Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Growth in the number of users on the XRP Ledger network has become increasingly apparent thanks to on-chain data. James Rule XRP, a creator of crypto education content, revealed that wallets created in 2024 and 2025 now account for nearly 40% of all wallets on the network. This highlights a period of strong and steady growth for the XRP Ledger over the last two years.

Wallet statistics highlight user adoptionUnlike price volatility, the number of new wallets provides a more robust indicator of long-term network adoption. Each new wallet represents either a new user or institution joining the XRP ecosystem. This participation ranges from holding the asset and processing payments to issuing tokens, developing decentralized applications, or engaging in tokenization activities.

With around 40% of XRP wallets established in just 2024 and 2025, it is clear that network growth is driven by more than short-lived price movements, reflecting deeper adoption.

While multiple wallets can belong to the same user and therefore wallet numbers may not exactly mirror unique users, the sheer magnitude of the increase points to broadening interest across the network. Notably, this expansion comes after a protracted period of regulatory uncertainty for Ripple and XRP in the United States.

Corporate engagement supports network expansionThis period of rapid growth has coincided with higher institutional interest. Made in USA Inc., a US-based technology firm, recently made a significant investment by acquiring a complete technology stack for the XRP Ledger, affirming its commitment to the network. The move underscores the XRP Ledger’s emerging role as a platform for enterprise blockchain solutions. Made in USA Inc. is recognized for its focus on technology-driven initiatives in the US market.

Mini glossary: XRPL, or XRP Ledger, is an open-source blockchain network tailored for payments and asset transfers. Tokenization refers to representing physical or digital assets on a blockchain.

This investment suggests that companies are pivoting from short-term trading to real-world use cases. The fact that activity on the network is being driven by infrastructure investment, not just market speculation, signals the foundation for a new phase of growth for the XRP Ledger.

Rising demand in Japan stands outA similar upward trend is being observed internationally. Japan’s SBI VC Trade, operating under the SBI Holdings umbrella, has announced that its customer accounts have surpassed 2 million. As a digital asset trading platform, SBI VC Trade’s customer milestone and its XRP and Bitcoin reward programs signal sustained interest in digital assets.

SBI VC Trade’s milestone of more than 2 million customer accounts—alongside growing institutional investment in the XRP Ledger—shows that the network’s use is expanding beyond speculative trading.

With the Japanese yen under pressure, investors’ pivot toward alternative assets is supporting demand for digital currencies. The combination of rising wallet numbers, increased institutional investment, and broader participation raises expectations that on-chain volume, liquidity, and developer activity in the XRP Ledger network may continue to strengthen over time.

For years, discussion around XRP centered largely on regulatory matters and price movements. Now, the latest data show a growing focus on measurable user adoption. The surge in new wallets over the past two years suggests that the XRP Ledger could be entering a fresh phase of expansion.

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.

Exchange reserves have fallen to a seven-year low of about 1.6 billion XRP, half what they were at the October 2025 peak. ETFs have absorbed nearly a billion tokens. Ripple still holds roughly 36 billion in escrow. This is the full map of where XRP’s supply actually sits in mid-2026, what moved, what it means, and why a shrinking float has so far failed to move the price.

Summary

XRP exchange reserves have fallen to a seven year low while spot ETFs have accumulated nearly one billion tokens and long term holders continue moving coins into private wallets. Ripple still controls about 36 billion XRP in escrow, but steady monthly releases and relocks have not stopped exchange balances from shrinking to multi year lows. The report says tighter supply alone has not lifted XRP’s price, with weak market demand continuing to outweigh the effects of a declining tradable float. Something unusual is happening to XRP’s supply, and it is happening quietly, underneath a price chart that has spent 2026 telling a story of decline. Exchange reserves, the pool of tokens sitting on trading venues ready to be sold, have fallen to roughly 1.6 billion XRP, the lowest level in seven years and down about 50% from the October 2025 peak of 3.76 billion. On Binance alone, the largest venue for the asset, reserves have dropped 20% since November 2024 to about 2.6 billion tokens across its wallets, pushing a metric called the Scarcity Index to its highest reading in more than two years. Meanwhile the seven US spot ETFs have quietly accumulated more than 970 million XRP, locked in custody on behalf of fund holders, after nine consecutive weeks of net inflows.

Tokens are leaving the places where they can be sold and accumulating in the places where they tend to sit still. In most assets, that migration is the textbook setup for a supply squeeze. In XRP, the price has fallen anyway, trading near $1.13, down roughly 70% from its July 2025 peak of $3.65, through the entire period in which the float was tightening.

That contradiction is the story. This piece maps the full distribution of XRP’s supply as of mid-2026: what sits on exchanges, what the ETFs hold, what Ripple controls in escrow and operational wallets, and what the remaining tens of billions in private hands are doing. It then works through why a halving of exchange reserves has not produced the price response the squeeze thesis predicts, the competing explanations for the gap, and the specific conditions under which a tight float starts to matter. The supply side of XRP has rarely been this interesting; the demand side is the reason nobody has noticed.

The map: 100 billion tokens, five buckets XRP’s supply structure is unlike any other major asset, and the map has to start from its founding fact: all 100 billion tokens were created at launch in 2012. There is no mining, no issuance schedule, no future supply beyond what already exists. About 14 million XRP have been permanently destroyed as transaction fees since then, a rounding error, leaving total supply just below 100 billion. Everything else is a question of where the existing tokens sit, and in mid-2026 they sit in five buckets.

The first bucket is Ripple’s escrow, the largest single concentration of XRP in existence at roughly 36 billion tokens, about 36% of total supply. These are time-locked on-chain contracts releasing one billion XRP on the first of each month, of which Ripple typically relocks 600 to 800 million and keeps a net 200 to 300 million for operations, a mechanism this publication has explained in full. In July, Ripple relocked about 70% of the monthly billion, releasing 300 million into circulation. The escrow is the structural overhang critics cite and the transparency mechanism defenders praise, and either way it is the slowest-moving bucket: at current net-release rates, depletion is roughly nine years out.

The second bucket is circulating supply proper, about 62 billion tokens, and the remaining buckets are subdivisions of it. Exchange reserves, the third bucket, are the sellable edge of the market: roughly 1.6 billion tokens across venues, the seven-year low. The fourth bucket is the ETF complex: seven US spot funds holding a combined 970 million or so tokens, a bit over $1 billion in assets, tokens held by custodians and effectively removed from trading circulation for as long as fund investors stay put. The fifth bucket, by far the largest slice of circulating supply, is everything else: private wallets, corporate treasuries, whale cold storage, and long-term holders, somewhere near 59 billion tokens whose owners have, on the evidence of on-chain data, been net withdrawers from exchanges for over a year.

Two things stand out from the map. First, the actively tradable float, the exchange reserves, is now under 3% of circulating supply and under 2% of total supply, remarkably thin for a top-six asset by market value. Second, the two fastest-growing buckets, ETF custody and private cold storage, are both one-way doors in the short term: tokens flow in easily and come back out only when holders make an affirmative decision to sell.

What moved, and why The reshaping of the map over the past eighteen months has three drivers, each visible on-chain.

The first driver is the ETF complex, which did not exist before November 2025. Since the first spot XRP fund launched, the products have absorbed roughly $1.5 billion in cumulative inflows, and because they hold the underlying token, every dollar of inflow is a market purchase moved into custody. The funds have now recorded nine consecutive weeks of net inflows, adding $17 million in the latest week even as Bitcoin and Ethereum funds bled, a rotation this publication has tracked. Nearly a billion tokens now sit in ETF custody, and the mechanism only reverses if fund investors redeem at scale, which, so far, they have done on exactly one notable day, the quarter-end outflow of June 30.

The second driver is whale and institutional withdrawal. CryptoQuant data shows the Binance drawdown accelerating recently, from about 2.8 billion tokens in May to 2.6 billion in early July, exactly the window in which the Scarcity Index broke out to 0.77. Large-holder activity has strengthened while retail stays cautious, new-wallet creation hit a three-month high, and Korean venues have recorded repeated multi-million-token outflows. The pattern, tokens moving from hot exchange wallets to cold private ones, is the classic signature of accumulation by holders with no near-term intention to sell.

Notably, this is the reverse of December 2024, when the Scarcity Index collapsed because holders were depositing XRP onto Binance in bulk to sell the rally to $3; today’s flows run the other way, out of the venues, into storage, at prices two-thirds lower.

The third driver is the escrow’s steady arithmetic. Ripple’s net release of 200 to 300 million tokens a month adds roughly 4-6% to circulating supply annually, a bounded, scheduled inflation the market can model years ahead. In 2026 the company has if anything leaned conservative, relocking 70% in recent months, and part of what it does release goes to institutional counterparties off-exchange, never touching the tradable float at all. The escrow is a source of supply, but it is a metered one, and its pace has not changed while the exchange drawdown accelerated, which means the drawdown is demand-side behavior, not a supply-side trick.

The puzzle: a tightening float and a falling price Here is where the story stops being simple. Every element above, reserves halved, ETFs absorbing, whales withdrawing, metered issuance, belongs to the standard playbook of a supply squeeze, the setup in which shrinking availability meets steady demand and the price ratchets upward because sellers become scarce. XRP has instead spent 2026 falling, from $2.41 in January to near $1 in late June, before the modest recovery to $1.13. The float tightened; the price halved. Any honest supply analysis has to explain that, and there are three serious explanations, not mutually exclusive.

The first is that scarcity on exchanges measures potential, not pressure. A thin order book amplifies whatever demand arrives; it does not create demand. Through 2026, demand has been the missing side: derivatives open interest collapsed from last year’s highs, retail participation stayed weak, funding rates flipped decisively negative as price approached $1, and ETF inflows, while persistent, ran at a pace of tens of millions per week, roughly the same order of magnitude as Ripple’s monthly net escrow release in dollar terms. Australian lawyer and longtime XRP commentator Bill Morgan has made the sharper version of this point: neither the supply-squeeze thesis nor the older escrow-dump fear explains XRP’s price well, because the dominant variable is simply Bitcoin, which fell through the same months and dragged the whole market with it. On this reading, the tight float is dry tinder, and 2026 has been a year without a spark.

