Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Bittensor just reimagined what staking looks like on its network, and the result reads less like a protocol upgrade and more like the launch of an on-chain asset management layer.

The Root Reborn upgrade, tagged as runtime v441, transforms root staking from a passive dividend machine into a competitive allocation system. Validators no longer just sit there collecting rewards. They now build curated “baskets” of subnet alpha holdings, reinvesting dividends instead of dumping them for TAO at regular intervals. TAO’s price jumped roughly 5% on the announcement.

How Root Reborn actually works Root Reborn flips the old system entirely. Validators now set public root weights to determine how capital gets distributed among Bittensor’s various AI-focused subnets. They pick which subnets to allocate to, with a minimum of 8 destinations when the feature is enabled, and their stakers ride along.

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Stakers subscribe TAO to a validator’s fund and accrue yield automatically as a fraction of that fund. The default mode lets dividends compound without triggering trades. That eliminates the forced selling that was dragging on subnet token prices. It also sidesteps what the proposal identifies as adverse tax implications for stakers, since unrealized gains sitting in a basket aren’t taxable events in most jurisdictions the way recurring token swaps might be.

The proposal was architected by a developer known as “unconst” and unveiled on June 17. It targets several structural problems simultaneously: persistent sell pressure on subnet tokens, the loss of optionality for early subnet investors who got locked into a rigid dividend schedule, and the general inefficiency of treating all subnets equally regardless of performance.

The fund manager dynamic Validators are no longer passive infrastructure. They’re active capital allocators making public bets on which subnets will outperform. The protocol provides transparent tracking tools covering basket composition, net asset value, and lifetime returns.

What this means for TAO holders The headline number from the proposal is a projected reduction of up to 33% in mechanical sell pressure on TAO tokens. That’s the direct result of eliminating the automatic sell-for-TAO cycle that the old dividend system enforced.

Under Root Reborn, dividends stay invested in subnet positions, growing the basket’s value over time, rather than being converted and distributed as under the old system. Stakers can redeem their positions and move TAO between validators at any time.

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

@worldlibertyfi's $WLFI token is trading with a significant portion of its supply still off the market. With a market cap of approximately $1.73B and a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $5.44B, the token's circulating supply sits at around 32%, meaning nearly 70% of all $WLFI tokens remain locked.

What the numbers mean The gap between market cap and FDV is a key figure for investors to watch. The current market cap reflects less than a third of the token's eventual full size, meaning that as more supply enters the market over time, dilution remains a real risk. According to CoinGecko, the total supply of $WLFI is 100 billion tokens, with around 32 billion currently tradable.

The token's vesting structure is managed through a smart contract system known as the "Lockbox," which holds tokens in escrow and releases them according to a defined schedule. A major governance proposal passed earlier this year with 99.9% approval, restructuring the unlock timeline: early presale supporters face a two-year cliff followed by a two-year linear vest, while founders, team members, and partners agreed to burn roughly 10% of their holdings (approximately 4.5 billion tokens) with the remainder vesting over five years. The full unlock schedule is expected to extend into 2031.

Adding to the supply overhang concern, the price of $WLFI is down 6.2% over the past 30 days. That comes even as the broader project continues to develop, with its USD1 stablecoin expanding its integrations and the protocol maintaining a top-50 ranking by market cap across major data providers.

Dilution risk remains the key watchpoint For holders, the core question is how markets will absorb the remaining locked supply as it is gradually released. Structured vesting is designed to reduce sudden price shocks, with $WLFI using linear vesting for team and advisor allocations, meaning tokens are released in equal amounts over time rather than in large cliff events.

Still, the scale of the remaining locked tokens means any sustained sell pressure from unlocking insiders could weigh on price. At current levels, the FDV of $WLFI implies the market would need to absorb more than three times the current circulating value if all 100 billion tokens were ever in free float simultaneously.

Sources:
World Liberty Financial (WLFI) Market Data, CoinGecko
WLFI Upcoming and Historical Token Unlock Events, Tokenomist
62 Billion WLFI Token Unlock Schedule Goes Live, Memeburn

Bitcoin could challenge prevailing bearish expectations in August, as BlackRock made a significant move in the cryptocurrency market with a major Bitcoin purchase.

BlackRock’s new Bitcoin positionBlackRock, which ranks among the world’s largest asset managers, recently acquired more than $111 million worth of Bitcoin. The purchase followed a positive trading session for BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF, the largest exchange-traded fund dedicated to the cryptocurrency.

The new allocation comes as onchain data confirms recurring patterns: BlackRock has been alternating between buying and offloading Bitcoin in response to price swings and market sentiment.

BlackRock captured the majority of capital entering the Bitcoin ETF market during this session, as $111.43 million flowed into Bitcoin while total ETF net inflows for the day reached over $170 million.

This trend points to BlackRock’s dominance within the institutional Bitcoin investment landscape. While the firm’s activity is closely tied to price movements, its latest purchase signals growing interest among traditional financial entities.

BlackRock is a global investment company known for its expansive ETF offerings and substantial influence in the financial markets, with assets under management exceeding $10 trillion.

Mini dictionary: Onchain data, refers to analysis and data gathered directly from a blockchain, providing transparent records of asset movement, ownership, and network activity.

ETF inflows signal renewed institutional interestThe broader Bitcoin ETF market recorded a net inflow surpassing $170 million during the most recent session. BlackRock’s purchase accounted for the largest portion of this, reinforcing its leading position among ETF providers such as Fidelity and Grayscale.

ETF ProviderNet Inflow (Latest Session)BlackRock$111.43 millionAll Providers (Total)$170 million+Institutional appetite for Bitcoin appears to be rising, even as the cryptocurrency’s price remains volatile. Analysts are monitoring whether these inflows will drive further price recovery or if the current uptrend is temporary.

August outlook for BitcoinDespite recent buying activity, caution remains regarding Bitcoin’s performance in August. Historically, August has often been a difficult month for the digital asset. Since 2022, Bitcoin has posted consistent losses in August, which has fueled skepticism among investors about the likelihood of a strong rebound this month.

However, Bitcoin started the current month on a stronger note, rising 1.37% as of August 4. Market participants are now watching to see if this early momentum will continue and help Bitcoin achieve a more positive return by the end of August, potentially breaking its recent negative trend for the month.

Expectations for August remain mixed, as Bitcoin is attempting to overcome a historical pattern of poor performance during this period, with the current modest gain raising the possibility of a rare positive August finish.

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.

Ripple President Monica Long says the shift in institutional capital markets is no longer a question of timing. Speaking recently, Long argued that the industry has moved past the pilot phase and into full production deployments on the $XRP Ledger.

From Pilots to Production Long has been consistent in framing 2026 as a turning point. In a January outlook published on Ripple's website, she wrote that 5 to 10 percent of capital markets settlement is expected to move onchain, driven by regulatory momentum and the adoption of stablecoins by systemically important institutions. Over the last few years, leaders across the crypto industry have laid the technical and regulatory groundwork necessary for long-term adoption, and in 2026, that investment is set to pay off as trusted digital asset infrastructure and expanded utility spur institutional demand, leading more banks, corporates and providers to move from pilot phases into full-scale production.

Ripple has backed that view with concrete moves within the XRPL ecosystem, including supporting ZILO and Liquido to expand tokenized asset infrastructure. The goal, Long has said, is to provide the full stack of digital asset infrastructure, allowing institutional participants to take advantage of the entire lifecycle of a tokenized asset on the XRP Ledger.

Aviva Investors Brings a Live Product to XRPL The clearest signal of that shift came on July 29, when Aviva Investors, the global asset management arm of UK insurance giant Aviva plc, rolled out a tokenized share class for its US Dollar Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger, becoming the firm's first tokenized investment fund. The Central Bank of Ireland approved the structure, which the firms called a regulatory first for tokenized funds. All underlying assets are held by BNY Mellon. The fund targets low-risk returns and daily liquidity through exposure to high-grade US dollar-denominated short-term debt instruments. Komainu provided regulated institutional digital asset custody and Licuido supplied the tokenization infrastructure for the launch.

The blockchain-based share class offers the same investment strategy, risk profile, daily liquidity and investor protections as the conventional fund while enabling more efficient fund operations through tokenization. The rollout turns their February partnership into a live investment product. The initiative marks Aviva's first tokenization effort and Ripple's first deal with a Europe-based asset manager.

According to RWA.xyz, the XRP Ledger tracked roughly $4.37 billion in real-world assets on July 29, 2026, split between $313.3 million in distributed assets and $4.06 billion in represented assets. Ripple's ambition is to support the full lifecycle of tokenized assets on that infrastructure, from issuance through settlement and beyond.

Sources:
Ripple: Monica Long Crypto Predictions and Trends for 2026
Crypto Briefing: Aviva Investors debuts first tokenized fund on XRP Ledger
CoinDesk: Aviva Investors to tokenize funds on XRP Ledger in Ripple partnership

BlackRock has expanded tokenized money market funds to Europe with Ethereum share classes covering $311 billion in institutional liquidity assets.

