Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Cardano (ADA) price extends mild recovery on Thursday after a 6% rebound the previous day, an early signal of a potential bullish trend reversal. Retail demand rises as ADA takes a soft bullish turn after a roughly 40% drop last month, with increases in Open Interest, funding rate, and trading volume. The technical outlook supports a mild recovery in Cardano, with trend momentum rising. 

Cardano shows early signs of rebuilding retail strength Cardano’s price and retail demand dropped sharply last month, starting with its founder Charles Hoskinson’s plan to take a social media break, followed by the 16 million ADA exploitation from its ecosystem project, SecondFi. However, with the short-term broader crypto market recovery linked to Kevin Warsh’s “prices are too high” comment, Cardano took a quick bullish turnaround.

CoinGlass data shows the ADA futures volume increased by over 4% in 24 hours, reaching $535.33 million, reflecting increased trading interest. However, the Open Interest (OI) barely increased by 2%, to $374.58 million, reflecting a largely stable positional buildup. 

Still, the positive surge in funding rate to 0.0093% indicates that traders prefer to buy long positions for a premium, anticipating further upside. 

ADA derivatives data. Source: CoinGlassCardano stages a potential bullish trend reversalCardano holds above $0.1500 at press time on Thursday, reflecting a short-term recovery amid a broader bearish bias. ADA crosses above the 50-period Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $0.1501 on the 4-hour chart but remains below the 200-period EMA at $0.1726.

From a technical perspective, ADA heads higher toward the 50% retracement level at $0.1620, measured over the recent downswing from $0.1900 to $0.1382. If ADA clears this zone, it could target the 200-period EMA at $0.1726, followed by the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement at $0.1774.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) on the 4-hour chart at 66 shows heightened buying pressure, approaching overbought territory. At the same time, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) maintains a positive slope above its signal with a constructive histogram, which hints at strong but potentially stretched upside momentum.

ADA/USDT daily price chart.On the downside, immediate support sits at the 50-period EMA at $0.1501, reinforced by the 23.6% Fibonacci level at $0.1289. A deeper pullback would expose the structural Fibonacci anchor at $0.1382, with the horizontal support at $0.1000 remaining a more distant bearish objective if selling pressure resumes.

(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool.)

Market corrections often change the way investors evaluate opportunities. Instead of chasing assets after strong rallies, many begin looking for projects that either appear undervalued or are still developing before reaching wider adoption.

That has become especially relevant in 2026, as several established cryptocurrencies continue trading below important resistance levels while AI-powered presales attract fresh attention.

Crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe recently observed that bearish sentiment across major cryptocurrencies has reached levels commonly associated with long-term accumulation phases before broader market recoveries.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Cardano remain among the industry’s most recognized digital assets. At the same time, MemeToro ($MT) is taking a different route by expanding its ecosystem during the presale stage rather than after exchange listings.

Comparing these projects highlights how different investment strategies can fit into the current market environment.

Bitcoin and Ethereum Continue Defending Key Levels Bitcoin remains the benchmark cryptocurrency despite recent weakness.

The asset has fallen below $59,000, placing greater attention on the important support range between $56,200 and $58,200. Although short-term momentum remains cautious, Bitcoin continues serving as the reference point for institutional participation across the wider digital asset market.

Ethereum has experienced an even more challenging period.

The network entered July trading near $1,570, completing its first-ever streak of three consecutive negative quarters. Even with this difficult price performance, Ethereum continues supporting the largest decentralized application ecosystem in crypto, giving many investors confidence in its long-term relevance.

Rather than abandoning these assets, many long-term holders continue viewing the current market as a period of accumulation.

XRP and Cardano Are Waiting for Stronger Catalysts XRP and Cardano have also struggled to generate sustained momentum.

XRP remains tightly consolidated around $1.05, relying on strong support between $1.00 and $1.06 while investors continue monitoring regulatory developments. Delays surrounding the CLARITY Act have reduced expectations for immediate policy changes, leaving technical price levels as the primary focus.

Cardano continues facing its own technical challenges.

The token remains below both its 50-day and 200-day exponential moving averages, making it difficult for buyers to establish a convincing recovery despite continued ecosystem development.

Both projects retain active communities and established blockchain infrastructure, but neither has fully escaped the broader market slowdown affecting large-cap cryptocurrencies.

MemeToro Offers a Different Entry Point Unlike established cryptocurrencies that already trade on major exchanges, MemeToro ($MT) is still expanding during its public presale.

The platform combines artificial intelligence with several blockchain products instead of relying on one standalone application. Its AI Agent continuously analyzes online discussions, market narratives, social trends, and cultural developments before autonomously supporting fair no-code memecoin launches.

The ecosystem extends far beyond token creation.

Users can participate in decentralized prediction markets covering cryptocurrencies, politics, sports, entertainment, and global events using $MT and BNB. The platform also includes SocialFi participation, behavioral finance tools, and staking rewards of up to 35% APR, encouraging continued activity throughout the ecosystem.

Rather than waiting until after launch to introduce utility, MemeToro is building those products during the presale itself.

Early $MT Token Buyers Still Get the Better Deal Stage 3 of MemeToro’s presale keeps rolling forward, currently sitting at $44,714.54 raised against an $80,644.11 target. The per-token price of $0.00171 won’t hold forever, it’s set to increase as upcoming milestones are reached, rewarding those who act sooner rather than later.

With a hard cap of 1.2 billion $MT, the lion’s share, 71% or 857,936,900 tokens, goes to public participants. The remaining supply is divided between exchange liquidity (10%), marketing and partnership efforts (7.56%), platform operations (5%), ecosystem rewards (4.44%), and core team holdings (2%), all supporting the project beyond launch.

BNB, ETH, USDT, USDC, and bank cards are all accepted through the official presale portal.

Market Conditions Are Changing Investor Behavior Bear markets often encourage investors to look beyond short-term price movements.

Meanwhile, He Yi, co-founder of Binance, has emphasized that projects capable of delivering real infrastructure during difficult conditions are more likely to succeed than those focused primarily on speculative price appreciation.

Those observations help explain why investors continue comparing established cryptocurrencies with earlier-stage AI ecosystems instead of treating them as competing investments.

Many portfolios now include both categories.

More Information on MemeToro ($MT) Presale Here:

Website: https://memetoro.com/

X: https://x.com/memetoro_mt

Telegram: https://t.me/memetoro_mt

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The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned 134 cryptocurrency wallet addresses identified as belonging to ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), which has been a Specially Designated Global Terrorist since September 2015.

The wallet addresses were added to the OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list on Wednesday, which includes individuals, entities and digital asset addresses linked to terrorism, narcotics trafficking and other illicit activity.

Stablecoin issuer Tether has frozen the balances associated with 131 Tron addresses, while the remaining three sanctioned addresses were on the Monero network, blockchain forensics company Chainalysis said in a Wednesday report.

The development comes over a week after the OFAC’s previous round of sanctions against ISIS-supporting financiers using cryptocurrency. On June 22, the OFAC sanctioned three individuals and six entities across Europe, the Middle East and West Africa, including Syria-based MSB Bitcoin Xchange and Turkish MSB Spider.

OFAC said the previous round of sanctions targeted “key facilitators who enable ISIS to move funds among its regional affiliates.”

OFAC update to SDN list, new wallets included. Source: OFAC

131 wallets linked to ISIS-K received $1.4 million in donationsISIS-K has historically solicited crypto through donation campaigns on various websites and messaging platforms, Chainalysis said.

The report said that the 131 Tron addresses in the latest round of sanctions received over $1.4 million in crypto donations since 2023 and sent over $880,000.

Network of ISIS-K funding entities sanctioned by OFAC. Source: Chainalysis

Chainalysis identified multiple such donation addresses used by the group on Tron, Monero and the Bitcoin network. It found significant exposure to mainstream services, including some wallets that sent funds to Syria-based cryptocurrency exchanges.

Blockchain analytics tools are playing an increasingly prominent role in financial sanctions targeting illicit activity.

Earlier in April, blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs said that onchain evidence was key to securing the conviction of three individuals for terrorism financing in Indonesia in 2024 and 2025.

“Indonesian courts have demonstrated that cryptocurrency evidence — wallet addresses, transaction histories, on-chain flows — is not only admissible but can anchor a terrorism financing prosecution,” TRM said in a statement.

Magazine: Are DeFi devs liable for the illegal activity of others on their platforms?

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Tether and Circle built their businesses by keeping the interest on the dollars behind their coins. A new kind of stablecoin, run and owned by a group instead of a single company, shares that money instead. Here is how the consortium model works and why it is spreading.

