Blockman PR - Marketing

MoonPay, the global financial technology company powering the movement of value across fiat and digital assets, today announced the integration of the TRON network with MoonPay's Trade infrastructure, enabling users to complete transactions on TRON without holding TRX to pay network fees. The TRON network is governed by TRON DAO, the community-governed DAO dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet through blockchain technology and decentralized applications (dApps).
The integration brings MoonPay's gasless transaction experience to one of the world's largest stablecoin settlement networks, supporting over $22 billion in average daily transfer volume. Support extends across the TRON ecosystem, including SunSwap and JustLend, making it easier for users to move assets and interact with on-chain applications.
Traditionally, users transacting on TRON were required to maintain a balance of TRX, the native utility token of the TRON network, to cover network fees, even when sending or swapping stablecoins. Through MoonPay's Trade infrastructure, gas fees are abstracted and incorporated into the overall transaction, allowing users to transact with just the assets they already hold.
The integration simplifies onboarding for both new and existing users by removing one of the most common points of friction in on-chain transactions. Users can process onchain transactions without needing TRX for gas, creating a more seamless experience for wallets, applications, and businesses building on TRON.
Trust Wallet is the first launch partner to support the integration, bringing gasless TRON transactions to its users through MoonPay's Trade infrastructure.
“TRON empowers millions of users around the world who rely on the network for everyday payments,” said Justin Sun, Founder of TRON. “The network was created on the belief that blockchains should be accessible, easy to use, and give individuals greater control over how they transact. The collaboration with MoonPay advances that vision by simplifying stablecoin transactions on TRON and making everyday onchain payments easier for users.”
“Stablecoins are transforming how money moves, but they need to work seamlessly across every network,” said Ivan Soto-Wright, CEO and Founder of MoonPay. “TRON is one of the world’s most important stablecoin ecosystems, and removing the need to hold TRX eliminates unnecessary friction for users. Together with TRON, we’re making stablecoin transfers simpler and more accessible for millions of people worldwide.”
This collaboration reinforces TRON's position as the leading settlement network for stablecoins while expanding access to a more seamless on-chain experience for MoonPay users. As adoption continues to grow, the integration removes operational friction for wallets, developers, and businesses building products on the TRON network.
Disclaimer: MoonPay’s Trade infrastructure is operated by Swaps XYZ, Ltd, a British Virgin Islands company and subsidiary of MoonPay. It is not licensed, authorized, or regulated by any financial services regulator, and is not covered by any license, authorization, or registration held by MoonPay and its regulated affiliates. Nothing herein should be construed as an endorsement or regulatory approval by MoonPay or its regulated subsidiaries.
About MoonPay
Founded in 2019, MoonPay is a global financial technology company that helps businesses and consumers move value across fiat and digital assets. MoonPay has more than 30 million customers across 180 countries and supports more than 1,700 enterprise customers spanning crypto and fintech.
MoonPay powers ramps, trading, commerce, and stablecoin infrastructure, connecting traditional payment rails with blockchains.
MoonPay is how the world moves value.
About TRON DAO
TRON DAO is a community-governed DAO dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet via blockchain technology and dApps.
Founded in September 2017, the TRON blockchain has experienced significant growth since its MainNet launch in May 2018. Until recently, TRON hosted the largest circulating supply of USD Tether (USDT) stablecoin, which currently exceeds $90 billion. As of August 2026, the TRON blockchain has recorded over 396 million in total user accounts, more than 15 billion in total transactions, and over $26 billion in total value locked (TVL), based on TRONSCAN. Recognized as the global settlement layer for stablecoin transactions and everyday purchases with proven success, TRON is “Moving Trillions, Empowering Billions.”

BingX Appoints Kevin Lee as Chief Strategy Officer to Accelerate its Multi-Asset, User-Centric Vision
BingX, a leading cryptocurrency exchange and Web3-AI company, today announced the appointment of Kevin Lee as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). In this role, Kevin will lead the company's long-term strategy across platform development, business growth, and ecosystem expansion, helping align innovation with evolving market opportunities and user needs.
The appointment comes as BingX continues to expand beyond crypto-native trading toward a unified multi-asset trading platform that enables users to discover market-moving opportunities, access a broader range of assets, and act on them with greater speed through an intelligent trading experience. As investor behavior evolves and global markets become increasingly interconnected, BingX is focused on building a platform that connects opportunities across digital assets and traditional financial markets.
Kevin brings more than 20 years of experience spanning institutional finance, electronic markets, financial technology, and digital assets. Since entering the digital asset industry in 2013, he has held senior leadership roles at leading digital asset companies, helping drive business growth, institutional adoption, and market development. Prior to that, Kevin held roles at JPMorgan Chase, Macquarie Group, and BNP Paribas, specializing in electronic trading, market structure, algorithmic execution, and financial technology across the Asia-Pacific region.