Summary

BlackRock has launched tokenized share classes for European institutional money market funds managing $311 billion in assets. The Ethereum based rollout lets approved investors transfer fund shares between eligible wallets while keeping traditional fund records in place. The launch follows BlackRock’s introduction of two tokenized money market products for institutional investors in the United States. The tokenized share classes will be available across 15 markets and are intended for treasury management, digital collateral and other institutional use cases. According to a recent announcement, BlackRock has introduced its first tokenized access to institutional money market funds in Europe by launching blockchain-based share classes on Ethereum in partnership with Kinexys by JPMorgan. 

The rollout covers selected BlackRock Institutional Cash Series (ICS) money market funds that managed a combined $311 billion in assets as of June 30, according to the asset manager.

The launch extends BlackRock’s tokenization efforts beyond the U.S. after the firm introduced two blockchain-based money market products earlier this week. While those products focused on stablecoin reserves and U.S. Treasury liquidity, the latest rollout brings tokenized access to existing institutional cash funds across multiple European and international markets.

BlackRock has tokenized 12 institutional fund share classes According to BlackRock, the initiative includes 12 tokenized share classes across its ICS Euro Government Liquidity, Sterling Government Liquidity, U.S. Treasury, Euro Liquidity, Sterling Liquidity, and U.S. Dollar Liquidity funds.

The company said Kinexys by JPMorgan provides the tokenization platform that links blockchain activity with the existing fund register. Each on-chain token represents ownership of an underlying ICS fund share, while the official shareholder register continues to be maintained through the fund’s transfer agent infrastructure instead of on the blockchain itself.

Approved institutional investors will be able to transfer tokenized shares directly between eligible wallets at any time through smart contracts. BlackRock said the structure combines yield-bearing money market fund exposure with near real-time on-chain visibility while keeping the compliance controls used in regulated investment products.

Hannah Winter, Head of Digital Cash at BlackRock, said tokenized money market funds allow the firm to deliver high-quality short-duration investment exposure in digital form without changing its standards for capital preservation, liquidity, and risk management.

The asset manager added that the tokenized share classes are intended for institutional uses including corporate treasury operations, digital collateral management, bank distribution networks and integration with tokenized financial systems.

European rollout follows BlackRock’s recent tokenization push The latest launch comes one day after BlackRock introduced two tokenized money market products in the United States.

One product, BSTBL, places tokenized share classes of BlackRock’s existing Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund on Ethereum, while BRSRV is designed as a stablecoin reserve vehicle for institutional users with multi-chain support. Both products invest primarily in cash, short-term U.S. Treasury securities and overnight Treasury-backed repurchase agreements.

Unlike a stablecoin, BSTBL gives investors ownership of fund shares whose returns depend on income generated by the underlying portfolio rather than maintaining a fixed redemption value. BRSRV, meanwhile, is intended for stablecoin reserve management and reinvests dividends daily.

The European launch expands the same strategy into existing institutional liquidity products instead of creating new investment vehicles. According to BlackRock, the on-chain share classes will initially be available in Bermuda, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

BlackRock continues building digital asset infrastructure BlackRock has continued adding blockchain-based products alongside its regulated cryptocurrency business over recent months.

In July, the company joined a Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) pilot that allows financial institutions to test tokenized representations of stocks and U.S. Treasuries while the underlying assets remain within traditional market infrastructure. JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Vanguard, the New York Stock Exchange and dozens of other financial firms are participating in the initiative.

Separately, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved an increase in the options position limit tied to BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) from 250,000 to one million contracts, allowing larger institutional trading and hedging positions under NYSE Arca rules.

BlackRock has indicated that tokenized funds form a separate part of its digital asset strategy from its cryptocurrency exchange-traded products. During the company’s second-quarter earnings call last month, Chief Financial Officer Martin Small said the long-term plan is to allow investors to access tokenized Treasury funds, iShares ETFs and private market investments through digital wallets alongside crypto assets and stablecoins.

A separate essay published by Chief Executive Larry Fink and Chief Operating Officer Rob Goldstein in The Economist in December 2025 also described tokenization as a way to reduce settlement delays, improve private market operations and record ownership of financial assets using blockchain-based ledgers.

@OndoFinance has brought its yield-bearing token $USDY to the @BNBCHAIN ecosystem, widening access to one of the more established tokenized Treasury products in the real-world asset (RWA) space.

What USDY Offers BNB Chain Users $USDY is designed to give both retail and autonomous users a straightforward route to daily-accruing yield. The token is backed by short-duration U.S. Treasuries and bank demand deposits, with each USDY representing a senior unsecured claim on a portfolio held by Ondo USDY LLC, a Delaware bankruptcy-remote vehicle. Holders accrue yield through a rising redemption value, with the token trading at a growing premium to $1.00 that reflects accumulated interest.

USDY is Ondo's permissionless yield-bearing token, making it accessible to a broader range of users compared to OUSG, which is aimed at institutional participants. The BNB Chain deployment extends that permissionless model to one of crypto's largest retail networks.

Infrastructure Partners and Cross-Chain Reach The deployment is live through a set of well-established infrastructure providers. Supported platforms include @1inch, @Ledger, @TrustWallet, and @LayerZero_Core, among others. Ondo uses @LayerZero_Core to run USDY as an Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT), enabling users to hold and transfer T-bill yield across multiple blockchains without friction.

Ondo and LayerZero previously launched the Ondo Bridge for tokenized stocks and ETFs, enabling cross-chain transfers between Ethereum and BNB Chain with over 100 tokenized equities and ETFs available at launch. The USDY deployment on BNB Chain builds on that existing cross-chain infrastructure.

The move is part of a broader multichain push by Ondo. USDY launched on Ethereum in August 2023 before expanding to Solana, Mantle, Sui, and Aptos across 2024. Total supply has grown from around $60 million at launch to over $740 million in early 2026. The BNB Chain addition gives the protocol a foothold in one of the most active on-chain retail environments in the industry.

Ondo holds a position as the only major platform combining permissionless retail access through USDY with full institutional depth through OUSG and over 260 tokenized equities. The BNB Chain expansion reinforces that dual-market approach.

Sources:
Ondo USDY: Tokenized Treasuries Explained (Eco)
Ondo Finance Goes Omnichain with LayerZero (LayerZero Blog)
Ondo Debuts Tokenized Stocks on Ethereum with BNB Chain Support (The Block)

Fintech

4 August 2026 | 07:53 Kamino announced a new product called Kamino Institutional Yield, designed to connect capital held on Solana with credit markets outside crypto.

Key Takeaways Commodity Yield targets approximately 7% to 8% and opened with a $25 million deposit cap. Depositors receive kicUSDC, representing their share of the vault and its accrued yield. Withdrawals depend partly on loans being repaid, so immediate access is not guaranteed at every size. The higher target return comes with offchain legal, operational and counterparty risks. For users already moving USDC between DeFi lending markets in search of better returns, a target yield of 7% to 8% will immediately stand out.

Kamino’s new Commodity Yield vault offers that return by financing short-term commodity trades rather than lending against crypto collateral. Users keep an onchain position through Solana, but the money ultimately depends on commodity traders, banks, escrow agents, insurers and legal agreements operating outside the network.

That is the central trade-off. Depositors gain access to a form of institutional credit that is normally difficult for individuals to reach, while giving up some of the liquidity and transparency associated with automated onchain lending.

Kamino describes the product as institutional-grade credit brought onto Solana through its new Kamino Institutional Yield platform.

Say hello to institutional-grade credit on Solana via @kamino https://t.co/jRD0vNVbtj

— Solana (@solana) August 3, 2026

What Happens After You Deposit USDC Users deposit USDC into the Commodity Yield vault and receive kicUSDC. That token represents their proportional interest in the strategy and reflects the yield generated by its underlying loans.

Kamino says the capital is deployed through a fund structure regulated by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, or CIMA. The fund then finances short-duration commodity transactions.

Solana handles the deposit, vault accounting and ownership token. The borrowers, goods, escrow balances, insurance and repayment agreements remain offchain.

This means owning kicUSDC is different from lending USDC through a conventional DeFi money market. Depositors are exposed to the performance of a managed credit portfolio rather than a visible pool of crypto-backed loans controlled mainly by smart contracts.

How a Commodity Trade Produces the Yield Kamino explains the process through an example involving a copper trader.

The trader agrees to buy copper from a wholesaler for $9 million and sell it to an end buyer for $10 million. The supplier wants payment before shipping, while the buyer pays only after receiving and inspecting the copper.

The trader needs temporary financing to bridge that gap.

Capital from the Kamino vault is provided through a special-purpose vehicle and fund structure. The money is placed in a segregated escrow account that the wholesaler can verify before releasing the shipment.

