Iran strikes Saudi Arabia for the first time in months, sending oil prices surging 3-7% and pushing Bitcoin below $62K as crypto markets react to

The post Iran strikes Saudi Arabia again, sending oil prices surging and Bitcoin wobbling appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Tottenham's 60M Savinho deal with Manchester City underscores how football's biggest transfers still bypass crypto rails despite industry sponsorship push.

The post Tottenham’s £60M Savinho pursuit highlights football’s stubborn resistance to crypto disruption appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

FIFA selects MetLife Stadium for the 2026 World Cup final, but crypto partnerships are notably absent as the industry's sports marketing retreat continues.

The post MetLife Stadium lands 2026 World Cup final as crypto remains sidelined from FIFA’s biggest stage appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

BLAST Premier lists South African player JT on Team Liquid's CS2 roster for Bounty Season 2, a $1.15M tournament tied to Valve Wildcard eligibility.

The post BLAST lists Team Liquid’s JT in Bounty Season 2 roster, signaling major CS2 shakeup appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

US strikes Iranian military targets, damaging civilian sites. Invasion of Iran before 2027 now at 27.5% YES.

The post US strikes Iranian military targets, damaging civilian sites in Hormozgan province appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Sentiment Is Turning Bullish — But It’s Too Early to Celebrate: Report

The Bitcoin bottom may be in — but don’t get your hopes up: It might struggle to go up anytime soon, according to one investment firm. 

A Friday report from European asset management firm CoinShares said that investors last week threw fresh cash at Bitcoin — and other crypto — exchange-traded products, indicating a change in sentiment. 

But other factors may hold digital asset markets from going higher, James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, wrote. 

“We have said for some time that Bitcoin has probably reached, or is close to, its floor,” the report read. “But we see no significant upside potential from here.”

The report added that current macroeconomic headwinds, such as the US bombing Iran and rising oil prices, could see inflation go up again. 

Bitcoin’s price was up earlier this week, hitting a seven-day high of $65,501 on news that inflation in the US was softer than expected. It has since erased those gains and was recently trading for $64,010. 

The price of Bitcoin has typically done well on news that inflation is coming down because investors expect interest rates to come down. But Butterfill said that “a rate cut does not look probable at this stage.”

Bitcoin’s worst run on record

CoinShares’ data showed that investors pulled a total of $8 billion out of funds giving crypto exposure — “the worst run on record.” 

Last week, though, things reversed when $287 million hit crypto funds, CoinShares said, with the data so far showing that this week looks likely to be another positive streak.

The price of Bitcoin has typically done well when US investors — previously excluded from crypto investing — have bought shares in exchange-traded funds approved in 2024. 

The products — handled by the likes of BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale — allow more traditional investors or Wall Street institutions to buy positions in Bitcoin via shares that trade on stock exchanges. 

Since BTC’s October all-time high of $126,080, crypto markets have faced a battering as those investors have fast cashed out of the funds. Bitcoin has struggled to make gains, especially after the US and Israel started bombing Iran, leading to a surge in the price of oil. 

The leading cryptocurrency is now nearly 50% below its record. 

“The dominant picture is that the current setup is prompting interest in adding positions, but caution prevails while sentiment remains broadly negative,” CoinShares added. 

This post Bitcoin Sentiment Is Turning Bullish — But It’s Too Early to Celebrate: Report first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Ocean Mining VP Jason Hughes: BIP-110 on Track to Fail as Miner Signaling Stays Below 1%

BIP-110 – My Notes to Miners

This is a guest post by Jason Hughes, VP of Development and Engineering at Ocean Mining. Opinions expressed are entirely his own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine. The article originally appeared on X.com and has been published with the permission of the author. 

Let me start off by saying I’m not pro BIP110, and I’m not anti-BIP110. If it actually succeeds as something that gains true consensus within the network and ends up being enforced by a majority of the network… cool. If so, then we’ll go with it because the network has spoken and accepted it, and all nodes, including non-BIP110 nodes, will be pulled along for the ride. Unfortunately for proponents of the proposal, that simply isn’t currently the case by any measurable metric, nor does it appear to have a trajectory suggesting that will change, either. 

There’s been a lot of misleading information about this whole thing, especially in the context of mining. A few quick key bullet points to briefly counter some hyperbole from proponents: BIP110 is NOT inevitable. It CAN fail. BIP110 can and will cause a chain split/fork in a minority hashrate situation. BIP110 is NOT without risk to miners choosing to adopt it. Miners not supporting BIP110 are not suddenly mining “invalid” blocks just because a proposal that isn’t yet adopted simply exists. You’re not a bad person or evil simply because you don’t like or support BIP110. (The fact that I feel the need to point out that last part is actually kind of sad…)

I was going to write a long post to help keep miners informed about things they need to remain aware of as this all plays out… before realizing I already did so months ago, as a document I authored that I had hoped could be put out as a miner education piece at OCEAN. Sadly, it never got published. So I went ahead and updated it, and well, here it is.

Again, keep in mind this was written months ago, intended to be as agnostic as possible in an effort to make it acceptable as a corporate post. That effort failed, so I’m posting it as a personal document today instead. As a miner making important decisions about your operations, you need to be aware of all of this without the sugarcoating and, frankly, outright misleading information coming from some of the BIP110 proponents.  You must be vigilant and decide what’s right for you. 

While there is certainly some misleading information from the opposition as well, nothing I’ve seen is nearly as egregious as the extremely premature claims of victory and accompanying hyperbole pushed by the BIP110 side. Summarizing my doc a bit, my personal suggestion to miners is this: Signal if you support BIP110. Do not signal if you don’t support BIP110 or don’t care. Either way, monitor the network on/around/before block 961632. 

If you continue to see non-signaling blocks from major pools, you can be reasonably certain they’re not going to suddenly decide later to throw away millions of dollars’ worth of revenue to backtrack and signal for BIP110. If they do, by some chance, start to signal for BIP110, you should monitor that and consider switching as required to stay on the heaviest chain. The key point is that, realistically, only one side can win. It’s either BIP110 succeeds, and miners not on the BIP110 side fail, or BIP110 fails, and miners on the non-BIP110 side succeed. 

Moving on, let’s dive into a small fraction of my rationale. 

QUICK FACT: Between 7 and 15% of Bitcoin Nodes are signaling support for BIP110.

Depending on which centralized crawler you look at… no way to know for sure [how many BIP110 nodes are signaling support]. My personal private crawler puts this number much lower, but that’s a discussion for another day. Suffice it to say, I think it’s logical and correct to say that even 15% is not a majority. 

“But Jason! UASF got Segwit activated with fewer nodes!” 

Yep, because many miners, merchants, users, etc., all actually wanted Segwit. There was tremendous economic and community weight behind it. Without rehashing that whole thing, as plenty of resources on the topic from before BIP110 are worth a read, suffice it to say that BIP110 and Segwit activations are not quite comparable, as many have already pointed out. Segwit, for example, went into its UASF territory with around 1/3rd of the network’s hashrate already signaling support. With that kind of backing, the UASF to help push the MASF over the tipping point made a lot of sense. It doesn’t make sense here for BIP110.

QUICK FACT: 0.6% of blocks over the past 60 days have signaled support for BIP110.

[0.6% is a] pretty stark contrast to even Segwit’s low baseline support. Yes, I know it’s increased slightly in the past couple of weeks, but no new entrants. Just more clearly rented hashrate from one of the same small proponents.

Something to keep in mind is that mining BIP110 signaling blocks via DATUM on OCEAN carries virtually no risk to the miner up until the fork point at block 961632. The cost is negligible, as you’re effectively guaranteed to recoup rental costs, etc.

It’s awesome that the ability to do so exists, and I wouldn’t have it any other way… but just something to keep in mind when weighing signaling from such blocks in the grand scheme of things from a risk-reward, money-on-the-table perspective.

“But Jason! Miners have no incentive to signal until the last minute!”

I also see no evidence to suggest that this could be the case. Subjectively, I disagree with the premise, as it’s not in a mining pool’s best interest to destabilize the network in such a way.  Part of the reason for early signaling and lock-in periods is to help coordinate upgrades in a smooth fashion. Waiting until the last minute negates that benefit entirely. I see no compelling rationale or upside to doing so.

Continuing on this, as part of my personal node monitoring setup, I specifically monitor nodes known to belong to various entities, such as other mining pools, exchanges, large lightning nodes, merchants, etc. A supermajority of which are monitored with explicit permission and confirmation/coordination.

QUICK FACT: All major mining pools I monitor are currently running some variant of Bitcoin Core v30 or v31 (except OCEAN). 

Expanding on that, most [mining pools] have updated their nodes since the proliferation of BIP110’s release, even since the release of Knots 29.3. Additionally, it is known that many mining pools run modified versions of their node software to facilitate various requirements of their specific infrastructure. Such changes would need to be ported to a BIP110-compatible client, tested, evaluated, and deployed ahead of time. I currently see no evidence that this is the case currently.

As far as I can tell, the pools are aware but ignoring. 

“But Jason! Miners don’t determine consensus! Nodes do! Otherwise, they’ll just cancel halvings!”

This is one of the funniest and most ridiculous arguments I’ve heard from the pro-BIP110 crowd.  Comparing a consensus change that can be unilaterally enforced upon the network by miners and accepted by 100% of existing nodes (a soft fork), with a hard fork which no existing node will accept… is disingenuous at best. T

ightening rules (like BIP110): Soft fork, can be enforced by miners if they choose to do so. Loosening rules (like canceling a halving): Hard fork, can not be enforced by miners without effectively 100% buy-in from the entire network… which isn’t likely to happen. Comparing the two is, bluntly, just stupid.

“But Jason! If you don’t upgrade to the latest consensus rules, you’re insecure! You’ll lose funds! You’ll mine invalid blocks! You’ll [insert additional hyperbole here]!”

This would be true of a consensus change that has, well, consensus. While BIP110 has made a valiant effort to gain that consensus, it has yet to have any measurable majority at what is now arguably the 11th hour. Not in nodes, not in hashrate, not in the social layers (consensus.health has a cool visual there where you’ll find me in the middle).

If somehow BIP110 gains 51%+ of the network hashrate on/before block 961632… then, alright. It’s enforced, since as a soft fork a majority of miners can unilaterally enforce it in the absence of a fully adopted URSF (effectively a misnomer, as this would kind of be a hard fork).

“But Jason! It can’t gain consensus by already having consensus! You have to give it a chance!”

Firstly… no I don’t, even though I have.  Second, it’s a rushed proposal that never had the time to even try and gain real consensus. It’s been 7 months since the release of the first BIP110 client. There’s ~3 weeks to go before “mandatory” signaling starts as of now (less by the time you read this). 90% of the time available has passed with no change in overall sentiment from any relevant players. If it hasn’t gained sufficient adoption in the past 7 months, it’s not likely to do so in the next 3 weeks.

“But Jason! CSAM! CSAM! Pedophiles! CSAM!”

I’ll be the first to say, even I personally overstated the risk here early on when Core proposed its OP_RETURN change. I personally expected something particularly egregious to hit the chain almost immediately, and to the best of my knowledge, that’s not yet happened. Could it still happen? Yeah, I suppose.

But considering from a technical perspective, byte-for-byte the same contiguous arbitrary data can provably end up stored in the current chain or the BIP-110 chain without much issue… this particular argument for BIP-110 falls pretty flat to me at this point.

Do I want CSAM in the chain? Of course not. Am I a pedophile if I don’t support BIP110? Also not.

Concluding Thoughts

I could continue to go on and on and on, but I’ll stop here. I’ve wasted enough time on this. I’m sure I’ve done plenty to annoy both sides of the BIP110 debate at this point, as I don’t adopt either stance. I’m sure I’ll catch flak from all angles simply for daring to speak my mind on it.

