• Combined BTC and ETH inflows in August outpaced October 2025.

• U.S. spot BTC ETFs recorded $925 million in net inflows last week, down from $1.9 billion in net inflows the week prior. U.S. spot ETH ETFs attracted $816 million in net inflows, higher than the $693 million inflows the week prior.

• Short-term U.S. Treasury yields surged following the Fed Chair’s speech, with the two-year note reaching 4.35% from Thursday’s 4.23% as rate-hike expectations grew.

• U.S. equities rebounded slightly across major broad-market benchmarks, driven by robust enterprise software and mega-cap tech earnings alongside resilient service PMI data. These gains offset pressure from persistent PCE inflation, weak home sales, and hawkish Fed commentary from the Jackson Hole symposium.

  • Nasdaq Composite led the growth with 0.85% gain. S&P 500 increased 0.49% to 7,711.76. Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.53%.

  • Key Market Drivers:

    • Tech & Software Earnings Catalyst: Strong Q2 results and guidance from enterprise tech leaders provided significant upside. Salesforce climbed +22.4% on an elevated outlook, CrowdStrike surged +20.1% on strong AI security demand, and Nvidia gained nearly +9% after projecting strong revenue growth.

    • Jackson Hole and Fed Policy: Fed Chair Kevin Warsh noted at Jackson Hole that inflation remains too elevated, signaling potential rate hikes or a prolonged hold. The 10-Year Treasury yield fluctuated before settling at 4.72% (+5 bps), while the two-year note yields surged to 4.35% from Thursday’s 4.23%.

    • Mixed Economic Data: S&P Global Services PMI rose to 56.8 (from 54.6), showing expanding business activity, while Manufacturing PMI eased to 53.2. Q2 GDP second estimate confirmed 1.5% annualized growth. July PCE inflation held slightly elevated at +0.2% MoM and +3.7% YoY. New home sales plummeted -10.5% in July under high mortgage borrowing costs.

  • Sector and Style Dynamics: Large-Cap Growth significantly outperformed Value and Small-Caps. Growth stocks gained +1.00%, while Value stocks fell -0.62% as capital concentrated in high-margin tech leaders. Technology and Communication Services led sector performance, lifted by cybersecurity, cloud software, and semiconductor demand. Industrials, Utilities, and Housing/Real Estate trailed the broader rally. Energy was muted as WTI crude fell -3.9% on temporary supply relief.

Research Dashboard

According to our research dashboard, the price index increased +1.74%, while the volume and volatility indices slid -20.00%, and -25.08%, respectively, last week.

Index tokens had mixed performances last week. The BTC and ETH prices dropped -0.1% and -1.9%, respectively, while Solana (SOL) led the price increase. Most tokens saw trading volume fall, with WLFI (-47.81%) and DOGE (-39.04%) leading the plunge. The volatility index decline was driven by lower volatility in ETH and BTC.

Chart of the Week

U.S. spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs saw a significant surge in inflows in August, accumulating approximately $3.3 billion and $1.8 billion in net inflows, respectively — their highest levels since last October. These combined inflows outpaced October 2025, buoyed by strong ETH ETF performance, which accounted for over half of BTC’s total inflows.

Assets under management (AUM) also grew substantially. BTC ETF AUM increased by 27.9% to $97.6 billion as of August 28, while ETH ETF AUM rose 48.9% to $15.2 billion. Of the total $26.3 billion AUM increase, $5.1 billion came from new net inflows, while the remaining $21.2 billion was driven by price appreciation.

Weekly Performance

Top-cap tokens all saw bearish price action last week except for SOL (+6.6%). APT (-18.8%) and SUI (-16.4%) led the drop.

DeFi categories all dropped last week, except for DEX (+2.2%). Uniswap (UNI) led the market cap growth in DEX, supported by strong fundamental onchain activity. Uniswap recorded a $325.2 million weekly increase in tokenized stock trading volume, primarily driven by its v4 ($170 million) and v3 pools ($155.2 million).

News Highlights

Regulation

• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) submitted proposed overhauls of investment-adviser and investment-company custody rules to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The proposal could clarify how institutions hold crypto assets for clients, but it has not yet been published for public comment.

• The Bank of England (BoE) is set to receive a secondary mandate supporting digital payment innovation, including stablecoins and other digital settlement assets. Financial stability remains its primary objective, with annual progress reports to Parliament.

• Pakistan’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) opened a licensing portal, setting September 5 as the deadline for existing virtual-asset service providers to apply for a no-objection certificate or cease operations. The framework covers exchanges, custody, brokerage, lending, derivatives, asset management, token issuance, and related services.

Adoption

• Japan’s Financial Services Agency, Ministry of Finance, Bank of Japan and top financial institutions are reportedly planning a blockchain-based settlement network for Japanese equities and government bonds. A working group could form in 2027, targeting operations in the early 2030s using tokenized bank reserves.

• The BankChain Alliance, comprising 39 U.S. state banking associations, plans to develop an industry-owned blockchain network targeted for 2027. It aims to support smart payments, tokenized deposits, stablecoins, and automated settlement, though governance, funding, and participants remain undisclosed.

• South Korea’s Shinhan Financial Group and Visa plan to develop stablecoin infrastructure, AI-enabled payment models, and related financial applications spanning issuance, remittance, redemption, card settlement, and B2B and B2C payment demonstrations.

• Brokerage firm Charles Schwab plans to add Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX), and Chainlink (LINK) to Schwab Crypto platform, expanding beyond Bitcoin and Ether.

Others

• Ethereum developers proposed updating the deposit contract to support multiple key and signature formats, aiming to protect ETH staking from quantum threats. Preserving current BLS-based validators, the step enabled a gradual migration to quantum resistance.

• Cosmos Labs urged chains using vulnerable Cosmos EVM modules to halt operations and upgrade after a shared software flaw was linked to losses on MANTRA, TAC, and KiiChain. The vulnerability involved a staking accounting underflow, underscoring shared infrastructure risks.

Catalyst Calendar

Recent Research Report

• Crypto Market Sizing H1 2026: This report analyzes global cryptocurrency ownership and adoption trends through H1 2026. Adoption hit new milestones, with the number of crypto owners up 4.5% to reach 774 million.

• Market Update (July 2026): This report provides an overview of July market updates, new developments, and the latest market outlook.

• The Board: La Liga volume jumped ~86x and ATP led absolute growth, while the Jets–Steelers preseason line moved most.

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Disclaimer:

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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• BTC spot demand turned positive for the first time since February 2026.

• BTC climbed above US$77,000, its highest level in three months, after closing the prior week near $63,000. U.S. spot BTC ETFs recorded $1.9 billion in net inflows last week, reversing the prior week’s $385 million in outflows. Similarly, U.S. spot ETH ETFs attracted $693 million in net inflows, swinging from a $3 million outflow the previous week.

• Gold prices rose for a third straight week, hitting a three-month high of roughly $4,607/oz on Friday, a notable jump from its $4,000 level in mid-July.

• The U.S. stock market experienced a broad pullback, interrupting bullish momentum seen earlier in the month. Investor sentiment was weighed down by a sharp spike in long-term Treasury yields, renewed Middle East geopolitical tensions, and concentrated tech sector profit-taking. Although a late Friday rally helped pare some of the declines, major averages still finished the week firmly in negative territory.

  • S&P 500 dropped 1.43% to close at 7,674.37. Nasdaq Composite declined 2.05%. Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.85%.

  • Key Market Drivers:

    • Surging Treasury Yields: A rapid bond market sell-off pressured stock valuations. The 30-Year U.S. Treasury yield temporarily spiked to a 19-year high of 5.3% before pulling back after the Treasury intervened by doubling its long-bond buybacks.

    • Strong Economic Data: U.S. business activity accelerated sharply as the S&P Global Flash Composite PMI jumped to 56.0 — its highest level since April 2022. The strong data reinforced concerns that the Federal Reserve will keep monetary policy tighter for longer to combat sticky inflation.

    • Geopolitics & Commodities: Renewed geopolitical tensions involving Iran drove up energy supply risks, pushing Brent crude oil up over 6% for the week. Gold and silver also saw heavy buying as investors sought inflation and volatility hedges.

    • Mixed Retail Earnings: Mixed corporate earnings reports from major retailers (including Walmart, Target, and Ross Stores) painted a complex picture of consumer spending, setting a cautious market tone.

  • Sector and Style Dynamics: The formerly high-flying hardware, semiconductor, and optical communications sectors faced steep, concentrated profit-taking. AI-related stocks were among the market’s biggest drags, pulling down the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Due to the spike in interest rates, value-oriented and defensive blue chips (heavily weighted in the Dow) noticeably outperformed higher-duration growth and tech stocks.

Research Dashboard

According to our research dashboard, the price, volume, and volatility indices increased +24.95%, +174.96%, and +330.34%, respectively, last week.

Index tokens rose across the board, led by Bitcoin (+23.64%) and Ethereum (+31.37%). Strong performance in BTC and ETH drove the price and volatility indices, while XRP and HYPE propelled trading volume.

On August 19, a multi-catalyst surge drove Bitcoin out of its weeks-long $64,000 consolidation range past $78,000. This rally was fueled by macroeconomic shifts, regulatory tailwinds, and a massive derivatives market reaction:

• Treasury Liquidity: Increased U.S. Treasury bond buybacks lowered long-term yields and weakened the U.S. Dollar, boosting risk assets like crypto.

• Regulatory Momentum: A White House crypto summit and progress on the CLARITY Act signaled regulatory momentum, supported by steady institutional interest in Bitcoin ETFs.

• Short Squeeze: Liquidations of heavily leveraged short positions triggered massive forced buying, driving rapid price surges in major assets like BTC and ETH.

Chart of the Week

Bitcoin recently climbed back toward $78,000, supported by improving market flows and renewed investor interest. However, spot market fundamentals reveal a deeper shift.

Onchain metrics suggest that 30-day apparent-demand — an estimate of net spot demand relative to newly created BTC supply — recovered sharply from deeply negative levels (roughly 206,000 BTC on July 23) to move back above zero (36,900 BTC on August 22) for the first time since February 2026. That matters because a move above zero could indicate spot accumulation is absorbing new supply again.

Weekly Performance

Top-cap tokens all saw bullish price action last week, led by XRP (+53.2%) and POL (+46.1%).

DeFi categories all gained last week, led by Meme (+14.1%). Its surge was largely driven by Pump.fun (PUMP) and Official Trump (TRUMP).

U.S. President Donald Trump urged Congress to advance a “fair” version of the CLARITY Act at a White House crypto event. The comments drew political attention to market-structure legislation, though the bill still requires a Senate vote and bipartisan support. An onchain tracker reported that the TRUMP team has been selling $TRUMP by repeatedly adding and removing liquidity, receiving 3.39 million USDC.

News Highlights

Company News

• Trading Technologies (TT) announced a strategic partnership with Crypto.com to integrate connectivity to OG.com, Crypto.com’s CFTC-regulated exchange and clearinghouse, directly into the TT trading platform. Scheduled to launch in Q4 2026, the integration will provide institutional clients with secure access to regulated prediction markets and digital asset derivatives.

Regulation

• The U.S. Treasury Department proposed rules implementing the GENIUS Act, defining covered stablecoin issuers and establishing regulatory requirements. The proposal aims to foster payment-stablecoin innovation while reinforcing the U.S. dollar’s global role. Public comments will remain open for 60 days, with final rules targeted for January 2027.

• U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a tailored framework for certain crypto-asset investment contracts after Congress failed to advance the CLARITY Act before recess. The proposal includes potential issuance exemptions, reporting obligations, and a safe harbor for some tokens. While it may offer interim regulatory clarity, legislation remains necessary for a durable framework.

• U.S. President Donald Trump urged Congress to advance a “fair” version of the CLARITY Act at a White House crypto event. The comments drew political attention to market-structure legislation, though the bill still requires a Senate vote and bipartisan support.

• Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig said the agency could proceed with crypto-related rules even if Congress does not pass the CLARITY Act. Potential focus areas include leveraged or margined crypto trading and developer protections. This signals regulators may pursue administrative action while legislation remains stalled, increasing the possibility of overlapping or evolving rules.

Adoption

• Toyota Finance launched a one-year tokenized bond that retail investors can purchase through the Toyota Wallet app, with a 100,000-yen minimum investment and a reported 1.72% annual interest rate. The offering demonstrates how tokenized securities can be distributed directly through consumer platforms without requiring a conventional securities account.

• X is reportedly exploring stablecoin payments, potentially including USDC, for creators as part of a revised rewards strategy. Stablecoin payouts could improve the speed and reach of cross-border compensation, though the plan remains exploratory and faces compliance, liquidity, and adoption considerations.

• Citi plans to introduce Bitcoin custody for institutional clients in late 2026 through its Custody+ platform. Integrating BTC with conventional custody and settlement services could reduce operational barriers for institutional investors and further integrate Bitcoin within TradFi infrastructure.

Others

• Circle is targeting September 16 for the public mainnet launch of its Arc network. The network is expected to support open participation for users and applications while retaining a permissioned validator set that includes Circle and major financial institutions. Featuring USDC-denominated fees and Ethereum compatibility, Arc could strengthen Circle’s role in payments and institutional settlement infrastructure.

• Solana activated 350-millisecond block slots on Mainnet Beta, down from the previous 400-millisecond target. The change is the first stage of a phased move toward 200-millisecond slots. Faster slots could improve confirmation speeds and throughput, but further reductions depend on validator performance and acceptable block-skip rates.

• Optimism approved reallocating 546.9 million OP tokens from planned future airdrops to a Strategic Ecosystem Fund. The fund is intended to support partnerships, institutional adoption, liquidity, and OP Enterprise initiatives. The decision may strengthen ecosystem development, but it creates governance and dilution concerns because the tokens were previously associated with user distribution.

• GnosisDAO approved a plan to transition Gnosis Chain from an independent Layer-1 network into a zero-knowledge-proven Ethereum Economic Zone rollup. The proposed model would settle transactions on Ethereum and could improve interoperability, composability, and security while reducing reliance on bridges. The transition is targeted for late 2026 or early 2027.

• Cross-chain liquidity protocol Maya Protocol halted its MAYAChain network after an exploit that caused roughly $1.7 million in losses, including BTC and other assets.

