Aave, the largest decentralized lending protocol, added 1,806 new wallets on Ethereum in a single day on June 30. That’s the highest daily wallet count the protocol has seen since October 2021, back when DeFi summer’s afterglow was still warm.
The on-chain analytics firm Santiment flagged the milestone, which coincided with a roughly 9% weekly gain for the AAVE token to around $86.94. Some exchanges reported gains as high as 23% depending on the timeframe.
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What’s driving the wallet surge Aave launched its V4 upgrade on Ethereum mainnet on March 30, introducing what the team calls a “hub-and-spoke” liquidity architecture. Instead of having liquidity siloed across different pools and chains, V4 routes capital more efficiently through a central hub.
The broader liquidity environment is helping too. The stablecoin supply across the crypto sector hit $314 billion as of mid-June, providing a deep pool of capital looking for yield.
Putting the numbers in context The October 2021 comparison is particularly interesting. That was the last time Aave saw this level of daily wallet creation, and it came during a period when Bitcoin was trading near its then-all-time high and DeFi total value locked was approaching its peak. The fact that Aave is matching those user acquisition numbers in a very different macro environment suggests the growth is more organic and potentially more sustainable than the hype-driven adoption of the last cycle.
What this means for investors The wallet growth metric matters for AAVE holders because Aave’s revenue model is directly tied to protocol usage. More wallets interacting with the protocol means more deposits, which means more borrowing capacity, which means more interest fees. 1,806 new potential participants in a single day is the kind of leading indicator that fundamental analysts actually pay attention to.
The risk that’s easy to overlook: this wallet growth could represent existing DeFi users creating new addresses rather than genuinely new participants entering the ecosystem. On-chain analytics can count wallets, but distinguishing between a crypto-native spinning up a fresh address and a first-time DeFi user is nearly impossible. Investors should watch whether the wallet growth translates into sustained increases in deposits and borrowing volumes over the coming weeks, not just a one-day headline.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Aave V4 just opened its first specialized liquidity hub, and it’s built entirely around one stablecoin ecosystem. The Global Dollar Hub, sometimes called the Paxos Hub, went live with PT-USDG (September 2026) as its inaugural collateral asset, giving users a new way to borrow stablecoins against fixed-rate Pendle principal tokens.
This is the first real-world test of Aave’s hub-and-spoke architecture, a modular system introduced in March 2026.
How the Global Dollar Hub actually works Users deposit PT-USDG-24SEP2026, a Pendle principal token that matures in September 2026, as collateral. In return, they can borrow USDC and USDT directly from the hub. USDG itself is available too, but through a cross-hub credit line sourced from Aave’s Core Hub.
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The governance machinery behind this moved at a deliberate pace. A proposal for onboarding PT-USDG-24SEP2026 was posted on May 19, 2026. Before that, a predecessor token, PT-USDG-28MAY2026, had been proposed back in March 2026 and listed on Aave V3.
Why USDG and why now USDG is a regulated stablecoin issued by Paxos on behalf of the Global Dollar Network. It launched in November 2024 and crossed $1 billion in market cap by December 2025. Fully backed by cash and cash equivalents, it’s designed to check the boxes that institutional compliance teams care about.
Pendle splits yield-bearing assets into principal and yield components, letting users trade future yield separately. A principal token like PT-USDG-24SEP2026 essentially locks in a fixed rate until maturity.
Rather than lumping all assets into one giant pool, the hub-and-spoke model isolates risk. Each hub operates with its own parameters. If something goes wrong in the Global Dollar Hub, it stays in the Global Dollar Hub.
What this means for investors The Global Dollar Hub creates a fairly specific opportunity set. Users comfortable with stablecoin-on-stablecoin strategies can borrow against fixed-rate collateral, effectively arbitraging the spread between their PT yield and borrowing costs.
The risk to watch is maturity concentration. PT-USDG-24SEP2026 has a fixed expiration date. As September 2026 approaches, the hub will need new collateral tokens to maintain relevance, which means ongoing governance cycles and potential gaps in coverage.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Aave Launches First Dedicated Hub on V4Aave has gone live with the Global Dollar Hub, its first specialized liquidity market on the V4 protocol. The hub is the first new liquidity market on Aave V4 and is designed for assets correlated to the Global Dollar (USDG) stablecoin on Ethereum.
The hub initially supports PT-USDG-24SEP2026, a principal token from Pendle Finance, as its inaugural collateral asset. Users can borrow USDC, USDT, and USDG, with USDC and USDT held natively in the Global Dollar Hub while USDG is accessed via a cross-hub credit line from Aave's Core Hub.
USDG is a stablecoin issued by Paxos, fully backed and redeemable 1:1 for US dollars. It serves as the foundation for the Global Dollar Network, which includes over 130 enterprise partners such as Kraken, OKX, and Mastercard.
Hub and Spoke Architecture Gets Its First Real-World TestThe launch marks the first practical deployment of the hub and spoke model that Aave introduced when V4 went live. Aave V4 launched on Ethereum mainnet on March 30, 2026. The upgrade introduced a hub-and-spoke design that allows markets to operate independently while sharing liquidity through a unified system, a shift the team says resolves a core limitation that has constrained DeFi lending since its inception.
Previous versions of Aave required developers to choose between expanding into new markets and maintaining shared liquidity, pushing different risk profiles into the same pool or forcing liquidity to split across separate deployments. V4's hub-and-spoke model keeps capital centralized while allowing individual markets, called spokes, to operate with their own collateral rules and risk parameters.
Capital is no longer fragmented across markets on the same chain. Instead, all liquidity flows through Liquidity Hubs, which increases utilization and unlocks better rates for both suppliers and borrowers. Anyone can build a Spoke, and if it adds value, it can tap into the Liquidity Hub as a credit line, letting builders create specialized markets while accessing the biggest liquidity network effects in DeFi.
The launch of the Global Dollar Hub strengthens Aave's position in the stablecoin lending space by integrating with a regulated, enterprise-backed asset like USDG. Whether the hub gains meaningful traction will depend on user adoption and the broader growth of the Global Dollar Network.
Sources:
Aave V4 Adds Global Dollar Hub for USDG Ecosystem – The Crypto Times
Aave V4 Launches on Ethereum Mainnet – The Block
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
SOL trades near $77 after a 16% weekly bounce, yet it remains about 74% below its record high. On-chain activity is climbing toward yearly highs as the price attempts to bottom.
The contrast sets up a decisive month for SOL. A bearish price structure on higher timeframes now collides with some of the strongest network readings Solana has posted this year.
Solana Network Activity Tests Yearly HighsOn-chain data paints a healthier picture than price alone suggests. The number of active addresses is rising sharply and retesting yearly highs just below 7 million.
SOL number of active addresses. Source: GlassnodeTransactions per second, measured on a seven-day average, are trending steeply higher toward 1,100. That reading is approaching a new all-time high for network throughput.
This creates a clear divergence. Network activity continues to grow while the token price sits near its lowest level in more than a year.
SOL number of transactions per second. Source: GlassnodeMuch of the recent surge in throughput stems from meme coin launchpads and speculative airdrops on Solana. Sustained usage above these levels would strengthen the fundamental case for a price recovery.
Weekly Chart Keeps SOL in a Bearish RangeThe weekly chart tells a more cautious story. SOL sits roughly 74% under its all-time high of $293 and trades at its lowest level since December 2023.
Price is currently defending the long-term 0.786 Fibonacci retracement near $73. That level marks the last major support before deeper downside opens up.
The first meaningful resistance sits at the 0.618 Fibonacci level around $120. A move back to that zone would require a gain of more than 55% from current prices.
SOL weekly chart. Source: TradingviewWeekly volume continues to contract, which often signals accumulation and low volatility. However, the broader structure stays bearish until buyers reclaim higher levels. The recent leverage liquidations across the market underline how fragile sentiment remains.
Solana Price Prediction: $80 Line in the SandThe daily chart offers the first signs of a possible bottom. SOL broke down from an ascending channel in June and hit its measured target near $63.
Price then bounced firmly off that support and now retests resistance just below $80. The Relative Strength Index has climbed toward 60, which indicates building momentum from buyers.
A daily close above $80 would strengthen the recovery case and open the path toward $100 and eventually $120. Failure to hold $73 would expose the $63 demand zone again.
SOL daily chart. Source: TradingviewThe upcoming Alpenglow consensus upgrade could act as a catalyst if activation nears in the third quarter. Broader market weakness, seen in recent ETF outflows, remains the main risk. July now hinges on whether SOL can convert strong network fundamentals into a decisive break above $80.
Solana just flipped the switch on a governance system that could reshape how its protocol evolves. The Solana Foundation has activated Solana Governance Proposals, or SGPs, introducing a fully onchain, stake-weighted voting mechanism that hands decision-making power to validators and, crucially, to the people who delegate tokens to them.
Here’s the thing: only validators with at least 100,000 SOL delegated to them can actually propose changes. But the system includes a delegator override mechanism that makes it more interesting than a simple plutocracy.
How the system actually works The SGP framework operates on a two-step process. First, a qualifying validator submits a proposal onchain. Then, that proposal needs to clear a 15% cluster stake threshold just to advance to a formal vote. In English: if you can’t convince validators representing at least 15% of all staked SOL that your idea is worth discussing, it dies before it ever reaches a ballot.
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Voting itself is stake-weighted and verified through Merkle proofs, a cryptographic method that lets anyone independently confirm vote tallies without trusting a central authority.
The most consequential design choice might be the delegator override. If you’ve staked your SOL with a validator and disagree with how they voted, you can override that vote using your own stake weight.
The system went live between June 24 and June 30, with supporting infrastructure already in place. The Foundation launched a dedicated governance dashboard at governance.solana.com, documentation at docs.governance.solana.com, and open-source tooling on GitHub.
SGPs versus SIMDs: different lanes for different decisions Solana already had a process for protocol changes called Solana Improvement Documents, or SIMDs. These cover the technical nuts and bolts of how the network operates: consensus changes, runtime modifications, that sort of thing.
SGPs are designed to sit alongside SIMDs, not replace them. The distinction is intentional. SIMDs handle engineering decisions. SGPs tackle broader strategic questions about the protocol’s direction. By separating these two tracks, core developers can keep shipping code without getting bogged down in governance debates about network philosophy.
What this means for investors The 100,000 SOL threshold for proposals creates a natural filter against spam while still keeping the door open to any validator with meaningful delegation. The 15% cluster stake requirement for advancing proposals means that even well-funded validators can’t push through controversial changes without broad coalition support.
The delegator override mechanism deserves special attention. In most proof-of-stake governance systems, retail stakers delegate their tokens and effectively hand over their voting power. Solana’s approach lets delegators reclaim that power on a per-vote basis.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Folarin Balogun scored two goals in the United States’ 3-0 World Cup opener against Paraguay on June 15, becoming the first American to net multiple goals in a single World Cup match since 1930. Crypto markets responded almost immediately.
Trading volume on Polymarket and Coinbase surged for goal-total markets tied to Balogun, while a Solana-based meme token called BALOGUN launched in the aftermath of his performance. As the USMNT prepares for its Round of 32 match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the striker says the team arrives confident but focused.
