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https://www.investopedia.com/solana-5210472

Tokenized equities on Solana have reached a new milestone with lending market activity hitting a weekly all-time high of $51.9 million, according to data from SolanaFloor. Kamino and Jupiter Exchange are key platforms contributing to this surge, with over $31 million and $20 million respectively. This development reflects growing interest and usage of tokenized equities within the Solana ecosystem, suggesting increased collateral use and participation in onchain credit markets. Recent records in the overall Solana tokenized equity market, including a significant $535 million in total outstanding value, further highlight the ecosystem’s expanding reach.

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Key Takeaways Solana’s tokenized equities have achieved a weekly record of $51.9 million in lending markets, suggesting increased engagement. Kamino and Jupiter Exchange are the primary platforms driving this growth, with significant contributions to the weekly total. The broader Solana tokenized equity market has also shown substantial growth, with a total outstanding value peaking at $535 million. What to Watch Markets are closely monitoring whether the increased activity in tokenized equities on Solana will influence its price trajectory. Key developments such as potential ETF inflows, regulatory changes, and ecosystem upgrades could impact the likelihood of Solana reaching higher price targets. Observers are particularly attentive to whether these dynamics align with scenarios where Solana achieves or exceeds the $90 price level by the end of July. Further announcements from Solana Labs or shifts in regulatory stances may provide additional indicators.

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Term Structure

Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h August 1 2026 8% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.2% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.9% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.7% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.4% — — View market → August 1 2026 1.6% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.4% — — View market → August 1 2026 2.6% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.6% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 22% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market → August 1 2026 0.1% — — View market →

Bittensor just made a quiet but consequential move: it redesigned its entire documentation layer so that AI agents, not just human developers, can parse it, understand it, and act on it. The OpenTensor Foundation announced the upgrade on July 21, 2026, framing it as infrastructure for what it calls an “agentic world.”

The documentation overhaul goes well beyond reformatting existing pages. Bittensor rolled out a five-minute Quickstart guide, an expanded Software Development Kit, updated Command Line Interface guides, and migration materials for developers transitioning from older versions of the platform.

The docs now cover wallet management, staking TAO (Bittensor’s native token), mining, validating, and subnet operations. All of it is structured for both human readability and machine consumption.

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This matters because Bittensor’s network runs on subnets, which are specialized markets that create and trade digital commodities like computational power, AI inference, and storage solutions. If an AI agent can read the documentation, discover what a subnet does, and start participating in it without a developer manually wiring everything together, you’ve fundamentally changed the speed at which the ecosystem can grow.

The update arrived just three days after the v431 network upgrade on July 18, 2026, which introduced improved security measures and launched the Conviction mechanism for subnet ownership. That upgrade was designed to lower barriers for programmatic and agent-driven participation in subnets. The documentation refresh is essentially the instruction manual that makes the v431 features accessible to both humans and their AI counterparts.

With machine-readable documentation, an AI agent can theoretically do most of that work itself. It loads the docs, identifies available operations, understands the parameters required, and starts making calls. The human developer becomes a supervisor rather than a line-by-line coder.

If machine-readable docs successfully lower the barrier for AI agents to participate in Bittensor’s subnets, the logical consequence is more network activity. More activity means more demand for TAO, since operations on the network, from staking to mining to subnet interactions, require token usage.

Community feedback on the update has been notably positive, with developers highlighting reduced friction and praising the platform’s AI-native infrastructure approach.

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

In brief Shareholders voted by more than 90% to sell the company's 668 BTC, return capital, and cancel its London Stock Exchange listing This marks the end of a Bitcoin treasury experiment in under twelve months. Satsuma raised £163.6 million in August 2025 but expects to return only £26.8 to £30 million after wind-down costs. The shareholders of Satsuma Technology, a U.K.-based Bitcoin treasury company, have voted to liquidate the company's entire Bitcoin position and shut down the business, overruling four of its six board members.

More than 90% of votes cast backed the dual resolutions to sell 668 BTC—worth roughly $43.5 million—and cancel the company's London Stock Exchange listing, per a Monday filing. The move unwinds the digital asset treasury, or DAT for short—the latest such company to call it a day after the DAT trend picked up steam in 2025.

Satsuma started life as TAO Alpha, a small AI firm, before rebranding and hiring Mark Moss in August 2025 as its Chief Bitcoin Strategist. Moss is an American Bitcoin commentator with over 700,000 YouTube subscribers known for advising institutions on how to buy and hold Bitcoin as a corporate treasury asset—essentially, a company's rainy-day fund, but in crypto.

The same month, Satsuma raised £163.6 million ($218 million) through convertible notes—debt instruments investors can either reclaim as cash or convert into company shares—led by ParaFi Capital, with Pantera Capital, Digital Currency Group, and Kraken joining in. Investors contributed 1,097 BTC directly in place of roughly $97 million in cash.

The stock peaked around £14 per share, roughly £66 million in market cap, in June 2025. Bitcoin then hit its $126,000 all-time high in October before entering a months-long slide in what became the current crypto winter, dragging the rest of the market—including Satsuma’s stock—with it.

By December, Satsuma was already selling assets to stay solvent: 579 BTC went for £40 million to ensure it had enough cash to repay noteholders who chose not to convert their debt into shares by year-end.

The unravelingThe company’s CFO departed in February 2026; the CEO followed in March. By April, shares had lost more than 99% of their June 2025 value—trading at fractions of a penny—and Pantera Capital, holding about 6.7% of Satsuma's stock, began pushing publicly for full liquidation.

The logic was direct: Satsuma's market cap—the total combined dollar value of all its shares—had fallen well below the value of the Bitcoin sitting on its own balance sheet, the point where owning the stock is strictly worse than owning the coin directly. A group of shareholders representing more than 20% of issued capital formally put the resolution to a vote.

The board split hard. Four of six directors opposed the liquidation, arguing Satsuma was still a viable listed Bitcoin vehicle. Two sided with shareholders pushing to wind down. Shareholders overruled the board majority by a wide margin.

The wind-down runs through a "B Share Scheme," a U.K. legal mechanism for distributing cash assets back to shareholders. Satsuma expects to return between £26.8 million and £30 million after estimated termination costs of £2.7 million—legal fees, severance, delisting charges, and run-off insurance.

Combined with the £40 million from the December BTC sale, total capital recovered lands around £66–£70 million against the £163.6 million originally raised. And because convertible note holders rank above common equity in any payout structure—meaning they get paid first—ordinary shareholders could walk away with considerably less than even those numbers suggest.

Satsuma is currently the second-largest U.K.-listed Bitcoin treasury company by holdings. The first is The Smarter Web Company, which holds 2,878 BTC and has not suggested it’s winding down.

U.K. High Court hearings to approve the capital return are set for August and September 2026. The delisting is expected mid-September, with shareholder payments due by late September.

Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

https://mannerofspeaking.org/2011/04/03/the-ripple-effect/

The XRP Ledger has surpassed a significant milestone, recording over 1 million agentic transactions. These transactions, settled via the x402 protocol, indicate the growing use of XRP for machine-to-machine micropayments. RippleX’s Head of Engineering, Ayo Akinyele, anticipates that this volume could reach between 10 and 100 million in the coming years. The development coincides with the launch of the XRPL AI Hub by Ripple-backed t54.ai, aiming to integrate payments and AI agents. This milestone suggests an emerging role for the XRP Ledger as a settlement layer in the agentic economy.

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Key Takeaways The milestone of 1 million agentic transactions on the XRP Ledger suggests increasing adoption of XRP for machine-to-machine payments. RippleX’s Ayo Akinyele anticipates a significant rise in transaction volume, potentially reaching 100 million in the next few years, which may indicate a robust growth trajectory. Pricing suggests market participants view this development as supportive of XRP’s potential for reaching a new all-time high by 2026. What to Watch Observers should monitor further announcements from Ripple and the XRPL AI Hub for indications of continued growth in agentic transaction volumes. Developments such as XRP ETF approvals or significant partnerships could act as catalysts, potentially influencing market sentiment toward XRP reaching a new all-time high. The market will also watch regulatory actions from entities like the U.S. SEC, which could impact sentiment and pricing.

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Term Structure

Contract Odds Δ since publish Volume 24h September 30, 2026 1.2% — — View market → December 31, 2026 6.2% — — View market →

Updated Jul 21, 2026, 6:27 p.m. Published Jul 21, 2026, 5:54 p.m.

2 min read

Summary

Movement Labs, the developer of the Movement blockchain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.The project came under scrutiny after a market-making deal enabled the rapid sale of 66 million MOVE tokens, triggering a steep price drop and prompting investigations and a token buyback.Movement Labs, the developer behind the Movement blockchain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, marking the latest setback for a crypto project that has spent much of the past year navigating governance disputes, a token market-making controversy and a failed strategic reset.

The company said in a bankruptcy filing that it had under 1,000 creditors, somewhere between $100,000 and $500,000 in assets and north of $1 million in liabilities. Its largest creditors include co-founder Rushi Manche, the Delaware Division of Revenue, Anchorage Digital and other entities.

The filing follows months of turmoil for Movement, an Ethereum layer-2 network built using the Move programming language, which was originally developed at Meta. The project launched with the goal of bringing Move-based smart contracts to Ethereum (ETH) while offering faster and cheaper transactions through a scaling network.

Its troubles began shortly after the December launch of the MOVE token.

An April 2025 CoinDesk investigation found that Movement was examining whether it had been misled into signing a market-making agreement that handed a single counterparty unusual influence over MOVE's circulating supply. Internal documents reviewed by CoinDesk at the time showed the arrangement allowed 66 million MOVE tokens to be sold into the market one day after the token debuted, contributing to a sharp decline in price.

The controversy centered on Rentech, a little-known intermediary that appeared in contracts connected to Chinese market maker Web3Port. According to documents obtained by CoinDesk, Movement executives later questioned whether the foundation believed Rentech was affiliated with Web3Port when it was not. Rentech has denied any wrongdoing or misrepresentation.

The fallout extended beyond Movement. Binance banned the market-making account involved in the token launch for what it described as misconduct, while Movement launched a token buyback program and hired outside firm Groom Lake to review the events surrounding the deal.

Movement Labs and co-founder Rushi Manche separated in May 2025.

More recently, the company attempted to chart a new course.

In June, Move Industries, a separate legal entity from MVMT Labs, the company that filed for bankruptcy, announced it would pivot away from competing with other Ethereum scaling networks and instead focus on cross-border payments, remittances and stablecoin settlement. The company said it had secured access to licensed payment infrastructure in the U.S., Canada and the European Union as it sought to build services aimed at emerging markets.

The strategy reflected a wider trend across the crowded layer-2 sector, where blockchain projects have increasingly shifted toward real-world financial applications as competition among scaling networks has intensified.

UPDATE (July 21, 2026, 17:58 UTC): Adds additional detail.

CORRECTION (July 21, 2026, 18:26 UTC): Corrects that Move Industries and not Movement Labs pivoted from Ethereum scaling.

AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.

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TRON Network - Q2 2026

TRON Network - Q2 2026

In Q2; TRON's stablecoin dominance rose to 28.7%, USDT supply on TRON hit $89B ATH, $89M in protocol fees (2nd to Hyperliquid), TRX +3%, and deepening institutional & agentic reach.

11 hours ago

In Q2; TRON's stablecoin dominance rose to 28.7%, USDT supply on TRON hit $89B ATH, $89M in protocol fees (2nd to Hyperliquid), TRX +3%, and deepening institutional & agentic reach.

Why it matters:

In Q2; TRON's stablecoin dominance rose to 28.7%, USDT supply on TRON hit $89B ATH, $89M in protocol fees (2nd to Hyperliquid), TRX +3%, and deepening institutional & agentic reach.

The onchain AI agent market has grown at a pace that few anticipated at the start of 2026. According to agent tracker 8004scan, total registrations have climbed from just 337 in January to more than 330,000 today, and @BNBCHAIN accounts for roughly three in five of them. That puts more than 200,000 AI agents on a single network, exceeding the combined total of every other chain, with the next-closest rival still below 40,000.

A gap that keeps widening The lead is not simply a historical artefact. BNB Chain added more new agents last month than any other network, meaning the margin over rivals is still growing rather than narrowing. The ERC-8004 standard, launched by the Ethereum Foundation, defines how AI agents register onchain identities, manage wallets, and interact with smart contracts autonomously, working like an immutable ID or profile for agents that can operate across any chain that supports the standard. BNB Chain has built on top of that foundation with its own tooling designed to lower the barrier to entry for developers.

BNB Chain extended ERC-8004 with its proprietary BAP-578 standard, which enables agents that are ownable, tradable, and upgradeable, capable of autonomous execution across multiple protocols simultaneously. The network has also published 8004scan as a dedicated explorer, giving developers real-time visibility into agent identity, reputation scores, and activity.

Infrastructure built for scale Developers are using agents to execute DeFi strategies, manage NFT activity, and coordinate cross-chain tasks continuously without human input, running 24 hours a day across multiple protocols. At peak, daily transaction volume tied to ERC-8004 agents on BNB Smart Chain reached approximately 523,000 transactions in a single day, with agent-driven DEX trading volume hitting over $18 million on the same day.

