Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/24/world/gallery/vladimir-putin/index.html

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a landmark law that establishes a regulatory framework for crypto exchanges, digital depositories, and market participants, as reported by TASS. While the law introduces regulation for these entities, it maintains a ban on using cryptocurrency for domestic payments within Russia. The Bank of Russia is set to be the main regulator for this framework, with a transition period extending through July 2027. The regulation aims to create a legalized infrastructure for buying, selling, and storing digital currencies through licensed intermediaries.

Crypto markets appear to have interpreted the development as a mixed indicator for Bitcoin’s future price, especially in speculative markets. The introduction of regulatory clarity is seen as potentially positive for institutional engagement. However, the continued ban on using cryptocurrencies as a means of payment could dampen broader retail enthusiasm, which may be impacting market sentiment regarding Bitcoin’s ability to reach high price targets.

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Current market odds for Bitcoin reaching $200,000 by December 31, 2026, remain low, with pricing reflecting a 2% probability. The regulatory framework seems to have led to a moderate decrease in optimism for such high price levels, as suggested by the slight downtrend in odds for Bitcoin achieving significant price hikes.

Key Takeaways The new Russian law appears to provide regulatory clarity for crypto exchanges and digital depositories. Market pricing suggests that while regulatory clarity could encourage institutional participation, the ban on crypto payments may limit retail enthusiasm. Current odds for Bitcoin reaching $200,000 by the end of 2026 are at 2%, reflecting limited market confidence in achieving this price level. What to Watch Observers should monitor how the Bank of Russia implements the new regulatory framework and its impact on institutional engagement within the crypto market. Developments in international crypto regulations, particularly regarding the use of cryptocurrencies in cross-border trade, could influence market sentiment. Watching for any further legislative changes in Russia that might affect the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment method will also be pivotal in assessing future market movements.

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Term Structure

Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h December 31 2.1% — — View market → December 31 2.1% — — View market → December 31 2.4% — — View market → December 31 3.5% — — View market → December 31 4.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 8.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 24% — — View market → January 1 2027 4.2% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.2% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.1% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.7% — — View market → January 1 2027 5.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 56.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 10.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.7% — — View market → January 1 2027 3.2% — — View market → January 1 2027 35% — — View market → January 1 2027 15.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 7.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 4% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.8% — — View market → January 1 2027 1.3% — — View market → January 1 2027 0.9% — — View market → January 1 2027 10.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 22.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 33.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 50.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 71.5% — — View market →

First production Layer 2 to stream EIP-7928@worldnetwork says it will become the first production Layer 2 to stream EIP-7928 block access lists, going live on mainnet on August 17. The network will stream full block access lists inside every flashblock, allowing validators to begin verifying transactions while blocks are still being assembled. That inverts the usual approach, where nodes must replay everything sequentially after a block is complete.

Block-Level Access Lists (BALs) function like a map for the network, detailing which parts of the database will be accessed before the work begins. The execution layer stores the full Block Access List, including every account change that the transactions will touch, along with the final results of those changes. Because they give instant visibility into which transactions do not overlap, BALs allow nodes to perform parallel disk reads, fetching information for many transactions simultaneously.

Unlike Ethereum's planned implementation of EIP-7928, which is expected to arrive as part of the Glamsterdam upgrade, World Chain is deploying the feature through a runtime flag rather than a hard fork. This approach allows client operators to upgrade software ahead of the August 17 mainnet rollout without requiring a coordinated network-wide upgrade.

Throughput target and the Glamsterdam connectionInternal benchmarking on World Chain test networks showed validation latency remained effectively stable even as throughput increased substantially, reaching up to one gigagas per second using standard cloud infrastructure. According to the results, higher transaction throughput can be achieved without a corresponding increase in the computing resources required for independent chain verification.

The implementation is designed to address one of the blockchain industry's key scaling challenges: boosting transaction capacity without compromising decentralization by forcing validators to use increasingly powerful hardware.

For @ethereum, EIP-7928 is central to its own roadmap. Glamsterdam is Ethereum's next major network upgrade after Fusaka, combining the Gloas consensus layer fork and the Amsterdam execution layer fork. It is headlined by two changes: enshrined proposer-builder separation (EIP-7732), which moves block building into the protocol, and Block-Level Access Lists (EIP-7928), which enable parallel transaction execution. Glamsterdam is Ethereum's next hard fork after Fusaka, targeting activation at the end of August 2026.

World Chain's early rollout gives the broader Ethereum ecosystem a live production data point on EIP-7928 ahead of that hard fork, potentially informing how the feature performs under real network conditions.

Sources:
World Chain to launch streamed EIP-7928 block access lists - CoinJournal
Glamsterdam upgrade overview - Ethereum.org
Ethereum Glamsterdam upgrade: what changes for infrastructure - Chainstack

Key Highlights Table of Contents

Key HighlightsStablecoin Expansion Drives Q2 Financial PerformanceArc Network Rollout Strengthens Institutional PositioningPayment Infrastructure and Regulatory Wins Accelerate GrowthGet 3 Free Stock Ebooks Circle’s Q2 revenue increases 7% year-over-year as USDC circulation hits $73.3 billion. Quarterly onchain transaction volume for USDC jumps 151% to reach $14.8 trillion. Arc public mainnet scheduled for September 16 launch with leading financial institutions as validators. Company receives federal and New York trust charters for digital asset custody services. CRCL shares decline 0.41% despite positive quarterly performance and institutional momentum. Circle (CRCL) shares declined 0.41% to close at $62.99 even as the company posted solid second-quarter results driven by USDC expansion and institutional adoption. The stablecoin issuer reported revenue gains, increased network activity, and significant progress in its blockchain infrastructure initiatives. Trading saw early gains evaporate during morning hours before shares stabilized in afternoon trading.

Circle Internet Group, CRCL

Stablecoin Expansion Drives Q2 Financial Performance Circle posted $701 million in combined revenue and reserve income for the second quarter, representing 7% growth versus the prior year period. Reserve income totaled $668 million, supported by a 25% year-over-year increase in average USDC circulation. However, declining reserve return rates tempered what otherwise would have been stronger income expansion.

The quarter closed with USDC circulation standing at $73.3 billion, up 19% from the same period last year. Onchain transaction volume surged dramatically, climbing 151% to $14.8 trillion across all supported blockchain networks. Circle’s meaningful wallet count reached seven million, showing 24% annual growth.

The company swung to a profit of $48 million in net income from continuing operations, compared to a substantial loss in the year-ago quarter. Much of this improvement stemmed from reduced stock-based compensation expenses following Circle’s 2025 public market debut. Adjusted EBITDA grew 8% to $143 million, benefiting from higher reserve income generated by expanding circulation.

Arc Network Rollout Strengthens Institutional Positioning Circle announced that Arc’s public mainnet will go live on September 16, featuring privacy capabilities and programmable finance infrastructure. The platform is designed to facilitate tokenized real-world assets and agent-driven payment solutions. Over 100 institutional participants and ecosystem developers are currently building applications for the network.

Arc’s founding validator group includes prominent names such as BlackRock, DTCC, Galaxy, Mastercard, Visa, ICE, and Standard Chartered. These institutions will play critical roles in network security while developing settlement infrastructure and digital asset solutions. BlackRock has announced intentions to deploy its BUIDL tokenized liquidity fund natively on the Arc network.

DTCC is working to enable tokenized asset support through its securities custody platform. BNY, Standard Chartered, and additional financial institutions are exploring various use cases including custody services, settlement mechanisms, and stablecoin integration. These collaborations position Circle strategically within both traditional finance and emerging blockchain-based capital markets.

Payment Infrastructure and Regulatory Wins Accelerate Growth Circle broadened USDC availability through new partnerships with BNY, JCB, Nium, Grupo Bind, and Standard Chartered. These collaborations focus on custody solutions, cross-border payment rails, local currency conversion, and institutional-grade stablecoin services. Kakao Group has also begun evaluating USDC payment infrastructure for deployment in South Korea.

Circle Payments Network achieved $14.7 billion in annualized transaction volume by the end of the quarter. This represents a 76% sequential increase from the prior quarter, while the number of participating institutions grew 29% to reach 175. The platform also saw significant adoption for agent payments, with USDC settling 99.3% of x402 transaction volume.

On the regulatory front, Circle received approval for Circle National Trust, granting the company a national trust bank charter from federal regulators. New York state regulators simultaneously approved Circle New York Trust as a limited-purpose digital asset company. These dual approvals lay groundwork for expanded custody operations and potential future management of USDC reserve assets.

Pools opened four and a half hours behind its own countdown. Uniswap Labs claims the product and disclaims every token on it, including FRONG, the frog memecoin named after its teaser video that leads the platform at a $12.1 million valuation.

Uniswap opened pools.trade, a memecoin launchpad on Robinhood Chain, shortly after 5 p.m. ET on Aug. 5, four and a half hours after the public countdown it had set expired. The highest-valued token on it is FRONG, minted six days earlier by the same contracts, carrying the name of the video Uniswap used to tease the launch.

FRONG traded at $0.0121 as of 6:56 p.m. ET, up 31.9% on the day, with a fully diluted valuation of $12.1 million and $1.1 million in liquidity, according to Uniswap’s index on pools.trade. The site put 24-hour volume at $20.6 million and cumulative volume since launch at $60.96 million, across 172,694 buys from 12,206 wallets and 152,183 sells from 10,942 wallets. It counted 12,141 holders.

“Pools is built by Uniswap Labs,” Uniswap’s announcement of the product says. It also says the firm “has not independently reviewed or verified any token or project displayed” and that “the appearance of a token does not constitute a recommendation, endorsement, or solicitation.”

On X, Uniswap said Pools is “intended for memecoins: speculative, highly volatile assets that can go to zero.”

Countdown Starts NowUniswap’s account posted “Countdown starts now” with a link to pools.trade at 12:31 p.m. ET on Aug. 4. The post carried a night-vision clip of a frog sitting at the edge of a pond, overlaid with a timer counting down from 24 hours. It drew 1.1 million views. Hayden Adams, founder and CEO of Uniswap Labs, replied to it 91 minutes later with “wait whats this about?”

Until the launchpad opened, the pools.trade holding page carried the same clip, served from a file named frong.mp4, under page metadata reading “Coming soon from Uniswap.” FRONG was minted on July 30, five days before Uniswap posted the video publicly. How long the file had been reachable on the domain before then is unclear.