From pitch to Polymarket: how one brace moved markets Before the Paraguay match, crypto prediction markets had Balogun’s goalscorer odds priced between +200 and +300. After the final whistle, trading volume for Balogun-related props spiked across both Polymarket and Coinbase.
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Then came the meme token. The BALOGUN token appeared on Solana shortly after the match, driven almost entirely by speculative momentum. No utility. No roadmap. Balogun has no known partnerships with crypto protocols or DeFi projects.
Bosnia match could amplify or deflate the hype Balogun has said the knockout stage requires elevated concentration, and that the squad is approaching the Bosnia and Herzegovina match with confidence built on their group-stage dominance.
NFT markets have also responded. Panini World Cup digital cards and Sorare collectibles featuring Balogun have seen increased trading activity since his two-goal performance.
European transfer rumors add another dimension. Chelsea and other clubs have reportedly shown interest in Balogun for a potential summer move.
Polymarket handling World Cup betting volume at scale, Solana processing meme token launches in near real-time, and NFT platforms like Sorare seeing organic demand spikes tied to athletic performance are proof points for crypto’s ability to capture and monetize cultural moments faster than traditional finance ever could.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Solana Foundation has introduced Solana Governance Proposals, a new onchain process for validators to move major network questions into stake-weighted votes.
Summary
Solana validators can now move core governance questions into stake-weighted onchain votes through SGPs directly. A proposal needs 15% active stake support before it can enter formal network voting period. Validators need at least 100,000 SOL delegated to take an SGP onchain under current rules. The system gives validators a formal route to submit, support, and decide governance items that may shape Solana’s future protocol direction.
Meanwhile, the Solana Governance Proposals repo says SGPs are documents proposed by Solana validators for stake-weighted, onchain voting through the svmgov program. The process is for high-level questions that ask whether the network should move in a certain direction, rather than detailed technical changes. This keeps SGPs focused on broad network direction only.
1/ Solana onchain governance is live🗳️
Validators can now propose, support, and decide core protocol decisions via Solana Governance Proposals (SGPs)
These are fully onchain, stake-weighted, and verified by Merkle proof 👇 pic.twitter.com/9Lpskle5L6
— Solana Foundation (@SolanaFndn) July 1, 2026 A validator vote account needs at least 100,000 SOL staked to take an SGP onchain. The proposal then needs support from at least 15% of active stake before it can enter voting. The Solana Governance documentation says validators create proposals, other validators support them, and voting weight is proven through Merkle proofs against an onchain stake snapshot.
The process separates signals from code The SGP process sits beside Solana Improvement Documents, which cover detailed protocol design. In simple terms, SGPs ask whether Solana should pursue a direction, while SIMDs explain how a change would be built. The repo says, “A ‘yes’ on an SGP is a mandate to proceed.”
The lifecycle moves from idea to draft, support, voting, acceptance, and activation. Once a proposal reaches the 15% support threshold, it enters a fixed 11-epoch process. That includes seven epochs for discussion, one epoch for a Node Consensus Network snapshot, and three epochs for voting.
There is no quorum rule. A proposal passes only if “For” votes reach at least 66.67% of “For” plus “Against” stake. The repo also says SGPs are not mandatory for every technical change. If validators do not reach support, developers can continue through normal SIMD review.
Governance arrives as upgrades continue The launch comes as Solana continues to test large infrastructure changes. As previously reported, the Alpenglow upgrade entered community validator testing in May. Alpenglow aims to cut confirmation times to about 150 milliseconds and remove Proof of History and onchain vote transactions from Solana’s core process.
The new SGP route could give validators a clearer way to request network-wide direction before developers prepare technical work. The GitHub repo uses Alpenglow as an example of a proposal that could have first taken a directional vote before later SIMDs defined the build path. That example shows how Solana may use SGPs when validator input is needed before engineering details are complete.
Recent Solana activity adds context Solana’s validator set has also been tied to other recent network tools. As crypto.news reported, DoubleZero launched Edge in April with 379 validators publishing shreds and about 43% of Solana’s total stake covered at launch. The project aims to deliver Solana block data through private fiber paths.
Solana has also seen renewed market activity around network use. Crypto.news reported that Solana’s tokenized stock activity helped drive an 18% weekly SOL rebound in late June. Earlier, crypto.news reported that Galaxy Digital proposed a voting model for Solana inflation, showing that validator voting design has already been part of the network’s policy debate.
Solana has once again seized the spotlight in the crypto market with its remarkable price movement and surging network activity. As of this writing, SOL is trading at $75.09 after gaining 3.79 percent in the last 24 hours. The token’s 24 hour trading volume stands at $3.27 billion, while its market capitalization has reached $43.66 billion. With prices staging a recovery and transaction numbers skyrocketing, investors have started closely watching Solana’s next move.
Key support and resistance levels emerge in technical outlookCryptocurrency analyst Javon Marks highlights that Solana is approaching a major support zone that previously fueled its rallies. According to analysts, reclaiming and maintaining this level would hint at a further strengthening of the bullish trend.
Analysts evaluate that if Solana regains its critical support area, it could confirm upward momentum and increase the likelihood of heading toward the next major resistance at $233.80.
On the technical front, the $233.80 price level stands out as the main resistance. Surpassing this barrier could trigger fresh buying interest, potentially paving the way for SOL to target new highs around $450. However, the main short-term focus will be whether the newly formed support can hold.
IndicatorLevelCurrent price$75.0924 hour changeUp 3.79 percentMain resistance$233.80Monitored upper target$450Historic surge in network transaction volumesAccording to Solana Floor, transaction activity on the Solana network has reached record levels across all major timeframes. Daily, weekly, and monthly transaction counts have all hit unprecedented highs, highlighting a dramatic increase in both network usage and scalability capabilities.
Solana Floor, a data and content platform focused on the Solana ecosystem, actively monitors usage trends across the network.
The persistent rise in transaction volumes points to Solana’s growing presence in areas such as decentralized finance, memecoin trading, NFT markets, and blockchain gaming. The data suggests that this is not just a short-lived spike, but a sign of sustained activity from both users and developers.
New records in daily, weekly, and monthly transactions reveal that user and developer engagement on Solana remains strong and the ecosystem continues to expand.
Market momentum gives altcoins a boostRecent improvements in the overall crypto market have given SOL’s recovery efforts extra momentum. The upward trend led by Bitcoin has created positive sentiment for the altcoin sector as a whole, spilling over to Solana as well.
However, analysts caution that forecasts remain uncertain. Given the high volatility in crypto markets, whether key support and resistance levels hold will play a major role in determining Solana’s short term direction.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Bitcoin climbed back above $60,000 after Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said inflation risks had eased, offering the crypto market its first clear boost in weeks.Solana led major tokens with a roughly 4% daily gain and about a 16% rise over the past week, while most other large cryptocurrencies were mixed.A sharp sell-off in semiconductor and AI-related stocks, driven by concerns over overbuilding and supply shifts, raised questions about whether money could rotate back from the AI trade into bitcoin and other risk assets.Bitcoin BTC$60,204.42 traded above $60,700 on Thursday after a quick overnight reversal after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said inflation risks had eased, giving a market that spent most of June grinding lower its first clear lift in weeks.
Speaking at the European Central Bank's annual forum in Sintra, Portugal, on Wednesday, Warsh said "inflation risks have come down" while reaffirming the Fed's commitment to returning inflation to 2%.
He declined to signal what the central bank will do at its meeting later this month, saying policymakers would weigh incoming data first. Bitcoin pared earlier losses and pushed back above $60,000 after the remarks, according to CoinDesk reporting.
Solana led the majors. The token rose about 4% on the day to around $78 and is up roughly 16% over the past week, per CoinDesk data, the only large token with a meaningful weekly gain. Ether traded near $1,630, up about 3% on the day, while XRP held at about $1.06. BNB, dogecoin and Tron were softer over the week.
The bigger move was in stocks. A selloff in semiconductor shares spread to South Korea on Thursday, where the Kospi index fell almost 7% before paring losses. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each dropped more than 6%, and Kioxia fell 13% in Japan after a rally that had lifted the stock more than 650% this year.
The declines revived worries that this year's blistering run in artificial-intelligence stocks has outpaced reality.
Two reports fed the unease. Meta is building a cloud business to sell access to spare AI computing power, Bloomberg reported, raising concerns that the company had overbuilt. Apple is in talks to buy chips from two Chinese semiconductor makers, a move that would hurt Korean suppliers.
The AI trade is where money has flowed all quarter while bitcoin fell, giving the asset a rare back-to-back quarterly loss for only the third time in history. Capital rotated steadily into chipmakers and AI infrastructure as crypto closed a losing first half, so cracks there could ease the pull that has weighed on the market.
Elsewhere, Brent crude fell to about $70.60 a barrel, its lowest since late February, before the Middle East war began, as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz recovered.
Gold rose for a second day to trade above $4,060 an ounce after Warsh's comments, and the dollar steadied after two days of gains.
Whether bitcoin's reclaim holds depends on whether the AI wobble deepens into a rotation back toward risk or proves a one-day scare.
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Building the Zcash Machine: Tachyon and Quantum Readiness
Building the Zcash Machine: Tachyon and Quantum Readiness
Zcash’s Tachyon upgrade aims to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security, and governance can hold.
Jun 30, 2026
Zcash’s Tachyon upgrade aims to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security, and governance can hold.
Why it matters:
Zcash’s Tachyon upgrade aims to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security, and governance can hold.
Solana (SOL) extends its recovery, trading above $78 on Thursday, having gained nearly 10% so far this week. The rebound is supported by strengthening derivatives metrics, modest institutional demand and improving technical momentum, all suggesting SOL could extend its gains in the near term.
Strengthening derivatives metricsDerivatives data for Solana shows bullish bias. CoinGlass long-to-short ratio reads 1.11 on Thursday, the highest level over a month. A ratio above 1 indicates bullish sentiment, as traders bet that asset prices will rally.
SOL long-to-short ratio chart. Source: CoinglassIn addition, CoinGlass funding rate for SOL turned positive on Thursday, reading 0.0017%, indicating that longs are paying shorts and suggesting bullish sentiment.
SOL funding rates chart. Source: CoinglassReturn of institutional demandInstitutional demand shows early signs of optimism. SoSoValue data shows that SOL’s spot ETFs recorded an inflow of $521,070 on Wednesday. So far through Wednesday, SOL recorded a net inflow of $3.55 million; if this inflow trend continues and intensifies this week, SOL price could see further upside.
Total SOL spot ETF net inflow daily chart. Source: SoSoValueSolana Price Forecast: Bullish strength gaining tractionSolana price extends its gains, trading above $78 on Thursday after surging nearly 10% so far this week. However, SOL maintains a cautious tone, trading below the 100-day and 200-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) at $81.58 and $97.04. Meanwhile, SOL holds above the 50-day EMA at $75.43, suggesting some underlying demand, but the 50% retracement of the latest downswing at $79.27 already acts as immediate overhead supply.
