecoin presence as essential to Cardano’s long-term DeFi ambitions.

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

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has pushed back against criticism surrounding Midnight City, rejecting claims that the initiative does not contribute to ecosystem user adoption. 

His response followed remarks from prominent Cardano content creator Big Pey, who questioned the project’s commercial relevance and value proposition.

Big Pey Questions Midnight City’s Impact on Adoption In a recent post on X, Big Pey pointed to Midnight City as an example of wasteful spending within the Cardano ecosystem. According to him, the Cardano team invested millions of dollars into a project that would not directly attract new users or drive adoption.

He characterized the strategy as the “Cardano Way,” suggesting that the ecosystem often allocates significant resources to initiatives that fail to generate immediate commercial returns.

Hoskinson Loses Respect for Big Pey Over Recent Criticism  Hoskinson quickly dismissed the criticism, arguing that it reflected a fundamental misunderstanding of product development and consumer behavior.

The Cardano founder stated that he had “lost all respect” for Big Pey as an entrepreneur, adding that the criticism ignored how successful consumer products and adoption strategies work.

According to Hoskinson, Big Pey has no clue how consumer experiences evolve or how ecosystems onboard mainstream users.

Furthermore, Hoskinson predicted that Midnight City would eventually become one of the most important applications within the broader Midnight Network ecosystem. He challenged the critic to revisit the discussion in the future, stating:

“Save this tweet and come back in a year to apologize.” 

I've just lost all respect for you as an entrepreneur. You clearly have no clue how adoption or consumer experiences work. Save this tweet and come back in a year to apologize. Midnight City is one of the most important applications on Midnight and will be one of the keys to…

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) July 2, 2026

Midnight City Initiative  For context, Midnight City serves as an interactive and always-on showcase for the Midnight Network, the privacy-focused partner chain associated with Cardano.

The platform aims to make advanced privacy technologies easier to understand by transforming complex blockchain mechanics into a retro-futuristic, living 2D city. Midnight City operates through autonomous AI agents that continuously interact within the digital environment.

These agents generate large volumes of realistic activity, including transactions, economic behavior, and network interactions that closely resemble how consumers and businesses may eventually use blockchain applications in everyday scenarios.

Notably, Hoskinson views Midnight City as a foundational infrastructure designed to support future consumer adoption and enterprise onboarding. From his perspective, creating compelling user experiences and realistic environments represents a necessary step toward bringing mainstream users into blockchain ecosystems.

Midnight Continues to Gain Institutional Interest While Hoskinson believes Midnight City could eventually attract more users to both Midnight and Cardano, the underlying Midnight blockchain has already begun securing notable partnerships.

Since launch, the network has attracted organizations including Monument Bank, Google, and AlphaTON Capital.

Moreover, Hoskinson recently revealed that discussions are underway with several major investment banks across the United States and Europe regarding potential integrations.

According to the Cardano founder, 2026 will serve as a beta year for Midnight as the team focuses on strengthening infrastructure and preparing the ecosystem for broader public adoption. 

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

According to recent ecosystem data, the layer-1 blockchain is approaching full readiness for the V11 hard fork, which has been officially dubbed "van Rossem." 

Major cryptocurrency exchanges, including industry giants Binance and Coinbase, have already signaled their operational readiness. 

The much-anticipated upgrade is essentially ready to go, but it still needs to receive the final sign-off from the Constitutional Committee (CC). 

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The "van Rossem" hard fork?The upgrade has been named after the late Max van Rossem, and it is meant to honor his substantial contributions to building the Cardano community and developing its governance structure. 

Technically, V11 is categorized as an "intra-era" hard fork. This means developers can introduce new features and optimize the protocol without moving to a new blockchain era (this makes it possible to minimize protocol disruptions). 

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According to Cardano ecosystem contributors, the hard fork will introduce cheaper smart contracts, ZK-ready cryptography, as well as some new built-in functions. 

The van Rossem hard fork is supposed to act as a bridge to Cardano's next  Dijkstra era.

Full readiness The van Rossem hard fork requires the decentralized approval of multiple independent actors.

The network has already successfully executed the hard fork on its Preview and Preprod testnets to make sure that it is stable enough for a grand launch. 

Currently, on-chain metrics show overwhelming support and operational readiness. 

Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) have rapidly upgraded their infrastructure. Currently, 88% of all blocks minted in the past seven days were produced using the V11 node software.

Binance and Coinbase, the world's leading cryptocurrency exchanges, have thrown their support behind the fork. 

The required voting thresholds from both Delegated Representatives (DReps) and SPOs have been reached. 

Technical and operational preparations for the Cardano network’s V11 hard fork are nearly complete, signaling the update—officially named van Rossem—is almost ready for deployment. On-chain data indicates the ecosystem has reached a critical point, with the update now awaiting the final green light from the Constitutional Committee.

Final approval pendingNamed in honor of Max van Rossem, a community figure recognized for his contributions to Cardano’s growth and governance, the V11 update represents both a technical milestone and a tribute. With this upgrade, van Rossem’s legacy becomes a symbolic part of Cardano’s evolution as the network enters its next phase.

Cardano is a leading layer-1 blockchain, noted for its smart contract infrastructure and on-chain governance model. The upcoming upgrade is classified as an intra-epoch hard fork—designed to implement protocol improvements just before the blockchain transitions to a new period, laying the groundwork for further advancements.

While V11 is technically ready, its activation is contingent on final approval from the Constitutional Committee.

Technical scope and network supportDevelopers and participants report that V11 will introduce more cost-effective smart contracts, enable cryptographic components compatible with zero-knowledge proofs, and deliver several new built-in functions. Additionally, the update is expected to serve as a bridge to Cardano’s upcoming Dijkstra era, supporting the next phase in the network’s development.

Glossary: DRep refers to delegates with voting power in Cardano’s governance model. An intra-epoch hard fork is an upgrade that adds new features or technical improvements before moving to a new chain epoch.

The van Rossem hard fork process unfolds through decentralized consensus—rather than by a single entity—with multiple independent actors providing approval. Both the Delegated Representatives (DReps) and the Stake Pool Operator community have reached the required voting thresholds, marking a significant step toward the update’s finalization.

IndicatorStatusConstitutional Committee approvalPendingDRep voting thresholdReachedSPO voting thresholdReachedPercentage of blocks produced with V11 in last 7 days88%Exchanges and testnets preparedTo guarantee network stability, the update was previously rolled out on the Preview and Preprod testnets. The successful completion of these tests helped minimize technical risks ahead of activating the hard fork on the mainnet.

On-chain indicators also suggest robust backing for the upgrade: 88% of blocks produced in the last seven days have been generated using V11 node software, reflecting swift adoption by stake pool operators across the network.

Major crypto exchanges, including Binance and Coinbase, have confirmed their operational readiness for the V11 hard fork.

Preparations by leading exchanges signal that, beyond technical acceptance within the network, crucial steps for market infrastructure compatibility have been completed. With these prerequisites fulfilled, only the final stage of governance approval remains before Cardano’s V11 hard fork can be activated.