Overall, I mostly think it was silly to approach addressing a real problem (the OP_RETURN default change in Bitcoin Core) with the maximum anti-spam manifesto based soft fork proposal… which provably cannot stop spam, arbitrary data, etc. (Yes, I know, proponents will claim it’s not about spam… and will also make semantic arguments that it does stop data as well… neither of which appears to be correct.)

I’ll close with the concession that I could be wrong. I’m not Nostradamus, and I can’t accurately predict the outcome with 100% certainty.  I can only go by what the data tells me, and so I give BIP110’s success less than a 5% chance of actually succeeding… and I consider that generous. You can take my opinions on this however you wish, but I highly recommend you don’t discount the actual data points, remain vigilant, and do what’s best for you and your mining revenue. Don’t be gaslit by either side of the debate, and make your own decisions.

Here’s a link to the same document linked above for ease of access.

This post Ocean Mining VP Jason Hughes: BIP-110 on Track to Fail as Miner Signaling Stays Below 1% first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jason Hughes.

Bitcoin Magazine

SBI Holdings Takes Majority Stake in Singapore’s Coinhako After MAS Approval

SBI Holdings has completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Coinhako, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency platform, after securing approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). 

The Japanese financial group made the purchase through its subsidiary SBI Ventures Asset Pte. Ltd., which injected capital into Coinhako parent Holdbuild Pte. Ltd. and bought shares from existing shareholders. The transaction closed July 16, making Coinhako a consolidated subsidiary.

Coinhako operates through Hako Technology Pte. Ltd., holder of a Major Payment Institution license from MAS, and Alpha Hako Ltd., a crypto asset service provider registered with the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission. 

The platform spent a decade building a customer base across Southeast Asia, a region SBI now positions as a base for its digital asset strategy.

SBI plans to combine Coinhako’s customer base, operational expertise, and regional network with its own financial services, technology, and global footprint. The company intends to expand a digital asset corridor that starts with Japan and Southeast Asia, and to develop services tied to its JPYSC yen-denominated stablecoin. SBI also flagged opportunities in tokenization, on-chain finance, and cross-border trading.

“Our group aims to create a global corridor for digital assets by connecting exchanges around the world, enabling investors worldwide to make optimal investments without being hindered by national borders or currency barriers,” Chairman Yoshitaka Kitao said. He described Singapore as a crucial region because its digital asset regulations are ahead of the curve.

Coinhako co-founder and CEO Yusho Liu called the deal a natural step. “For the past 10 years, we have built from the ground up Southeast Asia’s most trusted and legally compliant cryptocurrency platform in the world’s most advanced regulatory environment,” he said, adding that SBI’s backing gives the firm a stronger foundation.

SBI Holding’s crypto moves

The acquisition caps a run of crypto moves by the conglomerate, which holds more than 14 million users and $308 billion in assets under custody. In the past month, SBI led EDX Markets’ $76 million Series C, backed risk manager Gauntlet, launched JPYSC, and partnered with the Solana Foundation on an on-chain financial market in Japan. 

In June, the group agreed to buy Tokyo exchange Bitbank for about $289 million, and this week it teamed with Ondo Finance to tokenize Japanese equities.

One limit remains: JPYSC does not yet support withdrawals to external wallets, which confines its use to SBI’s own platform.

This post SBI Holdings Takes Majority Stake in Singapore’s Coinhako After MAS Approval first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Mining Giant Foundry Asks Miners To Vote on BIP-110 Soft Fork

Foundry Digital, the world’s leading Bitcoin mining pool operator, has said it will allow mining clients how the pool should signal on the BIP-110.

The Rochester, New York-based firm said Friday in an email to miners that they will be able to vote by using their hashrate — literally computing power — to vote either for or against the proposal. 

BIP-110, or the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 110, is a proposal aimed at temporarily restricting spam on the blockchain. If it goes through, a soft fork — a backward-compatible rule change — would take effect, restricting the amount of non-monetary data on the network.

“As miners, it’s important for you to have a voice and participate in the governance of the network,” Foundry said in its announcement. 

“It’s one of the more actively debated proposals in Bitcoin right now, and miners play a direct role in whether it activates,” the company added. 

Also known as the “reduced data temporary soft fork,” the proposal would cap the amount of arbitrary, non-monetary data that transactions can carry. 

Its rules limit most new outputs to 34 bytes, restore an 83-byte limit on OP_RETURN outputs, and reject data pushes above 256 bytes. 

Those for the proposal say that the soft fork would allow Bitcoin to function as pure peer-to-peer money. 

But opponents, including Strategy founder Michael Saylor and Blockstream co-founder Adam Back, argue it converts a policy dispute into a consensus change that could invalidate fee-paying transactions.

Foundry’s process

Under Foundry’s process, each vote carries weight based on an account’s average 10-day hashrate on the pool between July 6 and July 15. Foundry said it will signal based on the majority of hashrate-weighted votes across the signaling period, which it expects to run through early August at block 961,632. 

The company’s starting position is no. It said that until “Yes” votes cross 51% of voting hashrate, Foundry signals “No” with all of its blocks. A crossing of that threshold switches the pool to “Yes” with all of its blocks.

Foundry controls about a third of network hashrate, a share that makes its position consequential for the outcome. Analysts at BGeometrics identified decisions by Foundry and Antpool as capable of moving daily signaling into a meaningful range. A mandatory signaling window near block 961,632, projected for early August, will force the question before the activation timeline closes.

Accounts that do not respond count as “No” votes. Foundry said owners can change their choice while the window remains open, and that individual votes stay confidential, though aggregate results may be shared.

This post Bitcoin Mining Giant Foundry Asks Miners To Vote on BIP-110 Soft Fork first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo and Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Price Falls Under $63,000 on U.S.-Iran Strikes and Trump’s China Charge, but Onchain Data Points to Buyers

Bitcoin price fell below $63,000 on Friday, as a fresh wave of U.S. airstrikes on Iran and a new political dispute between Washington and Beijing pushed investors out of risk assets.

Bitcoin price traded near $62,800, an extension of Thursday’s 1.4% slide from $65,000, according to Bitcoin Magazine Pro data. The token slipped under its 50-day simple moving average, a gauge of near-term momentum that many traders watch.

The bitcoin price retreat tracked a broad decline across global markets. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 4% and entered a correction, a fall of more than 10% from its June 25 peak, as memory-chip maker Kioxia lost 16.1%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 2%, while the Shanghai Composite fell 3.1% to an 11-month low. 

Futures tied to the Nasdaq pointed to a decline of 1.6%, an echo of Thursday’s drop on Wall Street, where chip shares from Nvidia, Micron, Broadcom and Qualcomm came under pressure on fears that the AI rally has run past its earnings.

Bitcoin price, Iran escalations, and uncertainty in Washington 

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, citing the Hormozgan province governorate, said U.S. airstrikes hit five bridges in the southern province. 

A separate missile strike damaged the maritime control tower at Iran’s Chabahar port. WTI crude climbed near $79 a barrel, a rise close to 15% across five sessions, a move that revived concern about inflation and the path of interest rates.

A second front of uncertainty opened in Washington. President Donald Trump declassified intelligence reports that allege Chinese interference in U.S. elections and claimed Beijing obtained 220 million voter records, a threat he cast as a danger to democracy. China’s embassy denied the allegations. 

The dispute itself carries little market weight, though traders fear it could strain ties before Trump’s September meeting with Xi Jinping. The Australian dollar, a proxy for China-linked trade, weakened against the greenback.

Bitcoin price market dynamics

Against that backdrop, some analysts argue the sell-off masks a market whose core drivers have changed little. Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at Nansen, said the bitcoin price tape reflects macro data more than a geopolitical hedge.

“The inflation and liquidity channel is doing more work here than the geopolitical hedge narrative,” Sondergaard said. He pointed to the June CPI report released July 14, which showed headline inflation of 3.5% against a 3.8% forecast and a core reading of 2.6% against 2.9%. The dollar index sank to near 100.77, a multi-month low, and the 10-year Treasury yield eased to 4.57%.

The softer print reset Fed expectations. Odds of a rate hike at the July 28-29 meeting fell from above 40% to the low teens, according to CME FedWatch data. 

“The FOMC meeting on July 28 to 29 is the actual binary,” Sondergaard said. “If the CPI data holds and the Fed signals a credible pivot path, the conditions for sustained ETF inflows are back in place.”

Onchain flows support his read. Spot bitcoin ETFs drew $510 million across three sessions this month, an end to a $2.73 billion outflow streak, with BlackRock’s IBIT in the lead. Nansen’s data shows large wallets held their ground through the strike. 

“Net outflows hit -18.3 BTC in the strike hour, then reverted to a post-shock average of +0.67 BTC per hour, meaning buyers returned within the same session,” Sondergaard said.

Sondergaard framed positioning as constructive rather than fragile. Funding rates sat near zero, a sign that leveraged longs are not crowded, and smart-money long/short ratios ran at 1.58 with no rotation into stablecoins. Retail traders held a ratio of 1.79, a step ahead of the pros but in the same direction. Seven-day inflows concentrated in liquid staking, DeFi lending and decentralized exchanges, a risk-on allocation.

 Sondergaard said the sequence rhymes with past shocks. “Prior Middle East escalations produced the same pattern: short-duration flush, accumulation resumes,” he said.

“MVRV sits at 1.205 with realized price at roughly $53,000 and the long-term holder cost basis around $49,900, which defines the structural floor,” Sondergaard said. “That is not the profile of a market running on geopolitical sentiment.”

At the time of writing, the bitcoin price is $62, 836.

This post Bitcoin Price Falls Under $63,000 on U.S.-Iran Strikes and Trump’s China Charge, but Onchain Data Points to Buyers first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

On the eve of the GENIUS Act’s first anniversary, the stablecoin market holds about $310 billion, including roughly $184 billion in USDT and $73 billion in USDC.

President Donald Trump signed the law on July 18, 2025, creating a federal framework with one-for-one liquid reserves, redemption rights, and monthly reserve disclosures for a market that moved faster than the rulebook.

Federal Reserve researchers measured stablecoin capitalization at $317 billion on Apr. 6, up more than 50% from early 2025, and recorded a 50% increase in Ethereum stablecoin transaction volume since enactment. As of July 17, core implementation measures are still in proposal form.

Kyle Sonlin, president and co-founder of Global Settlement Network, said his conversations with governments and institutions now start from acceptance of stablecoins as financial infrastructure, and his team spends “far less time explaining why stablecoins matter.”

Permission reached the sales desk

Sonlin described GENIUS as a credible federal direction that let banks, payment companies, and infrastructure providers commit money to longer-term plans.

He said that financial infrastructure rarely reorganizes within 12 months, and companies kept preparing for a regulated stablecoin market as agencies worked through implementation.

Triple-A CEO Eric Barbier sees the commercial result inside the enterprise sales funnel. His payment company has recorded more businesses moving from evaluation toward implementation, plus a “marked reduction” in sales cycles for enterprise customers that enable stablecoin payments through its platform.

Barbier’s evidence covers Triple-A’s own pipeline, providing the legitimacy thesis with a concrete operational measure.

Visa’s expansion offers a larger institutional reference point, as its stablecoin settlement pilot supported nine blockchains by April and reached a $7 billion annualized settlement run rate, up 50% from the previous quarter.

On July 16, Visa introduced an enterprise platform that provides financial institutions and fintech firms with access to stablecoin storage, redemption, minting, and burning through a single Visa-managed environment.

The sales environment now has a recognized product, a federal direction, and payment incumbents building access layers.

Deployment depends on banks, custody arrangements, reserve operations, and compliance teams that interpret unfinished rules for each relationship.

Banking friction survives

Diogo Cassinelli, sales and partnerships manager at Trace Finance, said that clarity on issuance addressed half of the operating problem.

Cross-border payment companies still need each banking partner to make an independent compliance judgment about how stablecoins enter accounts, leave accounts and settle across jurisdictions.

