BSC News

Missouri Men Charged Over Failed Abduction Plot
Federal prosecutors have charged three St. Louis men, Sedric Louis, John Davis, and Martel Williams, in connection with a plot to rob the family of the alleged Bitcoin thief at the centre of one of the largest cryptocurrency heists in US history.
According to the interim US Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Louis (32), Davis (34), and Williams (27) traveled to Connecticut to plan a robbery and abduction they ultimately never carried out. A grand jury indictment released in New Haven federal court charges the three men with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery, an offence that carries up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
From August 21 to 24, 2024, the men are alleged to have traveled to Connecticut, acquired rental vehicles, air rifles, and walkie talkies, and then stalked the intended teenage target and his parents for two days, waiting for a chance to force entry and demand a transfer of the stolen Bitcoin. However, the group feared they had been captured on home surveillance cameras and abandoned their plan. A second crew, this time from Florida, arrived to finish the job.
The case stems from a violent kidnapping that took place in Danbury, Connecticut, on August 25, 2024, when Danbury police arrested six Florida men accused of carrying out a carjacking and kidnapping two occupants of a vehicle. The Florida crew has since pleaded guilty to federal charges, with two already sentenced to 11 years in prison and the remainder awaiting sentencing.
The Underlying Bitcoin Theft
At the centre of the case is Veer Chetal, a 19-year-old from Danbury, Connecticut, who pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges in connection with the $245 million Bitcoin theft. Chetal, along with co-defendants Malone Lam and Jeandiel Serrano, was charged with stealing approximately 4,100 Bitcoin from a victim in Washington, D.C. According to court documents, the trio impersonated Google technical support staff to steal the Bitcoin from the victim.
A week after the theft, Chetal's parents were assaulted and briefly kidnapped in Danbury in a failed ransom plot, as attackers believed Chetal held a large amount of cryptocurrency. Chetal's father sustained severe facial and arm injuries and reportedly lost his job at Morgan Stanley in the wake of the incident.
Chetal faces 19 to 24 years in prison, a fine of between $50,000 and $500,000, and restitution to the victim yet to be determined, according to federal sentencing guidelines and his plea agreement. As an India-born citizen who moved to the US at the age of four, Chetal could also face deportation.
Sources:
Fox61: 3 Missouri men charged in same Bitcoin theft scheme
The Block: Teen in $245M Bitcoin heist loses bond after new $2M crypto theft
LiveNOW from FOX: A $245 million Bitcoin heist and a botched kidnapping

BlackRock Sets October Date for ETHA Reverse Split
BlackRock will carry out a one-for-three reverse share split on its iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) on October 6, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The move is a structural adjustment to the fund rather than a change in its investment mandate or underlying holdings.
The split will consolidate every three ETHA shares into one, increasing the fund's per-share net asset value without changing the value of investors' holdings or the fund's assets. Investors will see their holdings adjusted automatically, with no action required on their part.
Lower Trading Costs the Key Goal
Although BlackRock has not formally explained the rationale, the primary benefit is expected to come from reduced trading costs. The move is expected to push the share price from roughly $14 up to around $42, while narrowing the trading spread from about 7 basis points to roughly 2 basis points.
Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas highlighted the significance of that reduction. "This will lower cost to trade from 7bps to 2bps-ish," Balchunas said, adding: "Gotta love how ETF issuers consider a 7bp spread a PROBLEM and is adjusting to cut it to 2bps."
Reverse splits are common in the ETF industry, often used to align share prices with peer funds or to meet exchange listing requirements. Industry participants view the reverse split as a step to improve the ETF's trading structure rather than an event that would directly affect Ethereum's price.
ETHA is the dominant product in the spot Ethereum ETF market. The fund's total assets under management exceed $5 billion, and BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust has been supplying the overwhelming majority of demand across the spot Ethereum ETF complex. BlackRock also issues the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF, which began trading in March 2026.
Sources
The Block: BlackRock's spot Ethereum ETF to undergo 1-for-3 reverse share split in October
Investing.com: Ethereum's Narrow Rally Depends Heavily on BlackRock and Treasury Demand

Regulators Meet in London to Align on Digital Finance
US and UK financial regulators have reaffirmed their commitment to closer cooperation on digital assets, with the GENIUS Act sitting at the centre of the latest discussions. The 13th official meeting of the UK-US Financial Regulatory Working Group (FRWG) was hosted by His Majesty's Treasury in London on July 8, 2026. Senior officials from the US Treasury and HM Treasury were joined by representatives from the Bank of England, Financial Conduct Authority, Federal Reserve, CFTC, FDIC, OCC, and the SEC.
Officials discussed stablecoin regulation, digital asset market structure in the United States, tokenization, and the UK's Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy. A joint statement was published on August 4, summarising the talks.
GENIUS Act Implementation Takes Centre Stage
US authorities provided an update on implementing the GENIUS Act for stablecoins and on digital asset market structure. The GENIUS Act was enacted in the United States in July 2025 and permits the Secretary of the Treasury to create and implement reciprocal arrangements between the United States and jurisdictions with payment stablecoin regulatory regimes that are comparable to the requirements established under the GENIUS Act.
The discussion also covered the G20 Cross-Border Payments Roadmap. Participants discussed issues related to digital finance, emphasizing broad support for the responsible use and growth of digital assets and digital financial innovation globally.
Although the meeting did not produce new policy measures, it underscored a shared commitment to coordinating regulation across key areas of the digital asset industry. The Working Group was formed in 2018 to deepen bilateral regulatory cooperation with a view to the further promotion of financial stability, investor protection, fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and capital formation in both jurisdictions.
Sources:
US Department of the Treasury: UK-US Financial Regulatory Working Group Summer 2026 Joint Statement
CryptoNews: US, UK reaffirm support for stablecoins, tokenization in joint financial regulation talks
Paul Hastings: The GENIUS Act: A Comprehensive Guide to US Stablecoin Regulation