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.

In brief Labour MP Phil Brickell has reported Nigel Farage to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, alleging he lobbied the Bank of England on crypto policy that could benefit his biggest donor. The complaint centers on a private September 2025 meeting in which Farage reportedly urged Governor Andrew Bailey to drop plans for a state-run digital pound. Farage received an undeclared £5 million ($6.7 million) gift from Tether investor Christopher Harborne, who has separately given Reform UK a further £15 million. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has been reported to Parliament's standards watchdog over allegations that he lobbied the Bank of England on cryptocurrency policy in a way that could benefit his biggest donor, a major investor in stablecoin issuer Tether.

Phil Brickell, a Labour MP who chairs the parliamentary group on anti-corruption and responsible tax, has asked the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Daniel Greenberg, to examine Farage’s dealings with the central bank. Parliamentary rules bar MPs from approaching officials or ministers on behalf of people who pay them, for 12 months after such a payment.

“Before meeting the governor of the Bank of England, Farage openly championed Tether, criticised proposed restrictions on stablecoins and vowed to challenge the Bank’s approach,” Brickell told the Guardian, adding that Farage “has since claimed credit for persuading the Bank to soften its position.”

Meeting the BankThe complaint centers on a private meeting last September, at which Farage reportedly urged Governor Andrew Bailey to scrap plans for a central bank digital currency, or "Britcoin," an idea he has said he would go to prison to block. Farage later claimed credit for pushing the Bank to soften its approach, and last week it dropped a proposed £20,000 cap on individual stablecoin holdings that he had publicly attacked.

A second Labour MP, Joe Powell, has written to Bailey to request details of the meeting, arguing that, "Decisions relating to the UK’s financial system, including those involving bank digital currencies, must be made in the public interest and on the basis of rigorous, independent assessment, not shaped behind closed doors to benefit individual financiers."

Brickell said the case goes beyond crypto, turning on whether an MP "who has received millions from one individual" should advance policies that could lift the value of that donor's investments.

That donor is Christopher Harborne, a British, Thailand-based billionaire who holds a 12% stake in USDT issuer Tether, and sits sixth on the Sunday Times Rich List.

An undeclared giftThe Reform UK leader accepted an undeclared £5 million ($6.7 million) gift from Harborne prior to standing in the July 2024 general election. At the time, Farage had not announced plans to run as a Member of Parliament, and the gift was undeclared to parliamentary authorities.

Per the Guardian, he also took two £25,000 political donations from Harborne, in January 2025 and February 2026 for trips to the U.S. and the Chagos Islands, while Reform UK received a further £15 million from the billionaire between last August and February. Greenberg is separately investigating whether Farage should have declared the £5 million personal gift.

Farage and Harborne have both said the billionaire wanted nothing in return, while Farage's account of the gift has shifted, from a contribution to his security, to a reward for his Brexit campaigning, to money he can spend as he likes. He has called it "unconditional" and "a purely private matter," and Reform UK has dismissed the broader allegations as "utter rubbish." Labour has also accused Farage of dodging scrutiny.

The Bank of England said the September meeting was part of its routine engagement with political figures and acknowledged that Farage and Bailey held differing views on the digital pound, but it has not released any minutes.

Farage has previously styled himself a “champion” for the cryptocurrency space, calling for the UK to establish a Bitcoin strategic reserve and pushing for lower capital gains taxes on digital assets.

Decrypt has reached out to Nigel Farage and Phil Brickell for comment, and will update this article should they respond.

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A parliamentary complaint has been filed against Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, alleging that his lobbying efforts on cryptocurrency policy before the Bank of England may have benefited his largest donor’s financial interests. Labour MP Phil Brickell has requested that the parliamentary standards commissioner, Daniel Greenberg, conduct a formal inquiry into Farage’s conduct and its implications.

September 2025 meeting under scrutinyBrickell cited parliament’s strict rules, which prohibit MPs from approaching ministers or public officials on behalf of individuals who have provided them with payments for a period of twelve months. According to the allegations, Farage urged Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey during a private meeting in September 2025 to abandon plans for a government-backed digital pound.

Phil Brickell highlighted that, prior to his meeting with Bailey, Farage had openly supported Tether, criticized proposed restrictions on stablecoins, and announced his opposition to the central bank’s policy stance.

Following these interventions, Farage was said to have played a role in softening the Bank’s approach. Last week, the central bank dropped its proposed £20,000 cap on individual stablecoin holdings, a limitation that Farage had publicly opposed.

Mini glossary: The digital pound refers to a central bank-issued digital currency. A stablecoin is a type of cryptoasset whose value is generally pegged to a traditional asset such as the dollar or pound.

Donations and Tether links fuel controversyCentral to the case is British billionaire Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based investor who owns a 12% stake in Tether, the company behind the USDT stablecoin. Harborne holds the sixth position in The Sunday Times Rich List, with his wealth estimated at £18.2 billion.

Reports indicate that Farage received a previously undisclosed personal gift of £5 million from Harborne ahead of the July 2024 general election. Between last August and this February, Reform UK also accepted £15 million in donations from Harborne. In addition, Farage accepted two £25,000 political travel grants for trips to the US and Chagos Islands in January 2025 and February 2026.

TypeAmountDetailsPersonal gift£5 millionUndeclared payment reportedly given to FarageParty donation£15 millionTotal amount given to Reform UK between August and FebruaryTravel donations2 x £25,000For visits to the US and Chagos IslandsBank of England keeps meeting details privateLabour MP Joe Powell sent a letter to Andrew Bailey requesting full disclosure about the meeting in question. Powell underscored the principle that decisions affecting the UK’s financial system must serve the public interest and rely on independent assessment, not privileged access for particular investors behind closed doors.

Nigel Farage stated that the £5 million payment was unconditional, adding that he could spend it on luxury cars if he chose, framing the matter as entirely private.

The Bank of England described the September meeting as part of its routine discussions with political figures. The institution acknowledged that Farage and Bailey disagreed on the digital pound, but has not published any official record of the meeting.

Daniel Greenberg is also reportedly reviewing whether Farage should have declared the £5 million personal gift as a separate matter. Both Farage and Harborne maintain there were no expectations attached to the donations. Reform UK has categorically rejected all accusations related to the affair.

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.

The ComplaintLabour MP Phil Brickell has referred @Nigel_Farage to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Daniel Greenberg, alleging the Reform UK leader improperly lobbied the Bank of England on cryptocurrency policy in a way that could benefit his largest donor. The complaint centres on a private meeting in September 2025, during which Farage reportedly urged Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey to scrap plans for a state-run digital currency, commonly referred to as the digital pound or "Britcoin."

Farage later spoke openly about the encounter at the Zebu Live crypto event in London in October 2025, saying he had told Bailey he opposed the project and that he would be "prepared to go to prison" to stop it. The Bank of England described the meeting as part of its routine engagement with political figures and acknowledged the two men held differing views, but it has not released any minutes. A Freedom of Information request for details was also refused.