BNB Chain has also moved to make onboarding faster. BNB Agent Studio launched on July 1, 2026, giving developers a streamlined path to create and deploy autonomous onchain AI agents without configuring complex infrastructure from scratch. The platform handles wallet provisioning, agent identity, and payment systems automatically. Building a functional AI agent on a blockchain used to take weeks of wrangling with wallets, identity systems, and payment rails. BNB Chain just made that a 15-minute problem.

With registrations still accelerating and developer tooling maturing quickly, @BNBCHAIN looks increasingly difficult to dislodge as the default home for onchain AI agents.

Sources
The Defiant: BNB Chain Overtakes Ethereum and Base by Number of AI Agents
Crypto Briefing: BNB Chain Launches BNB Agent Studio for Rapid AI Agent Deployment
Crypto.news: BNB Chain Leads All Blockchains for AI Agents

Bitcoin Provides Defensive ExposureBlue Macellari, T. Rowe Price’s head of digital assets and the ETF’s lead portfolio manager, said the fund reflects the company’s longstanding emphasis on active management and fundamental research.

"We were never going to launch just a Bitcoin ETF," Macellari said during an appearance on the Crypto Prime podcast on Monday.

Its initial portfolio was led by Bitcoin at roughly 41% and ETH at about 18%, followed by positions in BNB, SOL XRP, HYPE and smaller allocations to other assets.

Macellari described the current market as a crypto winter and noted the fund is positioned relatively defensively, explaining its substantial Bitcoin weighting.

‘Tokenization Good, Crypto Bad’ Is A False DivideMacellari argued that Wall Street often tries to separate tokenization from cryptocurrencies by claiming tokenization is valuable while native digital assets are not.

She rejected that distinction.

If stocks, funds and other financial products migrate to public blockchains, their activity could create value for the networks and native tokens underpinning those systems.

The broader portfolio reflects T. Rowe Price’s bullish outlook on what she called "on-chain finance."         

Macellari highlighted Hyperliquid’s revenue model as particularly compelling because it can be understood and valued using metrics familiar to traditional investors.

ETH and SOL may also benefit as financial institutions move tokenized assets and around-the-clock markets onto blockchain networks, she predicts.

Crypto Winter May Approach Its Final StageMacellari explained that the market has been in a persistent downturn since the October 2025 selloff, marking the first crypto winter experienced by many investors through spot exchange-traded products.

Bitcoin has suffered a drawdown of about 50%, while Ethereum, Solana and other altcoins have faced deeper declines.

However, she said the selloff has created more attractive asymmetric opportunities in projects whose underlying adoption and economics remain intact.

The key difference from previous winters is that banks, asset managers and financial platforms have continued developing digital-asset infrastructure rather than abandoning the sector.

Macellari expects choppy conditions and the possibility of further declines through the summer but believes the market could begin emerging from crypto winter heading into Q4.

Image: Shutterstock

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Ethereum’s blockchain has registered an exceptional surge in large transactions, as Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) recorded 113,000 whale transfers exceeding $100,000 within the past week. This figure marks the most active whale movement since May 2021 and suggests substantial capital flows across Ethereum’s trading venues, lending markets, and decentralized finance protocols.

Institutional demand on the riseSeveral demand-side factors have contributed to this spike in on-chain activity. U.S. spot Ether exchange-traded funds have seen an uptick in inflows, while BlackRock’s ETH investment products continue to capture new capital from institutional investors. Market participants are interpreting these developments as potential triggers for further network and price growth.

Robinhood Chain’s adoption of ETH as a gas fee currency has also increased the utility of Ethereum in the decentralized exchange landscape, making ETH an even more integral asset for transaction fees and liquidity provision.

In a reflection of this momentum, Bitmine reportedly strengthened its Ethereum reserves to around 5.8 million ETH, signaling a move to position itself ahead of anticipated institutional demand. This action is viewed as part of a broader trend among corporate treasuries leveraging Ethereum’s ecosystem for capital allocation.

Strategic moves and robust network activityAdditional investments from players such as SharpLink and Ethlabs, the latter backed by Joe Lubin, further reinforce expectations of institutional interest within the Ethereum space. These entities see an opportunity in the convergence of ETF adoption, growing Layer 2 development, and increasing corporate engagement.

With numerous technical indicators and capital inflows in play, analysts warn that a sustained upward price movement is not necessarily assured. However, the recent upsurge in high-value transactions highlights a network environment ripe for strategic moves from both retail and institutional users.

The convergence of ETF adoption, Layer 2 expansion, and growing institutional allocations presents a critical point for Ethereum, making its network activity and whale behavior important signals to monitor for market shifts.

Extreme fear underscores current market sentimentDespite the significant on-chain action, market sentiment remains cautious, with indicators currently reading Extreme Fear. This situation amplifies the potential influence of whale activity on price volatility and trader psychology.

At the time of writing, Ethereum trades at approximately $1,932, reflecting a market dynamic shaped by both new institutional accumulation and prevailing uncertainty in sentiment. The balance between these factors could drive further volatility in the days ahead.

In light of heightened transaction volumes and shifting market signals, tools providing real-time analytics and alerts are becoming increasingly essential for active participants trying to stay informed amid rapid market changes. CryptoAppsy, which requires no account creation hassle, combines your crypto investments with real-time prices, detailed charts, and multi-currency portfolio management on a single screen. With this all-in-one financial assistant, you can instantly seize opportunities by setting up smart price alerts, filter news specific to your coins, discover newly listed altcoins without missing them, and always stay one step ahead of the market with critical macroeconomic data such as Fed interest rates.

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.

Pendle, the yield tokenization protocol that lets traders split and trade future yield, has crossed $111M in total value locked on the Monad blockchain. That makes it the fifth-largest protocol on the chain, less than a month after launching there on June 19.

The growth engine behind the numbers is AUSD, the Agora Dollar stablecoin backed 1:1 by cash, US Treasury bills, and repos. AUSD supply on Monad has ballooned to roughly $115M, making it the second-largest stablecoin on the chain behind USDC.

From zero to $111M in under a month Pendle hit approximately $51M in TVL within its first 10 days on Monad, then more than doubled. Pendle currently runs at least three active markets on Monad, all built around AUSD and its yield-bearing cousin, earnAUSD. The maturities on these markets cluster around October 8, 2026, giving traders a defined window to speculate on or lock in yields.

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Pendle’s Monad deployment has processed over $52M in trading volume over the past 30 days.

Pendle works by taking yield-bearing assets and splitting them into two tokens. One represents the principal, the other represents the future yield. Traders can sell their future interest payments to someone else today, or buy someone else’s future yield at a discount.

The incentive machine behind the growth Pendle’s Monad expansion has been turbocharged by weekly liquidity incentives of up to $75,000 for AUSD liquidity on the platform, roughly $300K per month in direct subsidies flowing to liquidity providers.

Pendle’s recent integration with Aave v3 pulled in more than $75M in deposits within the first 24 hours.

Across all chains, Pendle’s ecosystem now holds more than $1.14B in total value locked. The Monad deployment, at $111M, represents roughly 10% of that total.

The PENDLE token itself trades around $1.64, giving it a market cap of approximately $281.55M.

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

With stablecoin supply above $300 billion and payment use reaching an estimated $390 billion in 2025, more than twice the previous year, competition increasingly centres on distribution, liquidity, reserve income, and access to payment networks. 

Open USD has brought these commercial forces together through a consortium of more than 140 participants, including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Coinbase, and BlackRock. Participating companies will be able to distribute the asset through exchanges, wallets, merchant products, and payment services while receiving a share of reserve earnings.

The model places Open USD against established issuers and smaller competitors seeking partnerships with the same financial companies.

BeInCrypto spoke with Louisa Bai, Head of Stablecoins at Mysten Labs, Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, and Kevin Cui, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of OSL Group, about stablecoin competition, regional use cases, currency demand, and blockchain settlement.

Open USD Links Distribution With Reserve Income Open USD gives participating companies a financial incentive to support adoption through their own products. Reserve earnings can be returned to consortium members, linking token distribution to commercial revenue.

“OUSD is primarily built to share stablecoin reserves across its partners, including Visa, Stripe, Coinbase, Mastercard, and leading blockchains such as Sui,” said Louisa Bai, Head of Stablecoins at Mysten Labs. “Its partner network and revenue-sharing model could increase competition in a market with deeply entrenched incumbents.”

USDT and USDC retain an advantage built through liquidity, trading pairs, exchange listings, and widespread use across crypto markets.

“Their moat comes from liquidity depth and years of exchange listings,” Bai said. “Mid-sized issuers face the greatest pressure because they lack the liquidity of USDT and USDC and the partner economics offered by OUSD.”

Open USD also depends on cooperation between companies with different commercial priorities. Decisions covering reserves, governance, supported networks, and distribution will require agreement across banks, payment companies, exchanges, and crypto firms.

Its progress will depend on whether shared reserve income produces sustained adoption across participating products.

Visa just announced the launch of the Visa Stablecoin Platform for financial institutions.

The new enterprise system initially supports Open USD and includes a Wallet-as-a-Service offering.

It is currently rolling out for beta testing with select clients. pic.twitter.com/OiKijT8n3l

— BeInCrypto (@beincrypto) July 16, 2026 Different Stablecoins Will Serve Different Products Stablecoin control will remain divided between issuers, payment companies, exchanges, applications, and blockchains.

Issuers manage reserves and redemption, while payment companies control merchant access and customer distribution. Exchanges provide liquidity, and blockchains determine transaction speed, fees, and settlement capacity.

“Different stablecoin assets aimed at different use cases will coexist, together with different forms of control,” Bai said.

PYUSD remains closely connected to PayPal and its consumer products, while Open USD may develop around business payments and merchant settlement. Exchange-backed coins can focus on trading, while bank-supported assets can serve treasury management and institutional transfers.

This division allows stablecoins to develop around specific commercial environments rather than a single dominant operating model.

Regional Demand Splits Between Dollar Access and Local Settlement Stablecoin adoption follows currency stability, remittance costs, regulation, and access to banking. Latin America currently provides some of the strongest examples of stablecoins functioning as everyday money across savings and cross-border payments, according to Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs.

“Latin America, and it’s not close,” Boiron said. “When a currency loses value overnight and sending money home costs 6% and takes three days, a digital dollar is a household decision.”

Boiron pointed to the Mexico-US and Brazil-US corridors as major sources of current volume. He described the Gulf as an early regulatory leader, Japan as a careful builder of bank-connected products, and the US as a market gaining more room for regulated issuance and payments.

Emerging markets such as Argentina, Brazil, and Pakistan use dollar stablecoins as protection from inflation and currency depreciation.

In Nigeria, Paga plans to use Sui-based stablecoin payments to support international transfers for freelancers and businesses paying overseas suppliers.

Local-currency coins serve a different economic need. Markets with trusted currencies and regulators seeking domestic settlement onchain have stronger incentives to develop assets denominated in yen, dirhams, euros, or other local units.

“A stablecoin inherits the reputation of the currency behind it,” Boiron said.

He expects dollar coins to lead in markets where people seek protection from inflation, while local-currency stablecoins can develop in places such as Japan and the Gulf, where domestic currencies retain public trust.

Business adoption depends on liquidity and reliable fiat conversion, while distribution and licensing determine how easily merchants and exchanges can support a new asset. Boiron said businesses need coins already present in the wallets and payment services they use, backed by issuers acceptable to banks and auditors.

“It comes down to liquidity, distribution, and whether there is a licensed issuer standing behind it,” he said.

Europe follows MiCA rules covering issuance, authorization, reserves, and distribution. Exchanges have restricted several assets, including USDT, while providers adjusted their offerings to European requirements.

The resulting market divides between dollar access in weaker-currency economies and local settlement in regions where domestic units retain trust.

MiCA regulation is now fully in effect across all 27 EU member states. 🇪🇺

The grace period for unauthorized crypto providers is over.

Now, a single license allows companies to operate continent-wide, setting the stage for a major structural shift. pic.twitter.com/6b0Kg4edjE

— BeInCrypto (@beincrypto) July 1, 2026 Dollar Stablecoins Will Retain Their Lead Dollar coins still dominate supply and liquidity, while local-currency assets are developing around domestic settlement and regional trade.

“Non-dollar stablecoins remain concentrated in foreign-exchange trading within DeFi,” Bai said. “Locally denominated assets such as JPYC will continue to develop, while USD is likely to remain dominant in the near term.”

Meanwhile, Cui expects local-currency stablecoins to grow alongside dollar coins as companies adopt them for domestic payments and regional trade.

“Local-currency stablecoins are developing a durable role alongside dollar coins by reducing FX exposure and allowing businesses operating in euros, reais, or yen to retain their own unit of account,” said Kevin Cui, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of OSL Group.

Local coins may gain adoption where companies earn and spend in the same currency, while dollar coins continue serving international settlement and savings demand.

Blockchains Provide the Settlement Base Blockchains determine how efficiently stablecoins move between users, companies, and financial applications.