Cassinelli said those reviews add “months to timelines that should take weeks,” and the cost repeats whenever an operator enters a new country or adds another bank.

Stablecoin providers can close a customer faster under GENIUS, then spend longer connecting that customer to the banks and payment providers that move the money.

Enterprise buyers now understand the use case and accept the federal direction. Banking partners still need a shared legal and supervisory standard that lets compliance teams approve the same activity consistently.

Edwin Mata, CEO and co-founder of Brickken, placed that plumbing inside a larger capital-markets architecture.

Regulated dollars can provide the cash leg for tokenized securities, private credit, investment funds, and asset servicing. The US opportunity extends from payment acceptance into issuance, distribution, and settlement across on-chain financial products.

Regulatory access sets the field

Alex Witt, general partner at Verda Ventures, gave the first-year verdict a harder edge. He credited GENIUS with legitimizing the sector and drawing institutional firms into the federal perimeter.

Witt also argued that charter decisions and product launches can give selected firms an early advantage before regulators complete the operating rules.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency conditionally approved national trust bank applications or conversions involving Ripple, Fidelity Digital Assets, BitGo, Paxos, and First National Digital Currency Bank in December 2025.

Tether launched USA₮ in January 2026, with Anchorage Digital Bank as the issuer and Cantor Fitzgerald as the reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer.

Those moves show companies building toward GENIUS before its effective date. They also concentrate early access among firms that already have capital, legal teams, banking partners, and federal relationships.

Startups face the same unfinished framework with fewer resources to absorb repeated compliance reviews.

The OCC opened its broad implementation proposal in February, and Federal agencies published an interagency customer-identification proposal in June. Public comments stay open through Aug. 21, more than a month beyond the anniversary deadline Congress set for regulations.

The January test

The Senate Banking Committee advanced the CLARITY Act 15-9 on May 14, leaving the bill short of a floor vote.

In the bull case, final GENIUS rules and further CLARITY progress give banks a common compliance reference, contract integration timelines, and turn regulated stablecoins into routine settlement assets for payments and tokenized markets.

The bear case gives early access durable value, as conditional charter approvals, incumbent payment networks, and established banking partnerships let a small group define distribution before smaller firms can comply at comparable speed.

GENIUS then legitimizes the category and channels much of its commercial value toward companies that entered the federal perimeter first.

The statute takes effect on the earlier of Jan. 18, 2027, or 120 days from the date federal regulators issue final implementing regulations.

The first year lowered the cost of persuasion, and the six months through Jan. 18 will show whether federal rules can lower the cost of connection too.

The post One year later, GENIUS Act just made stablecoins easier to sell appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin enters the weekend trading near $62,500 to $64,300, keeping the intraday low as the market's clearest immediate threshold.

That level's defense and the behavior of Ethereum, HYPE, and the broader altcoin market present a combined test this weekend of whether Bitcoin can hold $62,500 as the rest of the market starts closing the distance.

Altcoin market capitalization fell to $976.3 billion on July 16, then recovered to $983.8 billion by July 17. That recovery still leaves altcoins $8.8 billion short of the $992.6 billion they commanded on July 10, and altcoin dominance followed the same pattern, climbing from 20.55% to 21.40% without reaching the 21.76% share it held a week earlier.

The bounce against the week's losses

Altcoins clawed back some of the damage from July 16, leaving the week's broader losses mostly intact.

HYPE is the token most responsible for sparking the recent altcoin run, and now leads the retreat, having reached an all-time high near $77 on June 16.

This week's broader selloff hit it especially hard, with the token shedding over 10% during the same sessions that pulled Bitcoin under $63,000, evidence that a token that recently confirmed renewed risk appetite is now confirming risk-off.

Lacie Zhang, a research analyst at Bitget Wallet, frames the divergence as a macro and positioning shock unfolding within crypto markets.

She noted that markets treat Bitcoin as the cleanest institutional collateral asset, with Ethereum carrying more exposure to DeFi borrowing, altcoin liquidity, and broader risk appetite.

That distinction changes what a trader does when reducing risk, since cutting exposure to ETH or HYPE can still mean staying in crypto, just rotated into Bitcoin or stablecoins, a pattern that leaves Bitcoin holding steadier as everything riskier around it takes the larger hit.

This week's chip-stock selloff supplied a clean real-world test of that argument.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has fallen close to 24% from its late-June peak, erasing more than $2 trillion in semiconductor market value and pushing the index into confirmed bear market territory, triggered by disappointing earnings guidance from Samsung and SK Hynix.

Bitcoin fell alongside that selloff and dropped below $63,000; Ethereum fell harder, and HYPE fell hardest of all, tracking the pattern Zhang's framework predicts.

What the weekend needs to show

US-traded spot Bitcoin ETFs took in $79.1 million on July 16, the latest of three inflow days since a sharp $424.7 million outflow on July 13.

Related Reading

Bitcoin ETFs lose over $424M, wiping out last week’s gains as recovery fails first test

Bitcoin ETF demand faltered as withdrawals from IBIT and FBTC overwhelmed the previous week’s inflows.

Jul 14, 2026 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

Ethereum ETFs moved in the opposite direction on the same day, posting roughly $28 million in net outflows just one day past a $53.9 million inflow.

That split supports Zhang's core point that flows provide a bid, and positioning and macro conditions still decide which assets benefit from it. Bitcoin's price has found support from that bid, and lifting ETH the same way has proven harder.

A Bitcoin bounce that leaves ETH/BTC still falling, HYPE still weak, and altcoin dominance still below last week's level would describe a market absorbing risk defensively, its underlying weakness continuing beneath Bitcoin's relative strength.

The readings worth tracking include perpetual futures open interest, funding rates, liquidations, and whether exchange balances of BTC, ETH, and stablecoins show traders still de-risking or starting to redeploy.

If Bitcoin defends $62,500 and works back toward $65,000 as ETH/BTC stabilizes and altcoin dominance climbs back toward 21.76%, that combination would show borrowed positions getting cleared with the broader market staying intact, particularly if funding stays controlled and altcoin participation broadens beyond one or two tokens.

If Bitcoin loses $62,500 and slides toward the $62,300 to $61,800 area as ETH/BTC and altcoin dominance keep falling at the same time, the rebound would look less like a normal pullback and more like a forced unwind still working through the system, with high-beta tokens and heavily borrowed altcoin positions taking the first and biggest hit.

The weekend sets the immediate line, with the larger test running across a longer stretch.

Zhang points to stabilization in AI and semiconductor equities as the catalyst that counts most for crypto's next move, and this week's chip-stock rout backs that argument up directly, since crypto has spent the past two years trading more and more like a high-beta extension of the tech sector.

Until chip stocks find a floor, isolated days of positive ETF flows carry limited weight as proof that broad risk appetite has returned.

Bitcoin holding its ground as the assets around it keep weakening could mean the market has turned a corner. It could also mean capital is simply retreating into crypto's safest asset, and this weekend supplies the first evidence pointing toward either explanation.

The post Bitcoin must defend $62,500 as altcoins lose $8.8 billion in a week appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Citadel Securities, the Wall Street market maker, now has $600 million in announced strategic investments across two rival crypto exchanges, each valued at $20 billion.

Crypto.com announced its $400 million deal on July 16, 2026. Previously, on Nov. 18, 2025, Kraken disclosed an executed agreement for a $200 million investment at the same valuation. Together, the investments give Citadel economic exposure to both venues as they expand beyond crypto trading.

Related Reading

Huge $100 billion crypto listing stampede started by Kraken’s stealth IPO filing

The resurgence of crypto IPOs, led by Kraken, reflects a $100 billion opportunity in financial infrastructure.

Nov 20, 2025 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Crypto.com called the deal its first institutional funding round in a decade. It said the capital is expected to accelerate expansion across asset classes, including tokenized securities and derivatives, while connecting digital-asset and traditional markets.

Its ambition reaches beyond its existing crypto exchange business toward a broader platform for financial products.

Kraken’s historical financing pointed in the same direction. The exchange said the 2025 raise was to accelerate its strategy to bring traditional financial products on-chain and broaden its offerings beyond crypto. Its disclosed collaboration with Citadel includes differentiated liquidity provision, risk management expertise, and market structure insights.

Related Reading

Crypto exchanges are becoming the new distribution channel for Wall Street assets

Tokenized assets led exchange listings in early 2026 as trading in stock- and commodity-linked crypto products reached record levels.

Jul 13, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

The identical $20 billion valuations give Citadel exposure to two rivals chasing much the same multi-asset market.

If tokenized assets and derivatives continue to move through crypto infrastructure, the market maker could gain from that shift without relying on a single exchange.

Citadel’s investments do not give it control over either exchange. Neither announcement reveals its ownership stake, board seats, voting rights, or any exclusive commercial terms. Crypto.com also describes no hands-on role matching the liquidity and market-structure work Kraken outlined.

Related Reading

Citadel Securities and Fidelity just made their clearest move yet to rebuild crypto like Wall Street

The filing could shift more of crypto trading’s back end into federally supervised hands if institutions follow.

Apr 6, 2026 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

The Crypto.com deal is consistent with earlier reported interest. In February 2025, CryptoSlate reported that Citadel was preparing, subject to exchange approvals, to provide liquidity on Crypto.com and other major exchanges. That report showed plans involving the venue before the investment, not a confirmed bilateral relationship at the time.

Crypto.com’s subsequent disclosures will determine whether the two-deal pattern remains a capital allocation or develops into parallel market-structure roles. A defined liquidity, risk-management, or market-structure mandate would make the operational link clearer and move the relationship closer to the one Kraken described.

Without such a disclosure, the simpler conclusion stands: Citadel has invested in two competitors pursuing the same bridge between crypto and traditional markets.

The post Citadel Securities backs two rival crypto exchanges with $600 million as both chase the same Wall Street prize appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Summary: The fourth round of JST's buyback and burn has concluded with higher-than-expected results. A total of over 355 million JST tokens—valued at more than $34.59 million—were burned in this round, marking the highest single-round burn by value to date.

On July 17, JST—the native token of TRON's decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure JUST—completed its fourth large-scale buyback and burn round.

A total of over 355 million JST tokens were burned in this round, accounting for 3.59% of the total supply. This translates to more than $34.59 million in value, which not only shattered previous single-round records but also far exceeded the community's expectations.

The unprecedented scale of this burn was driven by a dual-engine initiative: the routine Q2 2026 buyback and burn, paired with a separate burn of historical USDJ stability fees. The combination of these two streams propelled the actual burn volume to historic heights—surpassing prior market estimates while delivering unexpected benefits to JST holders worldwide.

Notably, 100% of the funds deployed for the standard Q2 buyback came from JustLend DAO's organic protocol revenues. With a fully transparent capital pipeline, the ecosystem demonstrates a highly sustainable economic model that relies entirely on its core business operations to drive value.

A Historic Milestone: 355M+ JST Burned in Routine Q2 Buyback and Special USDJ Fee Burn

Unlike the previous three rounds which adhered strictly to standard quarterly schedules, this round introduced a dual-engine structure: the standard seasonal burn plus an additional, independent burn of historical USDJ stability fees. This strategic move drove the single-round burn volume to a record-breaking peak.

According to the official Announcement on Completion of the Fourth JST Buyback and Burn released on July 17, a total of 355,021,530.97 JST(representing 3.59% of total supply) was permanently removed from circulation, with the total transaction value reaching $34.59 million

While previous rounds typically deployed around $20 million, this round's total value surged past $34 million—a 70%+ increase over the third round and a significant outperformance of general market forecasts.

The expansion of this round's burn size was powered by two independent funding components:

• Q2 2026 Quarterly Buyback and Burn: A total of 248,357,799 JST (est. $24.20million) was burned, using $20.6 million from protocol revenue.
• Historical USDJ Stability Fee Burn: 106,663,731.97 JST was burned separately, carrying a current estimated value of $10.39million.

