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While XRP is still stuck in a larger bearish structure and is still having trouble below important resistance levels, NEAR Protocol is demonstrating strength as it tries to reclaim the critical $2.00 level.
After consolidating between $1.80 and $2.00 for several weeks, NEAR has finally been able to surpass the psychological $2 mark. The asset is currently trading above its 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day moving averages concurrently, which makes the move significant. Such patterns, especially ones within recovery phases, are typically regarded as a bullish development.
NEAR/USDT Chart by TradingViewNEAR recently recovered from support around $1.80, which is in line with the 200-day moving average, according to the daily chart. Successfully defending that area, buyers have progressively raised the price. The market structure appears to be improving, as evidenced by the fact that NEAR is holding above all major trend indicators, even though volume is still relatively low in comparison to the explosive rally in May.
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The next barrier is located close to $2.10, where resistance is currently being provided by the 100-day moving average. A clear break above that level might pave the way for $2.30 and possibly more. Additionally, the RSI has risen above 50, suggesting that momentum is returning to the bulls.
XRP's Pitiful Recovery XRP is still below its 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day moving averages despite a minor attempt at recovery. The asset is currently trading at $1.09, and the descending moving average cluster between $1.11 and $1.15 is still posing significant resistance. Each recent rally has been rejected before a significant trend reversal could be established.
XRP/USDT Chart by TradingViewSince the significant breakdown in June, the chart displays a sequence of lower highs and lower lows. Although buyers haven't created enough momentum to challenge the more significant resistance zone around $1.15, XRP hasn't made any new lows lately. The lack of conviction on both sides is reflected in the RSI, which stays neutral at 47.
XRP needs to establish support above $1.12 and regain the 50-day moving average before it can improve its outlook. The asset stays in a corrective phase until that occurs. While XRP is still concentrating on just getting out of its current downtrend, NEAR is currently trying to break out and strengthen its recovery. The two largest memecoins available on the market are still moving nearly simultaneously.
Downtrends Dominate on MemesBoth Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are stuck in well-established downtrends, trading below important moving averages, and finding it difficult to generate enough buying pressure to start a significant rebound. Shiba Inu continues to face particularly challenging circumstances. SHIB entered a protracted decline that has erased the majority of its spring gains after failing to maintain a rising wedge pattern earlier this year.
The token is still below its 50-, 100-, and 200-day moving averages at $0.0000042. The chart displays a number of unsuccessful recovery attempts. SHIB has not been able to establish a higher-low structure because every local breakout has been followed by fresh selling pressure.
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Early in July, there was a brief improvement in sentiment, but buyers soon lost steam. Additionally, volume has continued to decline, indicating that market participation is still low. The fact that SHIB's RSI is close to 36 and on the verge of oversold territory is one possibly positive indicator.
Relief rallies have historically frequently preceded such circumstances. However, before any more comprehensive recovery narrative becomes plausible, the asset would first need to reclaim resistance close to the 50-day moving average.
The fact that SHIB is still far from its major moving averages is another factor working against it. Bulls would have to overcome a stacked resistance zone because the 50-day EMA is still above the current price, and the 100-day and 200-day trend lines are even higher.
This implies that before a complete trend reversal can occur, SHIB will probably encounter several technical obstacles, even if it is able to stage a brief recovery. There are indications that the downward momentum is waning at the same time.
The volume spikes that accompanied the June breakdown have not been seen in recent selloffs, indicating that market participants are becoming less inclined to sell at current levels. In the latter phases of bearish trends, when the majority of weak hands have already sold their positions, this type of volume contraction frequently occurs.
Dogecoin Might Be Pushed DownDogecoin is sitting well below critical indicators, which strongly suggests a possibility of a rapid reversal downward. The asset hasn't fully recovered from a significant breakdown that occurred in June. Although buyers were able to halt the initial decline, they have not produced enough strength to overcome resistance levels above $0.076-$0.083.
Lower highs are still forming all over the chart, and the technical structure is still bearish. Dogecoin's RSI has somewhat recovered from oversold levels, but it is still far from indicating a significant bullish trend reversal, much like SHIB. The similarity in the behavior of both assets is noteworthy.
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Both DOGE and SHIB are no longer facing aggressive capitulation, but neither is drawing sizable capital inflows. Rather, both seem to be in a state of exhaustion where demand is still insufficient but selling pressure has decreased. The area above $0.076 must be reclaimed by DOGE, while $0.0000045 is the crucial level for SHIB.
Despite early indications that the worst of the selling pressure may be lessening, both memecoins remain in corrective structures until those levels are restored.
Circle has again issued an additional 750 million USDC on Solana, bringing its total additional USDC issuance this year to over $69 billion.
According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, Circle has minted an additional 750 million USDC on the Solana network. Data shows that since 2026, Circle has cumulatively minted approximately 69.01 billion USDC on the Solana network.
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A crypto whale has amassed $75 million worth of USDC in recent weeks and begun participating in Hyperliquid’s CXMT bidding.
According to Mlm's monitoring, a whale address has accumulated approximately 75 million USDC tokens over the past several weeks. It had previously executed multiple test trades on Hyperliquid and has now begun participating in the bidding for CXMT assets.
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A South Korean investment-focused YouTuber was attacked with a knife by a viewer, allegedly triggered by huge losses from following the YouTuber's stock investment recommendations.
According to a report by The Chosun Ilbo, a stock investment-focused YouTuber in his 40s in Busan, South Korea was repeatedly stabbed with a knife by a man in his 20s. The suspect was a subscriber to the YouTube channel, the report noted. Some local media outlets added that the attack’s motive stemmed from the suspect incurring heavy investment losses after buying stocks recommended by the YouTuber, sparking resentment that led to the assault. The case is currently under further investigation.
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Bitmine's Ethereum staking revenue reached $45.7 million last quarter, accounting for 98% of its total revenue.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies’ latest 10-Q filing shows that for the quarter ended May 31, the company generated approximately $45.7 million in revenue from Ethereum staking and validation services, accounting for around 98% of its total revenue. In the same period, its self-mining revenue from Bitcoin came to about $624,000, while consulting services revenue was roughly $168,000. Bitmine previously disclosed that it has allocated roughly 85% of its ETH holdings to staking, equivalent to around 4.9 million ETH. Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine, stated that with the full launch of MAVAN—its institutional-grade Ethereum staking platform—the company expects annualized rewards from its Ethereum staking business to reach approximately $284 million. Additionally, he noted that since its launch on July 1, Robinhood Chain has recorded over $1 billion in on-chain transaction volume, adding that this validates Ethereum’s utility as an underlying settlement network.
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Analysis: The US and Iran are trapped in a war of attrition in the Strait of Hormuz, with both sides facing time pressure.
As tensions in the Strait of Hormuz continue to escalate, analysts believe the U.S. and Iran are entering a war of attrition centered on time, cost, and political endurance. Reports indicate Trump aims to resolve the conflict before the U.S. midterm elections to avoid further oil price hikes, while Iran is seeking to prolong time without triggering full-scale war by repeatedly threatening shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, in order to wear down the U.S.'s political and military patience. To date, the U.S. has reinstated blockades on Iranian ports and maritime shipping, and has been striking military targets that threaten navigation; Iran, in turn, continues to target Strait of Hormuz shipping lanes with missiles and drones, attempting to disrupt global energy transport. Analysts note that with both sides seeking to avoid full-scale escalation, this standoff is likely to evolve into a prolonged war of attrition.
5 minutes ago
South Korean securities firms discuss raising minimum deposit requirements for chip stock leveraged ETFs.
The Korea Financial Investment Association (KFIA) announced that CEOs of 10 major South Korean asset management firms have discussed investor protection measures for individual stock leveraged ETFs, including raising minimum deposit requirements and staggering rebalancing trading times. Per the association’s statement, attendees agreed it is necessary to lift the minimum deposit threshold for investing in such leveraged products from the current 10 million won (US$6,714). They also emphasized the need to strengthen the market stabilizer function of liquidity providers. Citing data from the Korea Capital Market Institute, the KFIA noted that since the launch of related leveraged ETFs, daily stock trading volume required for rebalancing is estimated at between 700 billion won and 2.1 trillion won.
Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA) is up 4.5% on Tuesday and steady accumulation trends point to a solid long-term outlook for the months ahead.
Whales Hit 3.5-Year Accumulation HighIn an X post on July 14, on chain data platform Santiment Intelligence noted that wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million ADA are now controlling more than 25.6 billion ADA. This is their highest balance since February 2023.
In contrast, retail investors appear to be reducing exposure. Wallets holding fewer than 100 ADA now own about 0.7% fewer coins than they did four months ago.
The accumulation comes as ADA continues to face bearish sentiment after underperforming throughout 2026 and recently trading near multi-year lows.
Sentiment noted that divergence between whale accumulation and retail selling suggests stronger hands are absorbing supply while smaller investors lose patience.
Cardano prices have dropped almost 50% on year-to-date basis, and around 78% plunge over the past year.
Healthy Long-Term SetupCardano also continues to advance several ecosystem initiatives, including Leios testnet development, Hydra scaling upgrades, Mithril improvements, Pyth Network oracle integration and fresh ecosystem funding efforts.
Blockworks data, cited by chief meme officer Mintern, showed that Cardano ETFs/ETPs witnessed net inflows of more than $9.7 million in 2026 with zero outflow months.
While whale accumulation does not guarantee an immediate price recovery, analysts say the combination of sustained buying by large holders, washed-out sentiment and retail capitulation has created one of Cardano’s healthier long-term setups this year.
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Cardano’s [ADA] largest investors continued accumulating despite weak retail participation, pushing supply concentration to its highest level in years. Wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million ADA increased their combined balance to more than 25.6 billion ADA, marking the highest level since February 2023.
Retail participants moved in the opposite direction, with wallets holding fewer than 100 ADA owning 0.7% fewer coins than they had four months earlier. That divergence highlighted growing confidence among large holders while smaller investors reduced exposure.
The accumulation also developed as ADA traded near multi-year lows, reinforcing the view that whales continued building positions during periods of subdued sentiment. Although the market remained cautious, sustained supply absorption reduced the liquid supply available for immediate selling pressure.
Source: Santiment/X Whale-sized orders pointed to stronger accumulation The Spot Average Order Size reflected the growing influence of larger market participants rather than retail traders.
The indicator consistently flagged Big Whale Orders, showing that sizeable transactions dominated market activity, aligning closely with the expanding holdings among Cardano’s largest wallets.
Rather than relying on frequent small trades, large participants executed fewer but significantly bigger orders, suggesting deliberate accumulation instead of speculative buying. Retail activity remained comparatively subdued, allowing whales to absorb available liquidity without triggering excessive volatility.
The order flow also complemented the on-chain supply distribution trend, strengthening the broader accumulation narrative. If this pattern continued, larger investors could keep supporting ADA even while overall market sentiment remained cautious.
Source: CryptoQuant Binance’s top traders stayed firmly bullish Binance’s top traders maintained a clear bullish bias despite Cardano’s relatively subdued price performance.
At press time, Long/Short Ratio showed 71.38% of top trader accounts holding long positions, while only 28.62% remained short. That imbalance produced a Long/Short Ratio of 2.49, highlighting continued confidence among experienced market participants.
Although ADA failed to produce a sustained breakout, professional traders continued positioning for higher prices instead of reducing exposure. Their conviction contrasted sharply with weakening retail participation reflected in the supply distribution data.
Such positioning did not guarantee an immediate rally, yet it suggested that sophisticated traders continued expecting favorable conditions ahead. If buying activity strengthens further, those long positions could reinforce any developing recovery.
Source: CoinGlass Cardano defends support as sellers regain control Cardano pulled back after failing to sustain its early July rebound, leaving the $0.20 resistance firmly intact.
Price returned to the $0.1588 area and continued trading just above the critical $0.1567 support, showing that buyers still defended this level despite fading upside pressure.
Unlike the previous rebound, the Parabolic SAR flipped above the candles as of writing, indicating that short-term control shifted back toward sellers. The MACD also weakened as the MACD line narrowed toward the signal line without completing a bearish crossover, while the positive histogram continued shrinking.
That combination showed that buying pressure had eased even though bulls had not completely lost control.
Source: TradingView If Cardano holds above $0.1567, buyers could mount another challenge toward the $0.20 resistance.
However, a decisive close below support would likely strengthen bearish pressure and increase the probability of another move lower before a sustained recovery emerged.
Final Summary Whale accumulation kept rising even as retail participation continued weakening across the Cardano network. ADA remained above support, though sellers still capped the price below the important $0.20 resistance.
Heavy whale accumulation was spotted in Cardano as retail investors reduced their holdings amid persistent FUD and ecosystem setbacks.
Cardano’s largest holders have been increasing their exposure even as smaller investors reduce theirs, according to Santiment’s latest supply distribution data.
Wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million ADA now collectively own more than 25.6 billion coins. The figure is the highest balance since February 2023. On the other hand, wallets holding fewer than 100 ADA have reduced their holdings by about 0.7% over the past four months.