Summary

A consortium stablecoin is a fiat-backed token issued and governed by a group of companies instead of a single issuer, with two defining features: shared governance and shared reserve income. It contrasts with single-issuer stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC, where one company controls the network and keeps the interest earned on reserves. The model is spreading because stablecoin regulation has clarified, the market has grown past $300 billion, and partners increasingly want a share of the reserve income that has made incumbents enormously profitable. Leading examples include Open USD, backed by more than 140 companies, the Paxos-led Global Dollar Network, and Europe’s bank-led Qivalis, while the earlier Centre Consortium behind USDC shows the model can also fracture. The consortium approach aligns incentives and challenges incumbent economics, but it faces real risks around coordination, governance, and the difficulty of shipping a product agreed on by many stakeholders. Table of Contents

Consortium versus single-issuer stablecoinsThe two defining features: shared governance and shared economicsWhy consortium stablecoins are emerging nowThe leading examplesA cautionary precedent: the Centre ConsortiumWhy the model mattersThe risks of the consortium modelWhere consortium stablecoins fit among stablecoin typesFrequently Asked Questions A consortium stablecoin is a digital dollar, or other fiat-pegged token, that is issued and governed collectively by a group of companies rather than controlled by one. The defining idea is shared ownership of both the decisions and the economics: a board drawn from the partner companies sets the rules, and the income earned on the reserves backing the coin is distributed among those partners instead of kept by a single issuer. That structure is a deliberate break from the model that built the stablecoin giants, and it has become one of the most important trends in digital money.

This explainer covers what makes a stablecoin a consortium stablecoin, why the model is emerging now, the leading examples, and the risks that come with running a coin by committee.

Consortium versus single-issuer stablecoins To understand the consortium model, start with the model it is reacting against. Most of today’s major stablecoins are single-issuer coins. One company creates the token, holds the dollar reserves that back it, collects the interest those reserves earn, and keeps the profit. Tether, which issues USDT, and Circle, which issues USDC, are the dominant examples, and together they control roughly 80 percent of a stablecoin market worth more than $300 billion. Their businesses are simple and enormously profitable: take in dollars, park them in safe assets like Treasury bills, and keep the yield while the token circulates freely.

That reserve income is the heart of the matter. When interest rates are meaningful, the interest on billions of dollars of reserves adds up to billions in revenue. The single issuer keeps that money, which is what makes issuing a large stablecoin one of the best businesses in finance. A partial exception is USDC, where Circle shares a large portion of the economics with Coinbase in exchange for distribution, a hint of the shared-economics idea taken further by the consortium model.

A consortium stablecoin rearranges this in two ways. First, no single company controls the network; a group governs it collectively through a shared board. Second, the reserve income is not kept by one issuer but distributed among the participating companies, usually after a management fee that funds operations. The coin still works the same way for a user, redeemable one-for-one for a dollar held in reserve, but the ownership of the decisions and the money behind it is spread across many hands instead of being concentrated in one. That is the essential difference.

Every consortium stablecoin rests on the same two pillars, and it is worth being precise about each. The first is shared, neutral governance. Instead of one company setting the token’s rules, its reserve policy, its supported chains, and its product roadmap, a board made up of the partner companies makes those decisions collectively. The stated aim is neutrality: no single participant can steer the coin to serve its own interests at the expense of the others, which is meant to make the token trustworthy as shared infrastructure rather than one firm’s product. For businesses wary of building on a competitor’s rails, that neutrality is a selling point.

The second pillar is shared economics. In a consortium model, the interest earned on the reserves is returned to the partners who adopt and distribute the coin, minus a management fee for operating costs. This directly inverts the incumbent arrangement where the issuer keeps the yield. The logic is incentive alignment: if a payment company, bank, or platform earns a share of the reserve income by supporting the coin, it has a direct financial reason to promote adoption. The coin’s growth becomes a shared commercial project instead of one issuer’s private revenue stream.

Together, these two features aim to solve problems the consortium model’s backers say businesses face with existing stablecoins. Companies often pay fees to mint or redeem at scale, do not share in the reserve revenue their volume helps generate, and have little influence over an issuer’s roadmap. A neutral, revenue-sharing, collectively governed coin is pitched as the answer to all three. Whether it delivers depends on execution, but the structure is a coherent response to the incumbents’ weaknesses.

Why consortium stablecoins are emerging now The consortium model is not new in concept, but it has gained momentum for specific reasons in the mid-2020s. The first is regulation. In the United States, the GENIUS Act, signed into law in 2025, created a federal framework for dollar-backed stablecoins, setting standards for reserves and licensing. That clarity lowered the legal uncertainty that had kept large, regulated institutions on the sidelines, and it drew banks, payment networks, and major enterprises into a market they had previously watched from a distance. A consortium of household-name financial firms is far more plausible once the rules of the road are defined.

The second reason is the sheer size and trajectory of the market. The stablecoin sector has grown past $300 billion, and some projections see it reaching into the trillions by the end of the decade as tokens move from crypto trading into cross-border payments, merchant settlement, and corporate treasury operations. A market that large attracts competitors who want a share, and it makes the reserve income at stake enormous.

When the prize is that big, the incentive to build an alternative to the incumbents grows accordingly.

The third reason is the economics itself. As the interest income earned by single issuers has become widely understood, partners have increasingly asked why they should drive adoption of a coin whose reserve revenue flows entirely to one company. The competitive frontier has shifted from simply issuing a token to controlling the underlying network and sharing its economics. Consortium stablecoins are the natural expression of that shift, giving a broad group of participants both a say in the network and a cut of the money it generates. The result has been a wave of consortium and shared-revenue projects entering the market.

The leading examples The clearest way to understand the model is through the projects putting it into practice. The most prominent is Open USD, or OUSD, announced in 2026 by an independent company called Open Standard and backed by a consortium of more than 140 businesses spanning payments, banking, technology, and crypto, including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, BNY, Coinbase, and Google. Open USD lets businesses mint and redeem the token with no fees and no volume limits, and it shares the reserve income with participating partners after a management fee, governed by a board drawn from those partners. It is positioned as a direct challenge to Tether and Circle, and its announcement sent Circle’s stock down sharply as the market priced in the competitive threat.

Open USD is not the first of its kind. The Global Dollar Network, built around the USDG token and led by the regulated issuer Paxos, uses a similar shared-revenue structure, distributing reserve income to partners such as Robinhood, Kraken, and Galaxy Digital to encourage broad adoption. In Europe, a group of major banks including BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit, and SEB formed a venture called Qivalis to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin, initially focused on crypto trading before expanding, as financial institutions seek shared digital-payment infrastructure they collectively control. These projects differ in detail, but they share the consortium DNA of collective governance and shared economics.

What unites the examples is a strategic bet: that the future of stablecoins is a fight over infrastructure and network control rather than individual tokens, and that a broad, aligned coalition can win it against entrenched single issuers. The breadth of the coalitions, spanning card networks, banks, technology platforms, and crypto firms, is meant to translate into real-world acceptance that a lone issuer would struggle to build. Whether that bet pays off is the open question, and history offers a cautionary example.

A cautionary precedent: the Centre Consortium The consortium model has been tried before at the heart of the industry, and the result is instructive. When USDC launched in 2018, it was governed not by Circle alone but by the Centre Consortium, a governance body co-founded by Circle and Coinbase to oversee the coin as a neutral standard. In its early years, USDC was the shared project of two of crypto’s most important companies, with governance and economics split between them, a genuine consortium arrangement at the center of the stablecoin market.

That arrangement did not last. By 2023, Circle and Coinbase dissolved the Centre Consortium, with Circle taking full control of USDC’s issuance and governance and buying out Coinbase’s stake, replacing the shared structure with a revenue-sharing commercial agreement instead. The neutral, jointly governed body gave way to a single issuer with a distribution partner. The episode showed that a consortium can fracture, that aligning even two large partners over the long term is hard, and that the pull toward single-issuer control is strong once a coin becomes valuable.

The lesson for today’s consortium stablecoins is sobering but not disqualifying. Coordinating two founding partners proved difficult; coordinating 140 is a far larger challenge. At the same time, the Centre experience taught the industry a great deal about how to structure governance and economics, and the newer projects are designed with that history in mind. The precedent is a warning about durability, not a verdict that the model cannot work. It simply means the hardest part of a consortium stablecoin may not be launching it, but keeping the coalition together as the stakes rise.

Why the model matters Consortium stablecoins matter because they attack the core economics of the incumbents and could reshape how digital dollars are built. By sharing reserve income, they threaten the single-issuer business model that has made Tether and Circle so profitable, and they put pressure on every issuer to justify keeping the float that stablecoins quietly earn. If businesses can earn a share of that income by supporting a shared coin, the competitive logic of the whole sector shifts, and that pressure is real regardless of which specific consortium succeeds.

The model also changes the incentives around adoption. A single issuer has to persuade partners to distribute its coin; a consortium gives those partners a financial stake in the coin’s success, turning distribution into a shared interest. Combined with neutral governance, this can make a consortium coin more attractive to businesses that do not want to depend on, or enrich, a single competitor. The breadth of backers in projects like Open USD is meant to convert that aligned interest into faster real-world acceptance across payments, banking, and commerce.

For the broader market, the rise of consortium stablecoins is part of a larger story in which crypto is replaying the history of banking, where whoever holds the deposit, or the digital dollar, ends up with more durable economics than whoever merely moves the transaction. The consortium model is an attempt to distribute that durable position across a coalition instead of concentrating it in one firm. That makes it a structurally significant development, not just another product launch, even though its ultimate success is far from guaranteed.

The risks of the consortium model For all its appeal, the consortium model carries distinct risks that anyone evaluating it should weigh. The most fundamental is coordination. Aligning the interests of a large group of companies, each with its own priorities and competitors within the same coalition, is genuinely hard, and decision-making by committee can be slow and prone to deadlock. The Centre Consortium fractured with only two partners; a coalition of many faces a much steeper coordination challenge, and governance disputes could stall the roadmap or splinter the group.