Hougan: The Bill Matters Less Than Ending the Uncertainty
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is running out of time. The bill does not have the time to clear the Senate floor before the August 8 recess, and even if it does, it may be confined to the last possible moment. But Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan argues that a stall is not necessarily the end of the road for the industry.
Hougan says the CLARITY Act's fate matters less than ending the uncertainty around it. He argues that crypto can survive the bill failing, but cannot thrive in regulatory limbo. With the Senate gridlocked, he points to the SEC as an alternative source of forward momentum.
Hougan has suggested that investors may be underestimating the recent pivot by the SEC toward crypto, and believes this shift, led by SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, has not been fully factored into current market valuations. Atkins published a speech on July 31 at the America First Policy Institute laying out how blockchain will be integrated into financial markets. Hougan has described the SEC's new direction as potentially more crypto-friendly than anything Congress has produced so far.
Where the CLARITY Act Stands
The CLARITY Act would create a federal rulebook for issuing, trading, and holding digital assets, dividing oversight between the SEC and the CFTC, and defining how decentralized-finance developers and protocols would be treated. The House passed it in July 2025 by a vote of 294 to 134, with 78 Democrats joining every Republican who voted. The Senate Banking Committee approved a revised text in May 2026 by a 15-9 vote.
Despite that progress, the bill remains stuck. Senate Democrats have signaled they will block the legislation without ethics safeguards tied to President Trump's crypto holdings. Brian Gardner, chief Washington policy strategist at Stifel, wrote that the bill "probably needs to get through the Senate by the end of July" and that missing the August recess would cause its prospects to "deteriorate materially."
Hougan acknowledges the stakes. He has cautioned that crypto's progress remains fragile unless Congress codifies regulatory clarity into law, noting that supportive executive measures from the Trump administration could be undone by future leaders. Still, he sees the SEC's posture under Atkins and traditional finance's deep integration with blockchain as reasons why the industry does not need to wait on Capitol Hill to keep moving forward. Prolonged uncertainty, however, remains the one scenario he warns could delay meaningful institutional adoption.
Sources:
Yahoo Finance: Crypto Can Survive CLARITY Failure, But Not the Wait: Bitwise CIO
Forbes: Crypto's Landmark CLARITY Bill Is Running Out of Time
CoinTelegraph: SEC's Crypto Pivot Has 'Not Been Priced In,' Bitwise Exec Says

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) has published a new essay arguing that the current artificial intelligence investment boom carries the seeds of a financial crisis far more damaging than the dot-com crash, and that Bitcoin $BTC could ultimately be one of the biggest beneficiaries when it unravels.
A Credit Story, Not an Equity Story
Hayes published the essay, titled "Situationship," on August 4, 2026, arguing that the AI infrastructure boom could end as a credit crisis rather than a dot-com style equity collapse. The distinction matters. In the 2000 crash, overvalued technology stocks fell sharply, but the damage was largely contained to equity markets. Hayes sees the current AI buildout as structurally different. He described the AI boom as a "credit story like 2008 and not an earnings story like 2000," warning that banks, insurers, private credit funds, and infrastructure investors continue financing construction even as profitable demand begins to slow. Losses would then emerge when weaker projects cannot generate enough cash to meet debt, lease, or interest obligations.
The scale of the buildout supports that concern. Hayes estimates that roughly $1.5 trillion in debt was issued by hyperscalers and AI infrastructure companies between November 2022 and mid-2026, matching almost exactly the $1.5 trillion rise in M2 money supply over the same period. In his reading, that dynamic explains why Bitcoin has underperformed despite expanding dollar liquidity. Bitcoin underperformed because the new dollars were already spoken for. When those dollars evaporate in a credit event and central banks respond, the money has nowhere productive to go, and Bitcoin is the only fixed-supply exit.
Monetary Easing as the Crypto Catalyst
Hayes's core argument is that the sequence after a bust matters more than the bust itself. If AI-related credit losses spread broadly, he expects central banks to respond with monetary easing, the same playbook used after the 2008 financial crisis. Fresh liquidity, in his view, would have fewer productive outlets than in prior cycles, making hard-capped assets like Bitcoin the natural destination for capital seeking shelter.
Alphabet raised its 2026 capital expenditure guidance to between $195 billion and $205 billion amid demand growth, illustrating just how deep the current commitment runs across major technology companies. That level of spending, funded increasingly through debt rather than operating cash flow, is precisely what Hayes flags as the vulnerability.
The essay follows a period in which Hayes has been openly repositioning. In his June essay "Reality Test," the BitMEX co-founder said Maelstrom had cut several crypto positions while keeping Bitcoin and Ether as core holdings. "Situationship" extends that macro framework, pointing to monetary easing as the mechanism that would eventually drive a broad crypto recovery.
Sources:
Bitcoin may gain if AI bubble bursts, Hayes says (Crypto.news)
Arthur Hayes says AI rescue liquidity could send Bitcoin to $1,000,000 (CryptoSlate)
Arthur Hayes says Bitcoin cannot rally until the AI bubble bursts (The Defiant)

