Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Breez has partnered with Turnkey to let developers add non-custodial bitcoin to applications that run wallets from their own servers, the companies announced.

The partnership addresses a structural problem. Many mainstream apps operate from the backend, with a single service handling millions of users. Adding bitcoin under that design has meant holding user keys on company servers. 

Holding keys makes a company a custodian, a status that carries licensing requirements, legal liability, and the security burden of a large store of user funds. The alternative has been to build a separate device-based wallet, a change that breaks the architecture these apps use to reach scale.

Under the new model, each user receives a wallet whose keys are created and stored inside Turnkey’s secure enclaves. According to the companies, those keys stay out of reach of the app’s servers, Breez, and Turnkey. The company’s backend holds a credential that defines what actions it can take, while authority to move funds rests with the user.

In other words, this partnership positions some of the world’s largest consumer apps to add non-custodial bitcoin without rebuilding their backend architecture or taking custody of user funds.

Turnkey supports Spark, the network the Breez SDK is built on. Paired with Breez’s server mode, a single backend can manage wallets for millions of users without storing keys.

Registered passkeys enable bitcoin self-custody apps The approval flow works as follows. The user holds a credential, such as a passkey registered with Turnkey at signup. The server prepares a transaction and displays the amount, the fee, and the destination. 

The user approves the transaction, and it completes. The server cannot spend funds without that approval. For the user, the app’s existing flow does not change, and there is no seed phrase to record.

Turnkey provides embedded wallet infrastructure used by a range of consumer apps and holds a SOC 2 audit. In a note to Bitcoin Magazine, Breez positioned the release as a way for exchanges, fintechs, and neobanks to offer bitcoin and stablecoin services to large user bases without taking custody of funds. 

Exchanges can automate payouts under rules their security teams define, and fintechs can add a non-custodial bitcoin service inside their existing interface.

The partnership extends a series of Breez SDK features aimed at lowering barriers to bitcoin integration. Passkey Login replaced the seed phrase, Stable Balance addressed price volatility, and a separate feature added support for sending the stablecoins USDT and USDC. The companies say the combined tools let backend-run products offer bitcoin and stablecoins to users while custody of the assets stays with those users.

Micah Zimmerman

Micah first discovered Bitcoin in 2018 but remained a skeptic on the sidelines for too long. Since 2021, he has covered crypto and business and now works as a news reporter for Bitcoin Magazine, based in North Carolina.

TLDR XRP Ledger surpassed 8 million activated accounts, marking a new milestone in network adoption. Whale wallets accumulated 70 million XRP over the past week, according to on-chain analyst Ali Martinez. Activated accounts represent funded wallets capable of sending, receiving, and interacting with blockchain assets. Tokenization activity continues to expand, supporting digital bonds, private credit, real estate, and treasury products. RLUSD adoption and Ripple’s enterprise payment solutions continue to strengthen the network’s payment ecosystem. The XRP Ledger has surpassed eight million activated accounts, marking another measurable expansion of its global user base. The milestone coincides with fresh whale accumulation totaling 70 million XRP during the past week. Together, these developments highlight rising network activity and renewed demand during a period of market consolidation.

Activated Accounts Signal Broader Network Participation The XRP Ledger Foundation confirmed that more than eight million accounts now hold the minimum required reserve. Activated accounts differ from unused addresses because they can send, receive, and manage assets. Therefore, the total provides a clearer measure of funded participation across the network.

The $XRP Ledger crossed 8,000,000 activated accounts.

The settlement layer powering the continuous growth of tokenization, payments, and AI agents across XRP DeFi. pic.twitter.com/nHq073lAXQ

— XRP Ledger Foundation (@XRPLF) July 16, 2026

The XRP Ledger began as infrastructure for rapid and inexpensive cross-border payments. However, developers now use the network for tokenization, decentralized finance, stablecoins, and automated financial services. Its short settlement times and low transaction costs support these expanding applications.

Enterprises and financial institutions also use the XRP Ledger to build payment and settlement products. These organizations seek faster transfers, lower operational costs, and reliable access to XRP Ledger infrastructure. Consequently, the account milestone reflects growth across both retail and institutional activity.

Tokenization and Payment Services Expand Tokenization has emerged as a growing use case across the XRP Ledger ecosystem. Institutions can issue digital representations of bonds, private credit, property, and treasury products. These assets can move continuously while reducing settlement delays and administrative costs.

Ripple’s enterprise payment services also support transfers involving businesses and financial institutions. Meanwhile, RLUSD adoption adds another dollar-based settlement option for users and companies. The stablecoin supports payments and liquidity without changing the XRP Ledger’s core settlement model.

The XRP Ledger recently added an integrated hub linking artificial intelligence agents, developer tools, and payment systems. Autonomous agents can purchase services, access APIs, and settle automated tasks with supported assets. This structure connects machine-based transactions with decentralized financial infrastructure and direct blockchain settlement.

Whale Buying Supports XRP Market Structure On-chain analyst Ali Martinez reported that large wallets accumulated 70 million XRP during the past week. The purchases occurred while XRP traded through a period of price consolidation. However, the data confirms continued demand from wallets holding substantial balances.

XRP also remains inside a falling wedge on its technical chart. Traders often associate that structure with a possible reversal after sustained downward pressure. Still, price must break the upper boundary before the pattern confirms stronger momentum.

The XRP Ledger now combines eight million activated accounts with broader tokenization and payment activity. Whale accumulation has added another measurable development alongside the network’s expanding use cases. The latest figures show continued participation across users, institutions, developers, and large XRP holders.

The Coinbase executive is refocusing the largest Ethereum Layer 2 on trading, payments and AI agents after conceding its onchain-social push failed

Jesse Pollak, the Coinbase executive who created Base, handed the consumer Base app back to Coinbase and named crypto investor Jordan Fish, known as Cobie, to lead it, while admitting that his two-year bet on onchain social products and creator coins was a mistake.

Pollak said in a post on X on Tuesday that he had made a "two pronged bet" to grow Base: that builders would drive the next wave of crypto adoption, and that the adoption would come from onchain-native social experiences. He said the first bet was right and the second was wrong. "the entire social side of the market that many of us had been building towards - farcaster, zora, miniapps, and yes, creator coins - disintegrated completely," he wrote. "i was definitively wrong."

Base ranks as the fifth-largest blockchain by total value locked, at $4.54 billion, and is the largest Ethereum Layer 2 by that measure, ahead of Arbitrum's $1.23 billion, according to DefiLlama data on Wednesday. Zora's ZORA token, tied to the creator-coin experiment Pollak singled out, trades about 95% below its August 2025 peak, at roughly half a cent, with a market value near $31 million, CoinGecko data show.

A Retreat From Onchain SocialThe handoff marks the clearest reversal yet of a strategy Coinbase spent more than a year promoting. Pollak said the focus on social had left Base trailing scaled competitors in perpetuals and prediction markets, and with ground to make up in tokenization and enterprise payments. "the collateral damage was pretty bad," he wrote. "and this year has been an exercise in eating shit."

Pollak said he had shifted his own attention back to Base's blockchain, away from the app, and questioned his prior assumptions. "I thought for a long time that social was the only thing that could drive the sort of viral growth to get crypto to a billion people," he wrote. "It's clear that better money is more than enough - we are seeing this live with stablecoins, predictions, perpetuals, tokenization."

He set three priorities for Base in 2026: "winning trading, payments, and agents." He said Base would aim to be "the place that the world's money settles over the next century," and named Robinhood and Stripe as competitors he welcomed.

Cobie Takes the Trading SurfacePollak said he had handed the app "back to the coinbase mothership," where Fish would run it and expand it "beyond the base ecosystem in ways that tbh i won't love as the leader of base." Coinbase brought Fish in-house last year when it acquired his fundraising platform Echo for a reported $375 million in cash and stock.

Fish framed his new remit more broadly than the Base app alone. "I am responsible for trading products at Coinbase (CB app / Pro / Baseapp / etc)," he said in a post on X on Wednesday. He described the decision in characteristically self-deprecating terms: "I cant explain why I did this except I like the opportunity to make something actually good more than I like playing Factorio. So ye maybe I'm an idiot, let's find out."

The Broader PivotThe move lands amid an industry-wide shift away from consumer social apps toward trading, payments and tokenization. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said days earlier that the company's content coins "didn't work" and that Coinbase had "pivoted early this year," adding that its priorities had been "trading, payments, and agents (in that order)."

The timing also follows Robinhood's launch of its own Ethereum Layer 2 last week, built around tokenized stocks and meme trading, adding a well-capitalized rival in the same trading-first lane Base now says it will contest.

Top-Five NetworkPollak is reframing the app, not retreating from the chain. Base remains a top-five network by TVL and continues to process meaningful onchain trading, with about $886 million in decentralized exchange volume over the past 24 hours and $25.6 billion over the past 30 days, DefiLlama data show. Pollak said Base has posted quarterly growth in DEX market share and payment volume, though he did not provide supporting figures.

Fish's mandate also consolidates Coinbase's trading surfaces, the main Coinbase app, Coinbase Pro and the Base app, under one leader, suggesting the reshuffle is less a demotion of Base than a bet on unifying how Coinbase sells trading. Armstrong has framed the trading focus as a continuation rather than a reversal, saying most of Base's resources already go toward trading infrastructure.

Whether the reset closes Base's gap in perps and prediction markets will show up in onchain volume and market-share data in the coming quarters.