Catalyst Calendar

Recent Research Report

• Crypto Market Sizing H1 2026: This report analyzes global cryptocurrency ownership and adoption trends through H1 2026. Adoption hit new milestones, with the number of crypto owners up 4.5% to reach 774 million.

• Market Update (July 2026): This report provides an overview of July market updates, new developments, and the latest market outlook.

• The Board: La Liga volume jumped ~86x and ATP led absolute growth, while the Jets–Steelers preseason line moved most this week.

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as a Private member, joining our Crypto.com Exchange VIP Program, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT.

We’re all ears.

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Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer:

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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📢 Welcome to the first edition. Each week we break down the markets moving the most, the events driving them, and where the smart money is flowing — across sports, crypto, politics, and macro.

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💡Market Spotlight

• La Liga went vertical: volume jumped ~86x week-over-week (about +8,600%) as the 2026–27 season kicked off August 15, the fastest-growing major market on the board.

• ATP drew the most new money: the Cincinnati Open run added around $232M in volume, the biggest absolute increase, with the US Open next up.

• NFL preseason is moving lines: the Jets–Steelers market swung ~37 points in seven days on quarterback uncertainty — the sharpest shift of the week.

🔢Market Board

See Trending → | Trade La Liga→ | Trade ATP→ | Trade MLB→

Reporting period: Aug 13–19, 2026.

See Trending

🏆Sports Board

Check the markets →

Pro Baseball Champion 2026 | Pro Football Champion 2026-2027 | CFB National Champion 2026-27 | New York J @ Pittsburgh | Las Vegas @ Houston

⚡Weekend Slate (Aug 21–23)

🏈 NFL (Preseason) — Jets vs Steelers

• Geno Smith’s ankle status is uncertain, and Pittsburgh is expected to start Will Howard. Impact: If Smith sits, the Jets’ first-team passing game is harder to price.

🏈 NFL (preseason) — Packers vs Broncos

• Bo Nix is reportedly in line for preseason snaps, though his workload may be capped. Impact: Watch Denver’s first-team reps and Nix’s snap count as the market’s key drivers.

🏈 NFL (preseason) — Panthers vs Jaguars

• Trevor Lawrence is expected to play a few series, while Carolina’s QB plan is less defined. Impact: On projected starter usage, Jacksonville has the clearer first-half setup.

🏈 NFL (preseason) — Seahawks vs Titans

• Tennessee reportedly plans ~25–30 snaps for starters, while Seattle’s QB rotation is unclear. Impact: Heavier projected starter usage gives Tennessee the clearer first-half edge.

⚾ MLB — Braves vs Brewers

• Two playoff-contending teams meet in the nationally televised Little League Classic, with pitching plans still subject to confirmation. Impact: Milwaukee’s projected starter and home billing give it a modest edge, but bullpen usage could swing it.

⚽ EPL — Arsenal vs Coventry

• Saka is expected to start, with Saliba and Timber out. Coventry are newly promoted as reigning Championship champions and make an early trip to the Emirates. Impact: Arsenal enter clear favorites, but a settling-in back line means Coventry’s chance of scoring may be slightly higher than the headline price implies.

⚽ EPL — Manchester City vs AFC Bournemouth

• City opens the post-Guardiola era under new manager Enzo Maresca, with a new system still bedding in. Impact: More uncertainty than a typical City road game — early-season pricing may overrate City until Maresca’s setup is proven, giving Bournemouth value as a live outsider.

📡 Non-Sports Radar

• Politics — Texas Senate Election 2026

  • Paxton and Talarico are nearly tied, with both Republicans and Democrats around 50% on OG. Impact: New polling or major campaign news could quickly shift this market.

• Economics — September Fed Decision

  • The probability of a hold rose from 75% to 76% during the week, while a hike remains a smaller risk. Impact: A dovish hold could support stocks and crypto; a hawkish message could pressure risk assets.

• Crypto — Bitcoin Returns Above $100K

  • The market implies only ~10% odds BTC trades above $100K before October. Impact: A strong rally or large ETF inflows would be the obvious catalysts to watch.

• Culture — Oscars Best Picture 2027

  • The Odyssey leads at about 61%, far ahead of Dune: Part Three at 13%. Impact: Fall-festival reviews and precursor awards are the usual movers ahead of nominations.

• Culture — Top Artist on Spotify 2026

  • Bad Bunny leads at ~90%, highlighting the growing commercial influence of Latin music and streaming-driven culture. Impact: Spotify chart momentum and year-end Wrapped announcements could sharply shift prices, while Spotify’s official global ranking determines the outcome. Drake’s reported 2026 release momentum is the main risk to Bad Bunny’s lead.

📅Next Week Events

📖Learn from OG.COM

• Arsenal vs Coventry City prediction and odds

• Miami vs Toronto prediction and odds

• Football positions explained: a complete guide to every role on the field

Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer:

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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• Crypto.com launched Tokenized Stocks, a new feature within its app that allows eligible users to gain price exposure to U.S. equities and ETFs through derivative tokens.

• Ethereum‘s forthcoming “Hegotá” network upgrade encompasses 66 proposals, notably featuring a significant privacy enhancement called “Frame Transactions” (EIP-8141), targeting a 2027 release.

• Ether.fi (ETHFI) expanded its offerings to include tokenized stocks, metals, and Aave-powered portfolio loans.

• World Liberty Trust secured a preliminary conditional bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

• Compound Finance (COMP) approved a $52 million budget to revamp its leadership team and pivot strategically towards an institutional client base.

• Toyota Finance launched a ¥1 billion (around $6.3 million) tokenized bond offering accessible directly to retail investors via its mobile payment app, Toyota Wallet.

• Harmony is planning to roll back its blockchain to an August 11 checkpoint following an exploit that resulted in the unauthorized minting of forged ONE tokens.

Weekly DeFi Index

This week, the market cap, volume, and volatility indices increased +6.95%, +0.41%, and +80.66%, respectively.

• Ether.fi (ETHFI) expanded its offerings to include tokenized stocks, metals, and Aave-powered portfolio loans. As part of a broader “neobank” expansion, the protocol is shifting to a less crypto-centric user interface to attract a mainstream consumer base.

• Chainlink (LINK)’s price movement may be driven by Chainlink’s repurchase and whales activity.

• World Liberty Trust, a crypto venture linked to Donald Trump, secured a preliminary conditional bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The entity aims to operate as a national trust bank focused on the issuance and custody of a USD1 stablecoin, though the charter does not permit traditional activities like accepting deposits or issuing loans.

• Compound Finance (COMP) approved a $52 million budget to revamp its leadership team and pivot strategically towards an institutional client base. By hiring executives from traditional finance and compliance backgrounds, the decentralized lending platform aims to integrate traditional credit infrastructure and revive growth following a prolonged drop in its total value locked.

News Highlights

• Crypto.com launched Tokenized Stocks, a new feature within its app that allows eligible users to gain price exposure to U.S. equities and ETFs through derivative tokens. This product is currently available to users in the EEA and other approved global jurisdictions, offering access to over 1,500 underlying assets with a minimum investment of $1.

• Ethereum‘s forthcoming “Hegotá” network upgrade encompasses 66 proposals, notably featuring a significant privacy enhancement called “Frame Transactions” (EIP-8141). Targeted for a 2027 release, this mechanism will allow customized transaction approvals and payments, greatly reducing the external infrastructure previously needed to build private transactions.

• Toyota’s finance arm, Toyota Finance, launched a ¥1 billion tokenized bond offering accessible directly to retail investors via its mobile payment app, Toyota Wallet. The BOOSTRY blockchain-managed bond does not require a traditional brokerage account to purchase and integrates investor rewards, like test-drive experiences and circuit tickets, into the broader Toyota ecosystem.

• Harmony is planning to roll back its blockchain to an August 11 checkpoint following an exploit that resulted in the unauthorized minting of forged ONE tokens. The reversal will discard over 109,000 regular transactions to restore the integrity of the network following the attack.

Recent Research Reports

• Crypto Market Sizing H1 2026: This report analyzes global cryptocurrency ownership and adoption trends through H1 2026. Adoption hit new milestones, with the number of crypto owners up 4.5% to reach 774 million.

• Market Update (July 2026): This report provides an overview of July market updates, new developments, and the latest market outlook.

• Research Roundup Newsletter (Jul 2026): We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our analysis on tokenized stocks and June’s market review and outlook.

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as a Private member, joining our Crypto.com Exchange VIP Programme, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT. The latest crypto market insights are also available via the dashboard.

Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report, nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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• Global cryptocurrency owners reached 774 million in June 2026.

• Last week, U.S. spot BTC ETFs experienced US$385 million in net outflows, contrasting with the prior week’s $865 million inflow. Meanwhile, U.S. spot ETH ETFs saw around $3 million in net outflows, reversing five consecutive weeks of inflows.

• The U.S. stock market maintained broad bullish momentum, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq securing their third consecutive week of net gains. The S&P 500 and Russell 2000 touched fresh all-time highs midweek before experiencing a minor Friday consolidation driven by profit-taking following weak retail sales data.

  • S&P 500 advanced 0.4% to close at 7,785.76, marking its third straight weekly gain after setting an intraday record high of 7,816.70 on Thursday. Nasdaq Composite rose 0.1%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.6%.

  • Key Market Drivers:

    • Cooling Inflation Trends: July Producer Price Index (PPI) figures unexpectedly fell -0.03% month-over-month (MoM), alongside a 0.1% Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase, strengthening expectations that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates steady or consider easing.

    • Weak Retail Sales & Economic Cooling: July Retail Sales fell -0.6% MoM (below expectations of +0.1%), sparking concerns over slowing consumer spending when combined with recent weak employment figures.

    • Institutional 13F Filings: Q2 13F filings revealed institutional caution toward major tech segments, with mixed activity in semiconductors and AI despite sustained investment in megacap firms.

  • Sector and Style Dynamics: Energy (+7.57%) and Communication Services (+1.47%) led the growth. Conversely, Consumer Cyclical (-1.76%) and Materials (-0.51%) suffered the largest declines, impacted directly by the soft retail sales data.

Research Dashboard

According to our research dashboard, the price and volume indices decreased -2.98% and -11.64%, respectively, while the volatility index skyrocketed +272.03%, last week.

Index tokens had mixed performances. BTC and ETH prices decreased by -3.09% and -1.85%, respectively. World Liberty Financial (WLFI) and Chainlink (LINK) led price and volume gains, while Cardano (ADA) led both price and volume plunge. LINK and BTC led the volatility surge.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted conditional approval to World Liberty Trust Co.’s bank charter application. The national trust charter authorizes fiduciary services for issuing and custodying World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin. LINK’s price movement may be driven by Chainlink’s repurchase and whales activity. Cardano community approved a 120 million ADA release from the community treasury dedicated to boosting liquidity across native DeFi protocols.

Chart of the Week

Global cryptocurrency owners increased by 4.5% in the first half of 2026, rising from 741 million in December 2025 to 774 million in June 2026. This growth was driven by increased institutional adoption, macro hedging against U.S. debt and global inflation, and the accelerated development of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and stablecoins. Check our latest Crypto Market Sizing H1 2026 report for the details.

Weekly Performance

Top-cap tokens mostly dropped last week. LINK (+14.7%) led the gain, followed by ATOM (+5.8%), while APT (-12.0%) and ADA (-9.9%) led the drop.

DeFi categories showed mixed results, with Oracles (+14.1%) and Liquid Staking (+12.1%) leading market cap growth, while DEX (-14.5%) experienced the largest decline. Chainlink drove the market cap increase in the Oracles category. Meanwhile, Ether.fi led the surge in Liquid Staking following its Summer release, which introduced tokenized stocks and other new features. Uniswap was the primary driver for the DEX market cap contraction, despite Standard Chartered maintaining a positive outlook on the protocol.

News Highlights

Company News

• Crypto.com launched Tokenized Stocks, a new feature within its app that allows eligible users to gain price exposure to U.S. equities and ETFs through derivative tokens. This product is currently available to users in the EEA and other approved global jurisdictions, offering access to over 1,500 underlying assets with a minimum investment of $1.

Regulation

• U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reportedly delayed its proposed tokenization “innovation exemption” amid White House concerns about complicating CLARITY Act negotiations and Wall Street objections to making major market-structure changes through exemptions rather than formal rulemaking.

• The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) consulted banks and market participants on a potential framework for tokenized gold, including possible use as collateral in wholesale markets.

• South Korea approved amendments removing the ₩1 million (around $700) threshold for the Travel Rule, extending sender-and-recipient data requirements to all transfers between registered virtual-asset service providers. Additional risk controls will apply to overseas exchanges and personal wallets.

Adoption

• The global remittance company MoneyGram expanded its crypto cash “Ramps” service to Solana, enabling two-way cash-crypto conversions via a single API for crypto wallets.

• Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) is preparing a proof-of-concept for real-time blockchain settlement of Japanese government bond transactions through the Canton network. The project aims to reduce repurchase agreement (repo) settlement times from the traditional one-to-three-day range and support 24/7 processing.

Investment Vehicles

• BlackRock launched two Toronto-listed ETFs, including IBQT, which allocates 97% to diversified equities and 3% to Bitcoin exposure through a Canadian iShares Bitcoin ETF.

• Fidelity filed with the SEC to add staking to its Fidelity Ethereum Fund. The preliminary filing allows for staking up to 100% of the fund’s Ether under normal conditions, with 85% of staking rewards retained by the fund after fees; distributions are not guaranteed. If approved, the change would add a yield component to a major spot Ether product and intensify competition among staking-enabled ETFs.

Others

• Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin updated the network’s roadmap to prioritize quantum-computing readiness and user privacy. This strategic adjustment focuses on safeguarding the blockchain against future cryptographic threats while enhancing base-layer transaction shielding, and zero-knowledge proof scalability.

• Harmony suffered an exploit resulting in the unauthorized minting of roughly 4 billion of its native ONE tokens (about 26% of the pre-incident supply). Harmony confirmed the attack and is actively collaborating with exchanges to freeze funds while developing a fix and rollback options.

Catalyst Calendar

Recent Research Report

• Crypto Market Sizing H1 2026: This report analyzes global cryptocurrency ownership and adoption trends through H1 2026. Adoption hit new milestones, with the number of crypto owners up 4.5% to reach 774 million.

• Market Update (July 2026): This report provides an overview of July market updates, new developments, and the latest market outlook.

• Research Roundup Newsletter (Jul 2026): We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our analysis on tokenized stocks and June’s market review and outlook.