The second explanation is that the headline reserve numbers may overstate the tightness. Skeptics of the squeeze thesis note that measured exchange reserves depend on which wallets analysts attribute to which venues, that internal transfers can masquerade as outflows, and that estimates of total platform-held XRP across all venues and custodians run far higher than the headline 1.6 billion, with some placing 14 to 16 billion tokens within fast reach of order books. The February-March episode in which roughly 350 million XRP dipped and rebounded on Binance, likely internal wallet reshuffling rather than organic flow, illustrates how noisy the data is. If the true sellable supply is several multiples of the visible reserve, the squeeze is further away than the dashboards suggest.

The third explanation is structural: the sellers who matter are not on exchanges yet. Millions of tokens were accumulated between $1.50 and $1.90 during the spring’s failed rallies, and holders underwater at those levels represent a standing wall of supply that will migrate back onto exchanges precisely when price approaches their break-even. Add Ripple’s monthly release and the possibility of ETF redemptions in a risk-off shock, and the tight float is best understood as tight at current prices, with reinforcements waiting at higher ones. Santiment’s MVRV data showing holders at their deepest unrealized losses in the token’s history cuts both ways: it signals capitulation-grade sentiment, and it also marks exactly where the exit orders cluster.

How to read the metrics without fooling yourself Because the supply story runs on a handful of dashboards, and because those dashboards are routinely misread in both directions, a short field guide to the metrics is worth the space.

Exchange reserves are an attribution exercise, not an audit. Analytics firms tag wallets they believe belong to venues and sum the balances, which means the headline number moves when tagging improves, when exchanges reorganize custody, and when internal transfers cross the tagged perimeter, none of which involves a single token changing owners. The 350 million XRP that appeared to leave and re-enter Binance across February and March was almost certainly internal wallet management, and any single week’s reserve print should be read with that episode in mind. The signal is in the trend across months and across independent data providers, and on that standard the 2026 drawdown is robust: the direction has been consistent since late 2024, it appears in CryptoQuant, exchange-published data, and third-party trackers alike, and it has accelerated instead of mean-reverting.

The Scarcity Index is a ratio, and ratios have two moving parts. The index compares available supply on Binance against demand conditions, so it can rise because tokens leave, because buying absorbs, or both, and it can whipsaw, as it did on the round trip from 0.80 in spring to 0.34 in June to 0.77 in July, without the underlying reserve base moving anywhere near as violently. Its historical extremes are more informative than its level: the deeply negative readings of December 2024 marked holders flooding coins onto the venue to sell a top, and the current two-year high marks the opposite regime, coins leaving into weakness. As a regime indicator it has value; as a timing tool it has embarrassed everyone who used it as one this year.

ETF holdings are the cleanest series in the entire picture, because fund custodians disclose and the products file, which is why the roughly 970 million tokens across the seven funds is the number this piece leans on hardest. Even here, one habit matters: distinguish flows from assets. Net assets fall when the price falls even while inflows continue, which is exactly what happened through the spring, deposits arriving as valuations shrank, and reading the AUM decline as investor exit inverted the truth. Flow data, positive for nine consecutive weeks, is the demand signal; asset data is mostly a price echo.

Escrow figures, finally, come with the strongest health warning of all, because the number that matters is not the billion that unlocks but the net that stays out, and the net is only knowable after the relock lands days later. Ripple’s own quarterly reports, the on-chain escrow contracts, and the monthly relock transactions are all public, and the discipline is to compute the net against the trailing 200-to-300-million average before drawing any conclusion. A month in which the net spikes above the band is a genuine signal about the company’s cash needs; a month of headlines about a billion-token unlock that ends in a 70% relock, like this July’s, is a signal about headlines. Every metric in this story is public, which is XRP’s genuine advantage as an object of analysis, and every one of them rewards the reader who checks the denominator before repeating the numerator.

What history says about tightening floats The squeeze thesis is not being invented for XRP in 2026; it has a track record in this asset and others, and the record is worth consulting because it cuts both ways.

The supportive precedent is 2024. Exchange outflows through that year preceded the powerful multi-month rally that carried XRP from under a dollar to its January 2025 highs above $3, with Korean regional demand and shrinking sell-side reserves amplifying the move once the SEC settlement and ETF approvals supplied the demand spark. The structure of that episode maps closely onto today’s: months of quiet withdrawal, a scarcity metric stretching to extremes, skeptics dismissing the data, and then a catalyst arriving into a market with far fewer sellers than buyers expected. Holders who lived through it read the current seven-year-low reserves as the same picture at an earlier frame.

The cautionary precedents are just as instructive. The Scarcity Index itself has whipsawed within 2026: it climbed to nearly 0.80 in the spring, sagged to 0.34 by late June amid heavy long liquidations, then broke out to 0.77 in the first week of July, and the price fell through the entire sequence. A metric that can round-trip that violently inside one quarter is measuring flow conditions, not destiny, and the June reading arrived alongside more than $13 million in single-day long liquidations, a reminder that leverage positioning can overwhelm spot scarcity on any given week. December 2024 offers the mirror lesson: reserves ballooned precisely at the top, as holders raced to deposit and sell the $3 rally, which is to say the metric is at its most bullish after prices have already fallen and its most bearish after they have already risen, a lagging emotional gauge as much as a leading structural one.

The broader crypto record adds a final nuance. Bitcoin’s great supply-squeeze narratives, the 2020-21 exchange exodus, the post-ETF custody absorption of 2024, each eventually mattered, and each mattered on the demand side’s schedule, not the supply side’s. Assets have sat at multi-year reserve lows for quarters while prices drifted, and then repriced in weeks once flows arrived, because a thin float does nothing until someone leans on it, at which point it does everything at once. That asymmetry, long stretches of irrelevance punctuated by sudden amplification, is the honest historical summary, and it is why the traders who take the supply map seriously express the view through patience and position sizing, the same execution discipline any thin market demands, rather than through timing calls the data cannot support.

There is one more structural actor worth watching that previous cycles lacked: the corporate and fund treasuries. Beyond the seven ETFs, a growing roster of listed companies has adopted XRP treasury strategies, and the ETF custodian wallets themselves have become the single most legible accumulation channel in the asset’s history, absorbing roughly 750 million tokens in their first two months alone. Treasury demand is slower and stickier than trader demand, it neither chases rallies nor panics in drawdowns on the same timescale, and its growth quietly raises the floor beneath the float. Whether it grows fast enough to matter against escrow issuance is, like everything in this story, a race whose lap times are published monthly.

What would make the float matter The supply map becomes decisive only when demand shows up, so the forward-looking question is what could supply the spark, and the candidates are concrete.

The nearest is legal. The CLARITY Act’s commodity classification for XRP, if enacted, is the gate behind which the large conditional forecasts sit: JPMorgan and Standard Chartered have each projected $4 to $8.4 billion in first-year ETF inflows under passage, an order of magnitude above the current run rate.

Flows of that size, arriving into a float of under two billion exchange-held tokens, are the scenario in which the scarcity math stops being academic; the Senate’s three-week window is therefore as much a supply-side story as a regulatory one. The second candidate is institutional adoption converting to token demand through collateral and settlement use, the slow path whose honest accounting runs through Ripple Prime, and the third is simply the market cycle: XRP has historically fallen harder than Bitcoin in downturns and snapped back harder in recoveries, and a thin float mechanically steepens the snapback.

Against these, the checkable risks: a CLARITY failure pushing institutional flows past 2027, ETF inflows decelerating or reversing for consecutive weeks, or reserves rebuilding as underwater holders redeposit into any rally. The dashboard for all of it is public. Exchange reserves, the Scarcity Index, weekly ETF flows, and the monthly escrow relock are each published within days, and together they will show the squeeze forming, or failing, in close to real time.

The conclusion the map supports is narrower than either camp’s slogan. XRP’s tradable supply has genuinely, measurably contracted to multi-year lows while long-horizon buckets absorbed the difference, and that contraction has been irrelevant to price for a year because demand collapsed faster than the float did. Scarcity is not a catalyst; it is a multiplier waiting for one. The honest position is that XRP enters the second half of 2026 with the most squeeze-prone supply structure it has had since at least 2019 and no evidence yet of the demand that would trigger it, which makes the supply map neither bullish nor bearish on its own, but the single best lens for judging how violently the price will move when the demand question, one way or the other, finally resolves.

One final frame is worth carrying away, because it reconciles everything above into a single sentence: XRP in mid-2026 is an asset whose company is accumulating credentials, whose long-horizon holders are accumulating tokens, and whose traders have spent a year accumulating losses, and the supply map is the ledger on which all three behaviors are legible at once. The reserves data records the holders’ conviction, the ETF flows record the institutions’ patient entry, the escrow relocks record the company’s restraint, and the price records the absence, so far, of anyone forced to compete for a shrinking float. Markets in this configuration tend to resolve abruptly rather than gracefully, because thin floats do not permit gradual repricing in either direction: the same scarcity that would turbocharge an inflow shock also means a demand collapse finds few bids on the way down, which is the double edge the squeeze narratives rarely mention. The map says the stage is set. It has never claimed to know the play.

For readers who want to run the numbers themselves, the recipe is short. Take the circulating supply of roughly 62 billion, subtract the ETF custody balance published in the funds’ daily disclosures, subtract the aggregated exchange reserves from at least two independent trackers, and treat the remainder as the private-holder bucket whose behavior the withdrawal trends describe. Cross-check the month’s escrow arithmetic against the on-chain relock, and note the week’s ETF flow direction. Fifteen minutes of public data, repeated monthly, reproduces every structural claim in this piece and will catch the turn, whichever way it breaks, well before the headlines do.

The last variable, as always with this asset, is the one no dashboard tracks: how much of the withdrawn supply belongs to hands that will actually hold through the next stress test. Cold-storage balances built at $1.10 by buyers who watched the token at $3.65 carry a different resolve than balances built chasing a rally, and the 2026 drawdown has, if nothing else, transferred an unusual share of the float to owners who bought weakness deliberately. That is not a prediction. It is the one qualitative fact the quantitative map quietly implies, and the one that will decide whether the next demand shock meets a wall of break-even sellers or an empty room.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Digital asset markets are volatile and you can lose your entire investment. On-chain and market figures are estimates current as of July 8, 2026, and may change. Always do your own research.

Hard forks are usually discussed in big-picture terms, but the final approach is often decided by smaller technical cleanups that do not sound dramatic at all. Cardano’s 9.0.1 hotfix falls into that category.

