English referee Michael Oliver has been ruled out of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group E match between Ivory Coast and Ecuador, scheduled for June 14 in Philadelphia, due to a minor injury. French referee Francois Letexier will step in. FIFA confirmed Oliver is expected to return for future matches.
Kraken takes center stage at the World Cup On June 9, just days before the Ivory Coast-Ecuador match, Kraken was named the Official Crypto Exchange Supporter of the FIFA World Cup 2026. This is the largest World Cup ever staged, with 48 teams competing across venues in Canada, Mexico, and the US.
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Algorand and Chiliz fill the blockchain bench Kraken isn’t the only crypto player on the pitch. Algorand continues its role as FIFA’s blockchain partner, a relationship that has produced initiatives like FIFA+ Collect, the organization’s NFT platform, along with explorations into digital ticketing solutions.
Then there’s Chiliz, whose fan tokens let fans participate in club polls and voting, a model that turns passive viewers into active participants.
What this means for investors For tokens specifically tied to these partnerships, the World Cup could function as a catalyst. Algorand’s ongoing FIFA relationship gives it recurring visibility. Chiliz fan tokens see predictable spikes in engagement during major tournaments as casual fans discover the voting and polling features.
Investors watching these tokens should pay close attention to on-chain metrics during and immediately after the tournament. New wallet creation, transaction volume on Algorand, and fan token trading activity on Chiliz’s platform will tell the real story.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup opened in Toronto on Thursday night with Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna and Canadian artist Jessie Reyez performing “Illuminate” at BMO Field. But for the crypto industry, the real headline was everything happening around the pitch, not on it.
Three days before the opening ceremony, FIFA announced Kraken as the Official Crypto Exchange Supporter of the tournament. Chainlink is powering the event’s official prediction markets. Chiliz is running fan tokens. And Avalanche is hosting FIFA’s blockchain platform. For a sport that reaches roughly half the planet’s population, that is an extraordinary amount of crypto infrastructure woven into a single event.
The biggest stage crypto has ever had The 2026 World Cup is the first edition to feature 48 teams, expanding from the traditional 32. It’s co-hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States, spanning three countries and dozens of venues.
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Kraken’s role as official crypto exchange supporter, announced on June 9, positions the San Francisco-based exchange in front of billions of cumulative viewers over the course of the tournament.
Chainlink, Chiliz, and the fan engagement play Chainlink’s involvement is the most technically interesting piece of the puzzle. The oracle network is facilitating the World Cup’s official prediction markets, meaning its infrastructure is processing real-world match data and feeding it into on-chain systems.
Chiliz is operating in territory it knows well. The company behind Socios.com has been selling fan tokens for European football clubs for years. The World Cup gives Chiliz a chance to scale that model to a global audience rather than club-specific fanbases. Fan tokens let holders vote on minor club decisions and access exclusive content.
Avalanche’s role hosting FIFA’s blockchain platform rounds out the stack. The Layer 1 network provides the settlement layer underneath these various fan-facing products, handling the transaction throughput that a global event demands.
What this means for investors Chainlink’s LINK token underpins actual prediction market infrastructure. Chiliz’s CHZ token powers actual fan token ecosystems. Avalanche’s AVAX processes actual transactions. If usage metrics spike during the tournament, that creates a fundamentals-based case rather than a hype-based one.
The tournament runs through mid-July. That is a month-long window where crypto infrastructure will be tested at a scale it has never experienced in the sports context.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
The biggest sporting event on the planet starts today, and it’s bringing crypto along for the ride. Four group-stage matches kick off the 2026 FIFA World Cup on June 14, with games spread across three countries and a digital asset infrastructure that would have been unthinkable at the last tournament.
Germany faces Curaçao in Houston, Netherlands takes on Japan in Arlington, Texas, Ivory Coast plays Ecuador in Philadelphia, and Sweden meets Tunisia in Monterrey, Mexico.
Kraken, Avalanche, and the crypto scaffolding behind the World Cup Kraken was announced as FIFA’s Official Crypto Exchange Supporter on June 9, just days before the opening whistle. It’s a headline sponsorship tier that puts a major crypto exchange in front of an estimated global audience of billions.
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FIFA has been building genuine blockchain infrastructure. FIFA Collect, the organization’s digital collectibles platform, migrated to its own dedicated Avalanche-powered blockchain in 2025. The chain is EVM-compatible, meaning it plays nicely with the broader Ethereum ecosystem.
Over 85,000 user addresses were created on the new FIFA blockchain after the migration. For a purpose-built chain tied to a single sports organization, that’s a meaningful install base before the tournament even begins.
Prediction markets and fan tokens enter the chat ADI PredictStreet has been named the first Official Prediction Market Partner for the 2026 World Cup. The platform uses Chainlink technology for data verification, which means match results and real-time statistics are fed through decentralized oracle networks rather than relying on a single centralized source.
National team fan tokens built on the Chiliz blockchain give holders voting rights tied to their team’s activities and the ability to earn rewards based on performance.
What this means for crypto investors Kraken’s sponsorship puts crypto exchange branding in front of a massive audience that skews younger and international. The prediction market angle introduces a new speculative layer, as fans who might never touch a DeFi protocol could find themselves interacting with Chainlink-verified smart contracts simply because they want to bet on whether the Netherlands will beat Japan.
The risk is that tournament-driven hype creates short-term price distortions in related tokens. Fan tokens in particular tend to be low-liquidity assets that can move dramatically on relatively small volumes.
The 48-team format, expanded from 32 at the 2022 Qatar tournament, means more matches, more engagement windows, and more opportunities for these crypto integrations to reach new users across 16 host cities in three countries.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Lionel Messi will walk onto the pitch in Kansas City on June 17 to lead Argentina against Algeria in Group J of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. He’ll be 38 years old, captaining the defending champions, and carrying the weight of what could plausibly be his final World Cup appearance.
That alone would be enough to dominate sports headlines for weeks. But for the crypto market, there’s a secondary storyline worth paying attention to: Messi’s established ties to the fan-token ecosystem, combined with Kraken’s role as the official crypto exchange partner of the tournament, could create a measurable uptick in trading activity around digital assets linked to the beautiful game.
The Socios connection and why it matters Messi has been a global ambassador for Socios.com, the fan-engagement platform built on the Chiliz blockchain. His partnership deal was valued at more than $20 million over an initial three-year term, making it one of the most lucrative endorsement arrangements in the fan-token space.
Socios allows fans to purchase team-branded tokens that grant voting rights on minor club decisions and access to exclusive rewards. The tokens trade on secondary markets, meaning their prices fluctuate based on demand, sentiment, and, critically, the performance of the teams they represent.
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Previous major tournaments have shown a pattern of increased on-chain activity and price movement around fan tokens tied to competing nations. Chiliz (CHZ), the Layer 1 blockchain powering the entire Socios ecosystem, stands to benefit from the aggregate effect, as more transactions on the Chiliz chain tend to correlate with CHZ price action.
Kraken enters the pitch Kraken has been named the official crypto exchange partner of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Having a major exchange attached to the world’s most-watched sporting event means increased accessibility for casual fans who might otherwise never interact with a crypto platform.
When Crypto.com secured naming rights to the Staples Center in 2021, the exchange saw a notable increase in new account registrations. A World Cup partnership operates on an entirely different scale of audience reach.
What this means for investors Fan tokens are, by design, engagement tools with speculative upside tied to short-duration events like tournaments and transfer windows. Argentina, as defending champions with the most recognizable player on the planet, will attract outsized attention through match results that create sharp, event-driven volatility.
Fan tokens are thinly traded compared to major crypto assets. Spreads can be wide, liquidity can evaporate during volatile moments, and the tokens have no intrinsic value beyond the engagement perks attached to them.
It’s also worth noting that an unofficial meme token called MESSI exists on Ethereum. It carries no official affiliation with the player whatsoever. The distinction matters, because unsophisticated buyers chasing World Cup hype may not understand they’re purchasing an entirely unrelated asset with no endorsement or utility backing.
For those monitoring the broader crypto landscape during the tournament, the key metrics to watch will be CHZ on-chain transaction volume, $ARG trading volume across exchanges, and new account registrations on Kraken during the group stage.
Algeria’s preparation for the match has been complicated by the confirmed absence of defender Ramy Bensebaini due to injury, which could tilt pre-match sentiment further toward Argentina and, by extension, toward bullish positioning on $ARG.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
The Netherlands just matched one of football’s most storied records, stringing together 13 consecutive unbeaten matches at the FIFA World Cup to pull level with Brazil’s all-time mark.
Chiliz, the token powering the Socios fan engagement platform, has rallied 28% amid the broader World Cup excitement currently sweeping through the 2026 tournament hosted across Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
Fan tokens catch the World Cup wave The Netherlands’ run, which includes a recent 2-2 draw against Japan, has kept the Dutch in the spotlight and kept engagement metrics humming on platforms like Socios. That engagement translates directly into trading volume for CHZ, which serves as the utility token underpinning the entire fan token ecosystem.
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Fan tokens tied to Argentina and Portugal have also seen sentiment-driven price swings during the early group-stage matches. During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, fan tokens experienced similar bursts of speculative interest correlated with match results.
Kraken’s ringside seat Kraken is serving as the official crypto exchange supporter for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. That partnership gives the exchange prominent branding throughout the tournament, though it stops short of creating any official FIFA-issued token for the event.
Despite the proliferation of team-specific fan tokens on platforms like Socios, FIFA itself has not launched a dedicated token for this World Cup cycle.
The record and what it actually means Brazil also holds a streak of 21 consecutive winning opening matches as of June 2026. The Dutch streak spans multiple tournament cycles, meaning this isn’t just a hot run in a single World Cup.
What this means for crypto investors The 28% CHZ rally is eye-catching, but sports-driven token pumps are historically short-lived. The 2022 World Cup showed this pattern clearly: fan tokens spiked during the group stage and gradually bled value once the tournament concluded.
National team fan tokens will continue to move on match results, and CHZ will ride the aggregate wave of overall tournament engagement. If a popular team gets eliminated, its fan token can crater overnight.
Kraken’s involvement as an official supporter suggests the governing body is at least warming to the space. If FIFA ever decides to launch its own digital asset for future tournaments, it could either validate the entire fan token category or cannibalize existing platforms.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Lionel Messi scored three goals against Algeria on June 16, leading Argentina to a 3-0 victory in their 2026 World Cup opener in Kansas City. The hat trick brought his all-time World Cup tally to 16, equaling the record held by Germany’s Miroslav Klose. Messi called the milestone “an honour, but it is just a statistic.”
The crypto market, predictably, is treating it as more than a statistic. Argentina’s official fan token ($ARG), which trades on the Chiliz blockchain, has seen renewed trading interest in the wake of the match, continuing a pattern that has played out during every major Messi moment over the past several years.
The Messi-to-crypto pipeline Messi has been an ambassador for Socios.com since at least March 2022, under a deal valued at more than $20 million. Socios is the fan-engagement platform that powers blockchain-based fan tokens, giving holders voting rights on minor team decisions and access to exclusive rewards. The whole operation runs on Chiliz (CHZ), a blockchain purpose-built for sports tokenization.
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When Messi transferred to Paris Saint-Germain in August 2021, the PSG fan token surged in both price and volume. When Argentina won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the $ARG token experienced a similar spike. The correlation between Messi milestones and fan token activity has been consistent enough that traders have started treating his match schedule like an earnings calendar.
What $ARG and Chiliz are actually doing The $ARG token gives holders a seat at a very small table. Think of it like owning a fractional voice in decisions about kit designs, stadium music, or social media content for the Argentine national team. It’s not governance over transfer budgets. It’s closer to a loyalty program with a speculative wrapper.
The Chiliz ecosystem, which powers fan tokens for clubs and national teams across multiple sports, benefits from the attention even if no new tokens were issued specifically for this match. Elevated trading volume across the platform lifts transaction fees and keeps Chiliz relevant in a crypto landscape where attention is the scarcest resource.
What this means for investors Traders who have watched fan token behavior during major sporting events know that volume tends to spike around high-stakes matches, then normalize once the emotional charge fades. Argentina still has multiple group stage matches ahead, and if Messi breaks Klose’s record outright, expect another wave of attention on $ARG.
Fan tokens have limited intrinsic utility beyond the engagement features Socios provides. Their value is almost entirely sentiment-driven, which means they can deflate just as quickly as they inflate. An early Argentina exit from the tournament, or an injury to Messi, could reverse any gains in a matter of hours.
Messi’s ongoing role as Socios ambassador adds a layer of durability that most crypto partnerships lack. His deal, valued at more than $20 million, represents one of the largest individual endorsement commitments in the fan token space.
Sports-driven tokens operate on a fundamentally different cycle than the rest of the market. They don’t correlate with Bitcoin halvings or Fed rate decisions. They correlate with match fixtures and player performance. Monitoring Messi’s tournament progression could offer a more reliable short-term trading signal for $ARG and CHZ than any on-chain metric.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is driving significant on-chain activity. Matchday 8 wrapped up with Mexico edging South Korea 1-0, but the more interesting scoreline might be happening on-chain.
Chiliz’s CHZ token has surged 28% during the tournament, riding a wave of trading activity in national team fan tokens on Socios.com.
Fan tokens are having their World Cup moment Socios.com hosts fan tokens representing various national teams, including powerhouses like Argentina and Portugal. Every matchday result becomes a trading catalyst. The 28% CHZ rally isn’t just enthusiasm — it’s a reflection of actual increased trading volume across the platform’s ecosystem.
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FIFA’s blockchain playbook goes deeper than tokens FIFA runs a custom blockchain built on Avalanche, powering its FIFA Collect digital collectibles platform. FIFA has also been experimenting with blockchain-based ticketing solutions designed to combat scalping — blockchain verification could let FIFA track every ticket transfer and enforce pricing rules.
FIFA has partnered with Matchday, a company creating blockchain-based digital player cards. The scope is notable: over 65,000 professional athletes are featured across the platform.
Kraken has signed on as an official cryptocurrency exchange partner for the tournament.
What this means for crypto investors The World Cup runs through July, meaning there are still weeks of matchdays, knockout rounds, and results ahead. Each one represents a potential volume spike for tokens tied to competing nations.
FIFA’s blockchain infrastructure investments suggest a multi-year strategy. A dedicated Avalanche chain for collectibles, blockchain ticketing experiments, and partnerships with companies like Matchday all point in that direction. Fan tokens still represent a tiny fraction of overall crypto market cap, and regulatory scrutiny around whether these tokens constitute securities remains an open question across multiple jurisdictions.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Chiliz [CHZ] extended its decline over the past 24 hours, falling 11.41% to $0.02127 as selling pressure intensified, while trading volume rose 25.46% to $67.13 million.
The sharp rise in activity suggested that traders remained highly engaged despite the continued weakness in price action.
Market participation increased as volatility expanded, yet buyers failed to establish meaningful support.
Instead, the token continued printing lower highs and lower lows, reinforcing the bearish structure that had developed over recent weeks.
Rising volume alongside falling prices often reflects aggressive distribution, and recent market activity aligned with that pattern.
Why are Spot traders still selling? Spot market data continued highlighting persistent selling activity despite the surge in overall trading participation. The 90-day Spot Taker CVD remained seller-dominant, indicating that aggressive market orders largely favored exits rather than accumulation.
This trend suggested that market participants had continued accepting lower prices to close positions.