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as a Private member, joining our Crypto.com Exchange VIP Program, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT.

We’re all ears.

Your feedback helps make our reporting more insightful. Tell us how we can improve this newsletter by taking the survey below. It will take less than a minute of your time. Thank you!

Take the survey now

Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer:

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Thank you for reading! We hope you find Market Pulse, our new weekly market insights newsletter enlightening!

Hungry for more? Visit our Research Hub and University to access other insightful crypto research! 

Share with a friend if you like our email!

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• Bitcoin mempool transactions hit a 1-year high.

• Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin updated the network’s roadmap to prioritize quantum-computing readiness and user privacy.

• MoneyGram expanded its “Ramps” service to Solana, enabling two-way cash-crypto conversions via a single API for crypto wallets.

• Jupiter rolled out Lend v2, allowing assets to generate dual yields by acting as loan collateral and trading liquidity simultaneously.

• Harmony chain was exploited, resulting in the unauthorized minting of roughly 4 billion ONE tokens.

• The contentious Bitcoin BIP-110 soft fork failed during its mandatory signaling phase after securing support from only around 2.5% of miners.

• A critical vulnerability affecting Bitcoin Lightning payment servers resulted in fund theft from multiple merchants.

Weekly DeFi Index

This week, the market cap, volume, and volatility indices decreased -0.91%, -20.05%, and -36.91%, respectively.

• Grayscale’s Q2 2026 fund update listed Curve DAO Token (CRV) as a component of its Decentralized Finance Fund.

• Pyth Network (PYTH) reported reaching $7.5 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) by July, along with record monthly RWA perpetuals volume secured.

• Jupiter rolled out Lend v2, allowing assets to generate dual yields by acting as loan collateral and trading liquidity simultaneously. Deposits and borrowed assets now earn lending interest plus a share of Jupiter liquidity pool swap fees.

Chart of the Week

The $120 million Coldcard exploit on July 30 sparked a surge in Bitcoin activity as users shifted funds, resulting in a mempool backlog of 89,031 transactions on August 3. Although traffic has since eased, levels remain elevated at 31,727, fueling ongoing debates regarding the viability of self-custody. This mempool congestion typically signals network strain, leading to longer confirmation times and higher priority fees.

News Highlights

• Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin updated the network’s roadmap to prioritize quantum-computing readiness and user privacy. This strategic adjustment focuses on safeguarding the blockchain against future cryptographic threats while enhancing base-layer transaction shielding and zero-knowledge proof scalability.

• The global remittance company MoneyGram expanded its crypto cash “Ramps” service to Solana, enabling two-way cash-crypto conversions via a single API for crypto wallets.

• The contentious Bitcoin BIP-110 soft fork failed during its mandatory signaling phase after securing support from only around 2.5% of miners. Enforcing nodes rejected non-signaling blocks and created a minority chain that quickly fell behind the mainnet. Designed to realign priorities toward enhancing Bitcoin as a form of money, BIP-110 introduced temporary consensus-level restrictions on data field sizes to limit arbitrary data storage, but the network’s rejection underscored the broad ecosystem opposition to the proposed limits.

• Harmony suffered an exploit resulting in the unauthorized minting of roughly 4 billion of its native ONE tokens (about 26% of the pre-incident supply). Harmony confirmed the attack and is actively collaborating with exchanges to freeze funds while developing a fix and rollback options.

• A critical vulnerability affecting Bitcoin Lightning payment servers resulted in fund theft from multiple merchants. The attack targeted nodes running LND (Lightning Network Daemon) software behind BTCPay Server, where attackers exploited a flaw that allowed unauthenticated remote access to .macaroon credential files. Possession of these files enabled attackers to take full control of connected Lightning nodes, close payment channels, and sweep funds.

Recent Research Reports

• Crypto Market Sizing H1 2026: This report analyzes global cryptocurrency ownership and adoption trends through H1 2026. Adoption hit new milestones, with the number of crypto owners up 4.5% to reach 774 million.

• Market Update (July 2026): This report provides an overview of July market updates, new developments, and the latest market outlook.

• Research Roundup Newsletter (Jul 2026): We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our analysis on tokenized stocks and June’s market review and outlook.

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as a Private member, joining our Crypto.com Exchange VIP Programme, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT. The latest crypto market insights are also available via the dashboard.

Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report, nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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• Tokenized real-world asset (RWA) total value locked (TVL) in DeFi reached a new all-time high of US$3.9 billion.

• U.S. spot BTC ETFs saw $865 million in net inflows last week, the largest inflow since mid-April. U.S. spot ETH ETFs recorded $244 million in net inflows, up from $104 million the previous week.

• U.S. equities staged a strong tech-led rebound. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones posted their best weekly performances since April, while the Nasdaq logged its strongest gain since May. Robust AI and tech earnings and an unexpected contraction in July payrolls eased Federal Reserve rate-hike fears, sparking broad buying across risk assets.

  • Nasdaq Composite increased 5.19%, S&P 500 grew 3.58%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.96%.

  • Key Market Drivers:

    • Dovish Payroll Data: July nonfarm payrolls unexpectedly fell by 23,000 (forecasted 83,000 gain), reducing Fed rate-hike expectations and dragging the 10-Year Treasury Yield down 10 basis points to 4.65%.

    • Tech & AI Earnings Rebound: Strong quarterly results and raised guidance from enterprise software, semiconductor, and cloud computing firms (such as Atlassian, Cloudflare, and Microchip) restored investor confidence in tech spending. 86% of reporting S&P 500 companies beat quarterly earnings estimates.

    • Falling Energy Prices: WTI crude oil dropped to $78 per barrel as Middle East geopolitical tensions cooled, easing inflation concerns.

  • Sector and Style Dynamics: Technology jumped +7.30%, followed by Basic Materials at +6.33%. Conversely, Energy fell -3.44% on sliding oil prices, while defensive Utilities declined -1.33%.

Research Dashboard

According to our research dashboard, the price index increased +3.18%, while the volume and volatility indices declined -17.10% and -86.02% respectively, last week.

Index tokens had mixed performances. BTC and ETH prices increased by +2.19% and +1.45%, respectively. Zcash (ZEC) and Bittensor (TAO) led price gains, while BTC and Polygon (POL) led the volatility plunge.

U.S. spot BTC ETFs recorded $865 million weekly inflows, marking the largest inflow since mid-April. Onchain metrics reveal rapid user migration following the recent Zcash network upgrade: Ironwood became Zcash’s largest shielded pool, holding approximately 1.9 million ZEC (nearly $955 million).

Chart of the Week

Tokenized real-world asset (RWA) total value locked (TVL) in DeFi hit a new all-time high. While the total market value of tokenized RWAs stands at roughly $373 billion, $3.96 billion is currently deployed in DeFi protocols — representing under 1% of the market. Within this space, Public Equities, Reinsurance, and Precious Metals led growth, posting year-to-date TVL gains of 987%, 105%, and 60%, respectively.

Weekly Performance

Top-cap tokens delivered mixed performance. ATOM gained 8.5%, reversing previous losses, while GRAM (-7.7%) and NEAR (-7.0%) led the drop.

DeFi categories all declined, with RWA (-3.5%) and Liquid Staking (-3.4%) leading the drop.

News Highlights

Company News

• Dubai Duty Free became the first airport retailer in the Middle East to integrate Crypto.com Pay™ as a regulated digital payment option. Launched on August 5, the initiative enables eligible UAE residents to make purchases at Dubai International Airport (DXB), Al Maktoum International Airport (AMIA), and on Dubai Duty Free’s online store via the Crypto.com App.

• REAL Jet, a REAL SLX subsidiary, became the first private aviation company to accept Crypto.com Pay™ for private charter flight bookings. The integration allows eligible U.S. residents to settle bookings in U.S. dollars using Crypto.com’s digital payment solution.

Regulation

• The Japan Financial Services Agency (FSA) requested crypto exchanges to impose withdrawal delays and stricter safeguards to combat digital asset fraud. Proposed measures include mandatory pre-registration of withdrawal addresses and holding periods to prevent victims from rapidly transferring funds to scammers.

• The Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) ordered cryptocurrency exchanges to delay large crypto transfers and self-custody wallet transactions for up to 24 hours to counter money laundering and fraud. Effective January 2027, the rule mandates holds on transactions over $10,000 or those flagged as risky, placing greater screening responsibility on exchanges.

Adoption

• BlackRock launched two tokenized money market funds, BSTBL and BRSRV, to back stablecoin reserves. Designed for institutional investors, the funds invest exclusively in cash, short-term U.S. treasuries, and overnight repo agreements across multiple blockchains to preserve liquidity and principal stability.

• Wells Fargo announced plans to offer tokenized deposits for its corporate clients. Scheduled for a fall rollout, the initiative leverages blockchain technology to facilitate real-time, 24/7 cross-border and B2B settlements.

Investment Vehicles

• BlackRock debuted tokenized access to $311 billion of its money market funds for European investors, expanding its digitally native investment offerings amid growing institutional demand for blockchain-based fund structures in Europe.

• Hashdex is shutting down its spot Bitcoin ETF (DEFI) after failing to gain significant market traction over its two years of operation. The issuer will liquidate the fund’s roughly 225 BTC holdings and distribute the remaining cash to shareholders, highlighting intense competition in the Bitcoin ETF market.

Others

• The contentious Bitcoin BIP-110 soft fork failed during its mandatory signaling phase after securing support from only around 2.5% of miners. Enforcing nodes rejected non-signaling blocks and created a minority chain that quickly fell behind the mainnet. Designed to realign priorities toward enhancing Bitcoin as a form of money, BIP-110 introduced temporary consensus-level restrictions on data field sizes to rectify skewed incentives from arbitrary data storage. Ultimately, the network’s rejection underscored the ecosystem’s overarching opposition to the proposed limits.

Catalyst Calendar

Recent Research Report

• Crypto Market Sizing H1 2026: This report analyzes global cryptocurrency ownership and adoption trends through H1 2026. Adoption hit new milestones, with the number of crypto owners up 4.5% to reach 774 million.

• Market Update (July 2026): This report provides an overview of July market updates, new developments, and the latest market outlook.

• Research Roundup Newsletter (Jul 2026): We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our analysis on tokenized stocks and June’s market review and outlook.

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as a Private member, joining our Crypto.com Exchange VIP Program, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT.

We’re all ears.

Your feedback helps make our reporting more insightful. Tell us how we can improve this newsletter by taking the survey below. It will take less than a minute of your time. Thank you!

Take the survey now

Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer:

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Thank you for reading! We hope you find Market Pulse, our new weekly market insights newsletter enlightening!

Hungry for more? Visit our Research Hub and University to access other insightful crypto research! 

Share with a friend if you like our email!

Share

• Decentralized exchange (DEX) spot volume reached an all-time high of 23.9% relative to centralized exchange (CEX) volume in July.

• Ethereum developers proposed EIP-8361 to eliminate staking rewards once staked ETH hits 50% of network supply (roughly $112 billion).

• Mastercard launched a pilot program with the Borderless.xyz network to integrate its Crypto Credential framework into cross-border stablecoin payments, focusing on stringent identity verification.

• Circle named BlackRock, Visa, and DTCC as founding validators for Arc, its upcoming permissioned Layer-1 (L1) blockchain.

• Ten European financial institutions, including ABN AMRO and DekaBank, established RL1, a jointly owned private blockchain network designed for regulated digital money and tokenized assets.

• Cloudflare introduced digital wallets equipped with the x402 protocol, enabling autonomous AI agents to pay for APIs and digital goods with stablecoin micropayments.

• A Kansai Electric Power subsidiary now allows users to convert utility loyalty points into the yen-pegged stablecoin JPYC.

• The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) deployed an Avalanche-based verification platform for secure national academic credentials.

• Aave plans to deprecate 50 underperforming asset reserves and fully shut down deployments across six networks, affecting roughly $98 million in supplied assets.

• A critical security vulnerability in Coldcard hardware wallets led to the theft of approximately 1,816 BTC (nearly $114 million) across four waves starting July 30.

Weekly DeFi Index

This week, the market cap, volume, and volatility indices increased +0.69%, +2.75%, and +1.74%, respectively.

• Ethena (ENA) and Hyperliquid (HYPE) unlocked 171.88 million ENA ($15.8 million) and 433,000 HYPE ($24.2 million) tokens, respectively.

• Lido (LDO) faced pressure as Ethereum proposed EIP-8361, which would eliminate staking rewards once staked ETH hits 50% of network supply (roughly $112 billion) , raising concerns across liquid staking protocols.

• Aave (AAVE) plans to deprecate 50 underperforming asset reserves and fully shut down deployments across six networks, affecting roughly $98 million in supplied assets.

Chart of the Week

In July, DEX spot volume reached a record 23.9% relative to CEX volume. This milestone occurred despite an overall market contraction: while DEX volume fell 11% month-over-month to $175.7 billion, its lowest since September 2024, CEX volume declined even more. Uniswap led the DEX market, gaining over $53 billion in volume and capturing over 30% of market share, driven by the protocol’s chain expansion and new updates.

News Highlights

• Ethereum developers proposed EIP-8361, which would eliminate staking rewards once staked ETH hits 50% of network supply (roughly $112 billion). Founders of Aave and ether.fi pushed back against the proposed “yield burn,” arguing it would hinder ecosystem growth and create complex tax issues.

• Circle named BlackRock, Visa, and DTCC as founding validators for Arc, its upcoming permissioned L1 blockchain.

• Ten European financial institutions, including ABN AMRO and DZ Bank, established RL1, a jointly owned private blockchain network designed for regulated digital money and tokenized assets. The move aims to reduce infrastructure fragmentation and standardize distributed ledger technology across Europe’s institutional markets.

• Mastercard launched a pilot program with Borderless.xyz to integrate its Crypto Credential framework into cross-border stablecoin payments, prioritizing stringent identity verification.

• Trade.xyz, an onchain perpetuals operator on Hyperliquid, announced it will fully reimburse users impacted by an abnormal liquidation event on its SK Hynix contract on July 27. The contract’s mark price dropped nearly 19%, falling from $1,127.90 to $917.25, triggered by an executed trade on an external venue that was relayed to Trade.xyz’s oracle by multiple independent data providers.

• Web infrastructure provider Cloudflare introduced digital wallets equipped with the x402 protocol, enabling autonomous AI agents to pay for APIs and digital goods with stablecoin micropayments.