A second risk is that consortiums have historically struggled to ship and sustain products. A launch-day roster of famous names is not the same as a working, widely adopted coin, and many industry consortiums across finance and technology have announced ambitious shared ventures that underdelivered. At announcement, a new consortium stablecoin typically has unproven contracts, reserves, and real-world usage, so the gap between a strong partner list and durable adoption is wide. The coin still has to win against the deep liquidity and entrenched network effects of incumbents like USDT and USDC, which will not stand still.

There are subtler concerns too. Concentrating governance among a group of large, powerful incumbents raises its own questions about who really controls the network and whose interests it ultimately serves. Regulatory clarity that favors well-capitalized entrants can entrench the biggest players instead of broadening competition. And a win for the consortium as a business does not automatically translate into benefits for the users, chains, or tokens associated with it. The consortium model is a serious and well-reasoned challenge to the single-issuer status quo, but it is an experiment whose durability will be settled by execution and by whether coalitions can hold together once the money at stake grows large.

Where consortium stablecoins fit among stablecoin types To place the consortium model correctly, it helps to see the wider map of stablecoin designs, because the consortium approach is a variation on one branch of that map instead of a wholly separate species. The most common type is the fiat-backed stablecoin, where each token is backed by reserves of cash and safe assets like Treasury bills held by an issuer. Within that category sit the familiar single-issuer coins such as Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC, where one company holds the reserves and keeps the income. A consortium stablecoin is still a fiat-backed stablecoin; what changes is who governs it and who receives the reserve income, not what backs it.

Other branches of the map work differently. Crypto-collateralized stablecoins, such as those built on decentralized protocols, are backed not by dollars in a bank but by other cryptocurrencies locked in smart contracts, usually over-collateralized to absorb volatility. Algorithmic stablecoins attempt to hold their peg through supply-adjusting mechanisms instead of full reserves, a design that has repeatedly proven fragile and, in notable cases, collapsed. Yield-bearing stablecoins add a return for the holder on top of the peg, sharing reserve income or on-chain yield directly with users. These are distinct mechanisms for achieving or funding a stable value.

Seen against that backdrop, the consortium model is best understood as a governance-and-economics innovation layered onto the fiat-backed design. It does not change the fundamental promise, one token redeemable for one dollar held in reserve, and it does not introduce a new stability mechanism. What it changes is the ownership of the network: collective governance instead of a single controller, and shared reserve income instead of a single beneficiary. In that sense it sits alongside, not opposite, the single-issuer fiat-backed coins, offering the same product with a different distribution of power and profit.

This placement matters for how users should evaluate a consortium stablecoin. Because the backing is the same fiat-reserve model, the safety questions are the same ones that apply to any fiat-backed coin: what exactly is in the reserves, who holds and audits them, and what regulatory framework governs them. The consortium structure adds considerations about coordination and governance, but it does not remove the need to scrutinize reserves and compliance. A consortium coin is not safer or riskier by virtue of its governance alone; it is a fiat-backed stablecoin whose distinctive feature is shared control, and it should be judged on the fundamentals every stablecoin shares.

Frequently Asked Questions What is a consortium stablecoin? A consortium stablecoin is a fiat-backed token issued and governed by a group of companies instead of a single issuer. Its two defining features are shared governance, where a board drawn from the partners makes decisions collectively, and shared economics, where the interest earned on reserves is distributed among partners after a management fee, instead of kept by one company.

How is it different from USDT or USDC? USDT and USDC are single-issuer stablecoins: one company, Tether or Circle, controls the network, holds the reserves, and keeps the interest those reserves earn. A consortium stablecoin spreads both control and reserve income across many partner companies. USDC is a partial hybrid, since Circle shares a large share of the economics with Coinbase, but Circle still controls issuance and governance.

What is an example of a consortium stablecoin? The most prominent example is Open USD, backed by more than 140 companies including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, and Coinbase, and governed by an independent body called Open Standard. Others include the Paxos-led Global Dollar Network, which shares reserve income with partners like Robinhood and Kraken, and Qivalis, a euro stablecoin venture formed by major European banks.

Why are consortium stablecoins becoming popular? Three forces are driving them: clearer regulation, such as the 2025 GENIUS Act, which brought large regulated institutions into the market; the growth of the stablecoin sector past $300 billion, which raised the stakes; and a growing desire among partners to share in the reserve income that single issuers have kept. Competition has shifted from issuing tokens to controlling and sharing the underlying network.

How do consortium stablecoins make money for partners? They share the interest earned on the reserves. A stablecoin holds dollars in safe assets like Treasury bills that earn interest, and in the consortium model that income is distributed among the participating companies after a management fee covers operating costs. This gives each partner a direct financial incentive to promote adoption, unlike single-issuer coins where the issuer keeps the reserve income.

What happened to the Centre Consortium? The Centre Consortium was a governance body co-founded by Circle and Coinbase in 2018 to oversee USDC as a neutral standard. It was dissolved in 2023, when Circle took full control of USDC’s issuance and governance and bought out Coinbase’s stake, replacing the shared structure with a revenue-sharing agreement. It is a cautionary example that even a two-partner consortium can fracture over time.

Are consortium stablecoins safer than single-issuer ones? Not inherently. Safety depends on the quality of the reserves, the regulatory framework, and the operator, not on whether governance is shared. A consortium can add neutrality and distributed control, but it also adds coordination risk and, at launch, unproven contracts and reserves. Users should evaluate any stablecoin on its reserve backing, regulatory standing, and transparency instead of assuming a governance model makes it safer.

What are the main risks of the consortium model? The biggest risk is coordination: aligning many companies, some of them competitors, is hard, and committee governance can be slow or prone to disputes. Consortiums have also historically struggled to ship and sustain products, so a strong partner list may not translate into adoption. New consortium coins must also overcome the deep liquidity and network effects of entrenched incumbents like USDT and USDC.

Disclaimer: This article is for information and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. The stablecoin sector is evolving rapidly, and the status of specific projects can change. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or use any asset or product. Always do your own research and consult a qualified professional before making financial decisions. Information is accurate as of July 2, 2026, and may change.

Singapore, Singapore, July 2nd, 2026, Chainwire

On its eighth anniversary, Ontology puts ONTO Wallet at the centre of its strategy, adding an identity and verified human data platform to its multi-chain wallet, with a four-part Ontology EVM upgrade keeping the infrastructure underneath fast and current.

Ontology, the Layer 1 blockchain for decentralised identity and data, marked the eighth anniversary of its MainNet by setting out the next chapter of its strategy: building the trusted identity and verified human data layer for the AI economy. At the centre is ONTO Wallet, the ecosystem’s datawallet, which is adding an identity and data platform that lets people own the data they create and put it to work, exactly as AI’s demand for high-quality, consent-based human data accelerates.

Eight years of building identity and data infrastructure have prepared Ontology for an AI economy that increasingly depends on trusted, consent-based human data.

The data problem AI is about to hit

AI has a data problem. As models become more capable, the supply of high-quality, consent-based human data is becoming one of the industry’s biggest constraints. Synthetic data can scale human judgement, but it cannot replace it. What AI increasingly needs is verified human data: information that is high-quality, consent-based, and provably created by a real person, sourced in a way enterprises can stand behind.

The supply of that data is the problem. Today the people who create data rarely share in its value. By Ontology’s own analysis, Meta, Alphabet and Amazon alone have earned more than 1.3 trillion US dollars from user-generated data, while the individuals behind it receive nothing. Regulation is moving the other way: frameworks such as the EU Data Act are pushing enterprises toward first-party, user-consented data. The missing piece has been a way to prove data is authentic and human without exposing it. That is the gap Ontology has spent eight years preparing to fill.

ONTO Wallet: from holding assets to owning data

ONTO Wallet is the centre of the strategy. It remains a multi-chain Web3 wallet, and is now building on that foundation to add an identity and verified human data platform. People own the data they create, build a verified profile, and earn rewards by contributing data on their own terms. On the other side of the marketplace, projects in AI, gaming and Web3 gain access to verified human data, a resource that is in growing demand and hard to source responsibly.

The platform rests on capabilities Ontology has built over its eight years, now native to the wallet: decentralised identity through ONT ID, and software-only verification that confirms data is authentic and human without exposing the underlying information. No special hardware is required.

It is organised around four ideas: ownership of personal data, verifiable identity as the core differentiator, real utility through rewards and a working data marketplace, and trust carried by the network underneath. Identity is the through-line: it is what lets a person prove who they are and what they have done, and what turns raw data into verified human data that the AI economy can use.

Eight years of building the foundation

Ontology comes to this moment with infrastructure already in production, not a whitepaper:

Eight years of stable operation: the Ontology MainNet has run without interruption since 30 June 2018. An identity pioneer: ONT ID is one of the earliest decentralised identity frameworks aligned with the W3C DID standard, with 1.65 million decentralised identities issued. Global reach through ONTO Wallet: more than 2 million users, across 70+ blockchains and 170+ countries. A proven network: more than 20 million transactions processed, ~900 active nodes, and 216 million ONT staked The infrastructure underneath: a four-part EVM upgrade

A data platform that asks people to contribute often needs transactions that are fast and inexpensive. The anniversary release upgrades the network that makes that possible, bringing four widely adopted Ethereum opcodes to the Ontology EVM. The changes reduce transaction costs, shrink smart contract sizes, and bring the network in line with the current Ethereum standard, while removing friction for teams porting existing Ethereum contracts across.