Momentum remains constructive, with the Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 60 and the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) in positive territory, hinting that while higher EMAs cap the broader trend, buyers retain short-term traction.
On the topside, initial resistance stands at the 50% retracement at $79.27, followed by the 100-day EMA at $81.58 and the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement at $83.79. Above these, a stronger barrier emerges at the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement near $90.22, ahead of the horizontal resistance at $96.19 and the 200-day EMA at $97.04.
On the downside, immediate support is seen at the horizontal level around $77.07, with the 50-day EMA at $75.43 and the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement at $74.75 forming a secondary demand zone; a deeper pullback would expose the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement at $69.16.
(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool.)
Forward Industries has expanded its Solana treasury after buying more than 500,000 SOL during fiscal Q3 2026.
Summary
Forward Industries bought over 500,000 SOL, raising its treasury to 7.55M SOL by June 30. The company reported 36% annualized SOL-per-share growth while selling 93,642 shares during fiscal Q3 2026. Earlier losses show Solana treasury firms remain exposed to price swings and U.S. accounting rules. The Nasdaq-listed company said its total holdings reached 7.55 million SOL as of June 30.
The company bought the tokens at an average price of about $79 per SOL. It also said SOL per fully diluted share rose to 0.0729 from 0.0669 at the end of the prior quarter.
Forward Industries stock recently traded at $4.70 on Nasdaq, up more than 10% in the past day, with an intraday high of $5.04 and volume above 3 million shares (per Google Finance data).
Source: Google Finance Forward Industries said the increase represented 36% annualized SOL-per-share growth. The update comes as the company continues to build its Solana treasury while earlier filings show how crypto price moves have shaped its reported results.
Forward Industries expands Solana holdings In a July 1 company release, Forward Industries said it sold 93,642 common shares through its At The Market offering during fiscal Q3. The company said it used public market capital in a way that raised SOL per share for existing shareholders.
Forward described itself as the largest Solana treasury company. It said its recent inclusion in the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 indexes gives it wider access to institutional investors when its shares trade above net asset value.
The company also said it can borrow against fwdSOL collateral through institutional partners. Forward said this lets it seek liquidity at a lower cost than its staking yield, which it placed between 6.4% and 7.3%.
Forward links strategy to SOL per share “Our mandate is simple: maximize SOL per share and create long-term shareholder value,” said Chief Investment Officer Ryan Navi. He said the company uses several capital formation methods to add SOL in a way it views as accretive.
Navi added that Forward can repurchase shares when they trade below net asset value and issue equity when they trade above it. He said the Russell index additions could also widen the company’s investor base and help fund more SOL purchases.
Forward also pointed to Solana network activity in a separate X post. The post quoted SolanaFloor data saying daily, weekly, and monthly Solana transaction counts had reached record levels across measured timeframes.
Earlier losses remain part of the story The latest purchase follows a period of reported losses tied to SOL price changes. As previously reported, Forward Industries neared a $1 billion Solana paper loss after the company reported a $585.6 million net loss for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2025.
That earlier result included a $560.2 million loss on digital assets and a $33 million impairment under U.S. GAAP treatment. The company said the loss reflected fair-value accounting for its SOL holdings, not a direct cash outflow.
In addition, Forward also transferred 455,784 SOL to Coinbase Prime in June. That move drew attention because deposits to prime brokerage platforms can serve several purposes, including custody, liquidity management, collateral use, or asset sales.
Solana treasury model faces market test Forward launched its Solana treasury strategy in September 2025 with backing from investors and partners including Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital. The company says its strategy includes buying, holding, staking, trading, and investing in SOL-related assets and projects.
The broader digital asset treasury sector has faced pressure during crypto market declines. As crypto.news reported, treasury companies tied to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana have carried large unrealized losses as token prices fell.
Forward’s Q3 update shows that the company is still adding SOL despite earlier losses. The central measure it is asking investors to watch is SOL per fully diluted share. That metric now sits higher than the prior quarter, while the value of the treasury still depends on SOL market prices, staking revenue, borrowing costs, and shareholder dilution.
Solana is in the news after its active addresses surged significantly to 4.7 million over the past week. The hike in user interactions across the Solana network could translate into greater demand and eventually feed into investors’ market confidence.
However, will other on-chain and technical developments help sustain the improving market activity?
Source: Santiment On the daily chart, Solana seemeed to be approaching a key turning point at press time.
Its price action struggled for weeks below key resistance levels since it bounced back from its trading price of $59. Lately though, the token has been testing a major Exponential Moving Average(EMA) resistance at $75.
A successful move above that level could mark a shift in market structure and strengthen the case for a broader recovery. Here, the timing matters too. Especially since the altcoin’s improving fundamentals could add to and accelerate its improving network activity.
Source: TradingView Are long-term holders playing along? Accumulation of tokens on the network has been on the surge as well. In fact, holder balances have increased as a result of more investments being made on the platform in this period of consolidation.
However, there has been a drop in the supply too – Meaning that there are fewer tokens being returned to circulation.
The divergence could cause a demand shoot as not enough tokens may be available for circulation. As a result, the token’s price could push higher in the near future.
Source: Token Terminal Is it undervalued? Fundamental metrics seemed to be relaying a similar story. At the time of writing, Solana’s Price-to-Sales ratio was around 2 – A level that suggested the token may be undervalued at its trading price.
While valuation metrics are rarely used as short-term trading signals, they can provide useful context when assessing whether an asset is becoming stretched or remains relatively undervalued.
For some investors, the current ratio may strengthen the case for ongoing accumulation, which will turn out as another positive gain for SOL.
Source: Token Terminal Can buyers clear the next hurdle? The market now faces a clear test. A decisive move above the EMA resistance near $75 would strengthen the bullish structure that has been developing over recent sessions.
Beyond that level, the next major area of interest sits around $83, where previous selling pressure emerged.
At press time, the altcoin’s price action was catching up with its fundamentals. Especially since network activity has been growing and holders have continued to accumulate on the back of supportive valuation metrics. Together, they all appeared to be in support of the anticipated breakout.
Final Summary Solana’s active addresses surged to 4.7 million, signaling renewed activity across the network. Holder accumulation and a P/S ratio of 2 seemed to support SOL’s attempts to truly reclaim the key $75-resistance level.
Umbra Privacy has launched a private payroll system on Solana, giving businesses a way to pay employees in $USDC without exposing transaction details on the public blockchain. The product is the latest feature to emerge from the protocol's broader push to make on-chain finance safe for corporate use.
How It Works The payroll system is built on top of Umbra's existing privacy infrastructure. Operating as the first live consumer application deployed on Arcium's Mainnet Alpha, Umbra's environment is engineered on top of Arcium's multi-party computation (MPC) encrypted execution engine and zero-knowledge cryptographic proofs, hiding the identities of the sender and recipient, alongside total transaction values, from public scrutiny by default.
The platform supports multichain funding and offers instant withdrawals to either a crypto wallet or a traditional bank account. The integration introduces native, private fiat onramping and offramping alongside a corporate payroll engine directly inside the Umbra application, enabling users to fund digital asset wallets and accept corporate compensation without exposing their physical identity or bank routing details to public blockchain trackers. This is handled through a partnership with Onramper. "It's about giving people genuine control over their financial lives," said Krutarth Shah, CEO of Umbra. "Integrating Onramper means our users can fund their wallets and receive payroll with the same level of discretion they expect from every other part of the Umbra experience."
Under the newly activated framework, Umbra users can natively purchase digital assets utilizing 24 major fiat currencies without departing the application's secure perimeter. The financial transaction layer relies on Onramper's algorithmic aggregation engine, which dynamically routes each localized payment flow to the most competitive fiat-to-crypto onramp provider worldwide.
Compliance Built In A recurring concern with privacy protocols is regulatory risk. Umbra has addressed this by embedding compliance tooling directly into the product. This structural privacy does not compromise regulatory compliance. Umbra preserves critical enterprise oversight utilities, natively retaining institutional compliance tools such as developer viewing keys and automated transaction risk screening. The payroll product also includes payroll history tracking for internal record-keeping.
Umbra includes a voluntary audit feature allowing transaction history disclosure to regulators. The Solana Foundation's framing of "confidentiality, not anonymity" is deliberate regulatory positioning. Confidentiality around hidden amounts with visible addresses is defensible for business, payroll, and institutional use.
The launch addresses a structural problem that has long made on-chain payroll impractical for businesses. Solana is one of the most transparent blockchains ever built, with every transaction, including sender, recipient, and amount, publicly readable by anyone with a block explorer and a wallet address. DAOs and businesses risk exposing operational data, payroll, or treasury activity on a public ledger. Umbra's payroll feature is designed to close that gap, giving crypto-native companies a viable path to paying staff in digital assets without broadcasting compensation details to competitors or the wider market.
Sources
The Fintech Times: Umbra Integrates Onramper for Private Fiat Ramps and Crypto Payroll
Onramper: Umbra Integration Announcement
Crypto Economy: Umbra Launches Privacy Wallet on Arcium
Key Takeaways Bitcoin leads the pack as the most reliable long-term hold thanks to its limited supply and institutional backing Ethereum dominates smart contract platforms, DeFi applications, and stablecoin infrastructure Solana delivers exceptional speed and affordability while capturing growing DEX market share Chainlink serves as critical infrastructure by bridging smart contracts with off-chain data sources Sui presents a mid-cap opportunity with elevated risk but potentially significant returns Market observers have identified five digital currencies as the most compelling long-term investment opportunities as we move deeper into 2026. These selections prioritize network fundamentals, real-world utility, and adoption metrics over speculative price movements.
Bitcoin Bitcoin continues to hold its position as the premier long-term cryptocurrency investment. With a hard-coded maximum supply of 21 million coins, it represents the most scarce major digital asset available.
Bitcoin (BTC) Price The introduction of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds has simplified institutional access to the asset. Meanwhile, an increasing number of corporations are adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets, further integrating it into traditional financial systems.
Market analysts highlight Bitcoin as presenting the most favorable risk-to-reward profile across the entire cryptocurrency landscape. It serves as the cornerstone for any diversified digital asset strategy.
Experts recommend allocating 35 percent of a crypto portfolio to Bitcoin, representing the highest weighting among these five selections.
Ethereum Ethereum functions as the infrastructure layer for much of the cryptocurrency sector. The network powers thousands of decentralized applications and maintains the industry’s most robust DeFi ecosystem.
The Ethereum blockchain processes billions of dollars in stablecoin transactions. Its role in tokenizing traditional assets such as securities and property continues to expand.
While facing competition from emerging blockchains, Ethereum maintains unmatched developer engagement. This sustained developer interest represents a critical competitive advantage for its long-term prospects.
A 25 percent portfolio allocation to Ethereum is recommended for long-term holders.
Solana Solana stands out for its high-performance capabilities and minimal transaction costs. These characteristics have positioned it as a preferred platform for DeFi protocols, NFT marketplaces, payment systems, and mainstream applications.
Both stablecoin transaction volume and decentralized exchange activity on Solana have shown consistent upward trends. The network has also attracted growing institutional participation.