The copper is insured while in transit. Once it arrives and passes inspection, the escrow account pays the supplier. The end buyer later pays the amount agreed in the sales contract, allowing the trader to repay the financing with interest.

The interest paid by the trader becomes revenue for the vault and contributes to the return received by kicUSDC holders.

The transaction begins with an identified supplier, buyer and commercial margin. Even so, shipment delays, disputed goods, fraud, borrower failure or problems enforcing contracts can still interrupt repayment.

What Withdrawals May Look Like in Practice Kamino says withdrawals can be completed immediately while the vault has enough available USDC in its liquidity buffer.

When redemption requests exceed that buffer, depositors may need to wait for outstanding loans to mature. The underlying money cannot always be returned instantly because part of it may still be financing goods that have not completed their commercial journey.

Someone withdrawing a small amount during normal conditions may receive USDC quickly. A larger request, or many users withdrawing at once, could create a queue until borrowers repay their loans.

Before depositing, users should check whether Kamino discloses:

The size of the vault’s liquid USDC buffer. The average duration of outstanding loans. How queued withdrawals are processed. Whether redemptions can be paused or delayed. Any fees charged when entering or leaving the vault. This product is therefore unsuitable for money that may be needed immediately. A 7% to 8% target becomes less attractive if the depositor cannot tolerate waiting for repayment during stressed conditions.

Collateral Helps, but Recovery Can Still Take Time Kamino says the loans are supported by physical commodities and/or cash held in 1:1 escrow accounts with tier-one banks.

Cash escrow can offer relatively direct protection because funds have already been placed with a bank. Physical collateral is more complicated. Goods may need to be located, inspected, legally seized and sold before lenders recover their money.

The value of a commodity can also change while a dispute is being resolved. Insurance may cover damage or loss during shipping without covering fraud, contractual disputes or every form of borrower failure.

“Fully collateralized” therefore describes the assets intended to support the loan. It does not promise instant or complete recovery in every default scenario.

The Main Risks Are Not Visible on Solana Blockchain records can show USDC entering the vault, kicUSDC being issued and tokens moving between wallets. They cannot verify whether a shipment exists, whether the goods meet the agreed quality or whether an invoice is genuine.

Repayment may depend on:

Commodity traders and corporate borrowers. Suppliers and end buyers. Escrow agents and commercial banks. Shipping companies, inspectors and insurers. Fund managers, administrators and legal entities. The Solana contracts could work exactly as designed while an offchain problem still delays or reduces the amount returned to the vault.

Jurisdiction adds another layer. The fund structure is based in the Cayman Islands, while borrowers, banks, goods and commercial counterparties may operate elsewhere. A dispute could involve several legal systems and take longer to resolve than an automated crypto liquidation.

Kamino says the vault will provide continuous portfolio transparency. For depositors, the useful details will be loan maturities, borrower concentration, collateral location, repayment status, overdue balances and completed recoveries, not simply the total value deposited.

How It Differs From a DeFi Lending Pool Kamino Institutional Yield vs. Standard DeFi Money Markets Comparison Standard DeFi Lending Kamino Commodity Yield Source of Return Interest paid by users borrowing crypto assets. Interest paid on short-term commodity-finance loans. Borrowers Usually pseudonymous wallets using onchain collateral. Identified businesses participating in commodity trades. Collateral Digital assets held in smart contracts. Physical commodities and/or cash escrow, according to Kamino. Transparency Loans and collateral are generally visible onchain. Deposits are visible onchain, while loan performance relies partly on external reporting. Default Handling Smart contracts can automatically liquidate collateral. Recovery may require escrow release, insurance or legal enforcement. Withdrawals Depend on available liquidity in the lending pool. Use a liquidity buffer, with larger requests potentially waiting for loan repayments. Who the Vault May Suit Commodity Yield may appeal to users who want USDC exposure to private credit and are comfortable evaluating risks that cannot be checked entirely through blockchain data.

It is more suitable for depositors who:

Can leave their funds invested through the duration of the underlying loans. Accept that withdrawals may sometimes be delayed. Understand that a stablecoin deposit is not the same as a protected cash account. Are comfortable relying on fund managers, banks and legal agreements. Can assess the vault through portfolio reports rather than onchain data alone. It is a weaker fit for anyone treating USDC as emergency cash, requiring guaranteed immediate withdrawals or expecting smart contracts to manage every important risk automatically.

Why the $25 Million Cap Matters Commodity Yield opened with a maximum of $25 million in deposits. That gives Kamino room to test its lending, reporting and redemption processes without taking unlimited capital from the beginning.

The cap also keeps the launch in perspective. It introduces a new type of credit product on Solana, but it does not yet show that commodity finance can operate at significant scale through the network.

The first completed lending cycles will provide more useful information than the headline yield. Investors will be able to see whether borrowers repay on schedule, whether withdrawals work during periods of heavier demand and how close the realized return comes to the 7% to 8% target after fees.

What the Product Adds to Solana Most tokenized real-world-asset products have focused on government debt, money-market funds and the reserves supporting yield-bearing stablecoins. Kamino is bringing a different form of credit onto Solana’s distribution layer.

The blockchain makes it easier to deposit USDC, receive a transferable vault position and track ownership. The fund handles the commercial lending that cannot be completed entirely through smart contracts.

A successful first vault could lead to other private-credit strategies. Its importance will be determined by repayment performance, withdrawal reliability and sustained demand rather than the launch announcement alone.

Kamino is offering DeFi users a higher target return by moving beyond crypto-native lending. The price of that return is exposure to the slower and less transparent world of borrowers, banks, shipments and legal enforcement.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Yield targets are not guaranteed, and offchain credit structures can involve liquidity, counterparty, operational and legal risks. Methodology: This article uses Kamino’s official launch announcement and explanatory materials for Kamino Institutional Yield and the Commodity Yield vault, together with Solana’s public post about the launch. Product descriptions, target returns and collateral claims are attributed to Kamino. 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.

Large Uniswap (UNI) holders are accumulating the token despite its recent pullback from a local high. 

According to CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost, Binance has recorded its highest level of major UNI withdrawals in five years.

Darkfost said the monthly average of the 10 largest UNI withdrawal transactions from Binance has reached its highest level since 2021. The trend suggests that some of the exchange’s biggest participants are continuing to accumulate UNI during periods of price weakness.

The analyst noted that the monthly average of these top-10 withdrawals has surpassed 7,200 UNI. On some days, the combined withdrawals from the 10 largest transactions exceeded 10,000 UNI.

According to the analysis, the largest outflows have increased during periods of sharp declines in UNI prices. This suggests that large investors may be using market dips as opportunities to accumulate.

“These outflows therefore suggest that UNI accumulation is continuing, particularly among the largest players on Binance,” Darkfost wrote.

He added that despite UNI’s extended decline from its all-time high, some investors remain confident in Uniswap’s long-term growth potential and the future value of its native token.

UNI Still Down 90% from Previous Peak For context, UNI is among the major altcoins that have yet to reclaim their previous cycle highs. The token is still trading more than 91% below its 2021 all-time high of around $45.

Meanwhile, the latest accumulation trend comes after one of UNI’s sharpest corrections in recent years. The token dropped to $2.316 on June 6, 2026, marking its lowest level in roughly five years.

The decline came just days after Standard Chartered projected that UNI could reach $100 by 2030. After hitting its low, UNI recovered strongly and climbed to $4.577 five days ago before losing momentum and pulling back.

According to CoinMarketCap data, UNI is trading at $3.84 at the time of writing, down 5.45% over the past 24 hours. Despite the daily decline, the token remains up 21.7% over the past month and 52% over the past two months. However, it is still down 32% year-to-date.

Uniswap Fee Switch Boosts Network Activity Notably, UNI’s recent recovery happened after Uniswap v4 activated its fee switch, which led to a jump in network activity.

According to Santiment, UNI’s price rose about 19%, from $3.83 to $4.54, between July 29 and July 31 after the fee switch and buy-and-burn system launched. The price later dropped back near $4.07 as the first wave of excitement faded.

Uniswap (UNI) chart by Santiment The increase was not caused solely by price movements. On-chain activity also grew. New addresses nearly doubled, reaching 510 on July 30 and 582 on July 31, compared with the usual July range of 250–320.

Active addresses also increased, reaching 2,341 and 2,457 on those days, above the normal range of 1,300–1,700. Whale activity picked up too, with 142 transactions worth more than $100,000 recorded on July 30.

Santiment said that continued network growth, even after UNI’s price cooled, could be a sign of stronger adoption, not just a short-term price boost.

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

Table of contents

For a blockchain that spent much of the past two years synonymous with meme coins and retail speculation, the Solana Foundation’s latest hiring push reads like a deliberate turn toward infrastructure. The organization has opened several senior positions including a General Manager of AI Ecosystem, a Head of Stablecoins, a Director of Institutional Growth, and institutional growth leads for Greater China and Japan, according to a report from WuBlockchain. Rather than chasing the next viral token, these roles target the plumbing of a durable layer-one network: on-chain intelligence, dollar-pegged assets, and serious capital.