Boiron offered a complementary view of the chain’s role, arguing blockchains create more value by supporting widely used assets across many products than by issuing coins tied to one ecosystem.

“The most valuable stablecoin is the one everyone else already accepts,” Boiron said.

Chains therefore compete through transaction performance, developer tools, and support for several major stablecoins.

“Sui’s role in stablecoin growth is settlement, with fast execution built for the transaction volumes mass adoption requires,” Bai said. “Stablecoins need fast finality, capacity for large user numbers, stable fees, and strong user experience.”

Sui introduced gasless stablecoin transfers in May 2026, allowing users to send supported assets without holding SUI separately for transaction fees. Confidential transfers entered public beta in June, allowing issuers to conceal balances and transaction values while preserving access for compliance and auditing.

Sui also recorded more than six million transactions per second during a July public experiment using programmable tunnels. These offchain payment and state channels process activity away from the main network before settling final results on Sui.

Such features can support payroll, merchant payments, treasury transfers, and institutional settlement.

Open USD shows how stablecoin competition is expanding beyond issuance. Reserve income, distribution partnerships, payment access, and blockchain performance will influence which assets gain adoption.

Dollar coins will retain their advantage in global markets, while local assets develop around domestic payments and regional commerce. The strongest providers will combine reliable reserves with liquidity, distribution, and efficient settlement.

Tether International announced on Tuesday that Twenty One Capital has appointed Raphael Zagury as its chief executive, succeeding Jack Mallers, who is leaving the role to focus on Strike, the Bitcoin payments company he founded.

The companies said the transition will be managed through an orderly transfer of responsibilities and confirmed they are no longer proceeding with plans unveiled in April to combine Twenty One Capital, Strike and Elektron Energy. Strike will continue as an independent company.

The abandoned proposal would have created a single Bitcoin-focused company with exposure to mining, payments and capital markets. Mallers had been expected to remain CEO of the combined business, while Zagury was slated to become president.

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The transaction was also expected to increase Twenty One Capital’s Bitcoin holdings by incorporating Strike’s Bitcoin treasury but those plans have now been shelved.

The leadership change comes after Mallers oversaw the creation and public listing of Twenty One Capital, helping establish the firm as one of the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holders. Twenty One Capital currently holds 43,514 Bitcoin worth approximately $2.9 billion.

“I’m grateful to everyone at XXI and everyone who believed in what we built,” Mallers stated. “Serving Bitcoiners has always been the mission, and that doesn’t change. Strike is where I carry it forward.”

“On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank Jack for his vision and leadership in founding Twenty One Capital, and for guiding the company through its business combination and successful listing on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2025,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated. “He took conviction in Bitcoin and turned it into a public company, and we’re grateful for that.” 

The company said it will now build on that foundation by expanding into Bitcoin-focused financial services, lending, capital markets products and educational programs, with further details on its strategic direction expected in the coming months.

Zagury, who currently heads the team managing Elektron Energy, has served on Twenty One Capital’s board and will remain a director after assuming the CEO role. His background includes senior positions at Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch, as well as leadership roles at fintech lender OpenCo and investment bank One Partners.

“Now that we embark on the next chapter, Rapha is one of the best operators in this industry, with a track record of building businesses with strong cash flows and disciplined execution. He brings exactly the operating standards XXI needs as it enters its next phase of growth,” Ardoino added.

Zagury said his focus will be on applying institutional standards of governance, operational rigor and disciplined capital allocation to maximize the value of the company’s Bitcoin-backed balance sheet.

“Twenty One holds one of the largest Bitcoin balance sheets in the public markets,” Zagury commented on the move. “My job is to build the operating company around it, with the discipline, governance, and executional rigor of an institution. I believe our business will perform best when we also focus on the cash flow we generate and the rigor with which we allocate capital, not only by the Bitcoin we hold.”

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

TLDR: ONDO price advanced more than 17% as Ondo connected CRCLon and SPYon with tokenized entitlements created through DTCC infrastructure. The DTCC model ties tokenized products to securities held at DTC, giving institutions familiar custody, ownership, and settlement controls. Robinhood Chain and Ondo Perps broaden distribution, while the derivatives platform reports over $1 billion in seven-day trading volume. ONDO must hold the $0.37 to $0.38 breakout zone and close above $0.40 before traders can focus on the $0.43 to $0.45 resistance area. ONDO price jumped more than 17% as investors reacted to Ondo Finance’s latest link with DTCC infrastructure. The token moved toward $0.39 after trading near $0.34 one day earlier. The rally also extended its weekly advance as demand returned to real-world asset projects.

Ondo said CRCLon and SPYon now connect with DTC Tokenized Entitlements created through DTCC’s Tokenization Service. Those instruments represent Circle shares and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF. DTCC said tokenized assets retain the same rights and protections as traditional securities. The structure gives Ondo products a clearer bridge into established clearing and settlement systems.

ONDO Price Gains Support From DTCC Tokenized Securities The DTCC development gives Ondo Finance more than another blockchain partnership. It links tokenized stocks with securities held inside DTC’s existing custody framework. The digital entitlements keep matching CUSIP identifiers and market symbols.

That design may appeal to institutions needing familiar ownership records, settlement processes, and operational controls. DTCC plans a broader Tokenization Service launch in October 2026 after limited production activity in July. More than 50 firms joined its industry working group before the initial rollout.

$ONDO jumped ~18% on its tokenized-stock launch, and unlike most catalyst pops, the on-chain side is following.
📈 $ONDO rose from ~$0.31 to ~$0.37 over Jul 14 to 16, roughly +18%, after launching DTCC-backed tokenized stock representations and a partnership with Japan’s SBI… pic.twitter.com/ryz2ljzZXw

— Santiment Intelligence (@SantimentData) July 17, 2026

Ondo’s participation also places its products beside infrastructure used by major banks, asset managers, and exchanges. Still, the connection does not guarantee immediate institutional demand for the ONDO token. Investors must separate product adoption from direct token value capture.

Robinhood’s July launch adds another distribution channel for Ondo Finance. Robinhood Chain now supports stock tokens and DeFi products through an Arbitrum-based network. Ondo’s tokenized assets can gain wider visibility as more users explore onchain equities.

The project also completed a cross-border Treasury redemption pilot with Kinexys, Mastercard, and Ripple in May. Ondo processed the tokenized asset redemption, while bank infrastructure handled the fiat settlement. The transaction showed how public blockchains could connect with established payment rails.

Ondo Perps provides another sign of rising activity around tokenized markets. The platform reported more than $1 billion in seven-day volume. It also crossed $3 billion in cumulative trading volume, showing stronger demand for RWA-based derivatives.

Technical Levels Decide Whether the ONDO Rally Extends The daily chart shows the ONDO price moving above its 20-day, 50-day, and 100-day exponential moving averages. Those averages sit near the $0.339 to $0.345 region. The token also crossed the 200-day EMA around $0.376.

That breakout shifts the short-term structure toward buyers. Stronger volume also supports the move and reduces concerns about a thin-liquidity spike. However, the ONDO price now faces resistance between $0.39 and $0.40.

ONDO/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView A daily close above $0.40 could expose the May highs near $0.43 to $0.45. The next larger resistance levels sit around $0.48 and $0.70. Reclaiming those zones would require sustained demand and broader strength across altcoins.

Short-term momentum already looks stretched. The four-hour RSI has reached about 75, placing the market in overbought territory. That reading does not cancel the breakout, but it raises consolidation risk.

The $0.37 to $0.38 area now forms the first support zone. Holding that region would preserve the breakout structure. A loss of $0.37 could send ONDO price toward the moving-average cluster near $0.34.

Key Highlights PUMP has surged more than 30% over the last seven days, currently trading around $0.001983 Trading volume exploded by over 500%, exceeding $164 million in daily activity Crypto influencer Ansem revealed a $1.5 million investment in PUMP, triggering a buying wave The platform has deployed approximately $410 million toward token buybacks, eliminating over 151 billion PUMP tokens Crypto analyst BATMAN identified renewed meme coin momentum as a critical catalyst for platform growth The PUMP token from Pump.fun has experienced remarkable momentum recently. Over the past seven days, the price has advanced more than 30%, with single-day gains reaching approximately 18%. At press time, PUMP was changing hands near $0.001983, with its market capitalization hovering around $779.88 million.

Pump.Fun (PUMP) Price Trading volume data reinforces this bullish narrative. Daily volume spiked more than 512%, climbing to $164 million within a 24-hour period. This dramatic increase suggests substantial buying interest rather than thin-market volatility.

A major catalyst behind this price action was crypto influencer Ansem’s public disclosure of his $1.5 million PUMP token acquisition. According to CoinGecko, the token’s value jumped over 23% following Ansem’s published investment rationale. Previously, analyst Kaff had suggested that PUMP’s fundamental metrics alone — including approximately $1–2 million in daily revenue and a price-to-earnings ratio around 1 — were insufficient to drive significant market movement independently.

ANSEM DIDN’T RANDOMLY WAKE UP BULLISH ON $PUMP

WATCH HOW THE ENTIRE INFLUENCER CAMPAIGN WAS BUILT IN REVERSE

June 16:

Ansem creates his first https://t.co/cWm0VDS47g profile and links his identity directly to a wallet

he immediately says he is “not endorsing any microcaps”… https://t.co/fmMhWoqYRw

— Jam (@jellysmithrave) July 20, 2026

On July 20, cryptocurrency analyst BATMAN observed that meme coin sector interest has been resurfacing after multiple weeks of subdued activity. BATMAN highlighted that PUMP had successfully reclaimed a critical support threshold and emphasized that heightened meme coin creation directly correlates with increased platform engagement and revenue generation for Pump.fun.

Recently, meme coins have been gaining traction and massive attention once again.

Because of that, $PUMP is finally looking interesting, with a recent breakout reclaiming a key support level.

More trading activity and coin launches means more revenue for… pic.twitter.com/KZWdb987MF

— BATMAN ⚡ (@CryptosBatman) July 20, 2026

Strategic Buyback Program Counters Unlock Pressure Pump.fun has implemented a substantial token buyback initiative. The platform has allocated approximately $410 million to repurchase PUMP tokens and has permanently removed 151.1 billion tokens from circulation through burning, effectively eliminating more than 15% of the initial supply.

The platform maintains a daily buyback pace of roughly $400,000, translating to approximately $12.85 million monthly. This figure closely aligns with projected team and investor token releases, estimated at around $12 million per month.

Analyst Ali Charts highlighted on X that approximately 82.5 billion PUMP tokens entered their initial significant insider unlock phase during July. Following a one-year vesting cliff, tokens allocated to team members and early investors — valued at roughly $125 million — became eligible for sale. The ongoing buyback initiative has effectively offset considerable portions of this selling pressure.

Around 82.5 billion $PUMP tokens are set to enter their first major insider unlock in July.

After a one-year cliff, team and early-investor tokens worth roughly $125 million became available to sell.

Given the size of the unlock relative to the circulating supply and average… https://t.co/RwFbzzoACb pic.twitter.com/ubfeR9i5xQ

— Ali Charts (@alicharts) July 21, 2026

Technical Analysis Outlook PUMP successfully escaped a multi-week consolidation zone bounded by $0.00140 and $0.00170. The price briefly exceeded $0.0020 before experiencing a modest retracement.

Currently, the token is positioned comfortably above its 20-day simple moving average of $0.00159 and its 50-day simple moving average of $0.00153. The Relative Strength Index registers 68.30, nearing but not yet entering overbought conditions.

Platform virality has contributed additional momentum. Jimothy the Raccoon (JIMOTHY) experienced a 186% surge and produced over $36 million in trading volume, amplifying overall engagement throughout the Pump.fun ecosystem.

Cumulatively, Pump.fun has produced approximately $1.2 billion in total revenue and facilitated over $800 million in SOL token sales through its launchpad infrastructure.

Hyperscale Data, the AI-focused data center company trading under the ticker GPUS on NYSE American, just added another 51.5 Bitcoin to its corporate treasury. The purchase brings its total stash to 1,087.4527 BTC, valued at roughly $70.3 million at a Bitcoin price of $64,691.

The acquisition was made through Ault Capital Group (ACG), a subsidiary, via open-market purchases during the week ending July 19, 2026. It’s the latest move in what has become a steady, methodical Bitcoin accumulation strategy that the company has pursued since early 2025.

A growing Bitcoin pile with a familiar playbook The company uses a two-pronged approach: mining Bitcoin directly and buying it on the open market. Earlier in its accumulation phase, holdings climbed toward 900 BTC. Then a 32.49 BTC purchase pushed the total to approximately 1,032.5 BTC, valued at around $65.8 million at the time. Now, with this latest 51.5 BTC buy, the company sits above the 1,000 BTC mark.

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Executive Chairman Milton “Todd” Ault III has been vocal about what he sees as a disconnect between the company’s market capitalization and the actual value sitting on its balance sheet. With Bitcoin holdings alone exceeding $70 million, and total reported assets reaching approximately $106.7 million as of late June 2026, he argues the market isn’t pricing in what the company actually owns.