Two minutes before the 24-hour countdown ran out the following day, with the site still reading “DEPLOYING…”, Adams posted: “gonna be another ~hour / appreciate the patience and stay tuned.” That post has drawn more than 135,000 views. At 4:29 p.m. ET, still with nothing shipped, he posted a screenshot of an old DJ Khaled message about servers going down under demand.

The site was live by 5:10 p.m. ET, four hours and 39 minutes after the countdown expired, labeled “Beta” and returning empty loading states on some pages. The launch thread followed at 6:49 p.m. ET.

Minted Before The ProductFRONG’s contract is 0x6245…0c47, a verified ERC-20 with a fixed 1 billion supply, according to Robinhood Chain’s Blockscout explorer. It was created at 20:16:59 UTC on July 30 in block 23,595,790, and its Uniswap v4 pool was created in the same block.

The creating transaction is a multicall sent by an unidentified wallet, 0xE195…cE58, to a verified contract named LiquidityLauncher at 0x00004c4c…D4e9. The token itself was minted by a second verified contract, UERC20Factory, at 0x000000e2…d49b. Neither carried a public label tying it to Uniswap Labs before Wednesday’s announcement. Both were deployed by the same wallet, 0x32f4…07aD, through the public CREATE2 deployer used across EVM chains, LiquidityLauncher on July 6 and UERC20Factory on July 8, three weeks before FRONG appeared and four weeks before Uniswap posted its countdown.

Buying in the creation block is by design. Uniswap describes it as sniping mitigation: “Creators buy in the same block the token is launched, preventing snipers from being the first to buy a new token.”

No wallet holds a large share of the supply. The largest holder is Uniswap’s v4 PoolManager, with about 34.3 million FRONG, or 3.4%, which is the liquidity pool itself. The largest address outside it holds 16.2 million tokens, 1.6% of supply, and no other address in the top five holds more than 1.15%. Blockscout has recorded more than 600,000 transfers.

Zero Launchpad FeesPools charges no launchpad fee. Each token opens a standard Uniswap v4 pool with a 0.25% LP fee that autocompounds back into a protocol-held position the creator cannot withdraw. Creators can switch on an optional fee at launch and take 0.05% of that 25 basis points. Uniswap puts the industry comparison at “a fraction of the standard ~1% on other launchpads.”

Both launch formats mint a fixed 1 billion supply and end in a v4 pool. Instant Launch, which FRONG used, goes live immediately on a bonding curve with no graduation requirement. Crowd Launch runs a four-hour window in which bids fill gradually and price moves with demand, using TWAP bids to blunt bundling; it graduates at a $10,000 launch FDV or refunds every order.

Tokens launched on Pools surface in the Uniswap web app and wallet, in the Launch Aggregator tab Uniswap shipped on July 30, and through the Uniswap API that routes for MetaMask, Ledger and third-party aggregators.

Frogs All The Way DownFRONG topped a trending list that also carried pools.trade, a token named after the launchpad, at a $2.3 million valuation and up 2,468.3%; ChowdLaunch at $991,900; Unicorn Pegasus at $602,800, up 3,781.5%; ABE at $494,200; and Unifrog at $428,300, all per pools.trade’s own index. The platform dated FRONG, pools.trade, Unifrog and ABE to six days before it opened. Its “New” tab filled with tokens stamped “just now” within two hours of the announcement.

At least one copycat is circulating. A separate FRONG contract paired on Uniswap v2 at 0x99C9…01d0 holds $0.37 in liquidity and has recorded no trades in 24 hours, according to GeckoTerminal. Its contract is unverified, and Blockscout counts 796 holders.

Second Home On RobinhoodRobinhood Chain holds $426.9 million in total value locked and processed $322.8 million in DEX volume on Aug. 4, the last complete day, according to DefiLlama. Weekly volume is down 33% against the prior week. Uniswap’s v3 and v4 deployments are the chain’s two largest venues by volume, and Uniswap took $1.67 million in fees on the chain over 24 hours.

The chain has run on memecoins since it opened. The Defiant reported that Robinhood Chain metrics surged as the network leaned into memecoins in its first week, and that it overtook Base on daily active users three weeks after launch, with memecoin trading rather than the tokenized stock trading the chain was built for driving activity. Uniswap switched on protocol fees for v4 pools on July 27, nearly tripling protocol revenue.

UNI traded at $4.03, up 3.8% over 24 hours in a $3.83 to $4.19 range, with a market capitalization of $2.52 billion and $249 million in 24-hour volume, according to CoinGecko.

Solana’s tokenized gold market cap has exploded by 689% since August 2025, making it the fastest-growing blockchain for on-chain precious metals by a comfortable margin. Physical gold prices breached $5,000 per ounce in early 2026, and tokenized gold offers exposure with the added bonus of yield opportunities that a bar sitting in a vault simply can’t provide.

What’s driving the growth Three protocols are doing most of the heavy lifting in Solana’s tokenized gold ecosystem: Oro Finance, Matrixdock, and Streamex.

Oro Finance launched its $GOLD token in September 2025, offering holders an APY of 3-4% through institutional leasing arrangements. The project raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding in March 2025.

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Matrixdock entered the Solana scene in February 2026 with XAUm, a token backed by LBMA-certified gold.

Streamex rounds out the trio with similar yield-bearing features, though the protocol hasn’t disclosed specific APY figures.

The bigger picture for tokenized gold The entire tokenized gold market has been on a tear, with total market capitalization approaching $4.8 billion to $6 billion across gold and silver assets. Sector-wide trading volume hit $90.7 billion in Q1 2026 alone.

Within that broader boom, Solana recorded an average quarterly growth rate of 213.2% through the first half of 2026, vastly outpacing the average across all chains during the same period.

Solana’s tokenized gold products aren’t designed to sit passively in a wallet. They’re built to plug into DeFi protocols as collateral, liquidity pool assets, and yield-generating instruments.

What this means for investors The risk side of the equation deserves attention. A 3-4% APY on gold sounds attractive until you consider the counterparty risk embedded in institutional leasing arrangements. If the institutions borrowing that gold run into trouble, token holders could face losses that a simple spot gold position would avoid.

There’s also concentration risk within Solana’s tokenized gold ecosystem. Three primary protocols serving an entire chain’s gold market means that any smart contract vulnerability or custody failure at one project could shake confidence across the entire sector.

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

Offchain Lab’s partner studio and venture capital arm, Tandem, has invested in Camelot, an Arbitrum native decentralized exchange (DEX), solidifying its position as a native DEX in the Arbitrum ecosystem.

Originally launched without VC funding and entirely bootstrapped by the Arbitrum community, Camelot has become the largest protocol exclusively native to Arbitrum, exemplifying the strength and potential of community-driven development.

Iron Boots, a cofounder of Camelot, said that when DeFi first gained traction, a lot of the relationships built around it were short-term and yield-focused. Camelot, however, took a different approach.

“One of the key aspects of our vision has always been to build long-term relationships. It’s not just about the rewards we exchange; it’s about working together to create something for the future,” Iron Boots said.

From its inception, Camelot has been driven by a clear mission: to foster innovation, collaboration, and sustainable growth within a thriving blockchain ecosystem. This vision led the team to focus exclusively on building a decentralized exchange tailored to the unique needs of Arbitrum.

For the first six months from its inception, Camelot spent time and resources to convince users to join Arbitrum, this was because Camelot recognized Arbitrum as a network beyond its technical capabilities, offering an organic and vibrant ecosystem for developers and projects. The team also aligned with Arbitrum’s core mission of making blockchain more scalable and secure for everyone.

This fundamental alignment of values between Camelot and Arbitrum served as a cornerstone for the DEX’s approach. Rather than chasing short-term gains, Camelot prioritized structuring itself to fully commit to long-term, sustainable goals.

“Camelot has become a cornerstone of the Arbitrum ecosystem, providing a robust decentralized exchange and a hub for innovation and collaboration. Their commitment to supporting builders, fostering community growth, and aligning with Arbitrum’s vision has played a critical role in the network’s success,” A.J. Warner, Chief Strategy Officer at Offchain Labs said. “Camelot’s presence strengthens our ecosystem, and their focus on sustainability and long-term value creation continues to drive meaningful progress for all participants.”

Today, Camelot is not only a liquidity hub on Arbitrum but also a launchpad for new projects and a community-driven platform for builders. The DEX has over 75 partners and $46 billion in volume traded, generating over $48 million from fees and a TVL of $120 million. Additionally, Camelot was one of the first protocols to expand beyond Arbitrum One and Nova and has now been deployed on over 14 different Arbitrum chains.

Tandem’s investment in Camelot highlights Offchain Labs’ confidence in its mission and potential. “We are committed to supporting projects that push the boundaries of what’s possible in DeFi. Camelot’s approach to creating sustainable, community-driven solutions in the Arbitrum ecosystem made it a natural fit for our portfolio,” Ira Auerbach, Head of Tandem, said.

As Arbitrum expands, Camelot will be at the forefront. Although initially focused on Arbitrum One, Camelot now extends its reach to other Arbitrum chains. This shift has broadened Camelot’s role in the Arbitrum ecosystem, becoming a unifying force for liquidity across various networks.

“It’s not just about building technical bridges between chains; it’s about making all these different chains feel like an integral part of Arbitrum. A key part of our vision moving forward is figuring out how to create a cohesive and aligned ecosystem across all of them,” Iron Boots said.

Fluid H1 2026 RecapH1 was a half of real scale for Fluid — across metrics, product, and ecosystem reach.Top-level metricsFluid closed the first half of the year with $3.6B in total market size, $1.6B in active loans, and $18.1B in trading volume: #4 among lending protocols across all chains, and #2 DEX on Ethereum.

FinancialsRevenue reached ~$1.8M for the quarter, per Token Terminal. Fees generated totaled ~$9.5M, driven by asset price movement, DEX volatility, and leverage demand. About $FLUID Reserve and Buybacks continued at ~1.3% of supply.

Fluid's core productsFluid's five products all draw from one Fluid Liquidity Layer — a single Liquidity Layer powering all finance:

Fluid Lend — Deposit and earn.

Fluid Vaults — Borrow against collateral, up to 95% LTV, the highest in DeFi — made possible by an advanced liquidation engine that also enables partial liquidations to keep positions safe.