It is not the sort of release that creates instant market euphoria. It is the sort of release that helps a network avoid unnecessary problems while moving toward a major change.

For more details, visit the official GitHub platform.

TL;DR Cardano released node version 9.0.1 as a recommended hotfix for mainnet validators.The update addresses issues tied to the network’s bootstrap and script behaviour.It keeps the Chang hard fork process on a steadier technical footing. Why A Hotfix Still Matters Intersect’s release notes frame the update as a recommended fix for all mainnet validators, which tells you this is more than cosmetic maintenance. Validators need stable, predictable software when a governance-heavy event is approaching.

In other words, this is part of the real work behind the Chang hard fork narrative. The marketing version is about governance evolution. The operational version is about making sure the machinery behaves properly.

What It Says About Cardano’s Phase Cardano’s supporters have long argued that the project’s slower style reflects caution and discipline. Releases like this fit that argument better than price chatter does.

For the market, the takeaway is simple: governance milestones only matter if the software path toward them remains solid. That is why even a bug-fix release deserves attention.

This report is based on the Cardano node release notes.

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

Developers within the Ethereum Foundation are exploring a new approach to slow down the rapid growth of data on the network. Researcher Toni Wahrstatter has suggested integrating certain elements of the UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) model into Ethereum. This concept mirrors aspects of the architecture that Cardano has successfully used for years.

Reducing data load is at the core of the proposalThe main challenge Ethereum faces stems from its account-based structure, which requires every wallet’s balance to be persistently stored as active data. Even when a transaction occurs only once, these records continue to occupy space on the blockchain’s memory. Through Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 8141, Wahrstatter has introduced the idea of ‘Frame Transactions’ that would make simple payments single-use.

Under this system, transaction details would be validated from historical blockchain records only when needed. In active memory, a single bit would indicate whether a transaction output has been spent. Wahrstatter estimates that this framework could reduce unnecessary data growth from basic transfers on Ethereum’s base layer by as much as 99.8%.

Mini glossary: UTXO stands for unspent transaction output, a model where each new payment consumes a previous unspent output. eUTXO is an extended version, adapted by Cardano to allow for more advanced features like smart contracts.

Wahrstatter’s proposal aims to make simple payments single-use, which he believes would cut data growth on the base layer by 99.8%.

The proposal has entered the initial “Strawman” discussion phase within the Ethereum community, with Vitalik Buterin among those following the developments. However, implementing such a change would require not only a technical assessment but also a thorough evaluation for compatibility with existing applications.

Hoskinson criticizes with accusations of hypocrisyCharles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano, responded sharply to these developments. Hoskinson parted ways with Ethereum in 2014 following disagreements with Vitalik Buterin, particularly regarding the network’s commercial direction and long-term architectural roadmap.

Hoskinson believes that within the Ethereum ecosystem, there remains an unspoken taboo against acknowledging his contributions.

For Hoskinson, this debate is not just technical but also symbolic. From day one, Cardano was designed around the Extended UTXO—eUTXO—model to address scaling challenges. Ethereum, on the other hand, has long championed the account-based system as the opposite approach.

Technical overlaps raise new risksThe UTXO model is historically associated with Bitcoin, which operates mainly as a value transfer system with limited capacity for smart contracts. Cardano extended the same logic to create a more flexible infrastructure for complex applications.

Ethereum researchers now considering features inspired by this model to tackle memory constraints is, in some quarters, seen as indirect validation of solutions pioneered elsewhere. Still, merging two disparate architectures is no small feat. Such a hybrid approach could create compatibility risks for the many DeFi applications currently operating on Ethereum.

This means Ethereum now faces two main options: either continue to manage its growing database as is, or pursue a hybrid solution involving a more radical architectural shift.

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.

  TL;DRIn H1 2026, BSC cut block intervals to 450 ms, brought in-memory finality down to 650 ms, and nearly doubled benchmark throughput to ~5,200 TPSThe H2 objective is to double mainnet throughput again, on a stated path toward a 10x improvement across BNB ChainA next-generation L1 architecture is in development on a design path toward the 1M TPS end-of-life goalSix months ago, BNB Chain set three priorities for BSC: speed, throughput, and protocol stability. This roadmap opens with the receipts and closes with what comes next - a second half focused on doubling performance again, and an architecture designed for the decade ahead.

What Changed in Six MonthsThe clearest way to read H1 is through what a transaction experiences on BSC today versus January:

Performance Indicator

Baseline (Jan 2026)

Post-Optimization (June 2026)

Block Interval

750 ms

450 ms

Memory Finality

1,125 ms

650 ms

Benchmark Throughput (TPS)

~2,800 (~210 MGas/s)

5,200 (~400 MGas/s)

Alongside speed, the network became steadier: following the Osaka/Mendel hard fork, re-org occurrence on BSC mainnet was significantly reduced.

The Engineering Behind the NumbersNone of these gains came from a single change. Four features carried most of the load:

Block-Level Access List (BAL): Pre-declares state access patterns to improve execution efficiency and support future parallel processing.Incremental Snapshot: Enables faster chain synchronization for lagging or new nodes.EVM SuperInstruction: Decreases interpreter overhead by fusing common opcode sequences, directly driving throughput.Extended Voting Rules: Enhances the fast finality mechanism to ensure consistency under adverse network conditions.The BSC Rust client also reached a milestone: full Reth v2.0 compatibility, including Sparse Trie Cache, Proof V2, and RocksDB support, delivering a 2x performance improvement. 

From Protocol to Product: Middleware DeliveredH1 wasn't only about the base layer. Middleware shipped to reduce complexity for advanced business scenarios:

Agentic AI Strategy: Developed and launched the BNB Agent Studio and BNB Agent SDK, integrating tools like AWS Bedrock AgentCore and LLM gateways to enable autonomous on-chain agent deployment.Payment Infrastructure: Advanced the Middleware Payment Protocol (MPP) SDK, focusing on end-to-end integration and partner implementation efforts.Institutional Privacy: Researched and drafted frameworks for institutional-grade privacy.The Second Half: Three CommitmentsDouble the throughput. The immediate objective is a 2x throughput increase on BSC mainnet, scaling toward a long-term 10x improvement for BNB Chain. Isolate the noise. Advanced resource isolation will minimize cross-application interference, so one application's demand spike doesn't degrade another's performance.Lower the barrier. Gas fee structures will be refined to reduce entry costs for both Web2 and Web3 enterprises, a prerequisite for mass adoption.Delivering It: The BSC PipelineThe commitments above map to concrete workstreams already in motion:

Capacity. BEP-675 will be implemented alongside further performance tuning to boost network capacity. Builder processing efficiency will be strengthened through BAL integration and EVM execution refinements.Congestion resistance. Dedicated lane solutions will keep the network operating consistently through peak activity. FOCIL-inspired technology will bolster transaction inclusion guarantees, and BAL-based parallel execution will decrease block import latency.Precision pricing. Rather than applying global fee changes, versatile gas fee adjustments will target specific industry verticals.We're also building for the next wave of institutions arriving onchain. That means making the infrastructure flexible enough to meet their requirements, exploring new token standards that make it easier to issue and move stablecoins, and developing privacy frameworks that work with different compliance and regulatory needs.

At the same time, AI-driven security will make the network safer, and teams building RWAs, stablecoins, and DeFi projects will get hands-on technical support and ready-made middleware.

Designed for the Decade: A New L1 Takes ShapeBeyond the existing stack, BNB Chain is developing a next-generation L1 architecture built to support different use cases than the existing ones:

High Performance: 100K+ TPS through co-optimized consensus, parallel execution, and LtHash-based storageUltra-Low Latency: Sub-50ms transaction preconfirmation and sub-1-second block finalityTxStream: No public mempool. Transactions stream directly to the block leader, cutting latency and blocking front-running by designPriorityLane: Reserved block space for mission-critical traffic (oracles, liquidations, bridges), governed on-chainNative Privacy: Protocol-level confidential transactions with selective disclosure for complianceAccount Abstraction Suite: Gas sponsorship, GasToken, transaction batching, scheduled execution, passkey signing, and access key control. The goal is to achieve Web2-grade UX, nativelyBNB Powered: Extends BNB's utility into trading, payment, privacy, and AI scenarios while staying interoperable with the BNB Chain ecosystemWe plan to ship it on testnet by the end of 2026, with mainnet release following in early 2027. More updates to come soon.

Post-Quantum ReadinessThroughout H2 2026, BNB Chain will keep testing methods, evaluating solutions, and deepening its research into quantum-resistant security across the protocol stack.

Two principles guide this work. First, protect early: attackers can record encrypted data today and decrypt it years from now once quantum computers catch up. We're testing a hybrid approach that layers quantum-resistant protection on top of today's cryptography, rather than swapping it in abruptly. Second, make the upgrade seamless: we're researching how account abstraction can let users adopt quantum-safe security without changing their existing addresses or breaking anything they've already built.

There's no finish line here. Quantum computing will keep evolving, and so will our testing and research. The point is that when it matures, BNB Chain's infrastructure is already prepared.

Research That ShipsBNB Chain will continue to collaborate with top international academic and research institutions to explore the latest technology research and productization practices in blockchain technology. 

Looking AheadH1 2026 set targets, delivered them, and measured the results on mainnet. H2 applies the same discipline to a harder set of problems: doubling throughput again on a live network, isolating applications from each other's load, pricing the chain for the next wave of enterprises, and laying the architectural foundation for what comes next.

The goal has not changed: to establish BNB Chain as the premier global network for high-frequency trading and AI integration - defined by speed, institutional-grade reliability, and infrastructure that holds up under real use.

Stablecoins keep inching closer to the part of crypto that matters most in the long run: actual usage. Stripe’s move to support merchant settlement using USDC on Solana is another reminder that the payments story is starting to carry more weight than the pure trading story.

That is important because payments have always been one of crypto’s most promising ideas, but for years the real-world user experience lagged behind the pitch.

For more details, visit the official Stripe platform.

TL;DR Stripe introduced stablecoin payment settlement for US merchants using Solana.The rollout centres on USDC and aims to make on-chain settlement practical inside merchant flows.It is another sign that stablecoins are moving from trading tools to real payment infrastructure. Why Solana Fits This Use Case Solana’s low-cost and relatively fast settlement profile makes it an obvious network for this kind of rollout. For merchants, cost and speed matter more than crypto ideology. If a network can help settle transactions cleanly and cheaply, that is what counts.