As Chief Strategy Officer, Kevin will lead BingX's long-term strategic direction across platform innovation, business growth, and ecosystem development. He will drive initiatives that connect market trends, user behavior, and product innovation, helping users discover and access what's moving across global markets while advancing BingX's intelligent multi-asset trading experience.
"The next era of trading will be defined not only by access to more asset classes, but by how seamlessly users can discover and access opportunities across them," said Kevin Lee, Chief Strategy Officer at BingX. "As digital assets and traditional finance continue to converge, users expect an intelligent platform where they can discover, access and stay connected to what's moving. BingX is building exactly that, and I'm excited to help shape the next generation of trading experiences for users worldwide."
Kevin's appointment reflects BingX's long-term commitment to building a platform that evolves alongside global markets and user behavior. By combining broader market access, intelligent technology, and a user-first approach, BingX is creating a trading ecosystem that helps users discover market-moving opportunities, access diverse markets, and act with confidence through one unified platform.
About BingX
Founded in 2018, BingX is a leading crypto exchange and Web3-AI company, serving over 40 million users worldwide. Ranked among the top five global crypto derivatives exchanges and a pioneer of crypto copy trading, BingX addresses the evolving needs of users across all experience levels.
Powered by a comprehensive suite of AI-driven products and services, including futures, spot, copy trading, and TradFi offerings, BingX empowers users with innovative tools designed to enhance performance, confidence, and efficiency.
BingX has been the principal partner of Chelsea FC since 2024, and became the first official crypto exchange partner of Scuderia Ferrari HP in 2026.

The Safe project’s second public quarterly report records nearly 130 million transactions, rising monthly active accounts and $1.98 million in project-wide revenue, alongside the launch of Safenet Beta.
ZUG, Switzerland, 29 July 2026: Safe Ecosystem Foundation has released its Q2 2026 Quarterly Report. Safe smart accounts processed nearly 130 million transactions in Q2, the highest quarterly total to date and a 5.7 percent increase from Q1 2026. Monthly active accounts reached 2.73 million in June, while Safenet Beta closed its launch quarter with 54.8 million SAFE staked across 539 stakers.

Read the full report on the Safe Foundation website: https://safefoundation.org/reports/q2-2026
As of 29 July 2026, Safenet Beta had checked more than 500,000 Safe transactions. The network began with six initial validators: Greenfield, Safe Labs, RockawayX, Blockchain Capital, Gnosis and Core Contributors. During beta, Safenet applies predefined security policies to Safe activity and records attestations onchain, helping bring transaction security closer to execution while users retain full control of their assets.
April was the busiest month in Safe’s history, with 55.4 million transactions. Monthly active accounts rose throughout the quarter, reaching 2.73 million in June, while total Safe accounts reached 63.4 million.
“Q2 matters because it showed Safe becoming more than a place to hold assets,” said Lukas Schor, Co-Founder of the Safe project and President of the Safe Ecosystem Foundation. “Usage kept compounding through a weaker market, teams continued to coordinate serious capital through Safe, and Safenet moved transaction security closer to execution. That is the shift we are building for: self-custody infrastructure that protects ownership, supports coordination and makes onchain activity safer at the moment value moves.”
The quarter also showed the Safe project’s role as coordination infrastructure for high-stakes onchain response. After the Kelp DAO exploit in April, the Aave-led DeFi United group used Safe smart accounts to coordinate approximately $300 million to help restore rsETH backing, with more than 142,000 wallets participating over three weeks.
The Safe project generated $1.98 million in revenue overall in Q2, up 42 percent year over year. The quarter also brought more repeatable sources of revenue and new paying customers for Safe Labs products. The Foundation’s Ecosystem Alignment Program signed its third long-term partnership, a five-year token swap with Velvet, after earlier deals with World and JOIN.

Q2 Highlights
Safenet Beta: 54.8M SAFE staked across approved stakers, supporting hundreds of thousands of transaction attestations since launch on April 2, 2026.Scale: Total Safe accounts reached 63.4M, up 20% year over year, with nearly 130M transactions processed in Q2.Active users: Monthly active Safe accounts reached 2.73M in June 2026.Volume: Q2 transfer volume reached $39.35B, up 8% year over year, with ETH-denominated volume reaching 5.94M ETH in June.TVL: Safe smart accounts collectively held $27.24B in self-custodied assets at quarter-end, including $6.48B in stablecoins.
About Safe
Safe (previously Gnosis Safe) is an onchain asset custody protocol that has processed over $1.4T+ in total value (TVP). Released as an open-source software stack by the Safe Ecosystem Foundation, it is establishing a universal smart account standard for secure custody of digital assets, data, and identity. Safe is built for the mission to unlock digital ownership for everyone in web3, including DAOs, enterprises, retail, and institutional users.