Fluid DEX — With Smart Collateral + Smart Debt — deep trading liquidity with new financial primitives.

Fluid Lite — Automated, one-click yield strategies for ETH and fixed interest USD yield.

Fluid LaaS — The most efficient way to bootstrap liquidity onchain for institutions, asset issuers, and RWAs — for a fraction of the cost. Isolated capital — not shared Liquidity Layer funds.

Built with Fluid TechnologyBeyond Fluid's own products, the same Liquidity Layer powers what partners build on top of it:

Curated Markets — Isolated, risk-curated markets, built and owned by partners on Fluid's rails. Like Bitwise's institutional vault.

Jupiter Lend (Solana) — Fluid Powered, by Jupiter Exchange.

Venus Flux (BNB Chain) — Fluid-powered, by Venus Protocol.

Where the Liquidity Layer is finding product-market fitFluid's capital efficiency has found real product-market fit as the cheapest way for stablecoin, RWA, and yield-bearing asset issuers to bootstrap liquidity and grow — built on three pillars: liquidity, utility, and distribution across all chains, including integration into Jupiter, the largest user base in crypto.

RWA-backed loans crossed ~$300M this quarter.

Liquidity-as-a-ServiceAn end-to-end managed service to bootstrap onchain liquidity — up to $500M in DEX liquidity per facility, with Fluid sourcing the entire balance sheet and managing the full position across all EVM chains and Solana. The asset issuer gets liquidity without operational lift. USD Lite depositors earn fixed income. Fluid earns the excess fee as protocol revenue. LaaS has already closed more than $100M in commitments.

Some of our first partners include:

USDai: a $100M facility supporting DEX liquidity for $USDai and $sUSDai

Huma Finance: DEX liquidity for $PST

Ecosystem expansionSolana now makes up roughly half of Fluid's total TVL. Two non-EVM ecosystem expansions are in the pipeline, including bringing Sui its first institutional credit market.

The white-label model continues to compound: Jupiter Lend, powered by Fluid, is now a $2B market. Bitwise × Ethena launched as the first third-party risk curator on Fluid, a $500M market. Venus Flux extended Fluid's engine into the BNB ecosystem.

Resilience, tested and rebuiltOn March 22nd, a malicious actor gained unauthorized access to Resolv's signing infrastructure, minting approximately $80M of uncollateralized USR. Fluid carried roughly $100M of exposure to the asset. The resulting shortfall — about $9.7M, or roughly 10% of total exposure — was covered directly from the DAO treasury. Every lender was made whole, there’s no users' funds lost. 

The response reshaped the quarter's engineering priorities:

Asset Listing Framework extended due diligence into offchain and cross-chain infrastructure, with granular asset documentation now published for every listing.

Black-swan infrastructure cut the time to react to market events down to minutes.

Granular limits are designed to shrink future shortfalls well below the ~10% seen during the Resolv incident.

Oracle v2 references multiple independent data points and can restrict risk-increasing actions — like borrowing or withdrawing — against a depegged asset, while still permitting actions that reduce risk, like repaying or depositing.

What's nextThe introduction of AGI3 — a proposed strategic partnership to bring regulated institutional capital onchain through a permissioned instance of Fluid, backed by Kinetic Group. That proposal is still live for DAO review, but it sets the direction for where Q3 has already gone.

Already underway in Q3

A full rebrand. New identity, new visual system, and a sharper articulation of what Fluid actually is: one Liquidity Layer powering apps, vaults, assets, and funds.

AGI3. The proposal moved from draft to live governance forum post, now open for community review and a DAO vote.

What's coming next

Solana DEX v1 — soon.

DEX v2 — development complete. Learn more about what's coming.

Fixed-Rate Borrowing — select any loan duration and lock in a fixed rate upfront, eliminating variable-rate exposure entirely. Genuine predictability in onchain borrowing, for the first time, enabling serious capital planning for individuals and institutions alike.

Custodied Collateral — offchain custody, onchain borrowing. A direct bridge between traditional finance custody requirements and DeFi's capital efficiency.

Institutional Deployments— new institutional asset managers, who set risk parameters and lending conditions across the Fluid ecosystem, turning the Liquidity Layer into programmable, professionally managed credit markets. 

Stay Fluid 🌊

@OndoFinance has officially integrated tokenized gold and silver as collateral on its perpetual futures platform, @OndoPerps, opening a new use case for precious-metal real-world assets (RWAs) in on-chain derivatives trading.

Putting Idle Metal to Work The update lets traders post tokenized gold and silver holdings directly as margin to back leveraged positions. Previously, accessing high-leverage exposure typically meant selling those holdings outright or parking capital in stablecoins. By using tokenized asset holdings directly as collateral for perpetual futures positions, traders no longer need to maintain separate capital reserves across multiple platforms. The move extends a collateral model that @OndoPerps originally built around tokenized equities and stablecoins to cover precious metals.

Ondo Perps launched in July 2026 as the first perpetual futures platform for equities and commodities to support tokenized holdings and stablecoins as collateral, combining 24/7 trading with up to 20x leverage and liquidity the firm says is comparable to conventional futures and options markets. The platform claims the fastest execution speed of any permissionless perps exchange, with order routing, margin updates, and liquidations processed in real time while maintaining decentralization guarantees.

Rapid Volume Growth The gold and silver collateral update arrives as @OndoPerps continues to scale quickly. The platform has now surpassed $6.5 billion in cumulative trading volume. According to data from DeFiLlama, Ondo Perps generated more than $320 million in trading volume over a single 24-hour period, with seven-day volume reaching $1.497 billion. The milestone came less than one month after Ondo Perps went live on July 7, making it one of the fastest-growing platforms focused on real-world asset perpetual futures.

By late July, it ranked fourth among all perpetual decentralized exchanges by tokenized equity volume, ahead of Lighter and AsterDEX. The integration of gold and silver as productive collateral is designed to deepen that momentum by giving commodity RWA holders a reason to stay active on the platform rather than sitting on static positions.

The platform offers up to 20x leverage depending on the supported market and trading conditions, with all contracts available for permissionless trading 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, without expiry dates.

Sources:
Ondo Perps Launch Press Release, PR Newswire
Ondo Perps Breaks Past $300M in 24-Hour Volume, TheStreet Crypto
Introducing Ondo Perps, Ondo Finance Official Blog

Altcoins

5 August 2026 | 14:18 Hyperliquid processed more volume and attracted more traders in Q2, but lower-fee markets took a larger share of activity, leaving protocol and holder revenue below the previous quarter.

Key Takeaways HYPE now faces stacked resistance near $57-$58. HIP-3 captured 32.2% of matched quarterly volume. June delivered Hyperliquid’s strongest revenue since November. Assistance Fund holdings reached 45.56 million HYPE. Team claimed only 4.3% of quarterly entitlement. Outcome markets generated volume but almost no fees. HYPE Tests a Stacked Resistance Zone When the chart was captured on August 5, HYPE traded near $57, up approximately 3.9% during the session. The rebound brought the price into two technical barriers at once: the 0.5 Fibonacci retracement and the 100-day simple moving average near $58.

The overlap makes the $57–$58 area a decision point rather than a confirmed breakout. Both levels previously acted as barriers, increasing the risk that buyers lose momentum before establishing support above them.

HYPE rebounded into the $57–$58 resistance zone, where the 0.5 Fibonacci retracement and 100-day SMA converge. Chart: TradingView, August 5, 2026. A daily close above the zone followed by a successful retest would improve the structure. The next major resistance sits around $62–$63, where the 50-day SMA was positioned near $62.5. Above that, the broader resistance area near $65 would return to focus.

Until the breakout is confirmed, a rejection remains possible. The first important support sits around $52, where buyers stopped the latest decline. Losing that area would expose the lower support near $47.

The daily RSI had recovered to approximately 47.5, showing improved momentum during the rebound but no decisive move into bullish territory above 50.

The technical setup now sits against a mixed fundamental backdrop. Hyperliquid entered Q3 with stronger trading activity, but lower quarterly revenue and a growing reliance on lower-fee markets.

The Hyperliquid 2Q2026 Quarterly Report is not a conventional company-issued financial statement. HRC, GLC Research and Four Pillars reconstructed the figures from public ledger records, independent data providers and protocol disclosures.

The report shows a clear gap between activity and monetisation. Protocol revenue declined 6.6% to $169.37 million and the report’s holder revenue measure fell 4.7% to $142.88 million, even as overall protocol TVL increased 16.8% to $5.72 billion.

More Trading Activity Produced Less Revenue Traders paid $197.67 million in gross fees during Q2, down 5.9% from $210.04 million in the previous quarter. Of that total, approximately $28.31 million accrued to builders, deployers and other ecosystem participants rather than becoming protocol revenue.

Several operating indicators still moved higher:

Matched volume rose 2.7% to $662.4 billion. Average open interest increased 25.4% to $8.68 billion. Quarter-end open interest climbed 28.6% to $9.31 billion. Average daily perpetual traders increased 19.8% to 54,294. Spot volume improved 5.3% to $16.2 billion. Revenue fell because more activity shifted from Hyperliquid’s higher-fee native perpetual markets into lower-priced builder-deployed markets.

The quarter also ended more strongly than it began. Protocol revenue fell to $46.19 million in April, recovered to $53.14 million in May and reached $70.03 million in June, its strongest monthly result since November 2025.

Hyperliquid monthly protocol and holder revenue chart. HIP-3 Became Hyperliquid’s Main Growth Engine Native perpetual volume declined for a third consecutive quarter, falling 12.7% to $432.9 billion. Growth instead came from HIP-3 builder-deployed perpetual markets.

HIP-3 volume increased 59.6% to $213.3 billion and represented 32.2% of all matched volume, up from 20.7% in Q1. HIP-3 open interest ended the quarter at $3.09 billion, a further 47.2% increase.

Under HIP-3, independent builders can deploy perpetual markets on Hyperliquid’s infrastructure rather than waiting for the protocol’s main listing process. Deployers choose important market parameters, provide their own front ends and can receive a share of the fees generated by their markets.

This expands the range of markets available on Hyperliquid, but HIP-3 volume generates less protocol revenue than activity on the native perpetual venue. Hyperliquid’s Growth Mode fee structure reduces protocol fees, rebates, volume contributions and certain rate-limit contributions by 90% for eligible markets, helping them attract traders without immediately replacing the revenue lost from declining native activity.

