From Wall Street’s growing blockchain appetite to Ethereum’s post-quantum ambitions, this week’s crypto world proves one thing: the future isn’t coming — it’s already on-chain.⛓️
Whether you're tracking tokenized stocks, stablecoin regulations, or Solana’s hardware hustle, we’ve got all the key moves and market shifts broken down for you.📉📈
Major players like eToro, Visa, and JPMorgan are making bold strides, while projects like Cardano and Chainlink continue pushing technical boundaries.⚙️
Meanwhile, lawmakers and regulators are finally starting to catch up — or at least trying to.📜 Buckle up — this week’s digest delivers everything you need to stay ahead in crypto, without falling down the rabbit hole.🧠📲
eToro is launching tokenized versions of the top 100 most popular U.S. stocks and ETFs on Ethereum.🪙 These will be ERC-20 tokens, allowing users to trade 24/5 and integrate directly with decentralized finance apps.🔗
Each token will represent real shares held in custody, ensuring regulatory clarity and asset backing.✅ Investors will be able to self-custody their assets or move them across DeFi platforms.🔐 This move reflects the growing trend of real-world asset tokenization and bridges the gap between traditional finance and blockchain.🌉
JPMorgan and Coinbase are partnering to let Chase credit card users convert their reward points into USDC, a stablecoin tied to the U.S. dollar.🔄 Starting next year, 100 points will be worth $1 in crypto, and users can link their Chase accounts directly to Coinbase.💵
Customers will also be able to fund their Coinbase wallets with Chase credit cards.📲 It’s the first time a major credit card rewards program is being used to earn crypto.🚀 This partnership signals a deeper integration between traditional banking and the digital asset economy.🌐
Robinhood’s crypto revenue soared to $160 million in Q2 2025, almost double from the previous year.📊 This growth came alongside a 32% jump in crypto trading volume, hitting $28 billion.📈
The company also acquired Bitstamp and is now expanding tokenized stock trading across Europe.🌍 CEO Vlad Tenev highlighted tokenization as a transformative force in global finance.💬 Despite the surge, crypto earnings still slightly missed Wall Street expectations, but the long-term outlook remains strong.💪
The Hashgraph Group has introduced IDTrust, a new self-sovereign identity platform built on the Hedera network.🔐 It allows users to issue and verify digital credentials without relying on central authorities.🧾
Powered by AI and Hedera’s efficient consensus system, IDTrust keeps blockchains lightweight by avoiding storing transaction history.⚙️ Users retain full control over their identity data, with strong privacy and compliance capabilities.🛡️ The platform targets governments and enterprises seeking next-gen digital ID solutions.🏛️
Traditional finance giants like JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup have been leading blockchain investments from 2020 to 2024.📉 In total, they’ve participated in 345 deals focused on tokenization, custody solutions, and blockchain payments.💼 Each firm made at least 15 investments, showing a clear commitment to crypto infrastructure.🔧
This institutional push reflects growing confidence in blockchain’s long-term value.📊 Ripple’s report highlights how big banks are no longer just watching—they're helping shape the future of decentralized finance.🌐
Crypto exchange Kraken is reportedly seeking to raise $500 million at a $15 billion valuation as it gears up for a 2026 IPO.🚀 This would mark a major step toward going public and expanding its global services.🌍
Kraken has recently strengthened its regulatory position and acquired key platforms like NinjaTrader.🤝 It’s also exploring new offerings like futures and cross-border payments in Europe.🌐 A successful raise could make Kraken one of the largest publicly traded crypto firms in the world.📈
Pyth Network has launched live onchain pricing for 85 of the most traded stocks in Hong Kong.💹 Prices refresh every 400 milliseconds and are now available on more than 100 blockchains.⚡
This data comes directly from top-tier financial venues, ensuring accurate, real-time information.🔍 Developers can use the feeds to build DeFi tools like synthetic assets or algorithmic trading systems.🧠 It's a big step in making global stock markets accessible in decentralized environments.🌐