A second Labour MP, Joe Powell, has separately written to Bailey asking him to release details of the discussion, arguing that decisions about the UK financial system must be made openly and in the public interest, not behind closed doors.

The Donor ConnectionAt the heart of the complaint is Christopher Harborne, a British-Thai billionaire who owns approximately 12% of Tether Limited, the company behind the $USDT stablecoin. Harborne has donated more than £15 million to Reform UK and also gave Farage an undeclared personal gift of £5 million ahead of the July 2024 general election, at a time when Farage had not yet announced plans to stand as an MP. Farage did not declare the gift to parliamentary authorities, and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is already separately examining whether that omission breached Commons rules.

Critics argue the policy overlap is hard to ignore. A state-backed digital currency would compete directly with private stablecoins such as Tether's $USDT, potentially reducing demand and undermining Harborne's position. Brickell framed the issue in stark terms: "This is not simply a debate about cryptocurrency. It is about whether an MP who has received millions from one individual should be lobbying for policies that could increase the value and profitability of that donor's investments."

Adding weight to that argument, the Bank subsequently dropped a proposed £20,000 cap on individual stablecoin holdings, a restriction Farage had publicly attacked. Farage has since claimed credit for persuading the Bank to soften its position. UK parliamentary rules prohibit MPs from approaching ministers or officials on behalf of recent financial benefactors for up to 12 months after receiving support, and the September 2025 meeting fell within that window.

Reform UK has dismissed the allegations entirely, calling them "utter rubbish." Farage maintains the £5 million gift was unconditional and unrelated to his political activities. No formal investigation into the lobbying allegation has been opened as of publication.

Sources:
Decrypt: Farage Reported to UK Standards Watchdog Over Alleged Crypto Lobbying
BeInCrypto: A 12-Month Rule Could Put Nigel Farage's Crypto Lobbying in Trouble
Wikipedia: Christopher Harborne

Bitcoin Recovers Toward $62K as ETF Inflows Return and Trump’s BTC Holdings Make Waves: Weekly Crypto Update

TRON has launched quantum-resistant signature functionality on its Nile testnet following the approval of Proposal 20628 on July 2. This marks a significant step, enabling developers to test blockchain signatures specifically created to counteract future risks posed by quantum computing, all within a public testing environment.

In the initial rollout, the FN DSA 512 algorithm was activated. TRON founder Justin Sun announced that the committee had approved the proposal and invited developers to experiment with the new system using the published technical guide. As a blockchain network renowned for its high transaction volume and dominant stablecoin usage, TRON is once again drawing industry attention with this upgrade.

Justin Sun stated that Proposal 20628 was approved on July 2, adding that developers could leverage the usage guide to validate the post-quantum signature feature on the Nile testnet.

The Nile testnet serves as a sandbox for trialing new TRON features before they go live on the mainnet. Since assets on the testnet hold no real market value, teams can try out contracts and transactions without facing genuine financial risk.

This update is not a direct response to any imminent security threat. To date, no publicly available quantum computer has been shown to compromise mainstream signature schemes deployed on major blockchains. Still, the industry is accelerating its preparations for long-term quantum-related risks.

What makes FN DSA 512 stand out?FN DSA 512, a lattice-based digital signature algorithm derived from the previously named Falcon scheme, is gaining attention for its technical significance. The system is linked to structures selected under the US National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) post-quantum cryptography program. This places FN DSA 512 as an attractive alternative for networks seeking options beyond classic elliptic curve cryptography.

Mini glossary: Post-quantum cryptography refers to new security techniques developed against the risk that future, powerful quantum computers could break today’s cryptographic protocols. NIST is the central authority in the US for defining cryptography standards.

While the standardization process for FN DSA is ongoing, NIST is working on its inclusion in FIPS 206. In comparison, the ML DSA standard has been finalized under FIPS 204. TRON’s Nile release supports both FN DSA 512 and ML DSA 44, although Proposal 20628 specifically enabled only FN DSA 512 at this stage.

Mainnet rollout will need further approval and infrastructure upgradesTesting will reveal how these larger signatures impact transaction speed, network storage, and processing costs. This is especially relevant for high-throughput networks like TRON. The Falcon 512-based structure produces signatures capped at roughly 667 bytes, helping curb bandwidth and storage demands when compared with other quantum-resistant options.

A mainnet transition would require infrastructure updates from wallet providers, exchanges, validators, and application developers. Existing users may also need a migration method to transfer assets into quantum-resistant accounts. TRON could opt for a hybrid approach, temporarily accepting both classical and post-quantum signatures during the crossover period.

Notably, Proposal 20628 does not specify a release date for mainnet deployment. At present, the only confirmed development is that developers have begun testing the post-quantum signature feature on the Nile testnet.

Following the announcement, TRX traded near $0.319. The asset’s market capitalization hovered around $30.26 billion, with daily price fluctuations remaining modest. This suggests that, in the short term, the market did not view the technical development as a major price catalyst.

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.

CaliberCos Inc. (NASDAQ:CWD) shares are trending on Thursday night.

Shares of the vertically integrated alternative asset management firm fell 25.20% to $0.92, reversing intraday gains.

According to Benzinga Pro data, CWD shares surged 90.61% to $1.23 in the regular session, following a pre-market announcement from CaliberCos detailing an expanded real estate tokenization strategy built on Chainlink‘s (CRYPTO: LINK) oracle infrastructure.

Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that connects blockchains with real-world data. Its middleware provides data, computation and cross-chain messaging to smart contracts, allowing them to interact with traditional financial systems.

Tokenization Push Fuels RallyIn its Thursday announcement, CaliberCos said it is deepening its use of Chainlink, including its Automated Compliance Engine (ACE), to modernize investor verification, reporting and fund administration across its private real estate platform. Caliber has also invested in LINK, Chainlink’s underlying token.

Commenting on the initiative, CEO Chris Loeffler said, “Tokenization matters if it makes real investing better,” adding it targets “the industry’s two biggest challenges: valuation & liquidity.”

Trading Metrics, Technical AnalysisCaliberCos has a market capitalization of $10.79 million, a 52-week high of $48 and a 52-week low of $0.58.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) of CWD stands at 71.90.

The stock of the Arizona-based firm has dropped 63.82% over the past 12 months.

Currently, CWD is trading close to its 52-week low.

Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicates CWD stock has a negative price trend across all time frames.

Photo: Who is Danny / Shutterstock

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

© 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Samsung Electronics and several major Korean financial companies deny formal ties to Open USD, the dollar-pegged stablecoin that launched this week with a claimed alliance of more than 140 corporate partners.

The pushback, first reported by Chosun Biz on July 3, tests the credibility of one of the largest partner rosters ever assembled in the stablecoin sector.

Alleged Open USD stablecoin partner list Korean Partners Say They Never Signed OnOpen Standard announced Open USD (OUSD) on June 30, promising members fee-free minting and a share of reserve income. Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, and Coinbase headline the roster.