PUSH0 (EIP-3855): places the value zero onto the stack, reducing contract size and lowering the gas cost of almost every transaction. BASEFEE (EIP-3198): lets a contract read the network’s current base fee directly on-chain, with no external data source. MCOPY (EIP-5656): copies memory in a single step, speeding up data-heavy operations such as encoding and cryptography. Transient storage, TSTORE and TLOAD (EIP-1153): a low-cost storage that lasts for a single transaction, well suited to temporary state such as reentrancy protection. Together these bring the Ontology EVM in line with the opcodes introduced in Ethereum’s Shanghai and Cancun upgrades, so the latest output from compilers such as Solidity and Vyper runs without special handling. Alongside the EVM enhancements, Ontology has continued its ongoing technical review process, introducing a series of performance optimisations and bug fixes that further improve network stability, efficiency and overall reliability.

“For eight years we have built the infrastructure for trusted identity and user-owned data. The next eight are about putting it to work for the defining technology of our time,” said Li Jun, Founder of Ontology. “AI runs on data, and it increasingly needs data that is high-quality, consented, and provably human. Ontology and ONTO Wallet let people own that data and decide how it is used, turning verified human data into the foundation of a fairer AI economy.”

Where Ontology goes next

This anniversary is less a celebration of what Ontology has built than a statement of where it is going. As AI resets the value of data, Ontology intends to be the place where identity is owned, data is given with consent, and verified human data becomes infrastructure the whole industry can build on. The work of the next chapter starts now.

About Ontology

Ontology is building the trusted identity and verified human data layer for the AI economy. Through decentralised identity and verifiable data, Ontology gives individuals control over their information and enables enterprises to access verified, user-consented data at scale. For more information, visit ont.io.

About ONTO Wallet

ONTO Wallet is evolving from a multi-chain wallet into a multi-chain data wallet for the AI economy. It lets people own their digital identity, build a verified profile from the data they already create, and earn rewards by contributing that data on their own terms, while giving projects access to verified human data. Learn more at onto.app.

Tether Freezes USDT in All 131 ISIS-K-Linked TRON Wallets After OFAC Sanctions Update

TRON could be emerging as one of the strongest Layer 1 contenders heading into Q3.

From a technical perspective, TRX closed June down 10.35%, largely in line with the broader market’s risk-off move that erased $500 billion from the market. Even so, its relative strength stood out.

Despite Solana benefiting from renewed interest in tokenized assets following the SPCX launch, TRX still outperformed SOL.

That resilience becomes even more compelling when viewed alongside TRON’s on-chain data. As the chart below shows, the network processed 385.77 million transactions and recorded 26.97 million active accounts in June, both new monthly records, according to Lookonchain.

Source: X Notably, the momentum was just as evident on a daily basis. 

On the 10th of June, TRON processed 14.55 million transactions and recorded 5.8 million active accounts, both all-time daily highs, according to Tronscan. With activity reaching record levels across the board, many in the market are calling June Tron’s “strongest month” on record. 

And it doesn’t look like a one-off spike.

According to DeFiLlama, TRON [TRX] has once again pulled ahead of Ethereum [ETH] in USDT transfer volume. The network now hosts over $86 billion in USDT, more than any other blockchain, reinforcing Tron’s role as one of crypto’s largest settlement layers. 

With the market starting to tilt back into a risk-on phase, TRON looks well-positioned to extend this momentum into the second half of the year.

In that context, Tron’s recent quantum upgrade also stands out as a forward-looking move, strengthening its positioning among competing L1s as the cycle develops. 

Quantum resistance adds a new layer to TRON’s utility story  As a Layer 1 network, TRON’s growth is no longer just about on-chain activity.

The focus is shifting toward long-term security, with quantum resistance becoming a major trend across L1s in 2026. Networks like Solana [SOL] have already sparked interest with their post-quantum roadmap.

TRON now looks to be following the same direction. 

Notably, the TRON Nile Testnet has launched GreatVoyage-v4.8.2-PQ1-build1, adding support for post-quantum signatures. The upgrade includes Falcon-512 and ML-DSA-44, covering transactions, block production, node communication, and contract verification. It is currently live on the Nile Testnet and still needs governance approval before any mainnet rollout.

Source: X From an investor’s point of view, this move signals TRON is getting ahead of the curve on long-term security.

Sure, it’s still in the testnet phase, but the push into post-quantum infrastructure adds a stronger long-term narrative to TRON’s ecosystem. The timing also looks intentional, given TRX’s strong on-chain activity and steady stablecoin flows, which continue to reinforce network usage and demand. 

Hence, TRON’s edge is no longer just about technical. Instead, it’s increasingly tied to its fundamental roadmap as well, putting the network in a relatively strong position heading into H2.

Final Summary

Key Highlights Table of Contents

Key HighlightsCaliberCos Advances Digital Real Estate Investment PlatformChainlink Technology Enables Regulatory Compliance FrameworkMarket Responds Positively to CaliberCos Blockchain IntegrationGet 3 Free Stock Ebooks CWD shares jumped 83% following CaliberCos’ blockchain tokenization announcement.

The company revealed plans to tokenize real estate investment funds using advanced technology.

Chainlink’s infrastructure will enable regulatory compliance for tokenized offerings.

The initiative aims to enhance accessibility in private real estate markets through blockchain.

Investors responded enthusiastically to Caliber’s integration of blockchain into its operations.

Shares of CaliberCos Inc. (CWD) rocketed 83.47% to reach $1.1850 following the company’s disclosure of an advanced real estate tokenization initiative. The stock experienced significant early trading activity before settling around $1.18, retaining the majority of its intraday gains. This dramatic price movement came after Caliber revealed its intention to leverage Chainlink’s technology infrastructure for creating compliant digital real estate investment vehicles.

CaliberCos Inc., CWD

CaliberCos Advances Digital Real Estate Investment Platform Caliber announced its upcoming phase will concentrate on integrating tokenization technology directly into its real estate investment operations. As a manager of alternative property assets, the firm intends to transform how private fund ownership functions. The initiative seeks to enhance financing mechanisms, administrative processes, market accessibility, and transparency through distributed ledger technology.

According to the company, modern tokenization challenges extend well beyond simply generating digital securities. Critical hurdles include regulatory adherence, distribution networks, investor qualification procedures, advisor integration systems, and meeting stringent market regulations. Consequently, Caliber intends to seamlessly integrate its tokenized offerings with established wealth management infrastructure and fund administration workflows.

This approach represents a fundamental transition from merely holding digital assets to actively deploying them operationally. While Caliber currently maintains holdings of LINK, the native token of Chainlink’s ecosystem, the company now seeks to implement Chainlink-powered solutions to facilitate real estate fund tokenization within its operational framework.

Chainlink Technology Enables Regulatory Compliance Framework Caliber intends to deploy Chainlink’s Automated Compliance Engine to facilitate regulated operations for its tokenized investment products. This integrated system creates connections between identity verification providers, digital wallets, risk management platforms, issuers, and distribution networks. Consequently, it enables streamlined investor verification processes, automated compliance enforcement, comprehensive audit documentation, and digital distribution capabilities.

Regulatory compliance represents a significant obstacle for tokenizing private investment funds. Fund managers must authenticate qualified participants, track all activities, and preserve detailed documentation. Chainlink’s technological framework addresses these requirements through automated, reusable compliance mechanisms.

According to Caliber, the emphasis remains squarely on genuine investment vehicles and established fund architectures. The organization expects tokenization to deliver more transparent valuations, broader market access, and streamlined administrative operations. Additionally, the system should facilitate custody solutions, enhanced reporting capabilities, liquidity mechanisms, and compliant asset transfers.

Market Responds Positively to CaliberCos Blockchain Integration CWD experienced substantial gains as investors recognized Caliber’s integration of blockchain technology into its fundamental real estate operations. Rather than pursuing tokenization as an isolated technology experiment, the company plans comprehensive implementation across carefully selected private property investments.

Caliber indicated its implementation strategy will commence with properties ideally suited for tokenization. One notable example includes the company’s investment in a major indoor Pickleball and Padel complex in the United States. According to Caliber, such ventures could demonstrate tangible investor advantages through enhanced ownership structures and superior administrative capabilities.

Regarding public market positioning, Caliber presents CWD as a real estate asset management company leveraging blockchain infrastructure for operational advantages. The firm’s LINK holdings provide supplementary exposure to the Chainlink ecosystem. However, Caliber emphasized that blockchain adoption does not eliminate fundamental investment risks, though it may enhance operational efficiency for fund management.