Senator Cynthia Lummis is introducing a bill to let Americans use crypto holdings when applying for mortgages.📑 The “21st Century Mortgage Act” would make it easier for younger, crypto-savvy buyers to qualify for loans.🧾
Under the proposal, assets like Bitcoin could be considered as part of financial eligibility—without needing to convert them to fiat.💰 It follows a directive from housing regulators that recognized crypto’s growing role in personal finance.🏘️ If passed, it could revolutionize how digital assets fit into traditional lending systems.💡
Solana Mobile has started shipping its second-generation Seeker smartphone to customers in over 50 countries, fulfilling more than 150,000 pre-orders.🌍 The Seeker features upgraded hardware, a built-in crypto wallet, and a decentralized app store—designed to bypass restrictive app marketplaces.📲
A standout feature is the on-chain Seed Vault, which isolates private keys from apps for enhanced hardware-level security.🛡️ Solana Mobile expects to generate at least $67.5 million in revenue from this launch.💰 The device is built on TEEPIN architecture, which decentralizes app distribution and network operation for Web3 developers and users.🔧
Hong Kong is initiating a six-month transition period starting August 1, during which stablecoin issuers can operate under new regulatory rules with temporary licensing options.📆
Issuers must apply within three months or face required wind-down periods.⏳ The regime mandates full backing with high-quality liquid reserves, one-business-day redemption timelines, and local presence in Hong Kong.🔐
Additional rules include KYC procedures, ongoing monitoring, and risk controls, plus criminal penalties for unlicensed operators.⚖️ Initial market reactions triggered share-price corrections among “stablecoin concept” firms, which experts describe as a healthy recalibration.📉 With the framework in place, first licenses are expected only in early 2026.✅
Kraken’s Mark Greenberg urges that tokenized equities should go beyond simply copying Wall Street on-chain—these assets must deliver global access, programmability, and always-on availability.🌐
Through Kraken’s xStocks initiative, shares like Netflix and Meta are issued on Solana in partnership with Backed Finance and tradable across DeFi and centralized platforms.📊 The infrastructure emphasizes composability and permissionless access, all within regulatory guardrails.⚖️ Greenberg envisions developers leveraging financial assets as programmable tools, not just digital replicas.💡 His message: regulators and innovators must collaborate to realize tokenization’s full potential.
Crypto exchange Gate has opened Gate US, a U.S.-specific spot trading platform backed by improved legal clarity under acts like GENIUS and CLARITY.📈 Founded in 2013, Gate now offers regulated trading access to American users across 23 states.🛡️
The platform focuses on secure, compliant infrastructure tailored for retail and institutional traders.✅ Gate cites the evolving U.S. regulatory environment as the key trigger for entry.🔍 This expansion marks a shift in confidence among international exchanges toward the U.S. market.
DeFi protocol Curve has launched Yield Basis, which uses 200% over-collateralization and compounded leverage to dramatically reduce impermanent loss for liquidity providers.💧 The innovative approach aligns pool balances with market movements to minimize divergence risk.📉
Early testers report more consistent yields and reduced downside during volatile periods.⚙️ Through creative leverage, Curve aims to reshape how liquidity provision economics function across DeFi.🚀 This could broaden participation by making pools less risky and more rewarding.
Visa has expanded its institutional settlement platform to support USDG, PYUSD, EURC, and other stablecoins on Stellar and Avalanche networks.🌍 This allows faster, cross-border settlement and more diverse fiat conversion routes.🔗
The expansion reflects growing demand among institutional users, especially in emerging markets like Africa, Latin America, and APAC.💼 Visa’s move positions it as a blockchain-native bridge between traditional finance and crypto settlement ecosystems.✅ These additions could accelerate mainstream adoption of stablecoins in enterprise operations.