• A Kansai Electric Power subsidiary launched a feature allowing users to convert utility loyalty points into JPYC, a regulated yen-pegged stablecoin operating on the Polygon network.

• The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) deployed an Avalanche-based verification platform for secure national academic credentials.

• A critical security vulnerability in Coldcard hardware wallets led to the theft of approximately 1,816 BTC (nearly $114 million) across four waves starting July 30. The exploit targets devices running a specific March 2021 firmware build that erroneously routed seed generation to a predictable software randomizer instead of the secure hardware random number generator. This flaw allowed attackers to reproduce private keys offline and sweep funds from affected single-key addresses.

Recent Research Reports

• Tokenized Stocks: The Evolution of Equity: This report analyzes the evolution of tokenized stocks, demonstrates how blockchain technology interfaces with standard equities to resolve legacy operational challenges, and evaluates the structural benefits and risks of this asset class.

• Market Update (June 2026): Driven by risk-on asset selling and a rotation to defensive sectors, global markets corrected in June. Digital assets plummeted and major equities stalled: Nasdaq fell 2.8% and S&P 500 dropped 1.1%, while Dow Jones gained 2.5%. Gold and Commodities fell sharply, while Bonds and Real Estate provided insulation.

• Research Roundup Newsletter (Jul 2026): We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our analysis on tokenized stocks and June’s market review and outlook.

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as a Private member, joining our Crypto.com Exchange VIP Programme, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT. The latest crypto market insights are also available via the dashboard.

Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report, nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

We’re all ears.

Your feedback has always helped us provide insightful crypto market trends. Tell us how we can improve this newsletter further by taking a quick survey below (it will only take less than a minute). Thank you!

Take our survey now

Thank you for reading! We hope you find our Weekly DeFi and Layer 1 & Layer 2 News Update enlightening!

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Thanks for reading Crypto Trends from Crypto.com: Market, DeFi, NFT, Gaming! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

• Bitcoin mining difficulty decreased 15% from January’s peak.

• Last week, U.S. spot BTC saw a net outflow of US$62 million, compared to the $34 million inflow in the previous week. U.S. spot ETH ETFs recorded $10 million in net inflows, down from the prior week’s $104 million.

• The U.S. stock market experienced a highly volatile week, marked by a sharp mid-week sell-off followed by a massive late-week rally. Trading was heavily influenced by a major Federal Reserve policy decision and a wave of mega-cap tech earnings. Although the week began with a rotation away from AI and chip stocks into traditional sectors, and Wednesday saw a sharp drop after the Fed kept interest rates unchanged, blowout earnings from major cloud and tech giants on Thursday and Friday propelled the broader market to finish in positive territory.

  • Nasdaq Composite increased 1.59%, S&P 500 grew 1.05%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.04%.

  • Key Market Drivers:

    • Fed and Economic Data: The Fed’s July 29 decision to hold rates steady temporarily sparked inflation concerns and sent the U.S. 10 Year Treasury Yield to 4.75%. However, a cooler-than-expected Core PCE price report (+0.1% month-over-month) signaled easing inflation, mitigating a soft preliminary Q2 GDP growth reading of 1.5%.

    • Mega-Cap Tech and AI Optimism: Strong corporate earnings single-handedly reversed the mid-week slump. Microsoft surged nearly 15% on Thursday on Azure cloud growth, while Amazon jumped over 15% on cloud strength and robust AI-related capex forecasts.

    • Energy and Geopolitical Volatility: While ongoing Middle East tensions kept oil prices elevated early in the week, they tumbled by roughly 5% on August 3, 2026. This decline followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel planned military strikes against Iran in favor of reviving diplomatic peace talks.

  • Sector and Style Dynamics: Consumer Cyclicals was the standout sector for the week (+7.30%), followed by Communication Services (+1.51%). Conversely, Utilities (-4.22%) and Industrials (-2.03%) were the week’s worst performers.

Research Dashboard

According to our research dashboard, the price and volatility indices dropped -2.61% and -5.62%, respectively, while the volume index grew by +1.65%, last week.

Most tokens in the index declined. BTC and ETH prices decreased by -2.82% and -3.63%, respectively. Cardano (ADA) and Uniswap (UNI) led the price and volume gains, while Cardano and Polygon (POL) led the volatility surge.

Uniswap activated its v4 protocol fee switch across seven networks, transforming UNI’s tokenomics. A portion of swap fees is now diverted to the protocol, where third parties can claim them in exchange for burning an equivalent value of UNI. This burn mechanism creates direct value capture and sustained deflationary pressure. Additionally, Uniswap launched “Earn,” integrating Morpho lending vaults directly into its app. ADA’s bullish price action could be largely driven by whale activity.

Chart of the Week

Bitcoin mining difficulty fell to 126.23 trillion, down roughly 15% from its January 2026 peak. This represents a 2.5% year-over-year decline, marking the second time in the network’s history that difficulty has fallen year-over-year. The first occurred following China’s 2021 mining ban.

Weekly Performance

Top-cap tokens mostly saw bearish price action last week, except ADA (+14.2%). APT (-10.5%) and ATOM (-9.6%) led the decline.

DeFi categories mostly declined except DEX (+3.1%). Data indicated that DEX spot trading volume hit a record 24% of centralized exchange (CEX) market share in July, marking the highest ratio since 2019.

News Highlights

Company News

• Emirates officially launched Crypto.com Pay™ on its website and mobile app, allowing eligible UAE customers to pay for flight bookings with cryptocurrency. Transactions are priced and settled in Emirati Dirham (AED) and processed in compliance with UAE regulatory standards.

• Crypto.com announced a strategic partnership with XYO, a provider of verifiable real-world data infrastructure. XYO selected Crypto.com Custody to manage secure, institutional-grade custody and liquidity solutions for its native tokens, XYO and XL1.

Regulation

• The CLARITY Act gained backing from major Wall Street firms, including BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, and Goldman Sachs, which argue that the legislation offers essential regulatory certainty for the U.S. crypto industry. However, the bill faces opposition from traditional banking interests. JPMorganChase, for instance, raised concerns regarding stablecoin yield provisions, arguing they could give crypto issuers an unfair advantage over traditional bank deposits. This highlights a growing divide within the financial sector, with asset managers generally favoring the bill while certain banks worry about competitive imbalances.

• The South Korean government confirmed that its long-delayed 22% tax on cryptocurrency gains will officially take effect on January 1, 2027. After three postponements since its initial proposal in 2022, policymakers have dismissed the possibility of further delays, finally establishing a definitive tax regime for digital asset investors in the country.

Adoption

• BNY is launching a blockchain-based transfer agency platform to transition core fund ownership records and investor transactions onchain. By operating this system alongside its traditional infrastructure, BNY aims to create an immutable, shared ledger to significantly reduce manual data reconciliation, signaling a major step toward mainstream institutional blockchain adoption for back-office operations.

Investment Vehicles

• Morgan Stanley launched spot Ether (MSSE) and Solana (MSOL) exchange-traded products (ETPs) on NYSE Arca. The funds plan to stake portions of their underlying ETH and SOL holdings, passing 100% of staking rewards directly to investors rather than retaining them as revenue.

Catalyst Calendar

Recent Research Report

• Tokenized Stocks: The Evolution of Equity: This report analyzes the evolution of tokenized stocks — demonstrating how blockchain technology interfaces with standard equities to resolve legacy operational challenges — and evaluates the structural benefits and risks of this asset class.

• Market Update (June 2026): Driven by risk-on asset selling and a rotation to defensive sectors, global markets corrected in June. Digital assets plummeted and major equities stalled: the Nasdaq fell 2.8% and the S&P 500 dropped 1.1%, though the Dow Jones gained 2.5%. Gold and Commodities fell sharply, while Bonds and Real Estate provided insulation.

• Research Roundup Newsletter (Jul 2026): We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our analysis on tokenized stocks and June’s market review and outlook.

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as a Private member, joining our Crypto.com Exchange VIP Program, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT.

We’re all ears.

Your feedback helps make our reporting more insightful. Tell us how we can improve this newsletter by taking the survey below. It will take less than a minute of your time. Thank you!

Take the survey now

Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer:

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Thank you for reading! We hope you find Market Pulse, our new weekly market insights newsletter enlightening!

Hungry for more? Visit our Research Hub and University to access other insightful crypto research! 

Share with a friend if you like our email!

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• Real-world asset (RWA)-focused markets on Hyperliquid accounted for over 56% of the DEX’s trading volume.

• Zcash activated its “Ironwood” upgrade, sealing its US$1.7 billion Orchard shielded pool and initiating a migration to a new pool starting from zero tokens.

• Ripple launched “Ripple Mint,” a unified multichain platform that helps institutions access, mint, redeem, and manage the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin.

• Morpho launched Midnight, a fixed-rate and fixed-term credit protocol.

• Uniswap Labs introduced Permissioned Pools to enable the trading of regulated tokenized assets on its DEX.

• Ondo Finance subsidiary Oasis Pro Markets secured SEC and FINRA clearance to offer tokenized equities and funds to U.S. investors. Ondo also enabled its tokenized stocks (SPYon and QQQon) as collateral on its OndoPerps platform.

• Ondo Finance canceled plans for a tokenized asset Layer-1 (L1) blockchain, opting instead to build a private, high-speed trading network that powers its new perpetual futures platform and improves asset execution efficiency.

• Lido launched Curated Module v2, an infrastructure upgrade to boost Ethereum’s validator efficiency and decentralization.

• 1inch introduced the Aqua protocol across 11 blockchains to unify liquidity pools.

• World Foundation raised $52.5 million through a locked WLD token sale led by Pantera Capital to scale its World ID biometric identity network.

• A critical security vulnerability in the Zilliqa Ledger app used predictable ephemeral nonces when signing transactions, allowing attackers to recover private keys from onchain signatures. This forced a temporary halt on network deposits and withdrawals.

• Arbitrum-based protocol AFX Trade was drained of $24.15 million in USDC after attackers compromised external bridge validator keys to authorize fraudulent withdrawals.

• Stablecoin payments firm Triple-A confirmed a security breach involving unauthorized access to its treasury wallets, resulting in an $11.8 million loss.

• SecondFi is shutting down after an exploit in its transaction signing software allowed hackers to derive private keys and steal 16.1 million ADA (approximately $2.4 million) across 374 wallets.

• Algorithmic stablecoin Balance Coin collapsed over 99% following an exploit where an attacker manipulated a pricing flaw to siphon roughly $912,000 from its Bitcoin vaults.

Weekly DeFi Index

This week, the market cap, volume, and volatility indices decreased -5.68%, -4.37%, and -39.36%, respectively.

• Morpho (MORPHO) launched Midnight, a fixed-rate and fixed-term credit protocol. The launch includes a new Markets App that allows users to lend and borrow directly within these fixed-rate markets, with plans to expand to additional networks.

• Uniswap Labs (UNI) is introducing “Permissioned Pools” as part of its v4 infrastructure upgrade, allowing regulatory compliance checks to be processed directly onchain. This unlocks automated market maker (AMM) liquidity for institutional products and bridges TradFi with decentralized infrastructure to ensure compliant trading of tokenized funds and RWAs.

• Ondo Finance (ONDO) subsidiary Oasis Pro Markets secured SEC and FINRA clearance to offer tokenized equities and funds to U.S. investors. Ondo Finance also enabled its tokenized stocks, starting with SPYon and QQQon, as collateral on its OndoPerps platform.

• Ondo Finance canceled plans for a tokenized asset L1 blockchain, opting instead to build a private, high-speed trading network that will power its new perpetual futures platform and improve execution efficiency for onchain financial assets.

• Lido (LDO) launched Curated Module v2, an infrastructure upgrade to enhance Ethereum’s validator efficiency and decentralization. The upgrade adds support for 0x02 withdrawal credentials, allowing individual validators to increase their effective balance from the standard 32 ETH to as high as 2,048 ETH.

Chart of the Week

Over the past week, tokenized RWAs emerged as the leading trading category on Hyperliquid. Starting July 23, the seven-day moving average trading volume for HIP-3 markets featuring RWAs surpassed Hyperliquid's native perpetual contracts. By July 28, these RWA-focused markets accounted for over 56% of the DEX's trading volume, totaling more than $3.3 billion on a seven-day average.

News Highlights

• Privacy-focused blockchain Zcash activated its “Ironwood” upgrade, sealing its $1.7 billion Orchard shielded pool and initiating a mandatory migration to a new pool starting from zero tokens. This architectural change definitively rules out undetectable counterfeiting bugs, reinforcing confidence in the protocol’s cryptographic integrity.

• Ripple launched “Ripple Mint,” a unified multichain platform that helps institutions access, mint, redeem, and manage the RLUSD stablecoin.

• DEX aggregator 1inch introduced the Aqua protocol across 11 blockchains to unify liquidity pools. By allowing liquidity providers to authorize multiple market-making strategies directly from a single wallet inventory without locking funds into individual pools, the protocol improves capital utilization, operating similarly to coordinated overbooking.

• World Foundation raised $52.5 million through a locked WLD token sale led by Pantera Capital to scale its World ID biometric identity network. This capital injection addresses demand for human identity verification amid the rise of autonomous AI agents, despite ongoing regulatory scrutiny over global biometric data collection.

• A critical security vulnerability in the Zilliqa Ledger app used predictable ephemeral nonces when signing transactions, allowing attackers to recover private keys from onchain signatures. This forced a temporary halt on network deposits and withdrawals.

• Arbitrum-based protocol AFX Trade was drained of $24.15 million in USDC after attackers compromised external bridge validator keys to authorize fraudulent withdrawals.

• Stablecoin payments firm Triple-A confirmed a security breach involving unauthorized access to its treasury wallets, resulting in an $11.8 million loss in company-owned digital assets.

• Cardano wallet provider SecondFi is shutting down after an exploit in its transaction signing software allowed hackers to derive private keys and steal 16.1 million ADA (approximately $2.4 million) across 374 wallets. Although the core Cardano network remained uncompromised, the breach forced the platform to wind down permanently.

• Low-circulation algorithmic stablecoin Balance Coin collapsed over 99% following an exploit where an attacker manipulated a pricing flaw to siphon roughly $912,000 from its Bitcoin vaults.

Recent Research Reports

• Tokenized Stocks: The Evolution of Equity: This report analyzes the evolution of tokenized stocks, demonstrates how blockchain technology interfaces with standard equities to resolve legacy operational challenges, and evaluates the structural benefits and risks of this asset class.