Whales See Opportunity Santiment said this trend comes as ADA faces intense FUD. The crypto asset’s price performance in 2026 fell short of expectations, and it recently traded near multi-year lows. Last week’s upside push toward $0.2 proved futile after ADA quickly pulled back. It slid to $0.15 and was down more than 11% over the past week. Despite that backdrop, major holders have continued accumulating.
The analytics firm pointed to several ongoing developments within the Cardano ecosystem, including work on the Leios testnet, continued Hydra scaling upgrades, progress on Mithril, integration of Pyth oracles, and new ecosystem funding initiatives.
These combined factors – whale and shark accumulation, declining retail participation, and persistently weak sentiment – represent one of the healthier market setups ADA has shown so far this year, although it does not necessarily signal an immediate price reversal.
String of Setbacks 2026 has been challenging for Cardano as the ecosystem has witnessed a series of setbacks. This month, EMURGO announced it was stepping down from the Cardano Pentad, the network’s governance group, to focus its resources on helping users recover from the SecondFi exploit. One community member described the exit as worrying and speculated that the organization may have run out of funds following the SecondFi exploit.
Earlier in the year, analytics platform TapTools shut down, while the planned 2026 Singapore Summit was called off. During the same period, Charles Hoskinson also warned that a “wave of failures” could hit DeFi projects built on the network. The developments came even as the ecosystem continued pushing ahead with technical upgrades behind the scenes.
You may also like: Bitcoin (BTC) Starts July Under $60K, Cardano (ADA) Finally Rebounds: Market Watch ADA Faces Heavy Pressure, But Cardano’s On-Chain Data Tells Another Story BTC, ETH, and XRP Flash Buy Signals After Market Sell-Off: Santiment Tags:
About the author
Chayanika has been working as a financial journalist for seven years. A graduate in Political Science and Journalism, her interest lies in regulatory implications with a focus on technological evolution in the crypto realm.
EMURGO has transferred responsibility for organizing Cardano’s presence at Token2049 to the Cardano Foundation, as it prioritizes recovering assets following the SecondFi incident. EMURGO, the official commercial arm of the Cardano blockchain, announced the move in a joint statement with Intersect, a member-based organization that supports Cardano’s on-chain governance.
Shift in responsibilityEMURGO stated that it no longer has the capacity to manage preparations for Token2049 while focusing on efforts to recover user assets affected by the recent incident involving SecondFi, a DeFi platform operating within the Cardano ecosystem. The transfer of responsibilities was finalized after discussions among EMURGO, Intersect, and the Cardano Foundation, aiming to ensure the project continues without disruption.
Rather than postpone event preparations, the three organizations agreed that the Cardano Foundation would oversee the planning and execution of Cardano’s activities at Token2049. The Foundation is set to undertake the initiative according to the scope previously approved by the Cardano community.
EMURGO emphasized that, although it is stepping back from its leadership role, its local team will continue to provide on-site support to facilitate a smooth transition ahead of the conference scheduled for October.
Mini dictionary: EMURGO is the commercial and venture arm of Cardano, responsible for driving adoption of the Cardano blockchain by providing solutions and support for developers and enterprises. The Cardano Foundation is a nonprofit based in Switzerland, overseeing the promotion and standardization of Cardano’s technology.
Intersect’s assuranceIntersect reported that the transfer was made to ensure continuity as the countdown to the event shortens. The organization indicated that the Cardano Foundation’s experience in delivering large-scale blockchain events positions it well to handle Token2049.
Intersect described the decision as a proactive move “to avoid uncertainty as the event timeline continues to shorten,” highlighting confidence in the Foundation’s ability to deliver on expectations.
Token2049 and community responseToken2049 is widely recognized as one of the cryptocurrency sector’s largest annual gatherings, uniting developers, investors, founders, and leaders from across the blockchain industry. Cardano’s consistent participation in the conference helps showcase the platform’s progress and attract new collaborators to its ecosystem.
The incident involving SecondFi has led to growing scrutiny of EMURGO’s recent activities. Community reactions remain mixed, with calls for increased accountability in treasury management alongside support for EMURGO’s ongoing asset recovery work.
While EMURGO shifts its focus, Cardano Foundation’s leadership of the Token2049 initiative will be monitored closely by the community as the event approaches in October, with ongoing updates expected regarding the progress of both the event and the SecondFi recovery efforts.
OrganizationRole Before TransferRole After TransferEMURGOToken2049 event lead, recovery supportFocus on SecondFi asset recovery, on-site event supportCardano FoundationSupporter, consultativeEvent lead for Token2049IntersectGovernance engagementContinues governance and coordinationLooking aheadWith the Cardano Foundation now overseeing Token2049 preparations, community members are expected to follow updates on both the conference and the developments surrounding SecondFi. The Foundation’s management of the event is anticipated to reflect the standards and objectives previously established by the ecosystem.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Raw Volume vs. Buzz Per DollarRaw social volume tells one story. Adjusted for market cap, it tells another. Using Santiment's social dominance metric, which measures each token's share of total crypto discussions, alongside market cap data from CoinMarketCap, it is possible to calculate a simple but revealing ratio: buzz per billion dollars of market cap.
Santiment defines social dominance as the share of discussions across crypto media referring to a particular asset, benchmarked against the top 100 assets by market cap. Social dominance shows the share of the discussions in crypto media that is referring to a particular asset or phrase. On that basis, $XRP currently owns 0.76% of the entire crypto conversation, roughly seven times the share commanded by Cardano and ten times most other altcoins. By raw volume alone, it has the loudest army in crypto.
But $XRP also carries a market cap in the region of $69 billion, and that size dilutes the signal. When social dominance is divided by market cap in billions, a different league table emerges:
What the Adjusted Ranking RevealsPer dollar of market cap, $XRP drops to fourth. Litecoin leads, followed closely by Cardano. The $ADA community, despite running a much smaller market cap, generates roughly 1.6 times the social intensity of $XRP relative to its size.
The finding adds nuance to how community strength is typically assessed. Unlike social volume, social dominance sets out to equalize whether crypto is being discussed during an especially hyped time, such as a bull market, or whether projects are being discussed less during a specific time of day. Adjusting further for market cap takes that normalisation one step further, accounting for how much capital is behind each community's noise.
Santiment has separately reported that $XRP recorded a positive-to-negative commentary ratio of 3.02-to-1, the highest among the three largest cryptocurrencies it tracks. That is notable, but as analysts have pointed out, high social optimism during a price decline can cut both ways. The analytics platform warned that rising optimism during a price decline can increase short-term downside risks, noting that "crypto typically moves opposite to what the crowd is loudly expecting."
The broader takeaway is straightforward: a large, vocal community is not the same as an intense one. By the buzz-per-dollar measure, smaller-cap tokens like $LTC and $ADA are generating more community heat relative to their size than the headline social dominance figures suggest.
Sources:
Santiment Academy: Social Dominance Metric Explained
The Crypto Basic: XRP Leads Crypto Retail Optimism as Social FOMO Hits Five-Week High
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
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Tether has expanded its push into the US financial system by leading a $7 million funding round for Pact Labs to bring its USAT stablecoin into a payroll market that processes more than $11 trillion in annual payments.
Summary
Tether has led a $7 million Series A round in Pact Labs to expand USAT into US payroll systems. The partnership targets the $11 trillion US payroll market with blockchain-based, real-time wage payments. The expansion comes as Tether grows outside Europe while US lawmakers continue debating stablecoin regulation. According to a press release from Tether, the company led Pact Labs’ $7 million Series A funding round alongside Blockchange Ventures and Lasagna. The investment is intended to strengthen Pact Labs’ payroll and payment infrastructure while supporting enterprise adoption of USAT, Tether’s US-focused dollar-backed stablecoin.
Instead of concentrating on crypto trading activity, the partnership centers on integrating stablecoins into everyday wage payments used by businesses across the United States.
Payroll integration brings USAT into enterprise payments Through the partnership, Pact Labs plans to embed USAT into payroll platforms used by employers, allowing companies to process wages using blockchain-based payment rails rather than conventional banking infrastructure. The company also intends to expand embedded digital wallets and other financial services that operate through blockchain networks.
Tether believes payroll is one of the strongest practical applications for stablecoins because wage payments occur on a predictable schedule and involve large transaction volumes.
According to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, the company’s transaction data has consistently indicated demand for dollar-backed digital assets as a settlement tool for salary payments. While Ardoino pointed to internal payment activity as evidence of that demand, he did not present it as an industry-wide conclusion.
The opportunity is significant because the US payroll system handles more than $11 trillion each year. Despite that scale, much of the infrastructure continues to rely on legacy banking systems and batch settlement cycles.
According to Tether, those processes can delay employee payments by several days, increasing the risk of overdraft fees, short-term borrowing, and other financial pressures for workers waiting to access earned wages.
Using blockchain infrastructure, employers could process payroll continuously instead of being limited by traditional banking hours. Tether says USAT is designed to support around-the-clock settlement, potentially reducing payment delays associated with existing payroll systems.
Global expansion continues as US regulation evolves The payroll initiative arrives as Tether continues expanding its international footprint. According to recent reports, Bolivia is evaluating the use of Tether’s USDT alongside the US dollar and the boliviano within parts of its national payments framework, adding another potential use case for the company’s stablecoin infrastructure.
The US expansion also follows Tether’s withdrawal from parts of the European market after the implementation of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, which introduced new compliance requirements for stablecoin issuers operating within the European Union. As a result, the company has increasingly concentrated on jurisdictions where it sees stronger opportunities for adoption.
Meanwhile, stablecoin regulation has remained a central topic in Washington as lawmakers continue debating the CLARITY Act. Banking industry groups recently warned that the proposed legislation could leave regulatory gaps for stablecoin issuers, adding fresh uncertainty to the policy debate. Those concerns also coincided with weakness in shares of Circle, whose stock declined as investors reacted to questions surrounding the bill.
Against that backdrop, Tether’s latest investment places attention on practical payment infrastructure rather than digital asset trading. By backing payroll technology that serves mainstream businesses, the company is positioning USAT for use in one of the largest recurring payment markets in the United States while policymakers continue shaping the country’s stablecoin regulatory framework.
Tether’s Pact Labs Round Shows Stablecoin Issuers Are Still Building Compliance Rails is a useful reminder that crypto coverage is not only about token prices. Sometimes the more important story is the infrastructure, regulation, security, or product layer sitting underneath the market noise.
The immediate point is straightforward: tether led a $7 million funding round in Pact Labs. That gives readers something concrete to work with, rather than another vague sentiment update.
TL;DR Tether led a $7 million funding round in Pact Labs. The round is tied to support for USAT stablecoin adoption and compliance tooling. It shows Tether backing infrastructure around regulated stablecoin growth. Why This Matters Now The timing matters because Tether is already part of a wider conversation across the market. Traders want to know whether the development changes liquidity or risk. Builders want to know whether it changes what can be deployed. Compliance teams want to know whether it changes how platforms operate.
In that sense, the story is bigger than one headline. It sits inside the ongoing shift from speculative crypto cycles toward more practical questions: who can use these systems, how safe are they, and whether the underlying incentives actually work.
The best way to read it is with discipline. It is not a guarantee of immediate upside, and it should not be treated as one. But it does add a fresh data point to the way the market is thinking about Tether.
The Tether Angle For Tether, the important part is the specific mechanism. If this is a security issue, the risk sits in dependencies and user protection. If it is a listing or product launch, the question is access and liquidity. If it is a governance or research proposal, the question is whether the idea can survive implementation.
That is where this update becomes useful. It is not just a label attached to a trend. It gives readers a way to understand what might actually change if the development gains traction.
Crypto has a habit of turning every announcement into a broad market claim. This one deserves a narrower read. The value is in seeing how it affects the users, developers, institutions, or traders closest to the issue.
The Risk Side There is also a caution attached. Source material can confirm that a development exists, but it cannot prove that adoption will follow. A proposal still needs support. A product still needs users. A chart still needs confirmation. A compliance tool still needs integration.
That is why the responsible reading is not to oversell the story. The stronger takeaway is that this adds to a pattern. The crypto market is steadily becoming more professional, more technical, and more sensitive to real operational details.
Readers should also watch for follow-up signals. That could mean developer feedback, exchange support, regulatory response, wallet adoption, liquidity data, or simply whether market participants continue reacting after the first headline fades.
What Comes Next The next stage will decide whether this remains a narrow update or becomes part of a larger market theme. In crypto, that difference matters. Plenty of stories look important for a few hours and then disappear. The ones that last usually show up again through usage, liquidity, enforcement, governance, or developer adoption.
For now, this gives the market another piece of information to weigh. It is specific enough to be useful, but still early enough that readers should keep the caveats in view.
That makes it worth covering without pretending it settles anything. The story is a signal, not a final verdict.
