Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

PancakeSwap is deepening its footprint on Monad with the addition of a new MUSD-USDC stablecoin pool, bringing the total number of incentivized liquidity pools on the chain to 17. The move pairs MetaMask’s wallet-native stablecoin with USDC, offering liquidity providers boosted annual percentage rates distributed through the Merkl incentive platform.

What’s in the pool MUSD, or mUSD, is MetaMask’s stablecoin that launched in September 2025. It’s backed 1:1 by short-term US Treasury bills, which makes it structurally similar to competitors in the treasury-backed stablecoin space.

The boosted APRs for this pool and the other 16 incentivized pools on Monad are facilitated through Merkl, a platform that handles reward distribution for DeFi protocols. Rather than PancakeSwap manually distributing incentives, Merkl automates the process, letting liquidity providers claim rewards based on their contribution to the pool.

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PancakeSwap supports both its v2 and v3 concentrated liquidity models on Monad. The v3 model lets users specify price ranges for their liquidity, which can dramatically improve capital efficiency on stable pairs where the price barely moves.

Monad’s growing DeFi stack PancakeSwap’s initial liquidity incentives on Monad kicked off around November 2025, and the protocol has been steadily adding pools since then. Previous boosted pairs included MON-USDC, AUSD-USDC, and wrapped synthetic MON variants, covering both volatile and stable trading pairs.

The addition of MUSD-USDC on June 15, 2026 brings the total to 17 incentivized pools. MetaMask’s involvement adds another layer: by pushing mUSD into PancakeSwap’s incentivized pools, the wallet provider is creating familiar on-ramps for its user base.

What this means for liquidity providers and investors The specific APR figures were not disclosed with this announcement, which means investors will need to check the Merkl platform directly for current rates. APRs on incentivized pools tend to be highest in the early days when liquidity is still building, then compress as more capital flows in.

One risk worth flagging: incentivized APRs are temporary by nature. When the rewards dry up, liquidity tends to migrate to wherever the next boost appears. The real test is whether the pool generates enough organic trading volume to sustain competitive returns after incentives taper off.

The treasury-bill backing of mUSD provides a degree of structural safety that purely algorithmic stablecoins can’t match. But investors should still evaluate smart contract risk on both PancakeSwap’s Monad deployment and the Merkl distribution layer, as multi-protocol interactions create additional attack surface.

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

PANews, June 20 – SlowMist Security founder Yu Xian published a post-mortem on the BNB Chain PancakeSwap OLPC/LABUBU liquidity pool theft, pointing out multiple suspicious manual operations in this attack.

The root cause of the pool being drained lies in an exploitable logic vulnerability in the OLPC token contract: the contract’s _update function, when specific conditions are met, can destroy an amount of OLPC tokens equal to value * decimalsValue. Under normal circumstances, the decimalsValue defaults to 1, but approximately 46 days before the attack, the token owner maliciously modified this parameter to an extremely large value of 7326680472586200649. Several days after the modification, the project party directly discarded the contract owner admin privileges, resetting the authority to the zero address.

After the parameter was tampered with, the fund ratio in the OLPC and LABUBU trading pair became severely imbalanced. The attacker exploited the distorted decimalsValue to trigger the pool reserve destruction logic, exchanging a large amount of LABUBU from the pool with only a small input of OLPC, and ultimately cashed out, transferring out a total of 1.115 million USDT.

28 organizations have joined the Avalanche Payments Collective, formalizing one of the industry's broadest payments ecosystems.

Over the past five years, Avalanche has quietly become home to one of the most expansive payment ecosystems in the industry.

The Avalanche Payments Collective launches today, bringing together Franklin Templeton, VanEck, WisdomTree, Agora, Paxos, Rain, Axiym, Ethena, Anchorage Digital, Tassat, Nonco, SETTL, zerohash, Core, OatFi, Rise, Kraken, OpenTrade, NHN KCP, Request Finance, Grove, the Wyoming Stable Token Commission, and other organizations building payment infrastructure and capabilities on Avalanche.

Franklin Templeton selected Avalanche for its tokenized money market fund. Rain built stablecoin card programs connected to Visa's global merchant network. Axiym has processed more than $1.4 billion in cross-border payment volume on the network while serving money service businesses operating across more than 150 countries.

Together, the collective's initial members support payment flows reaching more than 150 countries, 96 currencies, and approximately 22 billion payout endpoints across bank accounts, cards, and mobile wallets.

The Avalanche Payments Collective formalizes an ecosystem that spans settlement, stablecoins, treasury infrastructure, foreign exchange, asset management, compliance, and global payouts. It reflects a growing reality across financial services: payment companies need more than faster rails. They need an integrated settlement ecosystem capable of connecting liquidity, compliance, treasury workflows, and local payment networks at global scale.

The Infrastructure Behind PaymentsFor decades, the mechanics of moving money internationally have remained largely unchanged. Correspondent banking networks, prefunded accounts, settlement delays, and fragmented payment corridors continue to shape how capital moves through the financial system.

As stablecoins gain traction as payment and settlement assets, attention is shifting beyond the assets themselves toward the infrastructure that enables them to move through real-world financial workflows. The next phase of payment innovation will be defined by the networks, liquidity providers, settlement systems, compliance tools, and applications that help businesses move value more efficiently across markets.

"The future of global payments won't be built by a single company, product, or payment rail. It will be built by interconnected ecosystems," said John Nahas, Chief Business Officer at Ava Labs. “The Avalanche Payments Collective brings together organizations from across the payments stack with a shared vision of a more connected financial system, where money moves more efficiently, and businesses can operate globally with fewer barriers."

The organizations participating in the Avalanche Payments Collective operate across the infrastructure required to move money at scale, from settlement and liquidity to treasury management, foreign exchange, stablecoin issuance, cross-border payouts, business payments, and asset management.

Settlement and ClearingTassat's Lynq network represents one of the collective's institutional settlement layers.

In April 2026, Lynq migrated to a dedicated Avalanche Layer 1 (L1) while maintaining full state continuity. The network connects more than 30 participants, including Fireblocks, Galaxy, and Wintermute, and brings more than $2.5 trillion in transaction history from Tassat's banking infrastructure.

Lynq enables institutions to settle transactions in seconds rather than waiting for traditional clearing cycles, allowing liquidity to move more efficiently across counterparties and markets. SETTL, zerohash, and Dakota extend those capabilities across institutional, banking, and enterprise payment workflows, helping improve liquidity utilization, visibility into cash positions, and operational efficiency.

Anchorage provides regulated custody and banking infrastructure that supports institutions adopting stablecoin payments, digital asset settlement, and modern treasury operations.

For payment companies, Avalanche becomes a business tool rather than a technology concept. Faster settlement can support better treasury control, fewer manual reconciliation processes, more transparent payment tracking, and lower operational drag across global money movement.

Stablecoins and Digital CurrencyStablecoins are increasingly used as a settlement asset for payments, treasury operations, and cross-border transactions, enabling value to move continuously across markets rather than only during banking hours or settlement windows.

Firms such as Agora, Paxos, Ethena, and the Wyoming Stable Token Commission provide digital-dollar infrastructure supporting payment applications, financial platforms, and settlement networks operating on Avalanche. Paxos brings one of the industry's most established issuance frameworks, while the Wyoming Stable Token Commission brings public-sector stablecoin innovation through FRNT. Together, the four companies expand the pool of digital-dollar assets and liquidity available to businesses, fintechs, and financial institutions alike operating on the network.

For payment operators, the practical impact is straightforward: money moves on the same schedule as the business. Funds can settle on weekends, public holidays, and outside traditional banking hours, giving treasury teams greater flexibility in managing liquidity across markets.

Businesses can access these capabilities through existing payment and treasury workflows. Stablecoins can operate as the settlement layer in the background while customers continue to experience familiar payment and payout flows.

The ecosystem also includes infrastructure supporting transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, and Travel Rule compliance. For regulated payment companies and financial institutions, these controls must be embedded directly into payment flows rather than added later.

Cross-Border and Currency SettlementInternational payments remain one of the most capital-intensive areas of financial services, with providers often maintaining prefunded balances across multiple jurisdictions to ensure obligations can be met. While reliable, this model can trap working capital and create operational complexity.

Axiym was built to address that challenge.

By providing on-demand liquidity infrastructure for licensed money service businesses, Axiym enables payment providers to continue operating via their existing banking systems and APIs while reducing reliance on prefunded balances. To date, Axiym has processed more than $1.4 billion in volume on Avalanche, while the platforms it serves collectively move more than $25 billion annually across more than 150 countries and 96 currencies.

These capabilities can be particularly valuable in corridors where settlement is slow, foreign exchange costs remain high, local payment infrastructure is fragmented, or access to dollar liquidity is constrained. In those markets, stablecoin-powered settlement can help payment companies serve customers more efficiently without rebuilding every local connection themselves.

Nonco addresses a different part of the cross-border stack. Its institutional foreign exchange venue connects more than 350 liquidity providers to stablecoin markets via a request-for-quote platform, enabling simultaneous settlement on both sides of a trade and reducing counterparty exposure associated with conventional FX workflows.

Together, these capabilities show how Avalanche can support both the movement of value and the infrastructure required to exchange, route, and settle it across currencies and jurisdictions.

Asset Management and Treasury InfrastructureFranklin Templeton, VanEck, OpenTrade, and Grove bring treasury, liquidity, and yield-bearing financial products to the collective's asset management layer.

Among others, Franklin Templeton's BENJI fund and VanEck's VBILL are available on Avalanche, giving treasury teams access to regulated tokenized securities that remain available when settlement obligations arise.

OpenTrade provides stablecoin yield infrastructure for businesses, fintechs, and payment providers, while Grove provides institutional-grade credit and liquidity infrastructure connecting onchain capital with real-world financial markets.

As payment infrastructure becomes more digital, treasury management and settlement are becoming increasingly interconnected. Payment companies are increasingly focused not only on moving money, but also on managing liquidity across markets and making reserves more productive. Avalanche provides a common environment where these workflows can begin to converge.

Merchant AcceptancePayment infrastructure ultimately needs to connect with real-world commerce.

NHN KCP, one of South Korea's leading payment processors, brings merchant acceptance capabilities to the collective, helping connect blockchain-based settlement infrastructure with consumer and business payment experiences.

Business PaymentsB2B stablecoin payment volumes grew more than 700% year-over-year in 2025, while cross-border settlement emerged as one of the primary enterprise use cases.

OatFi, Rise, and Request Finance represent different applications of that trend. OatFi embeds financing directly into payment workflows, allowing suppliers to access funds sooner while buyers retain flexibility without requiring platforms to operate standalone lending businesses. Rise brings payroll infrastructure to the collective, extending modern settlement capabilities into workforce payments. Request Finance enables organizations to manage invoicing, accounts payable, and business payments using stablecoins, helping enterprises integrate digital assets into everyday financial operations.

Together, these companies demonstrate how payment infrastructure is expanding into financing, payroll, accounts payable, treasury operations, and liquidity management.

The Avalanche Payments Collective

The organizations participating in the Avalanche Payments Collective span settlement, liquidity, asset management, foreign exchange, treasury infrastructure, digital-dollar issuance, merchant acceptance, business payments, and public-sector financial innovation.

The collective formalizes a network that has already emerged on Avalanche and brings together the organizations building the infrastructure underpinning the next generation of payment and settlement systems.

The collective is open to additional members. Payment companies, fintechs, and financial institutions can connect with the institutional team at avax.network/payments.

Chiliz has introduced a World Cup campaign that will remove up to 10% of treasury-held Fan Tokens per match victory as participating national teams progress through the tournament.