While the Q2 burn aligns with the ecosystem's quarterly burning schedule, the USDJ historical stability fee burn represents a completely independent, one-time capital injection. This effectively provides an unexpected ecosystem bonus directly to global JST holders on top of routine value returns. As a result, the combined initiatives removed more tokens from circulation than any single previous round.

With the successful conclusion of this fourth major initiative, JST is accelerating along its deflationary trajectory. As of July 15, across four completed rounds, the ecosystem has burned a cumulative total of 1,711,249,863 JST, wiping out 17.29% of the total supply from circulation.

That means in just nine months since the buyback program kicked off in October 2025, nearly one-fifth of all JST tokens have been permanently burned and taken out of the market. With the circulating supply steadily tightening, the token's scarcity is climbing.

According to CoinGecko, JST broke through the $0.1 barrier on July 10, hitting an intraday high of $0.1045—its strongest level since December 2021. Over the past year, the token has surged more than 178%, pushing its market cap to roughly $874 million and landing it a spot among the top 70 cryptocurrencies globally. This dual momentum in price and valuation provides clear secondary-market validation of the deflationary loop: strategic buybacks constrict supply, which in turn drives organic price appreciation.

JustLend DAO's Steady Earnings Underpin JST's Long-Term Deflationary Value

The engine behind JST's sustained buyback program has always been JustLend DAO. On top of the USDJ fee burn added in this latest round, all funds used in the previous regular buyback rounds came exclusively from the DAO's operating revenue, making the entire funding process fully transparent and traceable.

The $20.6 million deployed for the Q2 2026 buyback was sourced entirely from JustLend DAO's organic revenue, broken down as follows:

• Net income growth (growth engine): ~$10.28 million in Q2 net income.
• Historical reserves (base stock): ~$10.34 million in accumulated earnings from prior periods.

By combining these two streams—past reserves as a foundation and fresh quarterly earnings as fuel—the DAO built a complete funding pool for Q2. On top of this, the new USDJ stability fee burn acts as an accelerator outside the regular quarterly budget, further intensifying JST's deflationary momentum. Notably, JustLend DAO has consistently generated eight-figure quarterly profits, underscoring the strength of its revenue engine.

On top of its stable core business, JustLend DAO has been actively sharpening its product edge and expanding its mainstream reach over the past two months, setting the stage for significant future growth:

On June 16, the platform rolled out SBM V2, an upgrade to its lending market that introduces an isolated-collateral lending protocol. The new design improves capital efficiency and raises the protocol's long-term earnings ceiling at the infrastructure layer.

On July 6, JustLend DAO integrated with Binance Wallet's DeFi section, opening up its core liquidity pools to one of the largest Web3 traffic gateways. To mark Binance's ninth anniversary, the two parties co-launched TRON DeFi Summer, a campaign with a total prize pool of $4.5 million. Season 1 is now live, featuring an exclusive $2.15 million reward pool. Users can participate by supplying TRX, USDD, JST, SUN, and other assets on JustLend DAO. These initiatives are set to funnel fresh liquidity and a wave of new users into the ecosystem, unlocking new growth avenues for future earnings.

Backed by solid operating profits, an evolving product suite, and a growing partner network, JustLend DAO remains firmly on an upward trajectory—providing a steady, recurring flow of funds for JST's ongoing buybacks and reinforcing its deflationary value proposition.

Meanwhile, the broader DeFi space is going through a brutal shakeout. Many projects are struggling with falling revenues and tighter cash flow, forcing them to cut back—some once-prominent names have even shut down entirely. Against this grim backdrop, the JUST ecosystem stands out by bucking the trend. Far from pulling back on buybacks, it has proactively tapped new revenue sources (including USDJ stability fees) to add extra burns beyond its regular quarterly schedule, turning its long-term deflation strategy into tangible value for holders.

This sustained, above-consensus execution underscores the JUST ecosystem's strong track record, strategic discipline, sound fundamentals, and durable cashgenerating ability.

The post JST Hits Record Deflationary Milestone: Over 355M Tokens Burned as JustLend DAO Revenue Fuels Value Appreciation appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Swedish Bitcoin treasury firm B Treasury Capital AB expects its new BTC PREF preference share to start trading on the Spotlight Stock Market on Monday, July 20. Investors left 47.7% of the rights offer unfilled, so the market will soon reveal what buyers are willing to pay for a new route to funding further Bitcoin purchases.

Investors subscribed for 102,025 of 195,078 shares, or 52% of the offer, according to the issuer's July 2 result. The issue produced about SEK 12.2 million ($1.26 million) gross and SEK 11.9 million ($1.23 million) net, compared with a maximum of roughly SEK 23.4 million ($2.42 million) gross.

Related Reading

Bitcoin treasury firms race to buy more BTC, but shareholders may pay the price

Capital B and BTC AB want more Bitcoin exposure, but their funding plans test how much dilution and financial risk investors will accept.

Jun 22, 2026 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

The 10% issue yield faces a price test

BTC PREF pays SEK 1 per month, totaling SEK 12 per year on the SEK 120 subscription price. If paid as scheduled, the official terms indicate an annual cash yield of 10% at issue.

The same scheduled payment produces a different indicated cash yield at each market price. At SEK 100, SEK 12 represents 12%; at SEK 90, it represents about 13.3%. Dividends may be deferred, however, and unpaid shortfalls accumulate without interest ahead of dividends on Class B common shares. The calculations are therefore neither guaranteed returns nor total returns.

A drop well below SEK 120 would suggest investors want a richer payout than BTC AB offered. Sparse trading would raise a different concern, since a single small trade can move the quoted price without demonstrating real demand from income investors.

Related Reading

Strategy’s $10 billion STRC Bitcoin yield product sinks to yearly low as market demands higher payout

STRC was built to trade near $100, but its drop toward $92 is testing one of Michael Saylor’s key funding channels.

Jun 17, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

BTC AB describes BTC PREF as preferred equity intended to add balance-sheet capital without debt or large repayment obligations. The issuer says the structure is intended to limit common-share dilution, with proceeds directed primarily to Bitcoin purchases and a liquidity reserve for preference dividends.

The financing avoids a debt maturity but still creates a preferential dividend burden. After the partial take-up, BTC AB has not disclosed the final allocation of proceeds or the resulting reserve balance, leaving dividend coverage as one of the signals investors must assess.

Strategy provides the obvious benchmark for scale. AB. As of May 25, Strategy provides the obvious benchmark for scale. It reports $15.46 billion of preferred stock and a $3 billion USD reserve, equivalent to 20.4 months of dividend coverage. Strategy also adopted a policy requiring the reserve to cover at least 12 months of expected preferred dividends and debt interest. BTC AB now has to establish credibility in price, liquidity, and reserves on its own terms.

Related Reading

Bitcoin’s $10 billion credit market keeps growing after its first major selloff

Strategy and Strive preferred shares plunged below par in June, but record trading and Metaplanet’s Japan plans show the market is still expanding.

Jul 10, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

A sustained discount would lift BTC PREF's indicated cash yield above 10% and could make another offer on the same SEK 120 price and SEK 12 scheduled dividend harder.

Thin trading would leave the market signal inconclusive.

Either would constrain BTC AB's ability to treat preferred equity as a repeat financing channel, while trading near the issue price with meaningful volume would provide evidence, not proof, of demand outside the United States.

The post Bitcoin treasury company offers 10% income and still can’t sell nearly half its shares appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The US national debt has climbed to a fresh record, rounding to roughly $39.5 trillion as of mid-2026 — with the Treasury's daily "Debt to the Penny" figures setting new highs through July. It's a number so large it stops meaning anything. So let's do the only thing that makes it real: break it down to what it does to your household, your money, and your crypto.

What does $39.5 trillion actually mean?

Start with the per-household math, because that's where the abstraction ends. Total gross national debt now works out to roughly $115,000 per person and about $292,000 per household in the US. Over the past year alone, the debt grew by around $2.8 trillion — roughly $7.7 billion per day.

Two data points matter more than the headline number:

• The pace. The debt crossed $39 trillion in March 2026 and is on track to hit $40 trillion before the end of the year — a level the US isn't projected to reach in annual GDP until the 2030s. The gap between what the country produces and what it owes keeps widening.
• The interest bill. This is the part that actually touches households. Net interest on the debt is projected near $1.04 trillion for FY2026 — about $7,700 per household just to service the tab, and rising. Interest is on track to eat close to 14% of all federal spending.

That last point is the bridge from a government ledger to your kitchen table.

How does this hit normal households?

The debt doesn't send you a bill directly. It reaches you through three quieter channels.

1. Higher borrowing costs. The $31+ trillion in publicly held debt competes with households and businesses for the same pool of lendable money. When Washington borrows this heavily, it puts upward pressure on interest rates across the board — meaning a more expensive mortgage, pricier car loans, and higher credit-card rates for ordinary people.
2. Inflation pressure and the value of your cash. When a government owes this much, there's a persistent political temptation to let inflation run slightly hot, because inflation quietly shrinks the real value of the debt — and, at the same time, the real value of the dollars sitting in your bank account. Debt this large makes hard money discipline politically harder to sustain.
3. Crowded-out priorities. Every dollar going to interest is a dollar not going to anything else. As debt service climbs toward 14% of the federal budget, it competes with everything from infrastructure to tax relief — and that structural squeeze is a drag on wage growth and job creation over time.

The through-line: a debt this size is fundamentally a story about the long-term purchasing power of the dollar. And that is exactly where it collides with crypto.

How does this change people's crypto habits?

This is where the debt stops being a macro headline and starts shaping behavior. When people lose confidence in the long-term value of fiat, they look for assets that governments can't print more of. That instinct drives a few very real shifts:

• The "debasement trade." A fixed-supply asset like $BTC — capped at 21 million coins — becomes attractive precisely because no central authority can inflate its supply to paper over a fiscal hole. Rising debt is one of the cleanest arguments in the Bitcoin-as-hard-money thesis.
• A hedge, not just a bet. For a growing share of ordinary holders, crypto shifts from a speculative flyer to a deliberate hedge against currency debasement — the same psychological slot gold has occupied for centuries, but easier to buy in small amounts.
• Dollar-cost averaging over timing. When the worry is a slow erosion of fiat rather than a single event, people tend to accumulate steadily rather than trade the news — treating $BTC and hard assets as a savings behavior, not a trade.

None of this is automatic, and it's worth being honest: crypto has often traded like a risk asset, selling off alongside stocks when markets get scared, rather than acting as a clean safe haven. The debasement thesis is a long-term argument, not a guarantee that $BTC rises every time the debt clock ticks up.

And ultimately — what does it mean for the price?

The logic that connects a government ledger to a crypto chart runs through the dollar. If persistent, structural debt gradually weakens confidence in fiat and pushes real interest rates lower, that is historically a tailwind for scarce assets — gold first, and increasingly $BTC alongside it.

The bull case is straightforward: an ever-growing debt pile strengthens the core argument for a fixed-supply asset, and as more institutions and households treat $BTC as "digital gold," structural demand meets fixed supply — the textbook setup for higher prices over a long horizon.

The honest counterweight matters just as much. In the short term, crypto still moves on Federal Reserve policy, liquidity, and overall risk appetite far more than on the debt figure itself. A rising debt number does not translate into a rising $BTC price on any predictable timeline — and if the debt burden ever forced sharply higher interest rates, that could actually pull money out of risk assets, crypto included, at least temporarily.

The takeaway for a normal person isn't to panic-buy on a headline. It's to understand why so many people now hold a slice of hard assets: not because $39.5 trillion guarantees the next rally, but because a debt growing faster than the economy is a long-term bet against the purchasing power of cash — and crypto is one of the few ways an ordinary household can position on the other side of that bet.