While occasional buying interest emerged during intraday rebounds, it failed to outweigh the broader wave of sell-side pressure. Such behavior often reflects weak conviction among spot buyers, particularly during prolonged downtrends.
Source: CryptoQuant CHZ neared key support as RSI weakened Looking at the daily chart, Chiliz [CHZ] price approached a critical demand zone after losing several important support levels during the broader decline.
CHZ traded near the $0.020 area after previously falling below the $0.0287 and $0.0374 levels, both of which had supported price action earlier in the year.
The daily chart showed a well-defined descending trendline that continued rejecting upside attempts. Meanwhile, the Relative Strength Index dropped to 26.89, placing the indicator in oversold territory.
Such readings often reflect intense selling pressure, although they can also precede short-term relief rallies when demand begins returning.
Even so, the broader structure remained bearish because the price continued trading beneath the descending resistance trendline.
If buyers defend the current demand zone, CHZ could attempt a rebound toward the $0.0287 resistance area. However, a decisive loss of $0.020 could expose the asset to deeper downside pressure.
Source: TradingView Funding Rates revealed growing bearish conviction Derivatives traders increasingly positioned for additional downside as sentiment deteriorated across futures markets. CHZ’s OI-Weighted Funding Rate fell sharply into negative territory and reached approximately -0.0731% at the time of writing.
Negative Funding Rates generally indicate that short sellers have paid long traders to maintain their positions.
In this case, the decline reflected stronger bearish positioning as traders anticipated further weakness. The indicator had remained mostly positive during earlier months before reversing sharply lower in recent sessions.
That shift highlighted a notable deterioration in market sentiment and suggested that traders had increasingly favored downside exposure.
While heavily negative Funding Rates can occasionally create conditions for short squeezes, current positioning primarily reflected expectations of continued weakness.
As long as funding remains deeply negative, bearish sentiment could continue influencing price behavior.
Source: CoinGlass The $0.020 demand zone now represents the most important level on the chart. If buyers successfully defend this area, CHZ could attempt a recovery toward higher resistance levels.
However, if selling pressure persists and the support zone breaks, the downtrend could continue toward lower price levels.
Final Summary Spot sellers continued dominating activity despite rising trading volume and participation. Negative Funding Rates and oversold RSI reflected growing bearish sentiment.
The US men’s national team beat Australia 2-0 on June 19 at Lumen Field, temporarily rebranded as Seattle Stadium for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The win clinched a spot in the round of 32 with one group match still to play, giving the Americans six points in Group D and an unblemished record at the venue.
Kraken and Chiliz are spending big on the beautiful game Kraken is the official crypto exchange partner for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The tournament, co-hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico, is expected to draw record global viewership, and Kraken has positioned itself front and center across the event’s marketing infrastructure.
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Chiliz, the blockchain company behind the Socios.com fan engagement platform and the CHZ token, has invested somewhere between $50 million and $100 million in fan interaction initiatives tied to the tournament, including fan tokens, voting rights on club decisions, and gamified experiences.
The USMNT gap Despite all this activity swirling around the tournament, the USMNT itself has no reported crypto sponsorships, fan token partnerships, or blockchain integration efforts as of mid-June 2026. The host nation’s team, playing in front of home crowds, generating peak national attention, and not a single digital asset firm has locked in a deal.
The city of Seattle alone invested nearly $20 million in stadium preparations for the World Cup, including installing natural grass and upgrading signage. European and South American clubs have been issuing fan tokens through Socios.com for years, making the USMNT’s absence more pronounced.
What this means for crypto investors For traders watching CHZ, Kraken’s positioning, or the broader sports-crypto thesis, the World Cup is a real-time test case. Chiliz’s massive spend only pays off if fan token engagement actually grows during the tournament. If CHZ volume and Socios.com activity spike alongside viewership, it validates the model.
Kraken’s play is more straightforward. Brand visibility at this scale drives user acquisition, and being the official crypto partner of the World Cup is the kind of legitimacy signal that resonates with retail users who are still on the fence about opening an account.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Lionel Messi scored twice against Austria on June 22, bringing his career World Cup tally to 18 goals. That makes him the highest scorer in FIFA World Cup history, leapfrogging both Miroslav Klose’s men’s record of 16 and Brazil’s Marta, who held the overall record at 17.
Argentina won 2-0 in Dallas Stadium during their Group J match.
The fan token effect Argentina’s fan token, $ARG, built on the Chiliz blockchain, saw renewed trading interest almost immediately after Messi’s record-breaking performance.
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Messi has been an ambassador for Socios.com, the consumer-facing platform built on Chiliz, since March 2022. That deal was estimated at over $20 million, making him one of the highest-profile faces in the fan tokenization space.
Over $2 billion in trading activity has been reported across World Cup group-stage prediction markets during the 2026 tournament.
Inside the record-breaking night Messi missed a penalty kick earlier in the match, then responded by scoring twice from open play.
Messi had already tallied five goals in the 2026 World Cup heading into the Austria fixture. Two more brought him to 18 for his career, a number that now sits alone at the top of the all-time chart.
Meanwhile, internet personality IShowSpeed was livestreaming from inside Dallas Stadium. The self-proclaimed Cristiano Ronaldo superfan was not having the time of his life watching Messi rewrite history. His reaction went viral on social media. Speed’s disappointment has no direct financial implications.
What this means for the sports crypto market Fan token trading volumes are overwhelmingly sentiment-driven. A Messi goal creates a spike. A Messi loss creates a dip. The fundamental value proposition of these tokens, which typically grant holders voting rights on minor club decisions and access to exclusive content, doesn’t change based on match results.
The $2 billion-plus in World Cup prediction market activity tells a slightly different story. Prediction markets have a functional use case: they let people bet on outcomes with real informational value.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
The 2026 World Cup is quietly becoming the most crypto-native sporting event in history. As Group E action heats up with Côte d’Ivoire facing Curaçao in Philadelphia on June 25, the real story for the digital asset industry isn’t on the pitch. It’s in the sponsorship deals, blockchain infrastructure, and fan engagement platforms wrapping themselves around the tournament like a second skin.
Kraken became FIFA’s first Official Crypto Exchange Supporter on June 9, 2026. That’s not a jersey patch or a halftime ad buy. It’s a structural partnership that embeds a major crypto exchange into the operational fabric of the world’s most-watched sporting event.
The blockchain layer underneath the beautiful game Avalanche is powering what FIFA calls its Blockchain layer, handling NFTs and digital engagement initiatives throughout the tournament.
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Chiliz, through its Socios.com platform, continues to run the fan token ecosystem for multiple national teams. The platform already supports tokens like $POR and $ARG, though neither Curaçao nor Côte d’Ivoire currently have confirmed fan tokens on the platform.
Here’s the thing about fan tokens: they’re not just collectibles. They function as governance-lite instruments, giving holders voting rights on minor team decisions and access to exclusive experiences.
Curaçao’s debut tells a bigger story Curaçao qualified for its first World Cup on November 18, 2025, becoming the smallest nation by both population and area to ever reach the finals. The island nation has also been positioning itself as a crypto and gaming hub, making its World Cup presence feel oddly symbolic of the tournament’s broader digital ambitions.
The team’s recent 0-0 draw against Ecuador showed they can compete at this level. Côte d’Ivoire, meanwhile, opened their campaign with a tighter-than-expected 1-0 victory over Ecuador, setting up a Group E that could go any direction.
What this means for crypto investors The tokens most likely to see volume spikes during the tournament are CHZ and AVAX, driven primarily by prediction markets, staking activity, and fan token trading.
The risk, as always with event-driven crypto narratives, is that the volume surge proves temporary. Fan tokens historically spike during major tournaments and deflate afterward, following a pattern that’s closer to meme coin dynamics than utility token fundamentals. Investors who rode the 2022 World Cup fan token wave and held through the other side know this firsthand.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
The FIFA World Cup has always been a spectacle engineered to capture the entire planet’s attention for five weeks. This year, it is also apparently a crypto conference.
The 2026 tournament, running from June 11 to July 19 across the US, Canada, and Mexico, is the first edition to feature 48 teams. It is also the first to arrive with a designated Official Crypto Exchange Supporter. Kraken received that designation on June 9, 2026, making it the exchange formally attached to the most-watched sporting event on Earth.
What Kraken’s FIFA deal actually means Official sponsorship deals in sports are often more about logo placement than substance. This one carries a stated focus on fan education and crypto adoption, with FIFA pointing primarily at audiences in North America and Europe.
For Kraken specifically, the partnership arrives at a useful moment. The exchange has spent the better part of two years working through regulatory friction on both sides of the Atlantic. Being FIFA’s crypto partner is a reputational signal, one that says the exchange is stable enough for a governing body that represents 211 member associations to put its name next to.
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Chiliz is up 28%, and here’s why that’s not a coincidence Chiliz, the blockchain infrastructure behind the Socios.com fan token platform, has seen its native CHZ token rally 28% since the tournament began. The driver is straightforward: when fans want to buy tokens tied to their national teams, they need CHZ to do it.
Socios.com hosts fan tokens for several competing nations, including $ARG for Argentina, $POR for Portugal, and $BELG for Belgium. Each time one of those teams plays, trading volume in the corresponding token spikes. The 48-team format means more nations are represented, more tokens are in circulation, and more fans have skin in the game.
The broader Chiliz ecosystem now counts over 170 sports organizations as partners. The platform has also expanded beyond its original blockchain to include integrations with Solana and Base, which lowers friction for users already active in those ecosystems.
Prediction markets and the on-chain infrastructure underneath Beyond fan tokens, the tournament has activated a parallel layer of on-chain activity through prediction markets. Platforms operating on Chainlink oracle infrastructure, including ADI PredictStreet, are processing World Cup match outcomes in real time.
Chainlink’s oracle network pulls verified match result data from the real world and feeds it into smart contracts that settle bets automatically. Today’s fixtures, which include Switzerland vs. Canada and Scotland vs. Brazil, are already generating activity on these platforms.
For US viewers, matches are broadcast on FOX and FS1, with Spanish-language coverage on Telemundo and Universo, and 4K streaming available.
What investors should watch, and what should give them pause Crypto betting options including BTC, ETH, USDT, and USDC are now available across several platforms tied to the tournament. The expansion of payment options lowers the barrier for fans who already hold crypto but have not previously used it in a sports context.
The risk side is less glamorous but equally real. Fake fan tokens, fraudulent prediction platforms, and phishing schemes targeting newly onboarded users are an established pattern during major sporting events. Investors entering this space for the first time through World Cup marketing should treat unsolicited token recommendations with the same skepticism they would apply to any cold outreach.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Qatar captain Hassan Al-Haydos found the net in the 42nd minute against Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 24, cutting the deficit to 2-1 at halftime in Qatar’s 2026 FIFA World Cup opener. The goal, set up by Edmilson Junior’s pass into the box, was a bright spot in an otherwise tough first half for the Group B side.
Within hours of Al-Haydos trending globally, an Ethereum-based meme token literally named ALHAYDOS was drawing attention from speculators looking to ride the moment.
The World Cup’s crypto ecosystem is bigger than a meme coin The expanded 48-team tournament, the first of its kind, is being hosted across North America.
Kraken was announced as the Official Crypto Exchange Supporter for the 2026 FIFA World Cup on June 9. That’s not a jersey patch or a stadium banner deal. It’s a formal integration of a major exchange into the event’s commercial architecture.
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Then there’s Chiliz. The platform behind CHZ tokens provides fan tokens for multiple teams competing in the tournament. Fan tokens trade on exchanges and fluctuate in price based on team performance, sentiment, and hype cycles.
The ALHAYDOS meme token, operating on Ethereum at contract address 0x61f4ef15903731dd994b8ec53c47e68679d837d4, has no official connection to the player or the Qatar Football Association. It’s a speculative asset that exists because a captain scored a goal and the internet did what the internet does.
Why athlete-linked tokens keep appearing Chiliz fan tokens are issued in partnership with actual clubs and federations. They carry governance-lite features, letting holders vote on minor team decisions like kit designs or walkout music. The distinction matters because one model has contractual backing and recurring utility, while the other is pure narrative trading.
Chiliz-powered tokens historically see volume spikes during tournament play. National team tokens tied to competing squads tend to pump before group stage matches and sell off after eliminations.
What this means for investors Kraken’s official role as crypto exchange supporter for FIFA 2026 normalizes exchange branding alongside traditional sponsors. For the broader industry, it’s another data point suggesting that mainstream sports organizations are comfortable associating with crypto brands again after the FTX-era reputational damage.
Chiliz tokens for participating nations typically see their highest trading volumes during the first two weeks of a World Cup, when every team still has something to play for.
Meme tokens like ALHAYDOS carry no treasury, no roadmap, and no team behind them. Just a smart contract and a narrative.
The risk calculus is straightforward. Kraken’s sponsorship deal carries zero token risk for observers. Chiliz fan tokens carry moderate risk tied to team performance and broader market conditions. Unnamed meme tokens carry maximum risk with maximum potential short-term volatility.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
A Modular Platform for Any Blockchain Data ServiceThe Graph launched in 2020 with infrastructure purpose-built for Subgraphs. Over the past five years, The Graph has processed trillions of queries and demonstrated that decentralized data infrastructure can operate at scale. But blockchain data needs have evolved. Real-time streams, analytics platforms, custom APIs, and specialized query engines now serve dozens of distinct use cases that go beyond what Subgraphs alone can provide.
Next week, Horizon mainnet launches, introducing an upgrade designed to transform The Graph into a modular platform for any type of blockchain data service. This is the upgrade The Graph has been working toward since its inception.
Building the Standard for Multi-Service InfrastructureThe Graph built the underlying protocol that makes decentralized data services possible: economic security through staking, trust-minimized peer-to-peer micropayments, and verifiable query protocols. The innovation of Subgraphs became widely adopted as an industry standard for how blockchain data should be accessed and paid for. Now The Graph seeks to enable the mechanism for data service developers to innovate new use case optimized products within the protocol framework to scale web3.
Horizon transforms those battle-tested components into reusable primitives that any data service may leverage, subject to the protocol mechanism. The experience of serving billions of Subgraph queries now becomes the foundation for an ecosystem of data services secured, powered, and paid for with GRT.
How Horizon Works: Modular Primitives for Permissionless InnovationHorizon introduces three key innovations: a core staking protocol that provides economic security for any data service, a unified payments system that handles fees across all services, and a framework that lets anyone build new data services without rebuilding infrastructure from scratch, subject to protocol parameters.
The Subgraph Service continues as before, while the protocol now supports permission-minimized permissionless development of real-time data streams, preindexed APIs, analytics solutions, and other use case-optimized data services like:
Real-time data streams (Firehose and Substreams)Token and NFT APIsAnalytics solutions (Amp)Verifiability as a serviceCustom data delivery mechanismsThis is what "enabling builders to scale" is intended to mean. Whether building standard DeFi applications or pushing boundaries with AI analytics, high-frequency trading systems, or enterprise compliance-oriented tools, builders now have production-ready infrastructure designed to adapt to several use cases. Moreover, Horizon enables an entirely new innovation stream for data service developers to integrate new products into The Graph protocol, subject to governance and adoption.
The Graph Multi-Service Infrastructure for DeFi to Custom Enterprise Data NeedsDifferent use cases require different data services. A DeFi protocol tracking historical liquidity might use Subgraphs for its decentralized applications. The same protocol may need Substreams for real-time liquidation events and Token API for current balances and prices. Enterprises need custom data pipelines with on-premise deployment options that meet rigorous compliance and verifiability, and compliance-oriented requirements as specified by regulators across multiple jurisdictions.