Verifying a thousand signatures on a blockchain typically sounds like a recipe for a massive gas bill. On Cardano, it is becoming a routine operation.

The Cardano Foundation has highlighted how Plutus smart contracts can now verify thousands of signatures natively using BLS12-381 elliptic curve cryptography, without routing the computation through external services or sacrificing cost predictability.

What BLS12-381 actually does BLS12-381 is a specific elliptic curve used in cryptography, most famously deployed by Ethereum’s beacon chain for validator signatures. The curve has a useful property: signatures created with it can be aggregated.

In English: instead of verifying one thousand individual signatures one by one, you can compress all one thousand into a single proof and verify that instead. The math checks out, and the on-chain cost stays flat regardless of how many signers were involved.

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CIP-0133, the Cardano Improvement Proposal driving these changes, proposes extensions for efficient multi-scalar multiplication over BLS12-381. The implementation is tied to Protocol Version 11, which is scheduled for rollout by May 2026 and will introduce five new Plutus built-in functions to support these operations.

Cardano’s deterministically executed eUTXO model does a lot of the heavy lifting on the cost side. Because execution costs are calculated before a transaction is submitted, users know exactly what they will pay. Adding new cryptographic primitives does not break that predictability.

Why this matters beyond the technical specs Cardano added native support for ECDSA and Schnorr signatures in 2023, which opened the door to improved multi-signature functionality and better cross-chain interoperability. The BLS12-381 work builds on that foundation, extending the cryptographic toolkit available to developers building on Plutus.

For developers, the removal of off-chain verification requirements is significant. Off-chain computation introduces trust assumptions: you need to rely on external services to do the work honestly and report results accurately back to the chain. Bringing verification fully on-chain eliminates that dependency and the attack surface that comes with it.

Market reaction and what investors should watch The honest read on the market response so far: muted. No significant price movement in ADA followed the announcement, which fits the pattern of infrastructure upgrades that take time to translate into visible ecosystem activity.

What investors should actually watch is developer uptake after Protocol Version 11 goes live. Multi-signature custody platforms, cross-chain bridge operators, and governance-heavy DeFi protocols are the categories most likely to respond first.

The risk, from an investor standpoint, is timing. May 2026 is still a development milestone on the horizon, and protocol upgrades have historically taken longer than initial projections across the industry. CIP-0133 and Protocol Version 11 are on the roadmap, but the gap between roadmap and mainnet deployment is where uncertainty lives.

Longer term, the accumulation of cryptographic primitives in Plutus, from Schnorr and ECDSA in 2023 to BLS12-381 arriving in 2026, represents a deliberate strategy of building serious infrastructure before optimizing for headline metrics.

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

Cardano exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have attracted stronger investor inflows than TRON, underscoring growing institutional confidence in the Cardano ecosystem.

According to data compiled by Blockworks, Cardano-linked ETFs recorded $37.2 million in net inflows during 2025. The momentum has continued into the current year, with the products already attracting over $6.9 million in additional net inflows.

In contrast, investment products tied to TRON experienced substantial capital outflows over the same period. Blockworks data shows that TRON ETFs lost $33.38 million in 2025, while investors withdrew another $17.47 million from TRX-linked funds this year.

The contrasting performance suggests that institutional and professional investors continue allocating capital to Cardano despite broader market volatility. 

Cardano and TRON ETFs Cardano ETFs Outperform TRON in AUM and Monthly Flows Cardano’s ETPs currently manage $48.3 million in assets under management (AUM) across eight active investment products. Some of the top offerings include 21Shares Cardano ETP (AADA), WisdomTree Physical Cardano, and Bitwise Physical Cardano ETP (RDAN)

These regulated investment products trade outside the United States, allowing investors in multiple international markets to gain exposure to ADA without directly buying or holding the cryptocurrency.

Moreover, recent investment activity also favors Cardano. Over the past 30 days, the eight Cardano ETPs attracted $1.17 million in fresh capital. Meanwhile, TRON’s exchange-traded investment products brought in just $534,000 during the same period.

The gap also extends to overall assets under management. While Cardano’s eight ETPs oversee $48.3 million in AUM, TRON currently has only two active ETPs with a combined $29 million in AUM.

International Demand Grows Ahead of Potential U.S. ETF The latest inflows have drawn attention across the Cardano community because they originate entirely from markets outside the United States.

Although U.S. investors still lack access to a spot Cardano ETF, Grayscale has already filed an application for one. Market observers expect the U.S. SEC to decide on the proposal later this year.

Current expectations point to a potential decision by October 2026, provided the regulatory timeline remains on schedule. The process gained momentum after CME Group launched Cardano futures in February 2026, triggering the SEC’s six-month regulated market observation period. Once that requirement concludes on August 9, 2026, ADA will satisfy a key eligibility criterion for consideration for spot ETFs.

If the SEC reviews Grayscale’s application under its streamlined 75-day approval framework, the agency could issue a final decision as early as October 23, 2026.

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

Three Industry Names Join Stellar's Validator CoreThe Stellar Development Foundation (@StellarOrg) has added three new organizations to its Tier 1 validator set: @MoneyGram, @Figure, and @range_org. The additions bring together institutions spanning global money movement, capital markets, and blockchain security infrastructure, deepening the network's decentralization at its most consequential layer.

Tier 1 organizations bear the safety and liveness of the Stellar network, meaning most other validators on the network require agreement from them to commit to a new ledger. The role is not self-appointed. To become a Tier 1 organization, a team must convince enough other organizations to trust them. Each Tier 1 member is also required to run three geographically dispersed full validators to ensure redundancy in the event that one node goes offline.

The new entrants bring real-world institutional weight. @MoneyGram has long been embedded in Stellar's payments ecosystem, using the network to process cross-border remittances. MGUSD, its dollar-pegged stablecoin issued via Stripe's Bridge, connects digital dollars to roughly 500,000 physical cash locations in MoneyGram's global remittance network. @Figure is a fintech firm active in capital markets, issuing YLDS, a yield-bearing dollar asset, on the Stellar network. @range_org adds blockchain security infrastructure expertise to the group.

Why the Expansion Matters for $XLMThe move is part of a broader push by SDF to raise the number of Tier 1 organizations and improve the network's fault tolerance. Since April 2025, there had been seven Tier 1 organizations, each operating three full validators, including Blockdaemon, Creit Technologies, Franklin Templeton, LOBSTR, Public Node, SatoshiPay, and SDF. Adding three more organizations meaningfully expands the quorum and reduces the risk of a network halt caused by a small number of participants going dark.

Tier 1 organizations bear the safety and liveness of the Stellar network on their shoulders. That accountability is also what makes them attractive to institutions. Under the Stellar Consensus Protocol, there are no monetary rewards for validators, who operate the network via Proof-of-Agreement through a system of federated voting. Validators participate because they have a direct operational stake in the network's health, not because they earn block rewards.

SDF has emphasised that its approach to decentralization is not about maximizing node count, but fostering trust, mission alignment, and resilience in real-world scenarios. The profiles of @MoneyGram, @Figure, and @range_org reflect exactly that philosophy: each has an active business reason to want Stellar running reliably.

Validator nodes on Stellar increased 13% since year-end, and the latest additions signal that institutional participation in network infrastructure is accelerating alongside growing stablecoin and asset issuance activity on the chain.

Sources:
Stellar Docs: Tier 1 Organizations
Stellar Development Foundation: Q1 2026 Network Update
Messari: State of Stellar Q1 2026

Fireblocks and Circle just made moving USDC across blockchains feel less like navigating a maze and more like sending a text. The two companies announced a strategic collaboration on September 9, integrating Circle Gateway directly into the Fireblocks platform to give institutional users a single, unified USDC balance that works across chains in under 500 milliseconds.

What the integration actually does Circle Gateway, now embedded in Fireblocks, provides customers with real-time, unified balances for USDC and EURC across supported blockchains. No separate chain-specific setups required.

For institutional players, this is more than a convenience upgrade. Pre-positioning capital across multiple chains ties up liquidity that could be deployed elsewhere. Eliminating that requirement frees up working capital and reduces the operational overhead that has kept some traditional finance firms from going deeper into digital assets.

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The integration builds on an earlier April 2025 connection between Fireblocks and Circle’s Payments Network, known as CPN, which established the interoperability backbone that makes this latest move possible.

Circle’s Arc and the institutional play The collaboration goes beyond Gateway. Fireblocks is a Day 1 launch partner for Circle’s Arc, an enterprise-grade Layer-1 blockchain designed specifically for stablecoin finance. Arc is built to handle the compliance and security requirements that banks and asset managers demand before they’ll touch crypto infrastructure.

By combining Fireblocks’ custody and transaction infrastructure, which has secured over $10 trillion in digital asset transactions across more than 120 blockchains, with Circle’s stablecoin ecosystem, the two companies are constructing what amounts to a turnkey institutional stablecoin stack.

Market reaction and what investors should watch The market’s verdict was swift and decisive. Circle’s stock, trading under the ticker CRCL, jumped 17% following the announcement.

In a market where Tether’s USDT has historically dominated by sheer volume, this kind of distribution advantage through institutional infrastructure could meaningfully shift the competitive landscape. USDC doesn’t need to overtake USDT in total supply if it becomes the default stablecoin embedded in every major institutional platform.

The risk side of the equation matters too. Concentration of institutional stablecoin activity within a single integration stack creates dependency. If Fireblocks or Circle experiences technical issues, compliance setbacks, or regulatory changes, institutions using this unified balance system could face disruptions that wouldn’t affect those with diversified stablecoin strategies.