Stripe’s presence also changes the conversation. This is not a niche wallet project trying to prove a concept. It is a major payments company plugging stablecoins into a merchant-facing workflow.

The Bigger Stablecoin Shift For the wider market, the story is not just about Solana or Stripe. It is about the continued normalization of stablecoins as a payment rail. That can support demand for infrastructure, liquidity, and settlement tools far beyond trading desks.

If these integrations continue, stablecoins will look less like a crypto side product and more like one of the sector’s clearest practical wins.

This article is based on information from Stripe.

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

Uniswap is not just defending itself. It is defending a version of what DeFi is supposed to be. That is the real significance of its Wells Notice response, which takes aim at the SEC’s attempt to fit decentralized protocols into old regulatory boxes.

For markets, legal documents like this can look dry. For the industry, they often carry much bigger implications than a flashy token announcement.

For more details, visit the official Uniswap platform.

TL;DR Uniswap Labs published its response to the SEC Wells Notice.The company argues automated protocols do not fit the regulator’s broker or exchange theories.The filing is part of a broader pushback from major crypto firms against SEC enforcement logic. The Core Of Uniswap’s Argument Uniswap’s central position is that automated software should not be treated as though it were a traditional exchange intermediary. That is not merely a technical claim. It goes to the heart of how DeFi wants to distinguish itself from centralized platforms.

If regulators succeed in treating protocol development as equivalent to running a conventional venue, the consequences would reach far beyond Uniswap itself.

Why It Matters For The Sector The Wells response lands in a broader period of legal pushback from crypto firms that increasingly seem willing to challenge the SEC directly rather than settle the narrative by default.

That does not guarantee victory, but it does show the next regulatory phase may be more contested, more nuanced, and less one-sided than it looked at times last year.

This report is based on information from Uniswap Labs.

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

Michael Coates has joined the Solana Foundation as its Chief Information Security Officer after a career spanning leadership roles at Mozilla, Twitter and enterprise security startup Altitude Networks.

Summary

Michael Coates has joined the Solana Foundation as Chief Information Security Officer after previously leading security at Mozilla, Twitter and Altitude Networks. Coates said Solana’s transaction scale and multi billion dollar daily stablecoin activity influenced his decision to join the foundation. His work will focus on strengthening crypto security, improving application security practices and working with policymakers on cybersecurity standards. According to a post shared by Michael Coates on X, he has taken over as CISO of the Solana Foundation, where he will lead security efforts across the network as blockchain adoption and institutional activity continue to grow.

Coates cites Solana’s scale as a key factor Explaining his decision, Coates said Solana now handles tens of billions of dollars in daily stablecoin volume while processing more transactions each day than most of the cryptocurrency industry combined. He also pointed to recent tokenization activity on the network, including the launch of SpaceX tokenized shares on the same day the asset debuted on Nasdaq.

Big Update for me – a new chapter and I'm now CISO of @SolanaFndn .

I've always been drawn to fast moving new frontiers. Head of Security of Mozilla during the height of the browser wars, the first CISO of Twitter as they burst onto the world's stage, and even as a startup… pic.twitter.com/nrxtpxIKqZ

— Michael Coates (@_mwc) July 7, 2026 Coates enters the role after serving as Head of Security at Mozilla during the browser competition era and becoming Twitter’s first Chief Information Security Officer as the social media platform expanded globally. He later founded enterprise SaaS security company Altitude Networks, which entered the crypto sector after its acquisition by CoinList.

Within the Solana Foundation, Coates said his work will include strengthening operational security, improving application security practices and addressing risks unique to digital assets. He added that he also plans to work with policymakers and standards bodies on cybersecurity regulation affecting the crypto industry.

Describing the current threat environment, Coates said attackers remain heavily motivated to steal digital assets and noted that malicious uses of artificial intelligence are becoming an increasing security concern. He added that AI can also strengthen defensive capabilities when used effectively and referenced his congressional testimony on the subject earlier this year.

The appointment comes as digital asset firms continue bringing experienced leaders from technology, cybersecurity and regulatory backgrounds into senior positions while institutional participation expands across the sector.

A similar trend emerged last year when former U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Christopher Giancarlo joined Swiss digital asset bank Sygnum as a senior policy advisor. Sygnum said at the time that Giancarlo would advise on global regulation, strategic partnerships and international growth, underscoring the industry’s continued recruitment of experienced executives as crypto infrastructure develops.

South Korean financial super-app Toss has signed a strategic agreement with Optimism and Sunnyside Labs to test blockchain infrastructure for South Korean won-linked stablecoins through a three-month technology verification program.

Summary

Toss has partnered with Optimism and Sunnyside Labs to test blockchain infrastructure for South Korean won linked stablecoins over the next three months. The companies will evaluate payment settlement, compliance requirements and privacy protection using Optimism’s OP Stack and Sunnyside Labs’ Privacy Boost technology. The project will assess whether public blockchain infrastructure can meet institutional financial standards while supporting secure and scalable digital payments. According to a press release shared with crypto.news, the financial technology company will work with Ethereum layer 2 network Optimism and privacy technology developer Sunnyside Labs to examine whether blockchain infrastructure can support institutional payment systems while meeting financial regulations in South Korea. The companies will carry out a proof-of-concept (PoC) over the next three months.

Three areas under review As part of the project, the companies will evaluate whether financial institutions can directly manage payment and settlement processes, comply with customer identification and anti-money laundering requirements, and protect sensitive transaction information while operating on a public blockchain.

Those requirements form the basis of the technical assessment, with Optimism providing blockchain infrastructure through its OP Stack technology while Sunnyside Labs, one of the network’s core developers, will integrate its Privacy Boost solution to address confidentiality concerns.

Privacy Boost is designed to solve one of the key limitations of public blockchains, where transaction details and wallet balances are generally visible to network participants. According to the companies, the technology allows sensitive financial data to remain private while still enabling regulated institutions to verify transactions and maintain existing compliance standards.

The companies also said the system is built to support high transaction volumes, making it suitable for payment services that process large numbers of users simultaneously.

Toss, which serves around 30 million users and supports more than 500,000 online and offline merchants, plans to gradually expand blockchain-based experiments across its payment and platform services. 

A Toss official said the project is intended to verify infrastructure that combines Ethereum’s security with a dedicated network built for local currency-based financial services while allowing interoperability with other blockchain ecosystems.

OP Stack selected for infrastructure testing At the center of the verification is OP Stack, Optimism’s modular blockchain framework that supports dedicated application-specific chains while relying on Ethereum for security and settlement. Layer 2 networks process transactions separately from Ethereum before finalising them on the main chain, helping reduce costs and improve transaction speeds.

According to Toss, the companies will examine whether OP Stack can support a blockchain-based financial network tailored for Korean digital payment services instead of relying on shared public infrastructure.

Optimism’s technology is already used by more than 30 blockchain networks, including projects developed by Sony, World Chain, Uniswap, OKX Layer, and Kraken. The company also offers institutional deployments designed to satisfy regulatory and security requirements, with regulated financial firms such as Europe’s Bitpanda already adopting the technology.

The collaboration comes weeks after Optimism completed a 4-week experiment on its OP mainnet that tested stake-based transaction ordering alongside its existing gas-fee system. The pilot explored whether staking incentives could improve transaction prioritisation without changing the experience for regular users, adding to the network’s ongoing work on blockchain infrastructure.

Dogecoin does not always get taken seriously when the market is in meme mode, but infrastructure updates are where the joke stops and the network starts. Core 1.14.8 is one of those releases that matters because it focuses on security and stability, not sentiment.

That makes it relevant even for traders who never run a node. Healthy networks are built on boring work done properly.

For more details, visit the official GitHub platform.

TL;DR Dogecoin developers released Core 1.14.8 with critical security patches.The release addresses vulnerabilities referenced in the project notes, including remote code execution fixes.For node operators and the network, this is less hype story and more maintenance that genuinely matters. A Reminder That Maintenance Matters The GitHub notes make clear that the new version includes critical security patches. That alone should be enough to get the attention of node operators and anyone responsible for infrastructure around DOGE.

Crypto markets often reward spectacle, but security updates are the difference between a network that looks active and a network that can actually be trusted. For Dogecoin, that means the conversation should be about resilience rather than memes.

What It Means For The Ecosystem Releases like this also help reinforce that Dogecoin is still maintained code, not just a ticker powered by online culture. That distinction matters whenever the asset is discussed as if it exists only on social momentum.

The immediate market impact may be limited, but the underlying point is straightforward: networks that keep patching, updating, and hardening themselves give holders and service providers more confidence over time.

This report is based on the Dogecoin GitHub release notes.

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

Table of contents

The speed at which Mantle is onboarding tokenized private company equities has turned from trickle to signal. The network just landed Bending Spoons (BSPx) as its third such listing in under 30 days, according to the original report. That cadence is rare for a sector still defined more by experimentation than by sustained volume. Mantle is now explicitly positioning itself as a distribution layer between traditional finance and on-chain markets, and the BSPx listing underlines the operational capacity backing that claim.

Tokenized equities remain a small fraction of the broader real‑world asset (RWA) market. Yet the RWA space itself crossed $20 billion in on‑chain value earlier this year, a milestone that recent analysis tracked alongside major institutional moves. Bending Spoons, the Italian mobile app developer behind products like Evernote and Remini, is privately held—there is no public stock. Bringing its tokenized shares on-chain lets accredited investors access exposure without the friction of traditional private markets. For Mantle, repeatedly drawing such assets suggests its infrastructure is being treated as ready for production, not just pilot phases.

Why the Listing Pace Matters Three tokenized equity launches inside a single month on one Layer 2 is atypical. Most networks handling RWAs lean heavily on tokenized government securities or stablecoin collateral. Illiquid private company shares carry different risks: settlement complexity, issuer‑side compliance demands, and thin secondary liquidity. Mantle’s quick succession of BSPx after earlier issuances signals that the technical and legal rails are holding.

Not every blockchain can reliably support tokenized equity without external trust assumptions. Mantle’s design—built as an Ethereum rollup with a native focus on institutional‑grade bridging—has been refined over quarters. The network’s modular data availability layer and its native token economics aim to keep gas costs predictable, which matters when issuers want to avoid fee spikes during distribution events. Three listings with real companies indicate that the sales pitch is landing with corporates that can choose any chain.