The corporate Bitcoin treasury trend keeps expanding The company’s Bitcoin holdings represent a significant chunk of its total reported assets. At $70.3 million out of roughly $106.7 million in total assets, Bitcoin accounts for approximately two-thirds of everything the company owns on paper.

The strategy also includes a notable corporate restructuring on the horizon. Hyperscale Data plans to divest ACG during the second quarter of 2027 through an exchange involving 1,000,000 Series F Preferred shares, which were issued back on December 23, 2024.

What this means for investors With 1,087 BTC, the $70.3 million in Bitcoin represents real, liquid value that the company can point to when making the case that its equity is undervalued. When Bitcoin constitutes roughly two-thirds of total assets, the company’s fortunes become heavily correlated with crypto price movements.

The planned ACG divestiture adds another variable. If the separation goes through in Q2 2027 as planned, investors will need to evaluate how the Bitcoin holdings get allocated between the parent company and the spun-off entity, with the mechanics of the Series F Preferred Stock exchange creating complex valuation dynamics.

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

Galaxy has launched a new initiative aimed at preparing Bitcoin for the potential threat posed by quantum computing. 

The firm, which is spearheaded by cryptocurrency bull Mike Novogratz, has $5 million in grants to fund those developers who are specifically focused on post-quantum security solutions.

The Galaxy Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Initiative will support efforts to develop new signature schemes, Bitcoin upgrade proposals, wallet migration solutions, and so on. 

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The firm has noted that no quantum computer today can break Bitcoin’s security, but that could change "faster than expected," and the Bitcoin community is too conservative to implement a fix fast. 

The initiative will be built around developer funding, ongoing research through Galaxy Research, and a Quantum Advisory Council composed of experts in quantum computing and cryptography.

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"There’s a gap between the quantum computing world, which is moving fast, and the Bitcoin development world, which is just beginning to engage with post-quantum cryptography in earnest," Alex Thorn, the head of research at Galaxy Digital, said in a statement. 

The company said Bitcoin’s reliance on elliptic curve cryptography creates a long-term risk if sufficiently powerful quantum computers become available. However, Galaxy emphasized that no such quantum computer currently exists and that Bitcoin still has time to prepare.

Quantum risk is real Recently, Galaxy published an insightful report that examines Bitcoin’s potential vulnerabilities related to rapid advancements in the realm of quantum computing. 

According to the report, the main risk comes from the possibility that future quantum computers could be capable enough to break the flagship cryptocurrency's elliptic curve digital signatures. 

Millions of coins could be at risk under certain scenarios, according to some estimates.  

However, the firm argued that the risk is recognized and that developers are currently exploring mitigation strategies.

Slow-moving Bitcoin governance remains a major hurdle. BTC has no central authority, so any quantum-resistance upgrade would require great coordination among developers, miners, and so on. 

Standard Chartered’s roadmap has XRP at $28 by 2030. Read the fine print and every dollar above $3 depends on one bill passing a Senate that has sat on it for a year. The most institutional price target in crypto is a bet on Congress, trading at one-in-three odds.

Summary

Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick cut his 2026 XRP target 65% in February, from $8 to $2.80, the deepest cut across the bank’s crypto coverage, while raising his long-range ladder to $7 in 2027, $12.60 in 2028, and $28 by 2030. The conditions are explicit: the near-term target needs only a macro recovery, but the 2027 and 2028 legs require the CLARITY Act to pass and spot ETF inflows to scale past $4 billion. The $28 endpoint assumes XRP becomes core financial infrastructure at a market cap near Bitcoin’s 2025 peak. Both conditions are currently failing. CLARITY has gone a year without a Senate floor vote, its text keeps slipping, and prediction markets price 2026 passage near one in three. ETF inflows have collapsed from $200 million a week to roughly $2 million. The honest math is stark: Bitwise’s formal valuation model spans $29.32 to 13 cents for 2030, a 200-fold range driven by the same binary assumptions, and analyst consensus clusters at $5 to $10 only “if CLARITY clears.” XRP trades near $1.10. Every institutional target above roughly $3 is, mechanically, a legislative forecast wearing a price target’s clothes, and holders pricing the roadmap without pricing the Senate are reading half the document. Price targets are supposed to be about assets. The most cited institutional forecast in XRP is, on inspection, about a legislature. Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick, the closest thing crypto has to a house analyst on Wall Street, maintains a roadmap that carries XRP from roughly $1.10 today to $28 by 2030, and he has been unusually honest about the machinery underneath it: the near-term number needs nothing but a market recovery, while every rung above it requires the bill the roadmap depends on to become law and ETF money to arrive in billions. Those are not market variables. One is a bill that has spent a full year without a Senate floor vote, whose text has slipped repeatedly, and which prediction markets price near one-in-three for 2026; the other is a flow that has decayed from $200 million a week at launch to roughly $2 million now. The roadmap is rigorous, transparent, and conditional to its core, and the market that quotes its endpoints has mostly declined to read its conditions. This piece reads them, prices them, and asks what an XRP holder actually owns: an asset with an institutional bull case, or a leveraged position on the United States Congress.

The roadmap, with its fine print restored Kendrick’s forecast deserves to be laid out properly, because its evolution is more informative than any single number in it.

The original ladder, published in April 2025 while Ripple was still litigating with the SEC, projected $5.50 by the end of 2025, $8 by the end of 2026, and $12.50 by 2028, resting on three named catalysts: resolution of the SEC case, spot ETF inflows of $4 billion to $8 billion, and growing payments use. What happened next is the interesting part: the catalysts substantially arrived, the SEC dropped its appeal, spot XRP ETFs launched in November and pulled in over a billion dollars faster than any product since Ethereum’s, Ripple spent roughly $2.7 billion assembling a prime brokerage and treasury stack, and the price went to $1.16 anyway, its lowest in fifteen months, dragged by a market-wide selloff Kendrick described as capitulation-prone. His February response was the deepest cut in the bank’s crypto book, the 2026 target from $8 to $2.80, alongside reductions for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.

And then the detail most coverage skipped: he raised the far end. The revised ladder runs $2.80 this year, $7 in 2027, $12.60 in 2028, $19.60 in 2029, $28 in 2030, with the long-range numbers lifted even as the near ones fell. The conditions attached are explicit in the bank’s work and in every serious reading of it. The $2.80 leg requires only macro repair, lower rates, risk appetite, a crypto market that stops falling. The $7 and $12.60 legs require the CLARITY Act to pass and cumulative ETF inflows to scale beyond $4 billion. The $28 endpoint requires XRP to stop being a traded asset and become, in the bank’s own blunt framing, core global financial infrastructure, at a market capitalization near $1.7 trillion, which is approximately what all of Bitcoin was worth at its October 2025 peak. The roadmap is not a prediction that compounds; it is a staircase where each step has a named gatekeeper, and from the second step up, the gatekeeper is the federal government.

The conditions, marked to market Take the two named conditions and price them with current data, because that exercise is the entire article.

Condition one: CLARITY becomes law. The bill’s year has been a study in almost. It cleared the Senate Banking Committee in May on a bipartisan 15-9 vote, which was real progress and is also the last floor-adjacent event it has produced. The revised text has slipped repeatedly, most recently after a White House meeting failed to break the deadlock, with the merged draft’s ethics provisions, the Trump family’s crypto holdings, and Democratic co-sponsorship all unresolved; not one Democrat currently backs the draft in circulation, and the August recess eats the calendar from the other end. Prediction markets, which watched the same year happen, price 2026 passage around 32%, down from near 50% in the spring. Senator Lummis has warned publicly that missing this window could shelve the bill for years. None of this makes passage impossible, majorities want a market-structure law in the abstract, but a one-in-three market probability is what the condition is currently worth, and the roadmap’s $7-and-above rungs inherit that discount factor whole.

Condition two: ETF inflows past $4 billion. For readers needing the base mechanics, crypto.news has explained how the flow condition is measured. The products launched spectacularly, $667 million in the first month, a billion dollars faster than any recent debut, an eight-week inflow streak that ran even as Bitcoin funds bled. Then the decay set in, and the current run-rate is the condition’s obituary: weekly flows that touched $200 million now measure around $2 million, July has printed zero-inflow days and the first outflows, cumulative inflows sit near $1.49 billion, barely a third of the condition’s threshold, and the assets that did arrive are roughly $493 million underwater against a $1.10 token. The internals are thinner than the totals: some 82% of complex assets sit in three funds, and a category-level inflow day increasingly means two issuers’ sales desks had a decent Thursday while five products recorded nothing. Analysts modeling the flows tie their recovery to, of all things, condition one, arguing institutional allocation resumes when legal status is permanent, which means the two conditions are not independent. They are one condition wearing two hats, and the hat that matters sits in the Senate.

The case for the conditional bull The strongest honest version of the roadmap’s defense is worth stating fully, because Kendrick is not naive and the structure of his call has real merit.

Conditional targets are what rigorous analysis looks like. A forecast that names its dependencies, CLARITY, $4 billion of flows, infrastructure adoption, is falsifiable and updatable in a way that round-number moonmath never is, and Kendrick’s willingness to cut his own headline number 65% in public is the behavior of an analyst marking to reality instead of defending a franchise. Note also what he did at the long end: raised it, on the argument that the fundamental build-out, the acquisitions, the licenses, the ETF wrapper existing at all, improved XRP’s decade even as its year collapsed. That is a coherent position, not a hedge.

The legislative bet itself is less speculative than a one-in-three market price makes it sound, on this view. Market-structure legislation has bipartisan support in principle, an industry spending historic sums to get it, a White House demanding it, and a predecessor, GENIUS, that proved the votes exist when text and politics align. Bills look dead until the week they pass; prediction markets priced GENIUS pessimistically inside its own final month. If CLARITY or any successor framework lands in 2027 instead of 2026, the roadmap’s ladder shifts a year without breaking, and an asset priced at $1.10 against a $7 conditional target offers the kind of asymmetry institutional allocators are paid to notice. The Bitwise model’s bull leg reaching $29.32 says a formal valuation framework, not just a bank’s conviction, can generate these numbers when the assumptions fire.

And beneath both conditions sits the quiet third catalyst the roadmap only gestures at: the institutional stack behind the thesis, the trust-bank charter awaiting final approval, the pending Fed master account that would be a first for a crypto-native firm, the prime brokerage clearing trillions. If that stack converts into settled volume that actually requires the token, the fee-and-utility floor under the price rises regardless of Washington’s calendar. The bulls’ summary is fair: the conditions are named, the discount is priced, and the asymmetry is the product.

LATEST: Ripple accelerates its evolution with deep liquidity, growing $XRP reserves, native stablecoin, Hidden Road integration, banking access, and institutional settlement engine pic.twitter.com/CoXOfAYveE

— crypto.news (@cryptodotnews) April 19, 2026 The case that a conditional target is not a target The skeptical reading does not dispute Kendrick’s numbers. It disputes what kind of object they are.

A price target whose upper rungs require an act of Congress is a legislative forecast, and banks are not better at those than prediction markets are. The one-in-three CLARITY price is not an inefficiency waiting to be arbitraged by people who read committee schedules; it is the aggregated judgment of a market that has watched this specific bill slip for a year, and the roadmap’s expected value collapses once the conditions are weighted honestly. Multiply the ladder out: $7 in 2027 at a one-in-three legislative probability, further discounted by an ETF condition running at a third of its threshold with decaying flows, prices the conditional rungs somewhere far below the headline, which is, notably, roughly where the market actually trades the token. On this reading, XRP at $1.10 is not ignoring the institutional bull case. It is pricing it correctly, conditions included, and the gap between spot and roadmap measures the conditions’ improbability rather than the market’s ignorance.

The Bitwise spread makes the point mathematically. A formal model that outputs $29.32 in its bull state and 13 cents in its bear state for the same asset in the same year is not describing a range of outcomes for a business; it is describing a binary event with a token attached. Two hundred-fold spreads do not appear in the valuation of assets whose futures are continuous; they appear when everything depends on a switch, and the switch here, the regulatory ground under the target plus the institutional adoption it gates, sits outside the asset entirely. Holders own exposure to the switch without any influence over it, which is a structurally different proposition from owning a claim on a growing system, and it deserves a different name than price target.

History supplies the uncomfortable base rate. XRP’s community has already lived one complete cycle of this structure: years of arguing the SEC case was the only thing suppressing the price, followed by the case resolving, the ETFs launching, the acquisitions closing, and the token underperforming the entire asset class anyway, down more than 60% from its 2025 high while its catalysts fired one by one. The lesson the tape taught, that clearing the named obstacle does not deliver the promised repricing, is precisely the risk the new roadmap reproduces at a higher level of government. And the flows condition has already offered its preview: the ETFs arrived, the inflows came, the price fell through all eight weeks of the streak, and the buyers stopped. A thesis that failed its own dress rehearsal does not become sturdier by moving the decisive scene to the Senate floor.