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

Updated Jul 16, 2026, 7:23 a.m. Published Jul 16, 2026, 6:00 a.m.

2 min read

Summary

The Senate unanimously approved a resolution declaring that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should under no circumstances receive a presidential pardon or commutation.The bipartisan measure, led by Senators Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, underscores lawmakers’ view of Bankman-Fried’s role in what prosecutors called one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history.Bankman-Fried, convicted in 2023 on seven counts related to FTX’s collapse and the loss of more than $8 billion in customer funds, is not eligible for release until around 2044, and former President Donald Trump has said he has no plans to pardon him.The Senate agreed Wednesday that Sam Bankman-Fried should never receive clemency, passing a resolution that states the FTX founder should "under no circumstances" get a pardon or commutation.

It passed by unanimous consent, a procedure that clears as a measure if not a single senator objects to it.

Senators Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, and Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, serve as the Senate Banking Committee's digital assets subcommittee's top Republican and Democrat, respectively.

Lummis is the crypto industry's most committed advocate in Congress and has spent years writing the legislation the industry wants. She has led the effort to keep one of its most infamous figures behind bars.

"He had his day in court," Lummis said when the pair introduced the measure on June 17. Gallego's statement ended with four words: "Keep him locked up."

Bankman-Fried is not eligible for release until around 2044. A jury convicted him in November 2023 on seven counts tied to the collapse of FTX, which prosecutors called one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history, with American customers losing more than $8 billion.

President Donald Trump said in January he had no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried. He has cleared Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, along with other white-collar offenders.

Bankman-Fried ran two companies at once. FTX was a crypto exchange, which holds customer money the way a broker does and is not supposed to touch it. Alameda Research was a trading firm he also owned. He moved billions of dollars in FTX customer deposits to Alameda, which spent the money on trades, venture investments, political donations, and Bahamian real estate, while FTX's software exempted Alameda from the rules that would have forced it to cover its losses like any other trader.

The facade was blown open after CoinDesk obtained Alameda's balance sheet in November 2022 and found that most of what the firm counted as assets was FTT – a token FTX had created itself and could issue at will.

The collateral propping up Alameda was, in effect, something its sister company had invented. Further cracks emerged after the prominent exchange Binance said, days later, it would sell its FTT holdings, leading to a rapid collapse in FTT prices.

Customers rushed to pull their deposits, and FTX could not return the money because it was no longer there. The exchange filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022, just over a week after the story ran.

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Two names are dominating the DeFi leaderboard right now, and neither of them is Ethereum, Solana, or Arbitrum. Stable, a blockchain most people haven’t heard of, posted the highest 30-day TVL growth of any chain tracked by DefiLlama. Meanwhile, Monad’s total value locked surged to $621 million, fueled largely by Aave’s decision to set up shop on the high-throughput Layer 1.

Stable’s quiet breakout Stable’s 30-day TVL growth clocked in at approximately 19.70%, enough to lead every blockchain on DefiLlama’s rankings. In absolute terms, the numbers are still modest: a DeFi TVL of around $33 million and a bridged TVL exceeding $129 million.

The gap between Stable’s DeFi TVL and its bridged TVL is worth noting. A bridged TVL of $129 million against $33 million in active DeFi usage suggests a significant amount of capital is parked on the chain but not yet deployed into protocols.

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Monad’s Aave-fueled surge Monad’s story is louder and more capital-intensive. The EVM-compatible Layer 1, which has positioned itself around high throughput and parallel execution, saw its TVL reach $621 million according to the latest figures. The catalyst was clear: Aave V3 launched on Monad on July 2, 2026.

The lending giant’s arrival wasn’t subtle. The Aave market on Monad attracted $83.5 million in deposits on its first day. Within 48 hours, that figure crossed $100 million. The Monad Foundation helped grease the wheels with $15 million in incentives for early adopters.

Aave V3 on Monad supports 12 assets, including major stablecoins like USDT and USDC, along with WETH, cbBTC, and Aave’s native stablecoin GHO.

On-chain data showed that initial utilization in the Aave Monad market sat around 38%, meaning roughly half of the deposits weren’t being actively borrowed against. One asset, syrupUSDC, accounted for about 43% of the total TVL in the Aave Monad market.

The growth trajectory Monad’s TVL trajectory has been steep even before Aave entered the picture. The chain went from roughly $80 million in TVL back in November 2025 to over $400 million by April 2026. The Aave deployment then pushed it to its current level of $621 million.

What this means for investors For Monad specifically, the 38% utilization rate is the number to watch. Healthy lending markets typically see utilization between 40% and 80% depending on the asset. If borrowing demand picks up as more protocols deploy on Monad, the ecosystem starts to look sustainable. If utilization stays low and syrupUSDC continues to dominate the deposit base, the $621 million TVL figure might be more fragile than it appears.

Stable presents a different risk profile. A $33 million DeFi TVL means the chain is early, possibly very early. Early-stage chains offer outsized growth potential but come with thinner liquidity, fewer audited protocols, and higher smart contract risk. The 19.70% monthly growth rate is impressive on a percentage basis, but it doesn’t take much capital movement to shift the numbers at that scale.

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

The Cardano ecosystem has suffered another setback after a decentralized exchange powered by Hydra announced that it is suspending operations indefinitely due to operational constraints.

DeltaDeFi, the first Hydra Layer 2-powered DEX on Cardano, confirmed the decision in an operational update. The announcement has reignited concerns across the Cardano community, with many viewing it as the latest addition to a growing list of ecosystem projects that have either shut down or reduced operations in recent months.

DeltaDeFi Suspends Development and Maintenance In an update shared with its community, the DeltaDeFi team revealed that it had exhausted its operational runway. This left it with no choice but to pause the project effectively immediately.

As a result, the team will suspend both platform development and active maintenance until further notice. During the downtime, the developers plan to evaluate strategies that could enable the project to resume operations in the future.

Meanwhile, DeltaDeFi announced plans to return its remaining funds to users once sufficient minimum UTXO becomes available to process withdrawals. The team also advised users who do not automatically receive their funds to contact the developers through the project’s X account or Discord server for assistance.

How DeltaDeFi Advanced Cardano’s Hydra Ecosystem DeltaDeFi stands out from many decentralized exchanges by building on Hydra, Cardano’s Layer-2 scaling solution designed to increase transaction throughput while reducing settlement times.

Unlike most Cardano DEXs that rely primarily on automated market makers (AMMs), DeltaDeFi adopted an order-book-based trading model. This approach delivered a trading experience closer to traditional financial markets while preserving the benefits of decentralized infrastructure.

The platform promoted features such as sub-second transaction settlement, high-speed order execution, and improved trading efficiency through Hydra’s scaling capabilities. With the project’s suspension, Cardano loses one of its most prominent real-world demonstrations of Hydra’s decentralized finance (DeFi) potential.

It bears mentioning that Hydra recently introduced v2.2.0, focused on real-world use cases, enhanced benchmarking, and optimized snapshot latency. 

Another Challenge for Cardano Builders DeltaDeFi’s decision adds to a growing list of Cardano projects that have recently scaled back operations or exited the ecosystem altogether. Projects including JPG Store, TapTools, and contributors such as Chicken have previously cited challenges ranging from rising operational expenses and limited funding to long-term developer sustainability.

Although each project has faced its own circumstances, several common themes have emerged. These include shrinking funding opportunities, increasing operating costs, prolonged market weakness, and ongoing ecosystem governance challenges.

DeltaDeFi’s operational pause reinforces concerns that even technically innovative projects on Cardano continue to face significant sustainability hurdles despite ongoing protocol upgrades and ecosystem development. 

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

Hyperion DeFi, the NASDAQ-listed company trading under HYPD, is putting 500,000 staked HYPE tokens to work. The tokens are being deployed to Skew Technologies through a HYPE Asset Use Service (HAUS) agreement, giving Skew the economic backing it needs to launch perpetual futures markets on Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 permissionless infrastructure.

In return, Hyperion gets equity ownership in Skew plus a cut of the revenues generated from listing services. The revenue share has both fixed and scaling components, meaning Hyperion earns a baseline regardless of how much volume Skew’s new markets attract, while also participating in the upside if trading activity takes off.

How the deal actually works HIP-3, which went live on October 13, 2025, requires anyone deploying a new market to maintain 500,000 staked HYPE as what’s called “alignment capital.” That’s a meaningful barrier to entry, designed to ensure deployers have real skin in the game and face slashing risks if they misbehave.

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Through the HAUS agreement, effective July 15, 2026, Hyperion essentially lends its staked position to Skew, which can then spin up new HIP-3 perpetual futures markets without needing to source and lock up half a million HYPE tokens on its own.

Skew’s initial focus will be on perpetual futures through HIP-3, with plans to eventually expand into outcome-based markets under HIP-4 once the core perps business reaches operational stability.

Why Hyperion is betting big on infrastructure Hyperion DeFi holds the distinction of being the first US publicly listed company built around the Hyperliquid ecosystem. Hyperion CEO Hyunsu Jung has pointed to growing global demand for HIP-3 launches as a key driver behind the company’s HAUS strategy.

This isn’t Hyperion’s first HAUS agreement. The company previously partnered with Felix Foundation in late 2025 under a similar arrangement. Recent reports also indicate Hyperion has been unwinding some of its other HYPE deployment deals.

What Skew brings to the table Skew Technologies is founded by a team with experience in financial markets and institutional trading. David Gil, Skew’s founder, has framed this partnership as a foundation for innovative institutional trading products, suggesting the company sees HIP-3 as a launchpad rather than an endpoint.