One Deployer Captured Almost All HIP-3 Volume The listing layer also became more concentrated. Trade[XYZ] accounted for approximately 81% of HIP-3 volume in February and 93% in April. By July, after the quarter ended, its share had approached 100% as other deployers wound down or migrated their markets.

Shared liquidity means that fewer deployers do not necessarily translate into less underlying market liquidity, as multiple interfaces can route users into the same order book. The concentration still matters at the deployment layer: Trade[XYZ] may benefit from stronger liquidity and easier market discovery, but users now have fewer meaningful alternatives.

Buybacks Continued, but the HYPE Price Changed the Math The Assistance Fund purchased 2.77 million HYPE for $140.66 million during Q2, giving the quarter an average execution price of approximately $50.80.

The dollar amount was only moderately below the $147.72 million deployed in Q1, but the number of tokens purchased fell 43.9% from 4.94 million HYPE because the token traded at substantially higher prices. The fund remained a source of market demand, although each dollar acquired fewer tokens.

Assistance Fund holdings ended the quarter at 45.56 million HYPE, an increase of 6.4% from Q1 and 78.6% from the same period a year earlier. The report found no discretionary sales during the quarter.

Low Team Claims Reduced Immediate Supply Pressure Approximately 29.8 million HYPE became available to the team under its scheduled Q2 entitlement, but only 1.289 million tokens were claimed. That represents a 4.3% claim rate, down from 5.1% in Q1 and the third consecutive quarterly decline.

Monthly team token claims versus entitlement chart. At the report’s calculated average prices, the team claimed around $69 million from an entitlement valued at approximately $1.53 billion. Another 64.9 million vested but unclaimed tokens remained outstanding, worth roughly $4.3 billion at HYPE’s quarter-end price.

The low claim rate limited the quantity becoming immediately available for transfer or sale, but the tokens have not disappeared from supply. They remain claimable, and the monthly entitlement of approximately 9.92 million HYPE continues. A change in team behaviour could alter supply expectations quickly.

New Products Expanded Reach but Added Little Revenue HIP-4 Volume Was Concentrated Around the World Cup HIP-4 outcome markets generated $211.3 million of single-sided volume across 59 trading days and attracted 13,046 new traders during the quarter.

Volume doubled from $70.6 million in May to $140.7 million in June, with the strongest day reaching $12.1 million on June 27. Average daily traders also increased from 1,343 in May to 1,506 in June.

Most of that growth came from one event. World Cup markets accounted for 83.8% of tracked market-group volume, while recurring bitcoin markets declined from millions of dollars during their launch week to roughly $100,000 per day by mid-July.

Total HIP-4 fees remained below $3,000 for the quarter. The product attracted traders around major events, but demand across ordinary market cycles remains unproven.

The USDC Migration Opens a New Revenue Question Hyperliquid also completed its transition away from USDH toward USDC as the main quote asset. The process took approximately 11 weeks from announcement to substantial completion and involved more than $90 million of USDH supply.

According to the report, the migration was completed without a depeg, a stuck bridge or a public dispute. The Hyper Foundation allocated approximately $10 million in grants to affected deployers and HyperEVM applications, with support based partly on auction costs and affected TVL.

Consolidating markets around USDC reduces liquidity fragmentation and could create a new source of reserve-based income through Aligned Quote Asset version 2, or AQAv2. The report estimates potential annual revenue of $135 million to $200 million, but treats that range as unconfirmed.

The estimate depends on the eligible reserve base, interest rates, Coinbase and Circle arrangements and the final share allocated to Hyperliquid. The first reserve-yield payment expected on October 3 would provide the first direct evidence of whether the projected economics are realistic.

HyperEVM Stablecoin Growth Outpaced DeFi Activity Stablecoins held on HyperEVM increased 313% during the quarter, rising from $1.35 billion to $5.58 billion. HyperEVM TVL moved in the opposite direction, falling 14.8% to $1.44 billion.

The two figures are not directly contradictory: stablecoin balances measure assets held on the network, while TVL tracks capital deployed across applications. Their divergence shows that bringing more dollar-denominated assets onto HyperEVM did not produce equal growth in lending, liquidity pools and other protocols.

Lending-category TVL ended the quarter at $744 million, down 11.7% from Q1 and 38% below its Q3 2025 peak. HyperLend became the largest venue with $407 million in TVL and $252 million in active loans, overtaking Morpho after Morpho’s deposits fell to approximately $248 million.

Four Tests for Hyperliquid’s Next Quarter Native perpetual volume: Whether activity stabilises before the platform becomes more dependent on lower-fee HIP-3 markets. AQAv2 revenue: Whether the first reserve-yield payment supports the report’s projected economics. HIP-4 retention: Whether outcome-market activity continues outside major global events. Team claims: Whether the low claim rate continues as more vested HYPE becomes available. Methodology: This article is based primarily on the Hyperliquid 2Q2026 Quarterly Report prepared by HRC, GLC Research and Four Pillars. The report reconstructs Hyperliquid’s activity, revenue, token and ecosystem figures using public ledger records, independent data providers and protocol disclosures rather than company-issued financial statements. The HYPE price analysis uses the daily chart captured on August 5, 2026, including price action, Fibonacci retracement levels, simple moving averages, support and resistance zones, and the Relative Strength Index. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, legal, tax or trading advice. HYPE and other crypto assets are volatile and may lose some or all of their value. Technical levels are not guarantees, and market conditions may change after publication. Readers should verify the underlying data, conduct their own research and assess whether any investment or trading decision is appropriate for their circumstances. Author

Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work at Coindoo has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem. To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.

https://www.dlnews.com/articles/markets/hyperliquid-protocol-cranks-up-the-risk-with-1000x-leverage/

Hyperliquid plans to implement ticker-level fee controls on its HIP-3 markets, potentially doubling the annualized revenue from $70 million to $140 million, according to estimates by Ryan Watkins. This move involves reducing the current fee discount from 90% to 80%. The success of this strategy hinges on the stability of volumes, as a reduction in the discount could lead to higher fee revenue if the volume remains consistent. The planned changes reflect a strategic revenue enhancement initiative by Hyperliquid, a decentralized perpetuals exchange, which allows market deployers to set fee structures within specified limits.

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Market participants appear to view this potential revenue increase as a positive indicator for Hyperliquid’s price trajectory. The current pricing in prediction markets suggests consistent support for the potential price increase scenarios. As of now, the odds of Hyperliquid reaching $100 by the end of 2026 are priced at 18% YES, unchanged from the previous day but down from 22% a week ago.

Key Takeaways Markets suggest that Hyperliquid’s plan to reduce fee discounts may indicate a strategic move to enhance revenue. The potential doubling of HIP-3 revenue is consistent with support for price increase scenarios if volume holds steady. Current market pricing reflects a stable view of Hyperliquid’s potential to hit its price targets by the end of 2026. What to Watch Monitoring the impact of fee structure changes on volumes will be crucial to assess the success of Hyperliquid’s revenue strategy. Any significant shifts in volume could affect the projected revenue outcomes. Additionally, market participants will be observing any reactions from major players and stakeholders within the exchange. Developments in volume and market sentiment will be key indicators to watch, as they could influence the pricing in prediction markets related to Hyperliquid’s future price targets.

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Term Structure

Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h December 31 18% — — View market → January 1 2027 4.8% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.9% — — View market → January 1 2027 33.5% — — View market → January 1 2027 11.3% — — View market → January 1 2027 2.8% — — View market →

Pump.fun extended its recovery after gaining 13.42% in the past 24 hours, while trading volume climbed 82.92% to $156.5 million, reflecting stronger market participation. 

The advance coincided with the protocol’s revenue-funded buyback program, which repurchased 332 million PUMP tokens at an average price of $0.00225. 

The platform allocated roughly $747,000 for the purchases from $1.49 million in daily revenue, steadily reducing liquid supply. 

Meanwhile, a dormant wallet withdrew 73.95 million PUMP worth about $156,000 from exchanges instead of adding tokens to exchange reserves. 

That withdrawal complemented the buyback activity because both developments reduced immediately available supply.

As a result, buyers retained control of the recent advance, while the combined supply reduction strengthened the case behind PUMP’s latest rally.

Fresh leveraged bets backed the breakout Derivatives traders increased their exposure as Open Interest rose 18.10% to $211.31 million, reflecting fresh capital entering the market alongside the price recovery. 

The increase accompanied the spot rally instead of diverging from it, suggesting traders opened new positions rather than simply closing existing ones. 

Higher Open Interest alongside expanding trading volume usually reflected growing conviction behind an ongoing move, and PUMP displayed both conditions during the latest session. 

However, leverage also raised the likelihood of sharper price swings if sentiment shifted quickly. 

Buyers maintained control throughout the move, yet the expanding derivatives exposure indicated that volatility would likely remain elevated. 

However, the growing participation aligned with the protocol’s buyback activity and reinforced the broader accumulation narrative surrounding PUMP.

Source: CoinGlass Bears paid the price for fading conviction Liquidation data revealed that bearish traders absorbed the larger losses during the latest rally. 

Short liquidations reached approximately $153,260, while long liquidations totaled about $58,290. This shows that sellers were forced out of positions at a much faster pace. ‘

That imbalance supported the ongoing advance because forced short covering added additional buying pressure as prices climbed. 

Unlike a rally driven purely by speculation, the squeeze developed alongside stronger spot activity, rising Open Interest, and the protocol’s supply-reduction efforts. 

However, the liquidation imbalance also suggested that much of the immediate bearish pressure had already eased.

If fresh short positions fail to emerge, future gains would likely require continued spot demand instead of relying primarily on liquidation-driven buying.

Source: CoinGlass Can PUMP extend its breakout above resistance? PUMP broke above the key $0.002133 resistance before advancing toward the next major barrier at $0.002556, confirming that buyers regained control of the broader trend. 

The breakout also held above the rising trendline that had supported price since July, preserving the existing bullish structure. 

MACD strengthened throughout the advance as the MACD line remained above the signal line and the positive histogram expanded. This reflect increasing buying strength instead of fading interest. 

Price also established a series of higher highs and higher lows after completing a double-bottom reversal earlier in the trend. 

If buyers defend the former breakout zone near $0.002133, PUMP could challenge $0.002556 next. 