The roadmap’s quiet third catalyst deserves fuller treatment before the verdict, because it is the one input whose calendar Washington does not control alone. Ripple’s institutional stack has kept compounding straight through the price collapse: the national trust bank charter, conditionally approved in December, awaits final OCC sign-off, with only one crypto-native firm ever having completed that journey; the Federal Reserve master account application, which would give a crypto company direct access to the central bank’s payment rails for the first time, sits in a queue the Fed has formally paused for new Tier 3 decisions until the end of 2026, with Kraken’s five-year path to approval as the only precedent; and the prime brokerage assembled from the Hidden Road acquisition now clears institutional volume at a scale no other crypto firm matches. Analysts modeling the master-account scenario describe it as the catalyst no price target has fully priced, the event that would move XRP’s story from regulatory permission to infrastructure incumbency. The honest caveat is that this catalyst shares the others’ defect at one remove: charters and master accounts are also government decisions, made by regulators instead of legislators, on calendars measured in years. The stack is real, its compounding is observable, and its conversion into token demand remains the same unproven step the whole thesis keeps deferring. It widens the bull case’s foundations without shortening its timeline, which is precisely why the bank parked it under the 2029 and 2030 rungs, not the near ones.

The comparison set inside the ETF complex sharpens the flow condition further, because the aggregate numbers hide a structure that matters for whether $4 billion is even reachable. Seven US spot XRP products launched within weeks of each other, and the field has already stratified beyond recovery: Bitwise, Canary, and Franklin hold roughly 82% of complex assets, the remaining funds regularly print zero-flow days, and the best single day of July, under $7 million, came almost entirely from two issuers’ distribution. That concentration converts the headline condition into a narrower question than the roadmap implies. Getting from $1.49 billion to $4 billion does not require a market-wide change of heart about XRP; it requires two or three sales organizations to find another two and a half billion dollars of allocator demand for a product their clients currently hold at a half-billion-dollar unrealized loss. Fund flows follow performance with a lag in both directions, which is how the launch streak ran eight weeks into a falling price and why the decay since has been so complete. The precedent that haunts the setup is the launch itself: XRP reached its first billion of ETF inflows faster than any asset since Ethereum, an achievement the roadmap’s original version treated as the catalyst arriving, and the price fell throughout. A condition that was substantially met once, at maximum velocity, without producing the predicted repricing, now needs to be met again, from a lower base, against worse performance, before the next rung unlocks. That is the version of the flow condition an allocator actually faces, and it is meaningfully harder than the single cumulative number in the bank’s fine print suggests.

What a holder actually owns Strip the argument to its usable core and the position clarifies.

Below roughly $3, XRP’s institutional targets are macro calls, and the asset trades like the rest of the risk complex, with the same Fed, the same liquidity, the same beta. In that band, the roadmap says little that Bitcoin’s chart does not. Above roughly $3, every institutional number in circulation, Kendrick’s $7 and $12.60 and $28, the consensus $5-to-$10 cluster, Bitwise’s bull leg, is conditioned on the same two-headed event: American market-structure law passing and the institutional allocation it is assumed to unlock. A holder at $1.10 therefore owns three stacked exposures, a crypto-market beta, a Washington binary priced near one-in-three, and a residual bet that legal clarity converts into token demand, the step the SEC-resolution cycle already failed to deliver once.

None of that makes the position irrational; binaries with asymmetric payoffs are a legitimate thing to own, and the roadmap’s transparency about its conditions is exactly what makes the position priceable at all. What it makes irrational is quoting the ladder without its gates, and the gates have a calendar. The floor-vote window before the August recess, the fall session after it, and the 2027 political cycle beyond are, mechanically, the price target’s actual chart. Watch Polymarket’s CLARITY line before watching XRP’s, watch the weekly ETF prints for any sign the $4 billion condition resurrects, and watch whether the text that keeps slipping ever stops slipping. The bank told everyone precisely what has to happen. The market is telling everyone precisely how likely it thinks that is. The only mistake available to a holder is reading one document and not the other. Crypto.news has also explained why reading institutional positioning honestly means treating delayed disclosures and flow headlines as conditions, not proof.

Frequently asked questions What is Standard Chartered’s current XRP forecast? The bank’s revised roadmap, published with its February cuts, projects $2.80 for end-2026, $7 in 2027, $12.60 in 2028, $19.60 in 2029, and $28 by 2030. The 2026 target was cut 65% from $8, the largest reduction across the bank’s crypto coverage, while the longer-range targets were raised. At $28, XRP’s market capitalization would reach roughly $1.7 trillion, near Bitcoin’s October 2025 peak value.

What conditions does the roadmap depend on? Explicitly stated ones. The $2.80 leg requires only a broad crypto-market recovery. The $7 and $12.60 legs require the CLARITY Act to pass and cumulative spot ETF inflows to scale past $4 billion. The $28 endpoint assumes XRP becomes core global financial infrastructure rather than a traded asset. The bank’s original 2025 roadmap carried similar named catalysts: SEC case resolution, ETF inflows, and payments adoption.

How likely is the CLARITY Act to pass? Prediction markets currently price 2026 passage around 32%, down from near 50% in spring. The bill cleared the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 in May but has gone a year without a floor vote, its revised text has slipped repeatedly including after a failed White House meeting, no Democrat backs the current draft, and the August recess shortens the calendar. Senator Lummis has warned a missed window could shelve it for years.

How are the ETF inflows tracking against the $4 billion condition? Poorly. Cumulative net inflows sit near $1.49 billion since the November launch, roughly a third of the threshold, and the run-rate has collapsed from about $200 million a week at launch to around $2 million, with July printing zero-inflow days and the streak’s first outflows. Assets are roughly $493 million underwater at current prices, and about 82% of the complex sits in just three funds.

Why did XRP fall even as its earlier catalysts arrived? That is the cycle’s hardest lesson. The SEC dropped its appeal, spot ETFs launched with record early demand, and Ripple deployed roughly $2.7 billion on institutional acquisitions, yet the token fell more than 60% from its 2025 high with the broader market. Analysts attribute the gap to macro conditions, persistent early-holder selling, and the structural fact that network adoption does not automatically create token demand.

What does the Bitwise model’s range mean? Bitwise’s formal valuation framework outputs 2030 scenarios from $29.32 down to 13 cents, a roughly 200-fold spread. Ranges that wide indicate a binary structure: the outcomes depend overwhelmingly on whether legal clarity and institutional adoption fire, not on incremental business performance. It is the same conditionality as the bank roadmap, expressed as a probability distribution rather than a ladder.

Is a conditional price target still useful? Yes, if read whole. Named conditions make a forecast falsifiable and updatable, and Kendrick’s public 65% cut shows marking to reality. The danger is quoting the ladder without its gates: above roughly $3, every institutional XRP target in circulation depends on the same legislative and flow conditions, so the honest way to use the roadmap is to track the conditions, Polymarket’s CLARITY odds and weekly ETF prints, alongside the price.

What should XRP holders watch next? Three calendars. The Senate floor window before the August recess and the fall session, since the legislative condition dominates everything above $3. The weekly ETF flow prints, for any sign the $4 billion condition revives, including whether inflows broaden beyond the three dominant funds. And Ripple’s institutional stack, final trust-bank approval and the pending Fed master account, which is the roadmap’s quiet third catalyst. This is not investment advice.

Disclaimer: This article is for information and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. It discusses analyst forecasts and legislative probabilities that can change quickly and may prove wrong in either direction. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset. Always do your own research. Information is accurate as of July 21, 2026.

Ripple-backed XRP Ledger’s newest software update is starting to roll out as The number of validators upgrading to v3.2.0 is increasing. According to the recent XRPL Explorer data, 66% of the trusted validators are running the release. The migration progresses while the network is getting ready for the amendment, called fixCleanup3_2_0.

XRP Ledger v3.2.0 Sees Increasing Validator Support As per the upgrade tracker, there are now 99 validators running v3.2.0. This is 66% of the validator set. It also reveals 481 nodes (57.33%) are running the latest version. However, there is still significant use of older software. Version 3.1.3 is still on 42 validators, representing 28% of the total. It also has 322 nodes that are powered, representing 38.38% of all 825 nodes.

The XRP Ledger has a very critical amendment process. They must be supported by over 80% of the trusted validators. That support should not change during 2 consecutive weeks. The new statistics indicate the network is still short of that. To reach the threshold, another 25 percentage points of additional adoption are needed for v3.2.0.

XRP Ledger version 3.2.0 includes a number of technical enhancements as it covers infrastructure improvements. It is also packed with fixes and developer enhancements. There is one major change via XLS-0095.

The proposal officially changes the name of the server software from rippled to xrpld. The rollout started on June 15. The configuration paths need to be updated for validators and node operators. They also need to update deployment scripts, metadata references, and database directories.

About The Fix Amendment The fixCleanup3_2_0 amendment has already passed the necessary voting level. Currently, it has 85.71% validator support. For this, 30 validators cast their votes in favor while six validators voted against.

The proposed plan is now in the required two-week activation process. The activation period will be July 29, 2026, at 09:57 UTC. It will continue as long as support remains above 80% for the entire countdown.

The node operators are advised to upgrade their nodes before activation as per XRPL validator Vet. The mod is an enhancement to the existing features, rather than new additions. Resolves some accuracy and rounding problems in Single Asset Vaults and Lending Protocol. It also fixes problems related to the Permissioned DEX and Permissioned Domains.

Washington has been arguing about who gets to regulate crypto for years. By July 23, XRP holders may finally get an answer, at least on paper.

The CLARITY Act, which would formally define which digital assets fall under the SEC’s jurisdiction and which belong to the CFTC, is approaching what traders and lobbyists are treating as a soft deadline. Senate leadership has signaled a late-July target for floor action, and markets are pricing in a real probability of passage.

What the CLARITY Act actually does The CLARITY Act tries to write the rule book. It would establish a framework for classifying digital assets, draw a cleaner line between SEC and CFTC oversight, and give projects a pathway to shift from securities status to commodity status once a network becomes sufficiently decentralized.

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The bill cleared the House and advanced through the Senate Banking Committee as of May 14, 2026. Passage requires 60 votes, which means the bill needs bipartisan support to survive a filibuster. Two sticking points are holding things up: provisions around ethics disclosures for public officials holding digital assets, and language related to illicit finance and anti-money laundering obligations.

Why XRP specifically is watching this so closely The SEC sued Ripple Labs in late 2020, alleging that XRP was an unregistered security. A federal judge ruled in 2023 that XRP sold on public exchanges did not constitute securities transactions. The CLARITY Act, if passed, could effectively close that file by reclassifying XRP as a digital commodity under CFTC oversight.

Commodity-classified assets face a different, and generally less burdensome, regulatory regime than securities. Exchanges can list them without the same disclosure infrastructure. Fund managers can build ETF products around them more easily. XRP-linked ETF applications are already in motion at the SEC.

What investors should watch between now and the deadline The July 23 window isn’t a formal legislative deadline. What it reflects is the Senate’s stated intent to address the crypto market structure bill before the August recess. Missing the window doesn’t kill the bill, but it extends the uncertainty. August recess means September at the earliest for floor action, and fall legislative calendars fill up fast with budget fights and appropriations deadlines.

The 2023 court ruling sent XRP up significantly in a single session. A Senate vote, whether yes or no, will likely produce a similar response.

The CLARITY Act isn’t XRP-specific legislation. A successful passage would establish a framework that applies across hundreds of digital assets. Ethereum, Solana, and a long list of layer-2 and DeFi tokens all sit in the same jurisdictional gray zone that the bill is trying to resolve.

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

Ethereum chatter has collapsed to 2020 levels while banks build on the chain and a nonprofit teaches institutions to buy it. The token trades as if neither audience exists. Three groups are pricing three different assets, and only one of them is right.

Summary

Retail attention on Ethereum has collapsed: tweet volume is at 12-month lows near 40,000 mentions, levels last seen in 2020, NFT activity has gone quiet, and daily active addresses have fallen from above 1.5 million in January toward 544,000. Institutional commitment is moving the opposite way: a dedicated nonprofit launched to onboard institutions, tokenization is a headline topic in traditional finance, ETF flows turned positive again in July, and BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Robinhood all build on Ethereum rails. The price has ignored both signals, trading near $1,800, down roughly 42% this year and about 64% from its August peak near $5,000, while network fee revenue sits near cycle lows. The loudest defection came from inside: Bankless co-founder David Hoffman sold his remaining ETH in May, arguing the money thesis has run its course, and doubled down this month on the fee problem behind it. The divergence resolves through one question, value accrual: whether the activity institutions bring ever becomes fees the token captures. Retail priced a story that died. Institutions price rails that work. The token prices cash flows that keep falling. Three different groups of people are currently looking at Ethereum, and they are not seeing the same asset. The first group, crypto-native retail, has mostly stopped looking: social mentions of Ethereum have fallen to roughly 40,000, a level last recorded in 2020 when Wall Street did not know the chain existed, and the loud consumer corners of the ecosystem, NFTs above all, have gone quiet enough to hear the servers hum. The second group, institutional finance, is arriving in the opposite direction, with a purpose-built nonprofit teaching banks how to hold ETH, tokenization on every conference agenda, and the largest asset managers in the world settling real products on Ethereum rails. And the third participant, the market itself, is pricing the token as if neither group matters: ETH trades near $1,800, down about 42% on the year and nearly two-thirds below its August peak, while the chain’s fee revenue scrapes along at cycle lows. In May, the divergence produced its emblematic moment, when one of Ethereum’s most committed public advocates announced he had sold every coin he owned while insisting he still believed in the network. All three groups are behaving rationally. They are simply pricing three different things, and working out which of the three the token actually is has become the most consequential question in crypto’s second-largest asset.