What this means for investors For Hyperion shareholders, each HAUS agreement transforms staked tokens into equity positions and revenue streams. The fixed component of the revenue share provides downside protection, while the scaling component offers leverage to trading volume growth.

The risk side of the equation centers on slashing. HIP-3’s alignment capital is actively at risk. If a market operator behaves badly or a technical failure triggers slashing conditions, Hyperion could lose a substantial portion of its deployed capital.

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

US spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $107.8 million in net inflows on Wednesday, while their Ethereum counterparts pulled in $53.8 million.

The numbers in context Earlier in July, Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $181.1 million on a single day, July 14. So Wednesday’s figure represents a moderation from that pace, though still firmly positive.

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Cumulative net inflows into US spot Bitcoin ETFs have now surpassed $51 billion since their January 2024 launch.

At $53.8 million, Wednesday’s ether ETF inflows represented roughly half the Bitcoin figure. Ether ETFs launched several months after their Bitcoin predecessors.

Recovery from a rocky start to the year Earlier in 2026, both Bitcoin and ether ETFs experienced multi-week outflow streaks. The summer months have brought a clear reversal, with funds flowing back into both product categories.

BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale have continued to attract the lion’s share of flows.

What this means for investors When the SEC approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, the optimistic projections called for maybe $10 billion in the first year. The actual numbers have blown past even the most bullish forecasts, with cumulative net inflows now exceeding $51 billion.

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

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Hedera has had a genuinely split week. On one side, an oracle exploit drained $9.05 million from the network’s largest DeFi lending protocol and wiped out nearly 40% of Hedera’s total value locked in a single day. On the other, Lloyds Banking Group, Aberdeen Investments, and Archax completed the UK’s first foreign exchange transaction using tokenized real-world assets as collateral on Hedera — a genuine institutional milestone that landed in an HM Treasury-backed report the same week. Here’s what’s actually happening with HBAR right now, and why the network’s enterprise-heavy governance model makes this kind of split story more common than it is for most Layer 1 networks.

Key Takeaways Bonzo Lend, Hedera’s largest DeFi lending protocol, lost approximately $9.05 million on July 11 after an attacker exploited a verification flaw in a third-party Supra oracle, manipulating the price of SAUCE tokens to borrow far more than their collateral supported Hedera’s total value locked fell nearly 40% within 24 hours of the exploit, with Bonzo’s own TVL plummeting 77%; Hedera’s network-wide TVL now sits around $25.7 million HBAR fell to around $0.067-0.069 following the exploit, down roughly 71% over the past year and about 88% below its September 2021 all-time high of $0.5692 Days later, Lloyds Banking Group, Aberdeen Investments, and Archax completed the UK’s first FX transaction using tokenized real-world assets as collateral on the Hedera network, featured in an HM Treasury-backed Wholesale Digital Markets Champion report The Hedera Council — the network’s enterprise governing body — has grown to roughly 31-32 members including Google, IBM, Boeing, FedEx, Deutsche Telekom, and McLaren Racing, each operating a network validator node The Canary Capital HBAR spot ETF (HBR) has attracted cumulative inflows of roughly $93 million since launch, with net assets around $49 million, following the SEC and CFTC’s March 2026 classification of HBAR as a digital commodity What Happened in the Bonzo Lend Exploit How the Attack Worked According to Bonzo’s official incident report, the exploit began around 00:51 UTC on July 11, 2026, when an attacker deposited just 250 SAUCE tokens — worth only a few dollars — and submitted a manipulated price update to an on-demand oracle contract. The false update inflated SAUCE’s value by roughly 12 orders of magnitude, and critically, the oracle verifier accepted the update even though it carried a zeroed signature rather than a valid signature from the authorized oracle committee. Eight seconds later, the attacker used that inflated collateral to borrow approximately 6.6 million USDC and 34.5 million Wrapped HBAR (WHBAR), together worth about $9.05 million. A second wallet borrowed roughly $1 million during the same window before identifying itself to the Bonzo team as a white-hat responder and pledging to return the funds — bringing total abnormal borrowing during the incident to about $10.06 million, though Bonzo’s headline loss figure of $9.05 million excludes the funds the white-hat wallet said it would return.

Blockchain security researchers Specter and PeckShield tracked over $5.25 million of the stolen funds being bridged from Hedera to Ethereum via LayerZero and swapped from Wrapped Bitcoin into ETH. Bonzo Lend and Bonzo Points remain paused while the team evaluates recovery options; Bonzo Vaults, Bonzo Bridge, and single-sided staking were unaffected and continue operating normally. Bonzo attributed the failure specifically to a flaw in Supra’s third-party oracle verification infrastructure, stating the incident was not caused by vulnerabilities in Bonzo’s own smart contracts or in Hedera’s underlying network — a distinction that matters, since it means the exploit reflects a weakness in one DeFi protocol’s chosen oracle provider rather than a flaw in Hedera’s core consensus mechanism. Supra has since acknowledged the issue and deployed a fix to the affected verifier contract.

Why It Matters Beyond the Dollar Figure The exploit’s real damage may be to confidence rather than just the balance sheet. Hedera’s network-wide total value locked fell by nearly 40% in the 24 hours following the incident as users withdrew funds, and South Korean exchanges including Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone issued investor caution notices regarding Hedera. The timing is also notable: the incident is one of three major DeFi exploits in a single week — alongside a $6 million Summer.fi exploit and a $20 million BonkDAO governance attack — that together account for more than $35 million in losses, part of a broader pattern CertiK’s H1 2026 report flagged as a security environment that “has not improved and has, in several respects, deteriorated” despite total dollar losses trending down. For more on how total value locked is tracked across DeFi, see our explainer on what DeFiLlama measures.

The Institutional Side of the Story: Lloyds, Aberdeen, and Archax While the exploit was still working through headlines, Hedera posted a genuinely significant institutional development. Lloyds Banking Group, Aberdeen Investments, and digital asset platform Archax completed the UK’s first foreign exchange transaction using tokenized real-world assets as collateral, executed on the Hedera network. The transaction involved tokenized units of an Aberdeen Investments money market fund alongside tokenized UK government debt, and was highlighted in an HM Treasury-backed Wholesale Digital Markets Champion report as an example of practical institutional blockchain adoption. The juxtaposition — a DeFi protocol exploit and a landmark traditional-finance pilot landing on Hedera in the same week — captures the split character of Hedera’s current position: a network with genuine enterprise credibility whose permissionless DeFi layer carries the same third-party smart contract risks as any other chain.

Who Governs Hedera: The Hedera Council An Enterprise Governance Model Unlike Most Blockchains Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, Hedera isn’t governed by anonymous validators or a founding team — it’s run by the Hedera Council (renamed from “Hedera Governing Council” in May 2025), a rotating body of up to 39 global organizations, currently numbering roughly 31-32 members. Each member holds one equal vote on protocol decisions regardless of company size, serves a three-year term with a maximum of two consecutive terms, and is required to operate a consensus node that validates transactions on the network. The structure is explicitly modeled on Visa’s original 1968 governance framework, in which a council of member banks ran a shared payment network without any single institution controlling it.

Who’s On the Council Council members span technology, finance, telecommunications, energy, and academia, and include Google, IBM, Boeing, FedEx, Dell, Deutsche Telekom, LG Electronics, Standard Bank, Chainlink Labs, Nomura Holdings, Ubisoft, McLaren Racing, and Accenture (which joined in April 2026 to build enterprise AI governance infrastructure on the network), alongside academic institutions including the London School of Economics and University College London. Modifications to Hedera’s total HBAR supply — capped at 50 billion tokens — require unanimous agreement from every council member, the highest governance threshold in the network’s structure.

HBAR Regulatory and Institutional Backdrop HBAR was one of 16 tokens the SEC and CFTC included on a formal digital commodity classification list published March 17, 2026, alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP — a notable inclusion that expanded regulated institutional access to the token. That classification helped pave the way for products like the Canary Capital HBAR spot ETF (ticker: HBR), which has drawn cumulative inflows of roughly $93 million since launch, with net assets around $49 million, alongside a Hashdex index product that also includes HBAR exposure.

For more on the platforms tracking crypto market data, see our explainers on what Coinglass tracks in derivatives markets and what RWA.xyz measures in tokenized assets. For the broader crypto market picture, see today’s Crypto Market Today and Crypto News Today roundup.

AUTHOR

Max delves deep into the cryptocurrency realm, with a passion for altcoins and NFTs. Convinced of crypto's transformative potential, he envisions a decentralized financial future. Max's background in the financial sector grants him unique insights into global monetary systems. In his leisure, Max embraces the thrill of adventures and is an avid sports enthusiast, finding balance and rejuvenation away from work.

Solana has become the No. 1 blockchain by RWA holders after the network surpassed 300,000 RWA holders for the first time.

Data from rwa.xyz shows Solana now has 300,130 RWA holders, a new all-time high that puts the network ahead of other major blockchain ecosystems by holder count. The milestone adds to a string of records for Solana's growing tokenized asset market in 2026.

Solana's RWA Market Holds Above $3 Billion The total value of distributed real-world assets on Solana currently stands at approximately $3.32 billion. At the start of July, the ecosystem reached another milestone when its total RWA value briefly rose to an all-time high of $3.62 billion.

Solana now hosts more than 2,120 different kinds of RWAs, highlighting the expanding range of tokenized products available on the network.