The list also names 13 Korean entities, including Samsung Electronics, Dunamu, Shinhan Financial Group, K Bank, and seven card issuers. Within days, at least four of them distanced themselves.

“There were no official consultations, and we do not even know what role we would play (in the consortium),” local media Chosun Biz reported, citing a Samsung Electronics official.

Meanwhile, Shinhan, Dunamu, and KBank said Open Standard had simply floated the idea of joining. They replied that they would review it, yet their names appeared as members.

An official at another listed firm described a similar experience to the outlet.

“We learned that we were included as members of the OUSD consortium through domestic news… We are perplexed to be included as members.”

Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens

Open USD Faces Credibility Test Before LaunchThe case echoes a costly precedent. Facebook’s Libra consortium debuted in 2019 with 28 founding members, including Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe. All three quit within four months, and the renamed Diem sold its assets in 2022.

How Libra Was Killed.

I never shared this publicly before, but since @pmarca opened the floodgates on @joerogan’s pod, it feels appropriate to shed more light on this.

As a reminder, Libra (then Diem) was an advanced, high-performance, payments-centric blockchain paired with a…

— David Marcus (@davidmarcus) November 30, 2024 The stakes are high because the debut dragged Circle stock down 17% on launch day. Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) control over 80% of a market worth some $311 billion, per DefiLlama data.

OUSD’s revenue sharing could also pressure USDC yields in decentralized finance (DeFi).

Some commitments look firm, however. Stripe Technology President Will Gaybrick confirmed OUSD will become the default stablecoin for businesses on its platform.

That pledge follows Stripe’s $1.1 billion purchase of Bridge, the stablecoin firm founded by Open Standard chief Zach Abrams.

Circle, for its part, continues to deepen its bank distribution, with Standard Chartered expanding institutional USDC access in Dubai.

Regarding the OUSD consortium logos, I also spoke to a few companies from the list as a number of them are clients of ours (OpenAssets) and they said they never signed or agreed to anything. Either the media deeply twisted something or the participant list is misleading. https://t.co/xhQa28snBJ

— Gabor Gurbacs (@gaborgurbacs) July 3, 2026 For the Korean firms, caution has context. The debate over stablecoins backed by the South Korean won remains unresolved at home, and listed companies already face tightening domestic crypto rules.

Open Standard has yet to address the Korean accounts or define what partnership means publicly. They have also not immediately responded to BeInCrypto’s request for comment.

17h05 ▪ 3 min read ▪ by Eddy S.

Summarize this article with:

Europe is moving backward. Three years after MiCA, its crypto framework is already obsolete. Brussels is trying to catch up with the dominance of dollar-backed stablecoins and the US GENIUS law. But is there still time to avoid the exodus of platforms and the reign of the dollar?

In brief The EU updates its MiCA crypto framework to include stablecoins and compete with the United States. The United States leads the stablecoin market thanks to more flexible rules regarding public debt reserves, notably through the GENIUS law. Binance is leaving Europe, while Kraken and OKX take advantage of the departure of crypto platforms. The Emergence of Stablecoins Causes MiCA to be Revised The European Commission has officially started revising MiCA, its crypto regulatory framework, facing two major challenges: the explosion of stablecoins and the US GENIUS law. MiCA was implemented in 2023 to regulate spot cryptos, but it struggles to adapt to the evolving financial sector. Meanwhile, stablecoins divert billions of euros and threaten the stability of the banking system. In the United States, the GENIUS law accelerated this trend by allowing stablecoin issuers to keep their reserves in US public debt. This strengthens the dollar as the dominant currency.

On its side, the EU still requires stablecoin issuers to deposit their reserves in the traditional banking system, a measure considered too restrictive by industry players. Consequently, euro stablecoins, including EUROC, struggle to compete with USDC or USDT. With MiCA 2.0, Brussels aims to broaden its scope to include stablecoins and tokenization, but time is running out… Already, crypto platforms are fleeing to friendlier jurisdictions, far from Europe.

Giants Profit while Hundreds of Crypto Platforms are Lost in Europe As of July 1, 2026, ESMA published the official list of 244 MiCA-authorized crypto platforms out of the 3,389 previously registered, that are authorized to operate within the EU. Binance, which failed to obtain its license on time, has suspended its services for European residents. This situation caused a massive influx of users to compliant platforms such as Kraken and OKX, who are currently running aggressive campaigns to attract these new customers.

Crypto platforms with or without MiCA licenses after July 1, 2026. Moreover, some European startups are considering moving part of their operations to Switzerland or Singapore, where regulations are more flexible. Europe is thus increasingly losing its market share in stablecoin exchanges to the United States and Asia, due to its strict regulation. MiCA, intended to protect crypto investors, risks killing European innovation.

The EU is racing against the clock. Without an ambitious MiCA 2.0, its crypto market risks disappearing. But Brussels will have to choose between investor protection and competitiveness. Especially right now as the Bank of France demands a tightening of MiCA rules.

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Eddy S.

The world is evolving and adaptation is the best weapon to survive in this undulating universe. Originally a crypto community manager, I am interested in anything that is directly or indirectly related to blockchain and its derivatives. To share my experience and promote a field that I am passionate about, nothing is better than writing informative and relaxed articles.

DISCLAIMER

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

The Real State of Tokenization: Experts React to the RWA Market’s Liquidity Problem

In brief Zcash developers say the Ironwood upgrade is nearing testnet activation. Work continues on a formal proof of soundness ahead of the network upgrade. Shielded Labs says migrating exchanges, wallets, and mining pools to new software remains the biggest deployment challenge. In a series of posts on the Zcash forum on Thursday, developers said the privacy-focused cryptocurrency's Ironwood upgrade is moving closer to activation—first on a testnet—bringing the network a step nearer to allowing users to verify the integrity of its circulating supply following last month's disclosure of a critical counterfeiting vulnerability.

Announced in June, Ironwood is a proposed Zcash network upgrade that introduces a new shielded pool and accounting system designed to let anyone verify the network's circulating supply while preserving transaction privacy.

The upgrade is intended to eliminate the uncertainty exposed by the Orchard vulnerability in May, which left developers unable to prove whether counterfeit ZEC had ever been created.

The panic around the vulnerability disclosure led to a massive price drop for the coin, which lost more than half of its value in a matter of two days, falling from more than $600 to a recent bottom around $300. ZEC has made up about half the losses so far, recently trading at $457, per data from CoinGecko.

“At Shielded Labs our focus has been security, and in particular our new project, which we are calling Zero, of supporting enterprise users (e.g. mining pools, exchanges, and wallets),” Zcash co-founder Zooko Wilcox wrote. “Our current focus within the Zero project is to help them prepare to safely make the transition to Ironwood.”

The update comes weeks after security researcher Taylor Hornby, using Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8, uncovered a four-year-old flaw in Zcash's Orchard shielded pool that could have allowed unlimited counterfeit ZEC to be created without detection.