The Private‑Market Liquidity Gap Private company shares have long been stuck in an illiquidity trap. Employees hold options, early investors sit on paper gains, and secondary transactions are manual, slow, and opaque. Tokenization doesn’t solve legal transfer restrictions overnight, but it does make compliant fractional sales technically feasible. That’s why Mantle’s cadence—moving from concept to live listings—is being watched by market operators who see a pipeline forming.

At the same time, on‑chain orderbooks for tokenized equities are immature. The spreads on BSPx are unlikely to resemble anything seen on Nasdaq. Early adopters are effectively betting that infrastructure precedes liquidity, not the reverse. For Mantle, the play is to aggregate enough high‑quality private names that market makers and custody providers eventually consider integrating with its native asset vaults. That is a long game, but the velocity of new listings shortens the feedback loop.

Regulatory Shadows and How Mantle Fits Any securities‑adjacent token launch in 2026 operates under a regulatory framework that is still hardening. Weeks of intense lobbying in Washington recently culminated in a battle over a landmark crypto bill, as reported just days ago. The outcome will likely shape what can be tokenized without triggering legacy securities laws. Mantle’s focus on equities places it directly in the crosshairs of these debates.

The network’s disclosure has not detailed how it structured the BSPx offering under applicable exemptions, which will matter to institutional compliance desks. European private companies like Bending Spoons may lean on EU prospectus exemptions, but the token marketing likely touches investors across jurisdictions. That jurisdictional patchwork remains the largest unhedged risk for the space. Mantle’s consistent listing pace will force these questions to be answered sooner rather than later.

What The Market Is Discounting Tokenized equity is not an asset class yet—it is a product category in alpha. The market is not pricing in sudden volume or deep liquidity for BSPx. What it may be discounting, however, is how quickly a Layer 2 network can become the default conduit for private company tokens if existing financial intermediaries continue to move slowly. Institutional interest is real: recent moves such as a Nasdaq firm deepening its staking footprint on Sui show that traditional players are testing blockchain rails in earnest.

Mantle’s ability to land three name‑brand issuances in rapid succession suggests it understands that speed of execution, rather than permissionless maximalism, is what attracts equity issuers. The test for BSPx will be whether secondary market data—however modest—starts to flow on-chain, and whether that attracts a fourth issuer even faster. For now, the network is stacking proof points that a tokenized private capital market can run on its infrastructure, one listing at a time.

Each new tokenized equity on Mantle adds a data point for an industry that remains reliant on narratives. The underlying message is that private company shares are not a one‑off gimmick on the network—they are becoming the baseline, not the exception.

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.

OnchainLens monitoring shows that Pump.fun’s official address has transferred 68,596 SOL tokens worth $5.65 million to Kraken, and is likely to sell them imminently.

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Billionaire Grantham is bearish on SpaceX: 90% probability of eventual collapse, casts doubt on the AI and Mars narratives.

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Bitcoin financial services platform Strike has launched a “volatility-proof” Bitcoin-backed loan that eliminates margin calls and forced liquidations amid the depths of a bear market, but only for those who can pay on time and handle a 14% interest rate.

In an announcement on Tuesday, Strike CEO Jack Mallers said the offering came in response to broad customer feedback on Strike’s first Bitcoin loan product, which launched in May 2025 and triggered many liquidations during a timeframe in which Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 54% from peak to trough.

“No margin calls. No price liquidations. No matter how far bitcoin falls, your bitcoin doesn't move,” Strike CEO Jack Mallers said of the new Bitcoin loan product. The trade-off is an expensive interest rate, a shorter six-month loan term, and an obligation to pay on time to avoid liquidation, Mallers said.

Strike’s Jack Mallers is presenting the new Bitcoin-backed loan product. Source: Jack Mallers

The Bitcoin industry has spent the better part of a decade racing to build financial products that expand Bitcoin's use case beyond a savings technology. A report in June from crypto lending platform Ledn, however, found that while 88% of surveyed crypto investors said they would consider a crypto-backed loan, only 14% use them.

Ledn said confidence in crypto-lending products and market volatility are among the main reasons for this 6-to-1 “crypto collateral gap” that has slowed adoption.

Volatility has been one of the biggest obstacles behind that push, with Bitcoin dropping 30% or more in 10 of the past 12 years, while also experiencing a 50% or more drawdown four times since 2014, Mallers noted.

Other crypto market participants offering Bitcoin-backed loans are Binance, Coinbase, Nexo and Xapo Bank.

Strike charges double-digit interestThe maximum initial loan-to-value ratio for the volatility-proof loans is 45%, meaning that a customer who puts up $100,000 in Bitcoin as collateral can borrow up to $45,000, while the annual percentage rate (APR) is also 2.95 percentage points higher than Strike’s standard loan product.

“The secret sauce is that we’re taking the extra charge that we’re giving you guys and we’re putting it on extra hedges in the market to protect all of us.”Strike’s standard Bitcoin loans charge an annual percentage rate between 7.75% and 11.25%, meaning the volatility-proof products could carry interest between 10.7% and 14.2%. 

"If you're OK with a slightly shorter term and a little bit higher of a fee, there is no price move that can liquidate you," Mallers said.

Over the past year, Bitcoin has fallen 54% from its all-time high of $126,080 in October to $58,190 on June 25.

Bitcoin investor Fred Krueger said the loan product "could eliminate one of Bitcoin's biggest structural problems: forced selling during market crashes." 

“Instead of volatility causing automatic liquidations, defaults would be driven by borrowers' inability to service debt rather than by temporary price swings," he said.

“Great product for those who need near-term liquidity and don’t want to risk liquidation,” added Vibes Capital Management executive chairman Rob Topping, though he also acknowledged the 14% APR was expensive. 

Customers must pay up or face consequencesIf a client misses a payment, they have 10 days to make the payment or contact Strike to explain their financial situation, Mallers said.

Failing to pay after that 10-day period may mean Strike starts liquidating their Bitcoin to cover the overdue amount, Mallers warned.

“If we don’t hear from you for a few weeks, then I may have no choice but to sell off some of the Bitcoin because it seems like you’re doing a hit-and-run.”“That’s why we call it ‘volatility-proof,’ not ‘liquidation-proof,’” Mallers added.

The Bitcoin loans are offered in most US states and can be taken out in both personal and business names. They can be used for new loans, refinancing or consolidating.

While the minimum loan amount varies from state to state, the minimum loan offered through personal loans is $10,000, while businesses in certain states can access loans as low as $5,000.

Features: Bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI, so why is the hashrate near ATHs?

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

New Hampshire is taking another big step toward using Bitcoin in public finance. On Wednesday, the state’s Governor and Executive Council will hold a public hearing . They will decide whether to approve a plan for up to $100 million in Bitcoin-backed bonds.

If approved, the plan would move forward as one of the first municipal bond projects in the US linked to Bitcoin.

What Is the Plan?The bonds would help finance private Bitcoin purchases through a company connected to Bitcoin miner CleanSpark. The state would not borrow the money itself. Instead, it would act as a middleman by issuing the bonds. Meanwhile, the private borrower is responsible for paying investors back.

State officials say this means taxpayer money is not at risk.

Governor Kelly Ayotte has called the idea a way to attract investment. Additionally, it would make New Hampshire a leader in digital finance without using public funds.

Granite Staters pay way too much for electricity, and it’s unacceptable that utilities would attempt to block relief after overcharging for more than a decade.

New Hampshire joined fellow New England states in calling for the return of $1.5 billion to ratepayers, including $150… pic.twitter.com/3DyjjlmiiN

— Governor Kelly Ayotte (@KellyAyotte) July 6, 2026 Why It MattersNew Hampshire has been one of the most crypto-friendly states in the US. In 2025, it became the first state to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve. This allows the government to invest a small portion of public funds in large digital assets like Bitcoin.

The new bond proposal is another move that could strengthen the state’s position in the crypto industry.

But There Are RisksNot everyone is convinced the idea is a good one.

Financial experts warn that Bitcoin’s price can change very quickly. If the value of the Bitcoin used as collateral drops too much, around 12.5% from the required level, the bonds could be forced into early liquidation.

Moody’s has also given the proposed bonds a Ba2 rating. This rating is considered speculative and carries higher credit risk than investment-grade bonds.

Finance professor David Krause said the project could be a useful experiment. However, it may not be practical as a long-term public financing tool because of Bitcoin’s volatility.

Looking AheadThe hearing is expected to be the final major government step before the bonds can be issued. While approval seems likely, the real challenge will come after launch. The project’s success will depend heavily on Bitcoin’s price and market conditions.

If the plan moves forward, New Hampshire could set an example for other US states. Other states are exploring new ways to use digital assets in public finance.

Story Ends Here

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$111 Million in ETH Lands on CoinbaseA wallet believed to be connected to CoinShares, the European digital asset investment firm, has deposited 63,000 $ETH valued at approximately $111 million to Coinbase, according to on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain. The transfer was flagged on July 8, 2026, and quickly drew attention from market watchers tracking large institutional flows.

Deposits of this size to a major exchange typically raise questions about intent. Lookonchain, which monitors on-chain wallet activity in real time, identified the sending address as one possibly associated with CoinShares, though the firm has not publicly confirmed the transfer or its purpose.

Sale Speculation, But No ConfirmationThe movement has fueled speculation that a significant sell order could follow. However, no sale has been confirmed. Large transfers to exchanges do not always precede disposals. As industry observers note, institutional players often route assets to exchange wallets for settlement, rebalancing, or custody management rather than outright liquidation.

CoinShares is one of Europe's largest regulated digital asset managers, offering a range of crypto exchange-traded products. Transfers of this scale from asset managers can reflect routine operational activity, such as meeting redemptions from an investment product, rather than a directional market call.

For now, the transfer remains unconfirmed in terms of its purpose, and the broader market context will determine whether any follow-on selling pressure materialises. Traders and analysts will be watching Coinbase order flow closely in the hours ahead for any sign of a large $ETH sale.

Sources:
Lookonchain: On-chain analytics and whale tracking
CoinShares: Official website

Binance has introduced BNB Agent Studio, a new platform that allows AI agents to access CoinMarketCap data directly via the Binance Pay infrastructure. This move is seen as a step that could expand the role of the BNB Chain ecosystem for developers, and market watchers are now focused on whether the announcement will drive significant short-term price action.