Two of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin are back in the spotlight after on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain flagged significant wallet movements from both MARA Holdings and Strategy on August 5, 2026.
MARA Moves 6,000 BTC to Two Prime
Bitcoin miner MARA transferred 6,000 $BTC worth approximately $384.6 million to Two Prime, according to Lookonchain. The firm noted the transfer does not necessarily indicate a sale. Large miner-related transfers can reflect routine treasury management, custody reshuffling, collateral moves, or preparation for an over-the-counter sale, but in a thin market they often get read as a supply signal.
The move to Two Prime is notable given the existing relationship between the two firms. Two Prime is an SEC-registered investment advisor that provides institutional investors with exposure to Bitcoin through bespoke derivatives strategies, serving clients ranging from corporate treasuries and miners to family offices, and its credit team is one of the largest Bitcoin-secured lenders in the world. If the Bitcoin is being posted as collateral or rotated into a strategy, it does not necessarily imply spot selling.
Strategy Wallets Also Active
Wallets linked to Strategy also moved 1,030 $BTC worth approximately $66.1 million, per Lookonchain. The purpose of the transfer was not immediately disclosed. The movement adds to a pattern of recent on-chain activity around the company. A similar on-chain move was detected last month before Strategy disclosed a Bitcoin sale worth about $216 million, and analysts flagged that the latest transfer could also precede another sale. Strategy has yet to issue an official statement on the latest Bitcoin transfer.
Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) is the world's first and largest Bitcoin Treasury Company, holding more Bitcoin than any other publicly traded entity. The recent transfer activity came days after Strategy reported a $24.45 per share GAAP loss in the second quarter, driven by an $8.32 billion unrealized loss on its Bitcoin holdings under fair-value accounting rules.
Neither company has confirmed that the transferred coins were sold. Analysts and traders are likely to watch for any SEC filings or public disclosures in the coming days that clarify the intent behind both movements.
Sources:
CoinDesk: Bitcoin miner MARA moves BTC to trading desks and exchanges
MARA Holdings: MARA leads $20 million investment in Two Prime (official press release)
Stocktwits: Strategy MSTR stock falls after Bitcoin transfer sale rumors

Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) spent Tuesday working every available channel to push the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act toward a Senate floor vote before Congress breaks for recess on Friday. She backed Senator Hagerty's warning that America risks falling behind on digital assets, and amplified Senator Husted's call to stop stalling on a vote. Her argument: the bill protects consumers, arms law enforcement, and includes what she describes as a historic ethics provision covering the President, Vice President, members of Congress and the judiciary.
Where the bill stands
The Clarity Act has passed the House with a 294-134 margin and cleared the Senate Banking Committee in a 15-9 vote in May 2026, but has not yet received a full Senate floor vote. Republicans hold 53 Senate seats, meaning the bill needs at least seven Democrats to cross over and reach the 60-vote cloture threshold. Prediction markets currently put the odds of passage in 2026 at roughly 30 percent, down sharply from above 80 percent in February.
Lummis has argued that no regulatory rule, on its own, can hand the CFTC authority over digital asset spot markets, add sanctions powers against U.S. adversaries, or shield developers from unwarranted prosecution, and that the Clarity Act is the only viable path to address those gaps. More than 200 industry organizations, including Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken and Circle, have urged Senate leaders to bring the bill to the floor, arguing that continued uncertainty pushes innovation and jobs offshore while leaving U.S. consumers without clear protections.
The Democratic bloc and the clock
Without signs of progress from the White House on a bipartisan ethics deal and other breakthroughs, Senate Democrats say they will deny cloture for the crypto bill, according to four sources involved in the process. Senate Republicans have been pushing for an up-or-down vote for months, but right now that vote is set to fail.
The revised ethics provisions have failed to win over several Senate Democrats, with Senators Alsobrooks, Booker, Cortez Masto, Gallego, Hickenlooper, Warner and Warnock saying the latest Republican draft still falls short on ethics, illicit finance, conflicts of interest and other unresolved issues. Senators Cortez Masto and Warner have also tied their support to law enforcement's sign-off on the illicit finance provisions, a separate condition that has not yet been publicly resolved.
If the bill fails to pass before the August recess, analysts warn that its chances of becoming law this year could decline sharply, potentially delaying meaningful crypto market structure legislation until 2027 or beyond. With the window closing fast, the next 72 hours will determine whether the Clarity Act advances now or gets pushed to September at the earliest.
Sources:
Punchbowl News: Democrats say Clarity's cloture vote is doomed
Bitcoin.com News: Lummis says CLARITY Act framework is not working as Senate stalls
Latham and Watkins: US Crypto Policy Tracker, Legislative Developments