Summary

Chiliz has launched a World Cup campaign that burns Fan Tokens from treasury reserves when participating national teams win matches. Burn rates start at 1% during the group stage and rise to 10% for a victory in the tournament final. Argentina, Belgium, Portugal, South Africa, and Scotland Fan Tokens are included in the performance linked tokenomics program. According to a June 11 press release shared with crypto.news, the new initiative, called “Burn to Glory,” ties Fan Token supply reductions directly to results achieved by selected national football teams during the upcoming FIFA World Cup.

The program covers Fan Tokens linked to Argentina ($ARG), Belgium ($BELG), Portugal ($POR), South Africa ($SAFA), and Scotland ($SFA). Under the mechanism, tokens held in treasury reserves will be permanently destroyed after each tournament win, with burn rates increasing as teams move deeper into the competition.

At the opening stage of the tournament, each victory will trigger a 1% burn from treasury reserves. Figures released by Chiliz show the percentage rising to 2% in the Round of 32, 2.5% in the Round of 16, 5% in the quarter-finals, 7.5% in the semi-finals, and 10% for a victory in the final.

Because the tokens are removed from treasury holdings rather than circulating supply, the company said successful teams would see their future token supply ceilings reduced while existing holders retain their balances.

Performance-based token burns enter the World Cup “Football fans live every result, every knockout match and every big moment. Through Burn to Glory, those moments can now have a direct impact on the Fan Token economy,” Chiliz CEO and founder Alexandre Dreyfus said in an accompanying statement.

Dreyfus added that the World Cup will be the first major international tournament where the company deploys blockchain-based supply mechanics tied directly to sporting performance. He added that the campaign demonstrates how Fan Tokens are evolving beyond fan engagement products and can increasingly mirror events taking place on the pitch.

Information provided by Chiliz shows that all burns will be executed through on-chain transactions from treasury reserves, allowing token removals to be publicly verified on the blockchain.

The company also said that increasing burn percentages throughout the tournament could create additional interest around matches with larger potential supply reductions. At the same time, shrinking treasury reserves after victories would lower the maximum future supply available to the market.

Expansion follows recent Fan Token initiatives Beyond the burn campaign, Chiliz noted that several international Fan Tokens, including $ARG, $POR, $SAFA, and $SFA, have recently been expanded onto the Solana blockchain as part of the firm’s omnichain strategy.

The latest announcement follows other recent Fan Token initiatives from the company. Earlier this year, Chiliz launched Champions League Final trading competitions involving Paris Saint-Germain ($PSG) and Arsenal ($AFC) Fan Tokens across the Solana and Base networks.

Alongside those efforts, the company has continued public testing of Fan Token Play, a mint-and-burn framework designed to connect token supply dynamics with team performance.

Under the campaign rules released by Chiliz, only official men’s first-team World Cup matches will qualify for token burns. Friendly fixtures, exhibition games, academy competitions, women’s matches, and pre-season events will remain outside the program.

Multi-Service Infrastructure for the Onchain EconomyThe Graph Technical Roadmap presents the protocol, products, and economics of The Graph ecosystem in 2026. This roadmap envisions another pivotal year of evolution as the protocol and product suite evolve to meet consumer demand across the blockchain industry, serving developers, data scientists, AI agents, and institutional users with a high-performance, decentralized, and reliability-focused blockchain data infrastructure.

As blockchain infrastructure matures and adoption accelerates, data access requirements have become increasingly specialized. As chains scale to enable faster transactions, developers building real-time applications now need high-speed streaming solutions. Data analysts require SQL-native access for complex queries across multi-chain datasets. AI agents depend on standardized APIs for reliable integration, but require novel protocols to streamline access. Enterprises demand features that support compliance workflows with institutional-grade reliability. No single indexing approach consistently serves all these needs across chains and use cases.

The market requires purpose-built solutions operating within a unified, permissionless, and secure framework. With the launch of Horizon in December 2025, The Graph protocol evolved into a modular platform capable of supporting diverse blockchain data services. The developments outlined in this technical roadmap build on Horizon's architecture to deliver these specialized solutions.

This blog is the first in a two-part series. A forthcoming second blog will outline The Graph Foundation's strategic priorities and ecosystem initiatives supporting the successful execution of the technical roadmap.

This roadmap is oriented around three interconnected layers:

Protocol Layer: The permissionless infrastructure, including staking, payments, and governance, that enables anyone to build and operate a data service on The Graph.Product Layer: Specialized data services designed for specific markets and use cases, each following a pragmatic path from development through validation to protocol integration.Economic Layer: The mechanisms that align incentives across Indexers, Delegators, and consumers, ensuring value accrual and long-term network viability.1. Protocol Layer: The InfrastructureAs The Graph ecosystem expands beyond its original Subgraph-centric architecture, the protocol layer is evolving to support a diverse range of data services while maintaining the economic security and coordination that make decentralized infrastructure viable. Horizon creates a flexible framework designed to enable multiple specialized data services to operate within a unified economic and security model.

The technical architecture of Horizon introduces three innovations:

A core staking protocol provides economic security that extends to any data service.A unified payments system handles fees across all data services, creating a single economic layer for the entire protocol.A framework for permissionless data service development enables new providers to easily integrate into an existing network already running complex data infrastructure.These architectural improvements unlock the protocol's ability to scale horizontally - supporting new data services as they emerge and enabling existing data services to leverage the unique advantages of The Graph protocol while maintaining the security, reliability, and decentralization that support the core value propositions of The Graph Network.

2. Product Layer: The Growth EngineThe Graph ecosystem is advancing a diverse portfolio of data products designed to meet the evolving needs of developers, applications, and institutions. Each product serves distinct use cases, from real-time blockchain indexing to institutional-grade data access, allowing the ecosystem to deliver value across multiple market segments simultaneously.

As these products mature and demonstrate strong adoption, they follow a path toward deeper protocol integration through Horizon, enabling progressive decentralization that balances innovation speed with network resilience. This evolution reflects the ecosystem's commitment to sustainable growth: delivering practical solutions today while building the decentralized data infrastructure of tomorrow.

SubgraphsSubgraphs established the original indexing standard for blockchain data and remain foundational to The Graph ecosystem. Thousands of applications rely on Subgraphs today, and the successful upgrade of users from the hosted service to The Graph Network in 2024 demonstrated that decentralized infrastructure can indeed serve production workloads for blockchain developers.

In 2026, Subgraphs will continue serving developers, its core consumers, who rely on this standard, but the focus will deepen in two ways. First, The Graph will place more emphasis on improving quality and support to better serve small-to-medium-sized projects through cost and scaling efficiencies. This process includes network-first chain integrations, the Rewards Eligibility Oracle (REO), and Indexing Payments (DIPs) that all aim to ensure Indexers are appropriately incentivized to serve Subgraph users. Second, there will be added focus for AI compatibility to introduce Subgraph-compliant gateways as well as Subgraph MCP and Subgraph A2A integrations, making blockchain data queryable through natural language interfaces in tools like Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, and a host of other emerging AI interfaces. Integrating x402 means AI agents will be authorized to autonomously query the network and pay per-query with no setup keys in the Studio.

Blockchain JSON-RPC Data ServiceExpanding into blockchain JSON-RPC access represents a natural evolution of The Graph developer platform. While the protocol has historically specialized in indexed data queries, developers increasingly expect unified infrastructure that supports both advanced indexing and core blockchain read/write functionality. Enabling seamless access to these capabilities, whether through partnerships, integrations, or native services, strengthens The Graph’s role as a full-stack data layer for web3 applications.

The Graph ecosystem is well-positioned to support this expansion. Many infrastructure providers within and adjacent to the network already operate RPC capacity at scale. Aligning these capabilities with The Graph’s payment, security, and distribution frameworks creates new coordination opportunities across the ecosystem while improving the developer experience. This roadmap intentionally leaves room for multiple RCP implementation paths as the network validates the best structure for long-term growth.

SubstreamsSubstreams provides high-performance, low-latency blockchain data streaming designed for users with demanding technical requirements. The service has gained adoption among prominent DeFi protocols, DePIN and AI infrastructure, large-scale analytics platforms, and traditional financial institutions, particularly those requiring real-time transaction processing on high-throughput chains like Base, BSC, and Solana.

Development priorities for Substreams in 2026 focus on improving developer experience, expanding chain coverage, reducing streaming latency, and progressing toward integrating Substreams into The Graph protocol via Horizon. These improvements aim to strengthen Substreams' position as a valuable infrastructure layer for applications and institutions that require streaming blockchain data at scale.

Token APIMany blockchain applications, such as wallets, block explorers, marketplaces, and analytics platforms, require the same fundamental data: token balances, prices, transfers, swaps, and NFT metadata. While Subgraphs excel at custom indexing for protocol-specific use cases, these standardized data needs don't require custom development infrastructure.

The Graph Token API addresses this gap by providing pre-indexed, production-ready access to common token data information across multiple chains. Built on Substreams’ infrastructure, the Token API service delivers reliable, standardized data without requiring teams to build or maintain custom indexing solutions. Token API currently supports 10 chains, with continued expansion and feature development planned for 2026.

TychoThe Tycho initiative extends this roadmap deeper into DeFi by making onchain liquidity easier to access, understand, and use in real time. Instead of forcing teams to run their own nodes or decode complex protocol logic, Tycho tracks how liquidity changes across decentralized exchanges and delivers live updates through a simple streaming interface. It provides a single, consistent way to get prices and quotes across many DEXs, helping trading systems, solvers, and applications tap into more liquidity with far less setup and ongoing maintenance.

Also built on Substreams, Tycho removes much of the operational burden that slows teams down today. It keeps data accurate even when blockchains reorganize, updates quickly as markets change, and works across chains without requiring specialized infrastructure for each one. By lowering the barrier to high-quality liquidity data, Tycho helps market participants access deeper liquidity, improve execution, and build faster-moving products as onchain markets continue to grow.

AmpAmp introduces a new class of data infrastructure to The Graph ecosystem, adding a blockchain-native database purpose-built for institutional scale, trust, and performance. Designed to replace RPC-heavy architecture and brittle ETL (i.e., extract, transform, and load) pipelines, Amp transforms raw onchain activity into verifiable intelligence using SQL to enable teams to analyze, audit, and act on blockchain data in real-time across multiple chains.

With built-in lineage, audit-ready provenance, and enterprise-grade deployment options, Amp delivers the speed and consistency required for regulated environments, from payments and treasury oversight to risk management and AI-driven automation. As financial systems continue moving onchain, Amp ensures The Graph offers an infrastructure-grade solution that makes blockchain data reliable, auditable, and usable at global financial scale.

3. Economic Layer: SustainabilityThe Graph protocol's long-term viability depends on sustainable economics that deliver value to all network participants: Indexers running infrastructure, Delegators securing the network, developers and enterprises consuming data, and the broader ecosystem. Horizon and the expanded product suite are designed to strengthen this economic base.

Network EconomicsThe Graph protocol operates as a two-sided market connecting data providers to data consumers. Historically, the protocol's incentive mechanisms proved effective at scaling the supply side, attracting Indexers to The Graph Network, but demand was constrained by a few factors, including a relatively small - but growing - addressable market of blockchain developers.

Over the coming year, this supply-demand imbalance is expected to be addressed on both sides. On the demand side, Horizon unlocks new potential for an expanded product suite to serve a much larger addressable market and, consequently, may attract more supply-side participation and economic benefit. Meanwhile, JSON-RPC, Subgraphs, and Token API are expected to deepen network usage from developers and AI agents, while new growth is likely to come from analysts, solvers, and institutions attracted to expanded offerings such as Substreams, Amp, and Tycho.