The structure behind the new platformCurrently, BNB is trading near $580, having rebounded from a low of $565 and even testing the $590 level. Market participants are closely monitoring whether the launch of this new feature will positively impact the technical backdrop for BNB’s price.

BNB Agent Studio enables developers to create AI agents without needing to set up an API key or a separate payment system. Binance has stated that every request is processed automatically via the B402 protocol. As one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance operates an extensive suite of products, including spot, derivatives, and payment infrastructure.

Glossary: B402 is a payment standard designed to automate pay-per-request flows for digital services, enabling software agents to make direct payments from their wallets when accessing data or services.

Binance has announced that developers can create AI agents with one-click access to CoinMarketCap data, with payment flows handled automatically through the agent’s wallet.

This development not only marks a product update, but also aims to make BNB Chain more attractive to teams building autonomous AI services. If adoption increases, it’s expected that transaction volumes on the network could grow over the long run.

The $590 threshold on the technical chartOn the daily chart, BNB found support at $565 and is now making an attempt to overcome the $590 resistance. The MACD indicator is signaling weakened selling pressure, suggesting potential for further upward momentum.

According to CoinGlass data, the size of open positions remains between $850 million and $900 million. This indicates that market participants are not entering with heavy leverage, but are instead approaching the market with greater caution.

IndicatorLevelInterpretationSupport$565A loss of this level could intensify downside pressureResistance$590A breakout could open up further upsidePotential target$620Next area to watch if momentum continuesOpen positions$850 million to $900 millionIndicates cautious participationIf BNB can break above $590 with strong volume, attention could turn to the $620 level; however, losing support at $565 could weaken the outlook again.

The strength of technical indicators and the level of developer interest in BNB Agent Studio are likely to shape BNB’s next move. If open positions grow alongside price increases, it could signal new capital entering the market.

On the other hand, failure to surpass $590 or a drop in open positions may sap the current recovery momentum. For now, the $590 barrier stands out as the most closely watched level in the short term.

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.

Uniswap Labs has called on UNI token holders to approve the next phase of its “UNIfication” burn initiative by voting on incorporating protocol fees across a segment of Uniswap v4 liquidity pools. The voting process began on July 7 and is set to run until July 12. Currently active on 11 blockchains, the program seeks to broaden its scope with these planned updates.

Voting process and program expansionThe process begins with a five-day Snapshot vote, after which an on-chain binding vote is expected to occur during the week of July 13. The proposal seeks to integrate the existing fee and burn mechanism with v4 pools on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Celo, OP Mainnet, Soneium, X Layer, Worldchain, Zora, BNB Chain, and Polygon.

Mini glossary: A Snapshot is an off-chain voting system used by decentralized communities. Although results are not written directly to the blockchain, they serve as an important reference for subsequent binding governance votes.

Uniswap is recognized as one of the world’s largest decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, providing critical infrastructure for decentralized exchanges. If the proposal passes, UNI tokens equivalent in value to the protocol fee collected from transactions will be burned. These tokens will be moved to an irretrievable address on the Ethereum network, permanently removing them from circulation.

Uniswap Labs launched Snapshot voting on July 7 to include v4 pools in the current fee and burn program, with an on-chain vote expected during the week of July 13.

What sets v4 apart?Unlike the more fixed fee structures of Uniswap v2 and v3 pools, fees in v4 pools can vary from block to block due to its unique “hook” system. This added complexity means v4 integration requires a more advanced architecture. The proposal outlines a dual-contract system to address this challenge.

The first contract establishes the pool’s applicable fee rate, while a secondary contract ensures the enforcement of these policies and transfers the collected fees to the designated address. This modular approach allows governance to adapt policies in the future simply by updating the policy contract, without having to overhaul the entire system.

Three types of v4 pools are covered in the proposal: pools without hooks, pools created through auctions, and pools that leverage aggregator hooks to import external liquidity. For the Base network, the fee is set at 3 basis points, while it’s planned at 10 basis points on other networks. Aggregator hook pools may set fees above the standard cap.

Network or pool typePlanned feeBase3 basis pointsOther networks10 basis pointsAggregator hook poolsAbove standard capImplications for liquidity providersWith protocol fees in place, a share of user transaction fees would be allocated to Uniswap itself, effectively reducing the returns for liquidity providers. This potential shift has ignited debate over balancing the interests of UNI holders and liquidity providers, who supply capital to the pools.

Guillaume Lambert, head of Panoptic, argued that a tax-like protocol fee structure in v4 could drive away liquidity providers, potentially harming the platform by repeating similar reductions seen in v2 and v3.

Burn metrics and recent ecosystem growthLast month, Uniswap posted a new daily record by burning 186,000 UNI tokens in a single day, surpassing the previous high of 134,000. As of July 7, UNI trades at $3.23 with a market capitalization of around $2 billion, far below its peak of $44.97 reached in May 2021.

Despite this price gap, Uniswap’s ecosystem continues to expand. At the start of July, the protocol debuted on Robinhood Chain, activating v2, v3, v4, and UniswapX products from day one. In less than a week, Uniswap processed over $250 million in trading volume on the new network.

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.

Europe’s most ambitious crypto regulation went fully live on July 1, 2026. The Markets in Crypto-Assets framework, known as MiCA, replaced 27 separate national regimes with a single unified licensing system for crypto-asset service providers across the EU.

Dr. Lin Han, founder and CEO of Gate Group, warned in early July 2026 that MiCA’s success depends on universal compliance among crypto platforms. His position: as long as unregulated operators continue to serve EU clients, the goal of a fair competitive landscape will remain unattainable.

The compliance gap problem Licensed platforms invest heavily in compliance infrastructure, legal teams, and regulatory capital. Unlicensed overseas operators serving the same EU customer base carry none of those costs. The result is a structural imbalance that rewards ignoring the rules.

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Gate Technology Ltd, the EU-facing arm of Gate Group, obtained its MiCA CASP license from the Malta Financial Services Authority in late 2025. The license covers exchange and custody services. The company also secured a Payment Institution license under the revised PSD2 framework in early 2026.

The European Securities and Markets Authority, ESMA, has stated that non-authorized firms serving EU clients are in violation of EU law and must stop. No specific penalties for non-compliant platforms have been highlighted in present coverage.

Tether’s absence and what it signals Tether, the issuer of USDT, announced it would not pursue MiCA authorization. The company cited concerns about the reserve requirements MiCA imposes on stablecoin issuers.

USDT is the dominant trading pair on most global exchanges, and a significant volume of EU-based trading runs through it. If MiCA’s stablecoin rules effectively push the most liquid dollar-denominated asset out of compliant EU platforms, traders do not simply stop using USDT. They find other ways to access it, often through platforms that are not MiCA-authorized.

What this means for traders and the EU crypto market Smaller platforms that lack the capital to absorb MiCA compliance costs are already exiting the EU market or scaling back services.

Gate’s dual licensing, MiCA CASP plus PSD2 Payment Institution, gives it a broader service footprint than many competitors who cleared only one of those hurdles. That positioning becomes more valuable as the compliance barrier rises and fewer entrants can clear it. But its value depends entirely on regulators making that barrier real for everyone, not just the firms that volunteer to clear it.

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

Strike just introduced a lending product that tackles one of the biggest fears in crypto borrowing: waking up to find your collateral has been liquidated because Bitcoin dropped 20% overnight.

The company’s new “volatility-proof” bitcoin-backed term loans, launched on July 7, eliminate all price-based loan-to-value triggers. In English: it doesn’t matter if Bitcoin falls to $30K or $20K or lower. As long as you make your scheduled payments, your bitcoin stays yours. No margin calls, no forced liquidations, no 3 AM panic.

How the product actually works Strike’s new product throws the traditional LTV threshold framework out. The only thing that triggers partial liquidation is missed payments, and even then, borrowers get a 10-day grace period before anything happens.

The trade-offs are real, though. The maximum initial LTV sits at 45%, compared to 50% on Strike’s standard loans. You’re putting up more collateral upfront for the privilege of not losing it later. The term is capped at 6 months, half the 12-month duration available on standard options. And there’s an additional 2.95% APR premium baked in.

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On the fee side, the picture looks cleaner. Zero origination fees. Zero prepayment fees. Zero liquidation fees. That applies to both the volatility-proof and standard loan products.

The loans are available through the Strike app in select US states, with an important caveat: lines of credit are excluded from the volatility-proof option. This is strictly a term loan product.

Why this matters more than it sounds During previous market downturns, cascading liquidations turned manageable price corrections into full-blown crises. Borrowers who posted Bitcoin as collateral watched helplessly as their positions got liquidated at the worst possible moment, selling the bottom and locking in maximum pain. Platforms like Celsius, BlockFi, and Voyager all collapsed in the fallout of the 2022 bear market, and forced liquidations were a significant accelerant.

Strike CEO Jack Mallers framed the product as a fundamental shift in risk management for bitcoin holders, one that prioritizes borrower payment adherence over volatile market conditions. The framing is deliberate: Strike is betting that the lender’s real risk is borrower creditworthiness, not Bitcoin’s Tuesday price action.

The lower 45% LTV threshold is how Strike manages its own exposure. By requiring borrowers to overcollateralize more aggressively upfront, the company creates a larger cushion that can absorb price drops without needing to liquidate.

Strike’s lending ambitions in context This launch doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Strike spent much of 2025 building out its bitcoin-backed lending infrastructure, including establishing partnerships and securing a $2.1 billion credit facility.

At the time of launch, Bitcoin was trading around $63,000, underscoring exactly the kind of volatile environment where liquidation protection becomes most valuable.

For investors considering these loans, the math is straightforward but worth doing carefully. The 45% LTV means posting roughly $2.22 in Bitcoin for every $1 borrowed. Add the 2.95% APR premium on top of whatever the base rate is, and you’re paying a meaningful cost for volatility protection.

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

Large-wallet activity on @Lighter_xyz and @Mantle_Official just hit its highest level in six months, according to on-chain analytics firm @SantimentData. Lighter recorded 86 transactions worth more than $100,000, while Mantle registered 37 such transactions, marking the highest daily whale activity for both tokens in the past six months.

Although whale transaction metrics do not distinguish between buying and selling, they are widely viewed as indicators of heightened activity by large holders, and such spikes often coincide with periods when institutional investors or high-net-worth wallets reposition their portfolios ahead of significant market moves.