Before Horizon, each use case required separate infrastructure, creating fragmentation and development bottlenecks. Horizon addresses this by providing a single protocol that supports multiple services with shared economic security and unified payments. Each service can scale independently, subject to protocol design, without compromising others.
Economic scaling matters too. More services result in additional GRT fees flowing through the protocol. Increased activity may lead to additional token burns where applicable, and issuance may be directed across multiple services through governance processes to fund innovation. Every new data service increases the protocol's functional scope and usage within the network, contributing to network effects that may benefit participants. However, there are no guarantees of value or returns.
More Data Services Generate More Fees and Stronger GRT Value AccrualHorizon unlocks new economic growth for the protocol. More services may result in additional GRT fees, token burns as defined by protocol parameters, and expanded participation across service providers and Delegators. Service providers can earn across multiple services, while Delegators gain exposure to diverse fee streams. Protocol issuance can be directed strategically across services to fund innovation without governance bottlenecks. Every new data service expands the protocol's utility.
The Graph now supports the full spectrum of blockchain data needs. Subgraphs remain the foundation for thousands of applications that need custom APIs. Token API serves wallets and marketplaces requiring balance and transfer data. Substreams power enterprise-scale projects with parallelized data processing. Amp provides verifiable, compliance-oriented onchain data that meets regulatory requirements. Each service operates independently while contributing to shared protocol growth.
Horizon represents years of building toward this moment. The Graph proved that decentralized data infrastructure works. Now the protocol is positioned to support a wider range of blockchain data demand as the industry matures. Where competitors fragment across single solutions, The Graph consolidates around shared infrastructure designed to evolve with each new service.
About The GraphThe Graph is a suite of blockchain data infrastructure products that extract, process, and deliver scalable blockchain data solutions across 60+ networks. The Graph enables application developers, data analysts, AI agents, and enterprise teams that need structured, real-time access to blockchain data. Products include Subgraphs, Firehose, Substreams, and Amp. As of early 2026, The Graph has served over 1.27 trillion queries to more than 75,000 projects, powered by a network of independent Indexers around the world.
Follow The Graph on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Reddit. Join the community on The Graph’s Telegram, join technical discussions on The Graph’s Discord.
TLDR: Native NEAR wallets integrated Intents functionality, enabling advanced cross-chain swap capabilities for users. Goldsky, The Graph, and Allium received funding to strengthen indexing services and historical data access. Community teams completed Pagoda wind-down transition, assuming control of Big Query dataset and Data Lake framework. The 2026 roadmap prioritizes expanded MPC networks, sharded RPC nodes, and privacy-focused infrastructure components. The NEAR Infrastructure Committee has released its annual review, detailing substantial progress made throughout 2025 in strengthening network foundations.
The report highlights key developments in chain abstraction technology, data infrastructure, and community ownership transitions.
Looking ahead, the committee outlined ambitious plans for 2026, focusing on scaling existing capabilities and introducing privacy-centered infrastructure components for the expanding ecosystem.
Chain Abstraction and Wallet Integration Drive Network Evolution The NEAR ecosystem achieved meaningful progress in chain abstraction during 2025, transforming theoretical concepts into functional reality.
Chain signatures technology reached full generalization, while NEAR Intents experienced rapid market adoption across multiple platforms.
The infrastructure committee supported this transition by funding critical components that enabled seamless cross-chain operations.
Few protocols have pioneered more foundational blockchain infrastructure than NEAR, from sharding to chain abstraction to confidential computing.
This recap from NEAR Infrastructure Committee highlights key infra work from 2025 and what's next for 2026. https://t.co/Chsztsjzmi pic.twitter.com/B7ukACk5qG
— NEAR Protocol (@NEARProtocol) January 15, 2026
Native wallet providers, including Meteor, HOT, Intear, Near Mobile, and Nightly, successfully integrated NEAR Intents functionality.
These integrations delivered advanced cross-chain swap capabilities to end users, representing one component of broader wallet infrastructure improvements.
The committee also backed proposals to modernize Fast Auth and OneClickConnect systems, enhancing user authentication processes across the network.
Tachyon emerged as the winning solution in the Chain Abstracted Relayer request for proposals. The multi-chain relayer utilizes NEAR chain signatures technology to facilitate cross-chain transactions.
Meanwhile, the committee approved funding for a new wallet selector and supported Privy integration to reinforce chain-agnostic user experiences.
The wallet infrastructure developments align with NEAR’s broader vision of removing technical barriers for mainstream users.
Universal authentication systems now allow users to interact with blockchain applications without understanding the underlying chain mechanics.
This approach positions the network for increased adoption in 2026 as agentic commerce applications emerge.
Data Infrastructure and Community Ownership Transitions Accessing blockchain data remained a priority throughout 2025, particularly given NEAR’s sub-second block times and multi-sharding architecture.
The infrastructure committee funded comprehensive indexing solutions and analytics tools to ensure data transparency for developers.
Goldsky and The Graph received support for indexing services, while Allium’s data lake solution enables historical blockchain data access.
NEARBlocks explorer continued receiving funding, expanding its multi-chain indexing capabilities to support NEAR Intents visibility.
The committee also approved proposals bringing institutional-grade analytics providers Token Terminal and Chainspect onto the network.
These integrations provide detailed data granularity required by advanced developers and institutional participants.
The completion of Pagoda’s wind-down initiative marked a significant milestone for decentralized infrastructure management.
Community teams assumed responsibility for previously centralized services, with Meteor maintaining the Big Query public dataset and Aurora managing the Data Lake framework.
Legacy components like Kit Wallet underwent orderly discontinuation, with user migration to modern alternatives.
For 2026, the committee plans to scale chain abstraction capabilities through an expanded MPC network and multi-chain verifiable execution via trusted execution environments.
Infrastructure preparation for network sharding will require new components, including sharded RPC nodes and cloud archival solutions.
Privacy-focused infrastructure will support confidential user-owned AI applications through novel wallet tools and emerging standards.
Multi-Service Infrastructure for the Onchain EconomyThe Graph Technical Roadmap presents the protocol, products, and economics of The Graph ecosystem in 2026. This roadmap envisions another pivotal year of evolution as the protocol and product suite evolve to meet consumer demand across the blockchain industry, serving developers, data scientists, AI agents, and institutional users with a high-performance, decentralized, and reliability-focused blockchain data infrastructure.
As blockchain infrastructure matures and adoption accelerates, data access requirements have become increasingly specialized. As chains scale to enable faster transactions, developers building real-time applications now need high-speed streaming solutions. Data analysts require SQL-native access for complex queries across multi-chain datasets. AI agents depend on standardized APIs for reliable integration, but require novel protocols to streamline access. Enterprises demand features that support compliance workflows with institutional-grade reliability. No single indexing approach consistently serves all these needs across chains and use cases.
The market requires purpose-built solutions operating within a unified, permissionless, and secure framework. With the launch of Horizon in December 2025, The Graph protocol evolved into a modular platform capable of supporting diverse blockchain data services. The developments outlined in this technical roadmap build on Horizon's architecture to deliver these specialized solutions.
This blog is the first in a two-part series. A forthcoming second blog will outline The Graph Foundation's strategic priorities and ecosystem initiatives supporting the successful execution of the technical roadmap.
This roadmap is oriented around three interconnected layers:
Protocol Layer: The permissionless infrastructure, including staking, payments, and governance, that enables anyone to build and operate a data service on The Graph.Product Layer: Specialized data services designed for specific markets and use cases, each following a pragmatic path from development through validation to protocol integration.Economic Layer: The mechanisms that align incentives across Indexers, Delegators, and consumers, ensuring value accrual and long-term network viability.1. Protocol Layer: The InfrastructureAs The Graph ecosystem expands beyond its original Subgraph-centric architecture, the protocol layer is evolving to support a diverse range of data services while maintaining the economic security and coordination that make decentralized infrastructure viable. Horizon creates a flexible framework designed to enable multiple specialized data services to operate within a unified economic and security model.
The technical architecture of Horizon introduces three innovations:
A core staking protocol provides economic security that extends to any data service.A unified payments system handles fees across all data services, creating a single economic layer for the entire protocol.A framework for permissionless data service development enables new providers to easily integrate into an existing network already running complex data infrastructure.These architectural improvements unlock the protocol's ability to scale horizontally - supporting new data services as they emerge and enabling existing data services to leverage the unique advantages of The Graph protocol while maintaining the security, reliability, and decentralization that support the core value propositions of The Graph Network.
2. Product Layer: The Growth EngineThe Graph ecosystem is advancing a diverse portfolio of data products designed to meet the evolving needs of developers, applications, and institutions. Each product serves distinct use cases, from real-time blockchain indexing to institutional-grade data access, allowing the ecosystem to deliver value across multiple market segments simultaneously.
As these products mature and demonstrate strong adoption, they follow a path toward deeper protocol integration through Horizon, enabling progressive decentralization that balances innovation speed with network resilience. This evolution reflects the ecosystem's commitment to sustainable growth: delivering practical solutions today while building the decentralized data infrastructure of tomorrow.
SubgraphsSubgraphs established the original indexing standard for blockchain data and remain foundational to The Graph ecosystem. Thousands of applications rely on Subgraphs today, and the successful upgrade of users from the hosted service to The Graph Network in 2024 demonstrated that decentralized infrastructure can indeed serve production workloads for blockchain developers.
In 2026, Subgraphs will continue serving developers, its core consumers, who rely on this standard, but the focus will deepen in two ways. First, The Graph will place more emphasis on improving quality and support to better serve small-to-medium-sized projects through cost and scaling efficiencies. This process includes network-first chain integrations, the Rewards Eligibility Oracle (REO), and Indexing Payments (DIPs) that all aim to ensure Indexers are appropriately incentivized to serve Subgraph users. Second, there will be added focus for AI compatibility to introduce Subgraph-compliant gateways as well as Subgraph MCP and Subgraph A2A integrations, making blockchain data queryable through natural language interfaces in tools like Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, and a host of other emerging AI interfaces. Integrating x402 means AI agents will be authorized to autonomously query the network and pay per-query with no setup keys in the Studio.
Blockchain JSON-RPC Data ServiceExpanding into blockchain JSON-RPC access represents a natural evolution of The Graph developer platform. While the protocol has historically specialized in indexed data queries, developers increasingly expect unified infrastructure that supports both advanced indexing and core blockchain read/write functionality. Enabling seamless access to these capabilities, whether through partnerships, integrations, or native services, strengthens The Graph’s role as a full-stack data layer for web3 applications.
The Graph ecosystem is well-positioned to support this expansion. Many infrastructure providers within and adjacent to the network already operate RPC capacity at scale. Aligning these capabilities with The Graph’s payment, security, and distribution frameworks creates new coordination opportunities across the ecosystem while improving the developer experience. This roadmap intentionally leaves room for multiple RCP implementation paths as the network validates the best structure for long-term growth.
SubstreamsSubstreams provides high-performance, low-latency blockchain data streaming designed for users with demanding technical requirements. The service has gained adoption among prominent DeFi protocols, DePIN and AI infrastructure, large-scale analytics platforms, and traditional financial institutions, particularly those requiring real-time transaction processing on high-throughput chains like Base, BSC, and Solana.
Development priorities for Substreams in 2026 focus on improving developer experience, expanding chain coverage, reducing streaming latency, and progressing toward integrating Substreams into The Graph protocol via Horizon. These improvements aim to strengthen Substreams' position as a valuable infrastructure layer for applications and institutions that require streaming blockchain data at scale.
Token APIMany blockchain applications, such as wallets, block explorers, marketplaces, and analytics platforms, require the same fundamental data: token balances, prices, transfers, swaps, and NFT metadata. While Subgraphs excel at custom indexing for protocol-specific use cases, these standardized data needs don't require custom development infrastructure.
The Graph Token API addresses this gap by providing pre-indexed, production-ready access to common token data information across multiple chains. Built on Substreams’ infrastructure, the Token API service delivers reliable, standardized data without requiring teams to build or maintain custom indexing solutions. Token API currently supports 10 chains, with continued expansion and feature development planned for 2026.
TychoThe Tycho initiative extends this roadmap deeper into DeFi by making onchain liquidity easier to access, understand, and use in real time. Instead of forcing teams to run their own nodes or decode complex protocol logic, Tycho tracks how liquidity changes across decentralized exchanges and delivers live updates through a simple streaming interface. It provides a single, consistent way to get prices and quotes across many DEXs, helping trading systems, solvers, and applications tap into more liquidity with far less setup and ongoing maintenance.
Also built on Substreams, Tycho removes much of the operational burden that slows teams down today. It keeps data accurate even when blockchains reorganize, updates quickly as markets change, and works across chains without requiring specialized infrastructure for each one. By lowering the barrier to high-quality liquidity data, Tycho helps market participants access deeper liquidity, improve execution, and build faster-moving products as onchain markets continue to grow.
AmpAmp introduces a new class of data infrastructure to The Graph ecosystem, adding a blockchain-native database purpose-built for institutional scale, trust, and performance. Designed to replace RPC-heavy architecture and brittle ETL (i.e., extract, transform, and load) pipelines, Amp transforms raw onchain activity into verifiable intelligence using SQL to enable teams to analyze, audit, and act on blockchain data in real-time across multiple chains.
With built-in lineage, audit-ready provenance, and enterprise-grade deployment options, Amp delivers the speed and consistency required for regulated environments, from payments and treasury oversight to risk management and AI-driven automation. As financial systems continue moving onchain, Amp ensures The Graph offers an infrastructure-grade solution that makes blockchain data reliable, auditable, and usable at global financial scale.
3. Economic Layer: SustainabilityThe Graph protocol's long-term viability depends on sustainable economics that deliver value to all network participants: Indexers running infrastructure, Delegators securing the network, developers and enterprises consuming data, and the broader ecosystem. Horizon and the expanded product suite are designed to strengthen this economic base.
Network EconomicsThe Graph protocol operates as a two-sided market connecting data providers to data consumers. Historically, the protocol's incentive mechanisms proved effective at scaling the supply side, attracting Indexers to The Graph Network, but demand was constrained by a few factors, including a relatively small - but growing - addressable market of blockchain developers.
Over the coming year, this supply-demand imbalance is expected to be addressed on both sides. On the demand side, Horizon unlocks new potential for an expanded product suite to serve a much larger addressable market and, consequently, may attract more supply-side participation and economic benefit. Meanwhile, JSON-RPC, Subgraphs, and Token API are expected to deepen network usage from developers and AI agents, while new growth is likely to come from analysts, solvers, and institutions attracted to expanded offerings such as Substreams, Amp, and Tycho.
The fundamental value accrual thesis is straightforward: more data services generate more protocol activity. More query volume means more fees flowing through the network. More fees can drive token burns. More data services require more staked GRT. And, as the product suite expands and adoption grows across these various users and use cases, this economic flywheel is expected to accelerate.
As part of this continued evolution, The Graph will offer compliance-ready products, on-premises deployment options, and dedicated support for the specific requirements of enterprise and institutional users. The DTCC's Great Collateral Experiment demonstrates how major financial institutions are already building with technology from The Graph, and this enterprise momentum is expected to accelerate as products like Amp and Substreams demonstrate increased value to these participants in the market.