The retail exit, measured The evidence that ordinary crypto users have checked out of Ethereum is not anecdotal; it shows up in every proxy for attention and grassroots usage at once.

The cleanest measure is the crudest: how much people talk about it. Tweet volume for Ethereum has fallen to fresh 12-month lows around 40,000 mentions, with Bitcoin near 130,000, and the comparison point is what makes the number land, because attention this low was last seen in 2020, before the ETFs, before the Merge, before the institutional era the industry spent a decade demanding. Social chatter is a rough instrument, but it has historically tracked retail capital and marked cycle temperature, and its collapse while institutional adoption sets records is precisely the inversion that makes this moment strange. Rising mentions once meant rising retail inflows; now the crowd that generates mentions has left the theater.

On-chain, the story repeats with better instrumentation. Daily active addresses, above 1.5 million in January, have trended down toward 544,000, a fall of nearly two-thirds that tracks the price drawdown from above $3,400 in December to under $2,000. The consumer economy that once made Ethereum a cultural object, NFT trading, consumer mints, the speculative long tail, has thinned to the point where daily NFT volumes measure in the hundreds of thousands of dollars against a $41 billion DeFi treasury sitting largely still. The capital stayed; the crowd left. Total value locked has barely budged through the attention collapse, which tells you who remains: professional and semi-professional capital that thinks in quarters, parked in lending markets and liquid staking, indifferent to vibes.

The generous reading of the exit is rotation, that retail attention went to memecoins on faster chains and to the AI trade, and rotations reverse. The harsher reading is that Ethereum’s retail base was loyal to a story, the ultrasound money, world-computer, ETH-is-money story, and stories do not survive a 64% drawdown from peak while the supply inflates and the burn sits idle. Either way, the measurable fact stands: the audience that carried Ethereum through every previous cycle is not currently in the building.

The institutional entry, measured Run the same exercise on institutions and every needle points the other way, which is what makes this a divergence, not a decline.

The most explicit signal is organizational: the launch of Ethereum Institutional, a nonprofit created specifically to educate banks, asset managers, and corporates on adopting Ethereum, with contributors drawn from the ecosystem’s core. Institutions do not get dedicated onboarding bodies for networks in decline; the entity exists because inbound demand outgrew the ecosystem’s capacity to answer it. Around it sits a thickening layer of professional evangelism, Etherealize pitching Wall Street directly, with its leadership publicly arguing that institutional engagement has moved past pilots into production, and a restructured Ethereum Foundation spinning out ETH Systems as a for-profit focused on institutional privacy tooling, funded by trading firms and treasuries. The ecosystem is visibly reorganizing itself around the client it now serves.

The client, meanwhile, keeps shipping. The tokenization wave that dominates traditional-finance conferences runs disproportionately on Ethereum and its L2s: BlackRock’s tokenized fund complex, JPMorgan’s settlement infrastructure reaching public rails, Robinhood building its chain as an Ethereum L2, stablecoin issuance concentrating on the network that hosts the deepest collateral markets. For more context on the institutional product driving adoption, crypto.news has explained how tokenized money market funds are moving regulated cash instruments on-chain. Even the flow data, the weakest leg of the institutional case, has stopped arguing against it: after a heavy second quarter of net outflows, US spot ETH ETFs turned positive again in July, with inflow days in the tens of millions, uneven but real. And the treasury bid persists through the drawdown, with corporate and fund vehicles continuing to accumulate at prices the retail cycle would have considered a catastrophe.

Institutions, in short, are doing exactly what the industry spent years saying it wanted: adopting the infrastructure, at scale, without asking permission from the price. Which sharpens the puzzle instead of resolving it, because their arrival has coincided with the asset’s worst sustained underperformance of the modern era.

The defection that named the problem The reason the price ignores both audiences was articulated most clearly by the person whose exit hurt the narrative most.

David Hoffman spent years as one of Ethereum’s most effective advocates, co-founding Bankless and popularizing the ETH-is-money thesis, the argument that Ethereum’s token would become the internet’s base money, scarce, productive, and re-rated accordingly. On May 21 he sold the last of his personal ETH, and his explanation was more damaging than the sale: the thesis, he argued, has largely run its course, with ETH unlikely to be re-rated meaningfully higher or lower from here, money to some degree, but not the maximally successful version the ecosystem set out to build. Former core developer Eric Connor’s response compounded it, noting ETH has grossly underperformed the broader crypto market for years and attributing the lag to relentless supply from early millionaires, not protocol failure, an explanation that manages to be reassuring about the technology and damning about the asset simultaneously.

Hoffman has kept pressing the underlying point since, arguing this month that Ethereum faces a false choice between maximizing fees and being money, and that while it hesitates, distribution-rich competitors, Robinhood’s chain among them, are positioned to eat the revenue base out from under it. That is the distribution rival eating the revenue base. Strip the personalities away and his case reduces to an arithmetic claim: layer-one tokens are ultimately priced on the fees their block space earns, Ethereum deliberately pushed activity to L2s that pay almost nothing back, mainnet fee revenue has fallen from roughly $40 million a day in early 2025 toward $10 million, and no amount of institutional construction on top of the network changes the token’s cash flows if the construction happens where the token does not collect rent. It is the value-accrual critique, delivered by someone who spent five years selling the opposite conclusion, which is exactly why it landed.

Three prices for three assets Here is the resolution of the divergence, and it requires taking all three groups seriously at once, because each is pricing a real thing.

Retail priced the story, and the story died. The asset retail owned was ultrasound money: a supply that shrinks with use, a burn that turns adoption into scarcity, a meme that fit on a sticker and compounded reflexively. That asset genuinely existed for a stretch after the Merge and genuinely does not now, with the burn collapsed, supply mildly inflating, and the December blob-fee floor a patch on the leak, not a restoration. That is the monetary mechanics under this divergence. Attention followed the story out. Retail is not wrong to be gone; the thing it bought is gone.

Institutions price the rails, and the rails work. The asset institutions are adopting is not the token’s monetary narrative but the network’s properties: the deepest liquidity, the most battle-tested settlement, the compliance tooling, the credible neutrality that lets BlackRock and a DeFi protocol share infrastructure. That asset is thriving, and nothing in the price contradicts it, because most institutional use, tokenized funds, L2 settlement, stablecoin rails, consumes Ethereum’s security while paying trivially for it. Institutions are not wrong to build; the thing they are buying works regardless of what ETH costs.

The market prices the cash flows, and the cash flows are falling. The token, stripped of both stories, is a claim on fees plus a staking yield plus a monetary premium the market is currently revoking. Fee revenue down roughly three-quarters from early 2025, activity migrated to venues that remit almost nothing, and a persistent seller overhang from the early-holder class Connor described: the price is not ignoring the fundamentals, it is agreeing with them, and its verdict is that until institutional construction becomes token revenue, construction is not a bull case.

Which means the entire divergence compresses into one testable question: does the institutional economy on Ethereum ever start paying Ethereum? The mechanisms are known and partly shipped, the blob-fee floor reconnecting L2 growth to burn, mainnet settlement of high-value tokenized assets that does pay real fees, staking demand from treasuries and ETFs that locks supply. If tokenization scales and its settlement gravity pulls value to mainnet, the fee line inflects, and the market re-rates the token toward what institutions already believe about the network. If the activity stays where the rent is lowest, Ethereum becomes magnificent public infrastructure attached to a stagnant asset, the outcome Hoffman priced when he sold. Both futures are live. The tape, for now, is voting with him, and the burden of proof sits, for the first time in Ethereum’s history, on the bulls’ arithmetic rather than their story.

One more actor deserves a paragraph before the watchlist, because the divergence is reorganizing Ethereum’s own institutions in real time. The Ethereum Foundation, historically the ecosystem’s ambivalent center, has spent the year restructuring around exactly the split this piece describes: research and protocol work continuing in the nonprofit core, a new institutional-outreach apparatus forming at arm’s length, and ETH Systems spinning out as a for-profit, funded by trading firms and corporate treasuries, to build the privacy and compliance tooling institutional users keep requesting. Longtime contributors have scattered across the new entities, and the ecosystem’s own commentators describe the reorganization with a candor that borders on gallows humor. The institutional turn, in other words, is not something happening to Ethereum from outside; it is something Ethereum’s leadership has chosen, budgeted, and staffed, accepting the retail exit as a completed fact and reallocating toward the audience that stayed. That choice has consequences for the token question this piece turns on. An ecosystem organized around institutional settlement will prioritize exactly the upgrades, privacy, compliance hooks, high-value mainnet settlement, most likely to make institutional activity pay mainnet fees, which is the bull path. It will also, inevitably, deprioritize the consumer-facing culture that once generated the monetary meme, which forecloses the old path back. The foundation has effectively placed the ecosystem’s bet for it: that the second audience can be converted into revenue before the absence of the first audience becomes terminal for the asset’s premium. The fee line, again, will grade the wager.

What to watch Three lines on three charts settle this faster than any debate.

The fee line. Daily network fee revenue near $10 million is the bear case in one number; a sustained inflection, driven by blob-fee floors under growing L2 volume or high-value mainnet settlement, is the single cleanest signal the value-accrual gap is closing. Watch the trend through the fall, not any single week. That is where the fee line actually comes from.

The flow composition. ETF inflows resumed in July after a negative quarter; whether they compound, and whether staking-enabled vehicles and treasuries keep locking supply through price weakness, tests whether the institutional bid extends from the network to the token. Uneven, headline-driven flows extend the stalemate; a durable streak changes the supply math. Crypto.news has also explained how the flow machinery works.

The attention floor. Retail metrics this depressed have historically marked accumulation zones as often as terminal decline, and tweet volume at 2020 levels with institutional adoption at record highs is a configuration crypto has simply never printed before. If price ever starts responding to the institutional story, the crowd’s return would be the accelerant. Its continued absence is the cheapest real-time measure of how dead the old narrative remains.

Ethereum’s strange summer is best understood as an estate in probate. The old asset, the retail money-meme, has died, and its heirs have left. The new asset, institutional settlement infrastructure, is thriving but pays no rent to the name on the deed. And the token is the estate itself, valued daily by a market that only counts income. The network has never been more used or less loved, and the gap between those two facts is either the buying opportunity of the cycle or the proof that usage was never the same thing as value. Three audiences have placed their bets. The fee line will grade them.

Frequently asked questions What does the retail exit from Ethereum look like? Tweet volume for Ethereum has fallen to roughly 40,000 mentions, a 12-month low last seen in 2020, while Bitcoin sits near 130,000. Daily active addresses have declined from above 1.5 million in January toward 544,000, NFT activity has thinned to daily volumes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the consumer-speculative corners of the ecosystem have gone broadly quiet, even as DeFi’s roughly $41 billion in locked value stays put.

What is the evidence institutions are moving in? A dedicated nonprofit, Ethereum Institutional, launched to onboard banks and asset managers, alongside Etherealize’s direct Wall Street outreach and the Ethereum Foundation spinning out a for-profit institutional tooling arm. BlackRock’s tokenized funds, JPMorgan’s settlement rails, and Robinhood’s L2 all build on Ethereum, tokenization dominates traditional-finance agendas, ETH ETF flows turned positive again in July, and treasury vehicles kept accumulating through the drawdown.

Why did David Hoffman sell his ETH? The Bankless co-founder sold his remaining ETH on May 21, arguing the ETH-is-money thesis has largely run its course and that he does not expect the market to re-rate the asset meaningfully in either direction. He has since pressed the structural point: layer-one tokens are priced on fees, Ethereum’s activity moved to L2s that pay almost nothing back, and competitors with distribution are positioned to erode the remaining revenue base.

Why is the ETH price ignoring institutional adoption? Because most institutional use pays the token almost nothing. Tokenized funds, L2 settlement, and stablecoin rails consume Ethereum’s security while generating minimal mainnet fees, and daily fee revenue has fallen from roughly $40 million in early 2025 toward $10 million. The market prices the token on cash flows plus monetary premium, and with the premium fading and fees falling, the price tracks the arithmetic, not the adoption headlines.

Is this different from the ultrasound money problem? It is the same root with a different face. The ultrasound story broke because cheap L2 data ended the fee burn that made ETH deflationary, which is monetary mechanics. This divergence is about audiences: retail owned the monetary story and left when it died, institutions own the infrastructure story and keep building, and the token’s price follows fees rather than either narrative. The December blob-fee floor addresses both by reconnecting L2 growth to mainnet revenue, at a baseline level.

What would make the price start responding? A durable inflection in fee revenue is the cleanest trigger: growing L2 volume paying meaningful blob fees under the December floor, high-value tokenized-asset settlement on mainnet, and staking demand locking supply through ETFs and treasuries. If institutional activity starts converting into token cash flows, the market has something to re-rate. Without that conversion, adoption and price can stay decoupled indefinitely.