The key is not to confuse coverage with certainty. Tether stories can move quickly, especially when they touch security, regulation, listings, infrastructure, or price levels. The useful approach is to track the next confirming detail rather than assume the first update carries the whole market story. That is how traders avoid chasing noise and how readers separate a genuine development from another passing headline.
This report is based on information from theblock.co.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
The Bolivian government is mulling formally recognizing Tether’s USDT as part of the currencies in its payment network. If it goes ahead with the plan, that would be a massive U-turn from its strict ban against currencies not issued by the Central Bank of Bolivia, including stablecoins.
In 2020, Bolivia reinforced the ban, only to ease the restriction in mid-2024 to ease remittances and a US dollar shortage.
Now, the country plans to move from easing the restriction to formally integrating USDT into its payment system. Commenting on the same, José Gabriel Espinoza, the Minister of Economy and Public Finance, said,
We are working on and technically evaluating the possibility of including USDT in the Bolivian payment system, so that it circulates as just another currency, like the dollar, like the Bolivian boliviano.
USDT adoption in LATAM The shift follows President Rodrigo Paz Pereira’s inauguration in 2025. Like the President Donald Trump administration, the Paz government vowed to integrate digital assets into the traditional banking system.
In fact, most businesses around Bolivia already use USDT as a unit of account, and several Bolivian banks are now supporting the stablecoin. Reacting to the update, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said,
USDT is more and more used as a cornerstone within several emerging market economies.
Most of the stablecoin adoption in Latin America is driven by remittance, shortage of foreign exchange, or inflation, according to Rain, one of the payment infrastructure players in the region.
For the Bolivian case, stablecoin card spending exploded 6x in 2025 after the ban was lifted in 2024. Most of the transfers are meant for international payments for goods and services due to the shortage of US dollars.
A similar adoption trend was noted by Binance across LATAM. Notably, stablecoin transfer users grew 2x, with Binance co-founder Yi He calling the region the ‘crypto’s strongest utility markets.’
Source: Binance Research But the adoption is not only happening at the government level; global businesses like Hyundai are increasingly embracing stablecoins as well.
This has seen stablecoin transaction volume hit a record $1.78T in June, but USDT only accounted for 36% market share. Circle’s USDC dominated with +60% market share.
That said, USDT hit a new milestone of $190B in market supply in May. But this has since dropped to $184B, underscoring $6B in capital outflows in the past few weeks. This suggested broader risk-off sentiment in the crypto market, but real-world usage was still strong.
Final Summary Bolivia is considering formally recognizing USDT in its national payment system. Despite the growing adoption and usage, the USDT supply has dropped by $6B amid a broader crypto downturn.
The stablecoin cold war just got a lot less cold. Circle, the company behind USDC, banned a Tether-backed investment fund from its platform in late 2023 over concerns that the fund was engaging in trading activity designed to manipulate markets in favor of Circle’s biggest rival.
The fund fought back with a $49 million arbitration claim. It lost. And now the details are public, offering a rare window into just how aggressively the two dominant stablecoin issuers are competing for control of a market worth roughly $307 billion.
What happened with Heka Funds The fund in question is Heka Funds, a Malta-based investment vehicle managed by London’s Abraxas Capital Management and backed by Tether. Circle determined that Heka’s trading patterns on its platform looked suspiciously like market manipulation, specifically the kind that would benefit Tether at Circle’s expense.
That’s exactly what Circle did. It banned Heka Funds from its platform entirely.
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Heka didn’t take it quietly. The fund initiated arbitration proceedings in 2024, claiming Circle’s ban cost it $49 million in lost profits. The arbitrator disagreed. The ruling came down in Circle’s favor, validating the company’s decision to remove Heka from its ecosystem.
The stablecoin rivalry beneath the surface To understand why this matters, you need to understand the dynamics between USDC and USDT. These two tokens together dominate the stablecoin market, which sits at approximately $307 billion in total value. Tether’s USDT is the larger of the two by a significant margin, but Circle’s USDC has carved out its own substantial position, particularly among institutional users and in regulated markets.
Tether has long operated with a degree of opacity that has drawn scrutiny from regulators and skeptics alike. Circle, by contrast, has positioned itself as the compliance-first alternative, publishing regular attestation reports and pursuing a more transparent operational model.
Whether Tether itself had any direct involvement in or knowledge of Heka’s trading strategies remains unclear from the available details. But the optics alone, a Tether-backed entity accused of manipulating markets on Circle’s platform, tell you everything about the trust deficit between these two camps.
What this tells us about stablecoin oversight This dispute, which became public on July 14, highlights a broader shift in how stablecoin issuers police activity on their platforms.
Circle’s decision to ban Heka suggests that stablecoin issuers are now treating platform surveillance as a core business function. When your token’s credibility depends on maintaining a stable peg and market confidence, letting potentially manipulative trading slide is an existential risk.
What this means for investors The $49 million arbitration claim from Heka puts a number on the financial stakes. That figure represents what a single fund claims it lost from being cut off from Circle’s ecosystem.
Circle’s arbitration victory gives it a concrete data point to present to institutional allocators who care about governance and risk management.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
0x Protocol has facilitated over $200 billion in cumulative trading volume since its 2016 launch, with more than 500 teams integrating its Swap API across 20 or more blockchains. The protocol’s core innovation uses off-chain order relay with on-chain settlement, reducing gas costs by keeping order matching off the blockchain while settling trades on-chain securely. In June 2026, 0x launched a Cross-Chain API with 12 bridge partners, enabling asset transfers between different blockchain networks through a single developer integration point. ZRX’s market capitalization sits between $85 million and $100 million as of April 2026, despite powering infrastructure used by Coinbase, MetaMask, Robinhood, and Phantom wallet. A January 2026 SwapNet exploit drained $13.4 million from Matcha Meta users through a third-party routing contract, though 0x’s core protocol contracts remained uncompromised throughout. 0x Protocol is open-source infrastructure that enables decentralized token trading across multiple blockchains. It does not operate as a single exchange. Instead, it provides a standardized set of smart contracts and developer tools that allow applications to embed swap functionality without building their own order matching systems.
CoinMarketCap’s overview describes it as a universal liquidity layer that aggregates pricing from automated market makers and order books across 16 or more blockchains. The protocol matters because fragmented liquidity is the central problem in decentralized finance. Hundreds of exchanges and liquidity pools exist across different blockchains, each with different pricing and depth.
0x aggregates these sources through its Swap API, allowing wallets like MetaMask and Phantom, exchanges like Coinbase and Robinhood, and portfolio trackers to offer best-price execution without connecting to each liquidity source individually. Over 500 teams have integrated the API, according to Bitget’s analysis.
Analysis: The gap between 0x’s infrastructure usage and its token valuation is the protocol’s defining tension. The platform has facilitated over $200 billion in volume, yet ZRX trades at a market cap of approximately $85 million to $100 million as of April 2026. That is roughly what a mid-sized restaurant chain might be worth.
How Off-Chain Relay and On-Chain Settlement Work 0x’s foundational innovation from 2017 separated order management from trade execution. Older decentralized exchanges put every step on the blockchain.
Order placement, cancellation, matching, and settlement all consume gas fees. 0x moved the first three steps off-chain, recording only the final trade on the blockchain. That hybrid approach reduced costs while preserving decentralized settlement security, as Gate Learn explained.
The system operates through three participants: Makers supply liquidity and set pricing by signing orders off-chain. Relayers host and distribute these order books. Takers accept trade offers, and when a taker agrees to a maker’s price, 0x’s smart contracts settle the swap on-chain, ensuring both sides complete simultaneously.
The v4 Settler contract suite handles the final atomic settlement. In 2024, 0x v2 introduced a new pricing engine designed specifically for on-chain applications, optimizing trade execution and expanding liquidity source access.
As of 2026, the protocol supports over 20 chains: Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, BSC, Avalanche, Scroll, Linea, Blast, Mode, Mantle, Unichain, Berachain, Ink, Plasma, Sonic, and Monad, according to Bitget’s pricing analysis. In March 2026, the team announced that HyperEVM, a high-performance Ethereum Layer 2, went live via the 0x Swap API.
The ZRX Token and Its Governance Role ZRX is the ERC-20 governance and utility token powering the 0x Protocol. Holders vote on protocol upgrade proposals known as ZEIPs, treasury allocation decisions, and expansion to new blockchains through the community DAO.
Staking is built into the system: liquidity providers stake ZRX to earn a share of trading fees from market-making activity. Delegators can assign their ZRX to high-performing market makers and earn rewards, as described in Bitget’s 2026 protocol guide.
Whether governance plus staking creates sufficient economic demand to support ZRX at scale remains the token’s central question. The protocol generated the same fee structure whether ZRX was priced at $0.08 or $2.53, its all-time high from January 2018.
In late 2025 and early 2026, ZRX faced reduced exchange accessibility, with margin and spot trading pairs delisted from Binance and a full delisting from Bitfinex, as CoinMarketCap’s analysis noted. In March 2026, Dune Analytics launched Dune Enterprise in partnership with 0x, providing enterprise-grade on-chain analytics to monitor trader behavior and liquidity routing.
The most significant product launch was Matcha Meta, a meta-aggregator that routes trades to whichever DEX aggregator offers the best execution at any moment, sitting on top of all major aggregators, including 0x itself.
The SwapNet Exploit and Protocol Security In January 2026, a $13.4 million exploit affected Matcha Meta users through a third-party routing contract called SwapNet. The contract was closed-source and lacked sufficient validation of user-supplied parameters, allowing an attacker to redirect funds that users had approved for trading.
The 0x team confirmed that its core protocol contracts were not compromised, and the affected contract was disabled, according to Bitget’s chronology. The incident underscored persistent DeFi security risks but did not affect the core protocol’s integrity. 0x continues to operate a bug bounty program to detect vulnerabilities before exploitation.
The broader question for DeFi protocol security is whether aggregator architectures that route through third-party contracts can adequately vet every integration partner.
Regulatory Implications 0x Protocol operates as a permissionless infrastructure with no centralized controlling entity. Treasury’s March 2026 report to Congress acknowledged that the BSA/AML framework does not fully account for DeFi protocols with distributed governance.
The SEC’s Crypto Task Force has discussed balancing financial privacy with national security transparency. Whether infrastructure protocols like 0x face direct regulatory obligations depends on pending congressional clarification.
What’s Next? The Cross-Chain API, launched in June 2026 with 12 bridge partners, represents 0x’s push beyond single-chain liquidity aggregation. Solana ecosystem integration and continued HyperEVM support expand the protocol’s addressable market. A long-standing community debate about implementing sustainable protocol fees remains unresolved.
If fees are introduced, they could create direct token-level value capture but risk making 0x less competitive against rivals like Uniswap and 1inch. Token performance projections are speculative and should not be treated as financial guidance. Digital assets carry a significant risk of loss.
FAQs What is 0x Protocol?
0x Protocol is an open-source infrastructure providing smart contracts and APIs that enable decentralized token trading across 20 or more blockchains without requiring a centralized exchange intermediary.
How does 0x reduce trading costs?
0x uses off-chain order relay with on-chain settlement, keeping order matching and management off the blockchain to avoid gas fees while settling only the final trade on-chain securely.
What is ZRX used for?
ZRX is the governance and utility token that allows holders to vote on protocol upgrades, stake for trading fee rewards, and participate in treasury decisions through the 0x DAO.
Which apps use the 0x Protocol?
Over 500 teams integrate 0x, including major products like Coinbase, MetaMask, Robinhood, and Phantom Wallet, using its Swap API to offer best-price decentralized token trading.
Is 0x Protocol the same as a DEX?
0x Protocol is not an exchange for end users but rather a trading protocol layer that provides liquidity aggregation and order routing infrastructure for wallets and DEX platforms.
What blockchains does 0x support?
0x supports over 20 blockchains as of 2026, including Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, BSC, Avalanche, Monad, Scroll, Linea, and several additional networks.
Was the 0x Protocol hacked in 2026?
In January 2026, a $13.4 million exploit affected Matcha Meta users through a third-party SwapNet contract, but 0x’s core protocol smart contracts remained uncompromised throughout.
References What Is 0x Protocol (ZRX) And How Does It Work (CoinMarketCap, 2026) 0x Protocol (ZRX) Price Prediction and Analysis (Bitget, April 2026) 0x Protocol Complete Guide (Gate Learn, April 2026) 0x Protocol 2026: Cross-Chain DeFi Guide (Bitget Academy, March 2026)
Anchorage Digital, the $4.2 billion crypto bank with a federal charter, now supports TRON network staking and custody for TRC-20 assets. The integration gives institutional players a regulated pathway into a blockchain that quietly handles more stablecoin volume than most competitors combined.
What Anchorage is actually offering Anchorage first announced its intention to integrate the TRON blockchain on March 26, 2026, starting with custody services for TRX, TRON’s native token, alongside support for TRC-20 assets. Those are the tokens built on TRON’s network, similar to how ERC-20 tokens sit on Ethereum.