On the supply side, the ecosystem can expect three major changes. The first is that issuance is expected to be redirected across multiple data services. Second, REO establishes a clearer proof-of-work standard to ensure that Indexing rewards correlate with actual value delivery rather than passive token holding. The current vision is to introduce REO for both Subgraphs and Substreams over the coming year. Third, the introduction of Indexer Payments (or DIPs) will provide a flexible protocol mechanism for consumers, chains, and ecosystem participants to incentivize Indexers.
The Graph has also been working on additional initiatives that help increase the utility of GRT. For example, the ecosystem recently added Chainlink’s CCIP protocol, and now GRT is bridged to Arbitrum, Base, and Avalanche with plans to extend to Solana in 2026. The ecosystem is also working on a Liquid Staking Initiative that aims to make delegation more accessible for token custodians by offering a native API in a single interface for centralized exchanges to improve the UX for their users.
The Graph Technical Roadmap 2026Q1 2026Horizon-Based Subgraph Service Mainnet rolloutRewards Eligibility Oracle proof-of-work standardExpanded execution client support for broader chain coverage of Reth & Besu instrumentationToken API Production-grade latency on 10 networks with continued chain expansionPrivate MVP of Tycho data serviceQ2 2026x402-compliant Subgraph gateway with MCP and A2A support enabledSubstreams MVP data service with GraphTally trust-minimized payments, Horizon-based P2P data service introducedPublic Tycho beta launchTestnet rollout of liquid stakingQ3 2026DIPs Subgraphs ServiceNetwork-First Subgraph Chain Integration ProcessExperimental JSON-RPC Data Service researchSubstreams Data Service Mainnet & Provider Selection Oracle rolloutToken API real-time token pricing with DEX and chain expansionMainnet rollout of liquid stakingQ4 2026Morpho launch of liquid stakingAmp-Powered Subgraphs for data extraction and transformationSubstreams probabilistic verifier for data integrity and service availabilitySubstreams REO testnet and mainnet launchAmp SQL Platform developmentAmp verifiable raw blockchain data releaseAmp Horizon-based data service testnet and mainnet launchDIPs Amp serviceThe Path ForwardThe Graph Network is a battle-tested and mature blockchain infrastructure continuously demonstrating reliability across applications and blockchain networks. The 2026 technical roadmap advances the protocol vision toward emerging market demand: as blockchain adoption accelerates, different users require different access to data.
No single approach can serve the evolving demands for blockchain data, but Horizon helps address this architectural challenge by enabling The Graph. The product strategy outlined in this roadmap targets distinct market segments, offering unique value, while contributing to the protocol's overall growth and sustainability. More data services available on The Graph generate more network activity and high-quality complementary services.
Stay informed as these initiatives progress and new developments emerge! Subscribe to the Community Calendar and join the next quarterly call for a deeper look at this technical roadmap and the Foundation’s strategic vision. Sign up for The Graph newsletter to receive monthly updates, and track progress in real time by visiting the roadmap webpage.
About The GraphThe Graph is a suite of blockchain data infrastructure products that extract, process, and deliver scalable blockchain data solutions across 60+ networks. The Graph enables application developers, data analysts, AI agents, and enterprise teams that need structured, real-time access to blockchain data. Products include Subgraphs, Firehose, Substreams, and Amp. As of early 2026, The Graph has served over 1.27 trillion queries to more than 75,000 projects, powered by a network of independent Indexers around the world.
Follow The Graph on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Reddit. Join the community on The Graph’s Telegram, join technical discussions on The Graph’s Discord.
The next phase of blockchain adoption will not be defined by blockspace alone. It will be defined by data.
As onchain finance, tokenization, AI agents, and institutional workflows scale, the demand for specialized, high-performance blockchain data infrastructure is accelerating. The Graph’s 2026 Technical Roadmap lays out an ambitious plan to evolve from a subgraph indexing network into a multi-service data platform purpose-built for the onchain economy.
The roadmap introduces a modular architecture across three layers — protocol, product, and economics — positioning The Graph as a decentralized, reliability-focused data backbone for developers, AI systems, enterprises, and institutional markets.
This is not a feature upgrade cycle. It is a structural pivot.
Why Does Blockchain Data Infrastructure Need to Evolve in 2026? Blockchain networks are faster. Applications are more complex. Users are more demanding. And institutional participants require compliance-ready reliability.
Developers building real-time applications now need streaming data with minimal latency. Data analysts require SQL-native querying across multi-chain datasets. AI agents need standardized APIs that allow autonomous querying and payments. Enterprises demand audit trails, provenance, and deployment flexibility.
No single indexing approach can meet all of these requirements consistently.
That market reality is driving the shift toward modular, purpose-built services operating within a unified economic and security framework — the core thesis behind Horizon, the architectural upgrade launched in late 2025.
Investor Takeaway Web3’s next growth phase depends on infrastructure, not speculation. Platforms that enable AI agents, institutional analytics, and real-time data flows will sit at the center of value creation in 2026.
What Changes at the Protocol Layer? Horizon transforms The Graph from a subgraph-only network into a multi-service protocol. The architecture introduces three foundational upgrades:
A core staking protocol that extends economic security to any data service. A unified payments layer handling fees across all services. A permissionless framework allowing new data services to integrate seamlessly. The importance here is horizontal scalability. Instead of expanding vertically within a single product, The Graph can now support multiple specialized services under one security and incentive model.
That structure enables experimentation while preserving economic coherence.
Investor Takeaway Modular protocol architecture reduces platform risk and increases optionality. Horizon positions The Graph to capture demand across multiple blockchain data verticals rather than relying on a single revenue stream.
Can Subgraphs Remain Relevant in an AI-Driven World? Subgraphs remain foundational, but their evolution in 2026 reflects a broader shift.
The focus moves toward:
Better cost efficiencies for small and mid-sized projects. Network-first chain integrations to incentivize Indexers. Rewards Eligibility Oracle (REO) to align rewards with delivered value. Direct Indexer Payments (DIPs) for clearer compensation structures. AI-native compatibility via x402 authorization, MCP integration, and agent-to-agent (A2A) support. Subgraphs are becoming machine-readable infrastructure for AI systems. Agents will be able to query blockchain data autonomously and pay per request without manual key management.
This matters. As AI agents transact onchain, they require secure, programmable access to reliable data streams.
Investor Takeaway AI-driven finance needs structured blockchain data. Subgraphs evolving toward AI compatibility positions The Graph inside the automation layer of the onchain economy.
Why Is JSON-RPC Expansion Strategically Important? Developers expect unified infrastructure. They do not want separate vendors for advanced indexing and basic blockchain reads.
The experimental JSON-RPC Data Service represents a move toward full-stack developer infrastructure. By aligning RPC access with The Graph’s payment and staking layers, the network can deepen integration while improving user experience.
This expansion broadens the addressable market beyond traditional indexing customers.
Investor Takeaway Expanding into RPC services increases total revenue potential and strengthens developer lock-in across the ecosystem.
Is Real-Time Streaming the Next Competitive Edge? Substreams provides low-latency blockchain data streaming, targeting high-throughput chains like Base, BSC, and Solana.
In 2026, Substreams development focuses on:
Execution client expansion. Peer-to-peer data service MVP. Mainnet rollout with provider selection oracle. Probabilistic verifiers for integrity and uptime. REO-based reward alignment. Streaming data at scale is not optional for institutional trading desks, analytics platforms, and DeFi protocols.
Investor Takeaway Low-latency streaming infrastructure supports DeFi, HFT-style execution, and institutional analytics. Substreams strengthens The Graph’s relevance in performance-sensitive markets.
How Does Token API Simplify Web3 Applications? Many applications need standardized token balances, pricing, transfers, and NFT metadata.
Instead of building custom indexing infrastructure, developers can rely on the Token API, built on Substreams, to access pre-indexed data across multiple chains.
This shifts The Graph from custom infrastructure toward standardized data provisioning — lowering onboarding friction.
What Is Tycho and Why Does Liquidity Data Matter? Tycho focuses on real-time DEX liquidity tracking across chains. It delivers consistent pricing and liquidity updates through a streaming interface, reducing operational overhead for trading systems and solvers.
Liquidity fragmentation is one of DeFi’s structural inefficiencies. Tycho aims to reduce that complexity.
Investor Takeaway Access to unified liquidity data improves execution efficiency and deepens DeFi composability — a key factor for institutional adoption.
Can Amp Bring Institutional-Grade Data to Blockchain? Amp introduces a blockchain-native SQL database layer with built-in lineage and audit-ready provenance.
Its goal is straightforward: replace brittle ETL pipelines and RPC-heavy workflows with verifiable, enterprise-grade blockchain data processing.
For regulated institutions, compliance and reliability are prerequisites — not optional upgrades.
Investor Takeaway Amp targets enterprise integration. If financial institutions increasingly move workflows onchain, SQL-native verifiable data becomes critical infrastructure.
Does the Economic Model Support Long-Term Sustainability? The roadmap emphasizes three economic upgrades:
Redirected issuance across multiple data services. REO standards aligning rewards with actual work performed. DIPs enabling flexible consumer-driven incentives. The value accrual thesis is linear:
More data services → More query volume → More protocol fees → More staking demand → Stronger token economics.
Cross-chain GRT staking expansion and liquid staking integrations further increase capital efficiency.
Investor Takeaway Economic alignment mechanisms reduce passive reward leakage and increase correlation between network usage and token value capture.
What Does 2026 Look Like for The Graph? Key milestones include:
Horizon-based Subgraph mainnet rollout. Substreams mainnet and verifier integration. Liquid staking deployment. Token API expansion with real-time pricing. Amp SQL platform launch. Tycho protocol integration. The roadmap is ambitious, but structurally coherent. Each product feeds into protocol activity. Each protocol upgrade strengthens economic alignment.
The Graph is positioning itself not just as a blockchain indexing network — but as a modular, decentralized data infrastructure stack capable of serving the AI economy, DeFi liquidity markets, tokenized RWAs, and institutional finance.
Final Thoughts: Infrastructure Wins Cycles Speculative cycles rotate. Infrastructure compounds.
The 2026 Technical Roadmap suggests that The Graph is leaning into a multi-service future where blockchain data becomes standardized, auditable, real-time, and AI-compatible.
If Web3 continues converging with institutional finance and intelligent automation, the bottleneck will not be blockspace — it will be reliable, verifiable data access.
That is the layer this roadmap targets.
Stay informed as these initiatives progress and new developments emerge! Subscribe to the Community Calendar and join the next quarterly call for a deeper look at this technical roadmap and the Foundation’s strategic vision. Sign up for The Graph newsletter to receive monthly updates, and track progress in real time by visiting the roadmap webpage.
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The Graph has published a detailed technical roadmap for 2026 that lays out an ambitious plan to transform the protocol from an indexing-focused network into a modular, multi-service data backbone for the on-chain economy. The document, which follows the rollout of the Horizon upgrade in December 2025, frames the next year as one of product expansion, tighter economic alignment, and deeper enterprise readiness for developers, AI agents, and institutional users.
At the heart of the roadmap are three interconnected layers: a protocol layer that preserves permissionless security and payment mechanics, a product layer that introduces purpose-built data services, and an economic layer designed to align incentives across Indexers, Delegators and consumers. The Graph argues that, as blockchains scale and use cases diversify, no single indexing approach can satisfy the full spectrum of needs, from SQL-native analytics and low-latency streaming to compliance-ready, on-premises deployments for institutions, and Horizon’s modular architecture is intended to host those varied services within a unified economic and security framework.
Protocol, Products, Economics Subgraphs, the protocol’s original indexing standard, will remain foundational in 2026 but with a renewed focus on quality, cost efficiency and AI compatibility. The roadmap promises Horizon-based Subgraph services rolling to mainnet in Q1 2026 alongside a Rewards Eligibility Oracle (REO) designed to tie indexing rewards more closely to delivered value, and Indexing Payments (DIPs) to give consumers and partners more direct ways to compensate indexers. Perhaps most notable for downstream AI development is a suite of Subgraph integrations, including x402-compliant gateways and agent-to-agent (A2A) support, that will let AI agents query the network and pay per-query without separate setup keys, widening access for tools such as Claude and ChatGPT.
Beyond Subgraphs, the roadmap maps a clear product expansion. Substreams, already a high-performance streaming service used by DeFi and analytics platforms, is slated for broader execution-client support, a Horizon-based P2P data service MVP, and a sequence of integrity and rewards upgrades through 2026 aimed at reducing latency and improving validator selection. The Graph is also moving to offer a Token API, a production-ready feed of balances, transfers and NFT metadata, and Tycho, a Substreams-built service to simplify access to on-chain liquidity and DEX pricing for trading systems and market makers. Amp, meanwhile, is presented as a blockchain-native, SQL-first database targeted at institutions that need verifiable, auditable and low-latency analytics for regulated workflows.
Economically, the foundation of the plan is straightforward but consequential: more diversified data services should drive higher protocol activity, increased fee flows, potential token burns and greater staking demand. The roadmap outlines how issuance and rewards will be redirected across services, how REO will set performance-based eligibility standards, and how liquid staking and cross-chain bridges for GRT (already extended to networks like Arbitrum, Base and Avalanche) will help institutional participants allocate capital more efficiently. These measures, the authors say, aim to turn The Graph into a two-sided market where supply and demand reinforce each other over time.
Industry observers and outlets have already flagged the roadmap as a clear statement of intent: to move from a single-product protocol to an extensible data platform capable of meeting the specialized needs of developers, AI systems and financial institutions. If the timelines hold, with major milestones scheduled through Q4 2026, including the public Tycho beta, Substreams mainnet, Amp’s SQL platform work and liquid staking phases, The Graph could well cement its role as a critical data layer for web3 applications.
For developers and projects already built on Subgraphs, the roadmap promises smoother economics and better tooling; for enterprises, it signals a path to compliant, auditable data services; and for the broader ecosystem, it presents a simple thesis: more services, more usage, more value captured by the protocol. The blog is the first in a two-part series, with a follow-up post expected to unpack the Foundation’s strategic priorities and ecosystem initiatives to ensure the technical plans translate into on-chain reality. Readers who want to track progress are invited to follow the community calendar, sign up for the newsletter, and join upcoming quarterly calls for live updates.
AUTHOR
Mushumir Butt is a seasoned crypto journalist with over three years of experience reporting on the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency. At Blockchain Reporter, he delivers insightful news, in‐depth project reviews, and precise price analysis and predictions. With a strong background in SEO and digital marketing, Mushumir excels at breaking down complex trends into clear, accessible content, ensuring readers stay ahead in the fast‐paced crypto space.
Ethereum remains the largest smart contract ecosystem by total value locked, active developers, and deployed applications. For teams building on top of it, the API layer determines how quickly they can ship, how reliably their applications perform, and how much infrastructure they end up managing themselves.
That decision has become more complex in 2026. AI agents are entering the Ethereum ecosystem in growing numbers, handling tasks that range from autonomous portfolio rebalancing to DeFi yield optimization. These agents need structured, real-time data delivered through interfaces that software can consume without human intervention. Not every Ethereum API is built for that.
This guide covers five Ethereum API providers, each designed for a different part of the development stack. For a broader comparison of crypto data providers across all chains, the best crypto apis guide covers additional options worth evaluating.
Why Ethereum APIs Matter for AI AgentsAI agents operating in crypto need more than raw RPC access. An autonomous portfolio manager, for example, needs token balances, historical price data, DeFi positions, and transaction histories delivered in a structured format it can parse and act on without custom data pipelines. A trading agent needs real-time pricing across multiple exchanges. A compliance agent needs wallet activity logs with enriched metadata.