Could retail attention at 2020 levels be a buy signal? Historically, deeply depressed attention has coincided with accumulation zones as often as with terminal decline, and the current configuration, record institutional adoption against 2020-level retail interest, has no precedent to price from. Low attention removes a reflexive bid but also exhausts sellers. It is a condition, not a signal, and its resolution depends on the fee and flow lines rather than on sentiment itself. This is not investment advice.

What are the key numbers to track from here? Daily network fee revenue against the roughly $10 million cycle low, the persistence of ETH ETF inflows after July’s turn positive, staking and treasury accumulation as a share of supply, active addresses against the 544,000 area, and the growth of tokenized-asset settlement that pays mainnet fees. Together they answer the only question that closes the divergence: whether use of Ethereum ever becomes revenue for ETH.

Disclaimer: This article is for information and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. It describes market conditions and network metrics that change quickly, and past patterns do not guarantee future outcomes. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset. Always do your own research. Information is accurate as of July 21, 2026.

Cardano price has surged 9.3% to an intraday high of $0.176 after the Van Rossem hard fork activated Protocol Version 11, while improving risk appetite and whale accumulation have supported bullish sentiment.

Summary

Cardano price surged 9.3% after the Van Rossem hard fork activated Protocol Version 11. A 4-hour rounding bottom places $0.20 within reach if ADA clears $0.18 resistance. Whale accumulation supports the recovery, but weak DeFi activity and geopolitical risks remain. According to data from crypto.news, Cardano (ADA) price traded near $0.1745 at press time on July 21 after briefly giving back part of the advance. The token cleared the $0.166 resistance that had capped several recovery attempts during July, while daily trading volume rose as buyers returned after the weekend upgrade.

Cardano activated Van Rossem on July 18 after delegated representatives, stake pool operators, and the Constitutional Committee approved the proposal through the Voltaire governance system. As crypto.news reported, the vote secured 77.63% DRep approval, 52.7% support from stake pool operators, and six affirmative Constitutional Committee votes.

Protocol Version 11 introduced new Plutus functions, revised smart contract cost models, zero-knowledge proof support, and tighter node-security requirements. The event became Cardano’s first major protocol upgrade to complete the full proposal, debate, and ratification process through on-chain governance.

Commenting on the upgrade, Cardano delegated representative Jason Appleton described the governance process as a key part of the event.

“The best part: it was ratified on-chain by delegated community reps before activation. Upgrades by governance, not decree.”

A sustained break above $0.18 would put $0.20 within reach ADA’s 4-hour chart has developed a rounding-bottom structure from the July 13 low near $0.155. Price has since formed progressively higher lows and pushed through the pattern’s first resistance area between $0.170 and $0.173.

Cardano price has formed a rounding bottom pattern on the 4-hour chart — July 21 | Source: crypto.news The structure places its neckline at $0.20, where ADA reached a local high in early July. Before testing that level, bulls must overcome resistance around $0.177 and the three-day liquidation cluster near $0.180. A move from the current price to $0.20 would produce a further gain of roughly 14.6%.

Buying pressure has also strengthened on the 4-hour timeframe. The MACD line stands at 0.0022, above its 0.0012 signal line, while the positive histogram has expanded to 0.0010. Chaikin Money Flow remains above zero at 0.11, which confirms that net capital has entered ADA during the recovery.

Daily indicators offer a less decisive picture. The Stochastic RSI has climbed to 81.38, above its signal line at 60.13, after rebounding from neutral territory. However, the reading has entered the overbought zone and could produce a short consolidation before another attempt at $0.18.

Cardano price daily chart — July 21 | Source: crypto.news ADX sits at only 15.24 on the daily chart. Such a low reading shows that ADA has not yet established a powerful directional trend despite the sharp intraday gain. A daily close above $0.18, followed by rising ADX, would give the rounding-bottom setup firmer confirmation.

Fibonacci levels drawn from the May peak at $0.2889 to the June low at $0.1388 place immediate support at the 78.6% retracement near $0.1709. The next major resistance rests at the 61.8% level of $0.1962, just below the rounding bottom’s $0.20 neckline. A breakout there could open $0.2139 and $0.2316.

Large holders had accumulated before the hard fork. Santiment data showed that wallets with 100,000 to 100 million ADA held 25.6 billion tokens, their largest balance since February 2023. Smaller wallets holding fewer than 100 ADA reduced their combined balance by about 0.7% over four months.

Derivatives traders also increased exposure before the upgrade. Cardano futures open interest rose from $385 million to $445 million between Monday and Thursday, while the funding rate turned positive at 0.0042%, according to CoinGlass data. Positive funding means long traders are paying shorts, though excessive leverage could increase liquidation risk.

The three-day liquidation heatmap places the nearest large short cluster between $0.179 and $0.180. A break through that area could force bearish positions to close and accelerate the move toward $0.196. Below the market, concentrated long liquidations sit near $0.172, $0.169, $0.165, and $0.160.

Cardano liquidation heatmap | Source: CoinGlass Global markets supplied another tailwind. South Korea’s Kospi gained 3.6%, Japan’s Nikkei rose 3.3%, and Taiwan’s Taiex advanced 4.2% as semiconductor shares recovered from last week’s sell-off, according to the Associated Press. Bitcoin’s return above $66,000 also directed fresh demand toward high-beta altcoins.

Loss of $0.169 would weaken the recovery setup Cardano’s bullish case depends first on the $0.170 Fibonacci level and the former breakout zone around $0.169. A daily close below that region would place ADA back inside its July range and expose the 4-hour rounding bottom to invalidation.

Further selling could pull the token toward $0.165, followed by $0.160 and the pattern floor near $0.155. A break below $0.155 would erase the sequence of higher lows, while the June bottom at $0.138 would become the next major support.

Cardano’s fundamentals still present a separate risk. DeFiLlama data places network total value locked near $86 million, far below the capital held by competing layer-1 networks. Van Rossem must lead to measurable growth in users, transactions, and locked capital for the upgrade’s price impact to last.

Security concerns have also returned after a Wanchain-linked Cardano bridge exploit drained about 515 million NIGHT tokens worth roughly $9 million, crypto.news reported. Although the incident did not compromise Cardano’s base layer, further ecosystem losses could hurt developer and investor confidence.

Oil prices and the U.S.-Iran conflict remain the primary macro threats. Renewed strikes or disruption around the Strait of Hormuz could lift energy costs, revive inflation fears, and reduce demand for speculative assets. Under those conditions, ADA could lose $0.169 before the rounding bottom reaches its $0.20 neckline.

Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.

Strike will remain a standalone company after the proposed three-way merger was scrapped, while Twenty One Capital and Elektron continue discussions, Bloomberg reported.

A proposed merger involving Tether-backed crypto companies Twenty One Capital, Strike and Elektron Energy has reportedly been scrapped.

Jack Mallers will step down as CEO of Twenty One Capital while remaining CEO of Strike, according to Bloomberg. Elektron Energy CEO Raphael Zagury has been appointed to succeed Mallers.

Strike will continue operating as a standalone company instead of combining with Twenty One Capital. Discussions between Twenty One and Elektron are continuing, Bloomberg reported. Tether holds majority stakes in both companies.

Twenty One’s (XXI) NYSE-traded shares were little changed in Tuesday’s premarket activity.

As Cointelegraph reported in April, Tether said it planned to vote in favor of a proposed merger between Twenty One Capital and Mallers’ Bitcoin payments company, Strike. The proposal also envisioned merging the combined company with Bitcoin miner Elektron Energy.

Twenty One Capital launched in 2025 with backing from Tether, Cantor Fitzgerald and SoftBank. Tether bought SoftBank’s stake in the company in May.

Twenty One held 43,514 Bitcoin at the time of writing, making it the world’s second-largest corporate BTC holder behind Michael Saylor’s Strategy, according to tracking website BitcoinTreasuries.

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

Road Town, British Virgin Islands, July 21st, 2026, Chainwire

STON.fi, the leading AMM protocol on The Open Network (TON), today announced the launch of cross-chain swaps in the STON.fi app, giving users a direct way to move stablecoins between TON, TRON, Ethereum, Base, BNB Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, Arbitrum, and Robinhood Chain through a unified, self-custodial interface. 

The launch connects TON to major liquidity and application ecosystems across crypto. As a result, users can move capital between stablecoin markets, TON-native assets, DeFi protocols, and Telegram-native applications without relying on centralized exchanges, bridges, or wrapped assets.

Stablecoins have become one of crypto’s most important markets, with more than $300 billion in total market capitalization, led by TRON and Ethereum as the two largest stablecoin networks. Through cross-chain swaps, STON.fi connects TON with major stablecoin ecosystems in both directions: TON users gain access to liquidity across networks, while TRON and EVM users get a more direct path into TON-native assets, wallets, DeFi protocols, and Telegram-native applications — all through one self-custodial experience without managing bridges, wrapped assets, routing decisions, or settlement uncertainty.

Omniston, the execution layer developed by STON.fi, coordinates the full swap process between source and destination chains. More than a routing or liquidity aggregation system, it is designed to help cross-chain stablecoin flows complete predictably, from pricing to settlement.

"People don't think in terms of blockchains — they think in terms of what they want to do," said Slavik Baranov, CEO of STON.fi Dev. "Our goal is to make moving between ecosystems feel as simple as swapping within one network. Omniston handles the complexity so users can focus on the outcome, not the infrastructure."

For users, the key benefits are speed and predictability. Most swaps complete in 15–40 seconds, allowing users to swap assets between any supported chains without the longer wait times often associated with cross-chain transactions. When a swap is confirmed, Omniston connects the order with independent liquidity providers, known as resolvers, that supply the asset on the destination chain. The transaction is executed through linked Hashed Timelock Contracts (HTLCs) — smart-contract escrows on both chains that use the same cryptographic condition — so both sides of the swap complete together or the transaction does not complete at all. Before confirming, users see the asset and amount they are expected to receive. If the swap cannot be completed, funds are returned instead of being left stuck, partially executed, or unclear.

With cross-chain swaps now live, STON.fi is moving beyond a chain-specific DeFi protocol toward a product built around user intent. As stablecoin liquidity, consumer applications, and DeFi markets spread across networks, users need easier ways to move value without giving up self-custody or managing the infrastructure behind each transaction. For TON and the broader crypto market, the launch introduces a more practical access layer between major liquidity networks, application ecosystems, and the wider onchain economy.

For more information, users can visit STON.fi's cross-chain swap interface: app.ston.fi/cross-chain 

About STON.fi

STON.fi is a cross-chain decentralized application for token swaps across TON, TRON, and major EVM-compatible blockchains. Originally established as the leading AMM protocol and one of the most widely used DeFi applications on The Open Network (TON), STON.fi helps users swap assets, access DeFi opportunities, and move value across blockchains through a simple cross-chain experience. Its cross-chain capabilities are powered by Omniston, the execution layer developed by STON.fi to support reliable and predictable swaps across multiple networks. Backed by leading investors including CoinFund, Delphi Ventures, The Open Platform, Karatage, TON Ventures, and others, STON.fi is building the infrastructure that connects users, liquidity, and applications across the onchain economy.

ContactHead of Communications
Ekaterina
STON.fi Dev
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Zcash [ZEC] has rallied nearly 37% since developers deployed the Ironwood [NU6.3] upgrade to testnet earlier this month, with the privacy-focused cryptocurrency outperforming many of its peers ahead of the protocol’s next major network upgrade.

As the community prepares for Ironwood’s mainnet activation, the upgrade also marks the beginning of the end for zcashd. This is the network’s long-running reference node, making this one of the most significant transitions in Zcash’s history.

Ironwood aims to strengthen confidence in Zcash’s supply The Zcash Open Development Lab deployed the Ironwood [NU6.3] upgrade to testnet on July 2, with activation following on July 4. The milestone serves as the final testing phase before the planned mainnet rollout later this month.

Ironwood was introduced following the disclosure of an Orchard protocol vulnerability in June. While developers said there was no evidence the issue had been exploited or that user funds were at risk, the flaw highlighted a limitation in proving the integrity of Zcash’s shielded supply.

To address that, Ironwood introduces a new shielded pool alongside a “turnstile” mechanism that enables the network to verify the amount of ZEC migrating into the new pool without compromising transaction privacy.

The upgrade is designed to strengthen confidence in Zcash’s circulating supply while preserving the privacy guarantees that distinguish the network from other cryptocurrencies.

Legacy zcashd node heads for retirement Ironwood also marks a major infrastructure shift for the ecosystem.

The long-running zcashd reference implementation will not support NU6.3. It is being phased out as the network transitions to a Rust-based architecture built around Zebra, Zaino, and Zallet.

Developers have urged node operators to migrate before Ironwood activates on mainnet, as legacy zcashd nodes are approaching their automatic end-of-life shutdown. It will no longer participate in the upgraded network.

The transition represents one of the largest architectural changes since Zcash launched. It replaces the software that has underpinned the blockchain for years.