As of July 2026, the custody piece for TRX is fully operational. Native TRX staking is being rolled out in phases. That staking component matters because it transforms TRX from a dormant balance sheet item into a yield-generating asset for institutional portfolios.
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Anchorage co-founder Nathan McCauley and TRON founder Justin Sun have both signaled that the collaboration is designed to enhance secure institutional access to TRON’s ecosystem.
Why a federally chartered bank matters here Founded in 2017, Anchorage became the first nationally chartered digital asset bank in the US when the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted it a trust charter in January 2021. Its investor roster includes Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs, KKR, GIC (Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund), and Visa.
TRON’s quiet dominance in stablecoins TRON’s mainnet launched in May 2018 under founder Justin Sun. The volume of USDT circulating on TRON exceeds $86 to $90 billion as of early 2026. The network’s 370 million-plus user accounts signal genuine adoption at scale.
What this means for investors The immediate implication is straightforward: institutional capital now has a compliant channel to gain exposure to TRX and TRC-20 tokens. First comes custody (check). Then comes staking yield (in progress).
TRON’s association with Justin Sun, who has faced regulatory scrutiny and legal actions in multiple jurisdictions, remains a consideration for compliance-conscious institutions. Anchorage’s federal oversight arguably mitigates some of that reputational risk by providing a layer of regulatory validation, but it doesn’t eliminate it entirely.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
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What x402 doesThe Linux Foundation has announced the operational launch of the x402 Foundation, a new open-governance body formed to steward the x402 protocol, the open standard for internet-native payments over HTTP. @StellarOrg's Stellar Development Foundation has joined as a Premier member, placing the blockchain nonprofit alongside some of the biggest names in finance and technology.
The x402 protocol, originally contributed by Coinbase, embeds secure payment capabilities directly into web interactions so that AI agents, APIs, and applications can send and receive payments as seamlessly as they exchange data, with support for payment types ranging from traditional cards to stablecoins. The protocol is built explicitly for autonomous AI agents: machines can encounter a paywall, read the x402 response, and settle the payment via a pre-authorized wallet with no human intervention required.
Stellar's near-zero transaction fees make it a natural fit for micropayments within the standard. AI agents can discover, authorize, and settle payments programmatically within user-defined spending rules, meaning the workflow does not break where the payment begins.
A premier-tier consortiumPremier members of the x402 Foundation include Adyen, Amazon Web Services, American Express, Circle, Cloudflare, Coinbase, Fiserv, Google, Mastercard, Monad Foundation, MoonPay, Ripple, Shopify, Solana Foundation, Stellar Development Foundation, Stripe, and Visa. Since the Foundation signaled its intent to launch in April 2026, 40 organizations have joined as members in total.
Under the neutral governance of the @linuxfoundation, the x402 Foundation will allow developers, financial institutions, cloud providers, and other community members to collaboratively shape the protocol's development, ensuring that payments remain secure and adaptable across multiple payment types without vendor lock-in.
For @StellarOrg, the membership reflects a deliberate push into agentic commerce infrastructure. The Stellar Development Foundation is a nonprofit built around a mission of creating equitable access to the global financial system through blockchain technology. Joining the x402 Foundation puts that mission directly at the intersection of AI-driven payments, an area that Galaxy Research estimates could represent $3 to $5 trillion in B2C revenue by 2030.
Sources
Linux Foundation: Operational Launch of x402 Foundation (PR Newswire)
Stellar Development Foundation: x402 on Stellar
Linux Foundation: x402 Foundation Launch Press Release
Chainlink price climbed 4.29% to $8.22 during the latest session as buyers returned across the broader cryptocurrency market. Over the last week, LINK has also risen by 7%, maintaining the short-term momentum at a positive trajectory.
The open interest rose 10% with the trader participation stronger with the price remaining above the key zone of $8.20. The broader crypto market gained 3.14% to approximately 2.21 trillion after a positive report on inflation in the United States.
Bitcoin price rose more than 3% to $64,600, while Ethereum jumped 5% to around $1,875. XRP price gained nearly 3% and traded close to $1.10 during the same period.
Traders are now watching June CPI and PPI releases for signs of easing inflation. Cooler data could support expectations for a more dovish Federal Reserve policy outlook ahead.
Chainlink Open Interest Jumps 10% as LINK Volume Surges The activity of the chainlink derivatives expanded as traders became more exposed to the LINK futures markets. Trading volume climbed 18.34% to $337.08 million during the latest reporting period. In the meantime, open interest increased 10% and stood at $431.32 million, indicating increased capital in outstanding contracts.
Source: Coinglass data The joint rise indicates that the market is growing its participation and traders are setting up in anticipation of a potential price change. Increased volume also means that there is increased short-term demand and liquidity across derivatives platforms.
Chainlink Price Eyes $10 After Bullish Break Above Rising Channel The LINK price rose to $8.31 as buyers drove the token out of its short-term upward channel.
The four-hour RSI was 65.62, and momentum was close to the overbought zone and not going beyond the 70 mark.
Meanwhile, the MACD line moved above the signal line, while the histogram returned to positive territory. These readings indicate that short-term momentum is still in the hands of buyers, though short-term pullbacks are still possible.
Source: Tradingview A continuous break on the upside that goes above $8.50 will clear the way to $9.00. Further strength may bring the psychological $10.00 target into focus as per the long-term LINK forecast. But then any failure to hold $8.00 may compromise the arrangement and reveal $7.70. The increasing channel is significant to the near-term trend of LINK.
Chainlink Posts $43.3B TVS and $32.18T in Cumulative Transaction Value@chainlink is reporting $43.3 billion in Total Value Secured (TVS) and $32.18 trillion in cumulative Transaction Value Enabled (TVE), along with 19.59 billion onchain verified data outputs. The numbers, shared by the project, reflect the scale of infrastructure quietly sitting beneath much of decentralized finance today.
TVS and TVE measure two distinct things. TVS represents the aggregate dollar value of assets currently dependent on Chainlink's oracles across DeFi protocols. TVE is the all-time sum of transaction value that Chainlink's services have helped facilitate since inception. As Chainlink's own metrics page notes, TVE is calculated by taking the sum of the USD value associated with each transaction utilizing a Chainlink oracle.
To put the TVS figure in context: it is not the same as total value locked, the metric most DeFi observers focus on. TVS measures the value of assets that depend on a network's data services, whether that is price feeds for lending protocols or cross-chain token transfers. A single price feed can underpin value across dozens of protocols on multiple networks simultaneously.
Institutional Adoption and Expanding Network ReachThe figures sit within a broader growth story for the network. Chainlink's Q1 2026 quarterly review showed its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) processed over $18 billion in transfer volume during the quarter, a 319% year-over-year increase. The same period saw Amundi, Europe's largest asset manager, launch a tokenized mutual fund powered by Chainlink that reached $400 million in assets under management within three weeks. Robinhood also named Chainlink as the oracle platform for Robinhood Chain, and the Bank of England selected the network to participate in its Synchronisation Lab for synchronized settlement between central bank money and onchain securities.
On the institutional side, data tracked by CoinLaw shows Chainlink holds roughly 59% of the tracked oracle market by TVS, with its CCIP now certified to SOC 2 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 1, and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 standards. Major financial institutions including Swift, Euroclear, Fidelity International, UBS, and J.P. Morgan's Kinexys have adopted Chainlink's infrastructure.
The $LINK token has not kept pace with network growth in this cycle, but the protocol's operational metrics continue to move in one direction. For a piece of infrastructure that most users never directly interact with, Chainlink's reach across DeFi and traditional finance is difficult to ignore.
Sources
Chainlink Official Metrics, chain.link
Chainlink Q1 2026 Quarterly Review, chain.link
Chainlink Statistics 2026: TVS, CCIP and Market Share, CoinLaw
Chainlink price has jumped more than 5% after Mantle completed the migration of its $2.5 billion Super Portal to Chainlink’s cross-chain infrastructure, extending a crypto market rally driven by softer U.S. inflation data.
Summary
Chainlink price rose over 5% after Mantle migrated its $2.5 billion Super Portal to Chainlink’s CCIP. Whale accumulation, rising open interest, and record wallet growth have strengthened LINK’s bullish momentum. Technical indicators point to $8.40 as the next key resistance, while losing $8.00 could weaken the rally. According to data from crypto.news, Chainlink (LINK) price traded around $8.29 after briefly touching $8.40, extending its weekly gain to roughly 7%.
The move came as Bitcoin climbed above $64,600 and Ethereum approached $1,875 after U.S. inflation data strengthened expectations that the Federal Reserve could adopt a less restrictive policy later this year. Total crypto market capitalization also advanced more than 3% to about $2.30 trillion.
Mantle’s infrastructure upgrade adds to a string of recent enterprise integrations for Chainlink. Aave recently selected the protocol for automated vault rebalancing, while Robinhood has incorporated Chainlink infrastructure into its expanding Layer-2 ecosystem.
Network adoption has also continued on-chain, with the number of non-empty Ethereum wallets holding LINK surpassing 900,000 for the first time.
On-chain accumulation suggests large investors positioned ahead of the announcement rather than reacting afterward. Wallets holding more than 1,000 LINK reached their highest level this year, while addresses controlling over 100,000 LINK expanded to a record 805.
These purchases absorbed much of the selling pressure created by the scheduled unlock of 21 million LINK tokens, reducing the impact of the additional supply entering circulation.
Derivatives traders have joined the rally. Open interest increased roughly 10% alongside the price advance, showing fresh leveraged participation instead of a short-lived spot spike. The combination of rising price and rising open interest typically suggests new positions entering the market rather than existing shorts simply closing.
Technical breakout places $8.40 and $8.70 in focus The daily chart shows LINK pressing against the upper boundary of a descending wedge that has contained price since early June. Tuesday’s rally pushed the token above $8.20 and toward immediate resistance near $8.40, where sellers rejected price earlier in the session.
Chainlink daily price chart — July 15 | Source: crypto.news A confirmed daily close above that level would strengthen the breakout case and expose the next resistance zone around $8.70, followed by psychological resistance near $9.00.
Momentum indicators have also improved. The daily RSI has climbed to around 60 after recovering from oversold territory, showing buyers have regained control without entering overbought conditions. The Aroon Up indicator has returned to 100 while the Aroon Down remains near single-digit readings, highlighting a renewed bullish trend.
On the 4-hour chart, the MACD has completed a bullish crossover above the signal line, while the Chaikin Money Flow remains positive above zero, showing capital continues to enter the market.
Chainlink 4-hour price chart — July 15 | Source: crypto.news CoinGlass liquidation data reinforces the technical picture. The one-week heatmap shows a dense concentration of leveraged short positions clustered between $8.15 and $8.30, many of which were cleared during the latest rally. Above current prices, another sizeable liquidity pocket sits around $8.45-$8.70, creating a potential magnet if buyers maintain momentum.
Chainlink liquidation heatmap | Source: CoinGlass Loss of $8.00 support would weaken the bullish case Several risks could still interrupt LINK’s recovery. Markets remain sensitive to upcoming U.S. Producer Price Index data and any Federal Reserve comments that challenge expectations for easier monetary policy. Renewed geopolitical tensions or another rise in oil prices could also reduce appetite for risk assets across digital markets.
From a technical perspective, failure to hold above the $8.20 breakout zone would leave $8.00 as the first important support.
A decisive break below that level could pull LINK back toward the $7.70-$7.50 demand area, where the liquidation heatmap shows another large concentration of leveraged positions. Such a move would invalidate the immediate breakout structure and postpone any attempt to challenge the $9.00 resistance zone.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
Japan’s largest domestic payment network, JCB, has entered a memorandum of understanding with Circle to explore the use of USDC for cross-border payments and merchant transactions. The initiative will begin with a joint proof of concept focusing on internal cross-border fund transfers using USDC, as well as testing stablecoin payments at Japanese merchants catering to international visitors.
Stablecoin pilot and interoperabilityThe two companies plan to assess the technology required to support stablecoin transactions on JCB’s networks, including interoperability across multiple blockchain ecosystems. In addition to serving JCB’s internal cross-border needs, the proof of concept will also evaluate the practicalities of enabling stablecoin-based payments at brick-and-mortar merchants in Japan.
JCB and Circle emphasized a goal of developing new applications for stablecoin infrastructure in cross-border payments and merchant services, though specifics regarding commercial rollout remain unannounced.
JCB, established in 1961, is a leading Japanese payment brand widely accepted across Asia, with a large domestic merchant network and a presence in over 190 countries and territories.
Circle, which issues USDC, is a global financial technology firm specializing in digital currency solutions for payments and treasury operations. The company’s stablecoin, USDC, ranks as the world’s second-largest stablecoin, with a circulating supply of approximately $73 billion, according to DefiLlama data. Tether’s USDT leads the market with a circulating supply of about $184 billion.
StablecoinCirculating supplyIssuerUSDT$184 billionTetherUSDC$73 billionCircleExpanding stablecoin payments in JapanThe Circle partnership follows a separate JCB initiative with Digital Garage and Resona Holdings, launched in January, to trial stablecoin payments at physical stores in Japan. That effort is aimed at identifying both technical and operational challenges as stablecoin technology enters daily commerce.