Michael @saylor has called on supporters of BIP-110 to abandon the effort, arguing the numbers have made the case for them. With just 38 signaling blocks, or 2.70% of the total, as of block 961,022, the proposal needs a 55% miner threshold to lock in voluntarily, which Saylor called impossible. His message was blunt: "Unless major miners reverse, Bitcoin continues normally while BIP-110 stalls or forks into irrelevance. Its backers should stand down."
What BIP-110 Would Do
BIP-110, formally titled the Reduced Data Temporary Soft Fork and authored under the pseudonym Dathon Ohm, proposes a one-year consensus-level restriction on arbitrary data embedding in Bitcoin transactions. The rules would target the most common methods used for Ordinals inscriptions, large OP_RETURN payloads, BRC-20 tokens, and certain Taproot constructions repurposed for data storage. It also lowers the miner signaling threshold required for activation to 55%, down from the traditional 95% supermajority that Bitcoin soft forks have historically required.
Supporters argue that inscription-style activity bloats the blockchain and creates "significant unnecessary burdens" on node operators. They frame the proposal as a defense of Bitcoin's role as sound money. Critics, including Saylor, counter that changing consensus rules to address what some consider spam sets a more dangerous precedent than the problem itself. Saylor argues that fee markets and relay policies, not consensus changes, should address so-called spam, warning that BIP-110 could restrict innovation, weaken miner incentives, and undermine Bitcoin's role as an open, permissionless financial system.
The Numbers Are the Story
Miner signaling sits near 2.6% of blocks after OCEAN began signaling by default, too low for voluntary lock-in this period, so the mandatory signaling window at block 961,632, around August 9, is the only remaining path. No major pool has committed: F2Pool has refused outright, AntPool has stayed silent, Foundry USA opened a hashrate-weighted miner vote, and Ocean produces effectively all signaling blocks. On those numbers, the likelier outcome is a small breakaway chain rather than a network-wide change.
Adam Back and Jameson Lopp have also warned that the proposal risks a Bitcoin chain split, calling activation parameters reckless and technically flawed. Saylor is not alone in his assessment, but his intervention carries particular weight given that his company holds 843,775 $BTC. The proposal has triggered one of the most significant Bitcoin governance disputes in recent years. As of July 2026, miner support stands below 1% and a mandatory signaling window approaches in August, making activation near-impossible, but the debate BIP-110 sparked over Bitcoin's protocol governance is ongoing regardless of the proposal's outcome.
Sources
Bitcoin.com: Strategy's Saylor Tells BIP-110 Backers to 'Stand Down' Before Fork
Crypto Times: Michael Saylor Says BIP-110 Lacks Bitcoin Economic Consensus
AMINA Bank: Bitcoin Fork August 2026 – BIP-110, eCash, Covenants and the Quantum Clock

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce (@HesterPeirce) says she remains optimistic the Clarity Act will pass, but used a recent appearance on CoinDesk's Policy Protocol to draw a clear line between what the agency can accomplish on its own and what only Congress can deliver.
What the SEC Can Do Without Congress
Peirce has been one of the most vocal internal advocates for crypto reform at the SEC. In January 2025, the agency launched a crypto task force led by Peirce, with priorities that included rules on a digital asset's security status, clearer paths for registered offerings, and guidance on custody, lending, and staking. She told CoinDesk that even without the Clarity Act, the SEC retains meaningful scope to act, from crypto fundraising frameworks to custody rules and tokenized securities.
Peirce said the SEC will continue pursuing regulatory reform for digital assets regardless of the bill's outcome, and that a well-defined market structure would boost US competitiveness and reduce long-term regulatory uncertainty.
The Problem Only Congress Can Solve
There is, however, one gap that no amount of agency rulemaking can close. Many crypto platforms list tokens that qualify as securities alongside tokens that do not, and Peirce says the SEC's authority over trades in that second group is legally unclear. That is a question that requires an act of Congress, not a staff bulletin.
The Clarity Act would divide oversight of crypto between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and build a federal structure for spot markets, a structure that does not currently exist. The framework would also clarify the application of the Howey Test, the standard for determining when a token qualifies as part of an investment contract.
The timing of Peirce's comments is deliberate. The bill cleared the House on a 294-134 bipartisan vote in July 2025 and advanced out of the Senate Banking Committee on a 15-9 vote in May 2026, but a Senate floor vote has yet to be scheduled. The bill must still achieve a 60-vote threshold in the Senate, undergo House-Senate reconciliation, and receive a presidential signature to become law.
If the Clarity Act fails to clear the Senate before the approximately August 7 recess cutoff, it does not merely delay a law. It leaves reversible administrative action as the only protection standing between the crypto industry and a future administration's enforcement priorities. Galaxy Research has estimated passage odds at roughly 50-50 for 2026, treating the August recess deadline as the last realistic legislative gate before the calendar works against enactment.
Sources:
Yahoo Finance: SEC's Peirce Expects CLARITY Act Senate Vote Before August Recess
Crypto Briefing: Clarity Act Set for Full Senate Vote
Latham & Watkins: US Crypto Policy Tracker