Stablecoins still account for the largest share of tokenized asset value. However, tokenized equities, private credit products and other institutional assets continue to gain traction as issuers and financial platforms expand their onchain offerings.

The growth in the number of holders suggests the expansion has also begun to reach a broader user base. Solana now leads Plume, Ethereum, and BNB Chain by the number of RWA holders, and is now gradually closing the gap to Ethereum in terms of total RWA market value.

Tokenized Equity Trading Hits $3.47 Billion Record Tokenized equities have emerged as one of the fastest-growing parts of Solana's RWA ecosystem. Solana recorded $3.47 billion in tokenized equity spot trading volume in June 2026, marking a new monthly all-time high. The network also captured more than 96% of tokenized equity trading volume across blockchains during the month.

June's volume represented a sharp acceleration from previous months, and the figures show that Solana's RWA growth now extends beyond assets simply existing onchain. Traders are increasingly using the network as a venue for secondary market activity in tokenized stocks.

Wall Street Pushes Tokenization Solana's latest records come as traditional financial institutions accelerate their own tokenization efforts. Earlier today, July 15, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation successfully converted securities held at the Depository Trust Company into tokens and used them in real production trades. More than 30 traditional and digital market firms participated in the initiative, which DTCC described as its largest tokenization production effort by use cases, asset classes, and participants.

The tests covered collateral pledges, securities lending, U.S. Treasury and repo delivery-versus-payment trades, equity trades, token transfers and central counterparty margin workflows. Participants included BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange, Circle, Chainlink, Ondo Finance, Vanguard and several other major financial and digital asset firms.

DTCC plans to launch its Tokenization Service in October 2026. The service will allow DTC participants to create tokenized representations, or digital twins, of securities held at DTC and deliver them to approved wallets. Participants can also convert assets between traditional and tokenized forms.

A similar two-way mechanism is already live on Solana through some tokenized stock products offered by Backpack. Holders can redeem tokenized stocks for the underlying shares and transfer those shares to traditional brokerage accounts. Eligible shares can also move in the opposite direction, allowing investors to convert conventional securities into tokenized shares on Solana.

The mechanism also accounts for dividends and corporate actions. Traditional brokerage infrastructure processes these events for securities held through Backpack Securities, while tokenized stockholders receive equivalent economic treatment through onchain mechanisms.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky recently argued that something meaningful is emerging beneath the noise around RWAs, saying, “Most people won’t notice the plumbing change underneath. They’ll just wake up one day and owning anything, anywhere, will feel obvious.”

Chesky’s comments reflect a broader shift in how major figures in the technology and financial industries view tokenization. Rather than treating RWAs solely as a crypto trend, more established players are exploring how blockchain infrastructure could change the way people issue, hold, and transfer ownership of real-world assets.

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Interactive Brokers, one of the largest electronic brokerage firms in the US, has added Aptos (APT) to its cryptocurrency trading platform as part of a broader nine-token expansion. The move gives IBKR’s substantial client base, which skews heavily toward active traders and institutional participants, direct access to the Layer 1 blockchain token without needing to leave their existing brokerage accounts.

What IBKR is actually offering The July 14 integration brought APT alongside other tokens including AAVE, LDO, NEAR, and UNI to IBKR’s crypto trading desk. That’s a meaningful expansion from the brokerage’s early, cautious steps into crypto, which began back in 2021 with limited offerings routed through Paxos.

Commissions for crypto trades on the platform range from 0.12% to 0.18% of the transaction value, with a minimum fee of $1.75 per order. No additional custody fees or spreads are tacked on. If you buy $10,000 worth of APT, you’re paying somewhere between $12 and $18 in commissions.

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The backend infrastructure relies on a partnership with Zerohash for trade execution, while Paxos Trust Company and Zero Hash LLC handle custodial services.

Why Aptos specifically matters here Aptos was built by a team of engineers who previously worked on Meta’s Diem project (formerly Libra), the stablecoin initiative that regulators effectively killed before it could launch. The Aptos mainnet went live on October 18, 2022, with a genesis date of October 12 that same year. Its core selling point is speed: the network achieves sub-second finality on transactions. APT serves as the native token powering staking, governance, and network operations across the ecosystem.

The blockchain was designed from the ground up with scalability and security as primary engineering goals. That focus has attracted increasing institutional interest throughout 2026, with network-level security enhancements and tokenomics proposals continuing to evolve in the background.

The bigger picture: TradFi keeps absorbing crypto By keeping commissions between 0.12% and 0.18% with no hidden custody charges, IBKR is making a play to undercut many crypto-native platforms that rely on wider spreads or tiered fee structures. The $1.75 minimum per order applies to all crypto trades on the platform.

What this means for investors For APT holders and potential buyers, the IBKR listing represents a meaningful expansion of the token’s addressable market. IBKR’s client base includes hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, financial advisors, and sophisticated retail traders — segments that often have significant capital to deploy but have historically been reluctant to open accounts on crypto-native exchanges.

APT remains a relatively young blockchain competing in a crowded Layer 1 landscape against established players like Solana, Avalanche, and Ethereum’s expanding rollup ecosystem. Getting listed on IBKR doesn’t change the fundamental competitive dynamics.

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

KEY TAKEAWAYS

President Trump signed an executive order on March 6, 2025, establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve capitalized with Bitcoin seized through federal criminal and civil asset forfeiture proceedings nationwide. The U.S. federal government holds approximately 328,372 BTC as of February 2026, making it the largest known state holder of Bitcoin in the world by a significant margin. Bitcoin deposited into the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve cannot be sold under current rules, effectively removing approximately 328,372 BTC from the circulating supply against Bitcoin’s 21 million coin hard cap. Interagency disputes between the Treasury Department and Commerce Department over custody and operational control have delayed full implementation of the reserve as of mid-2026 reporting. The BITCOIN Act (S.954) proposes acquiring up to one million BTC, while the American Reserve Modernization Act, introduced in May 2026, seeks a 20-year mandatory holding period. On March 6, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, the first federal program to treat Bitcoin as a sovereign reserve asset alongside gold and petroleum. 

The order directed that Bitcoin seized through law enforcement operations be consolidated into a permanent reserve that cannot be sold. A separate U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile was created for non-Bitcoin digital assets. As of mid-2026, the reserve faces implementation challenges, including interagency disputes over custody.

 This article explains how the reserve works, what legislation is pending, and what it means for Bitcoin markets.

How the Executive Order Created the Reserve The March 6, 2025, executive order directed the Treasury Department to establish custodial accounts collectively known as the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. The reserve was capitalized with all BTC held by the Treasury through final criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings.

Other agencies were directed to evaluate their authority to transfer government-held Bitcoin to the reserve within 30 days, as specified in the Federal Register filing.

The key rule is unambiguous: Bitcoin deposited into the reserve cannot be sold. The executive order stated that holdings “shall not be sold and shall be maintained as reserve assets of the United States.” The Secretaries of the Treasury and Commerce were authorized to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional Bitcoin, provided those strategies impose no incremental costs on taxpayers.

The order also created the U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile for non-Bitcoin assets. The stockpile operates under a different framework, with the development of “stewardship strategies” encouraged rather than a blanket no-sale rule, as the Lathrop GPM legal analysis explained.

The distinction between the Bitcoin reserve and the digital asset stockpile is significant. Bitcoin received the elevated “strategic reserve” designation with a permanent no-sale mandate. All other digital assets were placed in a secondary category with more flexible disposition rules.

This two-tier structure reflects the administration’s view that Bitcoin’s fixed 21 million coin supply and 16-year security track record set it apart from other digital assets.

Current Holdings and Supply Impact The U.S. federal government is the largest known holder of Bitcoin in the world. Total holdings stood at approximately 328,372 BTC as of February 2026, according to Wikipedia’s tracking of government disclosures. The initial tranche was estimated at roughly 200,000 BTC drawn from assets confiscated in law enforcement operations over multiple years, as Crypto Briefing reported.

The no-sale designation has direct supply implications. Approximately 328,372 BTC are now effectively removed from circulation, locked in government wallets with no mechanism to return them to the market under current rules. For an asset with a hard cap of 21 million coins, that represents roughly 1.56% of the total possible supply permanently off the table.

Bo Hines, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, stated in March 2025 that selling some U.S. gold holdings would be a budget-neutral way to acquire more Bitcoin, as reported by multiple outlets.

White House spokesperson Liz Huston stated the administration “continues to evaluate the best structure for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile.

Legislative Efforts to Codify the Reserve Multiple bills aim to convert the executive order into permanent law. The BITCOIN Act (S.954), introduced by Senator Cynthia Lummis with five co-sponsors in March 2025, proposes authorizing the acquisition of up to one million BTC over five years by diversifying existing federal funds.

Representative Byron Donalds introduced H.R.2112, which would give the executive order the force and effect of law, as recorded on Congress.gov.

The American Reserve Modernization Act (ARMA), introduced in May 2026, seeks to codify the reserve framework and impose a 20-year mandatory holding period on the assets. Neither the ARMA nor the BITCOIN Act has passed as of mid-2026. 

The CLARITY Act’s uncertain timeline in the Senate suggests that comprehensive crypto legislation faces a narrowing window before the November 2026 midterm elections. The gap between executive action and legislative codification is the reserve’s most significant vulnerability. An executive order can be reversed by a future president. 

Without congressional authorization, the reserve’s permanence depends entirely on political continuity. The multiple competing bills also suggest that lawmakers have not yet agreed on the reserve’s operational details, including acquisition authority, holding periods, and governance structure.