The fundamental value accrual thesis is straightforward: more data services generate more protocol activity. More query volume means more fees flowing through the network. More fees can drive token burns. More data services require more staked GRT. And, as the product suite expands and adoption grows across these various users and use cases, this economic flywheel is expected to accelerate.

As part of this continued evolution, The Graph will offer compliance-ready products, on-premises deployment options, and dedicated support for the specific requirements of enterprise and institutional users. The DTCC's Great Collateral Experiment demonstrates how major financial institutions are already building with technology from The Graph, and this enterprise momentum is expected to accelerate as products like Amp and Substreams demonstrate increased value to these participants in the market.

On the supply side, the ecosystem can expect three major changes. The first is that issuance is expected to be redirected across multiple data services. Second, REO establishes a clearer proof-of-work standard to ensure that Indexing rewards correlate with actual value delivery rather than passive token holding. The current vision is to introduce REO for both Subgraphs and Substreams over the coming year. Third, the introduction of Indexer Payments (or DIPs) will provide a flexible protocol mechanism for consumers, chains, and ecosystem participants to incentivize Indexers.

The Graph has also been working on additional initiatives that help increase the utility of GRT. For example, the ecosystem recently added Chainlink’s CCIP protocol, and now GRT is bridged to Arbitrum, Base, and Avalanche with plans to extend to Solana in 2026. The ecosystem is also working on a Liquid Staking Initiative that aims to make delegation more accessible for token custodians by offering a native API in a single interface for centralized exchanges to improve the UX for their users.

The Graph Technical Roadmap 2026Q1 2026Horizon-Based Subgraph Service Mainnet rolloutRewards Eligibility Oracle proof-of-work standardExpanded execution client support for broader chain coverage of Reth & Besu instrumentationToken API Production-grade latency on 10 networks with continued chain expansionPrivate MVP of Tycho data serviceQ2 2026x402-compliant Subgraph gateway with MCP and A2A support enabledSubstreams MVP data service with GraphTally trust-minimized payments, Horizon-based P2P data service introducedPublic Tycho beta launchTestnet rollout of liquid stakingQ3 2026DIPs Subgraphs ServiceNetwork-First Subgraph Chain Integration ProcessExperimental JSON-RPC Data Service researchSubstreams Data Service Mainnet & Provider Selection Oracle rolloutToken API real-time token pricing with DEX and chain expansionMainnet rollout of liquid stakingQ4 2026Morpho launch of liquid stakingAmp-Powered Subgraphs for data extraction and transformationSubstreams probabilistic verifier for data integrity and service availabilitySubstreams REO testnet and mainnet launchAmp SQL Platform developmentAmp verifiable raw blockchain data releaseAmp Horizon-based data service testnet and mainnet launchDIPs Amp serviceThe Path ForwardThe Graph Network is a battle-tested and mature blockchain infrastructure continuously demonstrating reliability across applications and blockchain networks. The 2026 technical roadmap advances the protocol vision toward emerging market demand: as blockchain adoption accelerates, different users require different access to data.

No single approach can serve the evolving demands for blockchain data, but Horizon helps address this architectural challenge by enabling The Graph. The product strategy outlined in this roadmap targets distinct market segments, offering unique value, while contributing to the protocol's overall growth and sustainability. More data services available on The Graph generate more network activity and high-quality complementary services.

Stay informed as these initiatives progress and new developments emerge! Subscribe to the Community Calendar and join the next quarterly call for a deeper look at this technical roadmap and the Foundation’s strategic vision. Sign up for The Graph newsletter to receive monthly updates, and track progress in real time by visiting the roadmap webpage.

About The GraphThe Graph is a suite of blockchain data infrastructure products that extract, process, and deliver scalable blockchain data solutions across 60+ networks. The Graph enables application developers, data analysts, AI agents, and enterprise teams that need structured, real-time access to blockchain data. Products include Subgraphs, Firehose, Substreams, and Amp. As of early 2026, The Graph has served over 1.27 trillion queries to more than 75,000 projects, powered by a network of independent Indexers around the world.

Follow The Graph on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Reddit. Join the community on The Graph’s Telegram, join technical discussions on The Graph’s Discord.

TLDR: Uniswap’s temp check vote targets BNB Chain, Polygon, and Celo, expanding the fee-and-burn to 13 chains. Every swap generates a protocol fee that bridges to Ethereum and permanently burns UNI at a dead address. CryptoQuant data shows rising UNI net outflows on Binance, pointing to smart money accumulation near lows. The governance vote closes May 21st with 18.1M UNI cast, 100% in favor, and the 10M quorum already cleared. Uniswap is moving to extend its fee-and-burn mechanism to BNB Chain, Polygon, and Celo. A temp check vote is currently underway, drawing strong community support.

Meanwhile, on-chain data from CryptoQuant shows rising net outflows on Binance as UNI trades near its lower price range. Together, these developments are drawing fresh attention to the token’s near-term outlook.

Governance Vote Targets 13-Chain Fee-and-Burn Rollout The proposal, shared via Snapshot.eth on behalf of Uniswap’s governance, aims to bring the fee-and-burn system to three additional networks. If passed, the rollout would cover 13 chains in total.

Every swap on these networks generates a protocol fee, which bridges back to Ethereum and permanently burns UNI at a dead address.

The system has been live since December across Ethereum and nine other networks. BNB Chain and Polygon would connect through Wormhole’s Native Token Transfer setup.

Celo was approved in an earlier vote but failed due to a configuration error. This proposal corrects that path and re-runs the execution.

Forum member Abel189 described the move as “a coherent next step” given Uniswap’s “increasingly multi-chain reality.”

@Uniswap is running a temp check to extend its fee-and-burn system to @bnbchain, Polygon, and @Celo, bringing the rollout to 13 chains.

Every swap generates a protocol fee that bridges back to Ethereum and permanently burns $UNI at a dead address. The system has been live since… pic.twitter.com/13h6954YSG

— Snapshot.eth (@SnapshotLabs) May 20, 2026

He supports incremental, chain-by-chain expansion but flagged growing cross-chain messaging complexity as a key watch item going forward.

L2BEAT’s governance team, including members Kaereste and Manugotsuka, voted in favor after their research team verified the implementation, contracts, and expected governance payloads.

They noted the unchanged fee structure and continuity with the previously approved framework as reasons for their support.

On-Chain Outflow Data Points to Accumulation Activity On the market side, CryptoQuant data on the Uniswap Exchange Netflow chart for Binance is showing notable movement.

As UNI’s price corrected deeply, netflow bars grew denser with large net outflows becoming more frequent. This pattern tends to reflect behavior from longer-term holders and smart money participants.

These outflows typically mean UNI is being withdrawn from Binance and moved to personal wallets for holding. That reduces the available supply on the exchange and lowers direct selling pressure over time. Analyst Rei Researcher noted this trend as a potential setup for an accumulation zone near the bottom.

Source: Cryptoquant

Currently, UNI is seeing a mild price recovery. If the outflow trend continues and exchange supply tightens further, buying demand could push the price higher.

The combination of reduced sell-side pressure and growing protocol utility through the burn mechanism adds a structural layer to that potential move.

The governance vote closes on May 21st at 5:30 PM UTC. As of the latest update, 258 wallets have cast 18.1 million UNI votes, with 100% in favor and the 10 million quorum already cleared.

May 26, 2026, 6:44 a.m.

2 min read

Summary

Hyperliquid has expanded its HIP-4 outcome market to let users trade prediction-style contracts on offchain events like U.S. inflation data and Federal Reserve decisions alongside crypto derivatives.Unlike rival Polymarket, which relies on UMA’s external oracle, Hyperliquid resolves these markets through its own validator set, which ingests news, decides which markets to list and votes on settlement outcomes.The fully collateralized Yes/No contracts, which settle at either 1 USDC or zero, position Hyperliquid as a potential multi-asset venue where traders can combine crypto perps with macro and event-driven bets without shifting collateral across platforms.Decentralized platform Hyperliquid is now competing with established betting platforms such as Polymarket, but with a differentiated mechanism for resolving bets.

The leading decentralized exchange has expanded its HIP-4 outcome contracts beyond crypto price milestones into real-world events. This native prediction-market infrastructure allows users to trade macro contracts, such as inflation data and interest-rate decisions, directly alongside their standard crypto perpetuals out of a single account.

Outcome markets mark a notable expansion for the decentralized derivatives venue, which built its business around crypto perpetual futures and initially tested the product using price‑outcome contracts settled against its own market data.

Hyperliquid first tested the product on exchange‑native outcomes, such as whether bitcoin would trade above a specific level by a fixed time using Hyperliquid’s own reference prices. The latest rollout expands that model into real‑world macro events, or offchain outcomes, like U.S. inflation and Federal Reserve decisions, directly competing with prediction market platforms like Polymarket.

Native resolutionWhat sets it apart is that HIP‑4 brings dispute resolution and settlement in‑house, rather than depending on an external oracle network like Polymarket.

Here’s why it matters. Offchain events introduce a new problem: determining truth.

Polymarket handles this through UMA, an external oracle protocol that uses an optimistic dispute system. A proposed settlement stands unless challenged, at which point UMA tokenholders vote on the final result. That model has faced criticism following controversial resolutions, prompting accusations that large tokenholders could influence outcomes.

Hyperliquid uses a more vertically integrated model. Validators themselves ingest external information through automated newsfeed software, determine whether markets should launch, and vote on settlement outcomes.

Multi-purpose platformThe launch also fits into Hyperliquid’s broader effort to evolve into a multi‑asset trading venue. FalconX said in a recent report that the exchange’s expanding product stack could position it as a challenger not just to crypto‑native rivals but also to traditional exchanges.

“For example, you could pair a HIP‑3 perps position on NVDA with outcome markets that NVDA will miss or beat earnings,” CoinDesk previously reported.

Hyperliquid’s outcome markets are structured as fully collateralized contracts rather than leveraged bets, thereby limiting losses to the amount paid upfront. Traders buy “Yes” or “No” positions tied to a defined event, with contracts settling at either 1 USDC or zero USDC depending on the result. If a trader buys a “Yes” contract at 0.65 USDC, their maximum loss is limited to that upfront amount, unlike perpetual futures, where leverage can trigger liquidations.

That makes the product sit somewhere between a prediction market and a simplified binary options contract.

If Hyperliquid’s outcome markets gain traction, traders could eventually use the same venue to express directional crypto views, hedge macro risks, and speculate on event outcomes without moving collateral between platforms.

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THORChain has moved into the next phase of its recovery from the May 15 vault exploit. 

Summary

Validators must approve v3.19.0 before THORChain begins its staged restart and fully restores network services. The upgrade adds compromised-vault quarantine and temporary keyshare checks before signing resumes across the network. ADR-028 applies the recovery plan without minting new RUNE or diluting existing token holders further. Validators are now reviewing version 3.19.0, which combines security patches with the ADR-028 loss-recovery plan.

The release also introduces a mechanism that can quarantine a compromised vault. THORChain said this would stop an affected vault from processing transactions while keeping its activity visible to the network.

Validators review THORChain v3.19.0 “The next major step in the recovery process is now underway,” THORChain said in its sixth incident update. Validators must vote to approve v3.19.0 before the network can begin the staged upgrade.