@SpaceX lieferte einen beeindruckenden Start als börsennotiertes Unternehmen und meldete 7,8 Milliarden US-Dollar Umsatz im zweiten Quartal – ein Plus von 92% im Jahresvergleich und rund 1 Milliarde US-Dollar über der Konsensschätzung von Wall Street, die ungefähr 6,9 Milliarden US-Dollar erwartete. Das bereinigte EBITDA stieg fast auf das Dreifache auf 3,5 Milliarden US-Dollar – deutlich über den 2 Milliarden US-Dollar, die Analysten eingeplant hatten.
Starlink trägt das Geschäft
Starlink hat nun 12 Millionen Abonnenten – doppelt so viele wie ein Jahr zuvor und 17% mehr als im ersten Quartal. Der Bereich Konnektivität trieb 55% des Gesamtumsatzes an und festigte damit seine Rolle als wichtigster Cashflow-Generator des Unternehmens. Das Konnektivitätsgeschäft blieb SpaceXs wichtigster Gewinnmotor; der operative Gewinn stieg um 79% im Jahresvergleich auf 1,656 Milliarden US-Dollar. CFO Bret Johnsen führte die Margenausweitung darauf zurück, „angeführt von unseren neuen KI-Compute-Vereinbarungen“. Johnsen sagte in der Telefonkonferenz zu den Ergebnissen, dass das Unternehmen auf Kurs sei, bis Ende des Jahres 100 Milliarden US-Dollar an annualisiertem wiederkehrendem Umsatz zu erreichen. Zudem wies er darauf hin, dass SpaceX in den ersten Wochen des laufenden Quartals zusätzliche 6,7 Milliarden US-Dollar an Umsätzen aus Cloud-Services „für einen Zeitraum von sechs Monaten“ gebunden habe, der ab Oktober mit dem Hochlauf beginnt.

@Ondo's tokenized product platform is growing at a pace that is outrunning its own assets. Holders of @Ondo tokenized products rose 15.7% over the past 30 days to 192,056, while monthly transfer volume jumped 27.8% to $2.76 billion. The fact that activity is accelerating faster than assets under management suggests demand is broadening rather than simply tracking price moves.
Tokenized Stocks Driving New Users
The clearest growth signal is coming from the equity side of the platform. The NVIDIA product alone has accumulated over 20,600 holders, with Tesla past 12,200, and nearly every equity line on the platform showing holder growth. The platform now lists more than 260 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs across three blockchains. Tokenized stocks have emerged as the fastest-growing asset class on Ethereum in 2026, with Ondo leading the sector.
Ondo Finance held a 39.4% market share in the tokenized stocks segment, though it still leads tokenized stocks issuance even as competitors narrow the gap. The growth story is also notable for what is behind it structurally. Each token is fully backed by the underlying security, held inside a U.S.-registered broker-dealer, and tracks total return including dividends.
Ethereum Leads, But Multi-Chain Footprint Widens
@ethereum remains the primary home for value on the platform, accounting for 53% of the total at $1.9 billion. @StellarOrg comes in second at $533.7 million, with @BNBCHAIN contributing $345.4 million. The multi-chain distribution reflects a deliberate strategy to avoid liquidity concentrating on a single network.
Ondo Global Markets crossed $1 billion in total value locked within eight months of launch, a milestone that puts the platform's trajectory in sharp context. Stablecoins took roughly three years to hit $1 billion. Tokenized Treasuries took about two. Tokenized stocks did it in eight months.
Looking ahead, Ondo Finance President Ian De Bode expects tokenized stocks to reach $3 billion by the end of 2026. The latest holder and volume data suggests that target is within reach, with user-level demand now acting as a key driver alongside institutional inflows.
Sources:
Blockonomi: Ondo Exec Sees Tokenized Stocks Reaching $3B in 2026
TheStreet: Ondo Finance exec sees tokenized stocks hitting $3B by year-end
The Coin Republic: Tokenized Stocks Surge, Ondo Leads