Oliver Dale

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

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Source: Binance EN

This is a general announcement. Products and services referred to here may not be available in your region. Terms and conditions apply. Fellow Binancians, Summer 2026 is already here and we want to know how you're spending it. Whether you're chasing sunsets, stacking sats, or leveling up your trading game, your summer story deserves to be heard. Join our latest community challenge on the Binance Angels X account, fill your 2026 Summer Kit, and share it with the community for a chance to win a share of 300 USDC token vouchers! Activity Period: 2026-07-02 09:00 (UTC) to 2026-07-06 12:00 (UTC) How to Participate: During the Activity Period, complete all of the following steps to be eligible: Follow the Binance Angels X account.Like & retweet the campaign post. Go to this Binance Discord channel and make a post with the following included: Your completed Summer Kit image;A short text explaining your choices; andYour X account username. Reward Structure: The best 12 posts will be selected at Binance’s sole discretion, and eligible winners will share a prize pool of 300 USDC token vouchers equally. The posts will be selected based on creativity, Binance brand relevance, and accuracy as per Binance's discretion. Activity Rules: Each user is allowed to submit a maximum of 1 submission per day in the Binance Discord channel.Copied, NSFW, hateful, or offensive content is not allowed and will not be counted as eligible for this Activity. Terms & Conditions: These terms and conditions (“Promotion Terms”) govern users’ participation in the promotion above (“Promotion”). By participating in this Promotion, users agree to these Promotion Terms, and the following additional terms: (a) Binance Terms and Conditions for Prize Promotions; (b) Binance Terms of Use; and (c) Binance Privacy Notice; all of which are incorporated by reference into these terms and conditions. In the case of any inconsistency or conflict between these Promotion Terms, and any other incorporated terms, the provisions of these Promotion Terms shall prevail, followed by the following in this order of precedence, and to the extent of such conflict: (a) Binance Terms and Conditions for Prize Promotions; (b) Binance Terms of Use; and (c) Binance Privacy Notice.Only users who complete identity verification during the Activity Period can qualify for rewards in the Promotion. The products or features referred to above may not be available in your region. Users are responsible for informing themselves about and observing any restrictions and/or requirements imposed with respect to the access to and use of Binance services in each country from which the services are accessed.Only users in eligible countries are able to participate in this activity. Rewards will be distributed on 2026-07-30 on Binance Rewards Hub. Eligible users will be able to login and redeem their token voucher rewards via Profile > Rewards Hub. The validity period for the token voucher is set at 30 days from the day of distribution. Binance reserves the right to disqualify a user’s reward eligibility if the account is involved in any dishonest behavior (e.g., wash trading, illegally bulk account registrations/logins, self dealing, or market manipulation). Binance further reserves the right to disqualify any participants who tamper with Binance program code, or interfere with the operation of Binance program code with other software.Binance reserves the right at any time in its sole and absolute discretion to determine and/or amend or vary these terms and conditions without prior notice, including but not limited to canceling, extending, terminating or suspending this Promotion, the eligibility terms and criteria, the selection and number of winners, and the timing of any act to be done, and all Participants shall be bound by these amendments. There may be discrepancies between this original content in English and any translated versions. Please refer to the original English version for the most accurate information, in case any discrepancies arise. Thank you for your support! Binance Team 2026-07-02

Key Highlights Table of Contents

Key HighlightsPre-Market Rally Follows USDC Service AnnouncementMajor Bank Pioneers Institutional Stablecoin InfrastructureInstitutional Appetite Drives CRCL MomentumGet 3 Free Stock Ebooks CRCL shares advance following Standard Chartered’s institutional USDC launch.

Global bank introduces direct USDC creation and redemption services.

Development reinforces Circle’s position in regulated digital currency markets.

Initial deployment begins in DIFC with expansion plans underway.

Partnership expands Circle’s footprint among institutional investors.

Shares of Circle Internet Group (CRCL) climbed 3.81% to reach $64.38 during pre-market hours following Standard Chartered’s introduction of institutional-grade USDC services. This advance came after CRCL closed the prior session at $61.95, representing a 1.09% decline. The development establishes a connection between a leading international financial institution and Circle’s regulated digital dollar platform.

Circle Internet Group, CRCL

Pre-Market Rally Follows USDC Service Announcement Circle Internet Group equity experienced upward momentum ahead of market open after Standard Chartered unveiled its USDC creation and redemption platform. This offering leverages Circle’s existing framework while focusing on corporate and institutional participants. The partnership enhances Circle’s standing within the regulated digital currency ecosystem.

Circle 🤝 Standard Chartered@StanChart has launched institutional USDC minting and redemption through DIFC, becoming the first G-SIB to offer institutional access to USDC through a regulated banking channel.

A major milestone for institutional stablecoin adoption.… pic.twitter.com/SufjFOqjyk

— Circle (@circle) July 2, 2026

This new functionality enables organizations to obtain USDC via Standard Chartered’s established client onboarding and servicing infrastructure. Consequently, institutional participants can bypass the need for direct Circle relationships. This arrangement introduces a banking intermediary between traditional currency systems and distributed ledger settlement mechanisms.

Circle produces USDC through licensed operating entities, maintaining its status as a leading dollar-backed digital currency. Applications include cross-border transactions, financial settlement, corporate treasury operations, and capital management. Banking collaborations of this nature can accelerate mainstream institutional adoption.

Major Bank Pioneers Institutional Stablecoin Infrastructure Standard Chartered achieved a milestone as the inaugural licensed Global Systemically Important Bank offering this type of USDC service architecture. Operations will commence through the bank’s Dubai International Financial Centre presence. This deployment reinforces the United Arab Emirates’ commitment to regulated cryptocurrency infrastructure.

The platform integrates traditional banking capabilities with custody solutions, digital asset technology, and public blockchain networks. Organizations gain unified access for moving between fiat currency and stablecoins. This arrangement enables businesses to coordinate blockchain-based settlement and treasury functions with enhanced oversight.

Standard Chartered intends to broaden this service across additional jurisdictions following regulatory clearance and operational preparation. Bank executives positioned this deployment as an initial step within a comprehensive stablecoin strategy. Such moves reflect increasing appetite for compliant digital asset infrastructure.

Institutional Appetite Drives CRCL Momentum Circle stands to gain from growing corporate and institutional interest in stablecoins and blockchain settlement systems. USDC availability through an established international bank may unlock additional enterprise applications. This integration embeds Circle more firmly within conventional financial architecture.

The announcement arrives as financial institutions and corporations evaluate stablecoins for payment processing and treasury optimization. Organizations seek operational efficiency and transaction transparency while maintaining regulatory compliance and risk management protocols. Standard Chartered’s approach satisfies these requirements through its supervised banking structure.

CRCL’s pre-market appreciation underscored this enhanced institutional positioning. Shares recovered from the previous session’s weakness and early trading pressure. Nevertheless, the fundamental narrative centers on Circle’s deepening integration with regulated banking infrastructure.

Oliver Dale

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

Circle USDC Eyes Global Stablecoin Expansion With Standard Chartered Partnership

Standard Chartered and USDC issuer Circle have developed a system that lets institutional clients mint and redeem the USDC stablecoin through a bank-led onboarding process.

Standard Chartered said Thursday it is the first Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB) to offer such services for USDC, bringing stablecoin access into the same risk, compliance and governance frameworks used in traditional banking. Clients will be able to mint and redeem the US dollar-backed stablecoin directly through StanChart's platform instead of opening separate accounts with Circle.

“By embedding USDC access directly within Standard Chartered’s institutional offering, Standard Chartered will bring together banking, custody, and digital asset services within one integrated offering,” the announcement said. The initial rollout will be through the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

The collaboration comes as stablecoin infrastructure is increasingly integrated into traditional banking systems, as issuers and financial institutions compete to control how digital assets such as USDC are distributed and accessed.

Source: Circle on X.com

The capability supports institutional use cases such as onchain settlement, treasury, and liquidity management, while also providing the infrastructure to support payment-related use cases in the future.

Initial rollout via Dubai International Financial CentreWhile the service is initially rolling out through Standard Chartered’s operations in the DIFC, the bank said it intends to expand the capability to other markets, depending on regulatory approval and demand from clients.

Source: Standard Chartered

Roberto Hoornweg, CEO of corporate and investment banking at StanChart, said the goal is to bring traditional banking standards into crypto markets as demand for regulated infrastructure increases.

“Ultimately, this is about enabling broader institutional participation in digital asset markets through the frameworks, controls and regulatory oversight that have long supported confidence in global financial markets,” he said.

The news came in the wake of Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire's statement defending USDC’s network effects against new stablecoin entrants like Open USD (OUSD), pointing to growing competition over distribution, liquidity and revenue models in the stablecoin market.

“With OUSD, we work closely with many of the founding members, and we expect that those same members will remain large USDC partners and customers,” he said on Wednesday.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Table of contents

The custody and settlement plumbing of institutional crypto just got a meaningful upgrade. Standard Chartered has partnered with Circle to let its institutional clients mint and redeem USDC directly through the bank’s existing channels—without the friction of opening and maintaining separate accounts with the stablecoin issuer. The arrangement, detailed in the original report, makes Standard Chartered the first Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB) to offer this capability under a single onboarding experience.

The service launches via Standard Chartered’s operations in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), a jurisdiction that has been building crypto-specific regulatory clarity under the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). The bank intends to bridge fiat banking, digital asset infrastructure, and public blockchains—specifically targeting treasury, on-chain settlement, and liquidity management. In practical terms, a corporate client can now convert fiat into USDC and back through its relationship with Standard Chartered, with the bank handling the issuance and redemption processes behind the scenes.