Additionally, Japan’s stablecoin payment pilots have gathered momentum in 2024. In June, Circle and Nomura, the country’s largest investment bank, were reported to be working on a stablecoin-based foreign exchange settlement service. This service would enable Japanese companies to convert yen into USDC for cross-border transactions with near-instant settlement.
Japanese retail and payments firms are also moving forward. On Monday, Lawson announced plans to pilot yen-based stablecoin payments at a Tokyo store starting in August. Meanwhile, payments firm Netstars launched a merchant payment service supporting USDC, USDT, and JPYC, distributed across the Solana and Polygon blockchains.
Mini dictionary: Netstars – A Japanese payments company offering payment gateway and merchant payment solutions, enabling transaction support for both traditional and digital currencies.
Japan’s regulatory and digital asset landscapeJapan has played a pioneering role in stablecoin regulation. The country created a legal framework allowing banks, trust companies, and licensed money transfer providers to issue fiat-backed tokens. Amendments to the Payment Services Act, which took effect in 2023, underpin this framework.
The country continues to advance broader digital asset reforms. In June, Japan’s Lower House passed legislation that classifies crypto assets as financial instruments. This reclassification opens the potential for crypto exchange-traded funds and could bring Japan’s crypto sector in line with stricter market regulations facing traditional financial instruments.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Japan has a reputation for being simultaneously one of the world’s most technologically sophisticated countries and one of the slowest to change how its citizens actually pay for things. JCB, the country’s dominant domestic credit card network, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Circle to explore using USDC across both cross-border treasury operations and merchant payments inside Japan.
This is not a crypto-native startup experimenting at the margins. JCB is the card network that sits behind millions of Japanese consumers and a vast retail merchant base.
What the deal actually covers The MOU lays out two distinct use cases. The first is internal treasury operations. JCB will begin by running a proof-of-concept focused on using USDC for cross-border fund transfers within its own organization. The second use case is more consumer-facing. The two companies plan to test in-store USDC payments at retail locations, targeting both local Japanese shoppers and international visitors.
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Circle’s broader stablecoin stack is also on the table. Beyond USDC, the companies will evaluate EURC, Circle’s euro-denominated stablecoin, for potential payment applications in Japan.
Why Japan, and why now USDC became the first global dollar stablecoin to receive regulatory approval for use in Japan from the Financial Services Agency. Japan updated its regulatory framework for stablecoins in 2023, creating a legal pathway for foreign issuers to offer their products in the Japanese market under defined compliance requirements.
Circle moved quickly to meet those requirements, and the FSA’s green light for USDC gave the company a meaningful first-mover advantage among dollar stablecoin issuers in Japan.
The merchant network angle is also significant. JCB’s acceptance footprint across Japan gives Circle a distribution channel that would otherwise take years to build independently. Circle brings the stablecoin infrastructure, JCB brings the merchants and the cardholders.
What this means for stablecoin adoption and investors For Circle, this deal matters beyond the Japan market in isolation. Circle has been building toward an IPO, and every major institutional partnership strengthens the case that USDC is infrastructure-grade. A proof-of-concept with one of Japan’s most established financial brands is exactly the kind of reference customer that institutional investors and public market analysts care about when evaluating a stablecoin issuer’s long-term revenue model.
USDC generates yield for Circle primarily through the US Treasury holdings that back the stablecoin’s reserves. More USDC in circulation means more reserves, means more yield. Every new market where USDC gains regulatory approval and institutional distribution is another lever on that core business model.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest bank in the world by market capitalization, has sounded the alarm about Coinbase and Circle’s USDC-based revenue in their partnership with Hyperliquid.
USDC alliance expected to slash Coinbase and Circle earningsAccording to the bank’s July 2026 report, the partnership among the three crypto players creates a prisoner’s dilemma. Essentially, Coinbase and Circle are competing for the distribution of the stablecoin to increase their revenue.
“We think the change in the Hyperliquid relationship showcases the challenge for Circle and Coinbase partnership agreements because it can create ‘a prisoner’s dilemma’ that drives Coinbase and Circle to compete with each other when promoting USDC distribution,” analysts led by Kenneth Worthington said in the Tuesday report.
Hyperliquid is currently the largest decentralized exchange, boasting over $150 billion in processed transactions this July. In the same month, the Hyperliquid-Binance volume ratio officially surpassed the 11.89% milestone, following a 47% month-over-month surge in Hyperliquid’s trading volume. At present, Hyperliquid holds about $6 billion in USDC, or about 8% of the stablecoin’s circulating supply.
Two months ago, the trio entered into an agreement in which Coinbase became the official USDC liquidity manager on Hyperliquid. Meanwhile, Circle managed cross-chain infrastructure and minting to reduce third-party risk.
In return, Coinbase would route 90% of the stablecoin yield back to Hyperliquid. The exchange then uses these funds to conduct regular HYPE token buybacks, thereby boosting the token’s value. This arrangement overturned a previous contract in which Coinbase split nearly all of the stablecoin’s revenue evenly with Circle.
More reasons for lower returnsWeaker crypto markets have also cut stablecoin yields, with USDC supply now down to $73 billion from around $80 billion in March. Even more, the crypto industry is continuously incorporating regulated stablecoins, chipping away at Circle’s USDC’s previous dominance.
Japanese investment bank Mizuho notes that while Circle’s approval to open a bank is positive, investors may be overvaluing it.
Whether JPMorgan’s warnings hold any weight remains to be seen once Coinbase and Circle release their Q2 earnings reports on July 30 and August 11, respectively.
Story Ends Here
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JPMorgan flags a structural shift in USDC economicsJPMorgan has lowered its earnings forecasts for @circle and @coinbase, warning that a new revenue-sharing agreement with Hyperliquid is weakening the economics behind $USDC. Circle and Coinbase announced the partnership with Hyperliquid in May to expand $USDC adoption. Hyperliquid operates as both a Layer-1 blockchain and a decentralized exchange for spot and derivatives trading, and as of June 11, $USDC became the preferred stablecoin on the platform.
Under the new structure, @coinbase classifies any $USDC on Hyperliquid as "on-platform," earning all associated reserve income but paying 90% of the float back to Hyperliquid. Hyperliquid holds roughly $6 billion in $USDC, representing about 8% of the stablecoin's circulating supply, according to JPMorgan estimates. JPMorgan estimated @coinbase previously split nearly all of that revenue evenly with @circle.
@jpmorgan said the arrangement creates a "prisoner's dilemma" that encourages @circle and @coinbase to compete for $USDC distribution at the expense of their own revenue. Even if $USDC becomes more widely used, the profit margins for @coinbase and @circle could still shrink.
Market impact and broader pressure on the stablecoin pairJPMorgan cut its price target for @coinbase from $283 to $196 after saying the new partnership involving $USDC could reduce revenue in the near term. The bank said the full impact of the Hyperliquid relationship will not appear in second-quarter results but will be incorporated in the second half of 2026.
Previous estimates from Compass Point suggested the agreement could redirect between $135 million and $160 million in annual reserve income toward Hyperliquid, with the combined annual earnings of @circle and @coinbase potentially falling by between $60 million and $80 million.
$USDC's circulating supply has fallen to about $73 billion from nearly $80 billion in March, part of a broader $10 billion contraction in the stablecoin market since May as crypto trading activity cooled and new regulated rivals chipped away at the dominance of $USDC and Tether's USDT. Hyperliquid, meanwhile, processed more than $150 billion in trading volume during July, with its volume relative to Binance reaching 11.5%, making it an increasingly important distribution channel for $USDC, according to @jpmorgan.
The broader takeaway is a structural one: as platforms like Hyperliquid grow, the economics of stablecoin distribution are being renegotiated. Growing competition is forcing stablecoin companies to share more reserve income with exchanges and payment platforms. The platforms holding the coins are increasingly the ones capturing the yield.
Sources:
CoinDesk: JPMorgan sees Hyperliquid partnership weighing on Circle, Coinbase
Yahoo Finance: JPMorgan cuts estimates for Circle and Coinbase on Hyperliquid pressure
CryptoNews: JPMorgan warns Hyperliquid's growth threatens Circle's USDC economics
What Did JPMorgan Actually Say?Analysts led by Kenneth Worthington said the Hyperliquid deal created a structural problem for the Circle-Coinbase partnership.
Under the new arrangement, Coinbase classifies USDC held on Hyperliquid as “on-platform,” collects the reserve income, and pays 90% of it directly to Hyperliquid.
Previously, Coinbase split nearly all of that revenue evenly with Circle.
“We think the change in the Hyperliquid relationship showcases the challenge for Circle and Coinbase partnership agreements because it can create a prisoner’s dilemma that drives Coinbase and Circle to compete with each other when promoting USDC distribution,” Worthington wrote.
The problem is structural. Every time Coinbase chases a major distribution partner by offering better revenue terms, it cuts into Circle’s share.
Every time Circle tries to protect its economics, it risks losing distribution. Both sides are now incentivized to undercut each other to secure the next Hyperliquid-scale deal.
Why Does Hyperliquid Make This A Bigger Deal Than It Looks?Hyperliquid has grown into one of crypto’s largest trading venues, processing more than $150 billion in trading volume in July alone.
Its volume relative to Binance climbed to 11.5%, and USDC balances on the platform have swelled to roughly $6 billion, representing about 8% of the entire circulating USDC supply.
That scale makes Hyperliquid an increasingly important distribution channel, which is exactly why Coinbase was willing to offer 90% of reserve yields to secure it.
The more platforms of this size emerge, the more pressure Circle and Coinbase face to keep offering similar terms elsewhere.
How Much Has USDC Already Lost?USDC’s circulating supply has fallen from nearly $80 billion in March to around $73 billion, part of a broader $10 billion contraction in the stablecoin market since May.
Crypto trading activity cooled while new regulated rivals chipped away at both USDC and Tether’s USDT dominance.
JPMorgan cut earnings estimates for both Circle and Coinbase citing the Hyperliquid agreement alongside weaker crypto markets, though the bank noted higher interest rates provide some support for USDC-related revenue over the longer term.
Mizuho said last week that Circle’s approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish First National Digital Currency Bank is a positive milestone, but warned investors may be overestimating how much it moves the needle on USDC growth given the competitive pressures now in place.
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JPMorgan has reduced its earnings forecast for both Circle and Coinbase after it signed a new revenue-sharing deal with Hyperliquid that affected the distribution of income generated by USDC’s reserves. The agreement might affect the overall economics of the stablecoin business for both the companies in the long run, the bank added.
Wall Street is taking a closer look at the revenue-sharing arrangement between stablecoin issuers and distribution platforms. While some analysts remain optimistic about Circle’s long-term position, others believe competition for USDC adoption could reduce profit margins.
JPMorgan Raises Concerns Over Hyperliquid Agreement JPMorgan cited a new deal between Coinbase, Circle, and Hyperliquid that will change the way the reserve currency from USDC on Coinbase is split.
As part of the deal, Coinbase will categorize USDC on Hyperliquid as “on-platform” balances. Coinbase will get those reserves but will give 90% of income back to Hyperliquid rather than divide it among themselves and Circle.
JPMorgan estimates that Hyperliquid has approximately $6 billion in USDC, which is approximately 8% of the total circulating supply.
The bank said that the situation is a “prisoner’s dilemma” because both Coinbase and Circle are looking to drive more volume on USDC while giving up a larger share of the revenue generated by the reserves backing the stablecoin.
Partnership Aims To Expand USDC Adoption On May 14, Circle and Coinbase announced their partnership with Hyperliquid as part of their broader strategy to increase the adoption of USDC.
Hyperliquid has its own Layer-1 blockchain as well as a decentralized exchange that supports spot and perpetual futures. USDC has now emerged as the preferred stablecoin of the platform since June 11.
JPMorgan, however, has a different view about the financial terms that facilitated the deal and thinks that it will impact the future revenue of both Circle and Coinbase.
Wall Street Remains Divided on Circle Not all analysts are being all that bearish on JPMorgan. Mizuho has also become more cautious on Circle, downgrading the stock as concerns grow over the economics of USDC.
Meanwhile, companies such as Bernstein and William Blair have retained their bullish outlook on the company.
JPMorgan also said it still expects USDC-related earnings to grow through 2027, supported by expectations that interest rates will remain higher for longer. The bank now expects a 25 basis point increase in interest rates at the Federal Reserve’s October 2026 meeting.
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JPMorgan has lowered its earnings forecasts for Circle and Coinbase after a new USDC revenue-sharing agreement with Hyperliquid changed how income from the stablecoin’s reserves will be divided.
Summary
JPMorgan cut earnings forecasts for Circle and Coinbase after the Hyperliquid USDC deal. The bank warned new revenue-sharing terms could pressure stablecoin profit margins. Analysts remain divided as higher interest rates may still support USDC earnings growth. According to a JPMorgan research note, the revised agreement could reduce the long-term profitability of the USDC business for both companies, even as they continue pursuing higher adoption of the dollar-backed stablecoin.