Analysts suggest a 20 percent allocation to Solana, positioning it as a high-growth blockchain with an increasingly mature ecosystem.
Chainlink Chainlink occupies a unique position among these recommendations. Instead of competing for transaction throughput, it provides critical infrastructure enabling smart contracts to interact with external data sources.
Its oracle technology is considered fundamental to the DeFi sector’s functionality. The platform’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol has gained traction among institutions exploring asset tokenization.
Building a Balanced Portfolio The recommended allocation distributes capital as follows: 35 percent Bitcoin, 25 percent Ethereum, 20 percent Solana, 10 percent Chainlink, and 10 percent Sui.
This distribution aims to balance the stability offered by established networks with growth opportunities from emerging platforms.
Sui completes the portfolio as the highest-risk component. Built using the Move programming language, it prioritizes performance and scalability for gaming, DeFi, and consumer-facing applications.
While Sui’s ecosystem remains in earlier development stages, analysts acknowledge both its elevated risk profile and potential for outsized returns if user adoption accelerates.
No cryptocurrency represents a certain investment. The analysis emphasizes that diversifying across assets with proven fundamentals and practical applications may enhance long-term portfolio performance.
Cryptocurrency investments involve substantial risk and volatility remains inherent to the market. Each of these five digital assets fulfills a specific function within the broader crypto ecosystem as of July 2026.
Solana’s tokenized real-world asset ecosystem has hit a new all-time high of $3.3 billion, cementing the network’s position as the third-largest blockchain for RWA value. That’s a nearly fourfold increase from roughly $873 million at the start of the year.
The milestone puts Solana behind only Ethereum at $15.9 billion and BNB Chain at $4.0 billion. With a 10.39% market share in the RWA space, Solana is no longer a rounding error in the tokenization conversation.
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A trajectory that keeps steepening Solana’s RWA value climbed 27.92% over the previous 30 days, with 692 distinct assets now living on-chain. The network reached roughly $873 million in RWA value back in January 2026. By the end of Q1, that figure had ballooned to somewhere between $1.66 billion and $2.01 billion. The previous all-time high of $2.8 billion was set in May 2026.
Institutional players are already here Citigroup ran a pilot program for tokenized Bill of Exchange settlements on Solana back in February 2026. The pilot highlighted Solana’s low transaction fees and rapid processing speed as core advantages for institutional users.
Ondo Finance, which specializes in tokenized stocks and treasuries, has emerged as one of the key contributors to Solana’s RWA ecosystem. Kamino, another notable player, focuses on RWA-oriented DeFi markets. Together with support from the Solana Foundation and data infrastructure from platforms like rwa.xyz, the ecosystem supports a range of tokenized assets spanning treasuries, equities, and various financial instruments.
What this means for investors Solana’s 27.92% monthly growth rate and its position as the third-largest RWA blockchain changes the competitive dynamics. Ethereum maintains nearly five times Solana’s total RWA value, providing deeper liquidity pools and more composability options. Solana’s network has also historically dealt with outage concerns, and any significant downtime during institutional settlement processes could damage the trust that has taken months to build.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB) has dropped about 20% over the past month, but the meme coin regained a spot among the top 30 cryptocurrencies despite subdued network activity.
SHIB Enters Q3 With Major Supply ShiftData from Arkham Intelligence shows that investors withdrew around 2.6 trillion SHIB tokens from centralized exchanges like Binance and Kraken on June 30, capping a month-long trend of exchange outflows by large holders.
The withdrawals came as SHIB posted its worst-ever second quarter, falling 29.5% in Q2 and 24% in June.
The exchange outflows have fueled speculation of a potential July rebound, as SHIB has historically posted positive July returns over the past four years, U.Today reported.
In 2022, SHIB returned 13.4% while 8.92% in 2025.
However, analysts caution that the transfers could simply reflect routine fund reshuffling rather than a bullish accumulation signal.
Dull Burning Activity, Lull In TransactionsShiba Inu’s token-burning mechanism, once a key driver of supply reduction and price appreciation, has lost momentum in recent months.
Data from Shibburn shows the burn rate has increased by just 1% over the past month, while roughly 410.8 trillion SHIB, or about 41% of the total supply, has been removed from circulation till date.
Network activity has also weakened sharply.
According to Shibarium data, daily transactions have plunged to around 1,280, down from peaks of more than 3 million transactions per day recorded in 2025, highlighting a significant slowdown in ecosystem usage.
Image: Shutterstock
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dYdX Labs founder Antonio Juliano launched Arcus, a new DEX combining tokenized stock trading with perpetual futures, built jointly with Robinhood Crypto on Robinhood Chain.
dYdX Labs launched Arcus on Wednesday, a decentralized exchange that combines tokenized stock trading with perpetual futures. Founder Antonio Juliano announced the launch on X, built jointly with Robinhood Crypto.
Arcus runs on Robinhood Chain, the EVM-compatible layer 2 that Robinhood opened to the public earlier the same day. Spot trading across 95 stock tokens is live now, letting users trade tokenized equities around the clock instead of only during market hours. Perpetuals covering 35 real-world-asset markets remain in a waitlist phase, dYdX said in its launch post.
Eddie Zhang, whose trading startup Pocket Protector was acquired by dYdX Labs, runs Arcus as chief executive. Juliano is joining its board, according to the dYdX blog post announcing the launch. The stock tokens give holders contractual economic exposure to the underlying equity rather than direct share ownership, the post said, the same tokenization structure Robinhood uses across the rest of Robinhood Chain.
dYdX, the decentralized perpetuals exchange that runs its own Cosmos-based appchain, holds $92.4 million in total value locked, per DefiLlama. Its DYDX token traded around $0.1451, according to CoinGecko. dYdX Chain v4 keeps operating alongside Arcus, with existing funds and positions unaffected, the blog post said.
Robinhood Crypto supplies the trading infrastructure and distribution to Robinhood's user base for Arcus, but the brokerage has not issued its own statement naming Arcus or dYdX as of publication.
dYdX said a future Arcus token will reserve allocation for people who traded, staked or validated on dYdX, prioritizing the existing dYdX community over new entrants when the token launches. No launch date for that token or for the Arcus perpetuals waitlist has been set.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
The company behind the dYdX decentralized exchange (DEX) has partnered with Robinhood to rebrand and launch the protocol as Arcus on the Robinhood Chain.
An X account for Arcus posted on Wednesday that “dYdX is now Arcus” and would launch on the Robinhood Chain, Robinhood’s Arbitrum-based layer 2 blockchain that went live the same day.
The dYdX Foundation said that dYdX Labs created Arcus “in partnership with Robinhood” and that the dYdX blockchain “is not affected by it in any way.” The platform is set to be blockchain’s “leading DEX” and will give users access to perpetual products and fee-free trading of 95 tokenized stocks.
Source: Charles d’Haussy
The DEX is part of Robinhood’s expanded push into tokenized assets and perpetual trading, two areas of crypto that have recently exploded in popularity as US regulators have shown interest in allowing the products to more easily come to market.
Robinhood’s embrace of perpetual trading comes as it looks to entice traders who have flocked to the crypto perpetual futures platform Hyperliquid, whose token has climbed nearly 150% so far this year as it has captured market share.
Arcus to offer tokenized stock, perps trading“Until now, traders have been shut out of the most valuable markets on earth — US equities, commodities, and indices — because of where they live, market hours, and institutions restricting access,” Arcus said in a blog post. “We built Arcus to reduce these barriers.”
The protocol said that it will offer perpetuals and tokenized stock trading that will go live this month, allowing tokenized stocks to be used as collateral for perpetuals and providing access to pre-IPO markets.
It added that Robinhood Crypto, the company’s crypto technology arm, made an investment in Arcus but did not disclose further details.
The dYdX Foundation said that Arcus “is a distinct, independent product built on separate infrastructure” and that the dYdX blockchain would continue to operate and be owned by its community.
Major retail-focused trading platforms have been moving to expand their offerings to remain competitive. Crypto exchange Coinbase has looked to rival Robinhood and become a full-service trading platform, having added access to thousands of stocks earlier this year.
Robinhood’s blockchain also follows a similar move from Coinbase in 2023, when the latter launched its Ethereum layer-2 blockchain Base that has grown to be the fifth-largest by value locked, according to DeFiLlama.
Meanwhile, Bitget Wallet, the self-custodial wallet from the Bitget crypto exchange, said on Wednesday that it partnered with Robinhood Crypto to integrate the company’s blockchain to allow its users to trade tokenized stocks.
The decentralized exchange 1inch also said on Wednesday that it would be among the first major swap platforms to support Robinhood Chain.
Big Questions: Do we really only need 2–5 cryptocurrencies?
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.
The company behind the dYdX decentralized exchange (DEX) has partnered with Robinhood to rebrand and launch the protocol as Arcus on the Robinhood Chain.
An X account for Arcus posted on Wednesday that “dYdX is now Arcus” and would launch on the Robinhood Chain, Robinhood’s Arbitrum-based layer 2 blockchain that went live the same day.
The dYdX Foundation said that dYdX Labs created Arcus “in partnership with Robinhood” and that the dYdX blockchain “is not affected by it in any way.” The platform is set to be blockchain’s “leading DEX” and will give users access to perpetual products and fee-free trading of 95 tokenized stocks.
Source: Charles d’Haussy
The DEX is part of Robinhood’s expanded push into tokenized assets and perpetual trading, two areas of crypto that have recently exploded in popularity as US regulators have shown interest in allowing the products to more easily come to market.
Robinhood’s embrace of perpetual trading comes as it looks to entice traders who have flocked to the crypto perpetual futures platform Hyperliquid, whose token has climbed nearly 150% so far this year as it has captured market share.
Arcus to offer tokenized stock, perps trading“Until now, traders have been shut out of the most valuable markets on earth — US equities, commodities, and indices — because of where they live, market hours, and institutions restricting access,” Arcus said in a blog post. “We built Arcus to reduce these barriers.”
The protocol said that it will offer perpetuals and tokenized stock trading that will go live this month, allowing tokenized stocks to be used as collateral for perpetuals and providing access to pre-IPO markets.
It added that Robinhood Crypto, the company’s crypto technology arm, made an investment in Arcus but did not disclose further details.
The dYdX Foundation said that Arcus “is a distinct, independent product built on separate infrastructure” and that the dYdX blockchain would continue to operate and be owned by its community.
Major retail-focused trading platforms have been moving to expand their offerings to remain competitive. Crypto exchange Coinbase has looked to rival Robinhood and become a full-service trading platform, having added access to thousands of stocks earlier this year.
Robinhood’s blockchain also follows a similar move from Coinbase in 2023, when the latter launched its Ethereum layer-2 blockchain Base that has grown to be the fifth-largest by value locked, according to DeFiLlama.
Meanwhile, Bitget Wallet, the self-custodial wallet from the Bitget crypto exchange, said on Wednesday that it partnered with Robinhood Crypto to integrate the company’s blockchain to allow its users to trade tokenized stocks.
The decentralized exchange 1inch also said on Wednesday that it would be among the first major swap platforms to support Robinhood Chain.