Although developers patched the bug on June 1, Zcash's privacy features meant there was no cryptographic way to determine whether it had ever been exploited, which led Zcash developers to propose Ironwood to eliminate that uncertainty.

Since then, Zcash developers say they have made significant progress on Ironwood activation in Zcash.

“Ironwood's prompt and safe activation on Zcash mainnet is extremely important to our users, in addition to the formal verification work we're doing in parallel to provide reassurance that there aren't any supply integrity concerns,” Zcash developer Sean Bowe wrote on X on Thursday, adding that “sufficient hash rate is signaling technical readiness for the mainnet upgrade.”

“The outstanding concern is that some wallets will not be prepared for the upgrade in time,” Bowe wrote. “This does not justify delaying Ironwood, given there will be adequate alternatives and sufficient time on testnet for anyone who needs it.”

Jason McGee of Shielded Labs said development is focused on two parallel efforts: the Ironwood (NU6.3) network upgrade, and migrating the Zcash ecosystem from its legacy Zcashd software to the new Z3 stack, which includes the Zebra full node, the Zaino indexing service, and the Zallet wallet.

According to McGee, development is moving forward on schedule, and testnet activation of the new consensus rules “is expected shortly.”

"The current goal is to complete both efforts by late July,” McGee wrote. “With regard to Ironwood, the teams at Project Tachyon, Valar Group, ZODL, the Zcash Foundation, and Shielded Labs have been working hard and have made significant progress over the past several weeks.”

Work is also continuing on formal verification of the new circuit, McGee added, with the goal of completing a proof of soundness before Ironwood activates.

The larger challenge, McGee said, is preparing infrastructure providers for the transition to the new software stack. Key Z3 components, including Zallet and Zaino, are still under development, leaving exchanges, mining pools, and wallet providers with limited time to deploy and test everything before Ironwood activates.

“The consistent feedback we’ve received is that completing both the Ironwood upgrade and the migration to Z3 on the current timeline will be challenging,” McGee wrote, adding that a recent questionnaire had some respondents “indicating they’ll be ready while others said they need additional time.”

According to McGee, several options are being considered to reduce deployment risk, including delaying Ironwood, conducting independent third-party security audits before deployment, or temporarily supporting Ironwood through Zcashd while partners complete the migration.

"Ultimately, we all share the same goal to activate Ironwood as quickly as possible while making sure our partners can safely migrate away from Zcashd,” he wrote. “We think the focus over the coming weeks should be on making that transition as smooth and secure as possible."

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Cardano has regained momentum over the past few days, allowing it to re-enter the list of the world’s top 15 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

The recovery follows a difficult period for the digital asset, which faced intense selling pressure in recent weeks. That weakness pushed Cardano down to the 18th position in the global cryptocurrency rankings and sent its price to a multi-year low of $0.1387 last week.

However, market sentiment has shifted in Cardano’s favor as the token emerged as one of the strongest performers during the recent rebound.

ADA Overtakes Rivals as Price Jumps Nearly 19% From Recent Lows Cardano’s price climbed from its recent low of $0.1387 to $0.1648, representing an impressive gain of 18.81% within a short period. The rally improved the asset’s market standing and helped restore investor confidence after weeks of underperformance. 

As buying pressure increased, ADA quickly rose through the cryptocurrency rankings. The latest surge propelled Cardano back into the global top 15 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

During the climb, ADA surpassed several notable digital assets, including Canton (CC), Chainlink (LINK), and Monero (XMR) over the past two days. As a result, Cardano now ranks as the 14th-largest cryptocurrency in the world, with a market valuation of approximately $6 billion.

The project is also closing in on higher-ranked competitors. ADA currently sits less than $800 million behind Stellar (XLM) and roughly $1.38 billion behind Zcash (ZEC), which occupies the 12th position in the rankings. 

Cardano Now in 14th Position in Global Crypto Ranking Questions Remain About a Return to the Top 10 Despite the recent recovery, critics continue to ask when Cardano will reclaim a place among the ten largest cryptocurrencies.

The question carries historical significance because Cardano previously established itself as one of the market’s dominant assets. During the 2021 bull market, the cryptocurrency not only entered the top ten but briefly became the third-largest digital asset by market cap.

That history has fueled expectations that ADA could eventually return to those heights if current momentum continues.

Hoskinson Reaffirms Long-Term Commitment Amid the growing scrutiny, supporters continue to highlight comments from Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson regarding the project’s future.

Hoskinson has repeatedly described Cardano as his life’s work and pledged his commitment to ensuring its long-term success. He has also argued that the network possesses the potential to become the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

According to Hoskinson, achieving such a milestone would require sustained support and participation from the broader Cardano community. Under the right conditions, he believes the project could even challenge Bitcoin for the top position on CoinMarketCap.

At press time, Cardano traded at $0.1648. ADA was up 5.96% over the previous 24 hours and had gained 13.59% over the past seven days. 

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

ICP Posts Sustained 1,089 TPS Over Full 24-Hour Cycle@Dfinity's Internet Computer Protocol ($ICP) has reached a new weekly throughput milestone, processing a sustained 1,089 transactions per second, and holding that rate across a complete 24-hour period. According to @Chainspect_app, the network recorded more than 1,000 TPS every day throughout the past week, a level of consistency that sets it apart from many layer-1 peers that post headline speeds without the underlying endurance.

The milestone matters because sustained throughput, rather than peak bursts, is what real-world applications actually demand. Chainspect data shows ICP's current TPS at 1,300, with a recorded maximum of 25,621 transactions per second and a block time of 0.48 seconds. That block time, combined with near-instant finality, makes the network a credible candidate for high-concurrency use cases such as on-chain AI inference, enterprise-grade applications, and full-stack decentralised services.

Architecture Built for Scale Internet Computer is a layer-1 blockchain developed by the DFINITY Foundation that hosts smart contracts called canisters across more than 47 subnets, using Chain Key cryptography for sub-second finality. Rather than routing everything through a single consensus bottleneck, the network splits workloads across independently running subnets, each with its own consensus mechanism. This design is central to why the protocol can sustain four-digit TPS figures day after day, rather than only during brief stress tests.

Internet Computer uses a reverse gas model where developers pre-pay computation costs in cycles burned from ICP tokens. The practical effect for end users is effectively zero transaction fees, which removes one of the most common friction points limiting adoption on competing chains. The average transaction fee on ICP currently sits at roughly $0.0000994.

The network has surpassed 294 billion total transactions, processing around 910 to 1,300 transactions per second depending on the measurement window. That cumulative figure, combined with consistent weekly TPS data from Chainspect, positions ICP among the most active layer-1 networks by raw transaction volume. Whether that activity translates into broader developer and user adoption remains a separate question, but the infrastructure case is becoming harder to dismiss.