THORChain Incident Update #6

The next major step in the recovery process is now underway. Validators are being asked to review, approve, and prepare for the v3.19.0 upgrade, which contains the TSS security patches and ADR028 implementation designed to address the economic impact…

— THORChain (@THORChain) June 8, 2026 The release contains patches for the threshold signature system used to control THORChain vaults. It also implements ADR-028, the governance plan approved after the exploit. The protocol said the upgrade would move the network closer to restoring normal operations.

Version 3.19.0 includes a new Compromised Vault Mimir setting. Once enabled, the setting will isolate the drained vault from transaction processing without removing it from network monitoring.

Keyshare checks come before signing resumes THORChain plans to validate the ADR-028 data migration after validators complete the upgrade. Every node must then verify the integrity of its keyshares through a temporary protocol called keyverify.

Keyshares allow validators to sign vault transactions together without one operator holding the full private key. The added check aims to confirm that the remaining shares are intact before signing restarts.

After those checks, validators will unhalt signing and start a churn. Churning replaces the active validator set and transfers assets into newly generated vaults. The network will wait for that process to finish before restoring other services.

Secured and Trade assets will return first. Liquidity-provider actions will follow, while trading will resume at the end of the 11-step process. Each stage depends on the previous checks completing successfully.

ADR-028 covers losses without new RUNE As previously reported by crypto.news, THORChain validators approved ADR-028 in May. The plan uses protocol-owned liquidity to absorb losses before allocating any remaining shortfall across synthetic asset holders.

The framework does not mint or sell new RUNE. It also avoids direct dilution for existing holders. Future system income will help rebuild protocol-owned liquidity after the restart.

THORChain also activated a bounty window for the attacker and approved the full slashing of the linked node. The protocol said innocent nodes that shared the affected vault would remain protected.

Full restart still depends on validators The May 15 exploit drained about $10.7 million from one of THORChain’s five vaults. THORChain’s report said a newly added node exploited a weakness in the GG20 threshold signature implementation. Four other vaults remained unaffected.

Automatic solvency checks detected the imbalance and halted signing within minutes. Node operators later paused trading, chain observation and churning while developers investigated the attack.

Validator approval of v3.19.0 would begin the final technical sequence, but it would not restore every service at once. THORChain will reopen signing, asset functions, liquidity actions and trading in stages after completing the vault, migration, keyshare and churn checks.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced it will add support for Reserve Rights (RSR) on the Base network. The exchange also mentioned that the transfers are already available on both Coinbase and Coinbase Exchange in regions where trading is supported.

Coinbase Listing Coincides With Paul Atkin’s Development According to the announcement, trading for RSR will begin on or after 9AM PT on April 22, 2025. The news comes as the RSR token shows strong price performance across multiple timeframes. The token has jumped 7.7% in the past 24 hours, 7.2% over seven days, and also 24.3% over the past month.

Coinbase will add support for Reserve Rights (RSR) on the Base network. Do not send this asset over other networks or your funds may be lost. Transfers for this asset are available on @Coinbase & @CoinbaseExch in the regions where trading is supported.

— Coinbase Assets 🛡️ (@CoinbaseAssets) April 21, 2025

This upward momentum coincides with recent developments related to Paul Atkins, who has connections to the Reserve Rights project and was recently confirmed as President Trump’s next Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The timing of Coinbase’s announcement has drawn attention given the token’s connection to Atkins. He previously served as an advisor to the Reserve Rights Foundation during the project’s early development phase.

The top crypto exchange has provided specific details about how the RSR token will be integrated into its platform. The exchange will support Reserve Rights exclusively on the Base network.

The roll-out will be phased and trading will commence on or after 9 AM PT on April 22, 2025. With that noted, the timeline is subject to liquidity levels being met. When sufficient supply of RSR is accumulated on the exchange, trading will start on the RSR-USD trading pair first.

Atkins Connection And RSR Listing Coinbase’s timing of listing RSR has been questioned due to the token’s connection to Paul Atkins. Atkins served as an advisor to the Reserve Rights Foundation. This was when the project was still in its early phase of development.

As a former SEC Commissioner before accepting his advisory role with Reserve Rights, Atkins advised the project when it was beginning. Reserve’s co-founder and CEO Nevin Freeman publicly praised Atkins’ contribution to the project. He also complimented his balanced way of regulating cryptocurrencies.

I’m pleased to hear that Paul Atkins is in the running for SEC chair!

Paul has been open to working with crypto clients in his consultancy since 2017. I believe he would take a principled approach and I’d be very excited to work with him and his team on productive rule makings… https://t.co/Xp88ha0H8z

— Nevin Freeman 🌐👾 (@nnevvinn) November 28, 2024

Market experts have credited RSR’s recent price appreciation partially to hopes that Atkins’ SEC Chair nomination could bring a crypto-friendly regulatory period for cryptocurrency projects. This can be seen from the token’s robust performance.

The recent announcement comes amidst Coinbase’s renewed legal battle as Oregon’s Attorney General prepares to file a securities enforcement action against the cryptocurrency exchange.

In brief Andrew Yang's Noble Mobile acquired Helium Mobile, the service provider built on top of the crypto-fueled Helium network. Deal terms were not disclosed, but Helium Mobile COO Frank Mong said subscribers should expect a smooth transition. Nova Labs will now focus on growing the network and onboarding additional companies to Helium. Helium Mobile, the mobile service provider built on the decentralized, crypto-powered Helium network, has been acquired by Noble Mobile, the affordability-focused telecommunications company of former presidential candidate Andrew Yang. 

Helium Mobile, which at one time offered a free mobile plan (but recently axed it), said it shares a similar commitment to its customers, with the combined company set to offer low-cost service plans in an effort to disrupt the giants of the mobile industry.

“We were drawn to Noble Mobile because of a deep alignment in values, vision, and the people leading the organization,” Helium Mobile COO Frank Mong told Decrypt. 

“Our subscribers deserve a home that shares our conviction that connectivity should be affordable and accessible to everyone,” he added. “Noble Mobile embodies that, and it gave us confidence that our subscribers would be in the right hands long-term.”

Subscribers to Helium Mobile’s mobile plans should expect a smooth transition, according to Mong, who said that users will be able to keep their phone numbers and maintain access to the same 5G network powered by T-Mobile. Helium Mobile’s offering is also underpinned by Helium, the Solana-based decentralized network composed of hotspots deployed worldwide, which Noble has also agreed to use as part of the deal.

The “crowd-built” cellular network is built with nearly 139,000 mobile hotspots that act as miniature cell towers, according to data from the Helium website, and has been used by providers like AT&T and Telefonica to extend or fill gaps in their coverage networks. 

It's this opportunity that is most pressing for Nova Labs, the firm that founded the Helium network and launched the Helium Mobile service.

“Our network business is the largest opportunity in front of us,” said Mong. “We've recently onboarded major U.S. carriers to offload traffic at scale and the Helium network now serves millions of users daily. To capture this momentum, we needed to find Helium Mobile the right steward while our team focuses on accelerating network expansion.”

The acquisition does nothing to change the Helium network’s model, which offers a Solana-based HNT token to hotspot operators who provide coverage used by carriers and subscribers. The mobile network boasts more than 2.6 million daily users and is generating more than $47,000 per day in revenue according to Helium World’s dashboard.

HNT is down nearly 7% over the last day at a recent price of $0.64, pushing its 30-day drop to about 28%.

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

Just one week after the acquisition of its consumer brand, Helium Mobile, at the hands of Andrew Yang, Helium Network is going through some growing pains.

$HNT holders and community members are firmly at odds with the Solana DePIN protocol’s new direction, summarized by a four-part governance proposal.

Making matters worse, $HNT has plummeted over 56% in the past week. Existing holders are in disagreement with the Network’s new direction and the proposed mint of 141M new $HNT tokens.

Helium’s “New Era” Met with Skepticism from $HNT Holders Helium Network has come under fire from community members and token holders over a drastic economic and organizational overhaul floated in the protocol’s latest governance proposal, HIP-149. Originally published on June 4th, HIP-149 centers around four key changes that aim to support the DePIN protocol’s ongoing expansion:

Set a floor for deployer earnings

Capitalize operations and growth through the mint of 141M $HNT tokens over 36 months

Establish a 7-seat advisory council, with 5 community-elected representatives

Transition $HNT rewards to an activity-based system, rather than a flat rate for all providers

Helium Network argues that the change is economically necessary to the survival and growth of the network. In Helium’s own words, the network’s “original economic framework was built for a faster carrier-adoption curve than reality delivered”. 

As a result, hotspot deployers were earning more than what carriers were actually paying for data transfer and offload services, meaning that significant adjustments need to be made to the network's model.

The proposal has been met with concern and frustration by $HNT tokenholders and network contributors. Upon the realization that the Helium Network was subsidizing hotspot operation, critics have argued that the protocol was artificially inflating and misreporting its revenue.

Others have argued that the mint of 141M new $HNT tokens to support growth and expansion is unjustifiably dilutive to existing network contributors. Given $HNT’s current circulating supply of 182.4M, the proposed mint would increase the number of tokens in circulation by 77.3%.

Departing Helium Team Members Weigh In With critics and detractors slamming the proposal and disappointed supporters writing off the network’s future, former Helium executives have added some color to the debate. Abhay Kumar posited that shedding the economic weight of the network’s consumer brand, Helium Mobile, removes “a real cost off the books, which is good for the network and for the focus of the core team.”

Former Helium Protocol Engineer Noah Prince reinforced Kumar’s position, arguing that Helium sits at a critical inflection point and comparing the current proposal to Uber’s decision to wind down its $3 uberPOOL offering. 

Prince asserts that while Helium has found PMF, the engineer acknowledges that “the age of subsidy is over”. Both Prince and Kumar expressed confidence in Helium’s new CEO Mario Di Dio, vouching for his ability to guide Helium through its next stage of growth and building on the foundation set by founder and former CEO Amir Haleem. 

$HNT Down 56% in 7D Following Helium Mobile Acquisition Despite the vote of confidence from departing executive team members, markets are not looking favorably upon Helium Network. Between Noble Mobile’s acquisition of Helium Mobile, the reshuffling of personnel, and the outstanding governance proposal threatening to increase supply by 77%, $HNT has plummeted 53% in the last 7 days.

Meanwhile, some $HNT whale wallets are aggressively exiting their positions. After receiving 2.2M $HNT tokens on June 9, this wallet has already unloaded 900,000 $HNT on the market.

Outside of ongoing sales through Jupiter DCA, the wallet still holds 1.3M $HNT, currently valued at $412,000.

Read More on SolanaFloor Forward Industries wants your $SOL

One DAT to Rule Them All: Forward Industries Pursues Solmate Acquisition

The Case for Liquid Staking Over Native Staking

2025 was a redefining year for Horizen.

In 2025, Horizen made the decisions that define long-term relevance. The team clarified what privacy must mean in an onchain world, sharpened who Horizen is built for, and aligned the network around real users, real businesses, and real developers - not abstract ideals. These choices shaped everything that followed, from product direction to ecosystem design, and set the foundation for sustainable growth.

The results of that work became visible toward the end of the year, with milestones that mark the beginning of Horizen’s next chapter.

A major emphasis was placed on research and discovery. Throughout the year, the team developed a structured understanding of market dynamics, emerging privacy technologies, regulatory realities, competitive approaches, developer needs, and real-world user needs. This targeted work was designed to answer one question:

Where can Horizen win, and why?

That research-driven approach created clarity and alignment across product, engineering, and ecosystem growth. It sharpened Horizen’s positioning around practical and regulatory-compliant privacy, and clarified how privacy must function inside open ecosystems like Ethereum and Base, not outside of them.