Ethereum researcher Justin Drake has introduced Lean Ethereum, a proposed multi-decade overhaul of the protocol to simplify architecture and embed quantum-resistant features.🔐 The concept separates execution, consensus, and data layers, integrates zero-knowledge virtual machines, and uses RISC‑V-inspired data sampling.⚙️
These changes aim to reduce complexity, cut storage overhead, and boost long-term maintainability.🔒 Drake believes proactive design can safeguard Ethereum’s future against emerging computational threats.💡 Lean Ethereum presents a path toward a lighter, more secure, and modular blockchain.
📈 Bullish Files IPO Aiming for $4.2B Valuation, Backed by BlackRock & ARK
Bullish, the crypto exchange backed by Peter Thiel and owner of CoinDesk, has filed for a U.S. IPO to raise up to $629 million at a valuation around $4.2 billion.🚀 Institutions like BlackRock and ARK have already committed about $200 million.💼 The offering includes 20.3 million shares priced between $28 and $31, with underwriters able to purchase more.📊
Bullish plans to list on the NYSE under ticker "BLSH" and is operational in key markets including the U.S., Germany, Hong Kong, and Gibraltar.🌍 The IPO comes amid regulatory headwinds easing under recent legislation, making institutional crypto investments more feasible.
Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov claims its new Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE) has the potential to be as groundbreaking to blockchains as the Ethereum Virtual Machine was.⚙️ CRE offers a programmable runtime layer enabling seamless development of smart contracts and decentralized apps.🛠️
Nazarov explains that CRE could standardize interactions with decentralized infrastructure across chains.🌐 Like the EVM before it, CRE aims to simplify how developers build blockchain-native applications.✨ If successful, it could transform how decentralized data and computation interoperate across ecosystems.
The Philippine government has deployed a blockchain-based document verification system on Polygon to notarize official records like budget releases in real-time.📝 On launch day a partial outage occurred, but Polygon’s Bor layer continued producing blocks, minimizing disruption.⚠️
Citizens can now verify documents by scanning QR codes or entering reference IDs linked to cryptographic hashes.✅ The initiative reinforces transparency and trust in public finance, even amid technical hiccups.🌏 It demonstrates a bold move toward decentralized digital governance.
Bitcoin’s network has reached a new peak in mining difficulty amid rising hash rates and strong miner activity.📊 Analysts project a downward adjustment in difficulty in August as competition ratchets up.⚙️ The trend reflects broader increases in mining capacity as participants scale operations.💡
While high difficulty secures network robustness, it also squeezes less-efficient miners.📉 Upcoming adjustments may rebalance profitability and could impact energy usage trends across the mining sector.
France’s Rassemblement National party is advocating for state-backed Bitcoin mining using nuclear power to reduce carbon emissions and spur energy sector jobs.🇫🇷 They propose integrating crypto mining with France’s existing nuclear infrastructure to boost energy utilization.🔋 The plan frames mining as a strategic use of surplus capacity alongside decarbonization goals.💬
Critics question the environmental and policy implications, pointing to public skepticism and regulatory complexity.🌱 Nevertheless, the initiative signals growing interest in aligning energy policy with digital asset operations.
AllUnity has unveiled €URAU, a euro-backed stablecoin designed for European markets seeking regulatory-compliant crypto rails.💶 The token aims to support payments and decentralized apps across the EU.✅
It’s issued by regulated financial institutions and promises full euro backing at a 1:1 ratio.🔐 The stablecoin meets emerging EU stablecoin regulatory standards like MiCA.🌍 Its launch highlights Europe's push for sovereign digital currency infrastructure in financial services.
Cardano’s community has greenlit a $71 million funding package via the Catalyst treasury for a major upcoming development upgrade.🚀 The funds will support scalability, interoperability, tooling improvements, and community-driven innovations.💡 This decision reflects strong decentralised governance and grassroots participation.⚙️
The upgrade aims to enhance developer tools, growing decentralized app readiness across the Cardano network.📈 If successful, the initiative could strengthen Cardano’s competitive edge in the blockchain landscape.