Big Questions: Do we really only need 2–5 cryptocurrencies?
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.
This is a general announcement. Products and services referred to here may not be available in your region. Fellow Binancians, Starting at approximately 2026-07-02 13:00 (UTC), Binance will suspend the deposits and withdrawals of token(s) on the Injective (INJ) network to support its network upgrade and hard fork to ensure the best user experience. The network upgrade and hard fork will take place at the block height of 172,502,000, or approximately at 2026-07-02 14:00 (UTC). Please note: The trading of token(s) on the aforementioned network will not be impacted.Binance will handle all technical requirements involved for all users.Deposits and withdrawals for token(s) on the aforementioned network will be reopened once the upgraded network is deemed to be stable. No further announcement will be posted.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. For more information, please refer to the announcement from the project team. Thank you for your support! Binance Team 2026-07-02
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Binance will temporarily pause INJ token deposits and withdrawals tomorrow as the Injective protocol rolls out its latest mainnet upgrade. Trading on the exchange will continue as normal, so holders won’t be locked out of their positions, just their on-chain movements.
The upgrade, designated IIP-665 or v1.20.1, is scheduled for a chain halt at approximately 14:00 UTC on July 2, 2026.
What IIP-665 actually does IIP-665 is focused on performance optimizations and technical improvements across Injective’s on-chain modules and economic structures.
The upgrade builds on the much larger Vulcan mainnet upgrade, version 1.20.0, which went live on June 9, 2026. That one introduced native USDC support, new real-world asset markets, lower transaction fees, and an advanced oracle engine that slashed gas costs for price data by approximately 90%.
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IIP-665 smooths out the technical infrastructure that Vulcan laid down, optimizing the systems that now handle native stablecoins, RWA tokenization, and perpetual trading on the network.
Binance has supported multiple Injective mainnet upgrades previously, including ones in December 2025 and earlier in 2026. Pausing deposits and withdrawals during a chain halt prevents tokens from getting stuck in limbo between the old chain state and the new one.
Injective’s upgrade velocity in context Injective operates as a Cosmos SDK-based Layer-1 blockchain built specifically for decentralized finance. The protocol is tailored for perpetuals, stablecoin functionalities, and RWA tokenization.
The governance of Injective has produced multiple upgrades since the protocol launched in 2021. Two significant mainnet upgrades within a single month, Vulcan on June 9 and IIP-665 on July 2, reflects an accelerating development pace.
On July 1, 2026, the Injective community executed buybacks totaling over $246,000. INJ functions as both the native utility token and the governance token for the protocol, meaning upgrade proposals like IIP-665 go through on-chain voting.
What this means for investors The Vulcan upgrade’s 90% reduction in oracle gas costs is a meaningful competitive advantage in DeFi, where transaction fees directly impact trader profitability and protocol adoption.
Injective’s recent addition of native USDC support and RWA markets, combined with ETF filing activity noted in recent ecosystem developments, adds institutional interest that could drive future demand for INJ.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Robinhood just shipped its own blockchain. The company launched the public mainnet of Robinhood Chain on July 1, an Arbitrum-based Ethereum Layer 2 network unveiled during a keynote event in London by CEO Vlad Tenev and SVP Johann Kerbrat.
The chain isn’t just another L2 looking for a reason to exist. It’s designed to let users trade tokenized US equities and ETFs around the clock, access DeFi lending products, and interact with decentralized exchanges, all through Robinhood Wallet. The service is available to users in over 120 countries, though notably not to US persons.
What Robinhood Chain actually does The core product here is Stock Tokens, which are tokenized versions of US equities and ETFs. In English: Robinhood is putting traditional stocks on a blockchain so they can be traded 24/7 and used as collateral in DeFi applications. That’s a meaningful difference from just listing crypto assets on a centralized exchange.
Alongside the chain launch, Robinhood introduced Robinhood Earn, a lending product offering an estimated 7% annual percentage yield on USDG stablecoins. The product is backed by Lloyd’s insurance, which adds a layer of institutional credibility that most DeFi lending protocols can’t match.
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The chain has also integrated with Uniswap, one of the largest decentralized exchanges, to facilitate trading and liquidity. Other infrastructure partners include Alchemy, BitGo, and Chainlink. To sweeten the launch, Robinhood is covering gas fees for the first 90 days for selected Wallet users.
From testnet to mainnet, faster than expected Robinhood Chain’s public testnet went live on February 10, 2026, at the Consensus event in Hong Kong. The testnet processed roughly 4 million transactions in its first week alone, which apparently gave the team enough confidence to push the mainnet launch ahead of schedule.
The chain is designed to be permissionless, meaning developers can build on it without needing Robinhood’s approval. That’s a deliberate architectural choice that signals the company wants third-party DeFi protocols to set up shop on its network, not just serve as a walled garden for Robinhood’s own products.
The global expansion playbook The London keynote wasn’t just about the chain launch. It was also a statement about Robinhood’s international ambitions, which have been accelerating rapidly.
The company recently completed its $180 million acquisition of WonderFi to support its push into the Canadian market. It has secured a capital markets services license in Singapore. And it’s planning to roll out crypto trading services in the UK, along with expanded perpetual futures offerings across Europe.
By excluding US persons from Stock Tokens while aggressively expanding internationally, Robinhood is effectively building a parallel business that isn’t constrained by the SEC’s approach to tokenized securities. The US regulatory environment has made it functionally impossible to offer tokenized stocks domestically without navigating a thicket of securities law. Robinhood’s solution: build for everyone else first.
The 7% APY on USDG through Robinhood Earn, combined with Lloyd’s insurance backing, positions the product somewhere between traditional savings accounts and DeFi yields. For context, most major US banks still offer savings rates well below that level.
The integration with Uniswap deserves particular attention. If significant liquidity pools form around Stock Tokens on Uniswap, it could create a new category of DeFi activity that blends traditional equity exposure with on-chain composability.
The first 90 days of covered gas fees suggest the company knows onboarding friction is a real barrier. What happens when those subsidies expire will be a telling indicator of genuine demand versus launch-week curiosity.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Boardwalk, the permissionless protocol built for launching and discovering token economies, is moving its protocol token to Arbitrum. The migration is set to open on July 17, 2026, marking the latest step in the project’s multi-chain expansion.
What Boardwalk actually does The protocol’s native token, BMX, functions as what the project calls a “deflationary consumption token.” BMX gets burned when people use it to launch tokens, spent when participants vote in discovery mechanisms, and staked when holders want to direct how protocol fees are routed.
Those fee routes include buybacks, burns, liquidity locks, and staking rewards.
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BMX has a maximum supply of 10 million tokens, with roughly 2.7 million currently in circulation.
Why Arbitrum, and why now Boardwalk isn’t new to multi-chain deployment. The protocol has previously operated across Ethereum, Base, Fraxtal, and Katana.
The announcement surfaced in mid-to-late June 2026, with the July 17 date serving as the official opening for the Arbitrum deployment. Community discussions on X and Reddit have pointed to the migration as a potential catalyst for increased BMX utility, though the exact mechanics of the transition, including whether existing BMX holders on other chains need to take any action, remain part of the rollout details.
The token naming situation One wrinkle worth noting: the original announcement referenced the migrating token as “MTB,” while the protocol’s public-facing documentation and community predominantly reference “BMX” as the native protocol token. This appears to reflect either a transition from an earlier token version or a naming convention that varies across deployment stages.
What this means for investors For existing BMX holders, the migration could serve as a catalyst if it successfully introduces the protocol to Arbitrum’s user base. The tight circulating supply of 2.7 million tokens against a 10 million max supply means the deflationary mechanics have room to compress supply further, assuming usage materializes.
Investors watching this space should be tracking launch activity on the platform, liquidity depth on Arbitrum pairs, and whether the BMX burn rate accelerates post-migration.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
PANews, July 2 – According to a report by The Block, Robinhood has announced a series of global expansion and product updates, including the mainnet launch of Robinhood Chain, 24/7 tokenized stock trading, perpetual contracts, and planned crypto agentic trading. Robinhood Chain is an Ethereum Layer 2 network built on the Arbitrum technology stack, with launch partners including Uniswap, Pleiades, Alchemy, BitGo, and Chainlink. Robinhood describes it as a permissionless, AI-native network purpose-built for RWAs.
Robinhood launched Stock Tokens, tokenized stocks that allow eligible users to trade 24/7 on Robinhood Chain and deploy assets into lending pools or use them as collateral for trading in the DeFi ecosystem, covering over 120 countries but not available to U.S. users. Robinhood Wallet has integrated Lighter perpetual contract trading in select regions. Lighter has committed to distributing 11 million LIT tokens to the Robinhood community, and for the first 90 days, Robinhood will cover on-chain Gas fees for Robinhood Wallet users with zero fees on perpetual contracts. Robinhood Earn is now available to U.S. users, enabling lending of the USDG stablecoin through self-custody wallets with an estimated annualized yield of around 7%, underpinned by Morpho, with other supporting partners including Steakhouse, Ethena, Spark, and Maple.
Additionally, Robinhood announced its official launch in Canada, that its Singapore subsidiary has obtained a Capital Markets Services license from the MAS, plans to launch commodities, ETFs, and forex perpetual contracts in Europe, and that crypto trading in the UK is coming soon. For the U.S. market, Robinhood plans to introduce Agentic Accounts, an agentic trading account that allows users to connect AI models to execute trading strategies.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Within the past 24 hours, Bitcoin [BTC] bounced from a local low of $57,800 to $60,536. This 4.73% bounce has begun to recede, and the leading crypto was trading at $60,048 at the time of writing.
On Tuesday, June 30, close to $410 million worth of leveraged positions were liquidated across the market. This included $8.3 million worth of Worldcoin [WLD] positions, with $8.06 million worth of longs alone.
Worldcoin traders were willing to go long but have been met with relentless losses over the past two weeks. The altcoin has fallen from $0.7229 to $0.3686, a 49% depreciation within a fortnight.
Yet, there’s reason for swing traders and investors to be bullish.
Worldcoin bulls have the potential to fight off the sellers Source: WLD/USDT on TradingView The rally above $0.65 in June brought about a bullish swing structure break for WLD. Since then, a deep correction has come about. The OBV was at the June lows once again, and the RSI was falling toward the oversold level at 30.
Yet, from a structural point of view, the trend remained bullish for the altcoin. Moreover, it has fallen into the golden pocket between the 61.8% and 78.6% Fibonacci retracement levels.
Moreover, despite the OBV’s deep drop, the CMF signaled short-term stability. If the CMF drops below -0.05, the OBV loses the local low, and Worldcoin prices fall below $0.333, a bearish shift would become more likely.
Traders’ call to action- Cautious bullishness Source: WLD/USDT on TradingView The 4-hour chart showed that this lower timeframe’s latest impulse move to $0.723 originated from $0.416. This short-term support has been ceded without much of a fight. It appeared likely that the $0.333 support would soon be tested.
The technical indicators were unanimously bearish on this timeframe for the past two weeks of correction.