Several initiatives that will define Horizen’s future were born from this approach, including initial product designs like Horizen Confidential Compute Environment (HCCE). 

By choosing to prepare deliberately, Horizen entered mainnet not as a project searching for relevance, but as a network launching with purpose.

One of the most significant milestones in Horizen’s history took place in 2025 with the successful migration of the ZEN token to Base, accompanied by the introduction of a new tokenomics model designed to support Horizen’s next phase of growth.

This migration marked a strategic shift in how Horizen participates in the broader onchain ecosystem. By migrating ZEN to an ERC-20 asset on Base, Horizen moved from operating as an isolated Layer 1 to becoming a first-class participant in the Ethereum ecosystem. The migration unlocked immediate access to deep liquidity, native DeFi integrations, and composability with the tools, protocols, and capital that developers already use. More importantly, it removed friction for builders, creating a faster and more credible path from idea to live application. 

Just as importantly, the transition was executed with ZEN holders front and center. Horizen delivered a seamless, user-friendly claiming experience that enabled holders to move their assets safely to Base with confidence.

Throughout the migration, the team worked closely with major exchanges to ensure uninterrupted access to ZEN, preserving liquidity and minimizing disruption for the community. This combination of thoughtful execution and broad exchange support ensured continuity, accessibility, and trust at a critical moment of change.

Together, these efforts laid the economic and infrastructural foundation for Horizen’s next phase of ecosystem growth, one that is fully embedded in the Ethereum and Base environments, without leaving its community behind.

That foundation was completed with the launch of the new Horizen chain at the end of the year. With this launch, Horizen finalized its transition to a fully EVM-native, privacy-enabled Layer 3 blockchain on Base. 

By launching on Base, Horizen positioned privacy where it matters most: alongside deep liquidity, mature tooling, and a rapidly growing developer and user base. The new chain will enable a practical and compliance-friendly path to private onchain activity, allowing users and businesses to participate without exposing sensitive strategies, positions, or data. Rather than treating privacy as an add-on or an edge case, Horizen established it as a foundational capability that works natively within real onchain workflows.  

The launch also introduced the first cohort of ecosystem applications and infrastructure partners, reinforcing Horizen’s focus on execution, composability, and ecosystem readiness from day one.

We’re live!

Join us as we celebrate Horizen’s mainnet launch on @Base. Tune in to hear from special guests and core team members as they share insights on what’s ahead.

x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

Most importantly, the mainnet launch marked a clear transition in Horizen’s trajectory. The network moved from preparation to participation, from laying foundations to enabling real usage. With the core infrastructure live, Horizen is now positioned to shift its focus toward growing adoption, supporting builders, expanding the ecosystem, and delivering the next wave of privacy-enhancing capabilities, including staking and confidential compute.

In parallel with these significant infrastructure milestones, Horizen launched the Thrive Builder Program in 2025, establishing Horizen’s long-term commitment to ecosystem growth.

First announcements from our Horizen x @thriveprotocol builder funding program drop next week

These aren’t just ideas - they’re applications already building on our infrastructure

The privacy-first builders we’ve been waiting for are here.

Backed by a community-approved allocation of one million ZEN over five years, the program established a structured path for builders to ship privacy-preserving applications that drive real ZEN usage.

The program introduced milestone-based funding accountability and transparent oversight while prioritizing high-impact use cases across DeFi AI gaming and governance. 

Meet the first builders funded by the Horizen x @ThriveProtocol Builder Funding Program:

- @LighterIM - ZK-enabled DeOTC protocol for private, compliant OTC trading
- @datahubz - Automated compliance workflows (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA) powered by Hubz
- @tachyonpe -

Together, the program and the new Horizen chain create a reinforcing loop: infrastructure designed for privacy-aligned applications, paired with a funding mechanism built to bring them to life. The program is already supporting a growing set of live and in-development applications, including:

Zendex as a private DEX designed to stop MEV bots from front running trades

Tachyon enabling cross chain transfers that break the surveillance trail

DataHubz delivering enterprise compliance through cryptographic proof instead of trust based audits

Nyra bringing private perpetuals trading onchain

Obscura powering social trading with verifiable PnL

Lighter.IM enabling ZKP based on and off ramps

AdPriva building verifiable ad engagement with zero knowledge proofs

Gamblor introducing provably fair gaming with privacy built into every hand

Learn more about the program

Further Supporting Builders and the ZK EcosystemThroughout 2025, Horizen hosted and supported a select number of workshops and hackathon-style events, in collaboration with the ecosystem partners such as zkVerify. These efforts focused on education, experimentation, and early developer engagement.

Notable activations included:

Fhenix

ETHDenver participation through SporkDAO

SocialConnect New Delhi

0xCairo

Berlin Hackathon

The Horizen community voted in on 7 ZenIPs (ZEN Improvement Proposals) in 2025, including:

ZenIP 42406 Addendum: Proposing a Bold Leap Forward to Base for $ZEN and EON – 99.7% in favor

ZenIP 42407 Addendum: Horizen 2.0 Tokenomics Proposal – 99.4% in favor

ZenIP 42410 Horizen Developer Grants Program - Thrive Partnership – 100% in favor

ZenIP 42411: A Treasury Management Framework for Horizen DAO – 100% in favor

Exchange Listings and Marketing Allocation – 99.2% in favor

The community also voted to elect new Special Council members to maintain strong governance and continuity throughout the year.

March Cohort Special Council Election

September Cohort Special Council Election

Check out all ZEP IPs and their details.

With the core network live and ecosystem taking shape, Horizen enters its next phase focused on deepening utility, expanding adoption, and delivering privacy capabilities that scales with real-world demand. 

A major milestone on the near-term horizons is the release of the Horizen Confidential Compute Environment (HCCE). Designed to make privacy-preserving computation accessible without complex cryptography, HCCE introduces a powerful new execution layer that enables developers to run sensitive logic securely and verifiably onchain. This will unlock a broad class of applications, from institutional workflows to privacy-sensitive business use cases. This will mark a significant step forward in making privacy practical at scale. Read the HCCE whitepaper to learn more.  

ZEN staking will be relaunched in Q1 2026, re-establishing a crucial participation and incentive mechanism for the Horizen community. 

The ZEN staking is designed to strengthen network security, reward long-term participation, and reinforce ZEN’s role as the economic backbone of the Horizen ecosystem. This will turn passive holding to active engagement, tying network growth more closely to community involvement. 

At the same time, the Horizen ecosystem will continue to expand. More new applications are preparing to go live across DeFi, business infrastructure, gaming, and emerging onchain categories. As more teams deploy and iterate, Horizon’s ecosystem will move from early formation to sustained momentum, driven by real usage and real demand for privacy-enabled execution. 

Together, these developments signal a clear shift in Horizen’s trajectory. With infrastructure in place, aligned incentives coming online, and a growing pipeline of applications, Horizen is positioned to turn its vision of practical, compliant privacy into durable, onchain reality.

Stay tuned for what comes next.

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Kaia aims to compete with The Open Network by powering dApps on the Line and Kakao messaging applications.

The booming web3 ecosystem on Telegram and The Open network could soon face competition.

On Aug. 29, Kaia completed the mainnet deployment of its Layer 1 network following a merge between Finschia, the blockchain from Line, a popular Japanese messaging app, and Klaytn, a network backed by Kakao, a Korean messaging platform.

Kaia supports Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) smart contracts and claims one-second block times. Kaia aims to foster an ecosystem of mini-decentralized applications (DApps) on the Line and KakaoTalk platforms.

“The Kaia mainnet launch marks a crucial first step in expanding the Asian Web3 ecosystem and will serve as a significant catalyst for Line Next’s global business,” said Young-su Ko, CEO of Line Next. “Through the Kaia Wave project, Line Next will focus on delivering a more efficient Web3 platform for builders and improving accessibility and convenience for users.”

TON competitorThe project draws inspiration from the meteoric rise of The Open Network (TON), which emerged as 2024’s fastest-growing blockchain after integrating with Telegram, the popular encrypted messaging application, in September 2023. TON’s total value locked (TVL) increased 10,000% from August 2023 to tag an all-time high of $1.144 billion five weeks ago. TON’s TVL has since tumbled 47% to $610 million.

TON’s growth was propelled by the success of Telegram Mini Apps (TMA). Hamster Kombat, one of the largest TAMs, boasts a user base of 80 million players. Notcoin (NOT), the token issued by another leading TMA, boasts a market cap of $900 million after going live in May.

“Inspired by the success of TON, we aim to integrate with messengers first, leveraging their role as super apps,”said Aidan Kwon, head of the Klaytn Foundation. “Unlike anonymous-focused platforms, our messenger apps offer expansive service integration opportunities.”

Kaia launched a software development kit (SDK) allowing developers to create and launch mini dApps directly within the Line messenger app. Line and Kakao boast a combined user base of over 250 million.

Chain mergeIn January, Klaytn and Finschia proposed merging their networks in a bid to create “the largest web3 network in Asia.” The proposal passed on Feb. 15, garnering 95% support from Finschia's community and 90% from Klaytn.

“Post-merge, Klaytn’sDeFi and gaming services and Finschia’sNFT, payment, and AI services will come together to create a massive ecosystem of 420+ dApps and services,”the Klaytn Foundation said.

Klaytn launched in June 2019 and quickly emerged as a top network among South Korean users. According to DappRadar’s2023 report, Klaytn ranked among the top 10 blockchains by users in 2021 after growing 1,100% to 873,000. Kgken, a move-to-earn app, ranks as the most popular Klatyn-based dApps of the past 30 days with 743,000 users, followed by Superwalk with 50,700, and Iskra with 45,000.

Finschia has also attracted a significant user base since launching in 2018. Finschia’stop dApp, DOSI, an NFT platform, has garnered 5.6 million cumulative users and facilitated more than 530,000 NFT transactions all-time.

Klaytn’sKLAY token currently ranks as the 76th largest cryptocurrency with a $1B market cap, according to CoinGecko. Finschia'sFNSA ranks 310th with a capitalization of $151.2 million.

Kaia said it will merge KLAY and FNSA and introduce new tokenomics.

Read More: TON Ventures Spins Out Of TON Foundation After $40 Million Raise

Two of the most prominent crypto fraud cases in the U.S. courts moved in different directions today, 10 February.

In one case, the former chief executive of SafeMoon received a prison sentence following conviction. In another, Sam Bankman-Fried, the former head of collapsed exchange FTX, filed a fresh bid seeking to reopen his case.

SafeMoon CEO sentenced after victim testimony A federal judge in New York sentenced John Karony, the former CEO of SafeMoon, to 100 months in prison, according to courtroom reporting by Inner City Press.

During the sentencing hearing, multiple victims described how they invested in SafeMoon after being reassured by Karony’s public statements and personal engagement with the community. 

Several said the losses reshaped their financial futures, preventing home purchases and affecting education plans.

U.S. prosecutors sought a 12-year sentence, arguing Karony deliberately misled investors and showed no remorse. The defense cited his age and background to mitigate the punishment. 

The judge rejected those arguments, describing the scheme as “a massive fraud” and stating it was “more like theft than fraud,” emphasizing that investors had been explicitly assured there would be no rug pull.

The sentence marks a final chapter in one of the most widely followed cases to reach U.S. courts.

SBF files long-shot motion for new trial In a separate development, Bankman-Fried filed a pro se motion seeking a new trial on his FTX fraud conviction, according to Bloomberg. 

The filing, dated 5 February and docketed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, argues that new witness testimony could undermine the government’s case.