• Market Update (June 2026): Driven by risk-on asset selling and a rotation to defensive sectors, global markets corrected in June. Digital assets plummeted and major equities stalled: Nasdaq fell 2.8% and S&P 500 dropped 1.1%, while Dow Jones gained 2.5%. Gold and Commodities fell sharply, while Bonds and Real Estate provided insulation.

• Research Roundup Newsletter (Jul 2026): We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our analysis on tokenized stocks and June’s market review and outlook.

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as a Private member, joining our Crypto.com Exchange VIP Programme, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT. The latest crypto market insights are also available via the dashboard.

Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report, nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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• BTC treasury firms are liquidating holdings to manage debt, fund buybacks or strengthen their cash reserves.

• Last week, U.S. spot BTC saw net inflows of US$34 million, down from $76 million the previous week. U.S. spot ETH ETFs recorded $104 million in net inflows, slightly trailing the prior week’s $106 million.

• U.S. equities experienced a risk-off pullback last week, as momentum in high-valuation tech stocks stalled. Concerns over massive corporate capex on AI, climbing energy prices driven by Middle East tensions, and new tariff implementations weighed on broader markets, driving a rotation out of mega-cap growth into defensive and value-oriented sectors.

  • Nasdaq Composite plunged 2.1%, S&P 500 decreased 0.6%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4%.

  • Key Market Drivers:

    • AI Capex and Tech Earnings: Q2 earnings reports from tech leaders like Alphabet and Tesla raised market anxiety over heavy AI infrastructure spend relative to immediate revenue. Alphabet’s free cash flow outlook faced pressure from heavy infrastructure spending, while Tesla dropped on margin headwinds, triggering broader profit-taking across semiconductor and software stocks.

    • Energy Inflation Concerns: Military strikes in the Middle East drove crude oil prices past $88/barrel, fueling concerns of energy-driven inflation.

    • Macro Data: June inflation figures cooled unexpectedly (headline CPI fell 0.4% month-over-month), while the S&P Global Flash U.S. Composite PMI reached an eight-month high of 53.6. This reinforced soft-landing expectations ahead of the Fed’s July policy meeting.

    • Trade Policy: New trade tariffs taking effect on July 24 added friction to imported goods and cross-border tech hardware supply chains.

  • Sector and Style Dynamics: Information Technology, Semiconductors, and Consumer Discretionary lagged on valuation compression and chip-stock selling. Conversely, Energy outperformed early in the week on crude oil gains, while defensive sectors like Utilities and Consumer Staples attracted protective inflows.

Research Dashboard

According to our research dashboard, the price index grew +0.52%, while the volume and volatility indices dropped by -4.45% and -32.62%, respectively, last week.

Index tokens delivered a mixed performance. BTC and ETH prices increased by +1.00% and +4.38%, respectively. Ondo (ONDO), Uniswap (UNI), and Gram (GRAM) led the price gains, while WLFI led both the volume and volatility surge. Uniswap Labs is launching Permissioned Pools to enable trading of regulated tokenized assets on its DEX. Built on Uniswap v4, this framework lets issuers restrict trading and liquidity to approved investor wallets via onchain verification. Ondo Finance subsidiary Oasis Pro Markets secured SEC and FINRA clearance to offer tokenized equities and funds to U.S. investors. Ondo Finance also enabled its tokenized stocks — starting with SPYon and QQQon (S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 ETF tokens) — as collateral on its OndoPerps platform. Telegram founder Pavel Durov confirmed the platform will launch a native, non-custodial Gram crypto wallet this summer. The volatility surge in World Liberty Financial (WLFI) follows proposed updates to the CLARITY Act, which would ban federal officials, including the President, from issuing or sponsoring digital assets while in office.

Chart of the Week

With Bitcoin down from its October 2025 peak of $126,000 to around $65,000, several BTC treasury firms are liquidating holdings to manage debt and navigate challenging market conditions. Notably, Strategy Inc. (MSTR) has sold roughly 3,620 BTC (0.4% of its holdings) since June, and Satsuma Technology (SATS) shareholders approved the liquidation of their final 668 BTC position last week.

Despite some firms releasing their BTC reserves, total BTC holdings by digital asset treasury (DAT) companies have reached over 1.26 million as of July 27, a 15.5% increase from 1.09 million in January, now accounting for over 6% of the total BTC supply, according to our research dashboard.

Weekly Performance

Top-cap tokens mostly saw bullish price action last week. SHIB (+28.4%) led the surge, likely driven by whale accumulation and the burning of over 2.4 billion tokens last week. Conversely, ATOM (-5.1%) and POL (-4.7%) led the decline.

DeFi categories saw mixed performance. RWA (+3.4%) led the gains, while AI (-3.2%) led the drop.

News Highlights

Regulation

• The Senate’s updated CLARITY Act proposes a federal ban prohibiting government officials, including the President, from issuing or sponsoring digital assets. The legislation, led by Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), would empower the Department of Justice (DOJ) to enforce the rule, with penalties of up to $250,000 per day for violations. While President Donald Trump reportedly approved the ethics section, the bill faces political hurdles. The proposal emerges as Trump has generated significant crypto-related income since returning to office, largely tied to World Liberty Financial and its tokens (WLFI, USD1).

• The Bank of Korea (BOK) is advancing its central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiative with the launch of a second-phase pilot program in September. This phase involves live transaction testing across a blockchain network connecting nine major financial institutions, including the nation’s top three banks (KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana) and Woori Financial Group, alongside Gyeongnam Bank and iM Bank.

• The Kazakhstan government approved strategic cryptocurrency mining rules that legally mandate approved mining operations to contribute a portion of their mined assets directly to the state.

• The Nigerian president signed an executive order establishing a virtual asset council aimed at addressing the nation’s historically fragmented cryptocurrency regulations and clarifying tax policies.

Adoption

• S&P Dow Jones Indices and Pantera Capital collaborated to launch a revenue-screened digital asset index that exclusively tracks 18 protocols with positive onchain verifiable revenue, omitting Bitcoin and meme coins.

• Swiss state-owned cantonal bank BancaStato partnered with digital-asset banking firm Sygnum to introduce regulated cryptocurrency trading and custody natively within its Avaloq-powered digital banking app.

• Samsung Electronics announced plans to integrate stablecoin support into Samsung Wallet, marking a significant expansion of its mobile payments and rewards platform. During the Galaxy Unpacked showcase, product manager Lee Dinham stated that the wallet will evolve beyond traditional cash and savings to embrace “new forms of digital value,” positioning Samsung as one of the first major mobile brands to offer native stablecoin functionality.

• KB Kookmin Bank, South Korea’s largest bank, will launch a blockchain-based cross-border payment service in August using JPMorgan’s Kinexys platform. The service targets import and export businesses across ten countries, including the U.S., Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, supporting U.S. dollar transfers with near-instant settlement.

Investment Vehicles

• Grayscale filed an S-1 registration statement with the U.S. SEC for the Grayscale Worldcoin ETF, proposing the first U.S. spot exchange-traded product (ETP) focused on the Worldcoin (WLD) token. If approved, the fund will list on Nasdaq under the ticker GWLD, offering investors regulated exposure to WLD without requiring direct ownership of the token.

Catalyst Calendar

Recent Research Report

• Tokenized Stocks: The Evolution of Equity: This report analyzes the evolution of tokenized stocks — demonstrating how blockchain technology interfaces with standard equities to resolve legacy operational challenges — and evaluates the structural benefits and risks of this asset class.

• Market Update (June 2026): Driven by risk-on asset selling and a rotation to defensive sectors, global markets corrected in June. Digital assets plummeted and major equities stalled: the Nasdaq fell 2.8% and the S&P 500 dropped 1.1%, though the Dow Jones gained 2.5%. Gold and Commodities fell sharply, while Bonds and Real Estate provided insulation.

• Research Roundup Newsletter (Jul 2026): We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our analysis on tokenized stocks and June’s market review and outlook.

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as a Private member, joining our Crypto.com Exchange VIP Program, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT.

We’re all ears.

Your feedback helps make our reporting more insightful. Tell us how we can improve this newsletter by taking the survey below. It will take less than a minute of your time. Thank you!

Take the survey now

Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer:

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Thank you for reading! We hope you find Market Pulse, our new weekly market insights newsletter enlightening!

Hungry for more? Visit our Research Hub and University to access other insightful crypto research! 

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• Cronos App, a mobile-first trading app that unifies stocks, crypto, and prediction markets into one account, rolled out its beta.

• Hyperliquid plans to introduce permissionless prediction markets under the HIP-4 proposal, requiring developers to stake 500,000 HYPE (approximately $30.4 million) to deploy a market.

• Ondo Finance partnered with Japan’s SBI Group to tokenize Japanese equities, distribute Ondo’s tokenized financial products across the SBI ecosystem, and use SBI’s JPYSC stablecoin for onchain settlement and collateral.

• Cardano developer Input Output is transferring core infrastructure development, including the Haskell node and Plutus platform, to independent teams. This Voltaire governance transition aims to decentralize the network and boost growth.

• Cardano activated the community-approved van Rossem hard fork (Protocol v11) on mainnet, lowering smart contract costs and preparing for the Ouroboros Leios scalability phase.

• Michael Saylor published a 110-point essay opposing Bitcoin’s proposed BIP-110 soft fork, arguing that restricting arbitrary data threatens network neutrality and permissionless principles.

• Consensys temporarily suspended MetaMask releases after a North Korea-linked contractor accessed its code repository for a month. No user data or assets were compromised, but the incident highlights supply-chain vulnerabilities.

• Zilliqa requested exchanges to temporarily halt ZIL token deposits and withdrawals while investigating a suspected security breach involving an exchange partner’s cold wallet.

• Ostium halted trading following an estimated $18 million oracle exploit caused by a compromised private key.

• Allbridge paused its Allbridge Core cross-chain bridge activity following a reported $1.65 million flash loan exploit.

Weekly DeFi Index

This week, the market cap and volume indices increased +0.61% and +2.11%, respectively, while the volatility index dropped -4.85%.

• Ondo Finance (ONDO) partnered with major Japanese financial firm SBI Group to tokenize local assets, with distribution planned through SBI’s ecosystem and settlement via the JPYSC yen stablecoin.

• Hyperliquid (HYPE) plans to introduce permissionless prediction markets under the HIP-4 proposal, requiring developers to stake 500,000 HYPE tokens (approximately $30.4 million) to deploy a market. This capital requirement, along with a validator-slashing mechanism, is designed to improve market credibility and severely deter poorly defined or unregulated markets.

Chart of the Week

At the start of July, trading volume in U.S. equities declined across both TradFi and DeFi markets. However, a recent divergence has emerged: while notional volume for Cboe U.S. equities has increased, trading volume for tokenized stocks has fallen, pushing their share of total volume to an eight-month low of 0.01%.

Several factors contributed to the decline in tokenized stock trading. The market currently lacks major new catalysts after the SpaceX IPO. In addition, tokenized stock volume was bolstered by June’s hype cycle, while the broader crypto market’s cooling has dampened DeFi activity and narrowed the addressable market for tokenized equity products. Meanwhile, amid fluctuating equity-market volatility, institutional volume is consolidating into deeply liquid traditional venues such as derivatives, which offer better execution and capital netting.

News Highlights

• Cronos App, a mobile-first trading app that unifies stocks, crypto, and prediction markets into one account, rolled out its beta.

• Cardano developer Input Output plans to transfer control of core blockchain infrastructure development, including the Haskell node and Plutus platform, to specialized independent teams. This major transition is a key step in the network’s Voltaire governance era, aimed at reducing reliance on a single corporate entity and revitalizing network growth amid declining market activity.

• Cardano successfully activated the community-approved van Rossem hard fork on its mainnet, upgrading the network to Protocol Version 11. This upgrade lowers smart contract execution costs, introduces new cryptographic capabilities, and lays the technical groundwork for the upcoming Ouroboros Leios scalability phase.

• Michael Saylor published a comprehensive 110-point essay opposing Bitcoin’s proposed BIP-110 anti-spam soft fork, arguing that restricting arbitrary data threatens the network’s neutrality. The intervention from Bitcoin’s largest corporate holder escalates a developer-centric technical debate into a broader governance dispute over preserving permissionless principles.

• Consensys temporarily suspended MetaMask product releases after discovering that a third-party contractor linked to North Korea had accessed the wallet’s code repository for approximately a month. Although an investigation found no compromised user data, stolen assets, or deployed malicious code, the incident exposes severe supply-chain vulnerabilities and the need for stringent hiring audits in crypto development.

• Layer-1 blockchain Zilliqa requested exchanges to temporarily halt ZIL token deposits and withdrawals while investigating a suspected security breach involving an exchange partner’s cold wallet.

• Decentralized perpetuals exchange Ostium suffered an estimated $18 million exploit after a compromised private key in its price-oracle system allowed an attacker to manipulate trades, leading to a platform-wide trading halt.

• Allbridge paused its cross-chain bridge protocol, Allbridge Core, following a reported $1.65 million flash-loan exploit.

Recent Research Reports

• Tokenized Stocks: The Evolution of Equity: This report analyzes the evolution of tokenized stocks, demonstrates how blockchain technology interfaces with standard equities to resolve legacy operational challenges, and evaluates the structural benefits and risks of this asset class.

• Market Update (June 2026): Driven by risk-on asset selling and a rotation to defensive sectors, global markets corrected in June. Digital assets plummeted and major equities stalled: Nasdaq fell 2.8% and S&P 500 dropped 1.1%, while Dow Jones gained 2.5%. Gold and Commodities fell sharply, while Bonds and Real Estate provided insulation.

• Research Roundup Newsletter (Jul 2026): We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our analysis on tokenized stocks and June’s market review and outlook.

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as a Private member, joining our Crypto.com Exchange VIP Programme, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT. The latest crypto market insights are also available via the dashboard.

Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report, nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

We’re all ears.

Your feedback has always helped us provide insightful crypto market trends. Tell us how we can improve this newsletter further by taking a quick survey below (it will only take less than a minute). Thank you!

Take our survey now

Thank you for reading! We hope you find our Weekly DeFi and Layer 1 & Layer 2 News Update enlightening!

Hungry for more? Visit our Research Hub and University to access other insightful crypto research! 

Share with a friend if you like our email!