Interagency Disputes and Implementation Delays As of mid-2026, disputes between the Treasury and Commerce departments over custody and operational control have delayed full implementation.  The March 2025 executive order assigned Treasury a central role in establishing accounts and managing holdings, but also directed Commerce to participate in acquisition strategy development.

The delay affects practical decisions around custody, auditing, interagency transfers, and any future acquisition strategy.

In January 2026, Patrick Witt, then executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, stated that the administration remained committed to establishing the reserve. However, the operational details remain unresolved.

Regulatory Implications The reserve sits at the intersection of asset forfeiture, sovereign treasury management, and digital asset custody. Congressional passage of the BITCOIN Act or ARMA would create a durable legal framework. Without legislation, the reserve’s status depends on executive authority alone.

Federal banking regulators, including the OCC and FDIC, announced in March 2025 that banks no longer need advance permission for crypto activities, complementing the reserve’s broader policy direction.

What’s Next? The Treasury and Commerce departments are expected to resolve the custody dispute in 2026. The ARMA bill’s 20-year holding provision, if passed, would establish the reserve’s longest proposed lock-up period. 

The November 2026 midterm elections may determine whether crypto-friendly legislation advances or stalls. For markets, the reserve’s impact hinges on whether the government moves from holding forfeited Bitcoin to actively acquiring additional coins.

FAQs What is the U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve?
The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is a federal program established by executive order in March 2025 to hold Bitcoin seized through law enforcement as a permanent sovereign reserve asset.

How much Bitcoin does the U.S. government hold?
The U.S. federal government held approximately 328,372 BTC as of February 2026, making it the largest known state holder of Bitcoin in the world by a significant margin.

Can the government sell Bitcoin from the Strategic Reserve?
No, the March 2025 executive order states that Bitcoin deposited into the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve shall not be sold and must be maintained as reserve assets of the United States.

What is the BITCOIN Act?
The BITCOIN Act (S.954) is a Senate bill proposing authorization to acquire up to one million BTC over five years through diversification of existing federal funds without additional taxpayer costs.

How does the Bitcoin reserve differ from the Digital Asset Stockpile?
Bitcoin receives a strategic reserve designation with a permanent no-sale mandate, while non-Bitcoin digital assets enter a separate stockpile with more flexible stewardship and disposition options.

Why is there a dispute between Treasury and Commerce over the reserve?
The executive order assigned overlapping roles to both departments, creating friction over which agency controls custody, auditing, acquisition strategy, and operational management of the reserve assets.

Could a future president reverse the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve?
Yes, executive orders can be reversed by future presidents, which is why congressional legislation like the BITCOIN Act and ARMA seeks to codify the reserve permanently into federal law.

References The White House (March 2025). “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Establishes the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile.” White House. Federal Register (March 11, 2025). “Establishment of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and United States Digital Asset Stockpile.” Federal Register. Congress.gov (2025). “H.R.2112: Establishment of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.” Congress.gov. Crypto Briefing (July 2026). “US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Established as Long-Term National Asset.” Crypto Briefing.

Researchers at Stanford University and Singapore Management University found that Polymarket’s five-minute Bitcoin prediction markets create incentives for traders to manipulate spot prices around settlement, allowing sophisticated participants to profit at the expense of retail traders.

The study examined contracts in which traders bet on whether Bitcoin’s price would end above or below a predetermined level after five minutes. Because the contracts settle using Chainlink price feeds based on Bitcoin’s price at the end of each trading window, traders have an incentive to influence the spot market immediately before settlement.

Analyzing trading activity before and after Polymarket introduced the contracts in July 2024, the researchers found sharp increases in Bitcoin spot-market order flow just before settlement, followed by rapid price reversals, which were consistent with settlement-price manipulation.

The study estimated that the behavior transferred about $1.28 million from ordinary traders to manipulators during the sample period. The researchers said extending contract durations from five minutes to 15 minutes largely eliminated the effect.

The researchers said the results do not indicate prediction markets are inherently vulnerable to manipulation, arguing instead that settlement design can reduce the risk. They pointed to longer settlement windows and alternative pricing methods, such as time-weighted average prices, as potential solutions.

The findings could extend beyond crypto. The paper notes that traditional exchanges, including Nasdaq and Cboe, have proposed event contracts tied to asset prices, making contract design an increasingly important consideration as prediction markets expand into regulated financial markets. 

World Cup fuels prediction market growthPrediction markets posted record trading volumes in June as the expanded 2026 FIFA World Cup fueled activity across the sector. According to DefiLlama data, Kalshi processed about $9.4 billion in trading volume during the month, while Polymarket International handled roughly $4.3 billion.

The platforms’ World Cup winner markets have since generated more than $5.4 billion in combined trading volume, with Polymarket processing about $4.25 billion and Kalshi about $1.2 billion, according to data from the two platforms at the time of writing.

World Cup winner bets on Polymarket. Source: Polymarket

The sector’s growth has coincided with mounting legal scrutiny. Several US states have challenged companies, including Kalshi and Polymarket, this year, while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has argued that federally regulated event contracts fall under its “exclusive jurisdiction” rather than state gambling laws.

The dispute is now moving through the federal courts, and legal observers have said conflicting appellate rulings could eventually prompt the US Supreme Court to decide whether states or the CFTC have primary authority over prediction markets.

Magazine: Strategy became a symbol of the dot-com crash: Could history repeat?

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Litecoin experienced a renewed price uptick following the announcement of a significant institutional custody development. The value of LTC climbed 2.39% over the last 24 hours, reaching $44.61 and maintaining its position above an important support level at $42.62, while approaching a resistance range between $44.61 and $46.00.

Technical rebound faces resistanceAfter recording a peak near $61 in May, Litecoin’s price fell sharply through June, briefly touching lows around $38. Recently, buyers have re-entered the market, pushing the price back to current levels.

The daily chart reflects a period of exhaustion and stabilization. Indicators such as the MACD show the main line at -0.15, the signal line at -0.35, and the histogram at 0.20. The shift from negative to mild positive histogram values hints at easing bearish conditions, yet the trend has not fully turned bullish.

A close above the $44.61–$46.00 resistance zone could reinforce the recovery trend. Conversely, any drop below $42.62 risks another test of June’s lows.

Momentum indicators demonstrate a cautiously optimistic tone, but the technical landscape is still searching for a convincing bullish signal, with continued recovery in progress according to MACD readings.

Clearstream integrates Litecoin custodyLite Strategy disclosed that Clearstream, one of two international central securities depositories and a subsidiary of Deutsche Börse, has incorporated Litecoin into its regulated custody service for institutional clients. Clearstream oversees more than €15 trillion in assets, providing post-trade settlement for global securities markets.

LTC is now settled through CryptoFinance AG, a MiCAR-licensed sub-custodian. This arrangement enables financial institutions to hold Litecoin with their current banking relationships, removing the need for a separate crypto-specific counterparty.

While the announcement quickly drew attention with over 1,900 views within a few hours, market participants view the custody upgrade as a medium-term catalyst rather than a reason for immediate price action.

This move expands institutional access to LTC, offering new infrastructure for regulated digital asset custody rather than serving as a trigger for a single-day rally.

Mini dictionary: Clearstream is one of two global central securities depositories, providing post-trade settlement services for institutional assets and part of the Deutsche Börse Group.

Clearstream’s integration of LTC into its custody platform is regarded as a structural improvement for institutional involvement, although it may not immediately reflect in the price.

Market positioning and network activityOpen interest in Litecoin futures dropped from about $320 million to $100 million in early June, mirroring the price decline. Since then, traders have gradually returned, with open interest now back in the $270 million to $300 million range.

DefiLlama reports that Litecoin’s total value locked (TVL) fell from $3 million to approximately $1.2–$1.5 million by July. Despite this, the number of active addresses has remained stable, fluctuating between 250,000 and 300,000 over the same period.

MetricMay PeakJune LowCurrentLitecoin Price$61$38$44.61Open Interest$320 million$100 million$270–$300 millionTVL$3 million$1.2 million$1.2–$1.5 millionActive Addresses~300,000~250,000250,000–300,000The technical and on-chain data show a market in the process of recovery, but without confirmation of a consistent trend reversal. The evolving custody framework and open interest figures provide reasons for cautious optimism, though market direction remains undecided pending further institutional activity or technical confirmation.

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.

XRP has reached a notable step toward broader adoption in traditional finance after the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) categorized it as a cryptocurrency within its Learning Center, drawing renewed institutional interest. DTCC, a critical clearinghouse that processes trillions of dollars in U.S. securities trades daily, discussed XRP’s potential role in collateral and clearing arrangements, increasing the asset’s profile in regulated financial circles.

XRP gains visibility in DTCC guidanceOn-chain analytics provider Archie observed that XRP now appears in DTCC’s educational materials, explaining specifically how it may be considered for collateral management and clearing procedures. While the Learning Center is an informational resource and not a regulatory mandate, XRP’s listing signals that DTCC clients and partners are actively reviewing how cryptocurrencies might be handled in real-world finance operations.

The inclusion is considered significant given DTCC’s central position within the U.S. securities infrastructure, influencing the processes by which institutions manage risk, optimize collateral, and meet regulatory requirements.

DTCC presents XRP alongside its guidance for cryptocurrencies, outlining scenarios in which the digital asset could be designated as collateral and specifying how market volatility may affect its eligibility and capital efficiency in institutional settings.