About the Safe Ecosystem Foundation, Zug, Switzerland
The mission of the Safe Ecosystem Foundation is to support the development of Safe, to strengthen Safe technology and to promote the Safe Ecosystem. The Safe Ecosystem Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in Zug, Switzerland, that helps educate people about Safe smart accounts and promotes Safe technology through the provision of grants and other forms of funding.
Legal Disclaimer
This press release is issued by the Safe Ecosystem Foundation, Zug, Switzerland (the "Foundation"). This is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase any SAFE tokens and is not an offering, advertisement, solicitation, confirmation, statement, or any financial promotion that can be construed as an invitation or inducement to engage in any investment activity or similar.
The Foundation makes no representations, warranties, and/or covenants with respect to the Safe Technology (or any implementations of the Safe Smart Accounts) or any program (Grants, Hackathons and/or any other forms of funding) run by the Safe Ecosystem Foundation. Safenet Beta is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis for development and testing purposes only. The Foundation does not manage or control the Safenet Beta technology and does not provide any services related to Safenet Beta. Validators act independently and bear full responsibility for their activities. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Foundation, its affiliates, and associated persons expressly disclaim all liability for any damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with the use of, or inability to use, Safenet Beta. Any interaction with Safenet Beta is at your own risk. This press release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated.

Mento deploys its decentralized FX infrastructure on Polygon, launching with USDm/EURm liquidity supported by day-one partner Capa and adding EURØP as a reserve asset for EURm.
Mento Protocol (Mento), the leading decentralized FX infrastructure that processed USD 18.5B in trading volume in 2025, has been deployed on Polygon. The launch brings Mento stablecoin markets to one of crypto’s leading stablecoin ecosystems, starting with the USDm/EURm pool as the first FX trading pair. The EUR/USD pair accounts for ~USD 2T of the USD 9.5T traded daily across global FX markets, making it the single deepest currency pair in the world.

Stablecoin activity remains largely concentrated in USD-denominated assets. This is shifting. Polygon has become one of the leading networks where local-currency stablecoin markets are finding real payment scale, with more than USD 11.1B in lifetime non-USD stablecoin transfer volume and over 43% of non-USD stablecoin transfers across major blockchains.
The deployment of the Mento Protocol adds the FX layer needed to connect those markets on Polygon. The launch enables predictable onchain FX liquidity between USD-denominated and non-USD-denominated stablecoins, expanding Polygon’s stablecoin ecosystem beyond dollar-only liquidity.
“Mento’s mission is to make non-USD stablecoins usable across markets by providing the FX infrastructure that lets them move reliably.” said Bogdan-Radu Dumitru, CEO at Mento Labs. “Polygon is a natural frontier ecosystem for that infrastructure, given the scale of local-currency stablecoin activity already happening on the network and their investment in its growth.”
"Non-USD stablecoins are already moving at scale on Polygon, and FX infrastructure is what lets that activity grow into something payments businesses can actually rely on,” said Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs. “Mento brings that layer to the ecosystem, connecting the local-currency stablecoin markets we've been building toward with the reliable execution those markets need to function. This is exactly the kind of infrastructure the Polygon Open Money Stack is designed to support."
The Polygon deployment is supported by Capa, a LATAM-focused financial infrastructure provider that powers cross-border FX and payments, as a day-one liquidity partner. Together, Mento and Capa are bringing supported dollar-euro FX liquidity to Polygon from launch, providing access to a more complete stablecoin market structure beyond dollar-only liquidity.
"Non-USD stablecoin markets don't grow on infrastructure alone, they need deep liquidity. We're backing the Mento Protocol on Polygon from day one because we believe onchain FX for non-dollar currencies is where real cross-border value moves next." Jonathan Herrera, Head of Ecosystems at Capa.
Mento Protocol is also adding EURØP as a reserve asset for EURm, a MiCA-regulated euro token from Schuman Financial, bringing regulated euro liquidity onchain.
"The Euro is the world's second most-used currency, yet EUR-denominated stablecoins represent only around 1% of the stablecoin market. The Mento Protocol is the necessary infrastructure to make that change. Adding EURØP as a reserve asset for EURm brings a MiCA-regulated euro token into onchain FX markets," said Eduardo Morrison, Chief Business Officer at Schuman Financial.
Mento Protocol’s Fixed Price Market Maker (FPMM) design is built to provide real-world reference rates via trusted price feed oracles, enabling predictable execution across currencies without relying on volatile AMM curves. This model gives applications access to onchain FX markets with features of traditional FX markets: predictable reference-rate pricing and reliable execution, with liquidity that is programmable and composable.
Mento’s stablecoin infrastructure is built for a world where stablecoins are not limited to USD. It offers the FX layer for non-USD stablecoin markets, supporting trading across 15 currencies. With Polygon, Mento continues its cross-chain expansion beyond Celo and Monad.