However, losing that support would expose the trendline and increase the probability of a deeper pullback before another advance.

Source: TradingView Final Summary PUMP buybacks and whale withdrawals reduced liquid supply, supporting the recent price breakout. Rising Open Interest and heavy short liquidations reinforced bullish sentiment toward the $0.002556 resistance.

Summary PUMP reclaimed both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages during a 30% weekly rally The move stalled at the 0.618 Fibonacci level near $0.0025 with RSI in overbought territory A 6.87 billion token unlock is scheduled between August 11 and 13 Allegations that Pump.fun fired staff before their tokens vested have stirred community backlash PUMP, the token tied to Solana memecoin factory Pump.fun, traded near $0.002495 on August 5 after a seven-day run that added more than 30% and carried it back above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages. The climb pushed price into a technical resistance band at the same moment the token’s supply schedule shifts into a stretch of monthly unlocks, with the next release due within a week.

Price reclaimed both moving averages before they could cross The chart reads far cleaner than the six months of grinding that came before it. PUMP topped near $0.00336 in late January, bled lower through spring, and found a floor around $0.00116 in mid-June. Buyers spent July building a base between $0.0013 and $0.0016, and the past week turned that quiet accumulation into a near-vertical push toward $0.00251.

PUMP/USD daily chart. Chart analysis by Alexander Stefanov The reclaim is the part that carries weight. Price now sits above the 50-day simple moving average at $0.00168 and the 200-day at $0.00187, and the 50-day has curled upward after months of pointing down. A moving average is the running average of closing prices over a set window, and price holding above a rising average is the clearest sign that short-term momentum has flipped. The 50-day still trades below the 200-day, so the two lines have not crossed yet. Price is leading and the averages are trailing, which is normal at the start of a turn but leaves the bullish structure short of full confirmation.

The 0.618 fib near $0.0025 is where the rally meets friction The current candle is testing the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement at roughly $0.0025. Traders draw these levels off the distance between a swing high and swing low, and the 0.618 marks the point where a large share of the prior drop has been recovered. Rebounds tend to stall there, which makes the spot PUMP is testing a level where buyers and sellers have clashed before.

Momentum readings reinforce the caution. The Relative Strength Index sits at 73. Any reading above 70 flags a move that has run hot, and levels that high often show up right before price pauses to cool off. RSI is also holding above its own signal line at 62, so the trend still points up even as it stretches. After a climb this steep with no real pullback, that setup usually resolves one of two ways: a clean break above $0.00251 that opens the road to the 0.786 fib at $0.00289, or a rejection here that sends price back down to work off the gains.

Levels worth watching on the next move The reversal thesis holds or breaks around a short list of prices. The band between the 0.382 fib near $0.00200 and the reclaimed 200-day average at $0.00187 is the confluence that needs to hold to keep the recovery intact.

Resistance above

$0.00251

0.618 fib · price is here now

$0.00289

0.786 fib · next target on a break

$0.00336

January swing high

Support below

$0.00226

0.5 fib · first cushion

$0.00200

0.382 fib · near 200-day at $0.00187

$0.00168

0.236 fib · break here breaks the bounce 

The next unlock arrives within a week of the rally PUMP’s supply calendar moves against the price action. Between August 11 and 13, roughly 6.87 billion tokens worth about $15.28 million unlock, split between 4.167 billion for the team and 2.708 billion for early investors. Around 67.9% of the one-trillion total supply already circulates, which leaves 32.1% locked across 35 monthly releases that run to June 2029.

An unlock moves tokens from a locked contract to their holders, and it does not force those coins onto the market. Recipients can sit on freshly vested tokens for months. Unlocks still weigh on price because the market tends to front-run them, pricing in the risk of selling a few days ahead of each date, which is why trading often softens going into an unlock even when no coins actually change hands.

The 57 billion token cliff and the firings that followed The August release is the second act of a much larger event. Between July 12 and 15, PUMP’s one-year cliff expired and unlocked 57.279 billion tokens worth roughly $86.49 million, spread across 121 insider wallets. That single release ended the initial 12-month lock-up and started a 36-month schedule that drips team and early-backer allocations into circulation month by month. In late July, reports surfaced alleging Pump.fun had cut more than 40 employees across two rounds shortly before their one-year token grants were set to vest, a move that would have denied those staff seven-figure payouts, though the investigation that surfaced the claims could not independently confirm the July round, which rests on former employees’ accounts. The allegations drew heavy criticism across the token’s community. PUMP now trades more than 75% below its 2025 peak, with unlock pressure and the personnel row both feeding the discount.

Steady monthly supply changes how traders read PUMP from here The switch from one-time cliffs to steady monthly releases changes how traders read PUMP from here. Each of the 35 remaining unlocks through June 2029 adds a recurring supply event to the calendar, so the sharp dilution shocks of July give way to a slower and more predictable drip. That steadier cadence can work in the token’s favor if demand keeps pace, since the market can plan around fixed dates that are easier to absorb than the surprise floods of a cliff. Supply has not moved in one direction only. Pump.fun burned roughly $370 million of PUMP it had bought back over the prior nine months in late April, taking about 36% of the circulating supply off the table and partly offsetting the dilution the unlock schedule adds.

The near-term test is narrower. A daily close that holds above $0.00251 would confirm the break and put the 0.786 at $0.00289 within reach, while a slip back into the $0.00226 to $0.00200 support band would show whether buyers defend the reversal or let it unwind. The August 11 unlock arrives right inside that decision window, which sets up the first real read on whether recovering price action can take on fresh supply.

Sixteen security researchers walked into 390 open-source Bitcoin codebases and, in slightly more than a day, found nearly 5,000 things wrong. The result of an audit sprint by the Bitcoin Red Team, a volunteer group that delivered one of the most thorough security sweeps the Bitcoin ecosystem has ever seen.

The numbers are bracing: 4,962 total security findings across 390 projects, logged in a 27.5-hour window spanning August 4 to 5, 2026. Of those, 85 were classified as critical and 635 as high-severity. That works out to roughly 2.31 findings per researcher per hour.

What triggered the audit The sprint was a direct response to vulnerabilities recently discovered in the COLDCARD hardware wallet, one of the most widely trusted cold storage devices in Bitcoin’s self-custody culture.

Funding came from OpenSats, a nonprofit that supports open-source Bitcoin development, which contributed nearly $40,000 to support the effort. The volunteer model and AI-powered tooling stretched every dollar considerably further.

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How AI changed the math The Bitcoin Red Team leaned heavily on AI-driven analysis tools to scan codebases at a speed no manual review could match. The team averaged 180 findings per hour collectively.

The Red Team is reportedly planning to open-source the tools they used, which could set a new baseline for how the broader crypto community approaches security auditing.

Responsible disclosure, not reckless exposure The Bitcoin Red Team followed a strict responsible disclosure process, reproducing critical issues locally before informing project maintainers privately.

Prior to this sprint, the group had already conducted scans of roughly 150 repositories that resulted in over a dozen private disclosures. The August audit was a dramatic escalation in both scope and urgency, driven by the COLDCARD fallout.

What this means for investors and the broader ecosystem The Bitcoin ecosystem has long prided itself on its open-source ethos. In practice, most projects don’t receive meaningful security review unless they’re high-profile enough to attract attention or well-funded enough to pay for it.

The existence of vulnerabilities doesn’t mean funds were stolen or that Bitcoin itself is compromised. Bitcoin’s core protocol wasn’t the target here. The projects audited were the surrounding ecosystem of tools and applications that people use to interact with Bitcoin.

The costs of remediation will fall on individual project maintainers, many of whom are themselves volunteers or small teams.

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

Bitcoin has entered the national-security debate again as the Pentagon drafts a nuclear strategy centered on potential regional conflicts with China or Russia.

Summary

The Pentagon is reportedly considering shorter-range tactical nuclear weapons for regional conflicts. US military officials previously confirmed operational Bitcoin testing and classified crypto-related work. Washington’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve holds forfeited BTC under a no-sale policy. Bitcoin traded near $64,500, with no clear price reaction to the Pentagon report. Pentagon drafts new nuclear strategy Defense Department policy chief Elbridge Colby is drafting a classified nuclear framework that could expand the role of shorter-range tactical weapons, NBC News reported on Aug. 5, citing five people familiar with the plans.

The emerging strategy would prepare Washington for a possible regional war involving China or Russia. It reportedly seeks to give the US president more limited nuclear options during a crisis instead of relying mainly on long-range strategic weapons.

The approach would mark a departure from decades of US doctrine built around the threat of a large retaliatory strike. Tactical weapons have shorter ranges and are designed for more limited military targets, although any nuclear use would still carry a severe risk of escalation.

The framework has not been adopted as official US policy. Its reported objectives include preventing a conventional conflict from becoming a full nuclear exchange and stopping one adversary from exploiting Washington while it confronts the other.

Why Bitcoin has entered the security debate The nuclear review does not formally include Bitcoin. However, the focus on China and Russia overlaps with separate US military discussions about decentralized networks, cybersecurity and digital financial infrastructure.

In April, US Indo-Pacific Command chief Admiral Samuel Paparo told lawmakers that the military was operating a Bitcoin node and testing the network in an operational setting, according to a statement from Rep. Lance Gooden’s office.

Paparo described Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer, zero-trust system with potential military applications. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth later told Congress that classified digital-asset initiatives could give the US leverage across multiple scenarios.

Those disclosures do not mean Bitcoin forms part of US nuclear planning. They show that defense officials are assessing the network independently as a possible cybersecurity, communications or value-transfer tool as competition with China expands.

Crypto commentators have connected the NBC report with those earlier disclosures. The resulting discussion has focused on whether Bitcoin’s decentralized structure could become more valuable during sanctions, cyberattacks or disruptions to traditional payment systems.

US Bitcoin reserve adds a sovereign dimension President Donald Trump established the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve through a March 2025 executive order. The reserve is capitalized with BTC forfeited through criminal or civil proceedings rather than direct market purchases.

Bitcoin placed in the reserve “shall not be sold,” according to the executive order published in the Federal Register. Treasury and Commerce may also explore budget-neutral ways to acquire more BTC without imposing additional costs on taxpayers.

The White House estimated in 2025 that the federal government controlled roughly 200,000 BTC, but no complete public audit was available at the time. That makes exact current holdings difficult to confirm, particularly because seized assets may be returned to victims or transferred between agencies.