Share

Thanks for reading Crypto Trends from Crypto.com: Market, DeFi, NFT, Gaming! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

• Crypto.com secures $400 million strategic investment from Citadel Securities.

• Last week, U.S. spot BTC and ETH ETFs recorded net inflows of US$76 million and $106 million, respectively.

• U.S. equities experienced a sharp downward correction, snapping a multi-week winning streak. Heavy liquidations in high-flying AI stocks and mega-cap tech dragged down broader benchmarks. Despite welcome news of cooling inflation, sentiment was rattled by escalating Middle East tensions and growing skepticism over immediate AI infrastructure returns.

  • Nasdaq Composite was penalized by tech liquidations, plunging 2.9%. S&P 500 decreased 1.6% to close the week at 7,475.69, slipping below its 50-day moving average. Dow Jones Industrial Average showed relative stability but still fell 0.9%.

  • Key Market Drivers:

    • AI Capex Skepticism: AI investor fatigue peaked; despite strong fundamentals, Nvidia faced heavy selling and the SOX index dropped nearly 10% into a technical bear market. TSMC’s rising infrastructure spending heightened fears that hyperscaler capex may outpace near-term monetization.

    • Strait of Hormuz Tensions: A reinstated U.S. naval blockade amid conflict with Iran sent Brent crude oil up roughly 20% in ten days, stoking global inflation anxieties and triggering a defensive equity pivot.

    • Sticky Inflation & Hawkish Fed: June CPI slowed to 3.5% headline and 2.6% core. However, Fed Chairman Warsh dampened rate-cut hopes, affirming the central bank’s commitment to a restrictive policy until inflation reaches its 2% target.

    • Strong Start to Q2 Earnings: The season opened strong — JPMorganChase posted record segment revenue and double-digit earnings growth, though macro and tech headwinds largely eclipsed these results.

  • Sector and Style Dynamics: Technology and semiconductors bore the brunt of the weekly rotation as growth-focused investors scrutinized valuations and trimmed momentum leaders. Driven by surging crude oil prices, the energy sector outperformed, serving as an effective hedge against Middle East geopolitical instability.

Research Dashboard

According to our research dashboard, the price and volatility indices grew +0.58% and +16.19%, respectively, while the volume index dropped -5.86% last week.

Index tokens delivered a mixed performance. BTC and ETH prices increased by +1.45% and +3.62%, respectively. Chainlink (LINK), Cronos (CRO), and Ondo (ONDO) led the price and volume gains, with ONDO also leading the volatility surge. Crypto.com, the key supporter of Cronos blockchain, announced a $400 million strategic investment from Citadel Securities, valuing the company at $20 billion. Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) is integrating into central bank digital currency (CBDC) and tokenized asset projects across five jurisdictions: Brazil, Hong Kong, Australia, the UK, and the multi-nation mBridge initiative. Ondo Finance partnered with Japan’s SBI Group to tokenize Japanese equities, distribute Ondo’s tokenized financial products across the SBI ecosystem, and use SBI’s JPYSC stablecoin for onchain settlement and collateral.

Chart of the Week

Bitcoin currently trades between $62,000 and $64,000, approximately 50% below its October 2025 all-time high of $124,000. Over the past five months, the asset has consolidated within the $60,000 to $80,000 range, signaling a period of market apathy.

The Realized HODL (RHODL) ratio — comparing the wealth of long-term holders (6+ months) against new participants (<1 month) — peaked at 13 in early July, its third-highest level historically, before retreating below 10 last week. This stable price action, combined with RHODL compression, suggests a potential “quiet accumulation” phase. Historically, similar consolidations in 2019, 2022, and 2023 preceded market recoveries. Despite this onchain stability, the market’s ultimate trajectory remains dependent on broader macroeconomic conditions.

Weekly Performance

Top-cap tokens saw mixed performances last week. LINK (+4.7%) and CRO (+4.6%) led the growth, while GRAM (-10.8%) and BCH (-10.7%) led the drop.

DeFi categories saw mixed performance. Liquid Staking (+5.0%) led the gains, while Lending (-3.9%) led the drop.

News Highlights

Company News

• Crypto.com announced a $400 million strategic investment from Citadel Securities. The transaction values Crypto.com at $20 billion and marks the first institutional funding round in the company’s decade-long history.

Regulation

• The CLARITY Act secured its second major endorsement from the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA) ahead of the August 8 Senate recess deadline. It aims to address concerns that the bill might weaken crypto crime enforcement.

• The UK’s tax authority, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), announced a “no gain, no loss” approach to crypto lending and liquidity pool transactions starting April 6, 2027. Transactions involving the acquisition or disposal of interests in lending arrangements (in exchange for the same asset type) and assets acquired via automated market makers (AMMs) will not trigger an immediate capital gains tax event. Instead, the tax liability is deferred until an “economic disposal” occurs.

• South Korea is preparing to modify a 76-year-old law to officially classify cryptocurrencies as national assets, anchoring digital assets within the country’s core legal and economic framework and acknowledging their macroeconomic significance.

• Bolivia is assessing a regulatory framework to incorporate USDT into its national payments system.

Adoption

• Visa launched the Visa Stablecoin Platform (VSP), an enterprise service enabling banks, fintechs, and crypto firms to issue, manage, and settle stablecoins. Integrating directly with Visa’s existing payment network, VSP offers “Wallet-as-a-Service” infrastructure, blockchain connectivity, and security features like dual-approval workflows and audit logs. The platform launched with support for Open USD (OpenUSD), a stablecoin created by the Open Standard consortium.

• Japan’s largest card network, JCB, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Circle to explore the integration of stablecoins into cross-border payments and merchant transactions. The collaboration aims to enhance payment efficiency, reduce remittance costs, and improve cash flow for merchants, particularly those serving international visitors.

• Morgan Stanley’s E*TRADE rolled out spot Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana trading for eligible retail clients through a partnership with Zero Hash.

• The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) executed its first live production trades involving tokenized securities, marking a significant milestone for the integration of blockchain technology into traditional Wall Street infrastructure. Unlike previous pilot programs, these transactions utilized a live production environment with actual assets held at the DTCC’s central securities depository, involving major institutions such as JPMorganChase, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and Vanguard.

• Securitize and Cantor Fitzgerald announced a partnership to develop infrastructure for tokenized initial public offerings (IPOs) and secondary equity offerings within the current U.S. securities regulatory framework.

• SBI VC Trade, a subsidiary of SBI Holdings, launched a Japanese yen-denominated stablecoin (JPYSC) lending service, offering customers an initial 3% annualized yield on 12-week terms.

• SBI Holdings partnered with the Solana Foundation to build a Japan-based onchain financial market. The joint venture, SBI Solana Global, will leverage the high-speed Layer-1 network to issue yen-pegged stablecoins and tokenize real-world assets (RWAs).

• Japanese convenience store chain Lawson will test yen-denominated stablecoin payments at its Takanawa Gateway City location in Tokyo starting in August.

Catalyst Calendar

Recent Research Report

• Tokenized Stocks: The Evolution of Equity: This report analyzes the evolution of tokenized stocks — demonstrating how blockchain technology interfaces with standard equities to resolve legacy operational challenges — and evaluates the structural benefits and risks of this asset class.

• Market Update (June 2026): Driven by risk-on asset selling and a rotation to defensive sectors, global markets corrected in June. Digital assets plummeted and major equities stalled: the Nasdaq fell 2.8% and the S&P 500 dropped 1.1%, though the Dow Jones gained 2.5%. Gold and Commodities fell sharply, while Bonds and Real Estate provided insulation.

• Research Roundup Newsletter (Jul 2026): We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our analysis on tokenized stocks and June’s market review and outlook.

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as a Private member, joining our Crypto.com Exchange VIP Program, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT.

We’re all ears.

Your feedback helps make our reporting more insightful. Tell us how we can improve this newsletter by taking the survey below. It will take less than a minute of your time. Thank you!

Take the survey now

Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer:

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Thank you for reading! We hope you find Market Pulse, our new weekly market insights newsletter enlightening!

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• Cronos officially integrated with Dune, making its onchain data fully queryable, visualizable, and verifiable.

• Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 markets trading volume surged to match its native crypto perps volume.

• Aave Labs (AAVE) launched Stable Vaults, an infrastructure enabling fintechs, digital wallets, and payment providers to embed fixed-rate stablecoin yields into consumer applications.

• Ethena Labs (ENA) updated its USDe synthetic dollar protocol to allow whitelisted users to mint and redeem USDe using USDC at zero fees.

• Maple Finance (SYRUP) released its Q2 Ecosystem Update, showing notable performance growth.

• PayPal’s USD stablecoin (PYUSD) launched natively on the Polygon blockchain.

• SBI Holdings partnered with the Solana Foundation to build a Japan-based onchain financial market.

• Hyundai completed a proof-of-concept treasury settlement pilot, using Tether (USDT) to settle a payment between its U.S. and Mexican subsidiaries.

• EthSystems, an Ethereum Foundation spinout, is targeting traditional banks with their new blockchain privacy tools.

• Bonzo Lend, a Hedera-based lending protocol, suffered a US$9.05 million exploit, draining roughly 77% of its total value locked (TVL).

Weekly DeFi Index

This week, the market cap and volume indices decreased -4.11% and -9.74%, respectively, while the volatility index surged +118.71%.

• Maple Finance (SYRUP) released its Q2 Ecosystem Update, showing notable performance growth.

• Aave (AAVE) Labs launched Stable Vaults, an infrastructure enabling fintechs, digital wallets, and payment providers to embed fixed-rate stablecoin yields into consumer applications. The product abstracts complex decentralized lending mechanics by converting Aave’s variable onchain rates into predictable, fixed yields for end-users, with partner operators retaining any excess yield generated.

• Ethena Labs (ENA) updated its USDe synthetic dollar protocol to allow whitelisted, KYC/KYB-compliant users to mint and redeem USDe using USDC at zero fees. This eliminates previous conversion costs for approved participants, tightening USDe’s peg to the U.S. dollar and reducing slippage in secondary markets.

Chart of the Week

The permissionless, builder-deployed HIP-3 markets on decentralized perpetuals platform Hyperliquid, featuring real-world assets (RWAs) like stocks, commodities, and indices, are gaining significant momentum. On July 14, aggregated trading volume (7-day moving average) reached $3.0 billion, nearly matching the $3.1 billion volume of Hyperliquid’s native crypto perps.

Among HIP-3 markets, stocks were the dominant category, accounting for over 60% of the volume, followed by indices and commodities.

News Highlights

• The Cronos network officially integrated with Dune, making its onchain data fully queryable, visualizable, and verifiable. This marks a significant step toward transparency for the ecosystem, which serves as a purpose-built settlement layer for stablecoins and tokenized assets.

• EthSystems, an Ethereum Foundation spinout, is targeting traditional banks with their new blockchain privacy tools. The initiative aims to equip commercial banking institutions with privacy-preserving infrastructure, bridging the transparency of decentralized networks with the stringent confidentiality requirements of traditional banking.

• PayPal’s USD stablecoin (PYUSD) launched natively on the Polygon blockchain. Issued directly by Paxos — the OCC-regulated entity behind PYUSD — this integration avoids bridging or wrapping, ensuring PYUSD on Polygon is a first-class asset within the network.

• Japanese asset management firm SBI Holdings partnered with the Solana Foundation to build a Japan-based onchain financial market. The joint venture, SBI Solana Global, will leverage the high-speed Layer-1 network to issue yen-pegged stablecoins and tokenize RWAs.

• South Korean conglomerate Hyundai completed a proof-of-concept treasury settlement pilot using Tether (USDT) on the Avalanche blockchain. The trial settled a $20,000 payment between its U.S. and Mexican subsidiaries in seven minutes.

• Bonzo Lend, a Hedera-based lending protocol, suffered a $9.05 million, draining roughly 77% of its TVL. The attacker leveraged a verification flaw in a third-party Supra oracle contract to artificially inflate the price of minimal SAUCE token collateral by 12 orders of magnitude, allowing them to borrow millions in USDC and wrapped HBAR.

Recent Research Reports

• Tokenized Stocks: The Evolution of Equity: This report analyzes the evolution of tokenized stocks, demonstrates how blockchain technology interfaces with standard equities to resolve legacy operational challenges, and evaluates the structural benefits and risks of this asset class.

• Market Update (June 2026): Driven by risk-on asset selling and a rotation to defensive sectors, global markets corrected in June. Digital assets plummeted and major equities stalled: Nasdaq fell 2.8% and S&P 500 dropped 1.1%, while Dow Jones gained 2.5%. Gold and Commodities fell sharply, while Bonds and Real Estate provided insulation.

• Research Roundup Newsletter (Jul 2026): We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our analysis on tokenized stocks and June’s market review and outlook.

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as a Private member, joining our Crypto.com Exchange VIP Programme, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT. The latest crypto market insights are also available via the dashboard.

Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report, nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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• Bitcoin developed an unusually strong negative correlation of -0.88 with the USD/JPY pair.

• Last week, U.S. spot BTC and ETH ETFs recorded net inflows of US$197 million and $84 million, respectively, ending an eight-week streak of consecutive net outflows.

• The U.S. stock market diverged sharply. Driven by renewed AI optimism, large-cap growth and tech stocks staged a powerful resurgence, pushing the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite to solid weekly gains near record highs. However, broader market participation was thin. Rising Treasury yields, hawkish undertones from the latest Federal Reserve minutes, and escalating Middle East tensions weighed heavily on value and small-cap stocks, dragging down the Dow Jones and Russell 2000.

  • Nasdaq Composite led all major indices with a +1.74% gain, carrying the bulk of the week’s bullish momentum. S&P 500 advanced +1.23% to close at 7,575.4, near its all-time high. Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped -0.50%, weighed down by its value-heavy components.

  • Key Market Drivers:

    • AI and Semiconductor Resurgence: The AI trade surged, catalyzed by SK Hynix’s blockbuster $26.5 billion U.S. Nasdaq debut, which soared 13% on Friday. Broadcom also boosted the market following new Apple silicon agreements.

    • Hawkish FOMC Minutes: June Fed minutes revealed policymaker divides over rate hikes, but the majority supported removing the “easing bias.” Chair Kevin Warsh’s firm stance raised autumn hike expectations.

    • Geopolitical Friction and Yield Spikes: Strained U.S.-Iran relations and a canceled ceasefire lifted crude oil and pushed the U.S. 10-Year Treasury yield up to 4.59% from 4.49%.