The following types of AI agents are increasingly relying on Ethereum API infrastructure in 2026:
Portfolio rebalancing agents continuously monitor wallet holdings across chains and protocols, compare allocations against target weights, and execute trades or swaps to maintain balance. They require multi-chain wallet data, live pricing, and DeFi position tracking.DeFi yield optimization agents scan lending protocols, liquidity pools, and staking programs across Ethereum and its Layer 2 networks to identify optimal yield opportunities. They need protocol-level data covering APYs, TVL, and position metadata.Trading and arbitrage agents operate across centralized and decentralized exchanges, looking for price discrepancies and executing trades in milliseconds. They depend on aggregated market data with low latency.Research and sentiment agents ingest market data alongside news feeds and on-chain activity to generate reports, flag anomalies, or adjust risk parameters in real time.Multi-chain wallet monitoring agents track activity across Ethereum, its L2 rollups, and other EVM chains, alerting users to inbound transfers, suspicious transactions, or significant balance changes.Tax and compliance agents parse transaction histories, calculate cost basis, and generate regulatory reports. They need enriched transaction data with USD-denominated values and token metadata.Conversational crypto assistants respond to natural language queries about portfolio performance, token prices, or market conditions. These agents need a data interface that LLMs can call directly.Each of these agent types has different data requirements, but they share a common need: clean, structured, and reliable API access to Ethereum data. The providers below address different segments of that stack.
1. CoinStats Ethereum APICoinStats Ethereum API is built for developers and AI agents that need aggregated, application-ready Ethereum data without assembling multiple providers. Rather than exposing raw RPC endpoints, CoinStats API returns pre-structured wallet balances, transaction histories, DeFi positions, and market data through a unified REST interface. This makes it the most practical option for the majority of crypto development use cases where the goal is building applications on top of Ethereum data rather than interacting with the chain at the node level.
Ethereum and EVM CoverageThe API covers Ethereum mainnet alongside all major EVM-compatible networks through a single integration. Supported chains include Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, Base, and BSC, among others. A single API call using the multi-chain balance endpoint returns token holdings across all supported EVM chains simultaneously, so developers do not need separate integrations for each network.
For Ethereum specifically, the API returns native ETH and all ERC-20 token balances with USD pricing, 24-hour price changes, token metadata, and ranking data already enriched in the response. Transaction history endpoints deliver fully parsed records with gas fee tracking included. DeFi position tracking covers staking, lending, and liquidity pool holdings across 10,000+ protocols automatically, without requiring developers to integrate each protocol individually.
Broader Data SurfaceBeyond wallet data, the CoinStats API provides market data for 100,000+ cryptocurrencies aggregated from 200+ exchanges (including Binance, Coinbase, and Hyperliquid), covering 120+ blockchains in total. A news and sentiment feed aggregated from crypto media sources adds another data dimension for research-oriented applications. Wallet support extends to Solana, Bitcoin (including xpub/ypub/zpub formats), and additional non-EVM chains, all accessible through the same API key and consistent response schema.
MCP Server for AI Agent IntegrationCoinStats API provides a Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server alongside its REST API, which is the feature most relevant to the AI agent use case. The MCP Server exposes market data and wallet endpoints as callable tools for AI assistants and developer environments, including Claude, Cursor, and VS Code. This means AI agents can query Ethereum wallet balances, token prices, or DeFi positions using natural language through an MCP-compatible interface, without writing custom API integration code.
For teams building any of the seven agent types described above, particularly portfolio rebalancing agents, conversational crypto assistants, and research agents, the MCP Server removes the data integration layer entirely. The agent describes what it needs, and the MCP Server translates that into the appropriate API call.
Pricing and AccessCoinStats API uses a credit-based pricing model with a free tier available at signup. Credit costs vary by endpoint complexity: a single-chain Ethereum balance query costs 40 credits, while a multi-chain query across all EVM networks costs 400 credits. Developers can monitor usage in real time through the OpenAPI dashboard. The platform serves 1M monthly users, and its documentation is hosted at coinstats.app/api-docs/.
Best for: Most crypto development use cases. Developers and AI agents that need unified Ethereum and multi-chain data aggregation, portfolio tracking, DeFi position monitoring, and MCP-based AI integration through a single provider.
2. ChainstackChainstack is a multi-chain RPC and node infrastructure provider that gives developers direct access to Ethereum’s JSON-RPC interface. Where CoinStats API delivers aggregated, application-ready data, Chainstack provides the raw blockchain access layer: full and archive nodes, debug and trace methods, and WebSocket connections for real-time event streaming.
The platform supports 70+ chains and routes requests through a globally distributed infrastructure with 99.99% measured uptime. Ethereum developers get access to both mainnet and testnets (Sepolia, Hoodi) through authenticated endpoints with configurable rate limits. Chainstack’s Trader Node product offers low-latency mempool access for teams building MEV-aware applications or high-frequency trading infrastructure.
Pricing follows a request-unit model with a free tier offering 3 million request units per month at up to 25 requests per second. The Growth plan provides 20 million request units and 250 RPS for production workloads. Enterprise plans support custom RPS configurations and dedicated infrastructure. Chainstack holds SOC 2 Type II certification, which is relevant for teams operating under compliance requirements.
Best for: Developers building dApps, trading bots, or backend infrastructure that needs direct Ethereum node access with enterprise-grade reliability and compliance controls.
3. AnkrAnkr operates a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) that provides RPC access and pre-indexed blockchain data across 70+ chains. On Ethereum, Ankr offers both standard Node API access (JSON-RPC over HTTPS and WSS) and an Advanced API layer with pre-indexed, cached methods for faster queries.
The Advanced API is where Ankr differentiates itself from pure RPC providers. Methods like ankr_getAccountBalance and ankr_getTokenPrice return enriched data across multiple chains in a single request, reducing the number of calls needed to assemble a complete picture of a wallet’s holdings. NFT-specific endpoints cover ownership lookups, metadata retrieval, and transfer histories. Ankr supports multi-chain queries natively, so a single call can return token balances from Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, and other EVM chains simultaneously.
Pricing uses an API credit system pegged to USD, where different methods consume different credit amounts. A Freemium tier includes 200 million monthly API credits using public rate limits. The Premium tier unlocks private endpoints, debug and trace methods, higher rate limits, and WebSocket access. Ankr’s DePIN infrastructure spans 30+ global regions with an average response time of 56 milliseconds.
Best for: Developers who need a combination of standard RPC access and pre-indexed multi-chain data queries, with decentralized infrastructure and pay-per-method pricing.
4. Etherscan APIEtherscan is the standard block explorer for Ethereum, and its API provides programmatic access to the same indexed data the explorer displays. For developers who need verified contract ABIs, internal transaction traces, gas price estimates, or token transfer logs, Etherscan remains the primary source.
The API covers account balance and transaction lookups, ERC-20/ERC-721/ERC-1155 token transfer events, contract source code and verification status, gas tracker data, and block/uncle information. The event log endpoints are particularly useful for applications that need to filter and retrieve specific on-chain events without running their own indexer.
Etherscan operates separate API instances for Ethereum mainnet and its major L2/sidechain counterparts (Polygonscan, Arbiscan, BaseScan, and others), though each requires its own API key and has a slightly different endpoint structure. The free tier allows up to 5 calls per second, which is sufficient for development and low-traffic applications. Pro plans offer higher rate limits and additional endpoints.
A key limitation is that Etherscan is read-only and Ethereum-specific. It does not provide market data, pricing, portfolio aggregation, or DeFi position tracking. For AI agents, it serves best as a complementary data source for contract verification, gas estimation, and raw transaction lookups rather than as a primary data layer.
Best for: Developers who need verified contract data, event logs, gas estimates, and granular Ethereum transaction details for analytics, auditing, or compliance tools.
5. The GraphThe Graph is a decentralized indexing protocol that allows developers to build and query custom APIs (called subgraphs) for Ethereum smart contract data. Rather than pulling data through pre-built endpoints, developers define a schema and mapping logic that tells The Graph which contracts and events to index. The indexed data is then served through GraphQL queries.
As of 2026, The Graph indexes data across 40+ chains, with Ethereum accounting for the majority of deployed subgraphs. Over 1,100 projects use the protocol, including major DeFi applications like Uniswap, Aave, and Balancer. The Hosted Service has been fully deprecated; all subgraphs now run on the decentralized network, where indexers stake GRT tokens and are economically incentivized to serve accurate data.
The Graph is most valuable for teams that need custom, event-driven data models. A developer building a DEX analytics dashboard, for example, can define a subgraph that indexes every swap event on a specific contract and serves aggregated volume and price data through a GraphQL endpoint. This level of customization is not available through general-purpose REST APIs.
The trade-off is complexity. Building and maintaining subgraphs requires writing AssemblyScript mapping code and managing deployment through The Graph’s tooling. Query costs on the decentralized network are paid in GRT tokens, with pricing around $1.50 to $2 per 100,000 queries. A free tier of 100,000 queries per month is available through the Subgraph Studio.
Best for: Developers who need custom-indexed Ethereum smart contract data served through GraphQL, particularly for DeFi analytics, NFT marketplaces, and protocol dashboards.
Choosing the Right Ethereum APIThe five providers above serve fundamentally different roles in the Ethereum development stack, and the right choice depends on what you are building and how your application consumes data.
If your project is a portfolio tracker, a multi-chain dashboard, a financial reporting tool, or an AI agent that needs structured crypto data, CoinStats Ethereum API covers the broadest surface through a single integration. The MCP Server adds a layer that none of the other providers currently offer: the ability for AI agents and LLM-powered tools to query Ethereum data through conversational interfaces without custom integration code.
If you need direct Ethereum node access for dApp backends, smart contract interaction, or MEV-aware trading, Chainstack and Ankr provide the infrastructure layer. Chainstack offers the most predictable pricing and strongest compliance certifications, while Ankr adds pre-indexed multi-chain query methods on top of standard RPC.
For contract verification, gas estimation, and granular transaction data, Etherscan remains the standard reference source for Ethereum-specific lookups.
And for teams that need deeply customized, event-driven data models from specific smart contracts, The Graph provides indexing infrastructure that no pre-built API can replicate.
Many production applications combine two or more of these providers: CoinStats API for aggregated data and AI integration, a node provider like Chainstack for direct chain interaction, and The Graph for custom-indexed protocol data. Starting with a free tier across any of these providers and scaling into paid plans once usage patterns are clear is the most effective way to evaluate.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
The Graph has enabled x402 payments in its Graph Gateway, letting developers and AI agents buy on-chain data per request using USDC. The feature removes the need for API keys and accounts, instead using HTTP 402 “Payment Required” responses and on-chain payments on Base as authentication. The rollout plugs The Graph directly into the emerging x402 machine-payments stack pushed by Coinbase, Circle and major web infrastructure providers. The Graph has activated x402 payments inside its Graph Gateway, allowing developers and AI agents to purchase on-chain data queries on a pay-per-request basis using USDC, according to an announcement from the project’s official X account. The team said that “Graph Gateway now officially supports x402 Payments,” meaning clients can access indexed blockchain data “without the need for an API key, account, or backend panel” by paying directly over HTTP with stablecoins on Base.
The Graph turns HTTP 402 into a USDC paywall for Subgraphs The Graph’s network currently indexes data from multiple chains, spanning token information, DEX trading pairs, governance events, NFT metadata and protocol activity, exposing it through Subgraphs that power thousands of DeFi and Web3 applications. Until now, developers typically had to register with Subgraph Studio and obtain an API key to query this data at scale, but the project said x402 “changes this access model” by letting any agent that speaks HTTP and holds USDC pay for queries on demand.
Under the new flow, when an agent or program hits the x402-enabled endpoint, the server responds with an HTTP 402 status that includes pricing information in the headers, mirroring the standard described in Coinbase’s x402 documentation. The client then signs and broadcasts a USDC payment on the Base mainnet (or Base Sepolia for testing) and retries the request, at which point the Graph Gateway returns the requested data, with “the payment itself serv[ing] as authentication,” the team explained.
The update adds a new /api/x402/ interface, a payments SDK, support for any tools compatible with the x402 protocol, and USDC payments on both Base mainnet and Base Sepolia, while leaving the existing API key model unchanged, The Graph said. “Subgraph data is now directly accessible by any program or Agent that supports HTTP and holds USDC,” the announcement noted, positioning the network as a native data feed for AI agents, bots and machine-to-machine workflows.
x402 itself is an emerging open standard developed by Coinbase to revive the long-reserved HTTP 402 “Payment Required” code as a built-in payment step for web resources, including APIs and model context calls. Coinbase describes x402 as “a new open payment protocol … that enables instant, automatic stablecoin payments directly over HTTP,” with agents receiving a 402, paying in USDC, and then getting the resource, turning monetization into infrastructure rather than separate billing flows.
That concept is quickly spreading across the web stack: Circle has framed x402 as a backbone for “machine-to-machine micropayments with Gateway and USDC,” while Stripe, CoinGecko and others have rolled out x402-powered pay-per-use APIs for data and AI agent access, as reported by crypto.news. By wiring The Graph’s Subgraph data directly into that ecosystem, the new x402 integration effectively turns indexed on-chain data into a first-class commodity for AI-native commerce, gated not by human signups and API dashboards, but by HTTP status codes and USDC balances in autonomous wallets.
For most of its history, web data was consumed by humans. Search engines indexed it, but the information was read by real users. As the agentic web takes center stage, the primary consumers of this data are changing. The onus now increasingly falls to autonomous AI agents to make sense of information to perform tasks ranging from trading assets to booking services and more, without human intervention.
For these agents, data is not just information; it's fuel. And like a high-performance engine, an AI agent is only as reliable as the fuel it consumes. If an agent is fed delayed or incorrect data, it executes that mistake at machine speed, potentially cascading across protocols.
As a result, the maxim that "you are what you eat" applies to agents as it does to humans. To thrive, AI agents need a diet of real-time, high-quality onchain data. This is where The Graph's data infrastructure, specifically Subgraphs and Substreams, becomes the critical supply chain for the AI economy.
In traditional centralized systems, one trusts the database administrator. In web3, users trust the blockchain. That said, blockchain data in its raw form isn't easily absorbed. It needs to be processed before it is useful, and that's where Indexers on The Graph Network come in.
An AI agent can't efficiently scan Ethereum's entire history to find a specific historical token price or governance vote. It needs an Indexer to organize that data and deliver it in a timely fashion.
A centralized API could be used for this, but the problems are obvious: it introduces a single point of failure. If the API goes down or is manipulated, the agent acts on a false reality. What makes The Graph data products well-suited for AI applications is that they produce deterministic outputs. Deterministic data means that any Indexer running the same Subgraph or Substreams module against the same blockchain inputs will produce the same result. That consistency is what makes the data trustworthy enough for agents to act on at scale.
And when there's real money at stake, as there invariably is with agents trading and rebalancing DeFi portfolios, a lot is riding on that data being correct. This is where The Graph comes into play with Subgraphs and Substreams.
The Graph provides two distinct data products, each serving different needs within an AI application stack. The first of these is Subgraphs, which, to extend the culinary metaphor, are like a well-stocked pantry. Each Subgraph forms an open API that organizes blockchain data into a specific schema, queryable via GraphQL.
Subgraphs produce deterministic data. Because the indexing logic is open source, any party can inspect how the data was extracted and structured from raw chain activity. On The Graph Network, Indexers stake tokens to guarantee the accuracy of their work, creating economic incentives for reliable performance.