JPMorgan Cuts Circle and Coinbase Forecasts Over Hyperliquid Deal
JPMorgan downgraded earnings estimates for Circle and Coinbase, stating their new agreement with Hyperliquid weakens USDC economics. Coinbase will now pay 90% of USDC reserve yields on the platform to Hyperliquid,… pic.twitter.com/tnRhp5uG7M
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 14, 2026 The bank argued that competition among distribution partners may force issuers to give away a larger share of reserve income to secure market share.
New revenue-sharing terms reduce reserve income Under the arrangement highlighted by JPMorgan, Coinbase will classify USDC held on Hyperliquid as “on-platform” balances. As a result, Coinbase will receive the reserve income generated by those deposits but will return 90% of that revenue to Hyperliquid instead of splitting the proceeds with Circle under the companies’ existing economic arrangement.
JPMorgan estimated that Hyperliquid currently holds about $6 billion worth of USDC, representing roughly 8% of the stablecoin’s circulating supply. Because of the platform’s growing role in the USDC ecosystem, the bank believes the revised economics could have a noticeable effect on future earnings for both Circle and Coinbase.
Describing the competitive dynamic, JPMorgan said both companies face pressure to increase USDC usage even if doing so requires surrendering a larger portion of reserve revenue to distribution partners. The bank characterized the situation as one in which efforts to expand adoption could come at the cost of lower profitability.
The revenue-sharing concerns follow an announcement made on May 14, when Circle and Coinbase revealed a partnership with Hyperliquid to deepen USDC integration across the crypto trading platform. Hyperliquid operates both a Layer-1 blockchain and a decentralized exchange offering spot and perpetual futures markets.
Since June 11, USDC has become Hyperliquid’s preferred stablecoin, strengthening the platform’s importance within Circle’s distribution network. JPMorgan said the commercial terms supporting that expansion, rather than the growth in usage itself, have become the main issue for investors evaluating future earnings.
Wall Street remains divided on Circle’s outlook Elsewhere on Wall Street, analysts have reached different conclusions about Circle’s long-term prospects. Mizuho has also taken a more cautious stance on the company, downgrading the stock as concerns grow over whether expanding USDC adoption will continue to generate attractive economics.
By contrast, Bernstein and William Blair have maintained positive ratings on Circle, indicating they still expect the stablecoin issuer to benefit from continued growth in digital dollar usage despite increasing competition for distribution partnerships.
Even after cutting its earnings estimates, JPMorgan said it continues to forecast growth in USDC-related earnings through 2027. The bank attributed that expectation to its interest-rate outlook, which now includes a 25-basis-point Federal Reserve rate increase at the October 2026 meeting.
Higher rates generally increase the income earned on the cash and Treasury reserves backing USDC, providing an offset to the revenue-sharing concessions outlined in the Hyperliquid agreement.
For investors, the latest debate has shifted attention away from USDC’s circulating supply alone and toward how reserve income is divided among issuers, exchanges, and distribution partners. JPMorgan’s analysis suggests that while adoption can continue rising, the financial value retained by Circle and Coinbase may come under increasing pressure as more platforms negotiate similar commercial terms.
The rapid ascent of decentralized perpetuals exchange Hyperliquid is forcing a reassessment of stablecoin economics, and the latest voice to flag the risk comes from JPMorgan. In a research note covered by the original report, the bank’s analysts argue that Hyperliquid’s deepening integration with Circle and Coinbase creates a prisoner’s dilemma that could erode the profit margins Circle derives from its USDC stablecoin.
The core tension is structural. Hyperliquid now processes billions of dollars in daily notional volume, largely settled in USDC. The exchange’s deal with Circle and Coinbase gave it preferential access to stablecoin liquidity and fiat ramps, but those terms also reshape how revenue from USDC reserves gets shared across the ecosystem. As the venue grows, it captures a larger slice of the stablecoin velocity that issuers typically monetize through interest on Treasury-held reserves.
How Stablecoin Revenue Flows Really Work Most of the crypto market understands that stablecoin issuers like Circle earn from the yield on their reserve assets. Less discussed is how that yield gets distributed behind the scenes. Exchanges, institutional partners, and large on-chain venues that drive USDC demand often receive a share of the interest income—effectively a rebate for custodying, wrapping, or facilitating high-volume usage. This revenue-sharing model is what keeps USDC liquid across centralized and decentralized platforms.
When Hyperliquid locked in its arrangement with Circle and Coinbase, it likely secured economics that reflect its outsized contribution to USDC turnover. The platform routinely handles north of $5 billion in daily perps activity, with USDC functioning as the dominant margin and settlement asset. That volume gives it leverage. But if one venue gets a lopsided deal, other exchanges—both CeFi and DeFi—will inevitably demand similar treatment. JPMorgan’s note frames this as a classic prisoner’s dilemma: every participant has an incentive to extract the best possible terms, but if all of them succeed, Circle’s unit economics deteriorate sharply.
Why Hyperliquid’s Deal Creates a Structural Tension The deal’s effect isn’t just about Hyperliquid. It sets a precedent. Other L1 and L2 perp protocols, order-book DEXs, and even large centralized exchanges that hold significant USDC balances will now point to Hyperliquid’s terms when renegotiating their own revenue-sharing agreements. Circle could face a wave of margin compression that accelerates as on-chain derivatives markets keep eating into traditional exchange volume.
For Coinbase, the calculus is different. The exchange holds an equity stake in Circle and benefits from USDC’s growth in market cap. But it also operates a competing derivatives venue. By co-signing the deal, Coinbase may be accepting a trade-off: sacrifice some interest income on the stablecoin side to ensure Hyperliquid’s flow stays within the Circle orbit rather than migrating to USDT or a new entrant. That’s a defensive move, but it doesn’t make Circle’s earnings picture any brighter. Recent institutional activity, including tokenized Treasury settlements involving JPMorgan itself, shows how competition for yield-bearing stablecoin alternatives is intensifying.
The Long-Term View for USDC and DeFi Circle’s profitability was already under scrutiny. After the Federal Reserve began cutting rates, the interest income from its reserve portfolio shrank, and competition from Tether’s USDT continued to chip away at market share. If the Hyperliquid arrangement leads to a broader re-rating of revenue splits, USDC becomes a thinner-margin business just as it faces regulatory demands that may require higher compliance costs. Stablecoin legislation in the U.S. could add further strain by forcing issuers to hold capital buffers or restrict reserve asset composition.
What remains unclear is whether Circle can restructure its partnerships without losing volume. Hyperliquid’s users are not particularly loyal to one stablecoin; they follow liquidity and low fees. If Circle tried to claw back margins, the perp platform could easily add native support for USDT or a decentralized alternative. That switching risk limits Circle’s negotiating power and suggests the current pressure might be permanent rather than cyclical.
The market hasn’t yet priced in the second-order effects. USDC’s market cap fluctuates with broader crypto sentiment, but the underlying economics of how it generates value are quietly shifting. As DeFi increasingly revolves around high-throughput derivatives venues, stablecoin issuers may be forced to accept a utility-style return rather than the banking-style margins they once enjoyed. Hyperliquid’s rise isn’t just a competitive threat to centralized exchanges—it’s also reshaping the plumbing that funds stablecoin revenue.
Whether this dynamic accelerates depends on how other major venues react. If Binance or Bybit extract similar terms, Circle’s interest income could decline meaningfully even if USDC supply stays flat. That’s the kind of structural squeeze that analysts at JPMorgan are watching, and it places Hyperliquid at the center of a conversation that extends far beyond perps volume numbers.
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Tether has announced a $7 million Series A investment in Pact Labs, a fintech infrastructure provider, as part of a strategic move to advance its USA₮ stablecoin in the US market. Blockchange Ventures and Lasagna also participated in the funding round. The investment aims to make USA₮, a dollar-backed stablecoin dedicated to the United States, more widely available for use in payroll, earned wage access, lending, and daily payment transactions.
Tether’s expansion into US payroll systemsTether seeks to move beyond its traditional role in crypto trading by integrating its stablecoin with mainstream financial services. The company intends to bridge the gap between digital currencies and everyday monetary operations in the US labor market.
The American payroll sector handles more than $11 trillion annually, yet most payment systems operate on outdated batch processing technology. This often requires employees to wait several days before receiving wages they have already earned. Through the partnership, Tether and Pact Labs aim to streamline payroll processing and enable real-time payments using the USA₮ stablecoin.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated that the demand for dollar-denominated settlement is deeply connected to wage distribution challenges. Ardoino also noted that workers in emerging markets have relied on stablecoins to address payroll delays, and expressed optimism about replicating these solutions in the US.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino explained that years of transaction data reveal a growing demand for dollar-backed settlements linked to wages and payroll. He underscored the company’s ambition to bring the benefits of stablecoins to the US workforce.
Pact Labs: infrastructure for blockchain-enabled paymentsPact Labs provides technical infrastructure allowing fintech companies to utilize blockchain-based payment networks without requiring their customers to engage directly with cryptocurrencies. The company indicated it has handled over $2 billion in on-chain loan volume and has originated more than $1 billion in loans and related services to upwards of 500,000 users through seven different fintech partners.
The platform is compatible with blockchain networks such as Aptos and Celo, facilitating digital wallets, instantaneous payments, and blockchain-powered lending operations for financial products.
Mini dictionary: Pact Labs is a US-based fintech infrastructure startup that provides technology for institutions seeking to connect traditional finance with blockchain networks, supporting payment, lending, and other services while abstracting away direct crypto exposure from the end customer.
Tether made a $100 million investment earlier this year in Anchorage Digital Bank, which distributes USA₮ through its platform. The ongoing partnership with Pact Labs further supports Tether’s initiative to secure a stronger foothold in the United States market.
Competitive landscape in the stablecoin sectorCompetition in the US stablecoin market is intensifying. Circle is pushing USDC into institutional settings and PayPal is expanding its PYUSD digital dollar offering. Against this backdrop, Tether is focusing on payroll and everyday business payments to carve out a unique position for USA₮ in the regulated US stablecoin ecosystem.
CompanyProductMain US StrategyTetherUSA₮Payroll and business paymentsCircleUSDCInstitutional expansionPayPalPYUSDConsumer transactionsThe effectiveness of Tether’s approach will depend on the adoption rate of USA₮ by Pact Labs’ existing fintech partners and integration into real-world payments infrastructure. If successful, this move could offer Tether a significant competitive edge as regulations around stablecoins become increasingly important in the US.
This investment positions Tether to compete more directly with rivals like Circle and PayPal, highlighting the evolving role of stablecoins in core financial services beyond the crypto sector.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Japan’s largest card network JCB has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Circle, with the two parties set to explore using USDC for cross-border payments, merchant settlement, fund management and other services, to drive the adoption of stablecoins in Japan’s daily payment scenarios. JCB has around 140 million users and 40 million merchants globally. The two sides will initially conduct a proof of concept (PoC) centered on JCB’s internal fund transfers, and further research how USDC can boost cross-border payment efficiency, lower remittance costs, and support international tourists in making stablecoin payments at Japanese merchants. This partnership is part of Japan’s stablecoin commercialization process. Earlier, Circle announced it would collaborate with Nomura to develop a USDC-based foreign exchange settlement service; Japanese convenience store chain Lawson also plans to launch a stablecoin payment pilot in August this year.
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Circle and Argentine financial group BIND have struck a deal to open institutional access to USDC through BIND’s digital assets platform, giving corporations and financial intermediaries a regulated on-ramp to dollar-denominated stablecoins in a country where the peso has essentially disintegrated.
The partnership, announced on July 14 during Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire’s visit to Buenos Aires, will channel USDC access through BEN, BIND’s digital assets platform, on a peer-to-peer basis. BIND operates as a registered virtual asset service provider (known locally as a PSAV), which means it’s a licensed financial institution building rails for companies that need dollar exposure but face a currency that has lost 99.8% of its value against the USD since 2009.
What the deal actually looks like BEN will serve as the infrastructure layer connecting eligible Argentine institutions to USDC, covering payments, treasury operations, and broader digital asset transactions, all wrapped in a compliance framework that BIND is keen to emphasize.
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“Through BEN, we seek to provide companies with transparent, secure, and efficient access to digital dollar infrastructure within a framework designed to support regulatory compliance and operational integrity,” said Andrés Meta, a Grupo BIND shareholder.
Circle isn’t treating this as a one-off announcement. The company is hiring a senior director based in Buenos Aires and actively pursuing additional partnerships with local banks and fintech companies. This follows Circle’s existing footprint in Brazil, where it already has a team of eight people, and planned expansions into Mexico and Colombia.
Why Argentina is ground zero for stablecoins The peso recently hit yet another record low against the dollar, extending a collapse that has made the currency almost worthless in relative terms over the past decade and a half. Persistent inflation, capital controls, and a general distrust in the local monetary system have turned Argentina into one of the most active stablecoin markets on the planet.