The reserve and the Pentagon’s network tests remain separate initiatives. Still, together they show that parts of the US government increasingly view Bitcoin through strategic and operational lenses, not solely as a speculative asset.

Bitcoin shows no clear reaction to the report Bitcoin traded near $64,500 on Aug. 5, within an intraday range of roughly $63,860 to $64,650. The price action showed no obvious response to the nuclear strategy report.

Any long-term market effect would likely depend on concrete policy changes, including additional congressional testimony, defense authorization language, or disclosures about how the military uses Bitcoin infrastructure.

For US investors, the report does not create a direct new demand catalyst. It instead adds to the broader case that Bitcoin is being examined as part of sovereign reserves and national-security planning. The connection remains indirect unless the Pentagon announces a formal procurement, reserve, or operational policy involving BTC.

Strategy has announced a new employee benefit that will provide annual contributions to Trump Accounts for eligible children of its U.S. workforce. The Bitcoin treasury company said the program will begin after the U.S. Treasury issues final guidance and employer contribution systems become available.

Strategy Expands Employee Benefits With Trump Accounts Strategy said it will contribute $250 each year to Trump Accounts for every eligible child under 18 of its U.S. employees. The company also plans to make a one-time $1,000 contribution that matches the U.S. government’s seed contribution for eligible children.

The company joins Coinbase, Circle, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and other firms that have pledged support for the Trump Accounts initiative. The program is designed to encourage long-term investing for children through tax-advantaged accounts linked to U.S. equity index funds.

Strategy said employer contributions will begin only after the U.S. Treasury completes its implementation process. The company noted that participation depends on the release of final guidance and the required infrastructure.

Strategy Chief Executive Officer Phong Le said, “Trump Accounts and the Invest America initiative can help build a stronger financial future for America’s children.” He added, “These accounts can encourage financial education, long term thinking, and a culture of saving and investing from an early age.”

Company Continues Bitcoin Treasury Operations The announcement came as Strategy continued making adjustments to its Bitcoin treasury. An SEC filing showed the company sold 1,638 BTC during the past week at an average price of $63,957. Following the transaction, Strategy held 842,138 BTC acquired for $63.51 billion at an average purchase price of $75,419.

On-chain analytics platform Lookonchain also reported that a wallet linked to Strategy transferred 1,030 BTC, valued at more than $66 million. Arkham data showed several transfers ranging from $6 million to $21 million, following another transfer of about 300 BTC earlier in the week. Strategy has not confirmed that the latest wallet movements represented additional Bitcoin sales.

Executive Chairman Michael Saylor addressed recent discussion surrounding the company’s Bitcoin transactions. He said, “Strategy is a public company, not my wallet.” Saylor also stated that the company has disclosed since 2020 that it “may buy or sell $BTC to manage capital,” adding, “Our shared conviction in Bitcoin remains unchanged.”

Trump Accounts Target Long-Term Investing Trump Accounts are individual retirement accounts created for children to encourage long-term investing. Children born between 2025 and 2028 qualify for a $1,000 contribution from the U.S. Treasury under the program.

The accounts are expected to invest in mutual funds or exchange-traded funds that track the S&P 500 or another index focused mainly on U.S. equities. Coingape previously reported that several financial firms have committed to supporting the initiative through employer contribution programs.

Strategy has also previously supported President Donald Trump’s political initiatives. The company, formerly known as MicroStrategy, donated $1 million to the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. political action committee in January 2025, while Coinbase and Circle each contributed $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.

For cryptocurrency trading platforms, this move reflects growing participation by major corporations in investment-focused financial programs.

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

In a recent post, Hussein Zangana (Vet) highlighted a little-known but longstanding XRP Ledger functionality that might be exploited by bad actors if not implemented correctly.

Vet shared his observation along these lines, noting that now and then, people try to trick exchanges and projects into crediting them more funds than they are sending.

This relates to XRP Ledger Partial Payment, a payment that can succeed while delivering less than the stated amount.

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The good news is that this functionality is nowadays very well understood by all large exchanges, Vet noted, but there is a need for new projects to understand it well, as Partial Payments can be used to exploit native integrations with the XRP Ledger to steal money from exchanges and gateways.

I always see every now and then, like today, people probing to trick exchanges/projects to credit them more funds than they were sending them.

An XRP Ledger Partial Payment is a payment that can succeed while delivering less than the stated Amount. For exchanges, if you check… pic.twitter.com/xcEYBcMEGj

— Vet (@Vet_X0) August 5, 2026 "New projects and platforms should always be pointed to the XRPL docs to check the correct fields for crediting funds," Vet advised, in order to prevent mistakes that might arise from incorrect implementation of the partial payments functionality.

XRP Ledger Partial Payments: What new users should knowThe Partial Payment flag on the XRP Ledger allows a payment to succeed by reducing the amount received instead of increasing the amount sent. Partial payments are useful for returning payments without incurring additional costs.

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The sender of any payment transaction can enable the "Partial Payment" flag and send a payment that delivers less than the "Amount" field indicates.

The XRP used for transaction costs is always deducted from the sender's account, irrespective of the transaction type. This transaction fee is not included in the amount; however, this functionality might be exploited.

If a financial institution's integration with the XRP Ledger assumes that the amount field of a payment is always the full amount delivered, bad actors may exploit this assumption to steal funds from the institution. This exploit can be used against gateways, exchanges, or merchants as long as those institutions' software does not process partial payments correctly.

According to XRPL docs, the correct way to process incoming payment transactions is to use the "delivered_amount" metadata field, not the "Amount" field. The "delivered_amount" is the amount a payment actually delivered. This way, an institution is never mistaken about how much it actually received.

SBI Holdings, a major Japanese financial conglomerate and a key partner of Ripple in Asia, has finalized the acquisition of Bitbank, one of Japan’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, for 46.7 billion yen, equivalent to approximately $289 million.

Acquisition strengthens SBI’s crypto portfolioSBI Holdings is headquartered in Tokyo and operates across various financial services, including securities, banking, and insurance. This purchase ranks among the largest-ever crypto acquisitions in Japan and is set to position SBI as the country’s leading digital asset provider by total assets under management.

The transaction will take place in stages. Initially, an SBI subsidiary will acquire shares from Bitbank founder Noriyuki Hirosue and other individual stakeholders. Later, it will purchase the remaining equity held by major investors MIXI and Ceres within the year. Once completed, Bitbank will become a consolidated subsidiary of SBI Holdings, following negotiations that began in May.

With this acquisition, SBI’s digital asset operations will reach new heights. The group, combining Bitbank with its existing platform SBI VC Trade, will oversee around 2.92 million customer accounts and more than 1.1 trillion yen (over $7 billion) in digital assets—surpassing major competitors bitFlyer and Coincheck.

ExchangeDigital Assets Under CustodyCustomer AccountsSBI (after Bitbank deal)Over $7 billion2.92 millionbitFlyerBelow $7 billionLess than 2.92 millionCoincheckBelow $7 billionLess than 2.92 millionDeepening the Ripple partnershipSBI’s relationship with Ripple, a US-based blockchain firm best known for its XRP cryptocurrency and payment protocols, remains central to its strategy. Since the launch of SBI Ripple Asia in 2016, these companies have promoted Ripple’s blockchain technology and XRP-powered payment services across Japan and the broader Asia-Pacific region.

For years, SBI has played a key role in building one of Asia’s most expansive cross-border payment networks and has consistently advocated institutional use of XRP. Its regulated exchange, SBI VC Trade, was one of the earliest Japanese platforms to list XRP and recently became the first in the country to list Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin.

Bitbank, established in 2014, is known as a top crypto exchange in Japan with a focus on regulatory compliance and user security.

Mini dictionary: RLUSD, short for Ripple Liquidity USD, is a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar and designed to facilitate low-cost, rapid cross-border payments using Ripple’s payment infrastructure.

SBI Chairman and CEO Yoshitaka Kitao, who previously served on Ripple’s board, has actively supported Ripple’s expansion and vision for blockchain-based remittance and settlement networks.

SBI’s longstanding commitment to XRP and Ripple’s technology has helped establish Japan as a key global market for blockchain payments and institutional adoption.

Strategic outlook and recent movesAlthough SBI Holdings has not shared immediate plans concerning Bitbank’s existing operations, acquiring the exchange lays the groundwork for a much larger regulated digital asset platform in Japan. This scale could accelerate the use of Ripple’s payment products, including XRP and RLUSD, among domestic and institutional clients.

In addition to the Bitbank purchase, SBI-backed ventures have rolled out significant initiatives in the sector. Notably, gumi—a digital entertainment and blockchain company in which SBI is a stakeholder—recently launched an $86 million initiative focused on XRP and introduced an $18.3 million crypto investment fund to widen institutional blockchain access.

Market observers note that these strides reinforce Japan’s status as one of the most XRP-friendly jurisdictions, as institutional acceptance increases and regulatory clarity continues to take shape.

Japan’s ongoing adoption of Ripple-powered infrastructure and digital assets reflects its ambitions to become a leading fintech hub, leveraging innovation while maintaining strong oversight.

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 Ethereum Foundation has awarded funding through its Trillion Dollar Security (1TS) initiative to the Freedom of the Press Foundation to expand development of WEBCAT, an open-source front-end verification tool designed to protect users from compromised websites.

According to a Wednesday statement, the grant will support bringing the technology directly into Ethereum wallets and decentralized applications, allowing wallets to verify that an application’s code matches a developer-signed version.

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The foundation said the project addresses a major security weakness affecting browser-based applications. Although HTTPS secures website connections, it cannot detect whether malicious code has been injected into a site’s front end.

Such attacks can alter transaction details, replace recipient addresses, or manipulate what users are asked to sign. According to the foundation, WEBCAT prevents this by validating website code against signed release manifests and blocking pages that fail verification.

The grant also covers research into compatibility with Chromium-based browsers, assistance for developers implementing the technology, an independent security review, and development of a new Ethereum Request for Comments (ERC) standard for wallet integrations.

The foundation said WEBCAT complements its ongoing Clear Signing work by combining transaction transparency with front-end code verification.

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

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

Cardano has reached a new milestone in its decentralization journey, with its Nakamoto coefficient climbing to an all-time high.

In an X post, Cardano SPO Rick McCraken highlighted this milestone, which was shared by Web3 blockchain fundamentals tracker Chainspect.