If an agent needs to check the current owner of a specific NFT before executing a trade, or the price of ETH at a given block, a Subgraph provides that state instantly. Whatever digital dish the agent desires to dine on, if it's stocked in the Subgraph larder, it'll be served up readily.
Completing this data stack is Substreams. A parallelized, streaming-first solution, Substreams is designed for massive throughput. Developers write Rust modules that process blockchain data in parallel, transforming it into any format needed at extremely high speeds.
Substreams is particularly well-suited to powering the data pipelines that AI applications and large language models depend on for training and fine-tuning. Rather than querying a live endpoint, AI and analytics teams use Substreams to ingest and transform terabytes of blockchain history, producing clean, structured datasets orders of magnitude faster than linear indexing.
Say an AI team wants to train a model to predict DeFi liquidity flows. Substreams can absorb the entire history of Uniswap transactions, transforming raw block data into a training-ready dataset in hours. That's a fundamentally different use case from what a Subgraph serves, and the distinction matters when designing an AI application stack.
Push the plate aside and consider a working example of agentic data delivery in action:
CreatorBid is an AI launchpad that allows users to create and tokenize AI agents, each with its own agent keys that are traded on bonding curves. This requires real-time pricing and ownership data. Traditional RPC providers were too slow and costly to handle the complex, real-time data streams generated by thousands of agent launches and trades.
The solution came via Subgraphs. Following integration, CreatorBid achieved sub-second data freshness, ensuring agents and users see price changes the moment they happen. This eliminated the need to maintain custom indexers, allowing the team to focus on agent logic rather than data plumbing.
And because the data is indexed through The Graph Network, the economic activity of these AI agents is transparent and consistently reproducible by anyone in the CreatorBid ecosystem. When the data problem is solved, the greatest impediment to agents realizing their full potential is removed.
The early internet organized information discovery through centralized search engines. The agentic internet requires something more demanding: infrastructure that allows machines to retrieve and act on high-quality, consistently produced data autonomously.
Subgraphs and Substreams serve that need in different ways. Subgraphs give agents fast, queryable access to structured onchain state. Substreams give AI teams the throughput to build and train on rich historical datasets. Neither replaces the other; they address different parts of the same problem.
The Graph's data products don't make AI agents intelligent. Instead, they ensure that when intelligence is applied, it operates on structured, deterministically produced data grounded in reliable onchain sources. That's crucial because the integrity of the input determines the integrity of the outcome.
As autonomous systems continue to expand across finance and digital commerce, the infrastructure that feeds them will become as strategically important as the models themselves. Within that stack, deterministic data indexing and high-performance streaming pipelines are the fuel lines that feed the agent economy.
About The GraphThe Graph is a suite of blockchain data infrastructure products that extract, process, and deliver scalable blockchain data solutions across 60+ networks. The Graph enables application developers, data analysts, AI agents, and enterprise teams that need structured, real-time access to blockchain data. Products include Subgraphs, Firehose, Substreams, and Amp. As of early 2026, The Graph has served over 1.27 trillion queries to more than 75,000 projects, powered by a network of independent Indexers around the world.
Follow The Graph on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Reddit. Join the community on The Graph’s Telegram, join technical discussions on The Graph’s Discord.
As AI tools become a standard part of the developer workflow, the way users access blockchain data is changing. Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations and AI agent skills are creating new interfaces for interacting with onchain data, allowing both developers and non-technical users to query live protocol data through natural language rather than writing GraphQL or SQL by hand.
The Graph ecosystem has been building toward this shift. With MCP servers now available for Subgraphs and a growing library of agent skills for Subgraphs and Substreams, AI assistants can connect directly to The Graph’s data infrastructure. This post covers what’s available today, how it works, and what’s coming next.
Background: What is a MCP?Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard, originally developed by Anthropic, that enables AI assistants and AI agents to connect to external data sources and tools. Rather than relying solely on training data or user-provided context, an MCP-enabled assistant can reach out to live data in real time, querying APIs, reading schemas, and returning structured results within a conversation.
For blockchain data, MCP addresses a longstanding access problem. Onchain data is open and transparent by design, but querying it has traditionally required specialized knowledge: writing GraphQL queries, understanding Subgraph schemas, or running custom indexing infrastructure. MCP collapses that workflow by letting AI handle the query construction and execution on the user’s behalf.
MCP Integrations Available TodaySubgraph Search MCPThe Subgraph Search MCP provides access to over 15,000 publicly available Subgraphs across The Graph Network. Through a standardized interface, AI assistants can search for relevant Subgraphs by keyword or contract address, inspect GraphQL schemas, and execute queries against specific deployments. Compatible clients include Claude, Cursor, and Cline.
Because The Graph hosts a large volume of public Subgraphs, covering major protocols like Uniswap, Aave, Compound, ENS, and many others across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, Optimism, BSC, and additional chains, the Subgraph MCP enables broad, cross-protocol queries without requiring users to deploy or maintain their own data infrastructure.
Substreams Search MCPThe Substreams Search MCP lets AI agents search, inspect, and analyze Substreams packages through natural language. This covers the full path from registry discovery to sink deployment. Through four tools, an assistant can search the Substreams.dev package registry by keyword and filter by network, inspect any package's full module graph, protobuf types, and dependency DAG, list a package's modules in lightweight form, and analyze a package's sink configuration to generate ready-to-run CLI commands for deployment. In practice, this means a developer can ask for "a Uniswap package on Polygon," see exactly what data it produces, and get the SQL schema and commands needed to start sinking that data—all without manually browsing the registry or decoding .spkg files by hand. The server runs with no installation via npx and supports both local clients like Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and Cursor and remote agents such as OpenClaw (SSE/HTTP), making it usable across a wide range of AI development setups.
Use Case Specific MCPsIn addition to the core MCP servers, community developers have built more targeted integrations. Notable examples include the Graph Aave MCP, which exposes 14 tools for querying Aave V2/V3 lending markets, governance data, user positions, and liquidation events; and the Graph Lending MCP, which provides unified access to 40+ lending protocols across multiple chains using Messari’s standardized Subgraph schemas.
The Lending MCP, in particular, demonstrates the value of standardized data. Because the underlying Subgraphs share a uniform schema, a single natural-language query, such as “where can I find the best stablecoin lending rates right now?”, can fan out across dozens of protocols and return comparable, structured results. Early testing has shown that the tool not only retrieves rate data but can contextualize it, explaining why certain strategies may be more effective than others based on current market conditions.
From MCPs to Skills: A New Paradigm for AI Agent DevelopmentMCP servers provide AI assistants with real-time data access, but each one requires manual configuration, including editing a config file, adding an API key, and restarting the client. As the number of available MCPs grows, this setup process can become a barrier, particularly for non-technical users.
Skills represent the next layer of abstraction. A skill is a downloadable package that bundles expert knowledge, tool configurations, and MCP access together so that an AI assistant gains a complete capability set without manual setup. Instead of configuring individual MCP connections, users install a skill, and the assistant has everything it needs to work with a given product or domain.
Subgraph SkillsSkills are now available to aid in Subgraph development. The Subgraph Skills repository provides a collection of open-source skills that give AI workflows expert-level knowledge for building, testing, and optimizing Subgraphs. Developers can describe what they want in natural language instead of memorizing schema syntax and manifest configuration. Available as a Claude Code plugin (and in an OpenClaw format for other agent frameworks), the package currently includes three skills:
Subgraph Development (subgraph-dev)
Core development knowledge spanning schema design and GraphQL types, manifest configuration (subgraph.yaml), AssemblyScript mapping handlers, data source templates, and contract bindings. It also covers Subgraph Composition for combining multiple Subgraphs, Subgraph Uncrashable for safe code generation, and ready-made patterns for common contract types like ERC-20, DEXs, NFTs, lending, staking, and governance protocols, so an assistant can scaffold a working Subgraph for a given protocol from a single prompt.
Subgraph Optimization (subgraph-optimization)
Performance best practices drawn directly from The Graph's documentation, including pruning with indexerHints, using @derivedFrom for arrays, immutable entities, Bytes as IDs, avoiding eth_calls, timeseries and aggregations, and grafting for hotfixes. With this skill installed, an assistant can review an existing Subgraph and recommend concrete changes to speed up indexing and reduce query latency.
Subgraph Testing (subgraph-testing)
A complete quality-assurance toolkit built around Matchstick and the Subgraph Linter. It covers static analysis to catch bugs before runtime, unit testing setup and patterns, mocking events and contract calls, entity assertions, data source mocking, and CI/CD integration, along with a troubleshooting guide for common indexing errors.
Together, these skills lower the barrier to Subgraph development considerably. Rather than reading through documentation across schema design, mapping logic, optimization, and testing, a developer can install one package and have an AI assistant that already knows The Graph's best practices. This means turning prompts like "create a schema for tracking DEX swaps" or "write unit tests for my Transfer handler" into working, optimized code.
Substreams SkillsThis pattern is also in production for Substreams. The Substreams Skills repository, developed by StreamingFast, provides a collection of open-source skills that give AI assistants expert-level knowledge for Substreams development. Available as a Claude Code plugin, the package currently includes:
Substreams Development (substreams-dev)
Comprehensive guidance on creating substreams.yaml manifests, writing efficient Rust modules (map, store, and index types), designing protobuf schemas, performance optimization, and debugging common issues.
Substreams SQL (substreams-sql)
Expert knowledge for building SQL database sinks, covering both Database Changes (CDC) and Relational Mappings approaches, with patterns for PostgreSQL and ClickHouse, including analytics-optimized schemas and time-series patterns.
Substreams Testing (substreams-testing)
A complete testing strategy covering unit testing with real blockchain data, integration testing, performance benchmarking, and CI/CD pipeline integration.
Installation is straightforward. In Claude Code, users run a single command to add the plugin and install the desired skills. The skills are also compatible with Cursor and VS Code (1.107+), with installation requiring only a directory path in the IDE’s settings.
The vision across The Graph ecosystem is to extend this skills model to each Subgraphs and Substreams so that each has a corresponding skill package giving AI agents access to the relevant MCPs, documentation, and domain expertise in a single installation.
Practical ApplicationsThe combination of MCP servers and skills opens a range of use cases across The Graph data products:
DeFi analysis: Query lending rates, liquidity pool depths, swap volumes, and yield opportunities across protocols and chains through natural language. The Lending MCP, for example, can compare stablecoin rates across 40+ protocols in a single query.Substreams development: With the Substreams skills installed, AI assistants can guide developers through building, testing, and deploying high-performance indexing pipelines—from manifest configuration through production optimization.Research and content: Writers and analysts can access real-time onchain data without learning GraphQL, enabling data-driven reporting on protocol activity, governance trends, and market dynamics.AI agent development: Autonomous agents can use The Graph MCP servers to access blockchain data programmatically, supporting use cases from automated trading analysis to onchain monitoring and alerting.Getting StartedDetailed documentation is available for each MCP and Skills repo:
What’s Ahead?MCP and skills represent the first phase of The Graph’s broader AI integration strategy. As outlined in the 2026 technical roadmap, upcoming developments include A2A (Agent-to-Agent) integrations that enable AI agents to communicate with each other through The Graph data layer, and x402 payment support that allows AI agents to autonomously query the network and pay per-query without requiring pre-configured API keys.
As additional skills packages are developed for Subgraphs, Substreams, and Amp, the goal is a consistent experience: install a skill, and the AI assistant gains full access to the relevant data product’s capabilities. Combined with The Graph’s open data infrastructure—over 15,000 public Subgraphs, pre-indexed token data across 10+ chains, and high-performance streaming via Substreams—these tools are making blockchain data accessible to a broader range of users and applications.
About The GraphThe Graph is a suite of blockchain data infrastructure products that extract, process, and deliver scalable blockchain data solutions across 60+ networks. The Graph enables application developers, data analysts, AI agents, and enterprise teams that need structured, real-time access to blockchain data. Products include Subgraphs, Firehose, Substreams, and Amp. As of early 2026, The Graph has served over 1.27 trillion queries to more than 75,000 projects, powered by a network of independent Indexers around the world.
Follow The Graph on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Reddit. Join the community on The Graph’s Telegram, join technical discussions on The Graph’s Discord.
SBI announced it will acquire cryptocurrency trading platform Bitbank for 46.7 billion yen.
According to Nikkei News, Japanese financial group SBI Holdings announced on the 25th that it will acquire cryptocurrency exchange platform bitbank for 46.7 billion yen (approximately $288 million). Upon completion of the transaction, SBI Group’s crypto asset custody scale is expected to exceed 1 trillion yen, making it one of the largest operators in Japan’s crypto industry. Per the plan, a subsidiary under SBI Holdings will acquire Bitbank shares from individual shareholders including its founders as early as August this year. Bitbank will then repurchase shares held by existing shareholders MIXI and Ceres by the end of October. If combining data from SBI’s own crypto exchange SBI VC Trade and Bitbank, as of April this year, the two firms had a total of around 2.92 million accounts and total custody assets of approximately 1.1 trillion yen. While different crypto exchanges disclose custody assets at varying time points, among Japan’s major industry competitors, bitFlyer held about 960 billion yen in custody assets as of the end of December 2025, and Coincheck had around 800 billion yen as of the end of March 2025.
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Bithumb was fined for sharing user data overseas without consent.
South Korean regulatory authorities have ordered cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb to pay a 210 million won (approximately $136,000) fine for sharing user personal information with overseas platforms without user consent. According to an announcement released Thursday by South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), the relevant user data exposure occurred between September and November 2025. At that time, Bithumb transferred user information to overseas platforms while sharing its USDT market order book data. The PIPC also noted that when assisting users with asset transfers to 13 overseas exchanges, Bithumb failed to obtain full and sufficient user consent before sharing personal details including names, wallet addresses, and dates of birth. For the two violations, the PIPC not only imposed the fine but also ordered Bithumb to rectify its processes and management systems related to cross-border transmission of user information.
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Analyst: SK Hynix’s US listing and fund-raising could trigger a valuation re-rating.
According to Bloomberg, SK Hynix is set to issue American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the Nasdaq on July 10. The listing aims to raise nearly $30 billion, making it one of the largest ADR issuances in history. Market participants widely believe the move will significantly expand its global investor base and may drive a valuation re-rating. Multiple asset management firms project that if its valuation converges with Micron Technology’s, its share price could rise by 30% over the next year. One fund manager noted that SK Hynix should trade at a valuation at least on par with Micron, as demand for memory chips is likely to outpace supply for years to come. The listing comes amid an unusually strong boom in the memory chip sector. Shares of Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung Electronics have all surged over 200% this year, marking their best annual performance in decades. Demand for High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) from AI servers is widely seen as the driver of a structural "memory supercycle".
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Jefferies: Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix’s example to list in the US via ADRs.
Jeff Kim, Head of Research at Jefferies, said Samsung is likely to follow SK Hynix in listing on the U.S. market via American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), which will boost the share price of the South Korean chipmaker whose valuation lags behind Micron. "Chip stocks are at a turning point. ADRs will serve as an important catalyst to drive their valuations," he added.
USA₮ expands to Celo and introduces Google Cloud support for distribution.
PANews reported on March 31 that, according to an official announcement from USA₮, the compliant digital dollar USA₮ issued by Anchorage Digital Bank has officially expanded to Celo, becoming its first supported network after Ethereum. The project also partnered with Self and Google Cloud to launch a mainnet faucet, allowing the distribution of USA₮ to compliant users through privacy-preserving human authentication.