What’s changing now is the institutional dimension. Retail adoption was already widespread. This partnership is about bringing corporations, financial intermediaries, and treasury departments into the fold through regulated channels. When individuals buy USDC on an exchange, it’s useful but fragmented. When institutions get compliant access through a licensed financial entity like BIND, it opens the door to much larger capital flows, corporate treasury management in digital dollars, and cross-border payment infrastructure that actually scales.
Circle has also been engaging with Argentine regulatory bodies, including the Central Bank and the Ministry of Economy, to ensure the integration of digital assets within the traditional financial system doesn’t run afoul of existing rules. Allaire has expressed optimism about regulatory advancements regarding how banks treat stablecoins in Argentina, suggesting the groundwork is being laid for a more formalized framework.
What this means for the broader market Circle’s simultaneous push into Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia suggests the company sees the entire region as a strategic priority for USDC distribution. Tether’s USDT has historically dominated stablecoin usage in Latin America, particularly in peer-to-peer and informal markets. Circle’s strategy of partnering with regulated financial institutions like BIND targets the institutional and corporate segment where compliance requirements make USDC’s regulatory positioning a genuine advantage over less transparent alternatives.
The risk, as always in Argentina, is regulatory whiplash. The country has a long history of economic policy U-turns, capital control changes, and political volatility that can reshape the operating environment overnight. Circle’s engagement with the Central Bank and Ministry of Economy suggests awareness of this risk, but awareness and immunity are very different things.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Binance continues holding deep stablecoin liquidity, yet its reserve mix has shifted noticeably in recent months. USD Coin [USDC] reserves dropped 40.3% from $7.7 billion to $4.6 billion as of writing, reversing most gains recorded during early 2026.
Meanwhile, Tether [USDT] reserves remained steady at $38.5 billion, widening the gap between both assets to nearly $33.9 billion. Such a divergence suggests that users prefer USDT over USDC for exchange balances, rather than signaling broad liquidity contraction.
Source: CryptoQuant More importantly, Binance still controls roughly $53 billion, or 57% of the $93 billion held across exchange stablecoin reserves. Since early 2025, the dominant exchange stablecoin reserves have surged by 61%, adding $35 billion as Binance strengthened its market share.
Source: X That preference strengthens Binance’s overall stablecoin base while concentrating liquidity in one dominant asset. If this trend persists, USDT could further reinforce its role as Binance’s primary settlement and trading stablecoin, while USDC risks losing relative market influence.
Stablecoin supply shifts beyond whale wallets Still, that shift toward USDT has altered the way that stablecoin liquidity is distributed throughout the entire market. Over the last three months, the top 100 USDT wallets have reduced their portion of the total USDT supply by 0.6%.
Additionally, the largest USDC wallets reduce their portion of total USDC supply by 4.7%. Rather than concentrating liquidity among a handful of large holders, stablecoin reserves are spreading across exchanges, institutions, protocols, and retail participants.
Source: Santiment This suggests capital is becoming more broadly available instead of remaining idle in whale wallets. As institutional adoption continues expanding, wider distribution could improve market resilience by reducing reliance on a few dominant holders.
Such a strong liquidity foundation could support healthier, more sustainable crypto market advances.
Can stablecoin liquidity drive the next rally? The attention is now shifting from stablecoin liquidity to stablecoin participation. Rather than remaining just held by a few whale accounts, liquidity is increasingly spreading across a wider range of users.
This creates a better base of liquidity. However, just having broader ownership does not necessarily mean there will be a sustained bull run. Instead, active addresses, new wallet creation, and daily transactions must continue expanding to convert available capital into persistent demand.
Meanwhile, stablecoin supply remains near $312 billion, although risk asset accumulation has yet to fully accelerate. ETF flows and exchange balances also present mixed signals, suggesting much of that liquidity remains sidelined.
Therefore, the next advance in this market depends on investors’ willingness to utilize the available capital rather than how much capital is available.
Final Summary Tether [USDT] continues strengthening its dominance as stablecoin liquidity becomes more broadly distributed. USD Coin [USDC] and USDT now need stronger participation to drive the next market rally.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Robinhood’s on-chain ambitions just found a new distribution channel that doesn’t rely on a centralized brokerage. KuCoin Web3 Wallet integrated Robinhood Chain this week, enabling users to hold, send, and interact with tokenized real-world assets directly from a non-custodial wallet. The integration, detailed in the official announcement, signals that retail-focused platforms are serious about bridging traditional asset classes with blockchain infrastructure—without forcing users to give up control of their private keys.
For KuCoin, a wallet integration is low-hanging fruit that could pay off as the tokenized RWA sector balloons. The market crossed $20 billion in total value locked earlier this year, driven by institutional settlements and fresh liquidity rails, as covered in BlockchainReporter’s weekly tokenization roundup. Adding Robinhood Chain support layers a consumer-friendly brand onto that growth story, making tokenized Treasuries, equities, or real estate instruments more accessible to a wallet base that already trades across multiple chains.
Robinhood Chain Gets a Self-Custody Entry Point The chain itself is still a work in progress for many outsiders, but it represents Robinhood’s push deeper into on-chain settlement and asset issuance. By plugging into KuCoin’s Web3 wallet, the chain gains an immediate user funnel—especially in markets where Robinhood’s mobile app isn’t yet dominant. KuCoin’s wallet supports dozens of networks already, so this isn’t a pivot; it’s a continuation of a strategy to be everywhere retail users want to be.
What matters here isn’t the technical complexity. It’s the message. A wallet with millions of downloads is now treating tokenized RWAs as a standard feature, not a niche experiment. That changes how retail investors are likely to perceive the safety and utility of on-chain real-world assets over the next six months.
The Tokenized RWA Market Gains Momentum The RWA narrative isn’t new, but the infrastructure layer is finally catching up. Earlier this year, Ondo Finance settled a live tokenized Treasury trade with JPMorgan, and Bullish completed a $4.2 billion acquisition of Equiniti, signaling that back-office plumbing is moving on-chain. Meanwhile, Washington’s regulatory posture towards crypto remains in flux. A landmark crypto bill almost got derailed by banking lobbyists days before a Senate vote, as reported in BlockchainReporter’s coverage of last-minute banking opposition. That fight underscores how high the stakes are for tokenized asset classification—and why wallet integrations like KuCoin’s matter. If the regulatory framework lands favorably, self-custody tools will become the default on-ramp for retail exposure.
Institutional flows are also providing tailwinds. SUI’s recent 18% surge, driven by institutional staking and a fintech partnership, illustrates what happens when big money starts using public chains for more than speculation, as detailed in this market update. KuCoin’s move positions its wallet right at the intersection of retail curiosity and institutional-grade asset tokenization, even if Robinhood Chain remains unproven at scale.
What’s Still Unclear Robinhood has not yet disclosed deep technical details about the chain’s consensus mechanism, validator set, or how tokenized assets are custodied at the protocol level. That leaves open questions about settlement finality, decentralization, and cross-chain security. Users interacting with tokenized stocks or bonds on a blockchain without a long testnet history are taking on a different risk profile than they would with Ethereum or Solana.
KuCoin’s wallet adds a convenience layer, but it does not solve the underlying due-diligence gap. If Robinhood Chain suffers an outage or a bridge exploit—common enough in newer networks—wallet users would be directly affected. The market will be watching how the chain handles its first stress test and whether institutional issuers are comfortable sending assets onto it without additional insurance or legal clarity.
The integration also raises a competitive question: when does a wallet become a distribution channel for tokenized products that look increasingly like securities? Relying on self-custody sidesteps some broker-dealer requirements, but the line between a wallet and an unregistered exchange can blur quickly. If the SEC or international regulators decide that tokenized equities through a wallet constitute a regulated activity, KuCoin and similar platforms might need to pivot their compliance posture.
For now, the market sees a pragmatic step: one of the largest exchange-linked wallets is giving users the keys to a chain built for tokenized finance. That alone makes the integration a bellwether for how retail crypto platforms plan to capture the next wave of asset tokenization without ceding ground to traditional brokerages.
AUTHOR
Former SAP Finance consultant turned blockchain enthusiast, bringing expertise to the decentralized world. With a strong focus on decentralized systems, cryptocurrencies, and emerging innovations, Aisshwarya constantly stays updated on the latest trends and developments in the blockchain space. Through insightful analyses and thoughtful commentary, Aisshwarya aims to educate and inspire others to explore the potential of blockchain, offering valuable perspectives on its impact on the future of finance, security, and beyond.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, FTX and Alameda Research have transferred approximately 201,000 SOL tokens to multiple BitGo custodial addresses via multiple transactions, valued at around $15.14 million.
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Decentralized finance has evolved into a multi-chain landscape where liquidity, applications, and participants spread across numerous blockchains. In this environment, the technology linking these networks has become just as vital as the smart contracts operating on individual chains.
Aave, a DeFi platform, has deepened its reliance on Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) to power seamless, secure operations across ecosystems. This integration now underpins key elements of the protocol and its intuitive mobile and web application.
CCIP already facilitates critical functions such as cross-chain transfers of GHO, Aave’s native stablecoin, and supports multi-chain governance via the Aave Delivery Infrastructure (a.DI).
The latest expansion extends CCIP’s role to the Aave App’s Stable Vaults feature.
This enables automated vault rebalancing, yield optimization, deposits, withdrawals, and asset transfers across networks like Ethereum, Base, and Arbitrum.
Users enjoy a streamlined experience reminiscent of traditional fintech apps, with complex cross-chain movements handled invisibly in the background.
GHO and Savings GHO benefit from consistent security through CCIP and the Cross-Chain Token (CCT) standard.
Currently deployed on eight networks, GHO serves as a significant business driver for Aave.
Governance proposals also execute reliably across chains using the same infrastructure, allowing the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to maintain efficient on-chain decision-making as the protocol scales.
Security remains paramount for Aave, the largest DeFi protocol by total value locked.
Every dependency undergoes thorough evaluation based on frameworks such as LlamaRisk’s Aave Risk Framework and Aave Labs’ Technical Asset Listing Framework. CCIP not only meets but surpasses these stringent criteria.
Its selection builds directly on Aave’s long-standing trust in Chainlink, whose decentralized oracle network has provided price feeds to the protocol since January 2020.
By leveraging the same underlying infrastructure, cross-chain operations avoid introducing new trust assumptions.
CCIP’s architecture delivers unified messaging and token transfers within single transactions, simplifying workflows that would otherwise require separate bridges or multi-step processes.
Each bridge lane benefits from a minimum of 16 independent node operators spread across diverse organizations, geographic regions, and infrastructure providers.
Native rate limits further mitigate risk by capping exposure based on historical average flows rather than temporary spikes, aligning perfectly with Aave’s conservative risk management philosophy since its inception.
This integration positions CCIP as the foundational cross-chain standard throughout the Aave ecosystem.
It enables users to access optimized yields across chains without manual bridging, while developers and governance participants gain reliable execution guarantees.
As DeFi continues expanding across blockchains, interoperability solutions like CCIP play an essential role in delivering secure, user-friendly experiences at scale.
By extending an existing trusted relationship with Chainlink, Aave reinforces both the protocol’s technical resilience and its commitment to delivering accessible, high-quality DeFi products. The move underscores a broader industry trend where proven, battle-tested infrastructure becomes the backbone for innovation in multi-chain environments.
In February, we introduced Uniswap AI, an open source collection of plugins and skills for coding agents. Since then, the skills have passed 7.5K installs. As more of the world's value moves onchain, teams need the tooling to design for new asset classes, chains, and financial products. Today we’re expanding the Uniswap AI toolkit with a new plugin that helps builders explore and automate trading strategies.
Ship onchain strategies in minutes Uniswap Trading Tools is a new plugin with three skills for building automated trading strategies with Uniswap. The skills are asset-agnostic, and they support both crypto-native tokens and real-world assets so your agent can build a strategy from a single prompt.
3 new skills for onchain trading:
dca-bot: Buy a set amount of a token on a repeating schedule, with an optional price check before each buy. index-bot: Define a basket of tokens and target weights, buy it in one pass, and rebalance on a schedule. copy-trade: Follow another wallet and mirror its swaps, inside limits you set. All execution runs through the Uniswap API and you can choose an execution mode, either confirm (approve every transaction) or autonomous (acts only within a spend cap, an allowlist, a dry-run, and a kill switch). For tokenized real-world assets, gating is enforced at the token level, and the skills handle transfer-restriction reverts and respect market hours where they apply.