About Mento
The Mento Protocol is the leading decentralized FX infrastructure for institutions and individuals, enabling developers and institutions to launch, trade, and settle global currencies onchain with institutional-grade reliability. The Mento Protocol provides programmable FX via transparent liquidity and real-world pricing from trusted oracles, supporting use cases such as cross-border payments, treasury operations, and institutional settlement through an expanding set of stablecoins and a transparent, multicurrency platform. Mento Labs is the core development team behind the Mento Protocol, focused on advancing global onchain FX.
About Capa
Capa is a financial infrastructure that connects Latin America to the global financial system through a single API and dashboard. The platform enables seamless cross border payments by handling local pay ins and pay outs, instant conversion between local currencies and stablecoins, and access to deep liquidity, all with full regulatory compliance and cost efficient settlement.
About Polygon Labs
Polygon Labs is a global blockchain payments company building and operating infrastructure to move money instantly, reliably, and at internet scale, with the mission to move all money onchain. It is building the Polygon Open Money Stack, an open and integrated stack of services and technologies to instantly and reliably move money anywhere, and put it to work. Its infrastructure has facilitated trillions of dollars in onchain value transfer and supported millions of transactions daily for some of the globe's largest banks, fintechs, enterprises, and consumer applications.
About Schuman Financial
Schuman Financial is a leading euro stablecoin issuer and payments company. We provide the solutions, technologies and infrastructure for rebuilding euro-denominated financial services on-chain. Our core product is EURØP, a euro-denominated stablecoin issued by our French-licensed subsidiary regulated by Banque de France. Thanks to our best-in-class technology platform and EMI license, we are the only company that can offer free and instant cross-border payments anywhere in the world.

TRON DAO, the community-governed DAO dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet through blockchain technology and decentralized applications (dApps), today announced the futures listing of TRX, the native utility token of the TRON network, on Bitnomial, a CFTC-regulated U.S. exchange and clearinghouse.
The new futures listing introduces a regulated derivatives market for TRX, the native utility token of the TRON network, giving eligible U.S. traders and institutions an additional way to manage exposure through exchange-traded futures. The listing represents continued progress in the development of regulated financial products tied to the TRON ecosystem.
TRX powers activity across the TRON blockchain, including transaction fees, smart contract execution, decentralized applications, and on-chain governance. The network has become a leading platform for stablecoin settlement, supporting more than $90 billion in circulating USDT and over $26 billion in total value locked (TVL), while processing billions of transactions across its global user base.
"The launch of the TRX futures contract on Bitnomial expands the ways market participants can access and manage exposure to the TRON ecosystem through a regulated U.S. venue," said Justin Sun, Founder of TRON. "As digital assets become more integrated into traditional financial markets, regulated products like TRX futures help provide market participants with additional tools to access and manage exposure to blockchain-based assets."
“TRX is one of the largest digital assets by market capitalization, backed by one of the most established networks in crypto, and now has a regulated US futures market to match, live today on Bitnomial Exchange,” said Michael Dunn, President of Bitnomial Exchange. “Institutions and traders can hedge and express views on TRX with portfolio margining across positions and settlement through Bitnomial Clearinghouse. Additionally, six months of trading history on a CFTC-regulated futures market meets a key milestone for enabling spot ETFs under the SEC's generic listing standards.”
Bitnomial, LLC, headquartered in Chicago, is a derivatives exchange company that owns and operates U.S. CFTC-regulated exchange (DCM), clearinghouse (DCO), and clearing brokerage (FCM) subsidiaries. Bitnomial offers leveraged spot, perpetuals, futures, options, and prediction markets on a single unified exchange and clearinghouse with digital asset margin and settlement capabilities.
The launch of TRX futures follows Bitnomial's earlier introduction of spot trading for TRX, expanding the range of regulated products available for the asset within the U.S. market. It also builds on broader institutional momentum for the TRON ecosystem, including the availability of TRX custody and staking through Anchorage Digital, the first federally chartered crypto bank in the United States.
As demand for regulated digital asset products continues to increase, the availability of TRX futures on Bitnomial offers market participants additional tools for trading and portfolio management while further connecting the TRON ecosystem with traditional financial markets.
All Bitnomial futures contracts are offered by, and subject to the rules of, Bitnomial Exchange, LLC.
About TRON DAO
TRON DAO is a community-governed DAO dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet via blockchain technology and dApps.
Founded in September 2017, the TRON blockchain has experienced significant growth since its MainNet launch in May 2018. Until recently, TRON hosted the largest circulating supply of USD Tether (USDT) stablecoin, which currently exceeds $90 billion. As of July 2026, the TRON blockchain has recorded over 395 million in total user accounts, more than 14 billion in total transactions, and over $27 billion in total value locked (TVL), based on TRONSCAN. Recognized as the global settlement layer for stablecoin transactions and everyday purchases with proven success, TRON is “Moving Trillions, Empowering Billions.”