The request is separate from Bankman-Fried’s formal appeal. It comes after a federal appeals court rejected his attempt to secure release while that appeal is pending. 

The Second Circuit ruled in December that he had not demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success.

Bankman-Fried was convicted in November 2023 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy and sentenced in March 2024 to 25 years in prison. 

Prosecutors said he misappropriated billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to support risky trading at Alameda Research, political donations, and luxury real estate purchases.

Cases enter different phases Together, the two developments highlight how high-profile crypto prosecutions are diverging in 2026. 

While the SafeMoon case has reached sentencing, delivering closure for victims, the FTX case continues to generate procedural filings as its former executive pursues post-conviction relief.

Final Thoughts The SafeMoon sentencing reflects courts moving toward final judgments in retail-focused crypto fraud cases. Bankman-Fried’s filing underscores how larger cases can remain active for years through appeals and post-conviction motions.

Strive, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASST) has acquired an additional 382 bitcoin for approximately $30.3 million, paying an average cost of roughly $79,348 per coin, according to an 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The purchase, executed between May 13 and May 18, lifts the Dallas-based Bitcoin treasury and asset management firm’s total holdings to 15,391 BTC — cementing its status as one of the largest public corporate holders of the digital asset.

The latest accumulation adds to a relentless buying streak that has seen Strive grow its treasury by more than 2,200 BTC since January 2026, when the company held 12,798 BTC following its acquisition of Semler Scientific. 

The pace has accelerated markedly: in late April, Strive purchased 789 BTC for roughly $61.4 million at an average price of $77,890 per coin, and just weeks later added 444 BTC for $33.9 million at $76,307 per coin, crossing the 15,000 BTC threshold for the first time.

Strive’s bitcoin strategy Alongside the latest purchase, Strive disclosed updated performance figures that underscore its unique approach to capital allocation. The company reported a quarter-to-date BTC Yield of 6.6% and a year-to-date BTC Yield of 18.4% — a proprietary metric that measures the percentage growth of Bitcoin exposure per common share over time, rather than simply the appreciation of BTC’s price. 

The firm’s amplification ratio, a measure of how leveraged its Bitcoin exposure is relative to market value of holdings, stands at 44.3%.

That amplification ratio has grown steadily. When Strive held 13,132 BTC in January, its amplification ratio stood at 37.2%, predominantly driven by preferred equity rather than traditional debt. The expansion to 44.3% reflects continued SATA preferred stock issuances, which the company has used to fund Bitcoin purchases without diluting common shareholders in the conventional sense.

Strive also disclosed approximately $87.3 million in cash and cash equivalents, alongside a $49.8 million position in Strategy Inc.’s Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock (STRC). The company, led by Chairman and CEO Matt Cole, describes Bitcoin as its “hurdle rate” for all capital deployment decisions — framing every acquisition not merely as a treasury move but as a benchmark for long-term shareholder value.

At current market prices, Strive’s 15,391 BTC treasury carries a value approaching $1.2 billion, ranking the firm among the top corporate holders of Bitcoin globally. 

Earlier this week, Strive Inc. announced that its SATA preferred stock will become the first U.S.-listed security to pay cash dividends every business day starting June 16, with daily compounding lifting its effective yield to about 13.88%.

The firm also reported a $265.9 million Q1 net loss driven largely by Bitcoin valuation declines, while expanding its holdings to 15,009 BTC and maintaining a debt-free balance sheet, as CEO Matthew Cole positioned the move as a “zero-to-one innovation.”

Micah Zimmerman

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

Fireblocks, the institutional crypto infrastructure platform that processes more than $5 trillion in digital asset transfers annually, has integrated the Stacks Bitcoin Layer 2 network. The move opens Bitcoin DeFi services to more than 2,400 institutional clients who previously had no streamlined way to access them.

The Fireblocks-Stacks integration covers several key capabilities. Institutional clients get custody support for STX tokens, plus the ability to mint and bridge sBTC, the synthetic Bitcoin asset that operates on the Stacks network.

From there, clients can access DeFi protocols built on Stacks, including Hermetica, Zest/Granite, and Bitflow. These protocols span lending, token swaps, and yield generation.

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One of Stacks’ selling points for institutional users is speed. The network processes transactions with roughly 5-second block times, compared to Bitcoin’s average of about 10 minutes. For institutions executing complex DeFi strategies, that difference matters.

The integration was announced in early February 2026, with full functionality expected by the end of Q1 2026.

Why institutions care about Bitcoin DeFi now Bitcoin’s base layer wasn’t designed for smart contracts. Layer 2 solutions like Stacks exist specifically to bridge that gap, adding programmability on top of Bitcoin’s security model. But even with Layer 2 solutions available, institutions faced a second barrier: custody and compliance. A hedge fund or asset manager can’t just connect a MetaMask wallet to a DeFi protocol and start yield farming. They need enterprise-grade custody, audit trails, regulatory compliance frameworks, and counterparty risk management. That’s exactly what Fireblocks provides.

Broader context and competitive positioning Stacks has also established partnerships with BitGo and Circle, two other heavyweight names in institutional crypto infrastructure. BitGo provides custody and liquidity services to institutional investors. Circle is the issuer of USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market cap. Together with Fireblocks, these partnerships form a triangle of institutional credibility that few Bitcoin Layer 2 competitors can match.

For investors watching this space, the key metric to track isn’t the integration announcement itself but what happens to total value locked on Stacks-based DeFi protocols over the coming quarters. If institutional capital actually flows through Fireblocks into protocols like Hermetica, Zest/Granite, and Bitflow, it would validate the thesis that Bitcoin DeFi can attract serious money, not just crypto-native capital.

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

THORChain, a decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocol, has paused trading after blockchain security researchers flagged an exploit worth over $10 million. The protocol has reportedly suffered an exploit across Bitcoin, Ethereum, BSC and Base. As a result, RUNE price crashed 12% in a few hours.

THORChain Hit By $10M Crypto Losses in Exploit On-chain investigator ZachXBT on May 15 flagged an exploit on THORChain, claiming losses exceeding $10 million. The funds are stolen across multiple major blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain (BSC), and Base.

In response, THORChain has halted all trading and swaps via its emergency protocol to contain the damage. The exploit involved large unauthorized outflows from THORChain’s router contracts across the affected chains.

Many security researchers and analytics platforms such as PeckShieldAlert revealed the attacker’s wallets. Notably, the wallets hold 36.85 BTC, 3,443 ETH, and 96.6 BNB, along with other tokens like USDT, USDC, and WBTC, according to Arkham data.

THORChain Exploiter Wallet’s Crypto Assets. Source: Arkham The incident triggered THORChain’s built-in halt mechanism, where nodes pause operations upon detecting the exploit to protect liquidity providers (LPs). This is reportedly the second notable security event for THORChain this year, amplifying concerns about DeFi interoperability risks.

Recently, KelpDAO suffered a hack worth $290 million. The attacker drained rsETH through KelpDAO’s LayerZero-powered cross-chain bridge, risking contagion to other DeFi protocols such as Aave.

RUNE Price Crashes 12% amid Market Reaction RUNE price fell 12% in just a few hours, with the price currently trading at $0.520. The 24-hour low and high are $0.502 and $0.597, respectively. Furthermore, trading volume has increased by almost 140% over the last 24 hours as investors book profits amid a decline in prices.

In contrast, CoinGlass data showed massive buying in the derivatives market. At the time of writing, the total THORChain futures open interest jumped more than 6% to $24.80 million in just an hour. RUNE futures open interest spiked 19% in the past 4 hours, with an almost 17% and 19% jump on Binance and Bybit, respectively.

THORChain Futures Open Interest. Source: Coinglass If you’re looking for more cross-chain swap protocols, here are our reviews for the top 9 among the best cross-chain swap platforms in 2026.

Telcoin (TEL) is an ERC-20 token powering a platform that connects mobile telecommunications with decentralized finance. In mid-November 2025, the token surged 95% after Telcoin received approval to operate the first regulated digital asset bank in the United States under Nebraska's Financial Innovation Act.

The approval was more than a price catalyst. It represents years of infrastructure work aimed at delivering low-cost financial services through mobile networks. Few crypto projects hold banking licenses, telecom partnerships, and DeFi infrastructure simultaneously. Telcoin now has all three.

This analysis covers TEL's tokenomics, utility, market performance, and the regulatory progress positioning it where traditional finance meets blockchain.

What Is the Telcoin Project?Founded in 2017 by CEO Paul Neuner, Telcoin set out to build what it calls the "Internet of Money." The platform integrates telecommunications, digital banking, and decentralized finance to bring accessible financial services to mobile users worldwide. It achieves this through partnerships with mobile network operators (MNOs) under the GSMA framework.

The ecosystem has several moving parts. The Telcoin Wallet app lets users hold stablecoins, swap tokens on Polygon, and send cross-border payments. The wallet already supports 11 digital cash currencies on Polygon, including eAUD, eGBP, eJPY, eSGD, and eZAR. Governance sits with the Telcoin Association, a Swiss non-profit overseeing protocol decisions.

Regulatory licensing has been central to Telcoin's approach. The project holds licenses in Singapore, Lithuania, the United States, Canada, and Australia. The November 2025 Nebraska approval stands as its most significant milestone. The charter is the first in the US to explicitly authorize connecting customers to DeFi protocols under a regulated framework. Bank-issued stablecoin eUSD is expected to launch soon, with eEUR announced for EU markets under MiCA compliance but not yet live.

What Is Telcoin Network?Telcoin Network is the project's own blockchain, currently in development. It's an EVM-compatible, public chain secured by GSMA Operator Member mobile network operators using Proof-of-Stake consensus.

The network design puts telecoms at the center. Only GSMA Full Member MNOs can run transaction nodes and earn network fees. This creates a validator set tied to established telecom infrastructure rather than anonymous node operators. Validators receive TEL issuance as rewards for securing the network and maintaining efficient operations.

Development has progressed through several phases. Once fully live, telecoms and their mobile money subsidiaries can launch customized financial applications tailored to local markets. The network also bridges with existing mobile financial services ecosystems and other blockchains.

Why Does a Telecom-Secured Chain Matter?Most blockchains rely on anonymous validators or mining pools. Telcoin Network takes a different route by anchoring validation to licensed telecoms with existing compliance infrastructure, global reach, and billions of existing customer relationships. This design aims to solve two problems at once: regulatory acceptance and distribution scale.

How Does TEL Accrue Value on the New Chain?For TEL holders, the network transition changes the token's economic role. On Ethereum, TEL is one of thousands of ERC-20 tokens. On Telcoin Network, it becomes the native asset powering all transactions.

Gas demand: Every transaction requires TEL for fees, creating persistent buy pressure as network activity grows.Staking locks: Validators and delegators must stake TEL to participate, reducing circulating supply.Validator rewards: TEL issuance flows to MNOs securing the network, aligning telecom incentives with token value.Whether fee burns or MEV capture mechanisms are planned has not been confirmed. Monitor official channels for updates on deflationary features.

How Do TEL Tokenomics Work?$TEL launched via an initial coin offering in 2017 as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum. It has since expanded to Polygon, Arbitrum, and Base. The token serves as the native asset of the Telcoin Platform, with the Telcoin Association handling governance.

Key Token MetricsTotal supply: 100 billion TEL (hard cap, no additional minting planned)Max supply: 100 billion TEL (matches total supply)Circulating supply: 91-95 billion TEL (91-95% of total)Holder count: Approximately 97,700 wallet addressesInflation rate: Zero (no new tokens minted)Burn mechanisms: None confirmed for 2025Supply DistributionThe 4% gap in circulating supply figures between CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko likely stems from differences in how real-time updates are handled or in how vesting schedules are counted.