Explore the full Uniswap AI skill library Uniswap AI covers swaps, liquidity, hooks, token distribution, and more. Each skill provides your agent with everything it needs to use and build with Uniswap. Available plugins:
uniswap-trading: Integrate swaps through the Uniswap API, the Universal Router SDK, or direct contract calls. The fastest way to add swaps to your app. uniswap-viem: Handle the EVM fundamentals with viem and wagmi: accounts, signing, reading onchain state, and watching events. uniswap-hooks: Security-first guidance for building Uniswap v4 hooks, so your custom pool logic ships safely. uniswap-driver: Discover tokens and plan swaps or liquidity positions, with deep links straight into the Uniswap app. uniswap-cca: Configure and deploy a Continuous Clearing Auction for onchain token distribution. uniswap-trading-tools: Automate DCA, index, and copy-trade strategies. The toolkit also includes 11 skills for swapping, liquidity management, payments, and more. The skills are available for all chains Uniswap products support, including Robinhood Chain, Base, Arbitrum, Ethereum mainnet, and more. Agentic devs working in the Base ecosystem can build with the Uniswap API using Base MCP.
Get started Uniswap AI skills allow teams to build on the same liquidity and infrastructure that power Uniswap’s own products. Start with a swap, ship a hook, or provide your agent with new trading tools.
Install Uniswap AI tools: npx skills add Uniswap/uniswap-ai
A pseudonymous team is redeploying the Uniswap v4 token that pays fees to everyone who holds it, after a bad actor created 2,500 'phantom' fee positions. The original token has crashed more than 90% in a day.
Prism, a token that pays a share of trading fees to everyone who holds it, is relaunching on a new Ethereum contract after disclosing that an attacker spent most of July siphoning off nearly 40% of those fees.
The original PRISM token, which the project is now abandoning, plunged about 91% in the 24 hours through 2:13 p.m. ET on Tuesday, compared with a 4% gain for Bitcoin, according to CoinGecko data. It changed hands near $16, down from a high of about $1,145 on June 3, for a market value of roughly $82,000 on about $288,000 of 24-hour volume.
The attacker used purpose-built helper contracts to create 2,500 fee-earning positions beyond the 5,000 the token's design allows, Prism said in a post on X on Tuesday. When the team found them, those extra positions were diverting just under 40% of every trading fee away from ordinary holders, according to the post.
A Test for a New DeFi PrimitiveThe episode is an early stress test for one of DeFi's newer building blocks. Prism is built as a Uniswap v4 "hook," code that lets a token double as a liquidity pool, so that simply holding it earns a cut of trading fees with no manual staking. The design is meant to make token holders and liquidity providers the same people. The exploit shows how a single gap in that code can redirect the rewards the whole model depends on.
"This was never a theft of principal," Prism wrote in the post. "It was a corruption of the fee layer — the very thing that made Prism worth holding."
The flaw came down to one missing check, according to the disclosure. In the original contract, a fee-earning position could be moved to addresses that were never meant to hold one, including the pool manager and the token contract itself. Those addresses sit outside the token's internal accounting, so a position parked there kept earning fees while counting as no one's. That created a "phantom" share whose cut could be pulled from the pool's balance, the team said.
The team said a patch on the old deployment would not work because the phantom positions already sit inside the pool and cannot be removed, so it built a new contract instead.
What ChangedThe new contract blocks that path, Prism said. A position can now belong only to a wallet whose token balance backs it, and any attempt to route one to the pool manager or to the contract itself now fails outright. The team said the number of fee-earning positions can no longer exceed the 5,000 the design guarantees, and that fees can only ever reach genuine holders.
The team relaunching Prism said they did not create it. They wrote that they "found this project the way everyone else did" and bought the token on the open market with their own money. The disclosure was signed by a pseudonymous account, @0xsolazy. The team did not say how holders of the old token would move to the new contract.
Despite its small size, Prism has drawn a handful of projects building on its fee mechanism. Spectrum, a tool for launching baskets of tokens, uses Prism and has deployed baskets across Ethereum, Base and Robinhood's chain, according to Spectrum's site. Prism has promoted several of those baskets, including one holding Sky, Aave, Maple, Curve, Spark, Ondo and Ethena tokens.
Limited DamageThe damage was limited, largely because Prism never took off. The team said the absolute losses were small only because trading volume had been low, and warned the drain would have grown alongside the token had it gained traction.
Prism has not published an independent review of either the exploit or the fix.
@NEARProtocol says its token buyback program is accelerating, with Intents fees increasingly outpacing new issuance. The mechanism is straightforward: 100% of fees generated through NEAR Intents are used to purchase $NEAR directly on the open market, creating buy pressure that scales with transaction volume. Cumulative Intents volume has now passed $22 billion, and the capture rate has climbed from roughly 12% over its lifetime to near 30% in the past week alone.
Two Structural Changes Set the Stage Two protocol upgrades have made the deflation thesis credible. On October 30, 2025, NEAR's inflation rate was permanently reduced from 5% to 2.5%, cutting annual issuance roughly in half and compressing the volume required to reach net deflation by the same amount. Then on February 23, 2026, the fee conversion mechanism activated for the first time, routing all NEAR Intents fees into $NEAR purchases.
NEAR issues approximately 32.2 million tokens annually. Two mechanisms work against that issuance: base-layer gas fees follow a 70/30 split, with 70% permanently burned by the protocol, while Intents fees go entirely toward open-market buybacks. Halved inflation plus active buybacks via the Intents fee switch create a structurally different supply-demand dynamic than what existed a year ago.
The Threshold Is Real, but Not Yet Crossed At current prices and the 2026 channel-mix-weighted fee rate, the deflationary threshold sits at approximately $177 million in daily Intents volume. The current 90-day average sits at $77 million per day, meaning volume needs to roughly double to cross the deflationary threshold.
The math is not static. As NEAR's price rises, each token purchased via the Intents fee mechanism absorbs more dollar-denominated issuance, meaning price appreciation actively lowers the barrier to deflation in token terms. On an Intents-adjusted basis, NEAR's price-to-sales ratio is approximately 28x, versus Ethereum at 194x and Solana at 40x. That gap has drawn attention from analysts who argue the token is structurally underpriced relative to its fee generation.
The trajectory is real. Whether daily Intents volume can double from here, and hold there, is the question that will determine whether the deflation story moves from thesis to fact.
Sources:
Crypto Briefing: NEAR Protocol targets AI-driven commerce with new products and tokenomics improvements
NEAR Foundation: Supporting Community Proposals to Upgrade NEAR Tokenomics
SVRN: NEAR Protocol 2026: Investment Case, Tokenomics and Deflation Threshold
NEAR Protocol is showing renewed strength as it surpasses the psychological $2.00 threshold, while XRP and two leading memecoins, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, remain subdued below their important resistance levels.
NEAR Protocol breaks $2.00, signals recoveryAfter consolidating between $1.80 and $2.00 for several weeks, NEAR Protocol, a blockchain network designed for scalability and developer-friendly decentralized applications, managed to move above the $2 mark. NEAR now trades above its 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day moving averages, a technical alignment considered positive during market recovery cycles.
Buyers defended the $1.80 range, which aligns closely with the 200-day moving average. From this support, the price gradually moved higher, even though trading volume remains below levels seen during NEAR’s rally in May. This suggests the uptrend is stabilizing but not yet strong in momentum.
The asset faces immediate resistance near $2.10, where the 100-day moving average sits, and a successful move above may target $2.30 or higher. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has moved above 50, a sign that bullish sentiment is returning.
AssetCurrent PriceKey ResistanceRSITrendNEAR$2.05$2.10Above 50RecoveryXRP$1.09$1.1547BearishSHIB$0.0000042$0.000004536BearishDOGE$0.076$0.083–BearishMarket structure for NEAR has improved as the asset holds above all major trend indicators, even as trading volume stays modest compared to the last major rally.
XRP struggles beneath major moving averagesXRP, the digital asset associated with Ripple’s global payments network, remains in a prolonged corrective phase. Trading around $1.09 and below its 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day moving averages, XRP continues to face resistance between $1.11 and $1.15. Recent attempts to recover have stalled at these levels, with no significant price reversal established.
The chart displays lower highs and lower lows since June, characterizing a persistent downtrend. Although XRP has not formed new lows, buyers have not generated enough strength to test the crucial $1.15 resistance zone. Its RSI stands at 47, indicating neutral momentum.
For a brighter outlook, XRP must reclaim the 50-day moving average and hold above $1.12. Until that happens, the asset remains under corrective pressure.
Memecoins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu continue in correctionDogecoin and Shiba Inu, two of the leading memecoins, are both struggling below key trend indicators. Dogecoin is trading well beneath the $0.076 to $0.083 resistance band and critical moving averages, unable to fully recover from a significant breakdown that began in June.
Meanwhile, SHIB faces even greater technical challenges. The token is trading at $0.0000042, staying below its main moving averages. Several attempts to break through resistance have failed, and each breakout has met with fresh selling pressure. Despite a short-lived improvement in early July, both sentiment and trading volume have faded.
SHIB’s RSI is now near 36, just above oversold levels. Historically, such conditions have sometimes led to brief rallies, but the token needs to reclaim the 50-day moving average before a sustained recovery could develop.
Both memecoins are suffering from exhausted demand, with declining volumes and fewer signs of aggressive selling. Dogecoin continues to print lower highs, and its RSI has only partially recovered from oversold conditions. Neither asset is attracting large inflows of new capital.
If DOGE cannot regain the area above $0.076, and SHIB fails to move past $0.0000045, both are likely to remain in a corrective pattern despite reduced selling pressure in recent weeks.
Volume spikes seen during June’s breakdown in these assets have not reappeared, indicating a lack of conviction from sellers but also insufficient buying interest to trigger major rallies.
Both Dogecoin and SHIB need to overcome several technical obstacles before a full trend reversal becomes likely. Their major moving averages remain as significant resistance, and only a clear move above these levels would change their market outlook.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
ANSEM shocked the crypto market by becoming one of the fastest-rising memecoins of 2026. Within a week, the Solana-based token recorded gains of more than 166,000%, reviving interest across the memecoin market and sending traders searching for the next early-stage opportunity.
While ANSEM is already trading publicly, projects like MemeToro ($MT) are attracting attention during the presale phase by combining artificial intelligence with memecoin creation on BNB Chain.
How ANSEM Delivered a 166,000% Rally ANSEM, also known as The Black Bull, became one of the year’s biggest crypto stories after climbing 166,590% in one week.
The token reached a high near $0.451 while growing into a project worth roughly $370 million. During the rally, one widely shared example showed how a $150 investment could have grown into more than $430,000.
The project is closely linked to crypto analyst Ansem, whose wallet activity and large social media following helped drive attention toward the token.
Exchange listings added further momentum. BloFin announced support for ANSEM trading, while renewed speculation pushed activity across Solana’s memecoin ecosystem higher.
Like many memecoins, however, the rally also highlighted the risks of chasing fast-moving markets. Analysts continue warning that projects driven mainly by social momentum can experience equally sharp corrections once enthusiasm fades.
Why AI Is Becoming Part of the Memecoin Market The success of ANSEM shows how quickly internet attention can turn into market activity.
Developers are now trying to improve that process by using artificial intelligence to identify trends before they become obvious.
Instead of watching one social platform or one trading chart, modern AI systems monitor online discussions, breaking news, search activity, and community engagement simultaneously. The goal is to organize large amounts of public information into useful market signals.
That shift is creating interest in platforms that combine AI with token creation instead of relying only on community hype.
How MemeToro’s AI Agent Creates New Memecoins MemeToro ($MT) is building its platform around that idea.
Its AI Agent continuously scans internet discussions, news websites, social platforms, and search trends to detect narratives that are gaining momentum. When promising themes appear, the system helps generate complete no-code memecoin launches, including branding concepts, token details, and supporting assets before deployment.
Users can review the AI-generated package before deciding whether to proceed with a fair public launch.
Beyond token generation, the ecosystem also includes several products designed to support activity after launch.
Rather than focusing on one token, the platform is designed to support many future launches through the same AI-powered infrastructure.
MemeToro Stage 4 Presale Update MemeToro ($MT) is currently in Stage 4 of its public presale.
The project has now raised more than $77,000, reflecting continued participation as development progresses. The current token price is $0.00171, while the next presale stage will increase automatically to $0.00190.
Built on BNB Chain, the ecosystem benefits from low transaction costs while preparing multiple products around the native $MT token. Alongside AI-powered launch tools, the roadmap includes staking, prediction markets, and additional SocialFi features that extend the platform beyond memecoin creation.
Unlike projects that only appear after a trend becomes popular, MemeToro is developing the infrastructure before broader public trading begins.
What ANSEM’s Rally Means for Investors ANSEM has reminded the crypto market how quickly memecoins can generate extraordinary returns when strong narratives and community momentum align. At the same time, its rally also highlights the risks that come with highly speculative assets.
MemeToro ($MT) represents a different stage of the market by focusing on AI-powered blockchain tools before exchange listings. As traders continue searching for the next breakout opportunity, both projects reflect how the memecoin sector is evolving beyond simple viral tokens into broader blockchain ecosystems.
More Information on MemeToro ($MT) Presale Here:
Website: https://memetoro.com/
X: https://x.com/memetoro_mt
Telegram: https://t.me/memetoro_mt
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