The listings arrive at a moment when Solana’s network metrics have largely recovered from the congestion crises of 2024, and developer engagement has been climbing. Solana has consistently ranked among the top blockchains by developer activity, but institutional onboarding and deeper stablecoin liquidity have lagged behind Ethereum and even some newer ecosystems. A full-time Head of Stablecoins signals that the Foundation now views this gap as strategic, not incidental.

Not Just Another AI Narrative The GM of AI Ecosystem role is the most revealing. While every chain now claims an AI strategy, few foundations have committed to a dedicated senior executive for it. Solana’s AI ambitions come as the broader market watches decentralized compute networks and on-chain agents evolve from experiments into real products. It also aligns with the growing trend of AI-driven Web3 applications, similar to projects like UXLINK and Origins Network’s partnership, which aims to merge decentralized computing with scalable user experiences.

What matters here is timing. Solana’s high throughput gives it a natural advantage for AI agent interactions that demand sub-second finality. But without a coordinated foundation effort, developer tooling and grant programs for AI on Solana have been fragmented. Hiring a GM suggests the Foundation wants to consolidate these efforts before competitors close the window.

Stablecoins as Institutional Rails The Head of Stablecoins position is equally pragmatic. Stablecoin supply on Solana has grown, but it remains dominated by a few large players. A dedicated lead implies the Foundation wants to diversify issuer relationships, expand regional on-ramps, and potentially explore yield-bearing or compliant alternatives that traditional institutions find palatable. In practice, that means courting fintechs and payment firms in Asia and the US, not just crypto-native issuers.

This is not happening in a vacuum. Across the industry, tokenization of real-world assets and stablecoin-based settlement is accelerating, as seen in recent milestones like the first live tokenized Treasury settlement between Ondo and JPMorgan. For Solana to capture a slice of that institutional flow, it needs a stablecoin stack that meets the compliance and integration demands of traditional finance. The new hire will face the hard problem of making Solana rails feel safe to treasury managers who still equate crypto with chaos.

Asia Takes Center Stage The institutional growth leads for Greater China and Japan confirm that Solana sees Asia as the primary battleground for the next adoption wave. These are not passive outreach roles; they imply dedicated boots on the ground who can navigate regulatory nuance, broker exchange liquidity deals, and onboard local institutions. Both markets have seen a surge in Web3 gaming and social-fi, two verticals where Solana has already gained traction. Yet institutional capital in the region has mostly flowed to Ethereum and, in some cases, to newer L1s that offer staking incentives to traditional firms, as seen when institutional staking drove a SUI price surge earlier this month.

Japan’s evolving regulatory clarity and China’s gray-market innovation demand local knowledge. A San Francisco–led playbook will not work. If filled quickly, these hires could reshape where Solana’s next wave of validators, wallets, and on-ramp partners emerge.

What remains uncertain is how quickly these roles will be filled and whether the Foundation can secure candidates who combine deep crypto expertise with mainstream institutional credibility. Job listings don’t guarantee execution, and Solana has lost senior talent in the past. Still, the positions themselves tell a story about where the network’s stewards believe the puck is moving. For market participants accustomed to chasing memes, it’s a reminder that the foundations underneath are getting more serious.

AUTHOR

Brenda is a writer with three years of experience specializing in cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. She graduated from the University of Mombasa with a degree in Psychology. She has worked at Cryptopolitan and Blockchain Reporter.

Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest banking group, has significantly changed the composition of its crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) holdings, according to its latest mandatory disclosure to US regulators.

Sharp reduction in Bitcoin ETF exposureAccording to the Form 13F filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on July 31, the bank’s common shareholding in the iShares Bitcoin Trust fund fell dramatically between March and June. The reported position decreased from 646,809 shares on March 31 to 40,723 by June 30, marking an approximate 94% reduction.

Intesa Sanpaolo also reduced its exposure through call options. The underlying share count tied to these positions fell steeply, from 2,496,500 to 18,000, which reflects a drop of over 99%. Additionally, the June filing introduced a new put option tied to 500,000 underlying shares, a position that did not appear in earlier disclosures.

Asset/PositionMarch 31 HoldingsJune 30 HoldingsChange (%)iShares Bitcoin Trust (Common Shares)646,80940,723-93.7%iShares Bitcoin Trust (Call Options)2,496,50018,000-99.3%iShares Bitcoin Trust (Put Options)0500,000New PositionThe Form 13F report, a quarterly filing required by institutional investment managers with at least $100 million in assets under management, only reveals positions held as of the end of the reporting period. It does not specify strike prices, expiry dates, or whether options were sold short, leaving the bank’s precise strategy and risk exposure open to interpretation.

Intesa Sanpaolo is Italy’s leading financial institution, with operations spanning commercial banking, asset management, and insurance in Europe and beyond.

Ethereum positions surge as Solana holdings all but disappearWhile reducing its Bitcoin ETF exposure, Intesa Sanpaolo increased its stake in the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust fund. The bank tripled its holding, from 116,200 shares on March 31 to 349,600 shares at the end of June.

Meanwhile, its investment in the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF was almost entirely eliminated, dropping from 2,817 shares to just seven between quarters. Holdings of the Grayscale XRP Trust ETF remained steady at 712,319 shares, showing little to no movement after accounting for possible trading activity that left the quarter-end balance unchanged.

ETFMarch 31 SharesJune 30 SharesChangeiShares Staked Ethereum Trust116,200349,600+201%Bitwise Solana Staking ETF2,8177-99.8%Grayscale XRP Trust ETF712,319712,3190% Intesa Sanpaolo reported a sharp reduction in both its Bitcoin ETF and call option positions, while increasing its staked Ethereum fund exposure more than threefold. The bank’s Solana holdings nearly vanished, with XRP balances remaining unaltered over the quarter.

Form 13F filings reveal only a snapshot at the end of each quarter, presenting limited insight into daily trading or rationale behind trades. The filings do not capture written or short option strategies and lack detail concerning strike prices or expiration dates.

Due to these disclosure gaps, outside observers cannot definitively calculate the bank’s net exposure to any crypto asset based only on publicly available records.

Nevertheless, the data show Intesa Sanpaolo’s declared crypto investments now favor staked Ethereum over Bitcoin, with dramatically reduced exposure to Solana and steady XRP holdings.

Mini dictionary: Form 13F, a quarterly report that US institutional investment managers managing at least $100 million in certain securities must file with the SEC, disclosing their equity holdings as of the quarter’s end.

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.

@Hyperliquidx perpetual futures volume on @TrustWallet has crossed the $3 billion mark, a milestone that underscores the rapid mainstream adoption of on-chain derivatives trading through mobile platforms.

Mobile Distribution Unlocks a New Retail Wave The integration, which went live in late April 2026, gave Trust Wallet's 220 million-plus users access to Hyperliquid's high-performance decentralized blockchain, which has executed over $4 trillion in total trading volume, delivering deeper liquidity, more markets, and faster execution without leaving the app.

The move gives those users access to over 200 perpetual futures markets covering cryptocurrencies and real-world assets like oil and gold, without connecting external applications. Hyperliquid launched in Trust Wallet with 0% markup on fees for the first three months, a clear effort to accelerate user onboarding and build trading habit on mobile.

Perp trading has long been dominated by desktop-first platforms, making the Trust Wallet integration a meaningful structural shift. Routing institutional-grade perpetuals through a self-custody mobile wallet removes one of the last friction points for retail participation in on-chain derivatives.

Hyperliquid Cements Its Lead in On-Chain Perps The $3 billion volume figure on Trust Wallet alone reflects broader momentum for the protocol. Hyperliquid processed $633 billion in trading volume during Q1 2026 alone, with daily volume running between $3 billion and $10 billion depending on market conditions. Its share of on-chain perpetual futures volume climbed to 44% by mid-2026, even as new competitors entered the space.

The protocol's edge is largely architectural. Hyperliquid's order book clears trades with sub-second finality at 100,000 orders per second, a throughput level that allows it to offer execution quality typically associated with centralised venues while remaining fully non-custodial.

The Trust Wallet channel adds a distribution layer that competitors have struggled to replicate. By embedding directly into a wallet with a nine-figure user base, @Hyperliquidx gains access to retail capital that would otherwise flow to centralised exchanges, without requiring users to bridge assets or navigate separate applications.

Sources:
Trust Wallet brings the perp DEX war to mobile with Hyperliquid integration (Crypto Briefing)
Trust Wallet Adds Hyperliquid Perps with 0% Fees for 3 Months (Crypto Times)
Hyperliquid captures 80% of decentralized perpetual trading volume (Crypto Briefing)

Despite Ethena’s [ENA] rising dominance in the stablecoin business, the market cap of the altcoin remains well below $1 billion. Its daily trading volume is down to around $150 million, but whales are still going long on the token.