The development comes as more major financial bodies assess digital assets for integration into existing settlement and risk frameworks, a trend that could help bridge the gap between traditional and crypto markets.

Haircut methodology brings new standardsAs part of its updates, DTCC outlined haircut rules for cryptocurrencies, including XRP. Haircuts refer to the percentage by which the value of an asset is reduced when calculating its collateral value, typically as a buffer against volatility and risk.

Chad Steingraber, a market analyst, noted that DTCC’s educational framework proposes higher haircuts for XRP valued at $5 or below. If XRP’s price exceeds this threshold, it may be subject to a standard 35% haircut or a charge calculated using the Value-at-Risk (VaR) method, with final levels set according to market liquidity and other risk factors. The $5 mark is not presented as a target but rather as a notional reference point for illustrating the rules within the learning resource.

A higher haircut reduces the amount of capital an institution can borrow using the asset as collateral, while a lower haircut increases its capital efficiency and attractiveness for financial operations.

ScenarioXRP Price ($)Haircut AppliedBelow Benchmark$5 or lessHigher haircut (exact figure not specified)Above BenchmarkOver $535% haircut or VaR chargeSteingraber believes that inclusion in DTCC’s guidelines enhances XRP’s credibility as an asset considered for sophisticated institutional operations.

Mini dictionary: Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is a major financial services company in the United States, responsible for clearing and settling almost all securities transactions in the country’s financial markets.

Institutional integration and future prospectsDTCC’s mention of XRP follows its broader move toward utilizing blockchain and digital asset solutions in live financial infrastructure. The corporation recently shifted from pilot blockchain projects to deploying tokenization infrastructure, enabling regulated digital assets and collateral to move seamlessly across its network.

Ripple, through its platform Ripple Prime, is already working with DTCC’s digital asset ecosystem, offering institutional-grade custody and trading services that support the integration of cryptocurrencies like XRP into major clearing and settlement workflows.

This collaboration brings the potential for digital assets to attain broader acceptance as credible collateral in mainstream finance, expanding their use beyond speculative trading to functions such as capital optimization and liquidity management.

These developments highlight how the evolving treatment of assets like $XRP in clearinghouse policies and integration initiatives can accelerate their adoption across institutional markets and shape the infrastructure governing digital finance’s next era.

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.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies is not buying Ethereum in small, cautious increments. The NYSE-listed firm, chaired by Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee, has purchased an additional 6,000 ETH for roughly $11.18 million, part of a broader accumulation week that added 27,801 ETH to its balance sheet.

That brings total holdings to 5,770,038 ETH as of July 12, 2026, a number that represents 4.8% of Ethereum’s entire circulating supply of approximately 120.7 million tokens.

The scale of what Bitmine is doing here The company has a self-declared goal it calls the “Alchemy of 5%”, targeting ownership of 5% of the total ETH supply by the end of 2026. At 4.8%, it is close enough to smell the finish line.

Bitmine’s total asset base sits at approximately $11.3 billion, which includes 206 BTC and $482 million in cash and marketable securities alongside the ETH stack. The ETH was priced at roughly $1,820 per token at the time of the latest accumulation figures.

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The firm closed a $273.8 million Series A Preferred Stock offering on June 10, 2026, which funded a meaningful portion of the accumulation strategy. ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood is among the institutional backers.

Bitmine was also added to the Russell 1000 index on June 26, 2026, a milestone that forces passive index funds to buy the stock and expands the firm’s investor base significantly.

Staking turns the ETH pile into a yield engine Bitmine has fully staked 4,917,189 ETH through its proprietary MAVAN platform, earning annualized yields of approximately 2.70%.

At that rate, the staking operation generates expected annualized revenues of $242 million. The ETH holdings are not just sitting there appreciating or depreciating with market conditions — they are actively producing income.

Why Robinhood Chain matters to this thesis Tom Lee flagged the July 1, 2026 launch of Robinhood Chain, a Layer 2 network built on Arbitrum, as a relevant data point for the firm’s Ethereum conviction.

The network processed over $1 billion in transaction volume using ETH shortly after launch. That matters because every transaction on an Ethereum L2 that uses ETH for fees is a small incremental demand signal for the underlying asset Bitmine has accumulated in enormous quantity.

What this means for the broader market Bitmine’s accumulation pace is large enough to have actual supply implications. Locking 4.9 million ETH in staking contracts removes those tokens from liquid circulation, which tightens the available float for trading.

The $273.8 million capital raise was designed specifically to fund further accumulation. The risks are also not small. A sustained ETH price decline compresses the dollar value of the treasury rapidly, given the size of the position. Staking yields provide a partial cushion, but they do not fully offset a meaningful drawdown in ETH price. Regulatory treatment of large-scale staking operations remains an open question in multiple jurisdictions, and any adverse ruling on whether staking rewards constitute securities income could affect the economics of the MAVAN platform.

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

Chainlink Integrates U.S. Department of Commerce Data For Macro Oracle Feeds is the kind of story that can look simple at first glance, but it carries more weight once you place it inside the week’s broader crypto backdrop. The point is not to dress the headline up into something bigger than it is. The point is to understand why it is being watched now.

For more details, visit the official Chainlink platform.

TL;DR Chainlink Integrates U.S. Department of Commerce Data For Macro Oracle Feeds is the main story for Chainlink today.Chainlink feeding verified U.S. macroeconomic data on-chain assists structured financial contract settlement.The cleaner read is to focus on what Chainlink actually shows, not to overstate what the update proves. What Changed This Week Oracle and interoperability integrations matter because they are the connective tissue behind tokenized assets, cross-chain applications, and institutional settlement. That is the lens I would use here. The update is not valuable because it gives traders a magic answer. It is valuable because it adds another reliable data point to a market that has been moving quickly and, at times, messily.

Explain that this feed supports inflation-linked bonds validation on Arbitrum and Polygon. That detail is important because it gives the story a specific centre of gravity. Without that, it would be too easy to turn this into a generic market move or a recycled headline.

For readers, the useful question is not simply whether Chainlink is getting attention. It is whether the underlying development changes access, liquidity, regulatory clarity, infrastructure reliability, or trader positioning. In this case, the answer is that it does give the market something concrete to evaluate.

The source trail matters here. The article is based on Chainlink, which is a cleaner starting point than relying on second-hand summaries or social chatter.

Where The Story Goes Next The immediate read is also different depending on who is watching. Traders may focus on price and liquidity, while builders or compliance teams may care more about the rule, integration, product, or infrastructure detail. That split is exactly why the story is worth handling as a standalone article rather than burying it in a broader recap.

There is also a timing element. The July 15 update arrives after several sessions where crypto markets have been sensitive to macro headlines, ETF flows, regulatory signals, and exchange-level product changes. Any credible update that touches one of those channels is going to attract attention.

What should be avoided is the temptation to turn one development into a sweeping conclusion. A listing is not the same thing as adoption. A price rebound is not the same thing as a confirmed trend reversal. A new rulemaking step is not the same thing as final legal certainty. The value is in the narrower, more accurate read.

Chainlink-related integrations often matter because they sit beneath the user-facing product. Traders may focus on LINK, but builders care about secure messaging, data feeds, and whether institutions trust the infrastructure enough to use it.

The Bottom Line For now, the story gives the market one more piece of evidence about where Chainlink sits in the current cycle. It may be about regulatory clarity, a product rollout, a price level, or a piece of infrastructure, but the same rule applies: the strongest conclusion is the one that stays closest to the source.

If follow-up data confirms the direction of travel, this could become part of a larger narrative. If not, it still gives readers a useful snapshot of how quickly crypto’s active themes are rotating across policy, infrastructure, payments, exchanges, and market structure.

That is why this deserves coverage now. It is not about forcing a dramatic market call. It is about giving readers a clear, grounded explanation of what happened, why it matters, and what still needs to be watched.

This report is based on information from Chainlink.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

Coinbase is pulling the plug on USDC deposits and withdrawals through the Noble network, giving users until August 17, 2026 to sort out their stablecoin logistics.

Noble is a dedicated appchain in the Cosmos ecosystem built specifically for moving digital assets across the broader Cosmos network. It launched native USDC issuance in partnership with Circle back in September 2023, and currently holds roughly $132 million in USDC.

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A broader cleanup, not just a one-off This isn’t an isolated move. Coinbase is also ending support for cbETH, its liquid staking token, on Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon on that same August 17, 2026 date.

What this means for Cosmos users Before Noble, getting USDC into Cosmos-based DeFi protocols meant going through bridging processes that added friction, cost, and risk. Noble offered a cleaner path: Circle-issued USDC that could flow natively through the Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol, connecting Cosmos chains without the usual bridge headaches.

Users who currently rely on Coinbase for Noble-based USDC transactions will need to pivot to alternative supported networks. Ethereum, Base, and Solana remain available options for USDC deposits and withdrawals.

The $132 million in USDC currently on Noble won’t vanish overnight. Circle still issues USDC natively on the chain, and other exchanges or on-ramps may continue supporting it.

For investors holding USDC on Noble through Coinbase, the action item is straightforward: migrate before August 2026. That could mean withdrawing to a supported network like Ethereum or Base, or finding an alternative exchange that maintains Noble support.

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

Aave, which operates one of the largest onchain lending markets, has launched Aave V4 on Avalanche as it looks to accelerate lending for tokenized assets and institutional finance, according to a Wednesday statement.