About Bitnomial, LLC
Bitnomial, LLC, headquartered in Chicago, is a derivatives exchange company that owns and operates U.S. CFTC-regulated exchange (DCM), clearinghouse (DCO), and clearing brokerage (FCM) subsidiaries. Bitnomial offers leveraged spot, perpetuals, futures, options, and prediction markets on a single unified exchange and clearinghouse with digital asset margin and settlement capabilities.

Axis Robotics, the compounding data engine accelerating Physical AI, announces that it has raised $12 million in a seed round led by Hack VC, with participation from Nomad Capital, Pi Network Ventures, 10K Ventures, and various angel investors.
The funding will accelerate Axis’s mission to build a massively parallel, human-in-the-loop global data engine, solving physical AI’s biggest pain point: the scalable generation of structured, highly diverse robotic training data.
Solving the Data Bottleneck in Physical AI
While Large Language Models scale on trillions of tokens of pre-existing internet data, Physical AI faces three important barriers: severe data scarcity, generalization gap, and embodiment fragmentation across different robot hardware.
“Physical AI demands billions of human-physical interaction motion trajectories,” said Chris, Founder of Axis Robotics. “For years the industry lacked an efficient, infinitely scalable hybrid data production system which can help models iterate effortlessly - and that’s exactly what we built with Axis, a compounding data engine.”
How does Axis Empower General Robotics Intelligence
Axis’s proprietary Compounding Data Engine delivers an end-to-end workflow integrating task generation, data capture, continuous model training, and optimization:
Task Gen Engine: Generates exponentially diverse atomic robotic tasks via randomization across objects, spatial layouts, visuals, robot embodiments and semantics, embedding diversity into every single data trajectory;
Browser-Based Sim Teleoperation Platform: The world’s first web-based interface that empowers anyone to generate high-quality robotic motion trajectories remotely. Axis delivers 10x higher throughput than lab-based collection and seamlessly integrates human-gated DAgger (Dataset Aggregation) intervention loops to continuously refine and correct robot policies;
Ego Data Mobile Capture App: Shifts real-world data capture from expensive, hardware-heavy setups to a zero-barrier mobile application. By pairing state-of-the-art (SOTA) real-time hand pose tracking with global workforce, Axis translates human vision and dexterity into robotic motion at global scale;
Data Processing Pipeline: Automates trajectory cleaning, domain randomization and dense language annotation, outputting model-ready multimodal datasets with over 10x improved data quality.
The unified architecture creates a self-reinforcing flywheel: failed robot trajectories from real/sim deployment trigger human corrective intervention, which feeds back into training to expand edge-case coverage, creating compounding intelligence as data volume grows.
Axis’s Structural Moats: A Vertically Integrated Diversity Engine & Global Contributor Network
Axis’s core edge is its unified platform that spans the entire lifecycle of Physical AI. Unlike traditional fragmented approaches, Axis has built a vertically integrated engine that unites large-scale distributed pre-training data collection and real-time human-gated Dataset Aggregation post-training.
Native-built for data diversity, Axis’s proprietary Task Generation Engine randomizes object layouts, lighting, camera poses, physical properties and robot morphologies, creating endless unique scenes and manipulation tasks, outputting generalization-ready training data.
To deliver foundation-model scale diversified data, Axis has established a global robotic data infrastructure with over 100,000 active contributors who submit an average of 3 to 4 times daily, which maximizes both production efficiency and diversity coverage. Today, Axis can generate over 1,200 hours of simulation data and 20,000+ hours of real-world ego-centric data across diverse scenarios every month.
Axis recently launched Sim Dataset V1, with benchmark results showing that engineered diversity delivers measurable performance gains. On LIBERO-Plus, pretraining π0.5 on Axis’s fully diversified dataset improved overall success by 4.9 points, outperforming a volume-matched RoboCasa365 baseline by 31.3 points, with gains in layout generalization, sensor-noise resilience, and robot-pose robustness. This gap demonstrates that Axis’s edge comes from its proprietary diversity pipeline—not simply larger data scale.
Commercialization and Strategic Partnerships
Axis Robotics is rapidly commercializing its high-quality training data for real-world deployment. The company delivers customized "Task Packages" tailored to the specific needs of robotics hardware manufacturers, physical AI model companies, and industrial automation leaders.
Initial commercial partnerships have already been established with companies including Booster Robotics, Manycore Tech, Feagine Robotics, Dexmal, Lotus Car, Geely Auto, SomaStacks and more. These collaborations highlight the immediate market demand for scalable, high-fidelity robotic training data.
Redefine General Physical Intelligence
"The future of Physical AI hinges on deep symbiosis between models and data," said Chris. "Static datasets cannot power general robotic intelligence. The winning solution is a compounding data engine: a vertically integrated system linking a global contributor network with constant model iteration. Every diverse trajectory and human correction fuels faster model improvement, forming a self-reinforcing intelligence flywheel."