However, this buying is happening right before a massive token unlock, which is in two days. Can the buying pressure from whales outweigh the selling pressure and push ENA higher?

Arthur Hayes buys ENA, but selling pressure remains In the past 24 hours, the co-founder of BitMEX, Arthur Hayes, has made another purchase to increase his ENA position. As per Arkham data, Hayes bought 3 million ENA worth $262.77K from Flowdesk.

A few minutes later, Hayes added another 3 million ENA from the Binance exchange worth $262.11K. The total for both positions was above $525K, with an average price of $0.09.

Source: Arkham Moreover, the ENA builder added an eighth consecutive buy of 1.287 million ENA from Binance. The total across these eight transactions was 8.997 million ENA, valued at roughly $739.7K from the same exchange.

Both whales’ positions amounted to more than 7.289 million ENA, valued at over $1.20 million.

However, this activity was happening amid an upcoming token unlock scheduled for August 5. As per Tokenomist, 171.88 million ENA worth $15 million would hit the market. The amount is equivalent to 1.97% of the released supply.

Source: Tokenomist This unlock adds to the 95.31 million ENA worth $8.38 million released on the 2nd of August. The unlock meant that the selling pressure for this month was at its peak during the first few days.

As such, will whale positioning overpower selling pressure from token unlocks and a bearish technical outlook?

Can ENA escape the range market? The price action was stagnant around $0.09, the level where the whales went long. This movement came after surging by more than 14% from $0.0788 to $0.0904.

This level has resulted in two bearish breakdowns previously. And the RSI Divergence appeared to confirm this projection, printing a bearish signal even though it was rising at 55.

On top of that, the transfer count of ENA was declining on Binance, indicating less trading activity. The transfer count was 2.38K, down from 4.17K in late July.

Source: ENA/USDT on TradingView However, if the bulls can keep the altcoin above $0.0875 with more buying, ENA could break past the top of the range at $0.0924. Otherwise, it may drop to $0.0789, which is the demand level that initiated the 14% rally.

Final Summary Arthur Hayes and the ENA builder accumulated over 7.287 million ENA in the past 24 hours, despite looming selling pressure from unlocks.  Ethena’s price action was consolidating around $0.09, with more bearish signals forming despite whales positioning.

HIP-4 permissionless deployments are live on testnet. Hyperliquid should make sure they get to mainnet by the midterms.

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Hyperliquid's HIP-4 markets have had their largest success stem from the World Cup.

I didn’t expect this. When HIP-4 launched, I argued that Hyperliquid was not really coming for Polymarket or Kalshi. That outcome markets rather looked more like an extension of its trading stack: daily crypto binaries for hedging perps, options-like exposure, and another way to keep every leg of a position inside Hyperliquid.

Breaking Down Hyperliquid’s Prediction Play on Bankless

The HIP-4 upgrade brings “outcome markets” to the much-hyped exchange, adding binary trading alongside perps.

BanklessDavid Christopher

Instead, Hyperliquid launched markets for the NBA Finals, individual World Cup matches, and the tournament winner. Those three categories, though overwhelmingly the latter two, have accounted for roughly 48% of HIP-4 volume to date.

Since the height of the tournament, open interest is down more than 90%. To be clear though, HIP-4 has not failed. It’s simply run out of things to trade for the time being.

The system is still permissioned, so validators currently deploy every market. What remains is a thin book of price-related questions pulling trivial amounts of volume compared to that spurred by sports.

That constraint is what Hyperliquid is now trying to remove. On July 31st, permissionless HIP-4 deployments went live on testnet, paving the way for teams to create and operate outcome markets on their own, while showing what it will take to do so.

How Permissionless HIP-4 WorksNote that permissionless deployments will not mean unlimited deployments.

Under the preliminary mainnet design, validators first approve market templates, i.e. reusable structures that define how a market can be created and settled. A deployer then uses an approved template to launch a specific market, supplying details like the question, possible outcomes, expiration, and resolution criteria.

Take politics for example — you’ll see why in a minute — where an approved binary-event template could potentially support a market on whether a candidate wins an election. But Hyperliquid hasn't disclosed how broad each template will be, so it is unclear whether one could cover Senate, House, and governor races, or whether different structures would be needed for party-control, seat-count, or multi-candidate questions.

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What is clear is that deployers will launch markets by instantiating templates validators have already approved, rather than seeking approval for each individual market.

As in HIP-3, deployers are responsible for defining and settling markets correctly, and validators can slash their stake if they get it wrong.

That proposed stake is 500,000 HYPE (same as HIP-3), locked for six months and withdrawable only when no outstanding markets exist. Each deployer will initially receive capacity for 100 outcomes, reusable once markets settle, with an auction for additional capacity planned later. Deployers will eventually be able to receive up to 50% of the trading fees from their markets.

What’s Next After the World Cup?The most obvious target is the U.S. midterms.

Prediction markets first broke into the mainstream through politics, and both Kalshi and Polymarket already run broad election dashboards covering congressional control, individual races, and seat totals. HIP-4 currently offers none.

Whether outside deployers can go ahead and fill that gap depends on how quickly permissionless HIP-4 moves to mainnet. HIP-3 took 164 days from its first permissionless testnet MVP to mainnet, though only 18 days from publishing its initial mainnet specification and making HIP-3 eligible for mainnet-level bug bounties.

HIP-4 sits somewhere between those points. Its preliminary mainnet structure is public and deployer actions are live on testnet, but there are no mainnet-level bug bounties. We’re in limbo for now.

If this system arrives in time, a deployer could use the midterms to build an entire election venue rather than launch isolated questions, so long as validators also approve templates supporting elections.

If permissionless deployment misses that window, validators could still list midterm markets themselves. HIP-4 could recover activity either way. What it would lose is its first major opportunity to prove that outside deployers can keep it supplied with timely markets.

The World Cup proved Hyperliquid users will trade major real-world events. It also proved that, when these events end, there’s not much else to go on. The intensity of this midterms cycle would be a strong opportunity for HIP-4 to act on, helping it simultaneously stay relevant and jumpstart permissionless deployments. Keep an eye on this in the weeks ahead.

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August 2026 brings another busy month for Solana ecosystem token unlocks, with more than a dozen projects scheduled to release additional supply into circulation.

While July was defined by Pump.fun's large 12-month cliff expiration, August shifts back toward recurring monthly vesting events. Even so, several unlocks coincide with major protocol developments that could shape how market participants interpret the additional supply entering circulation.

As always, token unlocks do not guarantee price movement. However, they remain an important consideration when evaluating potential short-term market dynamics.

Here is a breakdown of the most notable Solana ecosystem token unlocks scheduled for August 2026.

$TRUMP The Official Trump token will release 28.02 million $TRUMP through linear vesting during August. The unlock is valued at approximately $40.90 million and represents 11.28% of the token's circulating supply and 2.80% of total supply.

The unlock comes just weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump's 2025 financial disclosure revealed that cryptocurrency generated more income for him than his traditional real estate, golf, and resort businesses.

The annual filing with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics reported more than $1.4 billion in crypto-related income during 2025. Among the largest contributors were approximately $635.1 million from the $TRUMP memecoin and $236.3 million generated through World Liberty Financial token sales. Combined, those ventures accounted for well over $1 billion in reported crypto-related earnings, highlighting how digital assets have become the president's largest business segment.

$PUMP Pump.fun will unlock 7 billion $PUMP tokens through linear vesting during August. The release carries an estimated value of $14.72 million and represents 1.77% of the circulating supply and 0.83% of the total supply.

At TGE, Pump.fun allocated 33% of the total 1 trillion token supply to team members and existing investors under a vesting schedule consisting of a 12-month cliff followed by 36 months of linear vesting. With the cliff now complete, August marks the second month of those recurring monthly distributions.

$JTO Jito will unlock 18.59 million $JTO tokens through linear vesting during August. The release is valued at approximately $9.19 million and represents 3.67% of the circulating supply and 1.859% of the total supply.

The unlock follows the launch of JTX on July 14, Jito's flagship consumer-facing trading application. The platform expands Jito's ecosystem beyond infrastructure products such as the Jito Block Engine, $jitoSOL, and Block Assembly Marketplace plugins.

According to the JIP-38 proposal, 80% of all JTX revenue flows toward $JTO value accrual, while the remaining 20% will support ongoing protocol development. With JTX now live, August marks the first full month in which the application contributes to Jito's broader ecosystem, making the project's monthly unlock particularly notable as market participants evaluate its long-term impact.

$GRASS Grass will unlock 21.73 million $GRASS tokens beginning on August 28 alongside its ongoing linear vesting schedule. The release is valued at approximately $6.89 million and represents 3.32% of the circulating supply and 2.173% of the total supply.