Want to add $BTC and other assets to your portfolio on a regulated European platform? Open a free XTB account and get a free NIKE share →

XRP is trading around $1.09, grinding against a descending trendline that has capped every rally since spring. The two-hour chart tells a tidy story: a lower-highs ceiling running down from the $1.30 zone, a hard floor at $1.00, and price boxed in the middle with RSI near 46 — momentum that is committed to neither a breakout nor a breakdown. So the real question for investors isn't just where $XRP goes next week. It's whether, at these levels, Ripple's token is actually worth buying in 2026.

Where is XRP right now?

The structure is a textbook squeeze. Since the June sell-off that dragged $XRP from roughly $1.30 down toward $1.00, price has carved out a consolidation range between $1.00 support and $1.15–$1.20 resistance, all of it underneath that yellow descending trendline.

The key levels to watch are clear:

• $1.00 — the psychological floor and the line separating a bounce from a deeper flush. A daily close below it opens an air pocket toward $0.80.
• **1.15–$1.20** — the overhead band XRP must reclaim and hold to argue the year-long downtrend is over.
• The descending trendline — currently the immediate lid on price. A clean break above it is the first technical signal bulls actually need.

RSI near 46 confirms the stalemate: buyers and sellers are balanced, volatility is compressed, and the market is waiting for a catalyst rather than trending on its own.

What could move the XRP price?

The chart is coiled, but the trigger is fundamental, not technical. The single biggest swing factor remains the CLARITY Act — the U.S. bill that would lock $XRP's status as a commodity into federal law and, in theory, unlock the institutional demand that ETFs and on-chain accumulation have been quietly building toward.

The catch is timing. The bill has cleared the House and the Senate Banking Committee, but it missed its July 4 target and now sits on the Senate calendar with a narrow window before the August recess. Prediction markets have been skeptical, and a slip past recess risks pushing the whole question toward 2027 as midterm politics take over.

On the numbers, forecasts cluster around a few scenarios:

• Bullish (CLARITY passes in the window): a re-rating toward $1.45–$2.20, with some analysts eyeing higher if ETF inflows reaccelerate and the Fed softens.
• Base case (consolidation): continued chop between $1.00 and $1.20 while the market waits.
• Bearish (vote stalls, BTC weak): a break of $1.00 exposing the $0.80 zone, with deeper levels below.

It's worth remembering that Standard Chartered cut its year-end 2026 target from $8.00 to $2.80 earlier this year — a reminder that even long-term bulls have reset expectations.

Is there still hope for XRP in 2026?

Yes — but hope here is conditional, not automatic. The bullish case rests on a genuine disconnect: while price has been flat-to-down, the fundamentals underneath have quietly improved. XRP ETFs pulled in well over $1 billion across a multi-week inflow streak, whale accumulation and XRPL wallet growth hit multi-month highs, and Ripple secured full MiCA authorization in Luxembourg, giving it a regulated foothold across the EEA.

Seasonality adds a small tailwind — July has historically been one of $XRP's stronger months. But that edge is far less reliable this year, because $XRP's price has become tightly correlated to the broader crypto tape. As several analysts have put it, no amount of good Ripple news has been able to override overall market mood — the token trades on Bitcoin's floor and the Fed's next move as much as its own story.

So the hope is real, but it lives or dies on two switches flipping: regulatory clarity arriving, and the broader market steadying. Fundamentals are loading the spring; they just haven't released it yet.

So, is XRP a good investment?

That depends entirely on your risk tolerance and time horizon — and this isn't financial advice. What the setup offers is a relatively defined risk/reward: a well-established $1.00 floor beneath current price, and a binary catalyst (CLARITY) that could re-rate the token sharply higher if it lands. For a risk-tolerant investor, that asymmetry is the appeal.

The counterweight is equally clear. The catalyst is genuinely uncertain — legislative outcomes are binary and can stall, weaken, or slip past their window entirely. Below $1.00 there is little technical support until the $0.80 area, and $XRP remains deeply correlated to a fragile broader market. Anyone treating this as a guaranteed rebound is ignoring how many things have to go right.

The honest summary: $XRP in 2026 is a catalyst trade wrapped around a strong support level. If you believe clarity is coming and the market steadies, the current range looks like accumulation. If you don't, you're paying for a bet that keeps getting delayed. Position size accordingly, and never risk more than you can afford to lose.

Ready to trade $XRP and other assets on a regulated European platform? Open a free XTB account and get a free share →

Wall Street opened deep in the red as fresh escalation in the US–Iran conflict sent investors fleeing risk assets, with roughly $1 trillion in market value evaporating in the opening stretch of trading. The trigger: Iran responded to a fresh wave of US strikes by launching an attack on American military bases across several Gulf states.

This is now the sixth straight day of open hostilities. The US and Iran have intensified attacks beyond military targets, raising fears of a return to full war with no agreement reached over the Strait of Hormuz. Overnight, US forces struck southern Iran, hitting six road bridges according to Iranian state media, with separate reports of attacks near Bushehr — home to the country's only nuclear power plant — and Lorestan province.

The market reaction has been textbook risk-off: equities down hard, oil sharply higher, and safe havens bid.

Why did $1 trillion vanish at the open?

Two things spooked traders simultaneously — direct attacks on US bases and the threat to global energy supply. Kuwait activated its air defenses against missile and drone threats, Qatar said it intercepted a missile attack after booms were heard in Doha, and air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain after Iran claimed it targeted US aircraft at Sakhir Air Base.

The energy angle is the real accelerant. The Strait of Hormuz, located between Oman and Iran, is one of the world's most critical energy choke points, typically handling around 20% of global oil traffic. With Tehran asserting control over the waterway, any disruption feeds straight into inflation fears — and that's what's dragging equity valuations down.

What is happening to oil prices?

Crude is climbing fast as the blockade standoff drags on. Brent crude futures advanced 2.8% to trade around $78.14 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate rose 2.5% to $73.24. Higher oil means higher input costs, stickier inflation, and less room for rate cuts — a toxic mix for both stocks and risk assets like crypto.

Is crypto going to be affected?

It already is. As the image from CoinMarketCap shows, the major coins are flashing red across the 24-hour and 7-day windows. $BTC is trading around $63,407, down 1.78% on the day and 1.24% on the week. $ETH sits near $1,830, off 3.03% in 24 hours. $BNB (-2.93%), $XRP (-2.35%), and $SOL (-2.55%) are all lower.

So far the hit is modest — a small dip, not a capitulation. But that's exactly the point of caution. In every prior leg of this conflict, crypto has traded as a high-beta risk asset, selling off in sympathy with equities rather than acting as a safe haven. If Wall Street's $1 trillion opening loss deepens into a sustained selloff, crypto historically follows — and often amplifies — the move. Leverage in the system means a sharp equity leg down can trigger cascading liquidations across BTC and altcoins.

The warning is simple: the current crypto dip looks small, but it is directly correlated to a rapidly escalating geopolitical event with no resolution in sight. A single headline — a closed Strait, a US casualty, a broader Gulf entanglement — could turn today's modest red into something far steeper. Traders holding leveraged positions should be especially alert to overnight gap risk while headlines are moving this fast.

What should traders watch next?

Three triggers matter most from here: any confirmation of US casualties (which historically drives the sharpest volatility spikes), developments at the Strait of Hormuz, and whether oil breaks decisively above prior highs. Each would deepen the risk-off tone and put additional pressure on crypto.

Every bull run mints a hundred "Ethereum killers" and a thousand DeFi protocols promising 40,000% APY. Every bear market buries most of them. So the real question in 2026 isn't "what's the hottest new farm?" — it's "which platforms actually survived the exploits, the depegs, the regulatory squeeze, and the liquidity flight, and are still here holding real money?"

The answer is surprisingly short. A handful of protocols now anchor the entire ecosystem, and DefiLlama tracks DeFi TVL in the hundreds of billions across thousands of protocols — but the top ten capture the overwhelming majority of that capital. Below are the five that best combine size, staying power, and a business model that still works when the incentives dry up.

Why did most DeFi platforms die — and these didn't?

Before the list, it's worth understanding the filter. Surviving in DeFi means clearing four hurdles that killed everyone else. First, security: DeFi hacks have drained billions, and one bad oracle design or unaudited contract ends a protocol overnight. Second, sticky TVL: plenty of projects juiced their numbers with token emissions, then watched liquidity evaporate the moment rewards fell. Third, real revenue: a protocol that doesn't earn fees is just a subsidy program with a countdown timer. Fourth, regulatory endurance: with MiCA now shaping how Europeans access crypto, protocols that couldn't adapt got squeezed out of major markets.

The five below cleared all four. Here's who they are.

1. Lido — the liquid staking giant that refuses to shrink

Lido is the closest thing DeFi has to infrastructure. As a liquid staking protocol, it lets you stake ETH (and assets on several other chains) while handing you a liquid token — stETH — that you can then deploy across the rest of DeFi. Stake, stay liquid, keep earning. It's the killer feature that solved one of crypto's oldest problems: locked capital.

That utility has kept Lido perennially at or near the top of the TVL rankings, with the protocol still commanding well into the double-digit billions in 2026. The trade-off is concentration risk — Lido controls a large slice of all staked ETH, which raises legitimate governance and decentralization concerns. But its audits are battle-tested (with a public bug bounty running into the millions), and its 10% fee on staking rewards gives it one of the most durable revenue streams in the space. Lido didn't survive by hype. It survived by being useful every single day.

2. Aave — the lending blue-chip that keeps compounding

If Lido is DeFi's savings account, Aave is its bank. It pioneered the modern lending market: deposit assets to earn interest, or post collateral to borrow against it, all through smart contracts with no middleman. Aave also invented "flash loans" — uncollateralized loans that must be borrowed and repaid inside a single transaction — which became an industry-standard primitive.

In 2026, Aave remains the undisputed leader of DeFi lending, holding well over ten billion in TVL and consistently ranking as the single largest lending protocol, capturing a dominant share of the entire category. Crucially, it earns real money: borrow interest, liquidation fees, and flash-loan fees all feed the treasury, and since 2025 Aave has been buying back its own token with that revenue. Deep liquidity, wide multi-chain support (Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, Avalanche and more), and the ongoing V4 upgrade keep it firmly in the "too important to fail" category.

3. Uniswap — the DEX that outlasted every "Uniswap killer"

Countless projects launched to dethrone Uniswap. None did. What began as a simple automated market maker is now a multi-chain trading powerhouse that routinely processes more volume than many centralized exchanges. Its V3 concentrated-liquidity model gave liquidity providers dramatically better capital efficiency, and UniswapX brought intent-based, MEV-protected, cross-chain swaps.

Uniswap's TVL — in the low-single-digit billions — looks modest next to the lending and staking giants, but that misreads how a DEX works. The right yardstick is volume and fees, and on that measure Uniswap sits at the very top of the DEX stack with meaningful annualized revenue. It launched V4 only after nine separate audits and a multi-million-dollar bug bounty. When people say "just swap it on-chain," they almost always mean Uniswap. That default-choice status is exactly why it's still here.

💡 Trading beyond DeFi? If you also want regulated access to stocks, ETFs, and crypto in one place, XTB is a solid multi-asset broker to have alongside your on-chain wallet. And if you're choosing where to on-ramp, compare the MiCA-regulated exchanges here to stay compliant in the EU.

4. Morpho — the efficiency layer that became a lending powerhouse

Morpho is the newest name on this list, and its survival story is different: it out-engineered the incumbents. It started as an optimization layer sitting on top of Aave and Compound to squeeze better rates out of them, then evolved into Morpho Blue — a minimal, flexible base layer where anyone can spin up an isolated lending market with its own risk parameters.

That architecture has propelled Morpho into the multi-billion-dollar TVL tier and made it one of the top lending venues in all of DeFi. It functions less like a fee-hungry treasury and more like neutral lending "rails," with curator-managed markets (run by risk specialists like Gauntlet) tuning parameters per market. It's audited, formally verified, contest-tested, and runs a live bug bounty. Morpho proves that in 2026 you can still break into the top tier — but only by being genuinely better infrastructure, not by paying people to show up.