Sources
Chainspect: ICP TPS, Max TPS, Block Time and Network Metrics
CoinMarketCap: Internet Computer Latest Network Updates
Internet Computer: Official Network Statistics

Solana is currently trading around $80 after breaking above a rising triangle formation on its daily chart. This latest move positions the 73 to 76 dollar range—previously a tough barrier—as a new support level, signaling a key shift in Solana’s short-term momentum. Market participants are closely watching to see if buyers can consolidate gains above this band, which could lay the groundwork for further advances.

73 to 76 dollar range marks a critical support levelThroughout June, the 73 to 76 dollar zone repeatedly prevented upward moves, acting as firm resistance. However, with the recent breakout, this area has flipped into an important support. Analysts note this change as a significant turning point for market sentiment. In addition, Solana’s price is sustaining above both its 9-day exponential moving average (EMA) and its 50-day simple moving average (SMA), reinforcing bullish technical indicators.

Alpha Crypto Signal notes that as long as Solana’s price stays above this former resistance region, its bullish structure at higher time frames remains intact.

Expert opinions emphasize that any pullback to the 73 to 76 dollar range will serve as a key test of the breakout’s strength. If this zone continues to act as support, the case for upward movement grows stronger, increasing the likelihood of continued gains.

On the other hand, if Solana’s price slips back below the 73 to 76 dollar support, concerns could emerge about the sustainability of the recent breakout. In such a scenario, analysts warn that the token could revert to trading sideways, undermining the current bullish outlook.

81 to 84 dollar band emerges as the next resistanceShort-term market attention now centers on the 81 to 84 dollar resistance band. Following a sharp rebound from June lows, Solana has begun testing this important zone, which is widely regarded as a critical barrier where sellers could regain control.

Always Win predicts that a rejection from the 81 to 84 dollar range could trigger a larger move down for Solana before any new major rally resumes.

In this scenario, the chart’s main downside target is $49, a level that aligns with deeper support zones. Analysts say a decisive rejection from the 81 to 84 dollar resistance would likely put this lower price into play.

However, the bearish outlook hinges on whether Solana fails to break and settle above the 81 to 84 dollar range. A strong and sustained close above $84 could weaken short sellers’ confidence and reset the narrative in favor of the ongoing rally.

Solana’s high-speed infrastructure continues to drive its popularity among decentralized finance and token projects. Both bulls and bears are now focused on whether the $73 to $76 support will hold, and if the $81 to $84 resistance can be decisively overtaken, as these levels will likely dictate the next direction for the token.

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.

Solana now beats Ethereum on trading volume, active users, and fee revenue. Ethereum still holds the money. Halfway through 2026, the question is no longer who is faster. It is whether the two chains are even running the same race.

Summary

Solana has overtaken Ethereum in Layer 1 activity with higher transaction volume, more active users, stronger DEX trading, and greater fee revenue. Ethereum continues to dominate in total value locked, stablecoin liquidity, institutional adoption, and developer activity despite losing ground in onchain usage. The rivalry has shifted from a direct competition into two distinct models, with Ethereum focused on settlement and custody while Solana leads in trading and execution. There was a time when the Ethereum versus Solana debate could be settled with a smirk and an outage screenshot. Solana was the chain that went down. Ethereum was the chain that mattered. Then Solana stopped going down, its trading volume flipped Ethereum’s, its ETF launched to institutional inflows while Ethereum funds bled for seventeen straight days, and the smirk changed sides.

Halfway through 2026, both tokens are deep in a bear market. ETH trades near $1,714 after a brutal second quarter that included a 29.5% thirty-day drawdown at the June lows, its worst quarterly stretch in years. SOL trades near $81, down roughly 78% from its cycle high, hit even harder in raw percentage terms. Price settles nothing here. The interesting story is underneath, in the on-chain data, where the two networks have diverged so completely that comparing them now requires deciding which metrics count.

So: is Ethereum losing the L1 race to Solana? The honest answer is that Solana has already won several of the events, Ethereum still owns the ones with the most prize money, and the race itself has split into two different sports.

How we got here: a short history of a long feud The rivalry has run through three distinct acts, and the current one makes no sense without the first two.

Act one, 2021 through 2022, was Solana as the venture-backed challenger: a chain built for speed, championed by Sam Bankman-Fried, and dismissed by Ethereum partisans as a centralized science project. The dismissal briefly looked like prophecy. Solana suffered repeated full-network outages, including the infamous February 2024 halt that lasted nearly five hours after a legacy loader bug forced a coordinated validator restart, and when FTX collapsed in November 2022, SOL crashed toward single digits as the market priced in guilt by association. Obituaries were published. Several were smug.

Act two, 2023 through 2024, was the resurrection nobody ordered. Solana’s developer community kept shipping through the winter, the Jupiter and Jito ecosystems matured, memecoin mania found its natural home on the only chain where a thousand trades cost less than a sandwich, and DEX volume began the climb that ended with the flip of Ethereum in late 2024. Ethereum spent the same period executing its own plan flawlessly and discovering the plan had a hole in it: the Dencun upgrade in March 2024 introduced blob space and cut L2 costs by an order of magnitude, which supercharged rollup adoption while gutting the fee burn that had underwritten the ultrasound money narrative. Activity exploded across the Ethereum stack, and ETH the asset captured almost none of it.

Act three is now: both chains institutionally legitimate, both tokens deep underwater, and the argument relocated from architecture threads to fund flow tables. Uniswap founder Hayden Adams warned back in 2025 that Ethereum’s confused scaling identity could hand DeFi leadership to Solana; in 2026 that warning reads less like a hot take and more like a memo the market already acted on.

The scoreboard, metric by metric Start with what Solana has flatly won: activity.

On a representative day in late June, Solana processed 127 million transactions from more than 2 million active addresses. Ethereum mainnet processed 2.8 million transactions from roughly 512,000 active addresses. That is not a gap. That is a different order of magnitude. Solana sustains 600 to 700 real transactions per second on average against Ethereum L1’s 15 to 20, at a cost of roughly $0.00025 per transaction against Ethereum’s dollars-per-swap mainnet pricing.

Trading volume tells the same story. Solana’s weekly DEX volume hit $11.49 billion in April against Ethereum’s $7.62 billion, a 51% lead. In February the monthly gap was wider still: $117 billion on Solana against $52 billion on Ethereum, more than double. Jupiter, the aggregator that routes the overwhelming majority of Solana order flow across Raydium, Orca, Phoenix, and Meteora, alone processes $2 billion to $4 billion in daily volume. Solana flipped Ethereum on DEX volume in late 2024 and has held the lead through every market condition since.

Then comes the metric that should worry Ethereum researchers most: revenue.

Solana generates over $1 million in chain fees per day. The major Ethereum L2s, where most Ethereum user activity now lives, generate under $200,000 combined, because blob-based data posting after the Dencun upgrade pushed L2 costs, and therefore L2 fee revenue, toward zero. Ethereum deliberately commoditized its own execution layer to win the rollup war. The result is a settlement layer with shrinking direct income and a rival that monetizes every swap on a single unified ledger.

Now flip the card, because Ethereum’s wins are just as lopsided.