Source: CoinGlass The liquidation data revealed that many of the magnetic zones built up over the past month have been swept and cleared, with $0.348 being the next to watch out for.
As things stand, the drive southward, which has been forced by steady waves of liquidations and forced selling, could soon be ending.
Worldcoin traders and investors have reason to be cautiously bullish, but a Bitcoin sell-off could negatively impact WLD trends. Therefore, a move back above $0.416 could be a safe trigger for the buyers.
Final Summary The Worldcoin correction measured just over 49% in the past two weeks, a large figure that has impacted holder sentiment. Despite the large drawdown since June’s high, buyers have another chance to keep the higher timeframe upward trend going.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
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Celestia’s [TIA] has posted steep losses over the past day, and while the drop reads like an extension of the broader crypto market slide, a closer look at the token’s supply schedule shows the asset is structurally primed for further downside.
DeFiLlama data shows that, apart from the $28,000 tranche marked for the 1st of July at press time, the team plans to offload roughly $67,000 worth of TIA every day until the month closes, pushing around $2.03 million into the market across the 31 days.
Source: DeFiLlama The setup looks bearish on paper, yet spot-market flows suggest incoming demand could absorb the pressure, given how TIA traded through June.
Total Spot purchases have reached $106.68 million, with a netflow of roughly $4.8 million tilting the balance toward buyers.
Funding Rate holds firm even as OI bleeds Outflows over the past few days still read as bearish sentiment working through the market. CoinGlass data showed that Open Interest—the capital committed to an asset’s perpetual contracts—fell 2%, a $1.16 million withdrawal that leaves net OI at $58 million.
Source: CoinGlass The outflow hasn’t shifted positioning, though—the Open-Interest Weighted Funding Rate, which measures the balance of TIA’s perpetual contracts against the Funding Rate, sits positive at 0.0038%.
A positive Funding Rate set against Open Interest signals that most of the capital in the perpetual market is leaning long, positioning for TIA to push higher over the coming sessions.
The reading being only mildly bullish shows traders aren’t crowding the upside, which lowers the risk of a sharp capitulation and points to steadier, more measured positioning.
TIA liquidity heatmap tilts toward an upswing The liquidity heatmap points to room for a TIA upswing. The heatmap doesn’t lock in a direction, but it hints at one by mapping where buy and sell orders rest.
At the moment, the deeper order clusters sit above price, suggesting strong odds that TIA rallies toward those levels.
Source: CoinGlass Momentum still works against that case, with TIA already down double digits on the day, and that weakness could drag price toward the lower clusters instead.
Those lower clusters hold resting buy orders that could seed a mid-term rally and shift the balance back in TIA’s favor.
Final Summary Celestia’s team is set to sell roughly $2.03 million in TIA across the month, adding structural pressure on top of the market-wide slide. Spot demand and a positive Funding Rate suggest that buyers could absorb the incoming supply, keeping an upswing in play.
The Sei Giga Whitepaper V2 is a major update to the original Giga Whitepaper published in May 2025. It introduces significant performance improvements and new features to Sei Giga, redesigning Sei Network from first principles into a blockchain with the ideal architecture for onchain trading.
Read the full whitepaper at: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.14914
What's New in V2The updated whitepaper addresses the questions the original left open. Where v1 described how Giga achieves speed and throughput, V2 adds how it will solve for privacy and fairness.
Faster FinalityThe new whitepaper introduces even faster performance for Giga's Autobahn consensus protocol. It now targets sub-250ms finality, down from the 400ms target in the original whitepaper. This will be delivered while maintaining 200,000+ transactions / 5 gigagas per second throughput across the network’s decentralized validator set.
Pre-Execution Privacy and MEV ResistanceThe new whitepaper introduces Sedna, a private transaction layer.
Transactions on Sei Giga will be encoded into fragments and distributed across multiple proposer lanes. This will ensure that no proposer will see the full contents of a transaction until ordering is finalized, giving the network pre-execution privacy. In short, a trade will never be visible until it is executed.
It also introduces a deterministic mechanism for ordering transactions across proposer lanes. This will make transaction ordering transparent, predictable, and secure against manipulation by any individual proposer.
Ultimately, Sedna will almost completely remove the MEV and censorship risk that affects every other smart contract blockchain.
The original Giga breakthrough: multi-proposer consensusIn traditional blockchains, one validator at a time is chosen to propose a block. That validator collects transactions, builds the block, broadcasts it, and then everyone votes on it across multiple rounds before it's finalized. Everything happens in sequence. You can't start the next block until the current one finishes the full propose-vote-vote-commit cycle. The speed of the entire chain is bottlenecked by one proposer at a time and multiple rounds of back-and-forth messaging.
Autobahn throws out that sequential model. Instead of one leader proposing blocks while everyone else waits, every validator will run its own "lane" and continuously stream batches of transactions in parallel. Each validator will propose independently and get a lightweight proof that its data is available from a small quorum of peers -- without requiring everyone to download everything upfront. A designated leader will then periodically take a snapshot called a "tip cut" that will capture the latest batch from every lane and commit them all at once through a streamlined two-phase vote.
This is what will enable Sei Giga’s immense throughput. Instead of being limited to however many transactions one validator can fit into one block per round, every validator will produce data simultaneously, and the consensus layer will synthesize their outputs together, sorting them deterministically by priority fee. The raw throughput ceiling will go from "one proposer's bandwidth" to the aggregate bandwidth of the entire validator set.
The Optimal Design for Institutional TradingBlockchains offer significant advantages over traditional trading venues. These include near instant settlement, shared liquidity, composability and 24/7 markets. However, in spite of these advantages, traditional traders are yet to adopt blockchain technology at scale.
For a trading environment to be successful, it has to be predictable. Trading on layer one blockchains today, because of the risks posed by MEV and possible censorship from block builders, is not predictable. This makes today’s blockchains fundamentally unsuitable for institutional traders.
When trading has taken off onchain, it has done so on venues which make the tradeoff of adopting centralized designs in order to make market structure more predictable. However in doing so, these exchanges expose themselves to the same centralization risks that affect legacy trading venues.
Sei's Giga upgrade will take the completely novel approach of introducing a multi-proposer architecture, and combining it with a private transaction dissemination layer. The result will be the first layer one blockchain that is actually suited for trading at scale. Sei Giga will offer pre-execution privacy, fair transaction ordering, MEV resistance, and censorship resistance while ensuring high throughput and near instant settlement.
Sei Giga will be the blockchain for trading.
What's NextSei Labs is well underway with the Giga Upgrade. Progress towards Giga can be followed on Sei Labs’ Giga Roadmap.
The whitepaper's future work section outlines several areas of active development:
Full transaction fee mechanism Autobahn consensus upgradesNew tokenomics for the SEI token The Giga upgrade will be the most complex blockchain upgrade since Ethereum's Merge. The network will transition to the full Giga protocol without regenesis and without taking any element of the network offline.
Read the full whitepaper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.14914
Disclaimer: The roadmap is subject to change based on development progress, market feedback, and other factors. Actual timelines, figures, and outcomes may vary.
@SeiNetwork has published the second version of its Giga Whitepaper, the first revision since the original dropped in May 2025. The update tightens one of the network's core performance targets and adds a new transaction privacy layer aimed at institutional traders.
What Changed in V2The headline change is a tighter finality target. The revised whitepaper pushes the goal down to sub-250ms, an improvement on the sub-400ms figure that has been the benchmark since the original Giga paper. The throughput target of 200,000+ transactions per second is unchanged from V1. Sei Labs first published the Giga whitepaper on May 19, 2025, positioning the project as the first multi-proposer EVM layer-1 blockchain. V2 refines that foundation rather than replacing it.
The upgrade is also designed to land without a regenesis or taking the network offline, reducing disruption for applications already running on the chain.
Sedna: A Private Transaction Layer Across Multiple LanesThe most significant new addition in V2 is Sedna, a private transaction layer built to reduce MEV and front-running risk. Rather than broadcasting full transaction data to all proposers at once, Sedna breaks each transaction into fragments and distributes them across separate proposer lanes. No single proposer can see the full details of a trade before it is finalized. Execution then follows a deterministic order once enough fragments are available. The practical effect is that would-be front-runners cannot read a pending transaction in time to act on it.
Paired with deterministic ordering across those lanes, Sei says the design nearly eliminates MEV and censorship risk, two concerns that have historically kept institutional trading activity away from most layer-1 blockchains. The upgrade targets all three factors institutions care about: latency, throughput, and predictable ordering.
Sei Labs co-founder Jayendra Jog previewed the efficiency case for the approach in a mid-June interview, noting that Sedna would deliver roughly 90 percent of the privacy benefits of a full zero-knowledge layer while requiring just 0.01 percent or less of the implementation effort. The full technical specification is set out in the Sedna protocol research paper on arXiv. The public milestone tracker for the full Giga rollout is available at giga.seilabs.io.
Sources:
Sei Labs: Sei Giga Whitepaper announcement (May 2025)
arXiv: Sedna protocol research paper
Sei Labs: Giga public milestone tracker
Ethena, the protocol behind the USDe synthetic dollar, is integrating its product suite into Robinhood Chain, the newly launched Ethereum Layer 2 network that went live on July 1. The partnership positions Ethena’s yield-bearing assets within Robinhood’s freshly minted collateral ecosystem, bringing decentralized finance tools to one of the largest retail trading platforms in the US.
The collaboration arrives alongside Robinhood Earn, a decentralized lending product that lets users lend USDG stablecoins through self-custody wallets directly within the Robinhood app. The estimated annual percentage yield sits at around 7%.
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How Robinhood Earn actually works The lending infrastructure runs on Morpho, an established decentralized lending protocol, with Robinhood Chain serving as the settlement layer underneath. Ethena joins a roster of supporting partners that includes Steakhouse, Spark, and Maple.
Losses stemming from cyber incidents or smart contract vulnerabilities are covered through policies from Lloyd’s of London and RELM. Users interact with the product through self-custody wallets available in the Robinhood app.
Robinhood Chain and the bigger picture Robinhood Chain itself is built using Arbitrum technology, making it an Ethereum Layer 2 solution. The testnet launched in February 2026, and the public mainnet followed on July 1. The chain’s primary focus is tokenized real-world assets and financial services, with permissionless access and no native token planned.
This mainnet launch is part of a broader push Robinhood has been executing since 2025. The company has rolled out tokenized US equities in Europe, expanded its wallet services, and laid groundwork for perpetual futures offerings.
For Ethena specifically, the partnership extends a relationship that’s been building. Ethena’s ENA token has been trading on Robinhood since late 2025.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
According to Donald Trump’s most recent financial disclosure, crypto assets have taken the lead as his largest reported source of income in 2025. This development means earnings from digital assets have outpaced Trump’s traditionally dominant revenue streams like real estate, golf, and resort operations.
Main sources of crypto income revealedA substantial portion of the reported income derived from memecoin projects bearing the Trump brand, as well as from World Liberty Financial—a decentralized finance platform supported by the Trump family. Hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue came not only from token sales but also from other business activities linked to the family.