$LIT catches a Robinhood catalyst The surge in $LIT whale activity follows a major product integration. @RobinhoodApp Wallet now offers in-app perpetual futures trading, with the engine underneath being @Lighter_xyz, the rising zk-powered perps exchange atop Ethereum. Robinhood Chain, a Layer 2 built using Arbitrum's tech stack, went live on public mainnet on July 1, with the Lighter perps integration arriving alongside it. Lighter has committed $11 million of its native $LIT tokens to the Robinhood community as part of the deal, and eligible users earn points on perpetual futures trades on Lighter, converting directly into $LIT, with no fees on perpetuals accessed through Lighter for the first 90 days.

$LIT surged 24% as Robinhood Wallet added Lighter's perpetual futures trading. The token has since climbed further to trade near $2.70, a fresh high. As an exchange based in America with its token issued out of a Delaware C-corp, Lighter has a cleaner path into regulatory approval than offshore-first competitors, adding to the longer-term investment case behind the whale positioning.

$MNT whales accumulate but price stays stuck The picture for @Mantle_Official is more mixed. Whale transaction counts matched the six-month high, yet the price response has been muted. Mantle remains in a broader downtrend, with $MNT trading near $0.43 after failing to reclaim the key $0.57 resistance, and while the RSI has recovered from oversold conditions, momentum remains weak and buyers have yet to confirm a trend reversal.

For $MNT to validate the recent whale activity, the token must first reclaim $0.57, which could pave the way toward $0.94 and eventually $1.08. Mantle continues to benefit from its expanding Layer 2 ecosystem and one of the largest community-controlled treasuries in the crypto market, and ongoing ecosystem development, DeFi incentives, and long-term infrastructure growth may be encouraging whales to accumulate positions while prices remain significantly below previous highs.

For now, the divergence is stark. Lighter has a clear narrative driving price alongside the whale flows. Mantle has the accumulation signal but is still waiting for a price catalyst to match it.

Sources
CoinPedia: Crypto Whales Accumulating Lighter and Mantle
The Block: Robinhood Chain Goes Live with Lighter Perps
Robinhood Newsroom: Robinhood Chain Mainnet Launch

Hyperscale Data just added another 50.65 Bitcoin to its corporate treasury, bringing its total holdings to 899.65 BTC. For context, that is a company that held just 11 BTC sometime in 2025 and is now sitting on nearly 900 coins valued at roughly $57.2 million.

The pace of accumulation here is not subtle. Between June 30 and July 6, 2026 alone, the company acquired 115.9205 BTC through a combination of mining output and open-market purchases.

From 11 Bitcoin to nearly 900 in under two years Hyperscale Data, listed on NYSE American under the ticker GPUS, has turned Bitcoin accumulation into something close to a competitive sport. Its holdings stood at around 234 BTC in November 2025, climbed to approximately 663 BTC by April 2026, and are now knocking on the door of 900.

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The company manages its Bitcoin through two wholly-owned subsidiaries, Sentinum and Ault Capital Group. Those entities handle both the mined Bitcoin coming off the company’s own operations and the coins purchased directly from the open market.

The stated goal is a $100 million Bitcoin treasury. At current holdings of 899.65 BTC valued at $57.2 million, the company has cleared the halfway mark with room to run.

The AI angle is not a sideshow Hyperscale Data recently secured a $1.2 billion deal focused on AI compute infrastructure. The company is also acquiring land and power resources in Michigan as part of its data center expansion.

Hyperscale Data’s total asset portfolio, which includes cash, restricted cash, Bitcoin, and 10,000 ounces of .999 silver, sits between $106.7 million and $111.4 million.

What this means for investors watching the space Because Hyperscale Data is also an active Bitcoin miner and an AI infrastructure operator, the stock offers exposure to multiple Bitcoin-adjacent revenue streams simultaneously. Investors are not just buying a company that holds Bitcoin. They are buying a company that mines Bitcoin, acquires Bitcoin, and operates the kind of power-intensive computing infrastructure that both AI and crypto demand.

The risk profile is correspondingly more complex. A Bitcoin price decline hits the treasury value directly. An AI infrastructure downturn hits the $1.2 billion deal thesis. A mining difficulty increase compresses margins on the mined Bitcoin side.

Watch the gap between the current $57.2 million treasury value and the $100 million target. How management closes that gap, through mining, open-market purchases, or some combination, will reveal how aggressive they are willing to be with capital allocation as the company simultaneously tries to fund a $1.2 billion AI infrastructure commitment.

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

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

The US market for spot ETFs based on XRP has held its place in the top league, returning above the psychologically important threshold of $1 billion in net assets. According to a fresh report from SoSoValue, the combined assets under management of five funds stood at $1.05 billion.

However, a detailed look inside the sector shows that this comeback was not the result of new investment inflows, but a mathematical rescue driven by the price surge of XRP itself.

Math behind the comeback to billion-dollar clubThe US XRP ETFs returned to the billion-dollar threshold thanks to an organic recalculation of the value of their underlying holdings. Over the past week, the native cryptocurrency of the XRP Ledger posted a strong 10.5% gain, settling at $1.15 after a prolonged June decline toward the dangerous $1.00 mark.

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Since ETF balances are tightly tied to the market price of the coin, this price jump recalculated the sector's capitalization in favor of issuers and effectively saved a key institutional threshold from being lost in the eyes of major players.

Total XRP Spot ETF Net Inflow over the last 30 days, Source: SoSoValueThe breakdown of power among the funds as of July 7 looks as follows:

Bitwise (XRP): remains the largest player, with net assets returning to $330.84 million thanks to the price recovery and a local inflow of capital.Canary (XRPC): ranks second with $265.30 million.Franklin Templeton (XRPZ): confidently closes out the top three, accumulating $261.68 million. You Might Also Like

Real capital inflow, meanwhile, remained restrained. Over the reporting period, the funds collected a modest $17.19 million. Still, that was enough to extend the winning streak of inflows to nine consecutive weeks, bringing the cumulative figure since launch to $1.49 billion.

Large institutional investors are now clearly taking a wait-and-see position amid bureaucratic delays in Washington. The final vote on the CLARITY Act, which is expected to definitively establish XRP's status as a commodity, has shifted to late July or August 2026.

In this regulatory lull, the funds are simply holding their positions, while their return to billion-dollar status is entirely the achievement of XRP's revived spot price.

The XRP Ledger has moved closer to activating its xrpld v3.2.0 upgrade after more than 55% of trusted validators adopted the latest software version.

Summary

XRP Ledger validator adoption of xrpld v3.2.0 has climbed above 55%, moving the network closer to upgrade activation. The release introduces infrastructure updates, security fixes, and the official rename from rippled to xrpld. The fixCleanup3_2_0 amendment has 40% support, while developers continue monitoring validator migration issues. According to XRP Ledger Explorer data, 84 trusted validators, or 55.63% of the validator set, are now running xrpld v3.2.0. The latest software has also been installed on 353 network nodes, accounting for 42.12% of all nodes. By comparison, version 3.1.3 remains active on 58 validators, representing 38.41% of the validator set, and on 440 nodes, or 52.51% of the network.

XRP Ledger v3.2.0 adoption across validators and nodes | Source: XRPL Explorer On the XRP Ledger, trusted validators are responsible for approving protocol changes, while regular nodes follow the decisions made by the trusted validator list. Under the network’s governance rules, a protocol amendment requires support from more than 80% of trusted validators for two consecutive weeks before it can be activated.

Based on the current figures, roughly another quarter of the validator set must migrate to v3.2.0 before the upgrade can move toward activation.

Latest release introduces infrastructure and security changes Released as xrpld v3.2.0, the software package includes infrastructure updates, developer improvements, and bug fixes across the XRP Ledger. One of its most notable changes is the official renaming of the network’s main server software from rippled to xrpld, following the XLS-0095 proposal.

Beginning June 15, the upgrade changed configuration paths, server metadata, database directory locations, and version naming conventions. As a result, validator operators and node administrators are required to update deployment scripts and server configurations before completing the migration.

Alongside the software release, developers also introduced the fixCleanup3_2_0 amendment. According to the release documentation, the amendment contains security-related fixes covering Single Asset Vaults, the Lending Protocol, permissioned decentralized exchanges, Multi-Purpose Tokens (MPTs) and permissioned domains.

The proposal also adds new invariant checks designed to prevent deleted accounts from leaving residual ledger data, improving ledger consistency. In addition, the update allows developers and users to access XRP Ledger protocol information and server definitions without operating a full server, a change intended to simplify integrations for wallets, APIs, blockchain explorers and other automated services.

Amendment voting still has ground to cover Even as validator adoption of the software continues to climb, support for the attached fixCleanup3_2_0 amendment remains well below the activation threshold. Current network data shows the amendment has secured roughly 40% support, leaving it far short of the supermajority required for approval.

Ripple has publicly supported the amendment, helping strengthen confidence around the proposed changes. Separately, the XRP Ledger Lending Protocol recently passed an independent security audit, adding another layer of reassurance for the lending-related fixes included in the amendment.

At the same time, developers continue to monitor issues reported during validator migrations. A GitHub issue tracked under report #7581 describes a case where the service log displayed the correct new validator public key while the running server continued using the older public key stored in the wallet database.

The report attributes the discrepancy to validator migration behavior rather than the protocol itself, highlighting an operational issue that node operators may need to address as adoption of xrpld v3.2.0 continues to expand. 

Anchorage Digital, the operator of the United States’ federally chartered crypto bank, has added support for Lido, Ethereum’s largest liquid staking protocol. The move gives institutional clients direct, compliant access to wrapped staked Ether (wstETH) entirely within Anchorage Digital’s regulated platform, eliminating the need to move assets to external services.

Institutions can now connect straight to Lido’s decentralized application from Anchorage Digital to mint wstETH by depositing Ether or redeem it back into ETH. wstETH automatically accrues staking rewards from Ethereum’s proof-of-stake network while remaining fully liquid and transferable.

This solves several pain points of traditional ETH staking, including long unbonding periods, the operational burden of running validators, and capital that would otherwise sit idle.

The integration forms part of Anchorage Digital’s broader effort to deliver a complete suite of on-chain capabilities—staking, liquid staking, restaking, governance, and settlement—under institutional-grade custody and compliance controls.