According to Chainspect, Cardano has set a new decentralization record, hitting a Nakamoto Coefficient of 16, an all-time high. For users, that means stronger censorship resistance and a network controlled by many, not a few.

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The Nakamoto Coefficient refers to a measure of how decentralized a blockchain is, expressed as the smallest number of entities that could collude to compromise it. It is a simple yardstick for measuring how decentralized a blockchain is and is defined as the smallest number of independent entities that would need to collude to disrupt the network. The higher the Nakamoto coefficient, the more parties an attacker would have to coordinate.

For proof-of-stake systems such as Cardano, the coefficient is typically computed across stake pools, validators, or block producers; for proof-of-work, it is computed across mining pools. A single low number signals concentration risk in both cases.

ADA quietly ralliesCardano rose to a high of $0.199 on August 4 for the first time in a month. ADA last traded above $0.19 on July 4.

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Santiment noted that ADA's rise in the past seven days makes it one of the cleanest standouts in an otherwise disappointing and choppy altcoin market. At the time of writing, ADA was up 16.92% weekly to trade at $0.191.

The rise, however, exposes a surprising holder trend: Cardano has 7,070 fewer non-empty wallets than two months ago, showing that the price recovered as sidelined holders have yet to return.

Rising prices with falling holder counts can mean stronger buyers are absorbing supply, and retail confidence has not fully followed the move yet.

ADA started rising from a low of $0.153, gaining nearly 30% to reach a high of $0.199 yesterday. According to Santiment, Cardano's rebound has real context, supported by ecosystem activity, including getting active with Leios testnet work, Hydra scaling progress, Mithril upgrades, Pyth integration, and fresh Catalyst funding.

USDY is now priced on Stellar. RedStone is providing the price feed and SEP-40 support that allows Ondo’s flagship yieldcoin to become eligible for use as collateral across Stellar’s lending ecosystem.

TL;DR: USDY is one of the larger yield-bearing dollar tokens in DeFi by circulating value, backed by short-term U.S. Treasuries and U.S. bank demand deposits with a market capitalization of over $2.1 billion across all chains RedStone is providing the USDY/USD price feed and SEP-40 contract support on Stellar Stellar’s tokenized RWA value has reached approximately $2.96 billion , with USDY now among the highest-profile assets in the SEP-40 pipeline alongside sovereign debt instruments, tokenized fund products, and stablecoins SEP-40 is Stellar’s unified oracle standard, giving any protocol on the network a single interface to consume price data and list assets as collateral on lending protocols like Blend and Templar USDY/USD Price Feed and SEP-40 Contract Support on Stellar  RedStone now provides a USDY/USD price feed and SEP-40 contract support for USDY, Ondo Finance’s tokenized Treasury-backed asset, on the Stellar network.

USDY is Ondo’s yield-bearing dollar token, backed by short-term U.S. Treasuries and U.S. bank demand deposits, and available to investors outside the U.S. With a circulating supply of approximately 1.9 billion tokens and a market cap of over $2.1 billion, it is one of the larger tokenized yield-bearing assets in the RWA category by circulating value. It is designed to support onchain savings, treasury management, cross-border payments, and DeFi collateral use cases.

The price feed handles continuously updated, verifiable pricing for the asset. The SEP-40 component is what makes it usable. SEP-40 is Stellar’s unified oracle standard, a shared interface that allows any protocol on the network to consume price data without building custom integration work from scratch.

For USDY to be listed on Stellar’s lending protocols, it needs to be priced through a SEP-40-compliant contract. Without it, the asset can exist on the network but cannot function as collateral.

From Tokenized Asset to DeFi Collateral  Stellar’s RWA ecosystem has reached approximately $2.96 billion in tokenized asset value, growing roughly three times from early 2025. The network has a long track record in asset issuance: Franklin Templeton launched one of the first regulated tokenized funds on a public blockchain on Stellar in 2021, and the list of issuers has grown steadily since.

Issuance is not the same as utility. An asset that sits on a network but cannot be lent against or liquidated can’t function as DeFi collateral. The SEP-40 integration closes that gap.

With USDY priced and SEP-40-enabled, it becomes eligible for listing on Blend and Templar, Stellar’s primary lending protocols. Where supported, users can post USDY as collateral and borrow against it, which carries risk, including liquidation if the collateral value declines. For Stellar’s institutional user base, that reflects a  different use case from holding a non-yield-bearing  stablecoin.

The SEP-40 Pipeline RedStone has been building out SEP-40 infrastructure on Stellar throughout 2026. Earlier this year, RedStone launched SEP-40 feeds for multiple assets across Stellar’s ecosystem: USDC, EURC, XLM, PYUSD, tokenized sovereign debt instruments from Etherfuse, and Bitcoin products from Solv.

Last week, four more assets joined the standard, all issued by Centrifuge on Stellar. JTRSY and JAAA are tokenized representations of institutional fund products, and deJTRSY and deJAAA are their onchain wrappers, built to make that underlying exposure usable across DeFi applications including trading, liquidity provision, and collateral.

SEP-40 gives every protocol on Stellar a single interface to pull pricing without custom integration work, turning a static token into something that can be lent against and used as collateral. RedStone is the infrastructure behind it.

USDY and the Case for RWA Composability on Stellar  Stellar’s RWA ecosystem has been growing steadily and its asset roster includes some of the most recognized names in institutional DeFi. USDY joining the SEP-40 pipeline is part of that progression.

USDY is one of the larger yield-bearing assets in DeFi by circulating value, and it is now priced and SEP-40-enabled on a network with a growing base of institutional tokenized assets.

For protocols like Blend and Templar, that means more collateral options to build lending markets around. For the RWA category more broadly, it’s another data point in the case that tokenized assets can do more than sit on a balance sheet.

FAQ

What is SEP-40 and why does it exist?
SEP-40 is Stellar’s native oracle standard, a unified interface that lets any application on the network consume price data in the same way, without building custom adapters for each asset. Before SEP-40, protocols had to integrate price feeds individually for each token they wanted to support. The standard exists because Stellar’s RWA asset base was growing faster than the infrastructure to make those assets usable in DeFi.

Why does USDY need a price feed if it’s backed by U.S. Treasuries?
USDY isn’t pegged to $1. It’s a yield-bearing token whose price accrues over time as the underlying Treasury yield is earned, and currently trades above $1.00. Lending protocols need to know the current value of any asset posted as collateral to calculate borrowing limits and trigger liquidations when necessary. A static assumption of $1 would be inaccurate and create risk for the protocol.

What’s the difference between the price feed and the SEP-40 contract?
The price feed is the data layer: it provides a continuously updated USDY/USD price that reflects the current accrued value of the token. The SEP-40 contract is the interface layer: it makes that price data consumable by any Stellar protocol in a standardized format. Both are required. The feed without the SEP-40 wrapper wouldn’t be readable by Blend or Templar without custom integration work on their end.

Is USDY already live on Blend and Templar?
The price feed and SEP-40 contract support are what make listing possible. Whether and when individual protocols choose to list USDY as a collateral asset is their decision. RedStone’s role is to provide the pricing infrastructure that enables it.

Disclaimer: This content is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, financial, legal, tax, or other professional advice, nor does it constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security, digital asset, or other financial product. USDY is a product of Ondo Finance, offered only to eligible non-U.S. persons under Ondo’s terms; it is not a stablecoin, is not FDIC insured, has no bank guarantee, and may lose value. SDF is not the issuer, sponsor, adviser, distributor, custodian, or broker-dealer for USDY, does not operate or control the Stellar network, and does not control or endorse any third-party project referenced herein. Using digital assets as collateral and borrowing against them involves substantial risk, including liquidation and loss in excess of amounts posted; past performance is not indicative of future results. Use of or participation in any third-party product or service referenced herein is at your own risk.

Circle reported $701 million in second-quarter 2026 total revenue and reserve income, up 7% year over year, while adjusted EBITDA increased 8% to $143 million and net income reached $48 million, the company said Wednesday.

The stablecoin issuer said USDC in circulation exceeded $73 billion at quarter-end, up 19% year-over-year, while USDC onchain transaction volume surged 151% to $14.8 trillion.

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The company said the Circle Payments Network reached $14.7 billion in annualized transaction volume across 175 financial institutions, while its Agent Stack exceeded 900 paid services, with nearly all x402 agent-payment volume settled in USDC.

Circle also outlined major product and institutional milestones. Arc, its new layer 1 blockchain, now has more than 100 builders ahead of its September 16 mainnet launch and will debut with privacy features, AI-powered agent infrastructure, and support for tokenized real-world assets.

The firm announced founding validators including BlackRock, DTCC, Visa, Mastercard, Galaxy, Standard Chartered, ICE, MoneyGram, SBI Group, Sumitomo Corporation, and Global Payments, while confirming that BlackRock’s BUIDL fund and DTCC’s tokenization infrastructure are expected to integrate with the network.

Circle also expanded its USDC adoption through partnerships with BNY, Standard Chartered, Nium, JCB, Grupo Bind, Kakao Group, and Marex during the quarter. Other highlights include regulatory approval to establish Circle National Trust from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Circle New York Trust from the New York Department of Financial Services.

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

Jeremy Allaire, founder and CEO of Circle, the issuer of USDC, stated during tonight’s earnings call: “We have renewed our agreement with Coinbase under existing terms, ensuring USDC remains central to all of Coinbase’s product offerings. We also look forward to expanding our USDC network via distribution deals with strategically aligned partners.” The collaboration agreement between Circle and Coinbase, signed on August 18, 2023, stipulates that Circle—USDC’s sole issuer—shares interest revenue generated from USDC reserve assets with Coinbase: Coinbase will receive 100% of reserve interest from USDC held on its platform, plus 50% of the remaining reserve interest from USDC held off its platform. The agreement has an initial three-year term and an automatic renewal mechanism.

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MicroStrategy officially announced its ambition: aiming to become the world's most valuable company, with Michael Saylor urging "Think ₿igger"

Strategy has released a video titled "Strategy's Ambition is to be the World's Largest Company In terms of market cap", stating its goal to become the world's largest company by market cap by holding the most capital (BTC), issuing the strongest credit (STRC), and creating the best equity (MSTR). Founder Michael Saylor remarked, "Think ?igger." Strategy plans to issue STRC to support its digital credit business, which will help generate higher-quality MSTR equity. This equity, in turn, will enhance the company’s ability to accumulate more BTC, forming a triple flywheel that continuously increases the number of BTC per share. Its core targets include achieving a 30% BTC annualized rate of return (ARR), selling digital credit equivalent to 10-20% of its BTC reserves annually, and doubling its Bitcoin Per Share (BPS) metric within 7 years through its digital credit operations.