$USDT commands the largest market cap in stablecoins, while Circle's $USDC sits at roughly $73 billion to $75 billion in circulating supply. On paper, that looks like a straightforward win for Tether. Onchain, the story is very different.
According to Token Terminal data, USDC moved $3.2T in transfer volume over the past 30 days, compared to $1.3T for USDT. Total stablecoin and tokenized asset transfers reached $6.5T across nearly 3,500 assets in the period. The gap points to something more structural than a short-term shift in trader preference.
Two Stablecoins, Two Very Different Jobs
USDC leads in high-volume settlements, while USDT dominates small-value transfers and offshore USD demand. That division of labor has been building for some time. Dune data shows USDC has become the preferred settlement layer for decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, and automated market makers, particularly on faster networks like Layer-2 chains and Solana. The institutional angle is also sharpening. According to CoinDesk, growing adoption by banks and financial institutions, including new USDC services from Standard Chartered and BNY, reflects a broader shift toward established fiat-pegged digital asset networks.
Velocity Over Supply
The divergence comes down to velocity. Each USDC dollar circulates more frequently than USDT across payments, DeFi, settlements, and cross-chain activity. USDT, by contrast, functions more like held digital cash, widely distributed across remittance corridors and emerging market wallets where users store value rather than transact repeatedly.
This shift stands in stark contrast to the recent past. In 2020, USDT accounted for nearly 90% of adjusted trading volume, while USDC was under 10%. By 2022, USDC's share had risen to approximately 45% and has continued to climb. Bloomberg reported that total stablecoin transaction volumes rose 72% to $33 trillion in 2025, with USDC accounting for $18.3 trillion of that total against USDT's $13.3 trillion.
The takeaway is not that USDT is losing relevance. Expect continued divergence, with USDC leading in adjusted and real-economic volume and institutional rails, while USDT maintains supply and retail dominance. Both are dollar stablecoins, but they are increasingly serving different corners of the financial system.
Sources:
Stablecoin Transfer Volume (Token Terminal)
USDC widens lead over USDT in H1 2026 transaction volume (CoinDesk)
Stablecoin Transactions Rose to Record $33 Trillion in 2025 (Bloomberg)

Programmable Wallets for a Machine Economy
@Cloudflare has announced Cloudflare Wallets, a programmable wallet system designed to give AI agents a native way to pay for APIs and digital content on the web. The product will provide AI agents with native payments and verifiable identity, using the x402 protocol to let agents autonomously purchase APIs and content within defined safety guardrails.
The system is designed to facilitate automated payments between AI agents and API or content providers, allowing those tools to execute native payments using stablecoin micropayments over x402, overcoming the historical barrier of traditional payment methods designed exclusively for humans.
The x402 protocol is an open payment standard that uses the HTTP 402 status code to enable AI agents and software to make instant stablecoin payments on-chain. Developed by Coinbase and backed by the x402 Foundation, it turns any API endpoint into a paywall that machines can navigate without human intervention, credit cards, or subscription accounts.
Account Wallets, Virtual Wallets and Spending Guardrails
Cloudflare Wallets splits the architecture into two types: Account Wallets held by humans and Virtual Wallets delegated to agents via API keys with a hard spend cap set by the owner. Virtual Wallets are designed to allow agents to explore dozens or hundreds of services to find the best option for a given task. Stablecoin micropayments via x402 make it simple to try an API without an account, and spending caps ensure agents can explore autonomously within safe limits.
As of the August 4, 2026 announcement, users can claim a handle on cloudflare.pay, but the wallet's full payment functionality is described as coming soon. Cloudflare confirmed that handles are claimable now, with complete wallet functionality to follow.
The launch follows Cloudflare's earlier Monetization Gateway, announced on July 1, 2026, which addressed the seller side of the equation. Together, the two products address a problem the agent ecosystem has struggled with: an agent can plan, reason, and call tools, but it cannot sign up for anything or pay for anything. Every agent that hits a paywall today stops and asks a human for a credit card.
Cloudflare sits in front of roughly 20% of global internet traffic. When a company with that much network surface area adopts stablecoin payment infrastructure, it signals that web-scale infrastructure providers see on-chain settlement becoming a core function of the internet stack, not a niche use case.
Sources
Cloudflare Blog: Announcing Cloudflare Wallets
InfoQ: Cloudflare and AWS Embed x402 Agent Payments at the Edge
Thirdweb Blog: Cloudflare's Stablecoin Gateway and x402

A governance package that would dramatically increase the amount of $SOL burned each day has cleared its first formal milestone, crossing the 15% support threshold required to advance on Solana's on-chain governance system. The proposal drew backing from 65.22 million SOL across 76 validators, with Helius and Jupiter the two largest supporters at 16 million and 12.47 million SOL respectively.
The package now enters a community discussion phase running until September 1, after which a formal stake-weighted vote will take place.
Two Proposals, One Supply Squeeze
The governance package bundles two linked improvement documents. SIMD-0553 would introduce resource-based transaction fees, lifting daily SOL burns from about 650 to as many as 9,000 coins, while SIMD-0550 would accelerate disinflation so the network reaches its 1.5% terminal inflation rate by 2029 instead of 2032.
SIMD-0553 introduces a dual-component pricing structure to replace the existing flat-rate base fee. Under this framework, transactions would incur a fixed inclusion charge paid to block producers, plus a variable resource fee based on computational requirements and account data usage. The resource component would be fully burned, while priority fees would continue flowing to validators.
On the issuance side, SIMD-0550 proposes doubling Solana's yearly disinflation rate from 15% to 30%. While the network's ultimate inflation target remains anchored at 1.5%, this adjustment would advance the timeline for reaching that floor by three years. According to proposal calculations, implementing this accelerated schedule would reduce new token issuance by approximately 18.9 million SOL across a six-year period.
Still Inflationary, But Trending Tighter
Even at the higher burn rate, the absolute numbers remain far below daily issuance. New SOL issued each day still dwarfs the projected burns, meaning the network would continue to experience net inflation in the near term. With issuance still running near 60,000 SOL daily, the token stays inflationary for now, but net supply growth would slow considerably if both proposals pass.
Over a multi-year horizon, however, the cumulative effect of higher burns could remove millions of SOL from circulating supply, especially if transaction volume grows.
The changes would slow supply growth but would not make SOL immediately deflationary. Oversized transactions could cost more, while faster disinflation would reduce nominal staking rewards. Validators and stakers will need to weigh those trade-offs ahead of the formal vote.
Solana's on-chain governance framework, the SGP system, went live on July 2, giving validators and delegators the infrastructure to run binding, stake-weighted votes on protocol direction for the first time. This burn package is among the first major tests of that system.
Sources:
CoinDesk: A new Solana proposal would take daily SOL burns from $47,000 to $650,000
Crypto Times: Solana Seeks 14x Burn Increase Alongside Accelerated Supply Reduction
Coindoo: Solana Weighs Two Proposals to Slow SOL Supply Growth