A Banking Gateway to USDC Liquidity Until now, institutional access to dollar-backed stablecoins typically required a direct relationship with the issuer or a third-party crypto exchange that supported mint and burn flows. For many large financial firms, that setup introduced counterparty concentration risk and operational complexity. By absorbing those functions, Standard Chartered positions itself as a regulated conduit between traditional fiat rails and on-chain capital. The move parallels how prime brokerages aggregate market access for hedge funds, but here the product is a stablecoin rather than a security.

Standard Chartered isn’t just adding a menu item. The bank has been quietly building a digital asset custody and tokenization stack, including through its Zodia Custody venture and partnerships with enterprise blockchain networks. Adding USDC mint/redemption turns its DIFC hub into a multi-rail settlement node, something that could appeal to trade finance desks and cross-border payment operations. The timing also coincides with a broader reassessment of corporate treasury strategies, where stablecoins are increasingly used to net intraday settlement risk across time zones. This appetite has been visible in surging institutional staking demand and funding flows into on-chain yield vehicles.

Implications for Stablecoin Market Structure The partnership subtly shifts the stablecoin power dynamic. Circle’s USDC has long sought to differentiate itself from USDT through regulatory compliance and transparent reserves. By embedding USDC mint/redemption inside a G-SIB, Circle moves the stablecoin closer to mainstream banking infrastructure—potentially eroding the network-effect advantage that Tether enjoys among offshore market makers. Institutions that once hesitated to touch any stablecoin due to perceived regulatory risk may now see a bank-wrapped path.

That said, the arrangement is limited to eligible clients and currently runs through one financial free zone. It is not a universal banking license to issue stablecoins across all markets. Yet the signal is loud: a systemically important bank is comfortable enough with the liability structure and compliance framework to act as a direct on/off-ramp. This comes against the backdrop of a fractious regulatory environment in the U.S., where some major lenders have actively pushed back on crypto legislation even while others explore stablecoin products under clearer foreign frameworks. The DIFC route allows Standard Chartered to test the model with a pragmatic regulator, providing a template other G-SIBs may watch closely.

The stablecoin integration also feeds into the larger real-world asset (RWA) tokenization narrative. When a bank can convert fiat into a regulated stablecoin and then move that token to a settlement blockchain, it effectively creates a high-speed bridge to on-chain treasury instruments and tokenized obligations. With on-chain RWA value crossing $20 billion, the missing piece for many institutional participants has been a seamless fiat-to-stablecoin leg. Standard Chartered is now offering exactly that.

What Remains Uncertain A few unknowns will define how significant this launch becomes. First, the scope of eligible clients has not been disclosed. If it is limited to a small set of DIFC-domiciled corporates, the immediate volume may not move markets. If the bank plans a phased rollout to larger institutional clients across its Asian, African, and Middle Eastern corridors, the flow-through to USDC market capitalization could be material over time.

Second, Standard Chartered’s own risk appetite will be tested. Acting as a mint/redemption gateway means the bank must manage intraday liquidity across fiat and digital rails, handle blockchain transaction monitoring, and maintain reserves that satisfy Circle’s attestation requirements. Any operational misstep could damage confidence in the model. Third, competitors are unlikely to stand still. Other custody banks and payment processors already run stablecoin access programs, though none have the G-SIB label. A rapid response from a European or Asian peer would validate the category—or turn it into a niche experiment confined to a single institution.

For now, the practical outcome is tangible: a regulated, systemically important bank has turned stablecoin access into a relationship product. That is a structural evolution, not just a headline partnership.

AUTHOR

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

In brief Standard Chartered has become the first Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB) to offer institutional clients direct access to mint and redeem USDC. The service, launching first through the bank's Dubai (DIFC) operations, targets uses like on-chain settlement, treasury, and liquidity management, with payment features planned later. The launch is the first phase of a broader global stablecoin strategy, with Standard Chartered planning to expand to other markets pending regulatory approval. Standard Chartered announced Wednesday that it has launched a service allowing institutional clients to mint and redeem USDC, the stablecoin issued by Circle Internet Group, directly through the bank rather than opening separate accounts with the crypto firm.

The bank said the launch makes it the first Global Systemically Important Bank licensed to offer institutional clients integrated access to USDC minting and redemption through a single onboarding and service experience, without requiring clients to hold direct accounts with Circle.

The designation places Standard Chartered, one of roughly 30 banks worldwide deemed critical enough to the global financial system to face heightened regulatory scrutiny, at the forefront of banks moving to fold stablecoins into mainstream institutional finance.

The service, developed with Circle, is designed to let institutions move value across traditional and digital financial ecosystems with greater speed and transparency by connecting fiat banking, digital asset infrastructure and public blockchain networks within a single, bank-led solution. Standard Chartered said the offering is aimed at uses including on-chain settlement, treasury operations and liquidity management, with payment applications planned for later.

“Financial institutions are increasingly looking for trusted ways to access stablecoins and participate in blockchain-enabled financial markets,” said Circle Chief Commercial Officer Kash Razzaghi, in a statement. “By integrating Circle’s regulated stablecoin infrastructure into Standard Chartered’s global banking platform, we are helping institutions access new opportunities to use USDC across payments, settlement and treasury operations while maintaining the compliance, governance, and risk management standards they expect.”

The rollout begins in the bank's Dubai International Financial Center operations, part of what Standard Chartered described as the first phase of a broader global stablecoin strategy it intends to extend to other markets pending regulatory clearance.

The announcement comes as banks worldwide race to build stablecoin infrastructure following a wave of regulatory clarity in major markets—including last year’s GENIUS Act signing in the U.S.—with traditional lenders increasingly positioning themselves as intermediaries between conventional finance and blockchain-based assets.

Circle (CRCL) stock popped soon after markets opened Thursday, rising to a recent price of $67.75—a more than 9% gain on the day, per data from Yahoo Finance.

CRCL shares fell earlier this week following the announcement of Open USD, a rival, upcoming stablecoin with backing from more than 140 major crypto and financial industry firms—including Circle's close ally, Coinbase. Shares remain down about 33% over the last month amid a broader crypto market swoon.

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Two Big Banks Adopt Circle’s USDC Stablecoin This Week

Table of contents

Zcash is at $422. Up 6% today. One of the strongest coins in the top 20.

And it is not alone. Monero is green. Bitcoin Cash is up 9% on the week. The privacy corner of crypto, ignored for months, just woke up.

But before anyone gets carried away, ZEC has a complicated story this year and one big test coming this month. Let me give you both sides, fast.

The move Zcash just did something technically meaningful: it crossed back above its 200-day moving average near $380 (live ZEC price on CoinGecko). That average is the line that separates coins in long-term downtrends from coins with a pulse. Reclaiming it after weeks below is the first structural positive ZEC has printed in a while.

The chart now projects a possible double-bottom, the pattern you get when sellers fail to make a new low twice. Momentum is turning: bearish pressure is fading, the RSI is ticking up, and the MACD is setting up for a bullish crossover. Textbook early-recovery signals.

The gate above is $454, the 50-day average. Clear that, and analysts see room toward $520. Below, $356 is the support that has to hold, guarding the round $300.

Why privacy, why now The rotation makes sense if you think about it. The market is rebounding, Bitcoin just reclaimed $60,000, and traders hunting for laggards with a narrative landed on privacy coins, a sector that spent months out of favor while everyone chased AI tokens and Solana.

Zcash is the most recognizable name in that sector, sitting in the top 20 with an $8 billion-class market cap earlier this year. When privacy sentiment turns, ZEC is where the money goes first. Add Monero and Bitcoin Cash both green this week, and you have a genuine sector move, not a one-coin squeeze.

Now the part you need to know Here is the honest half, because ZEC’s 2026 has been rough. In early June, developers disclosed a four-year-old vulnerability in Zcash’s shielded pool. It was patched within days and no exploitation was confirmed. But the disclosure alone crushed trust and helped crash the price around 40%. That is the hole ZEC is still climbing out of.

There is also whale behavior to watch. Reports through late June flagged large holders closing positions and reducing risk, the kind of selling that has capped every bounce attempt so far. A failed rebound near $543 earlier this cycle is the scar tissue.

Which brings us to the test.

The July test: Ironwood Zcash’s answer to the trust problem is an upgrade called Ironwood, targeted for late July. Its whole purpose is restoring confidence: formal verification and independent audits designed to prove the supply integrity that June’s scare called into question.

That makes the next few weeks unusually binary for ZEC. If Ironwood ships clean and the audits land well, the trust discount baked into the price has a real reason to close, and the technical setup gets its fundamental fuel. If it slips or disappoints, the rally loses its floor. Few coins have a single catalyst this clearly dated and this clearly decisive. Mark it.

The levels Up: $454 is the gate. Clear it and $520 is the target.

Down: $356 must hold. Below it, $300, then $251.

Bottom line Zcash at $422 is leading a genuine privacy-coin revival, reclaiming its 200-day average with a double-bottom setting up and momentum turning. The sector rotation is real, and ZEC is its flagship.

But this is a high-risk chart with a trust wound from June’s vulnerability scare and whales still selling bounces. Everything funnels into late July: the Ironwood upgrade either restores the confidence this rally needs, or it does not. Watch $454 above, $356 below, and that upgrade date above all. Privacy woke up. Whether it stays awake is a July question.

FAQ What is the Zcash price today?

Zcash is trading near $422 on July 2, 2026, up about 6% on the day, one of the strongest performers in the top 20 as privacy coins lead the market rebound.