ZEC price prediction: Bulls pause after 37% advance At press time, ZEC traded around $546, up roughly 37.4% from its early July lows.

The rally has since slowed into a period of consolidation, with buyers attempting to establish support after reaching the recent highs.

The daily RSI stood at around 58, indicating bullish momentum remained intact without entering overbought territory. That suggests buyers still hold a modest advantage. However, the strong upside momentum seen earlier in the month has begun to moderate.

Source: TradingView The immediate resistance lies around $560, where recent advances have repeatedly stalled.

A decisive breakout above that level could pave the way for another attempt at $600, a price zone that acted as resistance earlier this year.

On the downside, the $500 region has emerged as the first meaningful support. Holding above that level would preserve the current higher-low structure. At the same time, a break below it could trigger a deeper pullback before buyers attempt another advance.

Final Summary Zcash’s Ironwood upgrade has entered its final testing phase, introducing a new shielded pool while paving the way for the retirement of the legacy zcashd node. ZEC has gained nearly 37% since Ironwood entered testnet, with bulls now attempting to break above the $560 resistance to target $600.

NEAR Protocol Deploys NIST-Approved Post-Quantum SigningNEAR Protocol has activated quantum-safe signing on mainnet as part of network upgrade 2.13, making it one of the first Layer-1 blockchains to ship a NIST-approved post-quantum signature scheme in a live production environment. The upgrade adds quantum-safe signing through the NIST-approved FIPS-204 (ML-DSA) scheme alongside dynamic resharding, a scalability enhancement that enables the protocol to automatically scale as network demand grows.

The team chose FIPS-204 (ML-DSA, formerly known as CRYSTALS-Dilithium), a lattice-based digital signature algorithm formally standardized by NIST in August 2024 as part of the agency's first batch of post-quantum cryptography standards. The upgrade allows account holders to migrate to post-quantum cryptography through a single on-chain transaction without transferring assets or changing account addresses.

The urgency behind the move is hard to ignore. Google's Quantum AI team has published research on the risk to cryptocurrency directly, with an estimated $470 billion of Bitcoin at risk. A U.S. executive order issued in June 2026 also requires federal agencies to transition high-value systems to post-quantum cryptography by the end of the decade, with digital signature migration scheduled for completion by 2031.

Automatic Resharding Removes a Key BottleneckThe second major component of the 2.13 upgrade addresses scalability. NEAR's sharded architecture previously scaled horizontally by adding shards, but each addition required a full protocol upgrade involving weeks of validator coordination, a vote, and a staged rollout. Dynamic resharding now enables the network to automatically scale by splitting shards without validator votes or manual upgrades.

On blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum, addresses are derived from keypairs tied to breakable cryptography, so migrating to a new signing scheme means migrating the address itself. NEAR accounts are decoupled from cryptography: since mainnet launched in 2020, NEAR has used human-readable account IDs controlled through rotatable access keys, not bound to a single keypair. This architectural choice is what makes the migration comparatively straightforward for NEAR users.

NEAR is also actively working with hardware and software wallet builders, including Ledger, on bringing post-quantum support to the market.

Sources:
NEAR Protocol Official Press Release via PR Newswire
Crypto Times: NEAR Launches Quantum-Safe Mainnet Upgrade With Resharding
CoinTrust: NEAR Activates Quantum-Resistant Security

Blockchain

21 July 2026 | 09:38 Solana ended the second quarter with two very different stories. Trading in tokenized assets on the network more than doubled to a record $5.8 billion in quarterly volume, but overall decentralized exchange activity, lending and revenue generated from network use all declined.

Key Takeaways Tokenized-asset trading volume on Solana reached $5.8 billion in Q2, rising 114% and led by tokenized equities. Solana retained 32% of spot DEX volume despite a sharp decline in overall trading. Network revenue fell 43%, showing that trading growth did not translate directly into greater fee demand. SOL investment products attracted capital while staking income remained heavily dependent on token issuance. The contrast is not necessarily contradictory. Tokenized-asset volume measures how much tokenized financial exposure changed hands on Solana’s exchanges, while total DEX volume, lending and Real Economic Value show how much of the network’s activity converted into fees and borrowing demand.

Together, the figures suggest that Solana’s capital-markets ecosystem expanded faster than the revenue the network earns from it.

Tokenized Equities Became Solana’s Main Growth Story Tokenized-asset trading volume increased by 114% quarter over quarter and set a record for a sixth consecutive quarter, according to Blockworks Advisory’s Q2 2026 Solana Tokenholder Report. The report was commissioned by the Solana Foundation, which may provide input on its content, although Blockworks Advisory states that it retains editorial control. That funding relationship is worth keeping in mind when weighing the report’s framing, even where the underlying data is verifiable.

Solana tokenized asset volume by category. The $5.8 billion figure describes trading volume, not the market value of assets held on Solana and not revenue earned by the network. It measures how much tokenized exposure was bought and sold through Solana’s decentralized exchanges during the quarter.

Tokenized equities dominated that activity with $4.8 billion, or 84% of the total, roughly four times their Q1 volume. The report estimates that Solana now processes approximately 97% of tokenized-equity trading across all blockchains. June alone contributed $3.3 billion of equity volume, a surge catalyzed by the tokenized listing of SpaceX following its June 12 public offering. Private credit added $803 million, with smaller contributions from commodities and collectibles.

The market continued expanding after the quarter ended. On July 10, 2026, tokenized exposure to SK Hynix went live on Solana through Backpack Securities, xStocks and Ondo Finance.

Those products provide similar economic exposure through different legal, custody and redemption structures. That distinction matters because tokenized assets are not a single standardized product category. As our guide to RWA tokenization platforms explains in detail, investors still need to examine who issued each token, what backs it, whether it can be redeemed and which users are eligible to hold it.

Solana Kept Its DEX Lead as Trading Slowed Solana decentralized exchanges processed $160.8 billion in spot volume during Q2. That was down 44% from $288.5 billion in the previous quarter, but the network still handled approximately 32% of spot DEX volume across the blockchains measured.

Spot DEX volume share by blockchain. Ethereum followed with 25%, while Base and BNB Chain accounted for 16% and 12%, respectively. Q2 was the eighth consecutive quarter in which Solana controlled more than 30% of the measured spot market.

This combination requires context. Solana did not lose its relative position against competing networks, but the overall market became less active. Maintaining market share in a contracting market is different from generating absolute growth. The monthly path was more constructive than the quarterly total: volume fell from $52.3 billion in April to $48.0 billion in May, then rebounded 26% to $60.5 billion in June as tokenized-asset activity accelerated.

Application revenue also fell 31% to $228.4 million. Perpetual futures presented a different picture, with notional volume increasing 60% quarter over quarter to $183 billion, but that recovery did not offset weaker activity across the rest of the ecosystem.

The composition of that revenue also complicates the diversification story. Pumpfun, the memecoin launchpad, remained the ecosystem’s largest business with $90.1 million, or 39% of all application revenue, and accounted for 97% of launchpad revenue. Tokenized equities may be the growth story, but the single biggest earner on Solana is still the speculative category the network is described as moving beyond. That concentration reached a new high in Q2 precisely because the rest of the market shrank faster.

Network Revenue Fell Faster Than Market Share Solana’s Real Economic Value, or REV, totaled $51 million in Q2, down 43% from the previous quarter. REV measures transaction fees and out-of-protocol tips paid by users while excluding inflationary token issuance.

Solana quarterly network revenue breakdown. Monthly REV declined from $18.6 million in April to $18.1 million in May and $14.3 million in June. Priority fees fell 45% to $30.8 million, while Jito tips dropped 50% to $9.9 million. Base and vote fees contributed another $10.3 million.

The decline also cost Solana relative position among blockchains. The report ranks Solana fourth in quarterly network revenue with a 12% share, behind Hyperliquid at 33% with $141.4 million, Tron at 21% and Ethereum at 15%, down from Solana’s 18% share in Q1. Hyperliquid’s lead rests on the trading-fee engine we examined in our analysis of the platform’s $1.2 billion in cumulative fees. The comparison is uncomfortable for Solana’s economics: a network processing billions of transactions earned roughly a third of what a single derivatives-focused chain collected in the same quarter.

Solana still processed 9.8 billion non-vote transactions during the quarter, with a median transaction fee near $0.0004. However, 27% of those transactions reverted, a share the report attributes to automated arbitrage strategies and describes as a feature rather than a bug. That characterization is the report’s reading, not a settled fact. Daily active addresses also fell from 2.4 million in Q1 to 2.0 million, meaning the network processed nearly as many transactions from a noticeably smaller user base. The network remained heavily used, but high transaction counts did not automatically produce high revenue because individual transactions remained extremely inexpensive.

Lending Has Not Followed Tokenization Higher Deposits across Kamino and Jup Lend ended the quarter near $4.1 billion, while outstanding loans stood at approximately $1.6 billion. Deposits declined 8.3%, and loans fell 7.9%.

The pullback was more pronounced in real-world asset lending. Deposits connected to RWA markets dropped from $1.23 billion in Q1 to $640 million in Q2, a decline of 48%.

This exposes an important gap in the tokenization narrative. Solana can host record trading in stocks, credit products and funds without those assets immediately becoming widely used as collateral or generating substantial borrowing demand.

A stronger confirmation of adoption would involve tokenized-asset growth occurring alongside expanding collateral use, higher borrowing demand and deeper secondary-market liquidity. Q2 delivered the first part, but not the others.

Staker Income Still Came Mostly From Inflation SOL’s nominal staking yield ended the quarter near 5.5%, down from 5.8% at the end of Q1. With inflation around 3.8%, the estimated real staking yield was approximately 1.7%.

Stakers earned $487 million during Q2, down 23% from $630 million in the previous quarter. More than 98% of that revenue came from token issuance, while Jito tips contributed roughly $8.2 million.

This means staking rewards continued to depend primarily on newly issued SOL rather than fees generated by network activity. For long-term token economics, the balance between issuance, fee income and token burning is more informative than the headline staking percentage alone.

The Proposed Burn Increase Is Not Yet Active The report estimated that SIMD-553 could burn between 7,500 and 9,000 SOL per day under current activity assumptions, roughly ten times the existing rate and equivalent to around 12% to 15% of daily issuance.

That is a modeled scenario, not the current burn rate or a guaranteed outcome. SIMD-553 remains a proposal and would need to pass the necessary governance and implementation stages before changing SOL’s supply dynamics.

Under Solana’s current fee structure, 50% of the base transaction fee is burned. The remaining half and all priority fees are paid to the validator producing the block.

A larger burn could strengthen the connection between network activity and SOL demand, but it would not automatically make the token deflationary. Even the report’s estimated burn remains below total daily issuance.

Investment Products Attracted Capital Through the Downturn SOL spot investment products recorded approximately $120 million in net inflows during Q2, extending positive flows for a third consecutive quarter. Over the same period, Blockworks data showed $3.7 billion of outflows from Bitcoin products and $500 million from Ethereum products.

Solana quarterly ETP flows. The comparison should be treated carefully because the products differ substantially in size, age and investor base. Still, the direction of flows suggests that some investors continued building regulated Solana exposure despite weaker onchain revenue and lower market activity.

Official SEC filings confirm the expansion of that investment infrastructure. The Grayscale Solana Staking ETF trades on NYSE Arca under GSOL, while the 21Shares Solana ETF trades on Cboe BZX under TSOL. The pipeline is still growing: Morgan Stanley filed a third round of SEC amendments on July 14 for spot Ethereum and Solana ETFs expected to trade under MSSE and MSOL. Traditional financial institutions are building similar infrastructure on other networks as well, as we covered in out report on JPMorgan’s tokenized money market fund.

Positive fund flows do not guarantee higher SOL prices or stronger network revenue. They show demand for regulated exposure, which is separate from activity taking place inside Solana applications.

What Solana’s Q2 Results Actually Show Q2 was not simply strong or weak. Solana gained ground as infrastructure for trading tokenized assets and retained its lead in decentralized spot trading, but the network generated less revenue and experienced weaker lending demand.

The constructive interpretation is that Solana is broadening beyond the speculative activity that powered its earlier revenue peaks. The more cautious interpretation is that tokenized-asset growth has not yet translated into enough borrowing, trading intensity or fee generation to strengthen the network’s underlying economics, that the user base contracted during the quarter, and that the largest single source of application revenue remains a memecoin launchpad.

The next confirmation would come from several metrics improving together: continued tokenized-asset growth, recovering REV, greater use of tokenized securities as collateral, sustained investment-product inflows and a larger share of staking rewards funded by actual fees instead of issuance.

Until then, Solana’s institutional expansion is real, but the economic value captured by the network remains the part that still needs to catch up.

Source review: Q2 figures were checked against Blockworks Advisory’s Q2 2026 Solana Tokenholder Report, which was commissioned and funded by the Solana Foundation, with Blockworks Advisory stating it retains editorial control. Recent developments were reviewed against Solana Foundation publications, Solana’s technical documentation and SEC filings as of July 21, 2026. Coindoo has no commercial relationship with any entity mentioned.

This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.

Author

Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coindoo and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.