A new initiative led by the U.S. administration explores using blockchain to decentralize the nation’s energy grid and improve efficiency in distributed energy resource (DER) coordination.⚡ Leveraging smart contracts, the proposal aims to enable peer-to-peer energy trading and better real-time tracking of energy flows.🔍
Trials will focus on resilience enhancement and renewable integration across microgrids.🛡️ The plan responds to growing needs for flexible, transparent grid management in a changing energy landscape.✅ If adopted, it could pave the way for a more distributed, smart energy era.
The DeFi Education Fund has submitted detailed feedback to U.S. Senators on upcoming crypto legislation, aiming to ensure laws support innovation while protecting consumers.📝 Their comments stress clarity in definitions, interoperability, and fair treatment of smart contracts and digital assets.⚖️ The fund advocates for frameworks that don’t stifle emerging use cases like composability and DeFi primitives.🔁
They also recommend regulatory structures that balance risk mitigation and flexibility.💡 These contributions may influence the drafting of the GENIUS Act and other crypto-related policy proposals.
Cybersecurity platform Naoris has announced a bounty for anyone who successfully breaches Bitcoin’s cryptographic defenses, putting the network to a real-world test.🛡️ This challenge represents confidence in Bitcoin’s resilience, as most expect the bounty to remain unclaimed.🔍 Naoris aims to incentivize adversarial testing and peer-reviewed attempts at breaking the protocol.🧪
While symbolic, the bounty underscores ongoing focus on blockchain security practices.💡 Any findings could contribute to future safeguards or cryptographic improvements.
Google and major Japanese gaming firms like Bandai Namco and Square Enix have led an $8.5 million investment into STAN, an Indian social gaming platform.🚀 STAN connects gamers, content creators, and publishers within a social-first game streaming and community space. 🎲
Backed by Google’s AI Futures Fund, the platform aims to launch AI-powered features for personalized content discovery.🤖 This funding marks a strategic push to position India as a global hub for social gaming innovation.📈 With new resources, STAN can scale its ecosystem of creators and expand digital monetization tools worldwide.🌍
Planck₀ is a new layer‑0 blockchain designed specifically for decentralized AI compute and coordination.⚙️ It enables developers to spin up modular AI chains, ML models, and decentralized compute infrastructure across distributed GPU networks.💻 By connecting independent GPU hosts with permissionless access, it breaks reliance on centralized cloud providers.🌐
The framework is targeting DePINs and AI-native apps, offering efficiency and scalability.💡 With early support from investors including Brock Pierce, it’s positioning itself as the backend plumbing of Web3+AI.🔧
OpenAI has closed an additional $8.3 billion funding round, pushing its valuation to approximately $300 billion ahead of schedule.💼 The oversubscribed raise is part of a broader $40 billion financing plan led by SoftBank and other top-tier investors like Dragoneer.📈
OpenAI’s annual recurring revenue has surged to about $13 billion with projections of $20 billion by year-end.📊 The company reports 5 million business users of ChatGPT and continues to rival big tech peers.🧠 This massive influx signals enduring investor faith in AI’s transformative potential.🌟
🚀 OpenAI Eyes $500B Valuation via Employee Share Sale
OpenAI is reportedly in early-stage talks about a secondary share sale that could value the company at around $500 billion.🌐 The deal would let existing and former employees sell shares ahead of a possible IPO.🔄
With weekly active users nearing 700 million and ARR expected to reach $20 billion, demand is soaring.📊 This potential valuation would surpass SpaceX and establish OpenAI as the top private tech firm.💼 The move highlights increasing investor appetite and mounting confidence in OpenAI’s future runway.🧠
Alaan, an AI-first fintech startup in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), has secured $48 million in its Series A funding round.🌍 The round, one of the region’s largest, will fund AI-powered banking features like smart savings, personalized budgeting, and embedded credit.🤖