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In brief Tether’s USAT stablecoin is launching on the Celo blockchain, its first expansion beyond Ethereum. Google Cloud provides infrastructure support for the stablecoin's distribution system. A privacy-preserving faucet allows verified users to access USAT tokens through proof-of-humanity verification. Tether announced Tuesday that the USAT stablecoin is expanding to the Celo blockchain, an Ethereum layer-2 scaling network, marking the regulated digital dollar's first deployment beyond the Ethereum mainnet.
The launch will bring USAT—a stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital and targeted at the U.S. market—to Celo, with Google Cloud providing infrastructure support alongside plans for the stablecoin to serve as a gas currency on the layer-2 network.
“More than 566 million people globally use USDT as a reliable way to access and move dollars, particularly in markets where traditional financial infrastructure falls short. Expanding USAT to Celo builds on that foundation by bringing regulated digital dollar infrastructure into one of the most active on-chain economies today,” said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, in a statement.
“This is how we continue to extend access to trusted, programmable money at a global scale,” he added. “What matters now is ensuring these systems are accessible in the environments where people are already transacting every day.”
Celo brings significant mobile reach through Opera MiniPay's 14 million wallet users globally. Celo co-founder and CEO Rene Reinsberg called the launch "a powerful validation of the infrastructure we've spent years building," highlighting Tether’s selection of Celo for its first layer-2 deployment for USAT following its initial January rollout on Ethereum.
The technical implementation includes a mainnet faucet system enabling verified users to access USAT through privacy-preserving proof-of-humanity verification developed with Self and Google Cloud. Following deployment, Celo governance will begin the process to enable USAT as a gas currency on the network.
“By bringing USAT to Opera MiniPay’s millions of mobile-first users, we are showing what the next generation of financial access looks like: trusted, compliant, and instantly available,” said Celo co-founder Rene Reinsberg, in a statement.
Deloitte performed the first USAT attestation report, released earlier this month, showing that the firm had $17.6 million in reserves—comprised of cash and U.S. Treasuries—backing about $17.5 million in tokens as of January 31.
Tether’s flagship USDT stablecoin, which leads the industry with an $184 million market cap, has never had a full independent audit from one of the “Big Four” accounting firms. However, last week, Tether said that it had signed one of the firms for an audit, but did not reveal which firm would do it. A subsequent Financial Times report said KPMG would conduct the audit.
Editor's note: This article was updated after publication for clarity.
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USA₮, the dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank and supported by Tether, is expanding to Celo, marking its first blockchain deployment beyond Ethereum.
The move places the regulated token on a network that has become one of the most active rails for real-world stablecoin use.
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Tether introduced the token in January as a US-regulated product issued through Anchorage Digital Bank under federal OCC oversight, positioning it as a domestic complement to USD₮ rather than a replacement for its flagship offshore stablecoin. The project was built to comply with the GENIUS Act and target US users through a more tightly regulated structure.
Celo gives USA₮ immediate access to a distribution network that already looks built for stablecoin payments. Opera said this month that MiniPay, its self-custodial wallet on Celo, has grown to more than 14 million account registrations and processed over 420 million transactions across more than 66 countries.
Opera and Celo also said the network now counts more than 4.23 million weekly active USD₮ users, underscoring how central stablecoins have become to activity on the chain.
That helps explain why Celo was chosen as the first expansion chain. The network has leaned into payments with features such as fee abstraction, which lets users pay gas in stablecoins instead of a native token, along with a mobile-first design geared toward cheap and simple transfers. Celo describes itself as an Ethereum layer 2 focused on fast, low-cost payments and real-world adoption.
Google Cloud is also part of the rollout, adding a broader infrastructure layer to the launch. The company has been expanding further into digital asset and payments infrastructure through products such as Universal Ledger, which it says is built for programmable transfers and compliance focused financial applications. In this case, the USA₮ rollout connects that infrastructure to a privacy preserving proof of humanity distribution model through Self.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
In brief Tether’s USAT stablecoin is launching on the Celo blockchain, its first expansion beyond Ethereum. Google Cloud provides infrastructure support for the stablecoin's distribution system. A privacy-preserving faucet allows verified users to access USAT tokens through proof-of-humanity verification. Tether announced Tuesday that the USAT stablecoin is expanding to the Celo blockchain, an Ethereum layer-2 scaling network, marking the regulated digital dollar's first deployment beyond the Ethereum mainnet.
The launch will bring USAT—a stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital and targeted at the U.S. market—to Celo, with Google Cloud providing infrastructure support alongside plans for the stablecoin to serve as a gas currency on the layer-2 network.
“More than 566 million people globally use USDT as a reliable way to access and move dollars, particularly in markets where traditional financial infrastructure falls short. Expanding USAT to Celo builds on that foundation by bringing regulated digital dollar infrastructure into one of the most active on-chain economies today,” said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, in a statement.
“This is how we continue to extend access to trusted, programmable money at a global scale,” he added. “What matters now is ensuring these systems are accessible in the environments where people are already transacting every day.”
Celo brings significant mobile reach through Opera MiniPay's 14 million wallet users globally. Celo co-founder and CEO Rene Reinsberg called the launch "a powerful validation of the infrastructure we've spent years building," highlighting Tether’s selection of Celo for its first layer-2 deployment for USAT following its initial January rollout on Ethereum.
The technical implementation includes a mainnet faucet system enabling verified users to access USAT through privacy-preserving proof-of-humanity verification developed with Self and Google Cloud. Following deployment, Celo governance will begin the process to enable USAT as a gas currency on the network.
“By bringing USAT to Opera MiniPay’s millions of mobile-first users, we are showing what the next generation of financial access looks like: trusted, compliant, and instantly available,” said Celo co-founder Rene Reinsberg, in a statement.
Deloitte performed the first USAT attestation report, released earlier this month, showing that the firm had $17.6 million in reserves—comprised of cash and U.S. Treasuries—backing about $17.5 million in tokens as of January 31.
Tether’s flagship USDT stablecoin, which leads the industry with an $184 million market cap, has never had a full independent audit from one of the “Big Four” accounting firms. However, last week, Tether said that it had signed one of the firms for an audit, but did not reveal which firm would do it. A subsequent Financial Times report said KPMG would conduct the audit.
Editor's note: This article was updated after publication for clarity.
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It marks the GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoin's first expansion beyond the Ethereum L1.
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Today, Tether announced that its USAT stablecoin – designed specifically to comply with the GENIUS Act – is expanding to the Celo blockchain.
What's the Scoop?New Deployment: USAT is now available on the Celo, an Ethereum L2 scaling solution focused on attracting real-world payments use cases. This deployment marks the GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoin's first expansion beyond the Ethereum L1.Powerful Partnership: The launch also introduces new distribution pathways for USAT. In collaboration with Self and Google Cloud, a mainnet faucet will enable verified users to access USAT through a privacy-preserving proof-of-humanity system.Compliant Alternative: Unlike Tether's flagship USDT stablecoin (which is only partially reserved by risk-free dollar investments and fails to comply with other chapters of the GENIUS Act), USAT is designed for compliance. Reserves are custodied by Anchorage Digital, a federally registered national trust bank, and monthly reserve attestations are supplied by Deloitte, in accordance with American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) standards.Transparency Push: Last week, Tether announced that it had, "entered a formal engagement with a Big Four accounting firm to complete its first full independent financial statement audit." Reporting from the Financial Times subsequently identified the unnamed auditor as KPMG, with pre-audit preparation provided by PwC.USA₮ Expands to Celo, Introducing Google Cloud-Supported Distribution for Regulated Digital Dollars - USA₮.io
31 March 2026 – USA₮, a digital dollar issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A., today announced its expansion to Celo, marking the first blockchain beyond Ethereum to support the stablecoin. The deployment brings USA₮ to a network that has become a leading global transport layer for stablecoins, expanding access to digital dollars for millions of […]
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Jack Inabinet is a Senior Analyst with a passion for exploring the bleeding edge of crypto and finance. Prior to joining Bankless, Jack worked as an analyst at HAL Real Estate where he conducted market research and financial analysis for commercial real estate development and acquisition activities in the Seattle region. He graduated from the University of Washington’s Michael G. Foster School of Business.
Tether’s USAT stablecoin – a regulated, U.S.-market digital dollar – is leaving Ethereum mainnet for the first time, landing on Celo, a mobile-first Ethereum layer-2 network with 14 million Opera MiniPay wallet users already transacting across 66+ countries.
That’s not a minor technical footnote. It’s a direct pipeline from regulated dollar infrastructure into one of the most active real-world stablecoin ecosystems on-chain today.
Tether announced the expansion on March 31, 2026, with Google Cloud providing infrastructure support and Celo governance set to vote on enabling USAT as the network’s native gas currency. Celo already hosts 4.23 million weekly active USDT users – so USAT isn’t arriving to an empty room.
Secure. Borderless. Built for the real world. 🌍$USAT is officially coming to @Celo, bringing the most trusted digital dollar to millions of mobile users. Additionally, we're launching with a privacy-first mainnet faucet powered by @googlecloud pic.twitter.com/fN2Lphmfe5
— USAT (@usat) March 31, 2026
What Does USAT on Celo Actually Mean for DeFi Fees and Liquidity? Start with the basics. Ethereum mainnet – the original blockchain where USAT launched in January 2026 – is powerful but expensive. During busy periods, a single token transfer can cost $5–$30 in gas fees. For someone sending $50 to a family member overseas, that’s simply not viable.
Celo is built differently. It’s an Ethereum layer-2 although that’s changing – Fees on Celo run fractions of a cent. That changes who can realistically use USAT.
After much consideration pic.twitter.com/N2Ae0bi4DU
— Celo.eth/acc 🦇 🌳 (@Celo) April 1, 2026
There’s another feature worth understanding: fee abstraction. On most blockchains, you need the network’s native token on hand just to pay transaction fees – even if you only want to move stablecoins. Celo removes that friction.
Once Celo governance approves USAT as a gas currency, users will be able to pay fees directly in USAT itself. No ETH, no CELO token required. For a first-time DeFi user, that’s the difference between a manageable experience and a confusing one.
The Google Cloud integration adds another layer. A mainnet faucet – a tool that distributes small amounts of tokens to verified users – will use privacy-preserving proof-of-humanity verification developed with a platform called Self.
Verified users can claim USAT without exposing personal data. That’s meaningful for regulated stablecoins that need to confirm users are real humans without building surveillance infrastructure.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino framed the move around access: “More than 566 million people globally use USDT as a reliable way to access and move dollars, particularly in markets where traditional financial infrastructure falls short.
” The Celo expansion brings USAT directly into the ecosystem those users are already operating in. Standard Chartered flagged Tuesday that stablecoin velocity has doubled in two years, with coins changing hands an average of six times per month – and the bank now projects the stablecoin market reaching $2 trillion in total market cap. USAT’s Celo move is timed into that acceleration.
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Stripe-owned Bridge, the stablecoin orchestration platform, added Celo support on May 6, 2026, connecting one of crypto's most active stablecoin networks to its single API for onramps, offramps, and cross-chain stablecoin transfers. The integration gives any business building on Bridge instant access to a chain where stablecoins are a daily payment rail rather than a trading instrument.
@stripe acquired Bridge in early 2025 in what was its largest deal at the time. The platform handles fiat-to-stablecoin flows, embedded wallets, cards, and cross-chain bridging. Celo support was teased at Stripe Sessions 2026 and was formally announced at CoinDesk's Consensus 2026 on May 6.
Celo on stage at Consensus 2026Why Celo?Celo launched in 2020 with stablecoin payments as its core use case. It migrated to an Ethereum Layer 2 in March 2025, and the network now offers sub-cent fees, one-second blocks, and gas payable directly in stablecoins. That last detail matters more than it sounds. Users do not need to hold a separate gas token to move money, which removes a major friction point for non-crypto-native users in emerging markets.
The stablecoin activity on Celo is real-world rather than speculative. The chain hosts remittances, savings, peer-to-peer payments, and commerce in places where traditional rails are slow or expensive.
What do the numbers actually look like?Here's what Celo brings to the table:
1.3 billion lifetime transactions on the network.Over $65 billion in stablecoin volume since the March 2025 Layer 2 migration.8x revenue growth since the network's tokenomics overhaul.600,000+ daily active users, one of the highest counts among Ethereum L2s.25 native stablecoins in circulation, including USDC, USDT, and the upcoming USA₮.15 million+ users on MiniPay across 66 countries.For context, $65 billion in stablecoin volume in just over a year places Celo in the upper tier of chains tracked for stablecoin activity, and its daily active user count is ahead of several Layer 2s with much higher fully diluted valuations.
What is MiniPay's role?@miniPay is a self-custodial wallet built into Opera's mobile browser. It runs on Celo and has driven more than 400 million stablecoin transactions to date. Roughly 50 Mini Apps power use cases like remittances, peer-to-peer payments, and merchant commerce. @opera has signaled plans to roll MiniPay out to its wider base, which exceeds 50 million browser users.
This is the wedge that makes Celo different from Layer 2s focused on DeFi yield. The user base is not chasing points programs. They are paying utility bills.
What did Celo say?Celo co-founder Marek Olszewski (@marek_) framed the move as closing the gap between stablecoin infrastructure and actual users.
"Celo was built for the people who actually need stablecoins to work, for remittances, for savings, for daily commerce in markets where legacy rails fall short. Bridge has built the most developer-ready platform for moving stablecoins at scale. Together, we're closing the gap between stablecoin infrastructure and real-world adoption," Olszewski said in the official announcement.
What does this mean for developers?For teams already building on Bridge, the integration removes the need to write separate logic for Celo on/off-ramps or bridging. They get access to Celo's user base through the same API they already use for other supported chains.
For @Celo, the upside is distribution. Stripe's customer base now has a direct line into a chain where stablecoin activity is already happening at scale, without the long onboarding cycle that comes with most chain integrations.
Bridge (@Stablecoin) has been adding chains and features rapidly through 2026, and Celo is one of the more strategically aligned additions given its payment-first design. The pitch from both sides is that this is less about adding another network to a list and more about pairing one of the most heavily used stablecoin chains with the fintech stack that already has the merchants.
Sources:
Celo Blog - official announcement of the Bridge integration with full network metrics and the Olszewski quote.Celo on X - official Celo account, posted the announcement thread with metrics breakdown on May 6, 2026.Bridge on X - Stripe-owned Bridge's official account covering platform updates and chain integrations.MiniPay on X - Opera's self-custodial wallet account, primary source for MiniPay user counts and country reach.
TLDR: Uniswap’s temp check vote targets BNB Chain, Polygon, and Celo, expanding the fee-and-burn to 13 chains. Every swap generates a protocol fee that bridges to Ethereum and permanently burns UNI at a dead address. CryptoQuant data shows rising UNI net outflows on Binance, pointing to smart money accumulation near lows. The governance vote closes May 21st with 18.1M UNI cast, 100% in favor, and the 10M quorum already cleared. Uniswap is moving to extend its fee-and-burn mechanism to BNB Chain, Polygon, and Celo. A temp check vote is currently underway, drawing strong community support.
Meanwhile, on-chain data from CryptoQuant shows rising net outflows on Binance as UNI trades near its lower price range. Together, these developments are drawing fresh attention to the token’s near-term outlook.