The unlock follows the launch of Grass Wallet and Grass opening claims for Stage 2 Rewards on July 23, covering bandwidth contributions made between October 14, 2024 and June 8, 2026. Rather than distributing rewards in $GRASS, the protocol paid contributors in $USDC.

The decision sparked widespread debate across the community. Some community members questioned the long-term utility of the native token if network contributors no longer receive incentives denominated in $GRASS.

Attention now turns toward future tokenholder updates, where supporters and critics alike will be looking for greater clarity around token utility, value accrual, and the protocol's broader revenue strategy.

$KMNO Kamino will unlock 229.17 million $KMNO through linear vesting on August 30. The release is valued at approximately $4.19 million and represents 4.39% of circulating supply and 2.29% of total supply.

The unlock continues Kamino's established monthly vesting schedule and remains one of the larger recurring releases among Solana DeFi protocols.

Disclaimer: SolanaFloor is a subsidiary of the Jito Network

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SuperVega has launched its public beta on Starknet, bringing options trading to the layer-2 network and giving users a way to place directional bets on cryptocurrency prices. The platform allows traders to profit from hitting specific price targets on digital assets, a feature that slots neatly into Starknet’s broader push into derivatives infrastructure.

Starknet already has Carmine Options serving as the primary options trading protocol on the network, offering European-style options on assets like ETH, STRK, and wBTC.

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What SuperVega is building SuperVega’s approach centers on letting users “profit from price targets on cryptocurrencies,” which suggests a structure closer to binary or target-based options rather than the traditional European-style contracts that Carmine already offers.

The platform is currently in public beta. No specific metrics like total value locked, trading volume, or fee structures have been publicly disclosed.

Starknet’s derivatives ambitions On May 12, 2026, the network saw the launch of strkBTC, a privacy-enhanced wrapped Bitcoin asset that leverages Starknet’s growing privacy infrastructure. That launch came alongside broader developments in the STRK20 privacy framework.

Liquid staking features were integrated into the network as recently as July 29, 2026, adding another layer of composability that derivatives protocols can build on top of.

What this means for traders and investors SuperVega is a beta product with no track record, no publicly available audit information, and no performance history.

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

Hyperliquid’s Open Interest climbed to a record $5.25 billion, overtaking Bybit’s $5.07 billion. The milestone extends earlier gains over HTX, Bitfinex, Kraken, and Coinbase. Those rankings reflect sustained growth across the perpetual Futures market.

Trading activity also remained elevated throughout the latest reporting period. Hyperliquid [HYPE] processed $3.48 billion in perpetual volume over the past 24 hours. Monthly perpetual volume also reached $196 billion, reinforcing steady trader participation.

According to DeFiLlama data, over the last 24 hours, Hyperliquid traded approximately $13 billion in perpetual trading volume. Additionally, monthly perpetual trading volume stood at $196 billion, continuing to demonstrate increased participation among traders.

Source: Onchain Lens Those figures suggest traders continue opening and holding positions rather than exiting quickly. That pattern supports the continued rise in outstanding contracts across the platform.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that record Open Interest alone cannot distinguish fresh participation from heavier leverage. Instead, strong volume along with rising Open Interest shows that conviction remains healthy even as leverage is growing.

Maintaining deep liquidity, orderly liquidations, and consistent participation will determine if Hyperliquid can retain leadership in derivatives against competitors.

Protocol revenue continues expanding Hyperliquid continues leveraging its strong derivatives activity and converting higher trading demand into real value capture. Over the last 24 hours, Hyperliquid burned approximately $643,140 worth of HYPE tokens, reflecting fees generated as usage on the platform continues.

That activity also transferred $513,800 of protocol revenue to both the Assistance Fund and token holders and links the growth of the network directly to incentives within the ecosystem.

Source: X Meanwhile, cumulative burns reached 46.18 million HYPE, worth roughly $2.43 billion, or 4.62% of the token’s maximum supply. Rather than relying solely on a deflationary mechanism, Hyperliquid continues pairing token burns with recurring protocol revenue.

Previously, AMBCrypto reported that Hyperliquid revenue generation has strengthened as usage of the protocol has grown along with this trend.

Recently, priority fees have emerged as another meaningful contributor and have generated $5.07 million since April, with $2.75 million in the last month alone.

Those proceeds complement trading fees by adding another recurring revenue stream. Meanwhile, buybacks through the Assistance Fund and priority-fee burns continue to reinforce value capture, provided elevated trading volume and Open Interest remain sustained.

All in all, if trading activity stays high, that combination could enhance long-term value capture by reducing supply at the same time, rewarding participants through sustained cash flows generated by the network.

Final Summary

Perpetual futures tied to stocks, indexes and commodities out-traded crypto pairs on the largest perps DEX for the first time, less than a year after builder-deployed markets went live.

Real-world asset markets accounted for more than half of Hyperliquid's trading volume for two consecutive weeks in July, the first time perps tied to stocks, commodities and indexes out-traded crypto on the platform.

RWA perps did $25.1 billion in the week of July 13–19, or 52% of Hyperliquid's $48.2 billion total, according to Blockworks data. The share held above 50% the following week.

"We are entering a new era for DeFi," Lorenzo Valente, director of digital asset research at ARK Invest, said in a July 23 post on X.. "For the first time ever, @HyperliquidX generated more volume from RWAs than crypto in a single week."

Single stocks made up 61% of RWA volume, overtaking indexes and commodities, he said, adding that Hyperliquid's RWA market alone was larger than the combined crypto perp volume of every other DEX.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire called it a "major structural shift" in crypto markets, moving "away from speculating on endogenous digital commodities."

Nine months after Hyperliquid opened permissionless market deployment, its growth comes from traditional assets rather than crypto pairs — and that growth is masking a shrinking crypto perps business.

From 2% to HalfThe RWA markets run on HIP-3, Hyperliquid's framework for builder-deployed perps that went live in October 2025 and requires deployers to stake 500,000 HYPE. HIP-3's share of Hyperliquid perp volume climbed from roughly 2% at the start of the year to around 50% by mid-July.

Dominant deployer trade.xyz, with more than 90% of HIP-3 volume, lists single stocks like Nvidia and Tesla, the XYZ100 Nasdaq tracker, and commodities including gold; Ventuals runs pre-IPO perps on OpenAI and SpaceX.

The category is propping up the topline. Hyperliquid's quarterly volume has fallen by roughly half from its ~$1 trillion Q3 2025 peak to about $550 billion in Q2 2026, per Token Terminal data, with RWA growth offsetting the decline in crypto pairs.

The ETF managed approximately $14.7 million as of July 30.

Key Dates Aug 17: Last trading day on NYSE Arca After Aug 17: Fund will stop accepting creation orders and will be delisted Around Aug 28: Remaining shareholders will receive a cash liquidation distribution after the fund sells its bitcoin holdings QUICK CONTEXT: Crypto ETF Competition IntensifiesHashdex’s decision underscores how difficult it has become for smaller spot Bitcoin ETFs to compete in an increasingly concentrated market. Since U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs debuted, asset gathering has largely favored the biggest issuers, with investors gravitating toward funds offering deep liquidity, tighter spreads and lower costs.

With just $14.7 million in assets, the Hashdex Bitcoin ETF remained well below the scale typically needed to cover operating expenses and attract sustained trading activity. Fund closures are a common outcome for ETFs that fail to reach critical mass, even when the underlying asset class remains popular.

The liquidation does not signal Hashdex’s exit from the U.S. market. The firm said it continues to manage more than $200 million in assets for U.S. investors and regularly reviews its product lineup to ensure each fund aligns with its broader index-based strategy. The move highlights the growing importance of scale in the crypto ETF industry, where investor flows have increasingly concentrated in a handful of dominant products.

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Strategy co-founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor breaks silence on personal Bitcoin holdings amid relentless criticism.

Billionaire Michael Saylor-led Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) again sold Bitcoin (BTC) last week as the leading cryptocurrency's price failed to recover.

The world's largest Bitcoin treasury company sold 1,638 BTC for $104.73 million during July 27–Aug. 2.

This is the third time the company has sold Bitcoin this year. Earlier, it sold 32 BTC for about $2.5 million during May 26–31 and 3,588 BTC for $216 million during June 29–July 3.

The firm previously extended its Bitcoin acquisition pause to five weeks ending July 26.

With 843,138 BTC on its balance sheet, Strategy is still the world's largest Bitcoin treasury.

Trending on TheStreet Roundtable:Cathie Wood trims Ethereum exposure on 11th anniversaryAfter Coldcard exploit, crypto billionaire issues stark warningMajor crypto exchange eyes IPO amid market slumpWhat Michael Saylor said on personal Bitcoin holdings However, the Bitcoin sales have provoked sharp reactions from within the crypto industry, who questioned Saylor about violating his creed of never selling Bitcoin.

In February last year, he most famously posted on X, "Sell a kidney if you must, but keep the Bitcoin."