    • Pre-Earnings Lull: Trading volumes remained light as investors positioned themselves ahead of the Q2 earnings season kickoff.

  • Sector and Style Dynamics: Style dynamics were completely dominated by mega-cap growth. Market breadth was notably weak; on several days, a handful of tech giants lifted the S&P 500 even as the majority of its components finished lower. Information Technology was the undisputed leader. Energy also saw strong gains alongside steady accumulation in Communication Services, riding the tailwind of rising oil prices. Materials and Healthcare emerged as the S&P 500’s weakest segments. Investors rotated capital out of defensive and interest-rate-sensitive areas as bond yields climbed, leaving the Dow Jones exposed to the downside.

Research Dashboard

According to our research dashboard, the price and volatility indices grew +1.77% and +4.06%, respectively, while the volume index dropped -11.35% last week.

Index tokens delivered a mixed performance. BTC and ETH prices increased by +0.37% and +1.28%, respectively. Zcash (ZEC), Uniswap (UNI), and Polygon (POL) led the price gains, while Cardano (ADA) and Hedera (HBAR) led the declines. Zcash (ZEC) and Polkadot (DOT) led the volatility surge.

Zcash confirmed its Ironwood network upgrade will activate on July 28. Uniswap experienced a surge in trading activity, generating approximately $5.2 million in daily fee revenue. PayPal’s USD Stablecoin (PYUSD) launched natively on the Polygon blockchain. Bitwise removed Polkadot (DOT) and Avalanche (AVAX) from its flagship 10 Crypto Index ETF. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson explicitly denied a viral rumor regarding his retirement. HBAR plunged after the network’s lending protocol, Bonzo Lend, suffered an estimated $9.05 million loss from an exploit targeting a verification vulnerability in a third-party Supra oracle contract.

Chart of the Week

Over the past year, Bitcoin and USD/JPY shared a strong negative price level correlation of -0.88, meaning 77% of Bitcoin’s absolute price variance was associated with the Yen’s exchange rate. This inverse trend — Bitcoin falling as the Yen weakens — contradicts traditional “carry trade” logic, which dictates that a weakening Yen should support risk assets. Instead, persistent U.S. Dollar strength is likely depressing both assets over the long run.

Crucially, analyzing daily performance reveals a disconnect: their daily return correlation drops to a negligible -0.12. This near-zero relationship indicates that while the two assets are bound by the same long-term macro forces, the Yen carry trade is not an active driver of Bitcoin’s price movements.

Weekly Performance

Most top-cap tokens saw bearish price action last week. ADA (-14.5%) led the drop, while POL(+9.4%) led the increase.

DeFi categories saw mixed performance. DEX (+10.2%) and Lending (+8.8%) led the gains, while Meme (-5.5%) led the drop.

News Highlights

Company News

• Mane City Mobile launched globally on iOS and Android across more than 150 countries on July 7. Developed by Crypto.com, the full-featured strategy game allows players to build an empire, raid rivals, and compete in seasonal events without requiring a crypto wallet or prior blockchain knowledge.

Regulation

• The bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law through presidential inaction, officially prohibiting the Fed from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) until December 31, 2030. The statute establishes a significant legal roadblock against the development of a U.S. digital dollar to address financial privacy concerns, illustrating how digital asset policies have become heavily intertwined with national legislative battles.

• Kazakhstan’s president signed a decree to accelerate digital asset adoption by regulating cross-border stablecoin payments, granting tax exemptions for regulated crypto transactions, and allowing digital mining operations to utilize associated petroleum and natural gas. The move creates a regulated infrastructure that positions Kazakhstan as a global crypto hub while aligning the industry’s energy demands with the country’s broader resource management strategy.

• Bank of Korea reaffirmed its focus on bank-led won stablecoins while advancing deposit-token pilots for practical use cases like government subsidies and EV charging infrastructure.

Adoption

• SWIFT launched a blockchain-based shared ledger for a tokenized bank deposit pilot involving 17 major financial institutions — including Citi, HSBC, and UBS — across six continents. The ledger serves as an orchestration layer prior to final settlement through existing systems.

• Sony secured conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a U.S. stablecoin trust bank. Capitalized at $40 million, the New York-based subsidiary will support the issuance and management of USD-denominated stablecoins.

• Brazil’s B3 Stock Exchange introduced options trading on Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana futures. These contracts settle into futures referencing Nasdaq crypto indices rather than requiring the transfer or custody of underlying physical assets. This broadens the regulated financial instruments available in Latin America, giving institutional and retail investors secure avenues to hedge volatility without holding direct custody of crypto.

• Hyundai became the first major South Korean enterprise to advance a cross-border stablecoin internal remittance system to production readiness on the Avalanche blockchain, successfully transferring live USD and USDT between its U.S. and Mexican entities.

Notable Update

Catalyst Calendar

Recent Research Report

• Tokenized Stocks: The Evolution of Equity: This report analyzes the evolution of tokenized stocks — demonstrating how blockchain technology interfaces with standard equities to resolve legacy operational challenges — and evaluates the structural benefits and risks of this asset class.

• Market Update (June 2026): Driven by risk-on asset selling and a rotation to defensive sectors, global markets corrected in June. Digital assets plummeted and major equities stalled: the Nasdaq fell 2.8% and the S&P 500 dropped 1.1%, though the Dow Jones gained 2.5%. Gold and Commodities fell sharply, while Bonds and Real Estate provided insulation.

• Research Roundup Newsletter (Jul 2026): We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our analysis on tokenized stocks and June’s market review and outlook.

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as a Private member, joining our Crypto.com Exchange VIP Program, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT.

We’re all ears.

Your feedback helps make our reporting more insightful. Tell us how we can improve this newsletter by taking the survey below. It will take less than a minute of your time. Thank you!

Take the survey now

Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer:

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Thank you for reading! We hope you find Market Pulse, our new weekly market insights newsletter enlightening!

Hungry for more? Visit our Research Hub and University to access other insightful crypto research! 

Share with a friend if you like our email!

Share

• Tokenized stock trading volume reached US$6.7 billion in June.

• Vitalik Buterin detailed a multi-year “Lean Ethereum” roadmap to overhaul nearly every major protocol component without disrupting existing decentralized applications (dapps).

• Zcash developers warned that the scheduled Ironwood network upgrade may be delayed to give ecosystem participants more time to prepare for the Z3 software migration.

• Ondo Finance (ONDO) is partnering with Broadridge to launch a system that allows tokenized stock holders to participate in proxy voting and corporate governance.

• World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is reportedly in discussions to sell its payments subsidiary, AI Financial, to blockchain company Perpetuals.com in a deal potentially valued at up to $15 million.

• Aave (AAVE) expanded its V3 lending protocol and the GHO stablecoin ecosystem onto the Monad blockchain.

• Taiko brought its cross-chain bridge back online ten days after a security breach drained $1.7 million from the protocol.

• BonkDAO lost approximately $20 million from its treasury after a malicious actor spent around $4.4 million to quietly accumulate a voting majority and pass a governance proposal that transferred the funds.

• Summer Finance suffered a $6 million exploit when an attacker used a $65 million flash loan to manipulate accounting vulnerabilities in its Fleet Commander vault architecture.

Weekly DeFi Index

This week, the market cap and volatility indices increased +2.86% and +51.02%, respectively, while the volume index dropped -10.02%.

• World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a cryptocurrency firm backed by the Trump family, is reportedly in discussions to sell its payments subsidiary, AI Financial, to blockchain company Perpetuals.com in a deal potentially valued at up to $15 million. This potential sale marks a strategic reversal for the Trump family’s crypto venture, which acquired control of AI Financial (formerly Alt5 Sigma) in August 2024 for $750 million with the intention of building a major international stablecoin payments business.

• Ondo Finance (ONDO) is partnering with Broadridge to launch a system for tokenized stock holders to participate in proxy voting and corporate governance.

• Aave (AAVE) expanded its V3 lending protocol and the GHO stablecoin ecosystem onto the Monad blockchain. By deploying on the high-performance Layer-1 network, the protocol intends to significantly enhance transaction processing speeds and lower costs. This move is positioned to foster broader adoption of the GHO stablecoin and improve the capital efficiency of Aave’s DeFi products.

Chart of the Week

In June, tokenized equities trading reached $6.7 billion in volume (both on decentralized and centralized exchanges), representing a 42% increase from May. This surge was primarily driven by investor interest in the tokenized S&P 500 ETF (SPY, ~$1.3 billion) and Circle (CRCL, ~$1.3 billion), which skyrocketed by 19.5x and 68.5%, respectively. Meanwhile, SpaceX (SPCX) gained traction following the company’s initial public offering (IPO) with $523 million trading volume, the same level as Alphabet (GOOG).

News Highlights

• Vitalik Buterin detailed a multi-year “Lean Ethereum” roadmap to overhaul nearly every major protocol component without disrupting existing dapps. By prioritizing quantum resistance, recursive STARKs for privacy, state storage scaling, and a potential shift to a RISC-V architecture, the network is preparing for its most profound optimization to date.

• Zcash developer Shielded Labs warned that the scheduled Ironwood network upgrade may be delayed to give ecosystem participants more time to prepare for the Z3 software migration.

• Taiko brought its cross-chain bridge back online ten days after a security breach drained $1.7 million from the protocol. The recovery and relaunch gained a positive community reaction, causing the protocol’s native token to surge significantly.

• BonkDAO, the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) tied to Solana-based memecoin BONK, lost approximately $20 million from its treasury after an attacker spent around $4.4 million to quietly accumulate a voting majority and pass a governance proposal that transferred the funds.

• DeFi yield platform Summer Finance suffered a $6 million exploit when an attacker used a $65 million flash loan to exploit accounting vulnerabilities in its Fleet Commander vault architecture. The attacker inflated reported assets to extract funds through legitimate contract functions, forcing the protocol to pause all active vaults.

Recent Research Reports

• Tokenized Stocks: The Evolution of Equity: This report analyzes the evolution of tokenized stocks — demonstrating how blockchain technology interfaces with standard equities to resolve legacy operational challenges — and evaluates the structural benefits and risks of this asset class.

• Market Update (June 2026): Driven by risk-on asset selling and a rotation to defensive sectors, global markets corrected in June. Digital assets plummeted and major equities stalled: the Nasdaq fell 2.8% and the S&P 500 dropped 1.1%, though the Dow Jones gained 2.5%. Gold and Commodities fell sharply, while Bonds and Real Estate provided insulation.

• Research Roundup Newsletter (Jul 2026): We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our analysis on tokenized stocks and June’s market review and outlook.

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as a Private member, joining our Crypto.com Exchange VIP Programme, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT. The latest crypto market insights are also available via the dashboard.

Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report, nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

We’re all ears.

Your feedback has always helped us provide insightful crypto market trends. Tell us how we can improve this newsletter further by taking a quick survey below (it will only take less than a minute). Thank you!

Take our survey now

Thank you for reading! We hope you find our Weekly DeFi and Layer 1 & Layer 2 News Update enlightening!

Hungry for more? Visit our Research Hub and University to access other insightful crypto research! 

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Thanks for reading Crypto Trends from Crypto.com: Market, DeFi, NFT, Gaming! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

• Strategy introduced a “Digital Credit Capital Framework” that authorizes BTC sales to fund dividends.

• U.S. spot BTC ETFs saw a net outflow of US$526 million last week, compared to a $1.8 billion outflow the week prior. Spot ETH ETFs saw a net outflow of $14 million in the same period, compared to a $273 million outflow the week prior.

• The U.S. stock market delivered a positive but highly polarized weekly performance. An aggressive sector rotation saw investors lock in profits from high-flying AI names to fund value and cyclical sectors. Soft labor data and easing geopolitical tensions lifted major benchmarks, helping push the Dow Jones Industrial Average past the historic 52,000 milestone to a fresh all-time high.

  • S&P 500 advanced 1.8% over the week. Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 2.0% to finish at a record 52,900.07, marking its longest weekly winning streak since late 2024. Nasdaq Composite added 2.1%, shaking off sharp mid-week tech volatility.

  • Key Market Drivers:

    • Cooling Labor Market: June Nonfarm Payrolls added just 57,000 jobs, missing consensus. Although unemployment fell to 4.2% on a lower participation rate, the soft data relieved pressure on Fed Chair Kevin Warsh to hike rates.

    • Geopolitical De-escalation: U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks in Doha boosted sentiment. WTI crude fell to $68/barrel as energy disruption fears eased, tempering immediate inflation concerns.

    • Alphabet’s Dow Entry: Alphabet debuted as a Dow component on June 29. Its 4.8% first-day surge helped push the index to a new record.

    • Economic Expansion: June ISM Manufacturing PMI hit 53.3%, staying above the 50% threshold and signaling that the economy is moderating rather than facing a hard landing.

  • Sector and Style Dynamics: Leadership rotated toward cyclical and defensive sectors, led by Communication Services (+3.60%) and Financial Services (+3.39%). Meta climbed nearly 6% week-over-week, Comcast surged on media spin-off news, and Apple rose 8.8% on iPhone expansion reports. Conversely, AI momentum stalled under profit-taking; the PHLX Semiconductor Index (SOX) fell 4.4%, dragged down by double-digit drops in Micron, while Nvidia rose 1.2%.

Research Dashboard

According to our research dashboard, the price index grew +6.41%, while the volume and volatility indices dropped -4.26% and -15.76%, respectively, last week.

All tokens in the index showed bullish price action. BTC and ETH prices increased by +6.60% and +13.47%, respectively. Cardano (ADA) and Zcash (ZEC) led the price gains, while Uniswap (UNI) and Hedera (HBAR) led the volatility surge. ADA rebounded with a 32% price surge during the week following news that the network added approximately 15,000 new non-empty wallets since its June 23 bottom. Meanwhile, Zcash’s late-July Ironwood upgrade, targeting a security flaw in the Orchard pool, may be delayed by infrastructure readiness issues. Canary’s spot Hedera ETF saw $989,000 in net inflows on July 2, its highest daily total since mid-May.

Chart of the Week

BTC treasury company Strategy Inc. (MSTR) introduced a “Digital Credit Capital Framework,” designed to manage liquidity while preserving its long-term Bitcoin exposure. The framework enables the company to monetize a portion of its Bitcoin holdings to fund dividends, build cash reserves, and execute share buybacks. Key components include:

• Bitcoin Monetization: Strategy authorized the sale of up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin to raise capital designated for paying dividends, covering debt costs, funding stock buybacks, and bolstering cash reserves.