High circulation means strong liquidity, but it also raises questions about dilution from remaining unlocked tokens. The original ICO included team vesting provisions, though recent focus has shifted toward decentralized governance. No explicit burn schedules have been announced.

Inflation and Deflation DynamicsWith no new tokens being minted, TEL has zero inflation. All scarcity comes from the fixed 100 billion cap. Deflationary pressure could emerge through transaction fee burns or staking locks once Telcoin Network launches, but those mechanisms depend on future protocol decisions.

The fully diluted valuation currently ranges from $487.4 million to $501.2 million, based on the price multiplied by the maximum supply.

What Are TEL's Utility and Use Cases?TEL does more than trade on exchanges. The token plays several active roles across the Telcoin ecosystem.

Network Operations: TEL will serve as the gas token for the upcoming Telcoin Network. It also functions as a reserve asset and powers staking, liquidity provision, and validator rewards.DeFi Integration: Users stake TEL to earn yields and provide liquidity to pools. The token connects to the platform's eXYZ Digital Cash stablecoins for settlements and lending, with bank-issued eUSD set to launch as a regulated dollar stablecoin.Mobile Finance: TEL enables borderless payments to mobile money platforms. Partnerships with Powerhive for energy financing in Kenya and The Game Company for gaming transactions show its real-world reach.Governance: Token holders influence protocol decisions through the Telcoin Association framework.This mix of network utility, DeFi functionality, and practical applications sets TEL apart from purely speculative tokens.

How Has TEL Performed in the Market?TEL's price action reflects both broader crypto trends and project-specific news. As of late November 2025, the token trades between $0.00487 and $0.00501. Market cap ranges from $444.7 million to $463.4 million.

Recent Price MovementsDaily trading volume runs between $3.22 million and $4.22 million, about 0.72% of the market cap. That ratio suggests moderate liquidity for a token this size.

At the time of writing, recent volatility looks typical for mid-cap crypto: movements ranging from -7.4% to +7.08% over 24 hours, -24.5% over seven days, +27.5% over 30 days, and +34.5% year-over-year. These figures change daily, so check the current data for the latest figures.

The big move came around November 12, 2025. TEL jumped roughly 100% following news of the US banking approval, peaking a few days later before consolidating.

Price of TEL token surged after banking charter approval (CoinMarketCap)Historical Extremes and ContextTEL hit its all-time high of $0.06448 on May 11, 2021, during that year's bull run. Current prices sit about 92.4% below that peak. On the other end, the all-time low of $0.00006474 came on March 13, 2020, amid the COVID-driven market downturn. From that bottom, the token has climbed over 7,425%.

Trading happens on exchanges such as MEXC, Kucoin, and Bitget. Unconfirmed community speculation suggests potential Tier-1 listings like Coinbase could follow, though nothing official has been announced. Community sentiment remains bullish, and CoinGecko gives the project a security score of 85.81%, with 43% of the codebase reportedly covered by audits.

What Happened with Telcoin in 2025?This year brought several developments affecting TEL's value proposition and adoption trajectory.

Digital Asset Bank Approval (November 12): Telcoin became the first crypto project to secure a US banking charter. The Nebraska charter explicitly authorizes DeFi connections under a regulated framework, a first for US banking. This clears the path for eUSD, the company's bank-issued dollar stablecoin, and triggered the November price surge.Funding Raise (October 14): The project raised $25 million as part of an ongoing pre-series A round to capitalize Telcoin Digital Asset Bank. Investors include Tom Kaiman of Otter & Co. Capital Holdings. The funding meets capital requirements and positions Telcoin to bridge what the company calls the "$4 trillion blockchain economy" with traditional banking.Network Development: Alpha Testnet went live after May 2025. Beta Testnet is targeted for year-end, with mainnet to follow. Blockchain rollouts often face delays, so monitor official channels for the latest timeline.Industry Events: Telcoin appeared at MWC Kigali in October and the Africa Stablecoin Summit in November, highlighting telecom integrations for African financial inclusion.Wallet Updates: Version 4.0 launched in Q1 with UX improvements. November 18 maintenance prepared the platform for further upgrades.How Does Telcoin Compare to Competitors?The remittance and mobile payment space is crowded. Wise and Remitly dominate cross-border transfers with established user bases and fiat rails. Traditional banks remain entrenched despite higher fees. Other blockchain projects like Stellar and Ripple target similar use cases.

Telcoin differentiates on three fronts:

Telecom distribution: Rather than building user acquisition from scratch, Telcoin partners with MNOs who already serve billions of mobile subscribers. This gives potential access to distribution channels that fintech startups typically spend years and millions trying to replicate.Regulatory-first approach: Most crypto remittance projects operate in legal gray areas or offshore jurisdictions. Telcoin pursued banking licenses and helped author the Nebraska Financial Innovation Act in 2021. The result is a framework that competitors would need years to match.Integrated stablecoin suite: While others rely on third-party stablecoins like USDT or USDC, Telcoin issues its own eXYZ Digital Cash currencies directly through its wallet. Bank-issued eUSD adds another layer of regulatory credibility once live.Whether this translates to market share remains unproven. The infrastructure exists, but adoption at scale is the next test.

What Risks and Challenges Does TEL Face?Regulatory wins aside, TEL faces hurdles common to crypto projects plus some unique to its niche.

Key Risk FactorsRegulatory Uncertainty: Nebraska approval is progress, but rules differ across jurisdictions. International growth depends on securing and keeping licenses in countries with varying frameworks.Market Competition: Established players like Wise and Remitly have a years-long head start and brand recognition. Traditional banks continue to invest in faster payment rails. Blockchain competitors are also well-funded.Adoption Challenges: Success hinges on telecom partnerships and user uptake in regions where legacy finance may be preferred, or crypto awareness is low.Technical Execution: Mainnet rollout and stablecoin launches carry implementation risk. Delays or bugs could shake confidence.Current InfrastructureThe banking charter gives Telcoin infrastructure that few crypto projects have. The eUSD framework connects regulated finance with DeFi. Mainnet development will establish TEL's role as a native gas token. The focus on underbanked populations in Africa and developing regions targets a massive potential user base. Exchange presence includes MEXC, with talk of Tier-1 additions circulating as unconfirmed speculation.

ConclusionTEL powers a platform that has cleared regulatory barriers that only a few crypto projects even pursue. The Nebraska banking charter enables stablecoin issuance while keeping DeFi doors open. A capped 100 billion supply and utility across gas, staking, governance, and payments give the token a defined role where telecom, banking, and blockchain overlap.

Telcoin now combines US banking approval, telecom partnerships across multiple countries, and a working wallet app. For anyone watching projects that bridge regulated finance and decentralized tech, this is one of the few with both the paperwork and the product.

The next 12-18 months, covering mainnet launch, stablecoin rollout, and telecom integrations, will determine whether Telcoin can convert infrastructure into adoption.

Visit the official Telcoin website for more information and follow @telcoin on X to stay updated on the latest developments.

SourcesTelcoin Official Website - Project overview and documentationCoinMarketCap - Market data, supply metrics, and holder statisticsCoinGecko - Price history, all-time highs/lows, and security metricsTelcoin Magazine (Substack) - Project updates, roadmap, and regulatory newsBusinessWire - $25 million funding announcement (October 2025)MEXC Exchange - Trading data and tokenomics breakdown

Alpaca Finance token experienced a significant surge this week, reaching a high of $0.227, the highest level since April 8.

ALPACA (ALPACA) rose by over 252% from its lowest point this year, making it one of the top-performing coins of the week. Its market cap climbed to over $37 million, while its 24-hour trading volume spiked to $142 million.

The token’s surge followed the listing of its perpetual futures on Binance, the largest centralized exchange in the industry. This listing potentially exposed the token to over 216 million users on the platform.

In addition to Binance, WhiteBit, a partner of FC Barcelona, also listed Alpaca Finance’s perpetual futures. According to WhiteBit’s website, it recorded a 24-hour trading volume of over $6.5 million. 

Alpaca Finance is one of the top Decentralized Finance dApps in the BNB Smart Chain ecosystem with over $55 million in funds deployed across its V1 and V2 networks. It is an alternative to AAVE (AAVE) that lets people borrow and earn rewards.

It is common for altcoins to see substantial gains following their listing on major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase.

Alpaca token gets overbought Alpaca token price | Source: TradingView Alpaca’s price surge coincided with the convergence of two lines forming a falling wedge pattern, a technical setup that typically signals further upside potential.

The token broke above the key resistance level at $0.1940, the highest point on June 5, and surpassed both the 200-day and 50-day moving averages. This move indicates that bullish momentum is currently strong.

Alpaca reached a high of $0.2778, aligning with the weak, stop & reverse level of the Murrey Math Lines tool.

However, there are signs that it has gotten highly overbought. The Relative Strength Index rose to the extremely overbought point at 86 while the Money Flow Index indicator moved to 97. 

While these overbought conditions reflect strong bullish momentum, they also suggest that a sharp reversal could occur as the initial excitement from the exchange listings fades. If a pullback happens, the key reference level to monitor would be $0.1940, which aligns with the major support/resistance pivot point of the Murrey Math Lines.

Chia Network (XCH), which uses a novel consensus mechanism for running its blockchain, has made progress toward getting its stock trading through an initial public offering, its CEO said Thursday.

The company confidentially filed an amended S-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at the end of March, after the regulators sent a comment letter to the company, CEO Gene Hoffman said at a conference hosted by law firm Brown Rudnick in Manhattan. However, there is still no firm timeline for the IPO since the company wants to wait for the right market conditions, he later told CoinDesk.

Chia revealed in April 2023 that it wanted to go public, though its IPO plans took a detour because of financial distress at Credit Suisse, its underwriter. That led to Chia laying off a third of its staff in October.

Chia was founded by Bram Cohen, who invented the BitTorrent peer-to-peer filesharing technology. Unlike Bitcoin, which uses proof-of-work to run its blockchain, and Ethereum, which uses proof-of-stake, Chia uses proof-of-space and proof-of-time, which, in short, involves the allocation of computer storage on machines around the world.

Hoffman said Chia is planning to roll out a bridge for Circle's USDC stablecoin in the coming months, as well as additional infrastructure projects.

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Ethereum’s well-known MEV bot JaredFromSubway was drained after an attacker used contracts that made its automated trading system grant token approvals, according to Blockaid.

Summary

Blockaid says attacker-controlled contracts tricked JaredFromSubway’s automated system into granting approvals later used for draining. Jared publicly claimed a $15 million loss, while Blockaid’s public estimate stood near $7.5 million. Crypto.news previously tied JaredFromSubway to Vitalik Buterin’s swap and heavy Ethereum gas use in 2023. The security firm said the incident was not a normal phishing case and not a direct bug in the victim contract. 

“This is not a classic phishing attack and not a traditional smart-contract vulnerability in the victim contract,” Blockaid said. 

The firm said the bot approved attacker-controlled contracts during routes that appeared to be profitable MEV trades.

https://twitter.com/blockaid_/status/2068433798757577198

Blockaid says approvals stayed open Blockaid said the attacker first tested routes where approvals were used at once, leaving no open allowance. Later, the attacker changed the route design so the bot gave approvals that were not spent or revoked.

One example cited by Blockaid involved an approval of about 92.16 WETH to an attacker helper contract. Etherscan data for the transaction showed jaredfromsubway.eth interacting with its MEV Bot 2 contract before the later sweep. The transaction record also showed ERC-20 movements tied to the same automated route.