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After the latest Bitcoin sale, Saylor finally broke his silence and said in an Aug. 3 post that the "never sell your Bitcoin" creed only applied to individual savers, not a public company like Strategy.

"I have never sold mine. Not one satoshi," Saylor disclosed.

On the other hand, Strategy disclosed in 2020 itself that it may buy or sell Bitcoin to manage capital, he added the disclaimer.

"Our shared conviction in Bitcoin remains unchanged," the billionaire entrepreneur seemed to double down on his faith in the cryptocurrency in the face of relentless public criticism.

Last week, Strategy reported its financial results for Q2 2026, and it posted a net loss of $8.22 billion. The company attributed almost all of the operating loss to an $8.32 billion unrealized loss on its Bitcoin holdings.

It posted a diluted loss of $24.45 per share, much higher than the estimated loss of $2.19 per share.

BTC/USD, Source: Decibel

BTC was trading at $63,900 at the time of writing, around 50% lower than its all-time high (ATH) of $126,080 it hit on Oct. 6, 2025.

The non-custodial swap service said attackers now iterate faster than its team can patch, leaving wallets including Aqua and Bull Bitcoin racing to restore Lightning and Liquid swaps.

Boltz, the non-custodial bridge that routes swaps between bitcoin's mainchain, the Lightning Network and Liquid, disabled its service indefinitely on Monday, saying months of automated, AI-assisted attacks on its infrastructure have outpaced its ability to ship fixes.

Boltz first took its swap services offline at 5:54 am ET on Aug. 3 without explanation. In a follow-up statement about six hours later, the team said the suspension will last "until further notice" and described a months-long pattern of intrusions.

"Over the past months we have seen a steady rise in automated, AI-assisted probing of our infrastructure, and we have dealt with several exploits," the team wrote. "Each was contained, but the pattern is clear: attackers now iterate faster than a team our size can find and patch."

The shutdown cuts off the swap rails behind Lightning and Liquid payments in wallets such as Bull Bitcoin and Aqua, and it attaches a name to a fear that has been building among open-source developers: small teams defending public codebases against attackers armed with AI tooling.

The team said the pressure intensified in recent days as it found itself "actively targeted by what appear to be multiple resourceful groups," and that after reviewing its own security scans it "cannot responsibly re-enable Boltz swaps."

"What we are seeing is a major paradigm shift for Bitcoin services operating on an open source stack, and it needs careful analysis," the statement said. "Do not expect swap services to resume shortly."

'The Losses Were Ours Alone'Boltz said the exploits it contained cost the company money but never put user funds in danger, since its atomic swap design leaves users in control of their coins throughout a swap.

"To be explicit: no user funds were ever at risk. Boltz is non-custodial by design. And as a fully bootstrapped company, the losses were ours alone," the team wrote.

The Boltz API remains online to process refunds for in-flight swaps cooperatively, and the team noted that unilateral refunds work without its infrastructure.

The disclosure recasts an Aug. 1 notice in which Boltz disabled its EVM swaps — USDT, USDC, TBTC, WBTC and RBTC — citing "a bug in our EVM integration" while assuring users that Lightning, Liquid and onchain BTC swaps were running normally.

Boltz launched in April 2019 and grew into becoming the default swap plumbing across bitcoin's layers, adding Rootstock, chain swaps between Liquid and the mainchain, a BTCPay Server plugin, and stablecoin swaps on Tron, Solana and EVM chains.

Wallets Scramble for RailsWallets that lean on Boltz as a backend moved within hours. Francis Pouliot, CEO of Bull Bitcoin, said the company is "immediately shifting our priorities" to restore Lightning payments and Liquid-to-bitcoin swaps for its wallet users, warning that until then those functions will fail without explanation. Because Bull Bitcoin is a member of the Liquid federation, he said, no user funds will be stuck on Liquid.

"I will not let this situation linger. I will fix it, no matter what it takes," Pouliot wrote.

Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3, the firm behind the Aqua wallet, said restoring Liquid and Lightning swaps is the team's top priority and that Aqua has "offered to help Boltz address issues in their infrastructure." User funds on Aqua remain safe and under user control, he said.

Lightning wallet ZEUS, which runs its own instance of Boltz's open-source stack, took it offline as well. "We're following suit with our instance at swaps.zeuslsp.com," the team wrote.

Bitcoin educator BTC Sessions summed up the immediate damage: wallets using Boltz for Lightning swaps "will not function as expected now," while Liquid transactions themselves keep working.

'The Token War'The suspension lands in the middle of the worst week for bitcoin security in years. An exploit of Coldcard hardware wallets, traced to a 2021 firmware bug that made seed phrases guessable, has drained roughly $114 million in BTC since July 30, with a fourth wave of thefts hitting Monday.

Pouliot drew the line between the two events directly: "First, the Coldcard exploit. Now, a critical piece of Lightning infrastructure goes offline. We are undoubtedly on the losing end of the Token War."

Lucas Ferreira, executive director of bitcoin research and development nonprofit Vinteum, said the episode shows the resource gap facing bitcoin's infrastructure builders. "Boltz has a brilliant team, but it's a small team facing increasingly sophisticated, AI-powered groups of hackers," he wrote. "We'll need more funding for the open-source space if we want our infrastructure to remain secure and resilient."

Users can convert their XRP into FXRP and use it as collateral on Ethereum to borrow RLUSD without selling their holdings.

Flare has announced that its FXRP token can now be used as collateral in Sentora’s RLUSD vault on Morpho, marking a new step for XRP in decentralized finance. The update allows XRP holders to access lending markets on Ethereum without selling their underlying holdings.

The integration follows Sentora’s approval of FXRP for use in its institutionally managed RLUSD vault, announced on August 3, 2026. The vault holds about $280 million in RLUSD and now includes a dedicated FXRP/RLUSD market on Morpho Blue.

FXRP Approved as Ethereum Lending Collateral According to a press release sent to CryptoPotato, this is the first time a version of XRP has been accepted as collateral in an institutional lending vault on Ethereum mainnet. Users can mint FXRP through Flare’s FAssets system, transfer it to Ethereum through Stargate, and borrow RLUSD while keeping exposure to XRP.

The lending market is open to all users and does not require a whitelist before participation. A supply cap has been introduced at launch, with the limit expected to change as liquidity grows.

Commenting on the milestone, Flare Co-founder and CEO Hugo Philion said limited infrastructure had restricted XRP’s use in decentralized finance for years. He added that the approval shows institutional risk managers now recognize FXRP as collateral on Ethereum rather than simply another bridged asset.

Echoing that view, Sentora Co-founder and Chief Technology and Product Officer Jesus Rodriguez said the integration brings XRP into on-chain credit markets. He noted that the development expands the practical use of XRP across decentralized lending.

Risk Controls and Future Development Before approving the asset, Sentora completed a review covering market behavior, price oracles, liquidity, and liquidation mechanisms. The company said FXRP will continue to undergo the same monitoring process applied to other approved collateral assets.

You may also like: Bitmine Buys Another 10,399 ETH, Treasury Nears 5.8 Million Coins Ethereum’s Network Is Booming, So Why Is ETH Still Underperforming? Four in a Row: Will XRP Buck Its Bearish August Streak? Morpho Blue isolates each lending market, limiting potential risks to the specific FXRP/RLUSD pool. The structure also gives the market its own oracle system and liquidation parameters.

Under this setup, borrowers will pay interest based on market utilization and must maintain enough collateral to avoid liquidation. Flare is developing Smart Accounts that will allow users to complete the process directly from XRP Ledger wallets. The company is also working on direct FXRP transfers from the XRP Ledger to Ethereum.

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The XRP Ledger Foundation (XLRP) has extended public node access to the XRP Ledger (XRPL) with a new partnership with Ankr. Under the deal, Ankr will provide a network of public nodes on XRPL across the globe. The release comes just days before the expected xrpld v3.3.0 mainnet upgrade.

A Look At XRP Ledger & Ankr’s Partnership The new infrastructure aims to facilitate the interaction between developers and users with XRP Ledger, while eliminating the need to run their own nodes and enhancing the network’s reach.

The XRP Ledger Foundation stated in a post on X “We’re expanding public infrastructure access to the XRP Ledger for developers and users with Ankr. Globally distributed XRPL nodes from New York to Singapore to give you the best connectivity.”

XRPL dUNL validator Vet also commented on the rollout. He wrote, “Adding more public XRP Ledger infrastructure for developers and users, without having them run their own nodes.” He mentioned that Ankr has launched a node RPC network with nodes distributed all over the world and a monitoring website for the XRPL network. “Full history access will be available at a later time,” he said.

The interface in the newly launched portal offers XRP Ledger mainnet and testnet free JSON-RPC endpoints. In addition, there is a real-time overview view of network health, block height, median latency, global reach, request volume and average requests per second.