Clients retain full oversight of their positions without introducing new counterparties or fragmenting their operational workflows.

For institutions, the primary advantages center on capital efficiency and flexibility. wstETH can serve as collateral in lending markets, participate in decentralized exchanges, or support cross-chain strategies without first unwinding a stake.

This allows sophisticated allocators to generate yield from Ethereum staking while keeping assets productive across multiple DeFi protocols.

Nathan McCauley, Co-Founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital, described liquid staking as one of the most important building blocks for institutional participation in Ethereum.

He stated that the Lido integration removes the operational and security compromises that have historically kept large investors on the sidelines, advancing the goal of making advanced on-chain infrastructure truly institution-ready.

Kean Gilbert, Head of Institutional Relations at the Lido Ecosystem Foundation, noted that institutional adoption succeeds when access aligns with how institutions actually operate.

He highlighted that bringing wstETH into a major U.S. regulated platform strengthens the role of stETH and the Lido protocol in professional Ethereum staking environments.

Anchorage Digital, founded in 2017 and based in San Francisco, operates under a federal banking charter and holds additional licenses in Singapore and New York (BitLicense).

The company is backed by investors including Andreessen Horowitz, GIC, Goldman Sachs, KKR, and Visa, and carries an approximate valuation of $4.2 billion.

Its global footprint includes offices in New York, Singapore, Portugal, and South Dakota.

By embedding Lido’s liquid staking directly into a regulated custody environment, Anchorage Digital lowers barriers for institutions seeking Ethereum yield.

The development reflects the ongoing maturation of on-chain finance, where regulated platforms increasingly bridge traditional institutional requirements with the composability and efficiency of decentralized protocols. As more firms gain seamless access to products like wstETH, participation in Ethereum staking and related DeFi activities is expected to grow among professional allocators seeking both yield and operational simplicity.

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Last Updated: July 7, 2026

Dogecoin is trading near $0.077 on July 7, 2026, down about 2.9% in 24 hours but still up 3.4% over the past week, and the coin’s most substantive non-price storyline right now is real-world payments infrastructure rather than speculation about Elon Musk. ÐOGE Pay, the Dogecoin-first checkout system launched by House of Doge and MoonPay across more than 6,000 merchants on June 9, is moving toward a full rollout targeted for Q3 2026 — a concrete adoption push that stands in contrast to years of unconfirmed rumors about Dogecoin payments on X.

Key Takeaways DOGE trades around $0.077, down roughly 2.9% in 24 hours but up 3.4% over the past week, continuing to underperform the broader crypto market’s 7.1% weekly gain. ÐOGE Pay, launched June 9 by House of Doge (the Dogecoin Foundation’s commercial arm) and MoonPay, already covers more than 6,000 merchants and charges a competitive 1% processing fee, with full rollout planned for Q3 2026. House of Doge separately struck a partnership with Paxos — the crypto infrastructure provider behind platforms like PayPal and Venmo — to integrate Dogecoin into major fintech platforms, though no consumer-facing timeline has been confirmed. Speculation about Dogecoin payment integration on X (formerly Twitter) remains the most-cited catalyst for a bigger DOGE move, but Musk’s direct influence on price appears to have weakened — a March 2026 “Doge father” video from him barely moved the market. DOGE’s regulatory footing has also improved in 2026, following its classification as a digital commodity and the launch of its first spot ETF on Nasdaq. Dogecoin Market Overview MetricValuePrice (DOGE/USD)~$0.07724h Change-2.9%7-Day Change+3.4%ÐOGE Pay Merchant Coverage6,000+ (as of June 9 launch)ÐOGE Pay Processing Fee1%Full Rollout TargetQ3 2026 Data sourced from CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko. Prices are volatile and change continuously — confirm with a live source before trading.

Dogecoin Price Analysis DOGE’s pullback to $0.077 keeps it within its recent trading range, still anchored around the closely watched $0.072 support level that has held since June. The token continues to underperform the broader market’s recovery, a pattern that has persisted through most of 2026 even as Dogecoin’s underlying fundamentals — regulatory clarity, ETF access, and now real merchant payment rails — have genuinely improved. That gap between fundamentals and price is the central tension in DOGE’s current setup.

Why Is Dogecoin News Dominated by ÐOGE Pay Today? What Actually Launched On June 9, House of Doge and MoonPay announced a partnership enabling native Dogecoin payments across MoonPay’s existing network of more than 6,000 merchants, alongside ÐOGE Pay, a new Dogecoin-first checkout solution. Merchants can embed Dogecoin payments directly into their checkout flows with streamlined onboarding and a 1% processing fee — competitive with, or cheaper than, many traditional card processing rates.

Why the Q3 Timeline Matters While the MoonPay integration is already live across thousands of merchant locations, House of Doge has targeted Q3 2026 for a fuller rollout, suggesting the current merchant count represents an early phase rather than the ceiling of the initiative. Because this is a concrete, dated commercial deployment rather than a rumor, it gives traders and merchants alike an actual milestone to watch, rather than the open-ended speculation that has surrounded Dogecoin payments in the past.

The Paxos Angle: A Bigger Fintech Bridge Separately, House of Doge struck a partnership with Paxos, the regulated infrastructure provider that powers crypto functionality behind consumer platforms including PayPal and Venmo. No confirmed timeline exists yet for Dogecoin to appear directly within those consumer apps, but the partnership signals House of Doge is pursuing multiple parallel paths — direct merchant checkout via MoonPay, and potential mainstream fintech app integration via Paxos — to expand where DOGE can actually be spent.

Musk Speculation Persists, But Its Price Impact Has Faded Elon Musk’s connection to Dogecoin remains the most frequently cited reason retail traders expect a bigger DOGE breakout, particularly around unconfirmed speculation of Dogecoin payment support on X. However, that narrative’s actual market impact appears to be fading: when Musk posted an AI-generated “Doge father” video in March 2026, the price barely reacted, a notable shift from Dogecoin’s history of sharp Musk-driven rallies.

What This Means for the Days Ahead The clearest near-term catalyst to watch is progress toward ÐOGE Pay’s Q3 2026 full rollout — expansion beyond the initial 6,000 merchants, additional processor partnerships, or transaction volume disclosures would all signal the initiative is gaining real traction rather than stalling after launch. On the Paxos front, any announcement of a specific consumer app integration timeline (PayPal, Venmo, or similar) would mark a meaningful upgrade from the current “partnership announced, no launch date” status. Musk-related speculation will likely continue generating headlines regardless of substance, but recent price reactions suggest the market is increasingly discounting it in favor of these more concrete payments developments.

Dogecoin Support and Resistance Levels Level TypePrice ZoneSignificanceKey Resistance 2~$0.11Upside target if Bitcoin’s broader recovery extendsKey Resistance 1~$0.085–$0.09Near-term ceiling from recent price actionCurrent Price~$0.077—Key Support 1~$0.072Most-watched technical support on the chartKey Support 2~$0.065Deeper support if $0.072 fails to hold Support and resistance zones reflect recent price structure and are illustrative, not guaranteed — confirm with a live charting tool before trading.

Compare Crypto Prices Today CoinLive Price PageBitcoinBTC Price — see Bitcoin News TodayEthereumETH Price — see Ethereum News TodayXRPXRP Price — see XRP News TodaySolanaSOL PriceBNBBNB PriceTronTRX Price For the broader market backdrop, see today’s Crypto Market Today and the full Crypto News Today roundup.

Where to Buy Dogecoin Dogecoin is available on virtually every major centralized exchange (Coinbase, Binance, Kraken) and can now also be accessed through regulated spot ETFs, including the 21Shares TDOG product on Nasdaq, for investors who prefer brokerage-based exposure. As ÐOGE Pay expands, an increasing number of everyday merchants will also accept DOGE directly at checkout. Always verify exchange legitimacy and regional availability before depositing funds.

Readers curious how payment-focused crypto projects fit into the broader Web3 landscape may find our guide to how blockchain works useful background, alongside our explainer on AI crypto coins and projects.

Frequently Asked Questions What is the price of Dogecoin today? Dogecoin is trading around $0.077 as of July 7, 2026, down about 2.9% over the past 24 hours but up 3.4% over the past week.

What is ÐOGE Pay? ÐOGE Pay is a Dogecoin-first checkout solution launched by House of Doge and MoonPay on June 9, 2026, enabling native Dogecoin payments across more than 6,000 merchants with a 1% processing fee. A full rollout is planned for Q3 2026.

Is Dogecoin coming to PayPal or Venmo? House of Doge has partnered with Paxos, the infrastructure provider behind PayPal and Venmo's crypto features, but no confirmed timeline exists yet for Dogecoin to appear directly within those consumer apps.

Does Elon Musk still move Dogecoin's price? His influence appears to have weakened. A March 2026 "Doge father" video Musk posted barely affected DOGE's price, a shift from Dogecoin's history of sharp Musk-driven rallies in prior years.

Is Dogecoin a good investment right now? This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Dogecoin's fundamentals have improved through regulatory clarity and payment adoption, but its price continues to underperform the broader market — do your own research and consider your risk tolerance before investing. Research + write bitcoin-news-today updateResearch + write ethereum-news-today updateResearch + write xrp-news-today updateResearch + write crypto-market-today updateResearch + write crypto-news-today updateResearch + write dogecoin-price updateVerify all 6 articlesResearch main news hook + rewrite Bitcoin news todayResearch main news hook + rewrite Ethereum news todayResearch main news hook + rewrite XRP news todayResearch main news hook + rewrite Crypto market todayResearch main news hook + rewrite Crypto news todayResearch main news hook + rewrite Dogecoin priceVerify all 6 rewritten articlesdogecoin-price.mdethereum-news-today.mdbitcoin-news-today.mdxrp-news-today.mdcrypto-news-today.mdcrypto-market-today.mdUploadsblockchainreporter.net-organic-keywords-sub_2026-07-07_09-28-03.csvblockchainreporter.net-top-pages-subdomains_2026-07-07_09-23-43.csvConnectorsWeb Search

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Mushumir Butt is a seasoned crypto journalist with over three years of experience reporting on the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency. At Blockchain Reporter, he delivers insightful news, in‐depth project reviews, and precise price analysis and predictions. With a strong background in SEO and digital marketing, Mushumir excels at breaking down complex trends into clear, accessible content, ensuring readers stay ahead in the fast‐paced crypto space.