The company is driven by a world-class team combining top AI and robotics researchers from elite institutions such as UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Tech, NTU and SJTU, alongside growth hackers who have previously scaled consumer products to over 30 million global users.
With this $12 million funding round led by Hack VC, Axis Robotics will further expand its procedural generation capabilities, scale its distributed network of contributors, and solidify its position as the critical data engine powering the future of Physical AI.

BloFin Wallet has reached a significant milestone in its evolution, introducing Perpetual Contract Trading and the BloFin Wallet Visa Card, two updates that push the wallet well beyond what most crypto wallets are built to do.
From holding to trading: Perpetual contracts now live
BloFin Wallet users can now trade perpetual contracts directly from their wallet, with access to 100+ tokens spanning both cryptocurrency and tradfi assets. Instead of moving funds to a separate exchange, users can trade within the same wallet they already use for swaps, onramp, and earn.
The update also introduces a referral program tied to perpetual trading. Users can share their invite link and earn fee rebates based on their referrals' trading activity, creating a direct connection between community growth and personal reward.
The next era of finance
BloFin Wallet has also launched the BloFin Wallet Card, a Visa card that lets users spend their digital assets wherever Visa is accepted. The card supports Apple Pay and Google Pay, carries zero issuance and annual fees, and imposes no lock-up period on funds. Users hold their assets until the moment of purchase.
The next phase of digital finance will not be defined by another standalone wallet, exchange, payment card, or yield product. It will be defined by how seamlessly these functions work together. Users increasingly expect to trade, hold, earn, and spend from a single financial environment, without repeatedly moving funds between platforms, waiting through settlement delays, or sacrificing control of their assets. BloFin Wallet is helping pioneer this all-in-one experience. Its ambition extends beyond asset storage: it is building a unified gateway where digital assets can move naturally between investment, trading, yield generation, and everyday spending. By reducing the friction between these activities, BloFin Wallet aims to make crypto capital as accessible and useful as money in a traditional account, while preserving the speed and flexibility of digital markets
The BloFin Wallet Card is a key part of that vision. Alongside the card, BloFin Wallet offers an Earn product with 6%+ APY, enabling users to put idle assets to work while keeping them accessible. Together, Card and Earn create a more efficient capital loop: assets can remain productive when not being spent, stay available when opportunities arise, and be used directly for real-world payments when needed. This reflects a broader shift in the market. Crypto users are moving beyond speculation alone and increasingly looking for practical financial utility. At the same time, fragmented experiences, one platform for trading, another for custody, another for yield, and another for payments, are becoming less acceptable. The platforms positioned to lead the next cycle will be those that combine deep liquidity, capital efficiency, payment access, and intuitive asset management within one connected experience.
BloFin Wallet’s long-term opportunity is to become a financial operating system for the digital-asset economy: one place where users can enter the market, manage risk, grow their assets, and use their wealth in everyday life. The future of finance will not ask users to choose between trading and spending, or between earning and accessibility. It will bring all of these experiences together, and make the transitions between them nearly invisible.
Trade Smarter, Hold Safer
Taken together, these updates say something about where BloFin Wallet is headed. Where most wallets stop at storage and swaps, BloFin Wallet now covers the full arc from on-chain trading to real-world spending, with earning opportunities built in throughout. The BloFin Wallet app is available on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
About BloFin Wallet
BloFin Wallet is an on-chain wallet designed to support secure, self-custodied management of digital assets across multiple blockchain networks. The wallet allows users to store, manage, and interact with their crypto assets while maintaining full ownership and control. BloFin Wallet supports multi-chain asset management, primarily across major EVM and Solana networks, and provides access to on-chain applications and services. It is also integrated with the BloFin ecosystem, enabling users to connect their wallet assets with BloFin’s broader financial services. With a focus on security, usability, and interoperability, BloFin Wallet serves as a practical entry point for users engaging with the ecosystem. For more information, please visit wallet.blofin.com.

Every package includes a main card and a dedicated backup card, allowing users to back up and restore a self-custody cold wallet without writing a seed phrase on paper
D'CENT, a crypto hardware wallet brand used by more than one million people across over 220 countries and regions, announced the global launch of DCENT S, a card-format cold wallet that ships with a dedicated backup card in every package. The main card handles everyday transactions, while the second card, called the R3covery card, restores the wallet if the main card is lost, stolen, or damaged. DCENT S is now available worldwide.