The move marks Aave V4’s first deployment beyond Ethereum. Avalanche is a high-performance blockchain network designed to support digital finance, including decentralized finance, real-world asset tokenization and institutional blockchain applications.

The launch aims to enable specialized credit markets backed by tokenized real-world assets and extends Aave’s long-standing presence on Avalanche, where its V3 protocol has facilitated billions of dollars in liquidity. It also serves as the blueprint for Aave V4’s multichain expansion strategy, with future deployments tailored to the strengths of individual blockchain ecosystems.

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Aave said the deployment leverages Aave V4’s Hub and Spoke architecture to support future tokenized asset markets with dedicated borrowing markets, shared liquidity infrastructure, and tailored collateral and risk frameworks.

According to Aave Labs founder Stani Kulechov, Avalanche’s combination of an established Aave ecosystem and growing tokenization activity makes it the ideal first destination for expansion.

“Aave V4 was designed to enable new credit markets at internet scale. Avalanche is a natural destination for the first expansion of Aave V4 beyond Ethereum because it combines a mature Aave lending market with a rapidly growing ecosystem for tokenized assets,” Kulechov commented on the move.

“That combination creates new opportunities to deepen liquidity, improve capital efficiency, and expand access to borrowing against tokenized assets. That’s exactly why one of the first markets we plan to launch on Avalanche is a dedicated credit market for tokenized assets,” he added.

Ava Labs President John Wu said the integration advances the use of tokenized assets by giving institutions access to borrowing and liquidity infrastructure comparable to traditional financial markets.

“The next phase of tokenization is about putting assets to work, not just bringing them onchain,” Wu stated. “Aave V4 on Avalanche is an important step toward making that a reality and advancing the shift to a more efficient, onchain financial system.”

Aave said the platform is designed to support tokenized real-world assets including US Treasuries, money market funds, private credit, and corporate bonds.

The team added that one of the first planned deployments on Avalanche will be a dedicated market for tokenized assets, allowing institutions to borrow against tokenized collateral while accessing Aave’s shared liquidity network.

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

Do trades fill better on Solana than on Coinbase? JTX's new Good Trade feature puts that to the test on every order.

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Jito launched JTX yesterday, bringing a new self-custodial trading platform to Solana just as onchain speculation intensifies again. Founder Lucas Bruder (you may know him as buffalu) joined the podcast alongside the launch to explain why the team that spent years building Solana's backend now believes it can build the frontend traders use.

After months of attention tilting toward Hyperliquid, SOL has outperformed every other major, including HYPE, over the past month while ANSEM pulled traders back into the trenches. But Hyperliquid is no longer the only rival. Robinhood Chain is drawing speculative volume of its own, and it arrives with retail distribution neither Solana nor Hyperliquid can match.

Solana's problem was never capability. It has the assets, the liquidity, and the execution. What it lacks is coherence. Trading on Solana still means moving between wallets, aggregators, charting platforms, portfolio trackers, meme terminals, and individual protocols. Useful as those are, they leave the chain without a single professional front door.

Jito wants JTX to be that gateway: one interface that unifies Solana trading and proves it's simply better trading onchain here compared to offchain.

— Bankless (@Bankless) July 15, 2026 What Is JTX?JTX is Jito's new self-custodial trading platform, initially focused on spot markets across majors and established speculative assets (not lowcap memes).

It's not the first platform to try to organize Solana trading. Axiom already serves much of its meme economy, while wallets and aggregators reach many of the same markets.

JTX's pitch rests less on inventing a new interface than on where Jito started.

If Solana were a building, Jito has spent years behind the walls, working on the plumbing and electrical systems that keep activity humming. Its infrastructure already shapes whether trades land quickly and reliably.

JTX turns those years of learning what makes the network tick into a clean consumer product with the execution to match, built for a trader Bruder calls "the prosumer," i.e. someone who wants Solana's speculative breadth with the tools and presentation of a professional exchange.

JTX's wager is that a team that understands Solana from the inside can build a better way to trade on its surface, and pull more users onto it in the process.

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— Bankless (@Bankless) July 15, 2026 Who Is JTX Competing With?Bruder does not treat Jupiter, Pump.fun, or the protocols feeding JTX's liquidity as the real competition. Those are pieces of the Solana stack JTX packages. The target he names is grander: centralized exchanges, and eventually Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange.

The whole thesis turns on one conviction: a trade can fill better on Solana than on Coinbase or Kraken. Jito builds that claim straight into the product. Through a feature called "Good Trade," JTX runs your order against the major centralized exchanges at the moment you trade and shows how the onchain fill compared and how much you saved.

— buffalu (@buffalu__) July 13, 2026 Two things make the claim credible. Solana's execution has matured to where onchain prices now rival a centralized exchange's. And Jito knows the network better than anyone routing across it from the outside: where trades get slow, where they get sandwiched, and which routes quietly cost users money. JTX routes around all of it.

None of this edge comes from special access. JTX gets no preferential treatment from Jito's infrastructure. The advantage is knowledge, not privilege, which is why Good Trade matters. It benchmarks every fill against the exchanges in real time, so no one has to take this edge at their word. Bruder says early results already show majors are cheaper to trade on Solana. If the onchain fill isn't better, the feature says so. Jito is grading its own execution in public, one trade at a time.

What Comes Next and Where JTO FitsFor all that ambition, JTX launches with spot alone. Tokenized equities, perpetuals, and prediction markets come later.

Bruder is particularly focused on tokenized equities, JTX's clearest bridge beyond crypto-native trading. Solana already hosts multiple versions of the same stocks across issuers and liquidity pools. JTX hopes to hide that fragmentation behind a cleaner equity-trading experience.

As JTX adds markets, its growth also feeds Jito's token economics. Under JIP-38, a governance proposal put forward alongside the launch, 20% of platform fees would fund continued development while the DAO's 80% share would go toward programmatic JTO buybacks and burns through at least Q4 2027. That's the right mechanism for value accrual, though its impact depends on JTX's fee rate and whether the product attracts meaningful volume.

JTX was built to give users access to the markets that live on winning infrastructure.

The value it creates should flow back to the Network.

JIP-38 proposes directing 100% of the DAO’s share of JTX fees towards buying back and burning $JTO programmatically for 1 year. https://t.co/Eq0kNySNYL

— JTX (@jtx_trade) July 13, 2026 Bruder himself is unbothered by Robinhood. He calls its distribution "incredible," notes Solana's is strong too, and is open to integrating other chains eventually, just not yet. His ambition runs past any single rival: to let users "trade any asset in the world," on Solana first and maybe beyond. The pressure is real, but it is distribution, not any one chain, that JTX has to answer.

Hyperliquid demonstrated what happens when a blockchain and its flagship trading product feel like one integrated system. Robinhood Chain is now testing whether a consumer brand with real distribution can pull the same trick from the outside. JTX is Solana's answer: packaging its much broader speculative economy into a similarly coherent product.

Its first challenge is making that economy feel like one professional market. Its larger one is proving, through the fills displayed inside Good Trade, that Jito's backend expertise can produce a frontend traders choose over existing onchain environments, and eventually the centralized exchanges against which JTX grades itself.

Jito Declares War on Coinbase & Binance | Lucas Bruder on the Launch of JTX on Bankless

Onchain trading infrastructure is reaching a point where it can seriously compete with centralized exchanges.

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WOO X, a leading global centralized digital asset exchange, and Payward Services, the B2B infrastructure platform from Payward, the company behind global crypto platform Kraken, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to bring crypto trading to WOO X’s European users through Payward Services’ trading-as-a-service offering.

Under the agreement, the companies intend to enable spot crypto trading for WOO X’s EU users powered by Payward’s regulated European infrastructure and licensing. WOO X will join a growing roster of financial institutions using Payward Services’ trading-as-a-service offering, including bunq, one of Europe’s leading neobanks.

“We’re excited to bring WOO X the power of fifteen years of Payward’s regulated infrastructure, creating an easy path to meet customer demand with an expanded trading offering and the right licenses to unlock crypto trading across the EU. When partners work with Payward Services, they can launch crypto trading in a few weeks without building complex in-house infrastructure,” said Mark Greenberg, Global Head of Payward Services.

About WOO X WOO X is a leading global centralized digital asset exchange built by traders, for traders. Backed by YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs) and engineered by a premier team of quantitative traders, engineers, and technologists originating from top-tier Web2 and Web3 projects, WOO X delivers an elite trading environment tailored for both retail and institutional investors. The platform is globally recognized for its superior trade execution, offering deep aggregated liquidity, ultra-tight spreads, and zero-slippage execution.

Prioritizing user trust and platform integrity, WOO X features an industry-first, live-updating Proof of Reserves and Liabilities transparency dashboard. The exchange offers advanced trading architecture, fully customizable workspaces, and professional-grade infrastructure that supports flexible, professional withdrawal standards alongside top-tier asset custody solutions. Driven by a corporate culture of compliance, technical excellence, and relentless innovation, WOO X continues to pioneer transparent, high-performance trading environments for the global digital asset ecosystem.

For more information, visit https://www.wooxpro.com/ ; https://woox.io/ 

Payward Services is the B2B infrastructure platform built on 15 years of operating Kraken, one of the world’s largest crypto platforms. Through a single integration, partners can access crypto and tokenized equity trading, fiat and stablecoin payments, yield, lending, prediction markets and derivatives. Fintechs, banks, brokerages, payment providers, exchanges, consumer tech platforms and asset managers can use Payward Services to offer digital assets to their clients without building the stack themselves.

For more information, visit https://www.payward.com/payward-services .

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