Pi Network Joins RoboPay as a Payment Partner
Pi Network (@PiCoreTeam) has signed on as a payment partner for RoboPay, the onchain settlement rail built by @FabricFND, with $PI set to become a currency for robot services across the Fabric network. The deal extends RoboPay's infrastructure to tens of millions of Pi holders, giving the existing Pioneer community a direct route into what Fabric calls an open machine economy.
RoboPay was designed so AI agents can discover, hire, and pay robots autonomously without human intermediaries. The initiative connects artificial intelligence agents with real-world robots and seeks to lay the operational foundations for the machine economy through onchain payment standards and task verification. Pi Network's addition as a payment partner extends that same payment rail to one of crypto's largest user bases.
What Robot Services Could Look Like
Once live, the use cases outlined include summoning delivery robots for groceries, dispatching security patrols, and booking industrial inspections, all settled in $PI. The vision places human users, AI, and physical machines on a shared economic layer where any party can transact with another.
Fabric Protocol is a decentralized infrastructure layer designed to enable robots and AI agents to operate as autonomous economic participants within an open, onchain robot economy, aiming to solve the lack of financial identity for robots by providing onchain wallets, verifiable identities, and a payment network. Fabric treats humans, AI agents, and robots equally on the payment layer, with transactions settling via smart contracts with fast, irreversible finality, not subject to banking hours, geographic restrictions, or legacy financial infrastructure.
Pi Network is not the only project building into RoboPay. Projects such as Aethir, AEON, Kite AI, Peaq, FLock, PrismaX, and Unibase form the initial infrastructure of the network, spanning agent identity and hosting through to execution, payment, and verification of physical tasks. The Pi partnership adds a significant payments dimension by bringing a large, established holder base into that ecosystem.
On the network side, Pi Network connects directly with over 60 million engaged users, giving RoboPay a substantial addressable base for consumer-facing robot services from day one, assuming the services go live as planned.
Sources:
Crypto Economy: Fabric Foundation Unveils RoboPay Partners
NFT Evening: What Is Fabric Protocol (ROBO)?
Fabric Foundation: The Robot Economy Needs Infrastructure

Apple briefly removed @telegram from the App Store on Monday night after a review found content that violated its guidelines against child sexual abuse material (CSAM), but restored the app a short while later. The removal lasted roughly 40 minutes, and the app was restored after Telegram deleted the offending content and banned the user responsible.
Durov Points the Finger at Organised Extortion
@durov did not accept the episode at face value. He alleged that an attacker deliberately planted illegal content in a public group, then reported it directly to Apple, as part of a coordinated extortion scheme targeting group owners who refuse to pay ransom. "These extortionists use automated accounts to plant illegal content in public groups," Durov warned, describing the tactic as a "systemic risk" for all apps hosting user-generated content.
"Extortionists have found a way to manipulate Apple into overreacting," Durov wrote, adding that Apple removed the platform without contacting Telegram first. Telegram, which counts more than a billion monthly active users, maintains a zero-tolerance policy on such material and said it has blocked nearly 338,000 groups and channels for related content this year.
Apple Confirms the Facts, Declines to Address the Extortion Claim
An Apple spokesperson confirmed the brief removal, stating that its review found content violating guidelines that prohibit child sexual abuse material, and that "the app was subsequently restored after the developer promptly removed the content and banned the user who posted it." Apple did not address Durov's extortion allegation publicly.
The incident is not without precedent. In February 2018, Apple pulled Telegram globally after flagging "inappropriate content" being distributed through certain channels, restoring it once Telegram implemented additional content protections. The latest removal drew fresh criticism of Apple's App Store governance. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, a longtime critic of App Store policy, argued on X that the takedown showed the need for more competition in app distribution, writing: "Apple's App Store desperately needs competition worldwide."
The episode also lands at a difficult moment for @durov personally. Russian authorities recently charged Durov with aiding terrorism, while in 2024 French authorities indicted him on multiple criminal charges linked to the distribution of illegal material and fraud on Telegram. Telegram has denied the allegations, stating that Durov "has nothing to hide" and calling it "absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform."
Sources:
The National: Telegram's Durov says 'extortionists' pushed Apple to remove messaging platform from App Store
MacRumors: Telegram Briefly Removed From App Store
Forbes: Telegram Briefly Removed From App Store Over Alleged Child Sexual Abuse Content