A cold wallet, also known as a hardware wallet, keeps the private key controlling a user's crypto assets isolated from internet-connected environments, out of reach of malware, phishing, and account takeovers, and beyond the platform risk that comes with leaving coins on a centralized exchange. Card-format devices have emerged as a segment of that market aimed at holders who found USB-style wallets too cumbersome to use regularly, with brands including Tangem, Ledger, and Trezor now offering them. The trade-off has typically fallen on backup and recovery, which most devices still leave to a 12- or 24-word seed phrase the user copies out by hand.
D'CENT said DCENT S grew out of that gap. Rather than treating backup as an instruction for the user to follow, the company built it into the hardware and included the second card in every package, so backup is part of the initial setup instead of a separate decision made later.
"Too often, people lose access to their crypto not because of a hacker, but because they lose the paper holding their seed phrase," said Sangsu Baek, CEO of D'CENT. "That is not a user mistake. It is an unsolved design problem, and we took it as ours to solve."
A backup that lives in hardware, not on paper
Each card has a different job. The main card is tapped against a smartphone to sign transactions. The R3covery card stays behind, at home or in a safe, and is not carried day to day.
During setup, the main card generates the private key inside its secure element and passes an encrypted backup to the R3covery card, which holds it inside a second secure element. The seed never appears as readable text on a screen or on paper. If the main card is lost or damaged, the owner taps the R3covery card with the D'CENT mobile app and restores the wallet in under 5 minutes, with no reissue request and no support ticket.
Secured in hardware, built for daily carry
DCENT S generates and protects the private key inside a Common Criteria EAL6+ certified secure element, and signing happens inside that same element, so the key is never handed to the smartphone or the app. The card is built to fail closed: anti-tamper protections lock it automatically if the secure element is tampered with or extracted, as do repeated incorrect PIN attempts.
"Card-format wallets have usually been a trade-off, where you accept a weaker recovery story in exchange for something you can actually carry," said Baek. "We designed and manufactured DCENT S in Korea so we would not have to make that trade."
Signing a transaction takes one motion. Users review the amount, destination address, and network in the D'CENT app, then hold the card against the back of their smartphone. There is no cable, no pairing, and no battery to charge. At launch the card works across more than 100 blockchain networks, covering assets from Bitcoin and Ethereum to XRP and ERC-20 tokens, so long-term holders can move coins off an exchange and keep them in self-custody on a single card.
Full specifications, including durability ratings and the full list of supported networks and tokens, along with purchasing information and setup guides, are available at https://dcentwallet.com.
About D'CENT
D'CENT is a global crypto security brand developed by IoTrust Co., Ltd., a South Korean company specializing in hardware wallets and next-generation authentication systems. Used by more than one million people across over 220 countries and regions, D'CENT helps individuals hold and manage their own crypto assets in self-custody, without relying on a third-party custodian.

Cointelegraph Research and 8lends have released a joint study on the estimated €39 billion annual funding gap facing small and medium-sized enterprises across Europe.
The new report, “The SME Private Credit Gap: What Most RWA Investors Are Missing,” examines why many European SMEs still have difficulty securing funding from banks and large private credit providers. The study also considers whether onchain private credit can widen access to SME loans when onchain distribution is paired with regulated underwriting and locally enforceable collateral claims.
Europe’s SME credit shortage deepens
Bank lending to smaller businesses has remained under pressure since the global financial crisis. New SME lending in the European Union declined by a further 12% in 2023 amid higher interest rates and economic uncertainty.
Meanwhile, demand for tokenized real-world assets has grown rapidly. Excluding stablecoins, onchain RWAs increased from approximately $2.7 billion in January 2024 to around $30 billion by April 2026. Private credit accounted for roughly $6.1 billion.
Retail access remains limited. Accredited investor rules and high minimum allocations exclude many participants, and geographic restrictions create another barrier. Centrifuge’s ACRDX product, for example, requires a minimum investment of $500,000 and limits participation to non-US accredited investors.
A hybrid route to retail private credit
The structured-access hybrid model separates onchain capital flows from the regulated work behind each loan. Investors fund opportunities in USDC through smart contracts on the Base blockchain. Maclear AG verifies borrowers, assesses more than 40 credit criteria, inspects collateral where required and structures the legal claim.
Each approved loan receives a rating ranging from AAA to D. Collateral may include real estate, vehicles, industrial equipment, inventory and cash reserves. Loan agreements specify the assets, which are recorded in relevant local registries where applicable.
When a campaign is fully funded, the smart contract sends the capital to the borrower. Repayments then flow directly to investors’ wallets.
Loans that miss a payment enter a 30-to-60-day workout period. Buyback-designated positions may be repurchased after 60 days, subject to the financial strength of the BuyBack provider. Other cases proceed to collateral recovery through the borrower’s local legal system.
8lends provides the retail-facing layer of the model. The platform distributes loans originated and underwritten by Swiss financial intermediary Maclear AG, with investments starting at 100 USDC.