Total value locked Ethereum L1 holds roughly $55.6 billion in DeFi deposits, around 68% of the entire global DeFi market, and the combined L1 plus L2 figure exceeds $80 billion. Solana holds between $8 billion and $12 billion depending on the week and the methodology, a figure that took a $270 million hit in April when the Drift Protocol exploit tore through its perps ecosystem. The deepest protocols in the industry, Lido at $27.5 billion, Aave at $27 billion, EigenLayer at $13 billion, all live on Ethereum, and Aave V4 launched on Ethereum mainnet in April to reinforce the point.

Stablecoins Ethereum hosts roughly 70% of all on-chain stablecoin supply, around $32 billion in USDC and $60 billion in USDT, and remains the venue where BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and JPMorgan build tokenized products first. Solana carries about $14 billion in stablecoins, though each of those dollars turns over roughly six times faster than its Ethereum counterpart.

Developers Ethereum counted 31,869 active developers against Solana’s 17,708 at the latest Electric Capital reading, and added more new developers over the trailing year than any other ecosystem. Solana ranked second.

One chain has the users, the volume, and the revenue. The other has the money, the institutions, and the builders. Losing, it turns out, depends entirely on where you point the camera.

How the race split in two The reason the comparison keeps producing contradictory answers is that the two chains stopped competing on the same terms years ago, a divergence we chronicled when the ecosystems first collided in early 2025.

Ethereum abandoned the monolithic race on purpose. Its roadmap treats the base layer as settlement infrastructure while execution migrates to rollups: Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, and a long tail of zk systems that post proofs and data back to mainnet. Base alone captures nearly half of all L2 DeFi value, Arbitrum another 31%, and the top three rollups process close to 90% of all L2 transactions. Measured as a stack, the Ethereum ecosystem still dwarfs Solana on almost every capital metric. Measured as an L1, Ethereum mainnet is a slow, expensive chain that its own designers no longer intend retail users to touch.

Solana made the opposite bet: one ledger, one global state, sub-second finality at 400 milliseconds, and a relentless engineering campaign to make the single chain fast enough that nothing else is needed. The Firedancer validator client built by Jump Crypto, rolling toward full deployment late this year, is the endgame of that bet, with a theoretical ceiling measured in the hundreds of thousands of transactions per second. The network reliability problem that defined Solana’s reputation in 2022 and 2023 has largely disappeared; outages went from routine to rare, and the chain has traded its crash-prone image for something closer to an execution monopoly on retail flow.

The philosophical split produces the statistical one. Capital sits and compounds on Ethereum because that is what the architecture rewards: deep pools, long-duration lending, staking layered on restaking. Capital churns on Solana because sub-cent fees make churning free: high-frequency trading, memecoin rotation, dollar-cost-average bots, payments. Ethereum became the deposit ledger. Solana became the trading floor.

Follow the fees: two broken business models, one working one The revenue gap deserves its own examination, because it is the metric where architecture decisions turn into economics, and where both chains have problems they rarely advertise.

Ethereum’s fee engine used to be the envy of the industry. EIP-1559 burned base fees, high demand made ETH deflationary, and the ultrasound money framing wrote itself. The rollup migration dismantled the machine step by step. Execution moved to L2s, whose sequencers keep the margin between what users pay and what blob posting costs, and Dencun made blob posting cost next to nothing. The result in 2026: mainnet burns a fraction of its former fee load, L2s pay Ethereum pennies for security worth billions, and the value accrual question, what does ETH earn when Base wins, has replaced scaling as the ecosystem’s defining unsolved problem. Ethereum built a settlement business and priced its product like a public good.

Solana’s engine is simpler and currently stronger: one chain captures every fee at every layer. The base fee is fixed at 5,000 lamports per signature, roughly a hundredth of a cent, while priority fees let users bid during congestion, and stake-weighted quality of service plus local fee markets keep hot accounts from clogging the scheduler. On top of the protocol fees sits the Jito MEV economy, where searcher tips flow to validators and stakers, turning order-flow chaos into staking yield. Over $1 million in daily chain revenue against sub-$200,000 for the entire major L2 basket is the visible output.

The caveat is concentration of source. A large share of Solana’s fee revenue traces to speculative trading, memecoins above all, which makes the revenue line high-beta to the exact market segment least likely to survive a deep winter. Ethereum’s fee problem is structural but its demand is diversified; Solana’s fee machine works beautifully and runs on the most flammable fuel in crypto. Neither model is finished.

Fusaka and the second-half Ethereum upgrade path aim at scaling data further without answering value capture, while Solana’s validator economics, where thin margins already pushed the validator count down 68% from its 2023 peak, depend on fee and MEV income holding up.

The other front: stablecoins, payments, and tokenized everything DEX volume gets the headlines, but the war’s second front may matter more by 2027, because it is the one institutions actually fund: who carries the tokenized economy.

Ethereum’s position is incumbency at scale. Roughly 70% of stablecoin supply, the deep USDC and USDT float that institutional desks require, and essentially the entire first generation of tokenized funds. When Ondo debuted its SEC-aligned tokenized stock model with BlackRock ETF shares this week, the underlying rails were Ethereum-ecosystem by default. Stablecoin legislation cleared the path for bank issuance and for the consortium models now emerging among major institutions, and banks build where the auditors already have coverage, which is one more network effect compounding for the incumbent.

Solana’s position is velocity and consumer reach. Its $14 billion stablecoin float turns over roughly six times faster than Ethereum’s, because sub-cent fees make stablecoins usable as money instead of just collateral. USDC settles on Solana in under a second for a fraction of a cent, which is why Visa chose it for settlement pilots, why payment processors keep adding it, and why the Solana Developer Platform launched with Mastercard, Worldpay, and Western Union rather than with hedge funds. Solana is also mounting a genuine RWA challenge through Token-2022, whose compliance extensions target exactly the issuer requirements Ethereum handles with bespoke contracts, and both chains now face a third competitor for the same institutional flow in the compliance-native stack being assembled on the XRP Ledger.

The stakes here dwarf the DEX war. Stablecoins are a $320 billion asset class growing through legislation, and tokenized funds are the institutional product with the steepest adoption curve. If Ethereum keeps the float while Solana takes the flow, the split-decision structure of this whole rivalry repeats at a much larger scale, with Ethereum as the vault and Solana as the checkout lane of tokenized finance.

The institutional tiebreaker For most of crypto history, the institutional column belonged to Ethereum without argument. That is the column where 2026 has produced genuine movement.

The regulatory sequence mattered first. The SEC’s March 2025 classification of sixteen digital assets including SOL as commodities dissolved the securities overhang that had kept allocators away, and spot Solana ETFs began trading on October 28, 2025, making SOL the third asset after BTC and ETH with U.S. spot fund access. The flows since then have been small next to Bitcoin’s but directionally embarrassing for Ethereum: through the spring drawdown, Solana ETFs crossed $1 billion in cumulative inflows while Ethereum funds posted a seventeen-day outflow streak that stripped hundreds of millions, and July has opened with ETF flow reports showing ETH and SOL products gaining together while Bitcoin funds bleed. Goldman Sachs disclosures showed over $100 million in SOL exposure, and CalPERS entered the asset class the same quarter.