5. Sky (formerly MakerDAO) — the original stablecoin machine

The protocol once known as MakerDAO — now rebranded as Sky — is the grandfather of decentralized stablecoins, and it's arguably the best pure business on this entire list. It issues a crypto-backed stablecoin against overcollateralized deposits, and its Sky Savings Rate gives holders a native yield that ripples across the ecosystem (its lending arm, Spark, tracks that rate directly).

Sky sits above six billion in TVL, but the headline number undersells it: its annualized revenue is far higher than most names here, making it a genuine cash machine rather than an incentive-fueled mirage. It runs one of the largest public bug-bounty programs in DeFi. More than a decade after its launch, Sky is still doing the same fundamental thing — turning volatile collateral into a stable, yield-bearing dollar — and still doing it profitably. That's what survival looks like.

Which DeFi platform is right for you in 2026?

There's a clear logic to these five. Want yield on ETH without locking it up? Lido. Want to lend, borrow, or leverage? Aave for depth and safety, Morpho for efficiency and higher rates. Want to trade or provide liquidity? Uniswap. Want a stablecoin backbone with real savings yield? Sky. Between them they cover staking, lending, trading, and stablecoins — the four load-bearing pillars of the entire on-chain economy.

A word of caution, though: TVL rankings move daily, and even blue-chips carry smart-contract, oracle, liquidation, and governance risk. Always verify live figures on DefiLlama before deploying capital, size your positions for the possibility of an exploit, and never chase a headline APY you can't explain. DeFi in 2026 is more mature than ever — but "mature" is not the same as "risk-free."

Trump Backs a Transatlantic Stablecoin Deal — Why Now?

The biggest crypto story of the last 24 hours isn't a price candle — it's a political one. President Trump has strengthened support for a new UK-US stablecoin framework as the Senate races to advance the CLARITY Act despite growing opposition from banking groups over its stablecoin provisions.

The framework itself came out of a body called the Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future. Created in September 2025, the taskforce described stablecoins as "an important vehicle for innovation in digital money," and both governments agree that properly regulated stablecoins can improve cross-border payments, financial market infrastructure, and competition while giving businesses more consistent regulatory treatment across both jurisdictions.

The technical bar the two sides set is the important part. Regulated stablecoins should be backed one-to-one with clearly defined, high-quality liquid reserve assets under each country's legal framework. And crucially for anyone holding these tokens: during insolvency or restructuring, stablecoin holders should have legally protected claims over reserve assets ahead of other creditors, subject to domestic insolvency laws.

Trump's motive isn't subtle. He has repeatedly linked crypto legislation to his goal of making the United States the "crypto capital of the world" and has continued pushing the Senate to pass the CLARITY Act before the August recess. 

What Is the CLARITY Act — and Why Is It Stuck?

If you've lost track of this bill, you're not alone — it's been grinding through Washington for over a year. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is a federal market-structure bill that would divide digital-asset oversight between the SEC and CFTC, set intermediary rules, address self-custody and BSA coverage, and add anti-CBDC provisions. It cleared the House with bipartisan support back in July 2025.

Since then it's been trapped in the Senate over one issue above all others. The bill has been bogged down over a highly contentious provision regarding stablecoins and whether digital asset firms can offer yield to customers.

Why Are US Banks Revolting Against It?

This is where the fight gets real. Banks don't hate crypto abstractly here — they're worried about their own deposit base. Banking groups have argued that several provisions remain too unclear and could encourage consumers and businesses to move money from traditional bank accounts into stablecoins. They've warned that sustained deposit outflows could place additional pressure on community and regional banks that depend heavily on customer deposits for lending, and have called on lawmakers to tighten the bill's wording before it moves forward. 

The numbers behind that fear are eye-watering. Standard Chartered analysts previously estimated that a yield provision, if enacted, could redirect up to $1 trillion in deposits away from traditional banks toward stablecoin products by 2028. That's the entire ballgame for why the American Bankers Association has fought this line by line.

Interestingly, even parts of the crypto industry aren't fully on board with the current draft. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong withdrew support for the CLARITY Act shortly before a Senate Banking Committee review, calling the draft "materially worse than the current status quo" — a reminder that "bad crypto law" worries both sides for very different reasons. 

How Does This Tie Into Europe and MiCA?

For EU readers, the transatlantic angle matters. Europe already has its rulebook — MiCA — live and enforced, with fully-backed reserve and redemption requirements that look a lot like what the US and UK just agreed to in principle. The direction of travel globally is now clearly toward one-to-one backed, legally ring-fenced stablecoins. If you're choosing where to hold or trade them, using a MiCA-regulated exchange is the safest bet as these frameworks harden.

Want a MiCA-compliant home for your crypto? We've compared the leading MiCA-regulated exchanges on fees, supported stablecoins and security. [ See the full comparison → ]

Bitcoin Price Analysis: Cooling Inflation Meets Political Tailwinds

While the regulatory drama plays out, the market got its own jolt from macro data. $Bitcoin hit a three-week high above $65K after US inflation data showed the Consumer Price Index fell 0.4% in June — the largest monthly drop since April 2020, with annual inflation slowing to 3.5%, below analyst forecasts. Core inflation, stripping out food and energy, eased to 2.6% from 2.9%.

That reset rate-hike expectations almost instantly. Odds of a Fed rate hike this month fell from 43% to just 13% right after the data came out. Not everyone is convinced it lasts, though. The inflation drop was largely driven by lower oil prices in June amid a US-Iran ceasefire — but with fighting resumed, Brent crude has climbed back toward $80, which could show up in July's CPI data.

As of writing, momentum has cooled slightly. Bitcoin is still around 3% higher over 24 hours but slipped about 0.5% since midnight, with Ether up 4.7% in 24 hours before a similar pullback. The levels to watch: traders are eyeing $64,800 resistance closely, with some warning of a possible lower high, while a sell wall sits at $65,000. A clean break above there opens the door toward the June high near $67,250. Sentiment is still fragile, though — the Crypto Fear and Greed Index rose to 25 but remains in "extreme fear" territory.

Upcoming Events to Watch

• CLARITY Act Senate action — Trump wants it passed before the August recess; watch for a floor vote and any last-minute yield-provision compromise.
• US PPI & PCE data — Producer prices are due imminently, with PCE near month-end; both feed the Fed's next read on inflation.
• July FOMC meeting (July 28–29) — the rate decision that all the CPI positioning is really about.
• Oil / Strait of Hormuz — the wildcard that could reignite inflation and drag on risk assets.

ECB board member Piero Cipollone laid out the three-layer threat banks face from digital payments, and pitched the digital euro as the only structural answer.

Input Output is handing its core infrastructure to outside teams as ADA gets a lift from an imminent protocol upgrade.

Moonshot AI's 2.8-trillion-parameter open-weight model sent chip stocks tumbling and gave Wall Street a Friday it would rather forget.

Moonshot AI's 2.8-trillion-parameter model tops Fable 5 on a creative writing benchmark and leads Arena AI's frontend code leaderboard—at Claude Sonnet pricing.

The Nasdaq-listed digital-asset firm will rebrand the Red Raiders' home as "Galaxy Stadium." The bigger bet is on the cheap power and open land of West Texas.

Cardano's next milestone arrives in hours with van Rossem hard fork.

Shiba Inu burn rate makes comeback with millions of SHIB sent to dead wallets.

After losing 49% in 2026, XRP’s tightening chart pattern meets a flawless 7-year Q3 win streak.

Shiba Inu's outflows are crawling up, which is a great recovery sign, but a premature one.

Market pulls up more fresh funds as things get closer to the recovery.

TLDR:

• Bank of America digital assets leadership now includes Sonali Theisen, who will oversee platform development while retaining her FICC trading duties.
• Kevin Milsom will direct AI transformation across global markets and platforms, supporting automation, analytics, and generative AI implementation.
• The bank’s broader blockchain program covers tokenized deposits, stablecoins, digital collateral mobility, cryptocurrency settlement, and custody.
• Similar hiring moves at Vanguard and Morgan Stanley show traditional financial firms are placing digital assets inside established business divisions.

Bank of America appointed Sonali Theisen and Kevin Milsom to lead technology programs across its global markets division. The move expands the Bank of America digital assets strategy while placing artificial intelligence closer to daily trading infrastructure.

Theisen will lead the global digital assets platform while retaining her FICC electronic trading and strategic investment duties. Milsom will direct platform AI transformation under Ashok Krishnan, who oversees technology modernization and automation.

The appointments move blockchain and AI projects into established business units rather than isolated innovation teams. According to Reuters, the leadership changes through an internal company memorandum.

Bank of America Digital Assets Platform Gets New Leadership

Theisen will oversee the design, development, expansion, and governance of the bank’s global digital assets platform. Her work will focus on integrating blockchain-based products with systems already serving institutional markets.

The Bank of America digital assets platform will operate alongside the bank’s wider transformation program. Theisen will coordinate with Adam Dixon, who became global head of digital asset transformation in June.

Dixon’s responsibilities include tokenized deposits, stablecoins, digital collateral mobility, crypto settlement, and custody infrastructure.

The structure connects digital asset development with electronic trading, market design, and institutional client needs. That approach may reduce gaps between blockchain tools and established settlement systems.

It also gives the bank clearer governance as tokenized financial products move toward commercial use. Theisen’s continuing trading role places platform development near teams already serving large financial clients.

Bank of America has not announced support for any specific cryptocurrency or public blockchain through these appointments. The current focus remains infrastructure, governance, and regulated market applications.

The Bank of America digital assets expansion therefore represents a platform strategy rather than a retail trading launch. Tokenized deposits could help regulated bank money move across shared digital ledgers.

Stablecoins may support faster transfers, while digital collateral systems can improve asset movement between counterparties. Custody and settlement services could help institutions manage blockchain-based securities within existing compliance structures.

AI Leadership Connects Data With Global Markets Platforms

Milsom will lead AI implementation across platforms supporting Bank of America’s global markets business. His mandate includes embedding AI tools into operations, analytics, and employee workflows.

Krishnan already oversees automation and the rollout of generative AI across those systems. Bank of America previously said it planned to invest billions in AI and related technologies.

The bank expects those investments to improve productivity and create additional revenue opportunities. Milsom’s appointment gives that program a dedicated leader inside the platform’s organization.

Amy Avery and the Analytics, Modelling, and Insights team will also join the global platforms group. The reorganization places data analysis closer to systems used by traders and clients.

It could shorten the path between research, model development, and deployment. The Bank of America digital assets and AI appointments also reflect a wider institutional shift.

Vanguard recently advertised its first head of digital assets role for personal wealth. The position will develop strategy, infrastructure priorities, and engagement with regulators.

Morgan Stanley has expanded its digital asset business under Amy Oldenburg. The firm filed registration statements for Bitcoin and Solana products in January.

It later launched a Bitcoin trust and linked digital assets more closely with traditional markets.

Outside banking, xAI sought crypto specialists to improve model knowledge of derivatives, decentralized finance, and on-chain activity.

The post Bank of America Digital Assets Platform Gains New Leadership appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• BitGo Bank & Trust now offers qualified custody for USDM1, the first onchain sovereign bond 
• USDM1 is backed 1:1 by US Treasuries and issued natively onchain by the Marshall Islands
• Go Network enables off-exchange settlement with T+0 timing across Stellar, Ethereum, and Solana
• Marshall Islands uses USDM1 to fund a 20-year Universal Basic Income program nationwide 

BitGo Bank & Trust will provide institutional-grade qualified custody and off-exchange settlement for USDM1, the first natively issued onchain sovereign bond. The Marshall Islands issued this dollar-denominated instrument, which is backed 1:1 by US Treasuries.

Institutional clients can hold USDM1 in regulated cold storage and use it for collateral and settlement through BitGo’s Go Network. The service spans Stellar, Ethereum and Solana networks.