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Strategy has expressed its ambition to become the world's largest company by market capitalization.

Strategy has released a video titled "Strategy's Ambition is to be the World's Largest Company In Terms of Market Cap", outlining its goal to become the world’s largest firm by market capitalization through three core pillars: holding the most capital (Bitcoin, BTC), issuing the strongest credit instrument (STRC), and creating the best equity (MSTR). Founder Michael Saylor emphasized: "Think ?igger." The company plans to issue STRC to back its digital credit business, which will help generate stronger MSTR equity—enhancing Strategy’s ability to accumulate more BTC and ultimately drive a continuous increase in the number of bitcoins per share.

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Coinbase Releases Q2 Solana Validator Performance Report: Its APY outperformed the overall network by 14 basis points, and its block skip rate was only one-quarter of the network average.

Coinbase released its Q2 2026 Solana Validator Performance Report, disclosing key metrics for its Solana staking operations. As of the end of Q2, Coinbase staked a total of 41.63 million SOL across 23 validators in 7 countries, accounting for 9.72% of the network’s total staked SOL. In terms of yield performance, Coinbase’s validators posted an annualized yield of 6.52%, outperforming the network average of 6.38% by roughly 14 basis points. Its reliability metrics were even more impressive: the block skip rate stood at just 0.035%, approximately a quarter of the network average of 0.136%, meaning it missed around 75% fewer blocks than the average validator. Coinbase attributed this strong performance to its use of only Solana Foundation-audited client software and its avoidance of aggressive MEV timing strategies that harm end users. On the infrastructure and security front, Coinbase disclosed several technical details: its client strategy covers four options—Harmonic, Jito, JitoBAM, and Firedancer—all 100% audited by the Solana Foundation; for security, it has deployed a dual-signature protection mechanism and near-zero downtime deployment protocols. Looking ahead, the entire validator cluster has been integrated into the DoubleZero network, with a session uptime of approximately 99.9%, and is prepared for the Alpenglow mainnet upgrade in the second half of the year.

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Coinbase will suspend trading of six trading pairs, including LSETH-ETH and MINA-EUR.

Coinbase has announced it will suspend trading for six non-U.S. dollar trading pairs on August 6. The affected pairs are LSETH-ETH, MINA-EUR, GRT-GBP, MASK-GBP, CHZ-USDT, and CRO-USDT. The platform stated that the suspension only impacts these non-USD denominated trading pairs, adding that eligible Coinbase Advanced Trade users in supported regions can still trade these assets via USD order books.

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Google AI core figure Jeff Dean announces his departure, with Google shares plunging 3% in short-term trading.

Jeff Dean, one of Google’s earliest employees and a core figure who has overseen the company’s AI strategy design for the past 15 years, is leaving to launch an AI startup focused on scientific discovery. Dean joined Google in 1999 as its 30th employee. He will serve as CEO of the new non-profit entity Discovery Loop, which aims to accelerate technological progress by automating complex, multi-step scientific and engineering tasks. Joining Dean in the venture are fellow senior Google staff members Oriol Vinyals, Quoc Le, and Sanjay Ghemawat. The four have together driven major advances in mathematics and protein structure research, and rank among the most highly cited researchers globally. The departure of these talents, including Dean, further fuels Google’s recent trend of AI talent exodus. According to market data from BIT (bit.com), Google’s stock plunged 3% in the short term.

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Is Strategy Expected to Resume BTC Accumulation? STRC Surpasses $94, Surging Approximately 30% From June Lows

According to BIT (bit.com) market data, Strategy’s perpetual preferred stock STRC surged past $94 during U.S. trading hours, jumping roughly 30% from its June low. The recent rally is driven by multiple factors: Strategy’s sale of Bitcoin to pay dividends, its repurchase of $106 million in preferred shares, and its increase in U.S. dollar reserves to $4 billion. Additionally, Strategy has not added to its Bitcoin holdings for six consecutive weeks. Strategy founder Michael Saylor emphasized last week that the company will not issue new STRC shares when the stock trades below $100. To date, the firm has repurchased 288,930 STRC preferred shares for a total of roughly $25 million, at an average price of $86.52 per share. Strategy plans to remain a "regular and disciplined buyer," continuing repurchases when STRC trades below $100. It will increase its buying activity when the stock is far from $100, and reduce repurchase volumes as it approaches that level. Currently, Strategy has approximately $975 million available for preferred share repurchases. Funds for STRC repurchases will not come from its U.S. dollar reserves; instead, they will be raised via sales of MSTR stock and Bitcoin, depending on market conditions, with the goal of stabilizing STRC’s price around $100.

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Uniswap Prepares to Launch pools.trade on Robinhood Chain@Uniswap is moving closer to activating its dedicated launchpad on Robinhood Chain. The platform, known as pools.trade, has been flagged as "coming soon" on its official site, with a countdown pointing to a rollout scheduled for 4:00 p.m. UTC on August 5.

pools.trade is designed to facilitate the creation and issuance of tokens directly on Robinhood Chain. If it becomes a more native Uniswap launchpad, it could bring together the pieces Uniswap already has: its own launch and price-discovery mechanisms, v4 pools, the Launches feed for distribution, and the Uniswap interface for trading.

Robinhood Chain went live on July 1, 2026 as an Arbitrum Orbit L2 that settles on Ethereum. Uniswap Protocol and UniswapX are live alongside support in Uniswap Web App, Wallet, and API, with Robinhood serving nearly 28 million customers.

A Growing Launchpad EcosystemThe timing of pools.trade's launch comes as activity on Robinhood Chain has surged. More than 340,000 new tokens launched on Uniswap via Robinhood Chain launchpads in July 2026, generating $3.6 billion in trading volume. Uniswap has also introduced a Launches beta tab in its web app, aggregating tokens from launchpads using Uniswap as their trading infrastructure, including Bankr, Pons, and Long.

The platform's integration with Uniswap's v4 protocol, which introduced features like hooks and custom liquidity pools, could offer unique advantages over competitors. The token issuance space has seen increased competition, with platforms like Pump.fun and others offering simplified token creation tools on various blockchains.

Robinhood Chain had accumulated approximately $431 million in total value locked, nearly $400 million in stablecoin market capitalization, and close to $9 billion in cumulative decentralized exchange volume within three weeks of launch. More than 80% of decentralized exchange activity still comes from memecoin trading despite the network's long-term focus on tokenized assets.

Sources:
Uniswap to Launch Token Issuance Platform pools.trade on Robinhood Chain - CryptoNews
Uniswap rolls out Launches tab starting with Robinhood Chain - Crypto Briefing
Inside Uniswap's Land Grab on Robinhood Chain - Yahoo Finance

Solana just took its first concrete step toward doubling its confirmation speed. On August 5, the network activated a slot time reduction from 400 milliseconds to 350 milliseconds on testnet, kicking off a phased upgrade that aims to eventually cut slot duration in half.

The change is governed by SIMD-0525, a proposal that lays out four sequential 50ms decrements. The end goal: 200ms slots.

How the upgrade works Anza CEO Brennan Watt announced the activation just hours before it went live, urging validators to upgrade to the Agave v4.2 client.

Each 50ms reduction can only activate after receiving supermajority endorsement from validators, meaning roughly two-thirds of staked validators need to explicitly opt in before anything changes.

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There’s also a built-in buffer: a one-epoch delay between when a feature activates and when it actually takes effect. In Solana terms, an epoch lasts about two to three days. The delay gives operators time to confirm everything is running smoothly before the network commits to the new parameters.

No breaking changes were reported on testnet during this first transition.

For context, slot time is the interval during which a validator produces a block. Once fully implemented, confirmations are expected to become roughly twice as fast as the previous standard.

The bigger picture for Solana in 2026 The mainnet rollout of the Agave v4.2 client is expected around August 17.

Running alongside the slot time work is Alpenglow, a new consensus framework designed to optimize finality times. If slot time reduction is about producing blocks faster, Alpenglow is about making those blocks irreversible faster.

The Solana Foundation has framed this evolutionary approach as a balance between speed and stability.

What this means for investors The phased approach introduces a distinct dynamic for market watchers. Each subsequent 50ms reduction requires a fresh supermajority vote from validators, creating four distinct checkpoints where the upgrade’s momentum gets tested.

For SOL holders specifically, the August 17 mainnet target is the date to circle. Testnet activations prove the technology works. Mainnet activations prove the network can handle it with real stakes on the line.

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

PANews, August 6 – Coinbase released its Solana validator operations report for the second quarter of 2026, stating that its Solana validators outperformed the network average in yield, stability, and infrastructure distribution.

Data shows that Coinbase currently stakes approximately 41.63 million SOL through 23 validator nodes, accounting for 9.72% of Solana’s total staked amount. The nodes are distributed across 7 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and Singapore. Key operational data are as follows:

Staking scale: 41.63 million SOL, accounting for 9.72% of the network’s total staked amount; Staking yield: Q2 2026 APY of 6.52%, above the network average of 6.38%, leading by 14 basis points; Block skip rate: 0.035%, lower than the network average of 0.136%, approximately one-quarter of the network average. Coinbase states that its validators adopt a multi-client architecture, currently running four clients: Harmonic, Jito, JitoBAM, and Firedancer. All solutions have been reviewed by the Solana Foundation and do not employ aggressive MEV timing strategies that could affect user experience.

In terms of infrastructure, Coinbase deploys its validators on two independent bare-metal providers and configures off-site backups for each node to reduce the risk of single points of failure. Meanwhile, the company states that it has migrated the entire validator cluster to the DoubleZero network, achieving approximately 99.9% session availability.

Coinbase also revealed that it is preparing for Solana’s anticipated Alpenglow consensus upgrade later in 2026, including running community test nodes, developing new consensus health monitoring tools, and completing voting account upgrade verification.

Coinbase stated that as Solana evolves towards a lower-latency consensus mechanism, high-performance infrastructure and stable validators will be critical factors in ensuring network operations.