Why is Zcash going up?

ZEC reclaimed its 200-day moving average as traders rotate into privacy coins, a sector out of favor for months. Monero and Bitcoin Cash are also green, making it a genuine sector move. A double-bottom pattern and improving momentum support the technical case.

What is the Ironwood upgrade?

Ironwood is Zcash’s late-July upgrade aimed at restoring trust after a June vulnerability disclosure, using formal verification and independent audits to prove supply integrity. It is the decisive catalyst for whether ZEC’s rally holds.

What happened to Zcash in June?

Developers disclosed and patched a four-year-old vulnerability in Zcash’s shielded pool. No exploitation was confirmed, but the disclosure damaged trust and contributed to a roughly 40% price crash that ZEC is still recovering from.

What are the key Zcash levels?

The gate above is $454, the 50-day average; clearing it targets $520. Support is $356, which guards the round $300 level, with $251 below that. Whale selling has capped previous bounce attempts.

This is not investment advice. Zcash is highly volatile and carries elevated risk after its June security scare. Always do your own research.

AUTHOR

Farhan Karim is a technology writer and content strategist with 15+ years of experience writing thousands of articles, blogs, whitepapers, and ebooks on Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and other tech niches. His expertise in content strategy, SEO, and a keen eye on the ever-evolving tech space have led him to work with companies like Pepsi, Huawei, Arab News, and now Blockchain Reporter.

Stablecoin issuer Tether froze funds held in all 131 TRON wallets sanctioned by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on July 1 as part of its updated ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) designation.

The action adds 134 cryptocurrency addresses as identifiers for the group, 131 on TRON (TRX) and 3 on Monero (XMR), according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

ISIS-K Crypto Wallets Received Over $1.4 Million Since 2023Chainalysis reported that the designated TRON wallets received more than $1.4 million since 2023 and sent over $880,000. Several of the addresses moved funds to Syria-based crypto exchangers, while the broader cluster showed heavy exposure to mainstream services.

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Chainalysis Reactor Graph showing ISIS-K TRON Wallets. Source: ChainalysisISIS-K operates across Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of Central Asia. OFAC first named the group a Specially Designated Terrorist Group in September 2015. Its media arm, al-Azaim Media Foundation, has solicited crypto donations through websites and messaging platforms.

Historically, individual donations were small, reflecting supporters’ modest means, per Chainalysis.

“Chainalysis has collected historical donation addresses on Tron, Monero, and Bitcoin,” the report read.

The July 1 update follows a June OFAC action against Syrian money service businesses that cashed out funds for ISIS financiers. Earlier, in 2023, it designated Maldives-based operative Ali Shafiu, whose TRON wallet interacted with deposit addresses tied to Iranian exchanges, Chainalysis found.

Tether’s response fits a wider pattern of private firms blocking illicit funds alongside government action. BeInCrypto reported in May that the company’s T3 Financial Crime Unit, operated with TRON and TRM Labs, had frozen more than $450 million in illicit crypto since its September 2024 debut.

Exchanges have joined similar efforts. Coinbase froze over $3 million tied to Southeast Asian scam networks during the US Justice Department’s Disruption Week.

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The crypto market is experiencing a dynamic shift as different projects chart distinct paths. Currently, the Monero price is navigating a period of careful consolidation, leaving market participants to deliberate on its long-term potential to hit the $1,000 landmark. Concurrently, the Solana price forecast indicates a gentle upward trend, with everyday retail buyers focusing closely on a crucial breakout point around the $75 threshold.

Meanwhile, BlockDAG (BDAG) has sparked an intense wave of buyer enthusiasm by upgrading its World Cup Bonus from 50% to a full 100%. This aggressive strategy comes on the heels of a substantial $500 million valuation surge, fueled by the introduction of its innovative BDAG AI. With a remarkably low entry price of $0.00000066 and an anticipated future buyback target of $0.03, early adopters have a massive return on investment within reach. This powerful combination of factors underscores why many view BlockDAG as the next crypto to explode.

Monero Navigates Regulatory Hurdles & Market Cool Down Table of Contents

Monero Navigates Regulatory Hurdles & Market Cool DownSolana Challenges Vital Resistance LevelBlockDAG Drives Demand with Upgraded 100% World Cup BonusFinal Thoughts The Monero price has recently displayed a mixed performance, marked by a slight daily dip of roughly 0.49% and a broader weekly decline exceeding 5%. At present, the token is maintaining its footing around the $308 mark, reflecting a general slowdown across the wider digital asset landscape. Despite this subdued price action, Monero has experienced a notable spike in engagement, with daily trading volumes climbing by more than 29%. This surge indicates that market participants remain highly active.

Looking ahead, several analysts maintain an optimistic outlook, projecting that the asset could realistically fluctuate between $320 and $465 in the medium term. Over a longer horizon, Monero could potentially breach the $1,000 threshold, driven by sustained demand for its robust security features and private transaction capabilities. However, investors must weigh this optimism against a substantial headwind: escalating global regulatory scrutiny on privacy-focused digital assets, which could significantly constrain its future expansion.

Solana Challenges Vital Resistance Level The near-term Solana price forecast leans cautiously optimistic as the cryptocurrency edges upward to test a pivotal resistance barrier at $75.00. This upward momentum is primarily sustained by retail investors, whose growing confidence is keeping the price steady despite a noticeable drop in aggressive buying from institutional players.

Achieving a clean breakout above this $75.00 level could unlock further bullish momentum, potentially driving the token toward the prominent $100.00 target. Conversely, if retail buying power fades, the asset risks a reversal that could pull it down to a reliable support floor at $67.50.

While Solana continues to attract significant interest due to its high transaction speeds, the network is still held back by its history of sporadic technical glitches and stability issues, which have previously caused unexpected transaction freezes.

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Available at an entry point of $0.00000066, this window offers an advantageous setup for individuals aiming to accumulate BDAG before subsequent pricing adjustments take effect. This appeal is heightened by a structured $0.03 buyback plan, establishing a clear future liquidity target for early backers.

Beyond promotional incentives, the project has expanded its infrastructure by introducing BDAG AI, an integration that has driven a $500 million increase in BlockDAG’s overall valuation. The project’s developmental roadmap also highlights plans for a fully compliant cryptocurrency exchange alongside a standalone mobile application, both designed to optimize the user trading experience.

Furthermore, the ecosystem ensures immediate token delivery upon purchase, eliminating waiting periods. Backed by steady operational milestones and accelerating market interest, BlockDAG continues to solidify its reputation as the next crypto to explode.

Final Thoughts While regulatory pressures cause the Monero price to move at a slower pace and the Solana price forecast confronts near-term resistance, BlockDAG continues to build exceptional momentum. By launching an active 100% World Cup Bonus and achieving a $500 million valuation increase via its advanced AI ecosystem, the project has redefined market expectations.

The opportunity to acquire BDAG at $0.00000066 is rapidly narrowing as global interest intensifies, positioning the project as a highly compelling option for forward-thinking traders.

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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.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Aave has deployed its V3 lending protocol on Monad, expanding the layer-1 blockchain’s lending ecosystem with support for 12 assets at launch. 

On Thursday, Aave announced that the initial market supports USDT0, USDC, Aave’s GHO stablecoin, USDe, mUSD, AUSD, WETH, cbBTC, wstETH, weETH, syrupUSDC and sUSDe. It is also Aave's first deployment with Chainlink Smart Value Recapture enabled from day one, allowing part of the value generated from liquidations to be redirected back to the protocol.

The deployment expands Aave’s multichain lending network while giving Monad users and developers access to an established borrowing market, Aave’s GHO stablecoin and liquidity incentives intended to support early adoption. 

Monad is compatible with Ethereum’s application environment, allowing existing Solidity contracts and Ethereum tooling to be used with minimal changes, according to Aave’s governance proposal.

Monad's total value locked as of Thursday. Source: DefiLlama

Aave deployment tests Monad’s liquidity ambitions Aave’s governance documents show that the Monad Foundation committed $15 million in incentives during the first 12 months after activation. The foundation also agreed to acquire and retain 10 million GHO for over six months, while Aave DAO committed another 500,000 GHO in incentives to support adoption on Monad.

These incentives could help establish initial liquidity. However, user activity will need to persist after incentives decline. According to a risk assessment by LlamaRisk, Monad’s mainnet launched on Nov. 24, 2025, and had about $359.5 million in total value locked as of June 8. It said early network usage had compressed after a strong start and that liquidity remained concentrated in established protocols.

LlamaRisk supported the deployment with conservative initial parameters, citing Monad’s short operating history.

The launch also comes as institutions increasingly explore bringing tokenized assets into DeFi lending markets. In June, Standard Chartered said that tokenized assets entering DeFi could drive deposits into Aave, whose deposit base reached about $75 billion at its October 2025 peak. 

In April, Centrifuge revealed plans to bring tokenized Treasurys, private credit and AAA-rated collateralized loan obligations to Monad for use in lending, collateral and secondary-market activity. 

Although Centrifuge has not announced that its assets will be integrated into Aave, the deployment gives Monad an established lending venue that could support tokenized assets as its ecosystem develops.

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Aave has deployed its V3.7 lending protocol on Monad, listing 12 assets and activating its native GHO stablecoin on the high-throughput Layer 1 network. The Monad Foundation is committing $15 million in first-year incentives to jumpstart liquidity and adoption.