Custody Framework And Settlement Access

BitGo Bank & Trust operates as an OCC-regulated digital asset trust bank under BitGo Holdings, Inc. The bank now supports USDM1 within its qualified custody platform for institutional clients.

Segregated accounts, offline key management and institutional controls form the foundation of this custody structure. These features apply across all three supported blockchain networks.

BitGo announced the news in a post on X, describing USDM1 as the first natively issued onchain secured sovereign bond.

The company stated that institutional clients can hold this dollar-denominated sovereign bond in regulated custody on BitGo and use it for collateral and settlement through BitGo’s Go Network. The post confirmed availability across the three supported networks.

Through the Go Network Off-Exchange Settlement solution, eligible clients can deploy USDM1 to connected trading venues.

This access operates continuously, with settlement completed on the same day trades occur. Assets do not need to move onto an exchange for this process to function.

This structure aims to reduce exposure during the trading day and lower settlement risk for institutions. It also targets a reduction in pre-funding requirements across trading and financing operations.

BitGo positions this setup as a way to improve capital efficiency for institutional clients working with digital assets.

Sovereign Bond Structure And Broader Application

USDM1 was issued by the Republic of the Marshall Islands as a secured sovereign bond. The instrument follows a structure similar to a fully collateralized Brady bond under New York law. It is designed to accrue value daily, with minting and redemption tied to live signed price quotes.

Mike Belshe, CEO and co-founder of BitGo, addressed the announcement directly. He said USDM1 is “a different kind of asset – sovereign collateral with Treasury backing, built to fit how institutions already operate.” He added that custody access allows institutions to use the asset within infrastructure they already rely on.

Hon. David Paul, the Marshall Islands’ Minister of Finance, Banking and Postal Services, also commented on the partnership.

He noted that the government “truly appreciates BitGo’s partnership and is proud to see this infrastructure put to work built on trusted legal frameworks.”

He described USDM1 as anchored in the full faith and credit of the Marshall Islands government, secured by underlying US Treasury collateral.

Beyond institutional finance, the Marshall Islands has deployed USDM1 in a nationwide Universal Basic Income program.

The program distributes funds quarterly across more than 1,200 islands over a 20-year period. Financial institutions have also begun using USDM1 as a treasury instrument in daily operations.

The post BitGo To Offer Institutional Custody for USDM1 Sovereign Bond appeared first on Blockonomi.

Established digital platform AlienWP extends its coverage into the iGaming sector, launching dedicated casino news, regulatory updates, and review content while simultaneously building Alien Wise Play player resource

AlienWP, which launched as a digital resources platform in 2013, has revealed plans to enter the online casino and iGaming news space. The site will begin publishing consistent coverage of industry developments, casino evaluations, regulatory frameworks, promotional offers, and player safety initiatives, complementing its original digital content focus.

Main Announcement

This strategic shift positions AlienWP as a contributor within the iGaming media landscape, delivering readers timely updates on casino operations, legal frameworks, regulatory authorities, and promotional structures. According to the company, the objective is to deliver clear, fact-based information to players without resorting to sensationalism or marketing-driven narratives.

The company characterizes this move as a logical extension of its existing mission as a digital information hub, responding to growing demand from its audience for unbiased, accurate casino sector coverage.

Supporting Details

In parallel with its editorial content, AlienWP is building Alien Wise Play, an online tool created to enable players to evaluate casino operators, bookmark preferred platforms, monitor promotional offers, and access regulatory details. The service does not function as a gambling operator, handle financial transactions, or provide wagering recommendations.

Alien Wise Play generates revenue through affiliate arrangements, though AlienWP positions it as a player-focused resource rather than a conventional affiliate site. The organization emphasizes that openness, player safety, and gambling responsibility form the foundation of the platform’s design philosophy.

A key component of Alien Wise Play is the Wise Play Score, a proprietary assessment framework that judges casino sites on regulatory compliance, trustworthiness, payment integrity, operational transparency, customer service quality, and player safeguards. AlienWP has indicated that upcoming iterations will incorporate aggregated user input and AI-powered evaluation tools, while maintaining editorial autonomy.

Additional details about the platform can be found at Alien Wise Play.

Spokesperson Quote

Oliver Dale, representing AlienWP, commented: “This move enables us to provide players with credible, unbiased casino industry coverage and evaluations in a centralized location. Simultaneously, we’re developing Alien Wise Play as a tool for players to assess casino operators and navigate licensing requirements more effectively, with player protection integrated into the foundation of the platform.”

Future Plans

AlienWP intends to expand its iGaming and casino news reporting throughout the upcoming months, as development work advances on both Alien Wise Play and the Wise Play Score system. This encompasses planned enhancements for user feedback integration and AI-driven analytical capabilities, with editorial independence maintained as a core principle.

About AlienWP

Established in 2013, AlienWP operates as an iGaming news and casino information resource delivering coverage of online casino developments, operator reviews, regulatory frameworks, promotional offers, responsible gaming practices, and sector trends. The organization is concurrently developing Alien Wise Play, a player-oriented comparison dashboard enabling users to evaluate casino sites, monitor bonuses, and navigate licensing and security information. Additional information can be accessed at alienwp.com.

Media Contact

Oliver Dale
AlienWP
Website: https://alienwp.com

The post AlienWP Ventures Into iGaming Coverage With New Casino News Platform appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• The FTX repayment will distribute approximately $900 million on July 31 to eligible creditors meeting all verification requirements.
• Dotcom and United States customer claims will reach cumulative recoveries of 105% under the fifth bankruptcy distribution.
• General unsecured and digital asset loan claims will reach 103%, while Convenience Claims will receive cumulative recoveries of 120%.
• Preferred equity holders will separately receive $18 million, raising total payments from their remission trust to $95 million.

FTX will begin its fifth creditor distribution on July 31, paying approximately $900 million under its confirmed restructuring plan. The FTX repayment covers eligible Convenience and Non-Convenience claim holders who met the June 16 record date requirements.

Recipients should receive their money through BitGo, Kraken or Payoneer within one to three business days. FTX confirmed that claimants must complete identity checks, tax documentation, and provider onboarding before receiving payments.

The latest bankruptcy distribution continues a repayment process that began after FTX’s Chapter 11 reorganization became effective. Several claim classes will now receive cumulative distributions exceeding their allowed bankruptcy values.

However, those values remain based on cryptocurrency prices around FTX’s November 2022 collapse. Creditors therefore receive additional cash above approved claims, but not the full gains produced by the later cryptocurrency recovery.

FTX Repayment Raises Recoveries Across Creditor Classes

Allowed Dotcom Customer Entitlement Claims will receive an additional distribution equal to 9% of approved claim values. This payment raises their cumulative recovery to 105%.

United States Customer Entitlement Claims will receive another 5%, also increasing their total recovery to 105%. General Unsecured Claims and Digital Asset Loan Claims will each receive an additional 3%.

Those two groups will reach cumulative distributions of 103% following the FTX repayment. Convenience Claims will receive cumulative recoveries of 120%, according to the official payment schedule.

Actual percentages may vary slightly because of rounding and individual claim calculations. FTX plans to file detailed distribution figures with the bankruptcy court after the July 31 payment date.

Eligible FTX creditors previously selected a distribution provider through the customer claims portal. Their choices include BitGo, Kraken and Payoneer, depending on their location and account eligibility.

Selecting a provider directs FTX to send the cash payment directly to that company. Creditors must then contact their selected provider regarding account access or the availability of transferred funds.

Future payments will only cover claims recorded as allowed before the relevant record date. Transferred claims must also appear on the official register after the required objection period expires.

FTX Repayment Includes Preferred Shareholder Payment

FTX will make a separate $18 million payment to eligible preferred equity holders on July 31. That payment will come from the Preferred Shareholder Remission Fund Trust.

The second preferred payment will raise total distributions from the trust to $95 million. Eligible holders must have qualified by the June 16 preferred record date.

Institutions receiving preferred payments must onboard with BitGo. Individual preferred shareholders must use Payoneer and complete the required consent documents.

Additional requirements include ownership certification, identity verification, and completed tax forms. FTX began contacting possible preferred equity holders in January 2026.

The FTX repayment announcement follows a fourth distribution of approximately $2.2 billion completed during March. The estate has continued releasing funds as claims become allowed and reserves are adjusted

FTX previously proposed reducing its disputed claims reserve by about $600 million, from $2.4 billion to $1.8 billion. The planned reduction could release additional cash for approved claims under the bankruptcy distribution process.

The estate also repeated its warning about fraudulent emails and imitation claims websites. FTX said it will never request customers to connect cryptocurrency wallets when processing payments.

The post FTX Repayment Sets $900 Million Creditor Payout for July 31 appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• The CLARITY Act revised text is now expected next week after a White House meeting failed to resolve the disputed ethics provisions.
• Polymarket approval odds briefly fell to a record 31% before recovering to 35%, compared with a 73% probability during May.
• Senate Democrats want stronger conflict-of-interest rules before providing the bipartisan votes needed to move the legislation forward.
• The New York House hearing supports the case for crypto regulation but does not advance the bill or alter its Senate voting timetable.

The CLARITY Act has suffered a fresh setback after lawmakers failed to release revised Senate text following a White House meeting. Industry sources now expect the document next week, extending uncertainty around the crypto market structure bill. Polymarket briefly priced the legislation’s 2026 approval odds near 31% before they recovered to 35% on Friday. 

The sharp fall from 73% in May reflects doubt that negotiators can settle the ethics dispute and secure enough Democratic votes. A House field hearing in New York may support the policy case, but it does not change the Senate timetable or advance the bill directly.

CLARITY Act Text Delay Deepens the Senate Ethics Standoff

President Donald Trump met Republican senators on Thursday to discuss the ethics provisions holding up the legislation. The meeting did not produce the promised updated draft. Journalist Eleanor Terrett reported that industry leaders now expect the text to slip into next week.

The delay matters as Senate leaders have little time to build a bipartisan coalition before the August recess. The measure needs 60 votes to advance. That requirement leaves the bill dependent on Democratic senators seeking stronger conflict-of-interest rules.

Senator Ruben Gallego has described the Republican ethics language as too weak. Democrats want tighter restrictions covering the president, vice president, senior officials and members of Congress with crypto interests. Trump’s 2025 financial disclosure, which reported more than $1 billion in crypto-related gains, has intensified the dispute.

Senator Cory Booker has kept negotiations open but says the legislation requires a bipartisan pathway. Releasing text without Democratic support could harden opposition before negotiators settle the most contested language.

The legislation previously carried bipartisan momentum. The Senate Banking Committee advanced H.R. 3633 by a 15-9 vote on May 14. It was reported to the Senate on June 1 and placed on the legislative calendar as Calendar No. 423. No floor vote has been scheduled.

Approval Odds Fall as the Hearing Offers No Senate Fix

The House Financial Services Committee held its New York field hearing at 10 a.m. ET on Friday. The session examined how the CLARITY Act could support digital asset innovation and establish clearer federal oversight.

Witnesses included representatives from Nova Labs, Bullish, WisdomTree and Coin Center. Their testimony covered digital commodity rules, market infrastructure, consumer safeguards and protections for software developers. However, the hearing carried no authority over the Senate process.

Prediction markets reacted to the weaker timeline. Polymarket’s contract for the CLARITY Act becoming law in 2026 traded near 31% during Friday’s session. It later showed 35%, compared with 73% on May 11 and about 47% in early June.

The market requires H.R. 3633 to pass both chambers and receive the president’s signature by December 31, 2026. A Senate vote alone would not settle the contract. Lawmakers would still need to resolve differences between the Senate amendment and the House-approved version.

The CLARITY Act would create a federal framework for digital commodities and define oversight roles for the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Its rules could affect token issuers, exchanges, brokers, custodians, and non-custodial developers.

The delayed draft leaves compliance teams without final language on registration, disclosures, custody, developer liability, and ethics restrictions. Those details will determine whether Democrats rejoin the coalition that moved the legislation through committee in May.