Sei (@SeiNetwork) v6.6 ist seit Block 224.201.091 live und stellt damit das größte Upgrade des Netzwerks seit dem Start des EVM-Supports im Mai 2024 dar. Das Release bündelt fast 400 Pull Requests und, noch wichtiger, markiert zum ersten Mal, dass Sei-Giga-Komponenten den Mainnet-Betrieb erreicht haben.
Ares und Eidos: Die ersten Giga-Komponenten gehen live
Die beiden zentralen Änderungen in v6.6 adressieren jeweils eine andere Schicht des Stacks. Das Release führt die ersten Bausteine von zwei der drei großen Giga-Updates ein: Eidos, eine neue Speicherschicht, die damit beginnt, die Historie der Kette in ihre eigene Datenbank zu verlagern, und Ares, eine neu aufgebaute Ausführungs-Engine, die zum Standardpfad für das Ausführen von Transaktionen wird.

Sechs von 11 Stablecoins mit Bewertung „angemessen“ oder darüber
S&P Global Ratings ( @SPGlobalRatings ) hat ein Update für den Stablecoin-Stability-Assessment-(SSA)-Rahmen veröffentlicht und festgestellt, dass sechs der 11 Stablecoins, die in ihren Bewertungen abgedeckt sind, nun über eine angemessene bzw. eine darüber hinausgehende Fähigkeit verfügen, ihre Bindung an die Fiat-Währung aufrechtzuerhalten. Die Agentur nannte Fortschritte bei den Emittenten als Schlüsselfaktor; eine bessere Vermögensqualität und gute Risikomanagement-Praktiken hätten zur Verbesserung beigetragen.
S&Ps SSAs verwenden eine Skala mit fünf Stufen: 1 (sehr stark), 2 (stark), 3 (angemessen), 4 (eingeschränkt) und 5 (schwach). Die Bewertungen berücksichtigen Faktoren wie Vermögensqualität, Governance-Rahmenwerke, regulatorische Compliance, Einlösbarkeit, Liquidität und Erfolgsbilanz. An der Spitze liegen $EURC und $USDC beide mit einer Bewertung von 2 (stark), ebenso $USDG, das seine erste Bewertung im Februar 2026 erhielt, sowie $USDP, das ebenfalls mit 2 (stark) bewertet wurde.

@DinariGlobal hat seine Plattform für tokenisierte Wertpapiere für berechtigte amerikanische Investoren und Unternehmen zum ersten Mal geöffnet und 724 an der US-Börse gelistete Aktien aufgenommen – darunter jedes Unternehmen im S&P 500. Anleger können die tokenisierten Anteile über Circle's $USDC-Stablecoin über Self-Custody-Wallets kaufen und verkaufen. Das Unternehmen sagt, dies sei das erste Mal, dass US-Personen tokenisierte US-gelistete Aktien direkt aus ihren eigenen Wallets zugreifen können.
Der Launch erstreckt sich außerdem auf Finanzinstitute über Dinari's Broker-Dealer-Tochtergesellschaft Dinari Securities LLC. Damit können Broker-Dealer, Banken, Fintechs und Wealth-Plattformen tokenisierte Wertpapierprodukte sowohl für Privat- als auch für institutionelle Kunden über eine einzige Technologie-Integration anbieten. Dinari agiert als registrierter Broker-Dealer und SEC-registrierter Transfer-Agent und ist mitglied bei FINRA und SIPC.

Ein einziges Modell für Verwahrung und Staking
@galaxyhq und @BNYglobal arbeiten zusammen, um die digitale Asset-Infrastruktur für institutionelle Märkte voranzutreiben, einschließlich der Aufnahme von Staking-Unterstützung in die Digital Asset Custody-Plattform von BNY, wie die Unternehmen am Dienstag bekanntgaben. Die Partnerschaft kombiniert digitale Asset-Verwahrung und Staking in einem einzigen institutionellen Servicemodell und ermöglicht berechtigten Kunden den Zugang zu Staking-Prämien, ohne Vermögenswerte von der Plattform von BNY zu verlagern.
Berechtigte institutionelle Kunden können Staking im Rahmen des umfassenderen Servicemodells von BNY nutzen, mit integrierten Funktionen, die je nach Anwendungsfall Verwahrung, Fondsbuchhaltung, Steuerberichterstattung, Zahlungen und Kundenberichterstattung umfassen. Galaxy stellt die Staking-Infrastruktur bereit und wird außerdem als Design-Partner fungieren, während BNY seine blockchainbasierten Services weiter ausbaut. Das Angebot unterliegt weiterhin einer behördlichen Prüfung, und die Unternehmen haben noch keinen Starttermin angekündigt.