There is a Quickstart section to give developers ready-to-use examples in cURL and JavaScript. In addition, it features a panel that lists all active nodes in Singapore, New York, Amsterdam and San Francisco, with traffic automatically rerouted to the most appropriate node.

Adding more public $XRP Ledger infrastructure for developers and users, without having them run their own nodes.@ankr has setup a globally distributed XRPL node RPC infra for this purpose and a website for monitoring and data – https://t.co/ZTySuoekEg

Full history access will… https://t.co/eBtf1FTvqg pic.twitter.com/yOY9NPxmkX

— Vet (@Vet_X0) August 3, 2026

It marks a notable feat for the XRPL network after the fixCleanup3_2_0 amendment went live last week with 85.71% consensus support.

About The Upcoming Version 3.3.0 Upgrade Amid the node infrastructure rollout, RippleX Head of Product Jazzi Cooper will be readying the xrpld v3.3.0 release set for next week, contingent on validator approval. Announcing five proposed amendments, Cooper said, “XRPL has already proven it can support tokenized assets at scale. Now it’s time to put these assets to use: global transfers, trading, collateralizing, and settling.” She added that the release “includes five amendments that move XRPL significantly closer to that goal.”

The proposed amendments on XRP Ledger include the introduction of Confidential MPT, which introduces privacy to the Multi-Purpose Tokens with the application of zero-knowledge proofs. Batch will support atomic settlement and delivery versus payment workflows. Permission Delegation will enable institutions to delegate limited transaction permissions without relinquishing their signing power.

Meanwhile, Sponsored Fees and Reserves will allow banks, issuers and platforms to pay for the transaction fee and account reserves for their users. Dynamic MPT will enable issuers to change certain properties of the selected tokens after issuance. However, Cooper reminded that “these amendments will only activate following validator approval” on XRP Ledger.

In brief Flare's FXRP is now accepted as collateral in Sentora's RLUSD vault on Morpho. XRP holders can borrow Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin on Ethereum without selling their XRP. The integration is the first time an XRP-based asset has been approved as collateral in an institutionally curated Ethereum lending vault. XRP holders can now borrow Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin against their holdings on Ethereum without selling their tokens after Flare's FXRP was approved as collateral in Sentora's RLUSD Main vault.

Announced on Monday by layer 1 blockchain developer Flare, the integration lets users convert XRP into Flare's FXRP token, bridge it to Ethereum, deposit it as collateral on the Morpho lending protocol, and borrow RLUSD. Because the loan is backed by collateral rather than a sale, borrowers retain exposure to XRP's price while accessing dollar-pegged liquidity.

“XRP is one of the largest assets in crypto and one of the least used in DeFi. That gap came down to infrastructure,” co-founder and CEO of Flare, Hugo Philion, said in a statement. “XRP is now collateral that an institutional risk team underwrites on Ethereum mainnet, which is a stronger form of recognition than another bridge listing.”

The model is similar to Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), which lets Bitcoin holders use their BTC in Ethereum-based decentralized finance without selling it. FXRP is designed to do the same for XRP, giving holders access to Ethereum lending markets.

The lending market runs on Morpho Blue, which uses isolated lending markets designed to contain risk if problems arise with a specific asset. Sentora said it reviewed FXRP's market behavior, oracle design, liquidity, and liquidation mechanics before approving it as collateral.

The launch builds on Ripple's effort to establish RLUSD as an enterprise-focused stablecoin. In August 2024, Ripple began testing RLUSD on Ethereum and the XRP Ledger for cross-border payments. In December 2024, the company received approval from the New York Department of Financial Services ahead of the stablecoin's launch. Last month, Mastercard said it will support settlement of regulated stablecoins including RLUSD, Circle's USDC, and SoFi's SoFiUSD.

“[Sentora] just took a major step to make XRP useful onchain,” Co-Founder, CTO-CPO of Sentora, Jesus Rodriguez wrote on X. “XRP is one of crypto’s largest and most liquid assets. Yet it remains surprisingly underused in onchain credit. That changes today.”

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In brief BlackRock launched a tokenized money market fund for stablecoin reserve management. The fund records ownership on Solana, Ethereum, and Tempo while investing entirely in cash and short-term U.S. Treasuries. The product targets institutional investors as tokenized Treasury funds continue to grow. BlackRock is expanding onto Solana with a new money market fund designed for stablecoin reserves, adding the blockchain to its list of tokenized investment products.

The world's largest asset manager on Monday launched the BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle (BRSRV) alongside tokenized on-chain shares of its existing BlackRock Select Treasury-Based Liquidity Fund (BSTBL).

"Cash remains a foundational building block for investors, corporations, and financial institutions," Jon Steel, Global Head of Product and Platform for BlackRock's Cash Management business, said in a statement. “As demand grows for high-quality reserve assets to support stablecoins and other tokenized financial products, these funds provide clients with additional choice in how they access and use money market fund investment solutions across traditional and digital markets.”

In a prospectus filed with the SEC on Friday, BlackRock said ownership is recorded on Solana, Ethereum, and Tempo, with investors holding shares through approved wallets managed by transfer agent Securitize.

“The Fund issues OnChain Shares through a permissioned system that operates in connection with one or more public, permissionless blockchains, which, as of the date of this Prospectus, include Ethereum, Tempo, and Solana, and may include other supported networks in the future,” BlackRock wrote.

The fund invests entirely in cash, short-term U.S. Treasury securities, and overnight repurchase agreements backed by Treasuries.

According to BlackRock, the fund does not invest in cryptocurrencies.

“The Fund will continue to invest in accordance with the requirements in Rule 2a-7 under the 1940 Act and the terms of this Prospectus,” BlackRock wrote. “The Fund will not invest in any digital assets, including any virtual currencies.”

Wallets must be whitelisted and tied to verified identities, allowing the transfer agent to restrict transfers or, in some cases, freeze, revoke, or reissue tokenized shares. The fund also has a $3 million minimum initial investment.

BlackRock said the fund is structured to qualify as an eligible reserve asset under the GENIUS Act, the U.S. law governing payment stablecoins. Its prospectus also notes that future regulatory changes could affect whether stablecoin issuers can continue using the fund as a reserve asset, while blockchain outages or smart contract flaws could disrupt transactions.

The launch builds on BlackRock's broader tokenization strategy. The firm introduced the BUIDL tokenized money market fund in March 2024, which now manages more than $2.6 billion in assets.

BlackRock joins Morgan Stanley, and Fidelity, which have also introduced products aimed at stablecoin reserve management following the passage of the GENIUS Act.

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A profitable quarter still ended with about half the buffer it started with, and the Big Four audit Tether commissioned in March has yet to produce an audited statement.

Original Image Credits: photodaria / Shutterstock.com

Posted August 3, 2026 at 8:31 am EST.

Tether reported roughly $1.5 billion in net operating profit for the second quarter on Friday, and disclosed in the same release that the cushion sitting between USDT holders and the company’s obligations had fallen to $4.11 billion, about half what it was three months earlier.

The BDO attestation puts total assets at $187.75 billion against $183.64 billion in liabilities as of June 30. Excess reserves stood just above $8.23 billion at the end of March. A quarter that generated $1.5 billion in profit therefore closed with roughly $4 billion less headroom than it opened with.

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Gold and Bitcoin Did the Damage Profit and buffer moved in opposite directions because they sit in different parts of the balance sheet. Treasuries and repurchase agreements produced the earnings. The buffer absorbed markdowns on the assets Tether has spent two years accumulating. Gold slid about 15% to just over $4,000 an ounce, which cut the value of a bigger pile of metal to $18.84 billion from $19.84 billion. The bitcoin price used in the report dropped to $58,600 from $68,200, taking that position to $5.80 billion from $6.62 billion.

Tether bought through both declines, adding 14 tons of gold to reach 146.2 metric tons and about 1,796 BTC to reach 98,933. Those two holdings together now sit near $24.6 billion, close to 13% of total assets. Measured against the $184.6 billion of USDT in circulation, the remaining buffer works out at roughly 2.2%.

Chief Executive Paolo Ardoino presented the quarter as a stress test survived. “Through all of the volatility, USD₮ remained fully backed with our reserves still exceeding liabilities by $4.11 billion,” he said in the release. Tether also cut secured lending by $2.38 billion, or 15%, without naming borrowers or the collateral involved.

The Audit Has Still Not Landed On the audit, Tether said in the quarterly release only that “the Big Four audit process continued.” The company engaged a Big Four firm in March for the first full audit of its reserves, and four months on the quarterly disclosure is still an attestation from BDO. The difference matters: an attestation confirms figures on a single date, while an audit examines how assets were valued and managed across the whole period. Circle, which issues USDC, already reports audited accounts.

USDT issuance grew just $446 million over the quarter, though Tether said its share of a shrinking stablecoin market climbed above 60%.

Related Listen: Stripe Bid $53B for PayPal: Who Actually Wins Stablecoin Payments?

AI-assisted content: This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and was reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by a member of the Unchained editorial team before publication.