Solana’s institutional push went beyond funds. The Solana Foundation launched its Developer Platform in March with Mastercard, Worldpay, and Western Union among early adopters, shipped a quantum-readiness plan built on the NIST-standardized Falcon signature scheme in April, and rolled out on-chain, stake-weighted validator governance this week. Token-2022 extensions gave the chain the compliance hooks, confidential transfers, transfer restrictions, interest-bearing instruments, that enterprise issuers require. The pitch that Solana is a casino chain unsuitable for serious money has aged badly.

Ethereum’s institutional position remains the stronger one on stock rather than flow. It custodies the tokenized funds, hosts the deep stablecoin float, and runs the staking infrastructure through which more than 35 million ETH, nearly 29% of supply, secures the network across a million-plus validators. When a treasury desk needs to move nine figures with minimal slippage, Ethereum’s depth is still the only game available. BitMine Immersion bought its way past 5 million ETH this spring precisely on that thesis. But stock is what you accumulated yesterday. Flow is what you are winning today, and the flow has been tilting one direction for over a year.

The uncomfortable items on both ledgers Neither chain gets to run its highlight reel without the blooper file.

Solana’s validator count has collapsed to roughly 795 active validators from more than 2,500 in 2023, a 68% decline that concentrates block production and hands critics a decentralization argument with real teeth. Its DeFi remains thin and concentrated: one aggregator with 95% market share is a single point of failure wearing a market structure costume, and the $270 million Drift exploit showed what happens when a load-bearing protocol breaks. Its volume mix still leans on memecoin speculation, the most cyclical demand source in the industry, and February’s $117 billion month can become a $40 billion month without a single thing going wrong technically.

Ethereum’s problems are quieter and arguably deeper. Lido alone controls roughly 24% of staked ETH, a concentration risk of its own. The rollup roadmap solved scaling and created a value-capture puzzle nobody has answered: if execution fees accrue to Base and Arbitrum while blobs cost pennies, what exactly does ETH the asset earn from Ethereum the ecosystem’s growth? Retail has already voted, migrating to L2s so completely that mainnet active addresses look like a ghost town next to Solana’s. And the fragmentation tax is real: liquidity split across a dozen rollups with seven-day optimistic exits is a worse user experience than one chain with 400-millisecond finality, no matter how elegant the settlement theory. The KelpDAO exploit this spring, which erased $13 billion of TVL in 48 hours of contagion, showed that composability depth cuts in both directions.

Both assets, meanwhile, have been terrible investments this year, a market-wide condition tied to the macro regime we examined in the context of Bitcoin’s liquidity dependence. Fee revenue and active addresses have not protected SOL holders from a 78% peak drawdown, and settlement supremacy has not protected ETH holders from underperforming Bitcoin for most of the cycle. Whatever race is being run, neither token’s chart looks like a victory lap, and on-chain fundamentals have been decoupled from price across the majors for much of 2026.

So who is actually winning? Frame the question three ways and you get three defensible answers.

If the L1 race means base-layer usage, Solana won it, and the margin is no longer close. Two hundred times Ethereum’s L1 throughput, forty times its transaction count, five times its daily fee revenue, and a lead in DEX volume that has survived every market regime since late 2024. By the definition of Layer 1 that existed when the rivalry started, the contest is over.

If the race means where value lives, Ethereum is not losing and may never lose within this cycle. A 68% share of global DeFi TVL, 70% of stablecoin supply, the institutional tokenization pipeline, and the largest developer base in the industry constitute a network-effect fortress that Solana’s growth has dented but nowhere near breached. Capital has inertia, and inertia compounds.

If the race means trajectory, the tape favors Solana with an asterisk. It is winning new users, new listed products, new enterprise integrations, and the ETF flow battle. The asterisk is that trajectory arguments assume the current regime persists, and Solana’s flow-heavy economy is more exposed than Ethereum’s stock-heavy one to the next collapse in speculative appetite. Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade cycle and the second-half protocol roadmap that all major chains have queued for late 2026 could reshuffle the technical comparison again.

The most likely outcome is also the least satisfying for partisans: permanent coexistence with divided territory. Ethereum settles and custodies. Solana executes and trades. Builders already behave as if this is settled, deploying on both by default. The 2025 framing of an L1 war with a single survivor has quietly died, not with a bang but with two chains discovering they are optimized for markets the other cannot serve.

What could flip the board before December Split decisions invite the obvious follow-up: what would actually change the standings? Four live catalysts carry enough weight to move the argument rather than the noise.

Ethereum’s upgrade cycle is the first. The Fusaka window and the broader second-half protocol roadmap target another step-change in data capacity, and the ecosystem’s real prize sits next to it: any credible mechanism that routes L2 economic success back into ETH, whether through based sequencing, native rollup designs, or fee-market reform, would repair the value-capture hole that has haunted the asset since Dencun. Markets have front-run Ethereum upgrades before; a roadmap that finally answers the accrual question would be the first fundamental ETH catalyst in two years.

Firedancer completion is the second. Solana’s independent validator client moving to full deployment removes the single-client risk that institutions cite most, and its throughput headroom opens application categories, full order-book markets, high-frequency payment networks, that no chain currently serves. If even one breakout consumer or enterprise application lands on that capacity, Solana’s volume base diversifies away from memecoins, which neutralizes the strongest bear argument against its fee economy.

ETF mechanics are the third. Staking-enabled fund structures, under active regulatory discussion for both assets, would transform the flow picture: a spot product yielding 3% to 7% natively changes the allocator pitch entirely, and the asset that gets staking approval first inherits a durable flow advantage. Watch the filings, not the influencers.

Treasury companies are the fourth and strangest. BitMine’s multimillion-ETH accumulation and the emerging class of SOL treasury vehicles mean corporate balance sheets now sit inside both ecosystems as permanent, price-insensitive holders. The Strategy playbook applied to ETH and SOL is small today; its growth rate through a recovering market could make treasuries the marginal buyer that decides which token outperforms, independent of every on-chain metric in this article.

The verdict for the second half Ethereum is losing the L1 race as originally defined, and it forfeited that race by choice when it went all-in on rollups. Solana is winning everything measurable at the base layer while still trailing badly where the institutional money actually sits. Watch three numbers through December: whether Ethereum ETF flows recover once its next upgrade lands, whether Firedancer’s full rollout converts Solana’s throughput ceiling into new categories of application, and whether Solana DeFi TVL can hold above $12 billion without memecoin volume subsidizing it. The chain that answers its own weakness first will own the 2027 narrative. Until then, the war everyone expected has settled into something stranger: two winners, two different games, and one increasingly obsolete question.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Digital asset markets are volatile, and you can lose your entire investment. Always do your own research. Information current as of July 3, 2026.