Alan aims to expand across MENA markets and scale its digital-first financial services.📈 The financing signals growing interest in region-tailored AI-driven fintech solutions.💡 With this backing, Alan could accelerate innovation in next-gen mobile banking.💳
Spotify is testing a “more conversational voice interface” that could enable users to interact with the platform via natural audio commands.🎙️ The AI-driven interface would allow listeners to ask follow-up questions, request recommendations, and navigate music by voice context.🎶
This feature hints at a voice-first user experience, deeper than simple command sets like “play rock playlist.”🗣️ Spotify’s move aligns with broader trends in AI-native voice assistants.🌐 If rolled out widely, it could reshape how users engage with audio content hands-free.🔍
Fundamental Research Labs has raised $33 million from Prosus Ventures to develop autonomous AI agents for multiple industries.🚀 These agents are set to tackle tasks in areas like customer service, content generation, and research.🔧 The capital will fuel R&D, infrastructure scaling, and product deployment.💡 Prosus's investment underscores interest in next-gen agents capable of reasoning and cross-domain application.🌐 The startup’s multi-modal agents could become key tools in enterprise automation.🤖
Google has launched Gemini DeepThink, a reasoning-oriented AI model designed to test multiple hypotheses in parallel.⚡ This approach allows the model to evaluate different problem-solving strategies simultaneously, boosting efficiency and accuracy.🧪 DeepThink is aimed at use cases like coding, research assistance, and complex decision support.📈 The system reflects Google's push into advanced AI architecture and reasoning capacity.🔍 By enabling parallel idea generation, it's positioning itself beyond traditional transformer frameworks.🌐
OpenAI is building Stargate Norway, its first AI data center in Europe, in partnership with Nscale and Aker near Narvik.⚡ The renewable-powered site aims to host 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs by the end of 2026, delivering around 230 MW of capacity initially with plans to expand even further.🔋
Designed under OpenAI’s “for Countries” program, the center gives Norwegian and European researchers, startups, and governments first access to top-tier compute.🤝 With an estimated $2 billion investment, the initiative accelerates Europe’s AI sovereignty and infrastructure independence.📈 This represents a major step in scaling global AI while prioritizing sustainability and local technology ecosystems.🌱
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned that people who don’t adopt AI-powered smart glasses may face a “pretty significant cognitive disadvantage” in the future.🧠 He argued during Meta’s Q2 earnings call that glasses are the “ideal form factor” for personal AI—letting the system see, hear, and interact as you do.
👓 Meta is rolling out its Ray‑Ban and Oakley glasses integrated with Meta AI for visual search, voice commands, and media capture.📲 While its Reality Labs division is still running a multibillion-dollar annual loss, Zuck sees wearables as the future of user interface.💬 Critics question whether glasses truly boost cognition—or are mostly marketing noise.🤔
Meta Platforms plans to spend between $66B and $72B in 2025 on AI infrastructure, more than doubling its previous year’s investment.📊 The massive capital expenditure will fund the build-out of AI data centers, GPU clusters, and server farms, including mega projects like Prometheus and Hyperion.⚙️
CFO Susan Li emphasized that building world-class AI compute infrastructure is central to Meta’s long-term competitive edge.📈 The company is also exploring ways to co-finance infrastructure with partners, after reporting $2 billion in ongoing losses tied to Reality Labs.🤝 With demand for AI compute skyrocketing, Meta is aggressively scaling across regions.🚀
That’s a wrap on this week’s headlines from the heart of the blockchain revolution.🪙
Whether you're minting, staking, trading, or just learning, the pace of innovation shows no signs of slowing.⚡
With governments drafting laws, Web3 firms rolling out phones, and Bitcoin mining debates going nuclear (literally), there’s never been a more exciting time to watch — and build — the future.🚀
Keep an eye on the charts, your wallet in your control, and your curiosity open.🧭
Catch you next week for more signal, less noise.👋