Governance Vote Targets 13-Chain Fee-and-Burn Rollout The proposal, shared via Snapshot.eth on behalf of Uniswap’s governance, aims to bring the fee-and-burn system to three additional networks. If passed, the rollout would cover 13 chains in total.
Every swap on these networks generates a protocol fee, which bridges back to Ethereum and permanently burns UNI at a dead address.
The system has been live since December across Ethereum and nine other networks. BNB Chain and Polygon would connect through Wormhole’s Native Token Transfer setup.
Celo was approved in an earlier vote but failed due to a configuration error. This proposal corrects that path and re-runs the execution.
Forum member Abel189 described the move as “a coherent next step” given Uniswap’s “increasingly multi-chain reality.”
@Uniswap is running a temp check to extend its fee-and-burn system to @bnbchain, Polygon, and @Celo, bringing the rollout to 13 chains.
Every swap generates a protocol fee that bridges back to Ethereum and permanently burns $UNI at a dead address. The system has been live since… pic.twitter.com/13h6954YSG
— Snapshot.eth (@SnapshotLabs) May 20, 2026
He supports incremental, chain-by-chain expansion but flagged growing cross-chain messaging complexity as a key watch item going forward.
L2BEAT’s governance team, including members Kaereste and Manugotsuka, voted in favor after their research team verified the implementation, contracts, and expected governance payloads.
They noted the unchanged fee structure and continuity with the previously approved framework as reasons for their support.
On-Chain Outflow Data Points to Accumulation Activity On the market side, CryptoQuant data on the Uniswap Exchange Netflow chart for Binance is showing notable movement.
As UNI’s price corrected deeply, netflow bars grew denser with large net outflows becoming more frequent. This pattern tends to reflect behavior from longer-term holders and smart money participants.
These outflows typically mean UNI is being withdrawn from Binance and moved to personal wallets for holding. That reduces the available supply on the exchange and lowers direct selling pressure over time. Analyst Rei Researcher noted this trend as a potential setup for an accumulation zone near the bottom.
Source: Cryptoquant
Currently, UNI is seeing a mild price recovery. If the outflow trend continues and exchange supply tightens further, buying demand could push the price higher.
The combination of reduced sell-side pressure and growing protocol utility through the burn mechanism adds a structural layer to that potential move.
The governance vote closes on May 21st at 5:30 PM UTC. As of the latest update, 258 wallets have cast 18.1 million UNI votes, with 100% in favor and the 10 million quorum already cleared.
Uniswap is pushing its protocol fee system to three more blockchains. A governance proposal posted on May 16 seeks to activate fee collection and UNI token burning on BNB Chain, Polygon, and Celo, bringing the total number of chains with live protocol fees to 13.
The move is part of a phased rollout that started on Ethereum mainnet in late December 2025. Since then, fees have already gone live on nine additional chains including Arbitrum, Base, OP Mainnet, Soneium, X Layer, Worldchain, and Zora. The latest expansion targets three of the most active alternative networks in DeFi.
How the fee structure works Protocol fees on the new chains are set at 1/5 of the pool fee. In English: if a liquidity pool charges a 0.30% swap fee, the protocol takes 0.06% off the top. That ratio mirrors what’s already running on the other integrated chains.
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Fees are routed into what Uniswap calls TokenJars on each respective chain. From there, the collected UNI tokens get bridged back to Ethereum mainnet and sent to the 0xdead address, a well-known burn address that permanently removes tokens from circulation.
The Celo activation is actually a fix. A prior governance proposal, numbered #94, contained a configuration error that prevented fees from going live on the network. This new proposal corrects that mistake while simultaneously onboarding BNB Chain and Polygon with fresh TokenJar infrastructure.
Governance moved fast on this one The proposal bypassed the usual Request for Comment stage entirely. Under a framework called UNIfication, the expansion qualified for an expedited governance process: a five-day Snapshot vote followed by an onchain vote. No prolonged debate period required.
Community response has been strongly supportive during the Snapshot voting process.
What this means for investors and traders For liquidity providers on BNB Chain, Polygon, and Celo, the 1/5 fee take means a slightly smaller share of swap fees flowing to their pockets. On a pool with a 0.30% fee, LPs would receive 0.24% instead of the full amount.
The cross-chain bridging component introduces its own set of risks. Bridge exploits have been among the most costly attack vectors in DeFi history. While the TokenJar and bridging architecture has been operating on other chains without incident, every new chain integration expands the attack surface.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
PANews reported on May 23 that Uniswap founder Hayden Adams stated that Uniswap's protocol fee mechanism is already running on nine blockchains and is designed to burn UNI. The Uniswap Foundation has initiated a new proposal to extend the V2 and V3 protocol fee mechanism to BNB Chain, Polygon, and Celo. This move will further increase the amount of UNI burned, reducing the total supply of UNI.
Uniswap DAO has unveiled a new proposal to extend its fee collection and UNI token burn mechanism to BNB Chain, Polygon, and Celo, aiming to expand the popular UNIfication program beyond its current scope on Ethereum and other major networks. If approved, this move would integrate three new blockchains into Uniswap’s evolving ecosystem, reinforcing its multi-chain ambitions.
The proposal, titled “Protocol Fee Expansion: Vote 3” (Proposal #96), appears on the Uniswap governance portal and is scheduled for a community vote starting May 24, 2026, according to the Uniswap Foundation calendar. Should the community approve, the fee-burning mechanism—already live on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, OP Mainnet, and several others—would now launch on these three additional chains.
Details in the proposal specify that, on BNB Chain and Polygon, fees from v2 pools will be channeled directly to a smart contract called TokenJar, while v3 factory management will transfer to the advanced V3OpenFeeAdapter contract. On Celo, implementation will be more complex due to previous technical issues, requiring the use of cross-chain accounts for some operations.
Glossary: TokenJar and Firepit are key smart contracts for Uniswap’s fee accrual and burning process. TokenJar gathers protocol fees on each chain, while Firepit completes the burn by destroying an equivalent amount of UNI tokens.
The system is designed so that accumulated protocol fees are consolidated in a central account. Users must first burn UNI, after which the burnt UNI is sent to the famed “0xdead” address on Ethereum’s mainnet for finalization.
Impact of the fee burn program on UniswapUNIfication was introduced on Uniswap in December 2025 via community vote, directly linking fee collection and burning to increased UNI token engagement. During this period, UNI rallied from $4.95 up to $9.25 in a short span, reflecting rising interest after implementation.
Back in March, Proposals 94 and 95 saw support from a combined 139 million UNI, enabling the fee collection mechanism to expand across eight further blockchains.
The latest Proposal 96 would bring the total number of UNIfication-enabled networks to eleven. On the activated chains, v2 pools split the standard 0.3% trading fee, with 0.25% going to liquidity providers and 0.05% allocated for the protocol. For v3 pools, fee parameters are set by the new adapter contract per the proposal.
Uniswap’s financial profile and network dataData from Defillama shows that Uniswap’s cumulative protocol fees across all blockchains have reached $5.57 billion to date. Annually, the protocol generates approximately $477 million in revenue, with $3.3 billion currently locked in the platform.
BNB Chain has contributed $117 million in total value locked (TVL) and $3.53 million in protocol fees over the last 30 days, while Polygon accounts for $76.5 million TVL and $1.02 million in fees for the same period. However, fee rewards for UNI holders are not yet distributed on these two networks pending proposal approval.
NetworkTotal Value Locked (TVL)30-Day FeesDistributed to UNI HoldersBNB Chain$117 million$3.53 millionNoPolygon$76.5 million$1.02 millionNoCelo$4.87 million$174,000NoRecent price movements captured by CryptoAppsy indicate that UNI is currently trading at $3.30, a steep decline of 92.7% from its all-time high of $44.97 in May 2021.
As part of UNIfication, a total of 100 million UNI sourced from the treasury were retrospectively burned as a lump sum, calculated to represent fees that might have been accrued from the program’s inception. The proposal was co-authored by Uniswap founder Hayden Adams.
Streamlined governance rolls out for faster changesThe latest proposal implements the expedited governance process introduced with UNIfication. Under this fast-tracked system, fee parameters discussed in the community can progress from a five-day Snapshot poll to an on-chain vote immediately, expediting important protocol updates.
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.
Polymarket confirmed a security exploit affected part of its infrastructure, pointing to a possible private key compromise involving a wallet used for top-up operations, while saying user funds and market resolution were safe.
In a Friday X post, Polymarket developers said contracts and core infrastructure were unaffected. Polymarket product lead Akanshu Jain and multiple other Polymarket employees also said user funds and market resolution are safe.
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT first flagged the exploit as a compromise to the Polymarket-linked UMA Conditional Tokens Framework (CTF) Adapter contract on Polygon, with the exploiter draining at least $520,000.
However, Josh Stevens, Polymarket’s vice president of engineering, said the contracts were safe and that the exploit was limited to a six-year-old private key used for internal top-up operations. All permissions tied to the key have been revoked, he said.
The UMA CTF adapter is an oracle contract used to help resolve Polymarket prediction markets through UMA’s Optimistic Oracle. Polymarket is the world’s second-largest prediction market with $3.7 billion in monthly trading volume, according to DefiLlama.
Polyscan data reviewed by Cointelegraph showed more than 100 small transfers into the alleged attacker wallet. Most were worth up to 5,000 Polygon (POL) tokens.
Address of the alleged Polymarket adapter contract attacker. Source: Polygonscan
Exploit losses climb past $600,000Multiple blockchain data platforms reported similar onchain activity tied to the suspected exploit.
Blockchain data visualization platform Bubblemaps said in a Friday X post that the attacker continues to remove about 5,000 POL tokens every 30 seconds, amassing about $600,000 in stolen funds at the time of writing.
Source: Bubblemaps
Blockchain data platform Lookonchain estimated that about $660,000 was drained from the Polymarket-linked contract as of 9:01 am UTC on Friday.
Polymarket integrated UMA’s optimistic oracle solution on Feb. 3, 2022, enabling automated and decentralized resolution for its prediction market contracts.
Cointelegraph contacted Polymarket and UMA for comment but had not received a response by publication.
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Polymarket’s UMA CTF Adapter contract on Polygon has reportedly been targeted in a suspected exploit, with onchain analysts warning users to pause activity.
Summary
ZachXBT flagged a suspected UMA CTF Adapter exploit on Polygon with losses above $520K reported. PeckShield said two addresses were drained and some stolen funds were deposited into ChangeNOW already. Bubblemaps warned attackers were removing 5,000 POL every 30 seconds as losses kept rising quickly. A ZachXBT community alert said Polymarket’s UMA CTF Adapter contract on Polygon was suspected of being attacked. The alert listed losses above $520,000 and named the attacker address as 0x8F98075db5d6C620e8D420A8c516E2F2059d9B91.
PeckShield later said ZachXBT had reported that the contract had “potentially been exploited.” The security firm said two addresses, 0x871D…9082 and 0xf61e…4805, were drained of about $520,000. It also said part of the stolen funds had already moved to ChangeNOW.
Polymarket protocol contributor Shantikiran Chanal said the security reports were linked to rewards payout activity. He said user funds and market resolution are safe, adding that early findings point to “a private key compromise of a wallet used for internal operations, not contracts or core infrastructure.”
We’re aware of the security reports linked to rewards payout. User funds and market resolution are safe.
Findings point to a private key compromise of a wallet used for internal operations, not contracts or core infrastructure.
More updates to follow.
— Shantikiran Chanal (@ShantikiranC) May 22, 2026 Bubblemaps warns users to pause activity Bubblemaps also warned that a Polymarket contract had been exploited. The firm said attackers were removing 5,000 POL every 30 seconds and estimated losses at about $600,000 at the time of its alert.
PolygonScan data for 0x871D…9082 shows repeated outgoing transfers of 5,000 POL to an address tagged as Polymarket’s UMA CTF Adapter Admin. Several transfers occurred about 30 seconds apart, matching the pattern flagged by Bubblemaps.
Source: PolygonScan Meanwhile, Polymarket’s documentation says the UMA CTF Adapter connects markets to UMA’s Optimistic Oracle. The adapter is used to request and retrieve resolution data for prediction markets built on the Conditional Tokens Framework.
Polymarket’s newer documentation says all outcomes on the platform are tokenized through CTF, with outcome tokens backed by locked pUSD. That makes the affected contract area relevant to how markets are created, resolved, and redeemed onchain.
This is not Polymarket’s first UMA-related controversy. Earlier coverage noted that a UMA whale allegedly influenced a Polymarket market outcome tied to a Trump-Ukraine mineral deal, raising questions over oracle voting power and market resolution trust.
Attack comes as Polymarket expands The incident comes as Polymarket has been moving from a crypto-native prediction platform into a larger market structure debate. Recent crypto.news coverage said prediction markets led by Polymarket and Kalshi have grown into one of finance’s fastest-moving sectors.
The platform has also faced regulatory and market-design pressure. Earlier coverage noted Wisconsin’s lawsuit against Polymarket, Kalshi, Coinbase, Robinhood, and Crypto.com-linked entities, arguing some prediction markets function as unlicensed gambling products.
The suspected exploit adds a new technical risk layer to that debate. Polymarket is already watched for questions around regulation, resolution rules, and market integrity. A contract-level incident now puts user safety and smart contract controls back in focus.
The latest alert also follows a wider run of DeFi security incidents. Recent reports covered Echo Protocol’s paused bridge after unauthorized eBTC minting, while the Verus Ethereum bridge case took a different turn after the exploiter returned 4,052 ETH, following an $11.5 million forged-transfer attack.
SBI announced it will acquire cryptocurrency trading platform Bitbank for 46.7 billion yen.
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An attacker is allegedly actively draining funds from Polymarket’s UMA CTF Adapter contract on Polygon in a live exploit first identified by onchain investigator ZachXBT. Losses have climbed from an initial $520,000 to more than $660,000 as the attack continues, with the attacker removing approximately 5,000 POL tokens every 30 seconds.
Bubblemaps, Lookonchain, and PeckShield have all independently confirmed the exploit is ongoing. Users have been advised to pause all Polymarket activity immediately.
However, in a latest update, Polymarket’s VP of Engineering has issued a clarification. No Polymarket contracts were exploited. No UMA contracts were exploited. All user funds on the platform remain safe.
How the Attack Is Unfolding
The attacker wallet is executing repeated small withdrawals from contracts linked to Polymarket’s UMA CTF Adapter system on Polygon at a consistent 30-second interval. Each transaction removes approximately 5,000 POL tokens. The cumulative total has already exceeded $660,000 and is rising.
To complicate recovery efforts the attacker has already split stolen funds across 15 separate wallet addresses. A portion of the stolen funds has been deposited into ChangeNOW, a swap service that can be used to convert and obscure the origin of funds.
The primary exploit address has been identified as 0x8F98075db5d6C620e8D420A8c516E2F2059d9B91. PeckShield also flagged two additional drained addresses: 0x871D…9082 and 0xf61e…4805.
Polymarket’s ResponsePolymarket confirmed it is investigating the issue and stated that user funds on the platform itself remain safe. The exploit appears contained to the UMA CTF Adapter contract rather than Polymarket’s core platform infrastructure.
No further official statement had been issued at the time of writing despite the attack remaining active.
What Users Should DoOnchain security analysts are advising all Polymarket users to pause activity on the platform until the exploit is fully contained and Polymarket issues a formal update. Anyone with funds in contracts connected to the UMA CTF Adapter on Polygon should monitor their positions closely.
The exploit remains active. Loss figures are expected to rise further before the attack is contained.
Story Ends Here
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