Throughout 2025, most of Trump’s declared crypto earnings flowed from memecoin operations and World Liberty Financial. These ventures signaled that digital asset-linked enterprises now form a significant centerpiece within Trump’s overall business portfolio.
Mini glossary: World Liberty Financial is described as a DeFi-focused platform. DeFi, or decentralized finance, refers to blockchain-based systems enabling token trading, lending, and other on-chain transactions without traditional financial intermediaries.
Ongoing conflicts of interest debateDeputy White House Press Secretary Anna Kelly dismissed accusations of a conflict of interest. Kelly maintained that neither Trump nor his family have engaged in, or will engage in, any activities that could trigger such concerns. She further stated that Trump is working to turn the US into ‘the world’s crypto capital.’
Anna Kelly insisted that Trump and his family have avoided any actions that could lead to a conflict of interest, adding that President Trump is moving forward with the goal of establishing the US as the world’s crypto capital.
The release of Trump’s financial filing has reignited questions about the relationship between his crypto ventures and public policy. Lawmakers and civic groups have called for greater scrutiny of these commercial activities, emphasizing the need for more robust oversight.
Congress and civil society increase pressureConsumer advocacy group Public Citizen criticized the scale of Trump’s published crypto income, urging Congress to boost regulatory oversight of the President’s commercial activities related to digital assets.
Earlier reports highlighted an exclusive Mar-a-Lago event organized for major TRUMP memecoin holders. Since the memecoin launched in January 2025, entities connected with the Trump family reportedly generated over $320 million from transaction fees alone.
With the latest financial statement, these debates have now been supplemented by official government documentation. The records confirm that, for 2025, cryptocurrencies represented the largest category of Trump’s declared income.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
HIP-3 is a Hyperliquid network upgrade launched in October 2025 that allows permissionless deployment of perpetual futures markets by staking 500,000 HYPE tokens. Open interest across HIP-3 markets grew from roughly $790 million in January 2026 to a peak of $3.2 billion by June, according to Grayscale. TradeXYZ, the leading HIP-3 builder, accounts for more than 90% of all HIP-3 open interest with tokenized equities, indices, and commodities. Seven of Hyperliquid’s top ten markets by volume are now tokenized equities or commodity futures rather than traditional cryptocurrency pairs. Grayscale compared Hyperliquid’s infrastructure model to Amazon Web Services, calling it a platform where developers create products while HYPE captures value from every trade. Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 upgrade has quietly transformed a decentralized perpetuals exchange into what Grayscale Research described as “more like Amazon Web Services than a stock exchange” in a June 2026 research note cited by Stocktwits.
Since launching on October 13, 2025, HIP-3 has enabled permissionless deployment of perpetual futures markets for assets that include NVDA, TSLA, gold, crude oil, and the S&P 500. Open interest surpassed $3.2 billion in June 2026, and on peak days, HIP-3 markets accounted for nearly 48% of Hyperliquid’s total trading volume.
This article explains the mechanics of HIP-3, how open interest functions on the platform, and what the growth trajectory means for the broader DeFi derivatives market.
How HIP-3 Works: Permissionless Market Deployment HIP-3 enables any participant who stakes 500,000 HYPE tokens, worth approximately $25 million at current prices, to deploy their own perpetual futures exchange on HyperCore, Hyperliquid’s main trading layer.
Deployed markets operate alongside native Hyperliquid pairs but are not covered by the platform’s shared liquidity vault, known as HLP. Instead, deployers manage their own liquidity, according to a detailed CoinGecko analysis published in May 2026.
Deployers earn half of the trading fees generated on their markets. HIP-3 markets charge roughly double the native fee rate, starting at 0.09% for takers versus 0.045% on native pairs. A “Growth Mode” feature introduced in November 2025 allows deployers to reduce fees by 90% to accelerate adoption, according to OAK Research.
All HIP-3 markets are margined in USDC, priced against off-chain oracles, and trade 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This always-on structure proved especially relevant during the U.S.-Israeli-Iranian conflict, when high-impact market events developed outside traditional trading hours.
Open Interest Growth: From $790 Million to $3.2 Billion The growth trajectory has been steep. Open interest on HIP-3 markets stood at roughly $790 million in January 2026, crossed $1.43 billion by late March, surpassed $2 billion in April, and reached $3.2 billion in early June, according to a Grayscale research note.
Since launch, HIP-3 markets have processed over $200 billion in cumulative trading volume. TradeXYZ, a perpetuals platform built by the Hyperunit team, dominates the vertical, accounting for more than 90% of total HIP-3 open interest.
The platform offers exposure to U.S. equities such as NVDA, TSLA, GOOGL, and AMZN, a synthetic Nasdaq-style index called XYZ100, and commodities, including gold and silver, benchmarked to COMEX front-month futures. Non-crypto assets achieved 60% trader retention in late March 2026, indicating sustained engagement rather than speculative activity.
Analysis: The retention figure is significant. In most DeFi product launches, initial activity spikes and then decays within weeks. A 60% retention rate suggests that HIP-3 is solving a structural problem, 24/7 market access, rather than offering a novelty.
The fact that seven of Hyperliquid‘s top ten markets by volume are now non-crypto assets represents a category shift from a DeFi derivatives protocol toward a global macro trading venue.
Revenue, HYPE Buybacks, and the SpaceX Catalyst Hyperliquid generated $2.3 million in daily fees at peak HIP-3 activity, funding $11 million in HYPE token buybacks. The HYPE token outperformed Bitcoin and Ethereum by over 70% in Q1 2026, according to 99Bitcoins reporting.
The SpaceX initial public offering in June 2026 provided another catalyst. TradeXYZ launched a SpaceX pre-IPO perpetuals market on May 18, 2026, which surpassed $50 million in open interest before SpaceX officially filed its S-1 two days later.
Moon Rock Capital co-founder Simon Dedic stated in a post on X that the access issues retail traders faced around the SpaceX Nasdaq debut “make the case for trading exposure to high-profile private companies via onchain perpetual futures on Hyperliquid.”
In March 2026, the first S&P 500 perpetual futures product launched on Hyperliquid after S&P Dow Jones Indices licensed the index to a HIP-3 deployer, according to Grayscale.
Regulatory Implications HIP-3 markets offering tokenized equity derivatives operate without KYC requirements, creating a direct conflict with securities regulations in most jurisdictions. The SEC has not issued specific guidance on permissionless perpetual futures tied to U.S. equities. As HIP-3 open interest approaches levels that attract institutional market-making firms, regulatory scrutiny is likely to intensify.
What’s Next for HIP-3? Grayscale’s research note positioned $5 billion in open interest as the inflection point at which HIP-3 markets attract professional market-making firms from CME and CBOE. The launch of HIP-4, which introduces outcome-based prediction market contracts on Hyperliquid, adds a new dimension.
Pending U.S. crypto market structure legislation could either validate or constrain the model. Participants should monitor regulatory developments and the platform’s approach to compliance.
FAQs What is Hyperliquid HIP-3?
HIP-3 is a Hyperliquid network upgrade from October 2025 that lets builders deploy permissionless perpetual futures markets by staking 500,000 HYPE tokens.
How much does it cost to deploy a HIP-3 market?
Deployers must stake 500,000 HYPE tokens, worth approximately $25 million at current prices, to launch a perpetual futures market on HyperCore.
What is open interest on HIP-3?
HIP-3 open interest peaked at $3.2 billion in June 2026, growing from roughly $790 million in January, according to Grayscale research data.
What assets can be traded on HIP-3?
HIP-3 supports tokenized equities like NVDA and TSLA, commodities including gold and oil, indices such asthe S&P 500, and pre-IPO stocks.
What is TradeXYZ?
TradeXYZ is the leading HIP-3 deployer built by the Hyperunit team, accounting for more than 90% of total HIP-3 open interest across all markets.
How do HIP-3 fees work?
HIP-3 markets charge roughly double native Hyperliquid rates, with half going to the deployer. Growth Mode can reduce these fees by 90%.
What is HIP-4?
HIP-4 is Hyperliquid’s outcome-trading upgrade, launched in May 2026, introducing fully collateralized prediction-market contracts that settle at 0 or 1.
References What is Hyperliquid’s HIP-3? How it works and use cases, OAK Research, June 2026 Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 & HIP-4: Tokenized Stocks and Prediction Markets, CoinGecko, May 2026 Hyperliquid Emerges As Superior Alternative After SpaceX IPO Lockup Chaos, Stocktwits, June 2026 Hyperliquid Fees Explained: Perps, Spot & HIP-3, Datawallet, May 2026
Less than a year ago, Empery Digital was buying Bitcoin by the hundreds of millions. Now it is considering selling some of that Bitcoin to fund a $65 million bet on AI infrastructure.
The company, which trades on Nasdaq under the ticker EMPD, announced on June 30 that it plans to acquire a 25% ownership stake in a newly formed entity focused on converting a Midwest industrial property into an AI data center. The deal is expected to close in Q3 2026.
What the deal actually looks like The facility already has 150 megawatts of power capacity in place, with room to scale to 300 MW.
Empery is partnering with Hunt Properties on the project, combining what the company describes as its capital markets expertise with Hunt’s background in power procurement and infrastructure development.
The financial structure is notable. The tenant of the AI data center will cover both build-out costs and operating expenses. Empery says long-term lease payments from the arrangement could reach $1 billion, which would represent a significant return on a $65 million entry check.
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To fund the investment, Empery is considering selling a portion of its remaining Bitcoin holdings, which currently sit at approximately 2,914 BTC valued at around $170.7 million as of June 30.
The company is also discontinuing its Bitcoin-based net asset value dashboard, which it previously used to track BTC holdings as a core metric.
From Bitcoin maximalist to AI infrastructure play in under a year Empery Digital, formerly known as Volcon Inc., adopted its Bitcoin treasury strategy in July 2025, raising over $481 million and deploying over $473 million of that into Bitcoin purchases.
The company sold 370 BTC in early 2026 at an average price of $66,632 per coin. The remaining 2,914 BTC represents a meaningful position, but it is a fraction of what the company was accumulating less than 12 months ago.
The company faced shareholder activism related to its Bitcoin treasury approach, a recurring theme among smaller firms that adopted aggressive digital asset strategies.
What this means for investors watching the space Empery’s stock declined following the AI investment announcement.
The bear case is straightforward. Empery spent most of 2025 building a Bitcoin treasury identity, raised hundreds of millions around that thesis, and is now selling that Bitcoin to fund a single illiquid infrastructure bet that gives them a 25% stake, not operational control, in one data center.
The bull case: AI data center demand is real and growing fast. Facilities with existing 150 MW capacity are genuinely scarce. A structure where the tenant covers build-out and operating costs while Empery collects lease revenue is capital-light once the $65 million check clears. And a potential $1 billion in long-term lease payments, if it materializes, would transform the company’s financial profile.
For investors, the key question is execution. Empery has demonstrated an ability to raise capital quickly, having pulled in over $481 million in 2025. The Q3 2026 close date for the deal will be the first real milestone to watch, followed by any announcements about the data center tenant, whose identity has not been disclosed.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
As the effects of the bear market, which has lasted for approximately 9 months, continue, the cryptocurrency analysis company The DeFi Report evaluated Bitcoin’s on-chain data and macroeconomic outlook in its latest video report.