The post CLARITY Act Approval Odds Hit Low as Senate Text Faces Delay appeared first on Blockonomi.

2026 has been quite interesting and unexpected in terms of investments. Gold and silver started the year strong with massive gains and new all-time highs, while BTC has been mostly trading downward.

While bitcoin’s correction intensified after the January rejection at $95,000, the two largest precious metals tumbled as well. Perhaps a large portion of gold’s losses could be attributed to how investors turned on the largest ETF tracking its performance.

Will GLD Stage a Comeback?

Data provided by the analysts at the Kobeissi Letter indicated that the world’s largest gold-backed ETF, World Gold Council’s GLD, has seen a substantial investor exodus that began in March this year. In the span of just the third month of the year, the financial vehicle lost a whopping $8.5 billion. This became the largest monthly withdrawal in GLD’s 22-year history.

This worrying trend eased to an extent in the following months, but red continued to dominate. Investors pulled out $1.7 billion in April, a more modest $872 million in May, and $3.2 billion in June. The mid-month data for July shows that the withdrawals have dropped to under $50 million, prompting the analysts to speculate whether the gold market is “setting up for a comeback.”

BREAKING: The largest US gold-backed ETF, $GLD, has recorded -$14.4 billion in outflows since March 1st.

This is 50% more than the -$9.6 billion in outflows seen across all Bitcoin ETFs since the October peak.

In March alone, investors withdrew -$8.5 billion from $GLD, the… pic.twitter.com/0Wvwlqxpxi

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) July 16, 2026

These net outflows coincided with gold’s price collapse. The bullion peaked at $5,600/oz in late January, but it has lost nearly 30% of its value since then, declining to $4,000/oz as of Friday’s close.

BTC ETFs Bleed Too

With roughly $130 billion in AuM, GLD is more than twice as big as all spot Bitcoin ETFs combined. As such, it’s rather difficult to compare the respective net outflows. Nevertheless, the ongoing narrative is that investors have turned on BTC, which is supported by the recent negative streak that began in May.

In the span of approximately two months, investors pulled out just over $8 billion from all BTC ETFs, pushing the cumulative total net inflows down to $51.22 billion from $59.34 billion. June was the worst month, with over $4.5 billion leaving the funds, which was more than GLD’s exodus.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that the underlying asset’s price performance has been quite painful within this timeframe. BTC was rejected at $83,000 when the withdrawal wave began in mid-May, and plunged to a multi-year low of $57,700 on July 1. Although it has recovered some ground since then, the ETFs’ behavior remains highly uncertain to support a more profound rally.

The post The ETF Battle Between Gold and Bitcoin: Is BTC Really Losing? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The primary cryptocurrency has traded at a varying but consistent discount on Coinbase compared to Binance for roughly two months, highlighting a lack of US spot demand.

On one side, this is considered bearish as the US is arguably the largest market by a long shot. On the other, though, it’s rather positive for BTC that it has maintained key price levels even without its strongest buying ally.

Coinbase Premium Reaches New Record

Aside from a few very brief, usually hourly upticks, the metric has been deep in the red for over 60 days now. The previous record was also from this year (between January and February), but it was for a more modest 40 days. CryptoPotato recently reported that the lack of spot demand from the US is among the biggest reasons behind the cryptocurrency’s price collapse from over $82,000 in mid-May to under $57,000 in early July.

The reason for this is the significance of the Coinbase Premium Index. Since it measures the difference between BTC’s prices on Coinbase and Binance, it indicates whether spot demand for the asset is higher or lower in the US. Going two months below zero for the first time ever clearly indicates the Americans are not inclined to pour fresh capital – or at least not more than their international counterparts.

But there’s more. Coinbase has historically been a useful proxy for institutional investors as it’s the preferred exchange for many US asset managers, corporations, and even ETF participants. Translation: institutions are not rushing in to use Coinbase to buy more BTC.

Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index Stays Negative for Record 60 Consecutive Days

According to Coinglass, the Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index has remained negative for 60 consecutive days since May 19, with the latest reading at -0.1025%. The previous record was a 40-day negative… pic.twitter.com/zT4Sl68NjU

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 17, 2026

Reason For Concern?

Well, not necessarily. Yes, BTC indeed dropped by over $20,000 in a month and a half, but the Coinbase Premium Index was just one of many reasons. Besides, many US investors now get BTC exposure through the ETFs, which might not be reflected in the metric the way it used to be before these products launched in early 2024.

The index is best viewed as a sentiment indicator rather than a standalone trading signal. It currently shows that US investors tend to stay more on the sidelines than those using Binance, which appears logical given the AI boom in the country as well as the growing uncertainty around the war, inflation, and the Fed’s policy.

Nevertheless, it’s also worth pointing out the other side of the coin. Bitcoin is down by roughly 50% from its peak, but it has managed to remain above $60,000 for most of this bear cycle aside from a few brief dips. This means that even without large US capital entering the market, the cryptocurrency has shown rather impressive resilience.

Of course, it would be much appreciated if American investors return soon, but that’s unlikely to happen until at least a portion of the aforementioned uncertainty is resolved.

The post Bitcoin’s Coinbase Premium Has Been Negative for 60 Days – Why It Matters appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin’s price dipped once again on Friday on schedule but managed to rebound almost immediately, and it’s now challenging $64,000 once again.

Most larger-cap alts have remained sideways on a daily scale, with minor gains from ETH, XRP, and SOL. ADA has risen the most from this cohort of crypto assets.

BTC Bounces Toward $64K

The business week began with an expected nosedive for the largest cryptocurrency, which went from roughly $64,000, where it spent most of the previous weekend, to under $62,000 as the market priced in the latest attacks in the Middle East. Strategy then made a no-buy and no-sale announcement, which left BTC unfazed, and all eyes turned on the US CPI on Tuesday.

Although many expected inflation had cooled to around 3.8%-3.9%, the reality was even more promising: a decline to 3.5%. Bitcoin’s price reacted immediately as the asset soared from the aforementioned low to a three-week peak of $65,500 by Wednesday. However, it was rejected there and, as it happened on many previous Fridays, it dropped by a few grand on that day.

The bulls finally intervened after bitcoin had dipped to $62,400 and didn’t allow another leg down. Instead, the cryptocurrency bounced to $64,400 earlier this morning, where it was stopped, and now fights for $64,000 as analysts expect major volatility soon.

Its market capitalization remains above $1.280 trillion on CG, while its dominance over the alts stands still at 56.5%.

PI, VVV, CRO on the Run

As mentioned above, most larger-cap alts stand relatively still today. ETH, XRP, SOL, HYPE, DOGE, ZEC, and XLM are slightly in the green, while BNB, TRX, and RAIN have marked insignificant losses.

Cardano’s native token is up by over 4.5% and now trades above $0.165. CRO continues its rise after the recent $400 million investment in the exchange behind it, rising by over 5%.

Pi Network’s volatile rollercoaster continues today. After charting fresh all-time lows in the past week, PI has rebounded swiftly from the $0.07 support and now trades above $0.08 after an 8% daily increase.

The total crypto market cap has added around $30 billion in a day and stands above $2.270 trillion on CG now.

The post Pi Network’s PI Shows Resilience After Recent Crash as Bitcoin Eyes $64K: Weekend Watch appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Aside from a few more substantial moves of several thousand dollars in 24 hours or so, bitcoin’s price actions have been largely muted for months. The cryptocurrency remains sideways between $58,000 and $65,000 with little to no indication of a potential breakout.

Now, though, Ali Martinez outlined a historical pattern that has led to significant volatility. The question is: will history repeat?

More Volatility Coming Soon?

Let’s be honest – a lot of us got addicted to BTC’s infamous price volatility. While some critics viewed it as a major negative selling point, others entered the cryptocurrency ecosystem because of it, as it just tends to make life more interesting. Without it, bitcoin and the entire market just feel unnatural. In fact, CryptoQuant’s CEO recently argued that boredom is BTC’s biggest risk, not another price crash.

Martinez told his over 165,000 followers on X that this apparent ongoing stagnation could finally change soon. He based this prediction on historical bitcoin performance after the movement of dormant BTC.

“A significant amount of dormant Bitcoin (BTC) has moved on-chain over the past 24 hours. Historically, spikes in old coins changing hands often precede major market moves,” he added in the post titled “high volatility alert!”

BTC experienced some volatility in the middle of the week, when it surged from under $62,000 to $65,500 within a day after the lower-than-expected US CPI data for June. However, this is just a drop in a big bucket, as its more macro performance has been quite sluggish.

Meanwhile, another popular analyst, Kaleo, suggested that this expected volatility could take place as early as today or tomorrow:

“Think we see a nice little weekend pump from Bitcoin and ETH this weekend.”

$65K Breakout Next as BTC Is Doing Fine?

Michaël van de Poppe also weighed in on bitcoin’s recent performance, noting that the asset “looks fine, still” as long as it remains above $60,000-$61,000. However, the definitive confirmation of a more positive trend would be a decisive break above $65,000.

In a follow-up post, the analyst outlined a “great chart of bitcoin” that looks “primed for a breakout upwards.” He doubled down on the importance of the $65,000 resistance, which he believes will be taken down next week.

This is a great chart of #Bitcoin and it looks primed for a breakout upwards.

Sure, markets tested whether there was enough pressure to push prices down today.

Clearly, there’s more demand.

$65,000 breakout to happen next week. pic.twitter.com/zIfXbnKx8L

— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) July 17, 2026

The post Bitcoin Volatility Alert: Is BTC in for a Rollercoaster Ride Soon? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The former cryptocurrency exchange giant announced yesterday that it will begin its fifth creditor distribution at the end of the month, pushing the total announced repayments beyond $10 billion almost four years after it went bust.

The next batch of repayments will be for $900 million, which works in alignment with the company’s Chapter 11 reorganization plan.

FTX to Begin New Repayments

The firm’s press release outlined July 31 as the start date, after which eligible creditors are expected to receive their funds via BitGo, Kraken, or Payoneer within 3 business days. It’s worth noting that this repayment applies to creditors holding allowed claims in FTX’s Convenience and Non-Convenience Classes who had completed the required procedures by June 16.

The size of the actual payment will depend on the creditor class. Users of the global and the US exchanges (ftx.com and FTX US) will receive an additional 9% under Class 5a, taking their cumulative recovery to 105% of the value of their approved claims.

General unsecured creditors and holders of crypto loan claims will each receive an incremental 3%, and their total is expected to reach 103%. Convenience-class creditors, generally representing smaller customer claims, will get a cumulative 120% of their approved claims after the latest repayment.

The failed exchange also plans to distribute $18 million to eligible preferred shareholders on July 31, bringing the total payments from the separate Preferred Shareholder Remission Fund Trust to $95 million.

These repayment figures do not necessarily mean that customers have been made whole in crypto terms. Claims were considered in US dollar terms on crypto prices around FTX’s bankruptcy in November 2022, before the major price rallies for almost all involved assets.

Consequently, receiving 105% or 120% of its initial claims in USD may still be significantly less than the present-day value of the crypto assets held on the platform at the time. For instance, recall that BTC traded around $20,000 when FTX collapsed, and despite its correction since the October 2025 ATH, it’s still over 200% higher.

SBF Pardon Rejected

FTX’s former CEO and the person considered the main culprit of its rapid decline, Sam Bankman-Fried, was convicted in 2023 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy following the misallocation of over $8 billion worth of customer funds.

He remains in prison to this day but tried to lobby for clemency, especially since US President Donald Trump issued pardons to Changpeng Zhao and Arthur Hayes. However, in a unanimous vote earlier this week, the Senate ruled that “under no circumstances should Samuel Bankman-Fried receive executive clemency, including a pardon, or commutation.”

The post FTX to Pay Creditors Another $900 Million: Here’s Who Gets the Money appeared first on CryptoPotato.