What the deployment looks like The Aave V3.7 instance on Monad supports 12 assets, including USDC, USDT0, and GHO. These assets have been activated in specified efficiency modes, or eModes, which allow users to borrow at higher loan-to-value ratios when their collateral and borrowed assets are correlated in price.

Alongside the lending protocol, GHO, Aave’s native stablecoin, will go live on Monad to support borrowing and liquidity functions. The stablecoin has previously expanded to Base and Arbitrum since its initial introduction in mid-2023, and the Monad deployment follows that same cross-chain playbook.

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10 million GHO tokens will be acquired and held for over six months as part of a broader effort to seed liquidity on the platform.

Monad’s pitch and why Aave chose it Monad launched its mainnet and MON token on November 24, 2025, positioning itself as a low-latency, EVM-compatible Layer 1 built for demanding use cases. The network targets fintech applications, neobanks, and high-frequency DeFi.

The Aave DAO’s proposal cycle began with a Temp Check on February 24, 2026, and progressed through to AIP voting by late June 2026 with near-unanimous support.

GHO’s activation on Monad relies on Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, or CCIP, which handles the bridging infrastructure needed to move the stablecoin between networks.

What this means for investors The $15 million incentive commitment from the Monad Foundation is substantial, but incentivized liquidity is rented liquidity. Investors should watch utilization rates and organic borrowing demand as leading indicators rather than fixating on raw TVL numbers.

Every new chain where GHO gains a foothold expands the stablecoin’s addressable market and generates revenue for the Aave DAO through interest on GHO borrows. Investors holding AAVE tokens should consider that each successful multichain deployment incrementally increases the protocol’s fee-generating surface area.

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

NEAR Protocol Deploys Upgrade 2.13 on TestnetNEAR Protocol ($NEAR) has deployed upgrade 2.13 on testnet, introducing two significant technical changes: post-quantum safe access keys and dynamic resharding. The release marks a concrete step in NEAR's push to future-proof its cryptographic infrastructure ahead of mainnet deployment.

At the core of the security update is the adoption of FIPS 204, also known as ML-DSA (Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Algorithm). The Near One team chose FIPS-204, a lattice-based digital signature algorithm formally standardized by NIST in August 2024 as part of the agency's first batch of post-quantum cryptography standards. ML-DSA was formerly known as CRYSTALS-Dilithium and is designed to be secure against attacks from a cryptographically relevant quantum computer.

NEAR's rotatable access keys are designed to let users shift to quantum-safe signing without changing their account addresses. The upgrade also includes compact key storage and improved epoch sync, reducing overhead for node operators and validators.

Dynamic Resharding Removes Need for Governance VotesDynamic resharding means the network can automatically add or remove shards based on demand, rather than operating with a fixed shard count. This removes the need for governance upgrades each time the network needs to scale, allowing $NEAR's infrastructure to respond to load in real time.

The move positions NEAR as an early Layer-1 adopter of post-quantum cryptography, a security-focused protocol update likely to bolster adoption and confidence in the NEAR ecosystem. Mainnet deployment will follow after security audits and coordination with the NEAR community.

The broader context is one of growing urgency. Anton Astafiev, CTO at Near One, warned that the blockchain industry can no longer treat the quantum threat as a distant problem. The upgrade addresses the emerging threat quantum computers pose to current cryptographic standards such as Ed25519 and secp256k1, allowing users to rotate their keys to a quantum-resistant standard in a single transaction.

Sources:
Crypto Times: NEAR Plans Post-Quantum Safe Signing for Q2 2026 Testnet
NIST: First 3 Finalized Post-Quantum Encryption Standards
CoinDesk: Near Protocol to Automate Its Own Growth

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Solana is rapidly gaining traction across the Real World Asset (RWA) market as it has continued to see a notable surge in its market value for RWAs.

Earlier today, the top-performing blockchain network data on its latest milestone, disclosing that it has surpassed a massive $3.4 billion in its RWA value.

Solana sees rapid growth in tokenizationWhile tokenized real-world assets have continued to gain momentum across the crypto space, Solana has become the top choice of network among businesses looking to bring traditional financial assets onchain.

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With the blockchain now surpassing $3.4 billion in the total value of its real-world assets ecosystem, Solana's RWA market has achieved a new all-time high in less than three years since launch.

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While Solana has remained a top-performing blockchain across the crypto ecosystem, its rapid expansion in tokenized assets is largely attributed to its unique utility.

Moreover, Solana has continued to hit new milestones in major sectors, all thanks to its faster transaction speeds, scalability, and rising adoption among institutions and developers.

Over the years, Solana has become a major network for investors seeking to leverage tokenized assets in a bid to maximize returns.

Solana breaks resistance at $79Solana's impressive growth has extended beyond its real-world asset ecosystem, as the asset has continued to see a rapid surge in its price movement over the last day.

After consistently trading in the red territory in the past weeks, Solana has suddenly seen a sharp shift in market sentiment, and it has surged by over 8% in the last 24 hours, breaking past its major resistance at around $79.

Solana price has erased much of June’s decline by reclaiming the $80 level, with record transaction activity and a technical breakout driving fresh optimism.

Summary

Solana price has reclaimed the $80 level after record network activity and governance upgrades boosted buying momentum. Technical indicators favor further gains, with the next major resistance and liquidation cluster sitting near $90. Analysts remain divided as bullish momentum strengthens, while some traders warn the rally still faces key resistance. According to crypto.news data, Solana (SOL) price traded around $81.3 at the time of writing, up nearly 10% over the past 24 hours after breaking above the psychological $80 barrier for the first time in weeks. The recovery followed a series of network milestones that revived investor sentiment, while the broader crypto market also benefited from improving risk appetite after June’s steep correction.

Fresh on-chain data added fundamental support to the rally. Solana recently activated its Governance Proposal (SGP) framework, allowing validators and delegators to vote directly on network decisions. At the same time, the blockchain recorded an all-time monthly high of 3.77 billion non-vote transactions over the past 30 days.

Network activity also continued to dominate tokenized equities, with Solana processing more than $3.31 billion in decentralized stock trading and capturing roughly 95.6% of the sector’s volume. The network has now led all Layer-1 blockchains in decentralized application revenue for nine consecutive quarters.

Speculative demand has also remained elevated around Solana’s expanding ecosystem. Meme coin launchpads continue generating substantial protocol fees, while anticipation surrounding the Alpenglow consensus upgrade has encouraged traders to accumulate ahead of the expected third-quarter mainnet rollout. The upgrade is designed to reduce transaction finality to around 100 milliseconds, one of the fastest settlement targets among major public blockchains.

Technical breakout opens path toward the $89–$90 resistance zone The daily chart shows Solana rebounding strongly after finding support near the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement around $68.4, where buyers defended the June selloff and formed a double-bottom structure. The latest advance has broken above a descending trendline that capped prices throughout the second half of June while also reclaiming the 61.8% Fibonacci level near $74.8.

Solana daily price chart — July 2 | Source: crypto.news Momentum indicators have strengthened alongside the breakout. The MACD has completed a bullish crossover with expanding positive histogram bars, while the Chaikin Money Flow has climbed above zero to 0.15, showing capital has returned to the asset after weeks of distribution.

The next technical hurdle sits near the 50% Fibonacci retracement around $79.3, which has already been reclaimed, leaving the 38.2% retracement near $83.8 and the 23.6% level around $89.4 as the next upside objectives before the late-May high near $98.

Derivatives positioning also supports higher volatility. CoinGlass liquidation heatmaps show a dense concentration of leveraged short positions clustered between $82 and $84, with another significant liquidity pocket extending toward $89. A continued push higher could trigger additional short liquidations, accelerating any move toward the $90 region.

Solana liquidation heatmap | Source: CoinGlass Commenting on the market structure, analyst Michaël van de Poppe wrote, “SOL is in an uptrend against BTC… buy the dip territory on this one,” adding that he expects the trend to continue into August and September after Solana broke above key daily moving-average resistance against Bitcoin.

Failure to hold above $80 could revive bearish pressure Not every analyst expects the recovery to continue uninterrupted. According to crypto analyst BATMAN, Solana is once again testing a major resistance area that has rejected price several times this year. He warned that a bearish divergence on the stochastic oscillator raises the possibility of another rejection if buyers fail to sustain momentum.

$SOL is currently testing the major resistance level once again.

Just like last time, I believe this time will be no different, another rejection.

To add to this one, there is a clear bearish divergence forming against the Stochastic.

Watch out. https://t.co/9qcc08lfpe pic.twitter.com/uo4Gj2oGW9

— BATMAN ⚡ (@CryptosBatman) July 2, 2026 Macro conditions also remain a risk. Elevated U.S. interest rates continue to compete with speculative assets for institutional capital, while digital asset investment products have experienced intermittent ETF outflows in recent weeks. Any renewed deterioration in global risk appetite or delays to U.S. crypto legislation could reduce buying interest.

From a technical perspective, losing the reclaimed $79-$80 area would weaken the current breakout and expose support near $74.8, followed by the June demand zone around $68.4. Holding above those levels keeps the recovery structure intact, while a decisive break above $83.8 could open the way for an advance toward the $89-$90 resistance band.

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