According to analyst Mike’s assessment, while the market is starting to show green lights for “buying,” the possibility that a definitive bottom has not yet been reached remains.
One of the most important technical indicators highlighted in the report is Bitcoin trading below its 200-week moving average (approximately $62,400). Analysts noted that the price is fluctuating between $59,000 and $60,000, adding that historically, Bitcoin hasn’t spent much time below these levels, and this generally signals a significant cycle bottom.
Four out of six key on-chain indicators (KPIs) tracked by The DeFi Report are currently giving a clear bullish signal:
Loss-Making Supply: More than 48% of the circulating Bitcoin supply is currently at a loss. Looking at the situation of long-term holders, it appears that the market is very close to the lows of past bear markets. Missing Pieces: Two key indicators not giving a bullish signal are the Realized Market Value (RMV) and MVRV ratios. According to analysts, there hasn’t been enough “capital destruction” or change of hands in the market yet to fully confirm the final lows of past cycles. Potential macroeconomic risks that could shake markets and trigger a final wave of capitulations in crypto assets are listed as follows:
Markets are pricing in a 70% probability of a potential interest rate hike in September. The Fed’s commitment to bringing inflation down to 2% could create renewed selling pressure in equity and crypto markets. A sharp 20-25% pullback in NASDAQ or AI-focused technology stocks in general could drag the crypto market down with it. Despite the Bank of Japan (BOJ) raising interest rates to 1%, the highest level in 30 years, the continued depreciation of the yen poses a significant risk. This could lead global investors to close their cheap carry trades, resulting in a liquidity crunch. Increased political polarization ahead of the US elections and consumer confidence index hovering at historically low levels are putting indirect pressure on risky assets.
*This is not investment advice.
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Two of the most aggressive corporate Bitcoin buyers just had a very busy June. Strategy Inc. and Strive Inc. collectively added 6,989 BTC to their treasuries, funded almost entirely through preferred equity instruments rather than traditional stock sales or debt offerings.
Strategy picked up 3,625 BTC on a net basis, while Strive added 3,364 BTC. Each company deployed approximately $200 million raised from their respective preferred equity products: STRC for Strategy and SATA for Strive.
The preferred equity playbook Neither company went the conventional route of issuing new common shares or tapping revolving credit lines. Instead, both relied on preferred equity instruments designed to trade near $100 par value with effective yields ranging from 11% to 13% or higher.
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For Strategy, the STRC instrument has become the primary engine for Bitcoin accumulation. The company did sell 32 BTC during the month to cover STRC dividend obligations, which is why the net figure comes in at 3,625 rather than the gross amount purchased.
Strive’s approach was even more front-loaded. The company’s largest single transaction in June was a 2,500 BTC purchase funded almost entirely through SATA proceeds. That single buy accounted for roughly three-quarters of Strive’s monthly total.
The running scoreboard Strategy’s total Bitcoin holdings now exceed 845,000 BTC as of early June, roughly 4% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist. Strive, meanwhile, has climbed to nearly 20,000 BTC.
Both companies were buying during a period when Bitcoin prices fluctuated between roughly $60,000 and $65,000. At those levels, each company’s $200 million deployment bought somewhere around 3,000 to 3,500 BTC, which lines up neatly with the reported figures.
The combined haul of nearly 7,000 BTC represents meaningful demand at a time when Bitcoin’s supply dynamics continue to tighten following the April 2024 halving event. Miners now produce roughly 450 BTC per day, meaning Strategy and Strive alone absorbed the equivalent of about 15 days’ worth of new Bitcoin supply in a single month.
Why preferred equity changes the game The 11% to 13% yields on these instruments aren’t trivial, but they’re manageable as long as Bitcoin’s price trajectory cooperates. If Bitcoin appreciates faster than the cost of the preferred dividends, the companies are effectively borrowing at a negative real rate to accumulate a scarce asset.
Strategy’s small 32 BTC sale to cover STRC dividends hints at this dynamic. The company is already using its Bitcoin stash to service the preferred equity, creating a direct link between the treasury’s size and its ability to sustain the financing mechanism.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Bitcoin price climbed above $60,000 on Wednesday, a level the asset had ceded during the last couple weeks of turbulence, after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh told a central bank forum that the threat of persistent inflation had moderated.
The cryptocurrency traded near $60,171 this afternoon, a gain of about 2.7% on the day, with a 24-hour high of $60,474 and a low of $57,718. Trading volume for the session reached $26.68 billion.
Warsh, in remarks at the European Central Bank forum in Sintra, Portugal, said inflation expectations in surveys and bond prices had eased. He paired the observation with a warning that price growth remains too elevated and that the Fed will not accept inflation above its 2 percent target.
“We’re going to deliver price stability,” Warsh said.
Markets read the balance as a tilt toward relief. Bitcoin advanced as U.S. stocks rose and the dollar retreated from a weekly high. A softer dollar tends to lift demand for Bitcoin and other risk assets.
The move offered a reprieve in a hard year. Bitcoin sits about 30% below where it started 2026 and more than $66,000 under its record of $126,277, a slide that has kept the bear-market label in view. Its market value stands near $1.2 trillion.
Strategy (MSTR) and Strive (ASST) jump over 10% at times in intraday trading Bitcoin treasury companies posted sharper gains. Strategy, the software firm turned Bitcoin holder under Michael Saylor, rose close to 7.5% on the day — with highs of 13% during the day. Strive jumped more than 10% at times to $12.02.
Both trade as leveraged proxies for Bitcoin, and their swings tend to exceed those of the coin. Strive has spent 2026 building a treasury that now tops 16,000 BTC, and the stock has climbed more than 100% across three months.
Earlier this week, Strategy released a new Digital Credit Capital Framework that raised the dividend on its STRC preferred shares to 12%, authorized up to $2 billion in share buybacks, and created a bitcoin monetization program allowing limited BTC sales for specific corporate purposes.
The company also established a $2.55 billion U.S. dollar reserve to cover preferred dividends and debt interest, with board rules requiring at least 12 months of coverage at all times. Strategy said any bitcoin sales would be limited to replenishing reserves, funding dividends and interest when preferable to issuing equity, or financing stock buybacks, while reaffirming bitcoin as its primary treasury asset.
Micah Zimmerman
Micah first discovered Bitcoin in 2018 but remained a skeptic on the sidelines for too long. Since 2021, he has covered crypto and business and now works as a news reporter for Bitcoin Magazine, based in North Carolina.
Bitcoin’s latest sell-off intensified as bearish momentum continued building across Binance’s derivatives market. After repeatedly testing lower support levels, Bitcoin [BTC] briefly slipped below $58,000 for the first time since September 2024.
This price drop was accompanied by a net taker volume of about -$330 million. This exceeded the -$311 million that was seen on the 25th of June.
The deeper negative reading shows sellers aggressively crossed the spread instead of waiting for buyers, overwhelming available bids and accelerating the decline.
Source: CryptoQuant At the same time, the 7-day Open Interest trend remains positive. This indicates traders continue to add leverage based on their expectations of further declines in price.
Unless buyer absorption strengthens and aggressive selling subsides, leveraged bearish positioning could keep Bitcoin under sustained downside pressure.
Institutional distribution weakens Bitcoin demand That aggressive sell-side pressure also coincided with a continued deterioration in institutional demand. Rather than absorbing the latest wave of selling, U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETFs extended their distribution trend, shedding more than 100,000 BTC during 2026 alone.
Source: CryptoQuant Furthermore, the total number of BTC sold off by ETF issuers has reached approximately 160,000 BTC since they hit a high-water mark in their reserves in late October 2025. This represents losses totaling more than $11 billion.
Source: CryptoQuant Therefore, it is likely that numerous institutional participants remain underwater. The persistent reduction in the reserves held by the EFTs suggests that EFTs have moved from providing support to Bitcoin’s bull run to creating additional structural supply.
Consequently, if ETF flows do not soon turn positive again and institutional demand continues to weaken. This will then result in an increase in negative pressure for all segments of the overall market.
Can Spot demand replace fading ETF support? There is concern now even though there was a significant amount of Spot buying activity after weeks of ETF selling. The market did not see strong enough demand to sustain the price of Bitcoin above $60,000.
Since then, while there are increasing signs that Long-Term Holders have been accumulating, the absorption of excess supply has continued to be spotty at best.
Also, the Short-Term Holder MVRV still hovers below one. This implies that most new buyers in this period have unrealized losses on their positions.
As such, until Coinbase Premium strengthens and Spot Taker CVD turns decisively positive, weak spot demand could leave Bitcoin vulnerable to renewed downside pressure.
Final Summary BTC faces growing pressure from aggressive selling and persistent ETF outflows. Bitcoin needs stronger Spot demand to stabilize and regain momentum.
DDC Enterprise is buying back its own stock after the market effectively priced the company at 30 cents on the dollar relative to its Bitcoin holdings. The board approved a share repurchase program worth up to $10M or 20% of outstanding Class A shares on June 9, signaling that management thinks Wall Street is dramatically undervaluing what’s sitting on the balance sheet.
Here’s the math that makes this interesting: DDC holds 2,899 BTC valued at roughly $170M as of June 17. The company’s market cap? Approximately $44M. That gives it a market net asset value multiple of about 0.3x, meaning investors can theoretically buy $1 worth of Bitcoin for about 30 cents by purchasing DDC shares.
A food company with a Bitcoin problem (or opportunity) DDC Enterprise started life as an operator of Asian food brands. That business still exists, but the company has pivoted hard into the Bitcoin treasury strategy that MicroStrategy popularized years ago.
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Its shares have been trading between $0.90 and $0.93 in late June and early July 2026, a range that implies the market is either skeptical of the company’s ability to hold and manage its crypto position, or simply hasn’t caught up to the balance sheet reality.
The company raised $124M in equity capital back in October 2025 specifically to fund Bitcoin accumulation. That capital raise has, on paper, generated significant unrealized gains given Bitcoin’s trajectory since then. But the stock price hasn’t followed.
How the buyback works The repurchase program will be funded primarily through free cash flow and operational cash, according to the company’s announcement. DDC also left the door open to using its Bitcoin as collateral in financing arrangements to support the buyback.
The program has a planned capital allocation window of up to 18 months, giving management flexibility on timing. There’s no obligation to repurchase the full $10M.
A $10M buyback against a $44M market cap is meaningful. That’s roughly 23% of the entire company’s public market value being allocated to share repurchases, assuming shares stay near current levels. Even at the stated cap of 20% of Class A shares, this program could materially reduce the float.
What this means for investors A 70% discount to net asset value raises real questions. Can DDC’s underlying food business generate enough cash flow to avoid selling Bitcoin during downturns? What happens to the collateralized financing if Bitcoin drops sharply?
If DDC pledges Bitcoin to borrow money for buybacks and Bitcoin’s price falls sharply, the company could face margin calls or forced liquidation of its crypto position at the worst possible time.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