• Cash Reserve Target: The company has an established cash reserve of $2.55 billion, claiming it is sufficient to cover approximately 17 months of preferred stock dividends and interest payments. The policy mandates a minimum reserve of 12 months’ coverage unless the board approves otherwise.

• Dividend Adjustment: The annual dividend rate on STRC preferred stock increased from 11.5% to 12%.

• Buyback Programs: The board authorized separate buyback programs for preferred securities and Class A MSTR common stock.

Weekly Performance

All top-cap tokens saw bullish price action last week. ADA (+31.8%) and BCH (+27.7%) led the gains.

All categories saw market capitalization (MC) increase, with Oracles (+10.2%) leading the growth, followed by RWA (+9.3%) and DEX (+9.1%).

News Highlights

Regulation

• The European Union is reviewing its Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation following the July 1, 2026, expiration of the transition period, which now requires all crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) to hold full licenses to operate within the bloc. While MiCA is fully in effect, the European Commission launched a consultation to assess whether the framework requires updates to better address the rapid evolution of stablecoins and RWA tokenization.

• The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) lowered proposed capital buffer requirements for stablecoin issuers to 1% of the total value of issued stablecoins, undercutting the European Union’s 2% MiCA mandate. This adjustment aims to create a more proportionate framework for larger issuers while maintaining regime robustness.

• Australia‘s cryptocurrency travel rule took effect on July 1, requiring domestic exchanges to collect, verify, and share precise identity records of senders and beneficiaries, alongside user declarations for self-hosted wallet transfers.

Adoption

• A consortium of over 140 payment, banking, and crypto firms launched the Open Standard and its dollar-pegged stablecoin, Open USD (OUSD). OUSD aims to eliminate minting and redemption fees while redistributing reserve interest yield back to the member businesses driving its circulation.

• Standard Chartered partnered with Circle to launch bank-led USDC minting and redemption services for institutional clients via Dubai’s International Financial Centre (DIFC), with plans for a global rollout. As one of the first global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) to provide direct minting rails, this move integrates stablecoin liquidity into traditional corporate banking, lowering operational barriers for institutional allocators.

• BlackRock integrated Ethena’s yield-generating synthetic dollar token, USDe, into its Aladdin risk management platform, while its tokenized BUIDL fund will serve as a primary reserve asset for a new white-label product backed by a $100 million liquidity facility. This deep institutional integration bridges multi-trillion-dollar traditional asset management systems with DeFi-native infrastructure, expanding the reach of tokenized treasury products to mainstream allocators.

• Crédit Agricole launched EURXT, a MiCA-compliant, euro-pegged stablecoin. Issued by its asset servicing unit, Caceis Bank, the token is backed 1:1 by euro reserves and initially entered circulation with 20 million tokens on the Ethereum network.

• New York Life Investment Management, which manages over $800 billion in assets, made its tokenization debut by launching the NYLIM Anemoy fund, an on-chain, high-yield corporate bond fund strategy on the Centrifuge platform, with transactions settled in USDC.

Catalyst Calendar

Recent Research Report

• Pre-IPO Perpetuals: Front-Running Wall Street: Crypto derivatives offer retail investors a solution through synthetic pre-IPO perpetuals. These 24/7, leveraged financial instruments wrap expected valuations, dismantling barriers to institutional exclusivity and enabling users to trade the trajectories of private tech companies.

• Market Update (May 2026): May highlighted a performance gap between surging global equities and declining cryptocurrencies and commodities. Equity markets led with the MSCI Emerging Markets index up +9.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite gaining +8.4%. Conversely, BTC and ETH fell -3.5% and -11.2%, respectively. Bonds and Real Estate posted modest gains, while Commodities and Gold fell. Data suggests a rotation from crypto toward high-growth equity sectors.

• Research Roundup Newsletter (May 2026): We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our analysis on RWA perpetuals and April’s market review and outlook.

We’re all ears.

Your feedback helps make our reporting more insightful. Tell us how we can improve this newsletter by taking the survey below. It will take less than a minute of your time. Thank you!

Take the survey now

Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer:

The information in this report is provided as general market commentary by Crypto.com and its affiliates, and does not constitute any financial, investment, legal, tax, or any other advice. This report is not intended to offer or recommend any access to products and/or services. While we endeavour to publish and maintain accurate information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information in this report nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any information submitted by other parties.

This report is not directed or intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity who is a citizen or resident of, or located in a jurisdiction, where such distribution or use would be contrary to applicable law or that would subject Crypto.com and/or its affiliates to any registration or licensing requirement.

The brands and the logos appearing in this report are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Thank you for reading! We hope you find Market Pulse, our new weekly market insights newsletter enlightening!

Hungry for more? Visit our Research Hub and University to access other insightful crypto research! 

Share with a friend if you like our email!

Share

• Total value locked (TVL) in the DeFi sector contracted by approximately 37% year-to-date.

• A consortium of over 140 payment, banking, and crypto firms launched Open Standard and its dollar-pegged stablecoin, Open USD (OUSD).

• BlackRock partnered with Ethena Labs to list the USDe synthetic dollar on its Aladdin risk-management platform.

• New York Life Investment Management launched the NYLIM Anemoy fund, an on-chain, high-yield corporate bond fund strategy on the Centrifuge platform.

• Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) added USDC custody, minting, and burning capabilities directly into its Digital Asset Custody platform.

• European banking leader Crédit Agricole’s asset-servicing subsidiary, CACEIS Bank, rolled out ERC-20 euro stablecoin EURXT on the Ethereum mainnet.

• Nasdaq joined the Pyth Data Marketplace as an institutional publisher, distributing its proprietary “TotalView” full depth-of-book equity data natively across blockchain networks.

• Uniswap and Spark teamed up to build a shared FX layer for stablecoins using the Uniswap v4 architecture.

• The Solana network activated its on-chain validator governance module, allowing validators holding at least 100,000 SOL to propose and vote on technical upgrades.

• Drift Protocol rebranded to Velocity DEX as part of an engineering overhaul following a $295 million exploit in April.

• DeFi platform Abracadabra took emergency action after its crypto-collateralized stablecoin, Magic Internet Money (MIM), depegged due to thin and imbalanced liquidity in Curve Finance pools.

• Cardano-based self-custody wallet platform SecondFi detailed a two-week fund-restitution plan after a deterministic nonce vulnerability allowed attackers to reconstruct private keys.

Weekly DeFi Index

This week, the market cap and volume indices increased +6.31% and +6.61%, respectively, while the volatility index dropped -42.16%.

• Nasdaq joined the Pyth Data Marketplace as an institutional publisher, distributing its proprietary “TotalView” full depth-of-book equity data natively across blockchain networks.

• Uniswap and Spark teamed up to build a shared FX layer for stablecoins using the Uniswap v4 architecture. Spark is initiating the effort by migrating $150 million in liquidity to pool major stablecoins — such as Sky’s USDS, Tether’s USDT, and PayPal’s PYUSD — with the goal of allowing future issuers to plug in directly.

• Ondo Finance (ONDO) introduced 24/7 minting and redemption for tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs.

• Aave (AAVE) unveiled “Aavenomics 3.0,” shifting its token buyback program from a discretionary, committee-directed model to a hardcoded, protocol-level mechanism. Under this framework, 100% of revenues generated by the Aave Protocol, the GHO stablecoin, and associated ecosystem products will be automatically routed to the DAO treasury.

Chart of the Week

Total value locked (TVL) in the DeFi sector contracted by approximately 37% in 2026, falling from roughly $112.6 billion in January to just over $70 billion in June — a level not seen since 2024. This decline stems from a broader market correction and a surge in security exploits.

By category, Liquid Staking led the drop with a 44% YTD decline, followed by Lending with a 39% decline. Conversely, RWA led with a 48% increase.

This downturn followed an October 2025 peak, when Bitcoin reached a record high above $122,000. A subsequent liquidation event on October 10, 2025 wiped approximately $17 billion in leveraged positions, triggering a deleveraging cycle across digital assets. Furthermore, the sector faced intensified hacking activity, with 121 incidents resulting in approximately $942 million in losses YTD. Q2 2026 emerged as the most-hacked quarter on record by incident count (83 exploits), although the $755 million in total value stolen remained below the historical peak of $3.56 billion recorded in Q4 2020.

News Highlights

• A consortium of over 140 payment, banking, and crypto firms launched the Open Standard and its dollar-pegged stablecoin, Open USD (OUSD). OUSD plans to completely eliminate minting and redemption fees while redistributing reserve interest yield back to the member businesses driving its circulation.

• Following the launch of OUSD, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire published a rebuttal challenging the economic viability of OUSD’s fee-free, full revenue-sharing approach. Allaire argued that distributing 100% of yield to partners starves critical ecosystem infrastructure, while asserting that USDC’s $30 trillion in multi-year transaction volume and deep regulatory moat cannot easily be replicated by committee-led consortiums.

• BlackRock partnered with Ethena Labs to list the USDe synthetic dollar on its $20 trillion Aladdin risk-management platform. Under the agreement, BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized treasury fund will become the default reserve asset for Ethena’s whitelabel stablecoins, and Ethena will deploy a $100 million liquidity facility through Securitize to allow round-the-clock swaps out of BUIDL.

• New York Life Investment Management, which manages over $800 billion in assets, made its tokenization debut by launching the NYLIM Anemoy fund, an on-chain, high-yield corporate bond fund strategy on the Centrifuge platform, with transactions settled in USDC.

• Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) added USDC custody, minting, and burning capabilities directly into its Digital Asset Custody platform, deepening its strategic partnership with Circle.

• European banking leader Crédit Agricole’s asset servicing subsidiary, CACEIS Bank, rolled out ERC-20 euro stablecoin EURXT on the Ethereum mainnet. Compliant with Europe’s MiCA regulatory framework, the asset was immediately used to settle a corporate subscription into a tokenized Amundi money market fund.

• The Solana network activated its on-chain validator governance module, enabling validators holding at least 100,000 SOL to propose and vote on technical upgrades. The stake-weighted system requires a minimum threshold of 15% cluster support to advance adjustments.

• Solana-based derivatives platform Drift Protocol rebranded to Velocity DEX as part of an engineering overhaul following a $295 million exploit in April. The platform is discarding adjacent features like Isolated Markets to relaunch as a leaner, perpetuals-only exchange settled in USDT, while entirely removing the vulnerable durable-nonce mechanism.

• DeFi platform Abracadabra took emergency action after its crypto-collateralized stablecoin, Magic Internet Money (MIM), dropped 50% below its dollar peg to roughly $0.49 due to thin and imbalanced liquidity in Curve Finance pools. The platform is gradually increasing interest rates across all borrow pools (”Cauldrons”) to incentivize users to repay debt at a discount, thereby contracting the circulating MIM supply to restore parity.

• Cardano-based self-custody wallet platform SecondFi detailed a two-week fund-restitution plan after a deterministic nonce vulnerability allowed attackers to reconstruct private keys. The hackers successfully drained $2.4 million (16 million ADA) across 374 addresses, while SecondFi’s emergency interventions rescued and redirected another 129 million ADA to an independent third-party custodian.

Recent Research Reports

• Pre-IPO Perpetuals: Front-Running Wall Street: Crypto derivatives offer retail investors a solution through synthetic pre-IPO perpetual contracts. These 24/7, leveraged financial instruments wrap expected valuations, dismantling the barriers to institutional exclusivity and enabling users to trade the trajectories of private tech companies.

• Market Update (May 2026): May highlighted a performance gap between surging global equities and declining cryptos and commodities. Equity markets led with the MSCI Emerging Markets index up +9.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite gaining +8.4%. Conversely, BTC and ETH fell -3.5% and -11.2%, respectively. Bonds and Real Estate posted modest gains, while Commodities and Gold fell. Data suggests a rotation from crypto toward high-growth equity sectors.

• Research Roundup Newsletter (May 2026): We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our analysis on Real-World Asset Perpetuals and April’s market review and outlook.

Interested to know more? Access exclusive reports by signing up as a Private member, joining our Crypto.com Exchange VIP Programme, or collecting a Loaded Lions NFT. The latest crypto market insights are also available via the dashboard.

Author

Research and Insights Team

Disclaimer

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• The volume of Bitcoin held at a loss reached an all-time high of 10.8 million BTC.

• U.S. spot BTC ETFs saw a net outflow of US$1.8 billion last week, compared to a $228 million outflow the week prior. Spot ETH ETFs saw a net outflow of $273 million in the same period, compared to a $10 million outflow the week prior.

• The week was defined by a sharp rotation out of high-flying technology and AI stocks, leading to a stark divergence in index performance. This dynamic underscored a broader shift toward defensive sectors and smaller-cap equities amid quarter-end rebalancing, sticky inflation data, and shifting geopolitical headlines.

  • Nasdaq Composite declined -4.60%, its worst weekly drop since early June, closing near 25,298. S&P 500 dropped -1.95%, dragged down by mega-cap tech. Dow Jones Industrial Average gained +0.60%, eking out a third straight weekly win.

  • Key Market Drivers:

    • AI and Tech Pullback: A broad rotation out of semiconductor and AI-related stocks served as the primary anchor on the broader market. Sentiment took a significant hit following reports that OpenAI is considering a delay to its IPO due to escalating infrastructure costs.

    • Resilient Macro Data and Fed Rhetoric: Economic indicators painted a picture of a resilient U.S. economy. The PCE Price Index (the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge) rose 4.1% year-over-year, in line with estimates, while Q1 GDP was revised upward to 2.1%. However, sticky services inflation kept the Fed hawkish, with officials warning that underlying price pressures remain too high.

    • Geopolitics and Energy: Crude oil (WTI) retreated to around $70 after the U.S. and Iran reached a ceasefire agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, easing immediate supply-chain concerns and pulling energy commodities lower.

  • Sector and Style Dynamics: Defensive and yield-sensitive sectors were the clear winners, with Healthcare surging 7.88% and Real Estate climbing 4.16%. In stark contrast, Technology tumbled 5.32% and Consumer Cyclicals fell 2.59%. Growth stocks took a heavy hit (down 2.57%) as the AI rally cooled and infrastructure costs were scrutinized, allowing Value-oriented equities to demonstrate relative outperformance.