Final sweep hit WETH, USDC and USDT The final transaction used the open approvals to pull WETH, USDC and USDT from the JaredFromSubway MEV bot contract through transferFrom. Etherscan showed transfers from “jaredfromsubway: MEV Bot 2” to the attacker wallet beginning with 0x3e37.

Blockaid put the drained amount at about $7.5 million. The JaredFromSubway account later claimed the loss was $15 million and offered a $1 million bounty for the full return of the funds. That difference has not been fully explained in the public posts reviewed.

https://twitter.com/jaredsmev/status/2068481862499237929

How the attacker turned the bot’s logic against it The attack appears to have targeted the bot’s own trading workflow. MEV bots watch Ethereum activity and act on transactions that look profitable. In this case, attacker-controlled contracts made the route look useful enough for the bot to approve spending rights.

The attacker used 66 fake token contracts that copied the look and function of WETH, USDC and USDT. These contracts were paired with fake liquidity pools. The setup pushed the bot toward approvals that later became the path for the drain.

JaredFromSubway’s record is back in focus JaredFromSubway is one of Ethereum’s most watched sandwich bots. In a sandwich attack, a bot places trades before and after a user’s swap. This can give the user a worse price while the bot captures the spread.

As previously reported by crypto.news, JaredFromSubway targeted a small swap by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in April, using about $1.14 million in WETH volume across SushiSwap and Uniswap V2. Crypto.news also reported in 2023 that the bot used 455 ETH in gas within 24 hours and accounted for about 7% of Ethereum gas use during that period.

The exploit now puts attention on token approvals used by automated systems. The case shows how a system built to act quickly on open market data can be steered into unsafe permissions when controls around approvals are weak. It also adds a new chapter to the wider debate over MEV, sandwich trades and user protection on Ethereum.

For now, the key public details remain split between Blockaid’s technical thread, the on-chain records and posts from the JaredFromSubway account. No recovery had been confirmed in the reviewed updates.

Digital assets custody and collateral management provider Copper now offers custody and staking support for Mina Protocol.

Copper.co announced its support for Mina Protocol (MINA) on Aug. 21, noting that support for the zero-knowledge blockchain platform’s native token expands digital asset options for institutional investors.

The integration will allow eligible clients to participate in the Mina Protocol ecosystem through Copper’s infrastructure.

Targeting institutional investors Founded in 2018, Copper is a platform that seeks to offer institutional investors access and exposure to the digital assets market. The platform provided an MPC wallet and launched its off-exchange settlement solution, ClearLoop, in 2020.

ClearLoop allows users to manage digital asset collateral and settle trades across major crypto exchanges without moving assets off Copper’s wallet.

According to the London-based company, adding MINA staking allows for increased adoption of ZK technology.

“The addition of Copper’s custody solution gives professional and institutional entities more options to diversify their crypto participation with MINA. We hope that it will also raise awareness of institutional use cases for ZK technology, such as zk-KYC credentials that help address compliance without sacrificing user privacy,”

Kurt Hemecker, chief executive officer of Mina Foundation

Copper co-founder and chief executive Dmitry Tokarev commented that crypto and blockchain are at a “pivotal moment for institutional adoption.”

Tokarev added that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of Ethereum ETFs in May and launch of trading in July has accelerated interest. As a result, the ecosystem is seeing increased demand for reliable tools through which institutional investors can gain exposure to cryptocurrencies.

Copper’s recent partnerships Copper recently partnered with Hedera (HBAR) to expand institutional access to the proof-of-stake network’s native token. The integration allows investors to leverage Copper Connect and Hedera protocols such as SaucerSwap to participate in the HBAR and Hedera Token Service utility.

Copper expanded its custody and staking service to Internet Computer (ICP) in July.

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Wednesday! Bitcoin's fall below $100,000 by this weekend "seems inevitable," at least according to Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick.

In today's newsletter, crypto prime broker FalconX will acquire 21Shares, MegaETH announced a public MEGA token sale at a $1 million fully diluted valuation, the SEC and CFTC are pushing to get crypto initiatives done before the end of the year, and more.

Meanwhile, institution-focused Layer 1 Kadena is winding down operations.

Let's get started!

P.S. CryptoIQ is now available to everyone. Take the test for a chance to win $20,000!

Prime broker FalconX to buy 21Shares amid crypto M&A spree: report FalconX, a U.S.-based institutional crypto prime broker, has agreed to acquire 21Shares, one of the largest managers of exchange-traded products for digital assets, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. 21Shares is known for its broad suite of ETPs and single-asset products, including over $11 billion in assets across bitcoin and ether ETPs and other token-specific and basket offerings in Europe, the U.S., and other jurisdictions. FalconX’s acquisition comes on the heels of the firm's push into institutional derivatives last month, beginning with its 24/7 over-the-counter options platform supporting Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and other tokens. The combined company will focus on derivatives and structured crypto funds, leveraging 21Shares’ distribution and ETP expertise with FalconX’s trading and prime-brokerage infrastructure. MegaETH to offer 5% of its total MEGA supply in English auction at baseline $1 million fully diluted valuation Ethereum scaling solution MegaETH plans to sell 5% of its total token supply in a three-day English auction beginning Oct. 27 using the crypto crowdfunding platform Sonar, which was recently acquired by Coinbase. The project will unlock 500 million tokens for the public sale, initially priced at $0.0001 and gradually scaling to $0.0999 per token as demand increases. Additionally, MegaLabs is instituting a "bimodal allocation" model that ensures core MegaETH supporters will receive tokens if the sale is oversubscribed. Buyers, limited to verified accredited U.S. persons and verified non-U.S. persons, can choose to lock up their allocations for one year to receive a 10% discount, according to an FAQ. Kadena winds down operations, KDA token drops 60% The organization behind the Kadena blockchain is winding down, effective immediately, as it is "no longer able to continue business operations" due to market conditions, the team announced Tuesday. "We are tremendously grateful to everybody who has participated in this journey with us. We regret that because of market conditions, we are unable to continue to promote and support the adoption of this unique decentralized offering," the Kadena team said on X. Kadena’s native KDA token dropped over 59% immediately following the announcement and is currently trading at $0.068, down significantly from an all-time high above $27 in late 2021. The blockchain was created in 2019 by two U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and JPMorgan alums, Stuart Popejoy and William Martino, with the aim of attracting institutional interest. SEC, CFTC target end-of-year milestones for crypto oversight amid government shutdown The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission are pushing to complete their end-of-year crypto goals, particularly priorities set out in a report released by the White House over the summer. These priorities include SEC-enforced safe-harbors for crypto and the establishment of "fit-for-purpose" registration exemptions for securities distributions, while granting the CFTC the authority to "regulate spot markets in non-security digital assets." Additionally, CFTC Acting Chair Pham said the agency is prioritizing crypto trading and "tokenized collateral" by the end of 2025. The move comes as lawmakers in Washington D.C., work to draft and advance market structure legislation that would write rules for crypto at large, including designations for what parts of the industry will fall under CFTC or SEC remit. 'Total land rush': Bitcoin, Solana lead the way with over 150 crypto ETF filings awaiting review There are 155 cryptocurrency-based exchange-traded product filings awaiting SEC review, according to Bloomberg.
As of Oct. 20, this includes 23 products tracking Bitcoin and Solana, 20 tracking XRP, and 16 tracking Ethereum. Although the U.S. government shutdown that began on Oct. 1 has slowed the SEC's review process, experts are optimistic that approval is imminent. Never miss a beat with The Block's daily digest of the most influential events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

© 2026 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

PANews reported on February 23 that the IoTeX team tweeted that on February 21, they discovered an attack on the Ethereum side of their multi-chain bridge ioTube. The attackers stole 410 million CIOTX tokens and approximately $4.4 million in assets through four steps. Currently, over 86% of the CIOTX has been locked or frozen, 12.8% (52.4 million CIOTX) is being frozen in cooperation with Binance and other platforms, and only 0.4% (1.7 million CIOTX) remains at risk after being exchanged on DEXs. Regarding the bridge's reserve funds, the attackers exchanged the stolen reserve tokens (including USDC, USDT, WBTC, WETH, and other assets) for approximately 2,183 ETH . Of this, 1,572 ETH has been transferred to the Bitcoin network via THORChain.

The IoTeX team has taken emergency measures, including distributing patch fixes, freezing related addresses, and working with exchanges to freeze funds. The ioTube bridge service will be restored after an independent security audit, along with a compensation plan and security upgrades. The team is committed to ensuring the safety of community assets and will release a more detailed compensation plan and hold a community AMA within the next 48 hours.

Previously reported, IoTeX suffered a loss of approximately $2 million in assets and is expected to be operational within 48 hours . Upbit has added IoTeX (IOTX) to its transaction alert list .

Table of contents

VVS Finance today rolled out Auto Harvest—a game‑changer for anyone who’s been farming yield on Cronos and wondering how to spend those rewards without jumping through hoops. If you hold a Crypto.com Prepaid Card, you can now set things on autopilot: your VVS farming rewards (once they hit a $6 minimum) get swept up every day, converted into USDC (or your local fiat equivalent), and dropped straight onto your card.

No more manually harvesting, swapping tokens, or waiting for transfers to clear. It all happens behind the scenes, so you can wake up to a little extra spending power: coffee, groceries, whatever you like. And if you ever want to grab your rewards yourself, you still can—manual claims are fee‑free.

Esther Wong from Crypto.com puts it simply: “The Crypto.com Prepaid Card is a vital bridge between the fiat and crypto worlds and a stepping stone to participating in decentralized finance. The launch of Auto Harvest reinforces this by allowing VVS Finance users to automatically claim their yield farming rewards and seamlessly use them to enable spending on everyday goods and services.”

Cronos Labs’ Mirko Zhao is just as excited: “VVS Finance’s Auto Harvest feature shows that what happens on Cronos chain doesn’t have to stay on Cronos chain. Its native integration with Crypto.com Prepaid Card gives Cronos users the freedom to claim their yield farming rewards and decide where to utilize them – for other DeFi purposes onchain, or to cash them out to their prepaid card.”

And from VVS Finance’s side, Product Lead Yotei calls Auto Harvest a breakthrough. Yotei said, “The launch of Auto Harvest seamlessly connects DeFi and CeFi, making it easy for VVS users to claim rewards and immediately allocate them for everyday spending. It’s a breakthrough in making decentralized finance accessible to mainstream users, who can seamlessly claim their rewards and convert tokens with zero friction.”

Seamless Off‑Ramp This isn’t just a nice convenience feature. It shows how quickly DeFi tools are evolving to meet regular people’s needs, not just hardcore traders. VVS Finance has built a broad DeFi hub on Cronos—trading, staking, perpetuals, you name it—and now, with Auto Harvest, it’s easier than ever to turn yield farming into real‑world buying power.

Cronos itself is on the rise: three blockchains (EVM, POS, zkEVM), 500+ apps, over 100 million potential users, and more than $6 billion locked in assets. Since 2021, it’s handled 100 million transactions, and its accelerator, Cronos Labs, has seeded projects with $100 million to spur growth in DeFi and gaming.

Crypto.com, the home of the prepaid card, is no slouch either—six‑year‑old, 140 million customers, and a reputation for nailing security and compliance. Their mantra, “Cryptocurrency in Every Wallet,” feels a lot more attainable now that your yield farming earnings can be spent as easily as your paycheck. In short: if you’ve been farming VVS tokens and keeping your eye on the prize, Auto Harvest just made that prize a lot more tangible—and a lot closer to your next latte.

AUTHOR

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.