Operating metrics from the 8lends platform show steady traction:
Maclear had originated approximately €118.9 million in SME loans as of June 2026.By June 2026, Maclear’s wider portfolio had returned €27.4 million in principal and distributed €10.4 million in interest to investors.Since 8lends launched in March 2025, around $15.4 million in USD/USDC-equivalent volume has been distributed onchain through the platform.Of that onchain volume, 5.79 million USDC, or 38%, has been repaid. Another 9.61 million USDC remains in active credit.8lends has served 2,143 investors, with investments starting at 100 USDC.
Maclear’s wider lending portfolio had returned €27.4 million in principal by June 2026. A further €10.4 million in interest had been distributed to investors.
What gives tokenized credit its value
A token records ownership and settles transactions quickly. Its economic value rests on whether the underlying claim can be enforced when a borrower defaults.
Prospective investors should review the loan originator, collateral valuation, repayment servicer and party responsible for recoveries. Blockchain records show where funds move. Legal documents determine what investors can claim after a default.
About Cointelegraph
Founded in 2013, Cointelegraph is the leading independent publication covering blockchain technology, crypto assets and emerging fintech trends. Its global team of journalists, researchers and analysts provides in-depth news, market analysis and research reports trusted by millions of readers worldwide. Cointelegraph Research offers data-driven insights into the crypto economy through comprehensive industry reports and institutional-grade analysis.
About 8lends
8lends is the retail-facing Web3 interface for Maclear AG, which is a Swiss-registered financial intermediary founded in 2020 and operating as a PolyReg member under FINMA supervision. 8lends functions as the distribution and settlement layer for loans that Maclear originates and underwrites.
It uses Web3 infrastructure to make private investing simpler, more transparent and more accessible — without banking bureaucracy and unnecessary intermediaries.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic, July 2026 - HyroTrader, a crypto proprietary trading firm, has been named Best Prop Trading Firm at the CoinGape Web3 Innovation Awards 2026. The award, decided by an independent judging panel featuring representatives from Polygon Labs, Visa, Beldex, Shirplink, and Liminal Custody, recognizes the firm's transparent, exchange-connected funding model for digital asset traders.
The CoinGape Web3 Innovation Awards honor organizations, products, and innovators shaping the future of Web3 across multiple categories. HyroTrader was selected for the prop trading category based on its direct exchange execution model, risk management framework, and consistent payout record.
HyroTrader provides funded accounts of up to $200,000 for trading USDT perpetual contracts across more than 700 cryptocurrencies. Unlike prop firms that rely on internal pricing systems, HyroTrader routes trading activity to real exchange environments through a secure API connection to Bybit, an approach the firm pioneered when it introduced direct exchange integration in 2023. Traders keep up to 90 percent of profits and withdraw earnings in USDT or USDC.
The firm currently serves a community of more than 35,000 members, has funded over 1,700 traders, and has paid out more than $5 million to funded traders since its founding in 2022.
"This award reflects the standard we set for ourselves from day one: real exchange execution, clear rules, and payouts traders can verify," said Samuel Drnda, CEO of HyroTrader. "Recognition from a panel of this caliber confirms that transparency is not a marketing angle. It is the future of prop trading."
Hyro Protocol: Bringing Prop Trading On-Chain
The award arrives as HyroTrader prepares its next chapter. On July 8, the firm announced Hyro Protocol, an on-chain crypto prop trading protocol built on Solana that settles in USDC.
Hyro Protocol connects traders seeking capital with liquidity providers seeking exposure to verified trading strategies. At its core is the vault model: structured capital pools with smart-contract-enforced rules, transparent accounting, and on-chain performance records. Traders can prove themselves through Challenge Vaults or, if they hold an established track record, apply to manage LP capital directly through Direct Vaults. Every key protocol event, including vault creation, deposits, NAV updates, and payouts, is designed to be verifiable on-chain.
"Most prop firms still run on closed systems where rules can change mid-evaluation and payouts happen behind closed doors," Drnda added. "Hyro Protocol replaces trust with verification. Traders own their track records, LPs can check every number on a block explorer, and capital scales with performance instead of one company's balance sheet."
Trade execution will continue on professional exchange infrastructure, while protocol state settles on-chain, preserving the liquidity and execution quality traders expect. HyroTrader will publish program IDs, audit reports, and explorer links as each protocol component goes live.
About HyroTrader
HyroTrader is a crypto proprietary trading firm headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic. Founded in 2022, the company introduced the first direct exchange integration in crypto prop trading, enabling traders to operate on their own exchange accounts with funded capital of up to $200,000. HyroTrader has paid out more than $5 million to over 1,700 funded traders.

If tokenized reserve assets are going to serve as collateral and support lending, treasury management, and settlement across on-chain finance, their backing must remain continuously verifiable.
Today, Matrixdock has completed its fourth consecutive semi-annual independent reserve audit with Bureau Veritas. For the first time, the audit extends beyond Matrixdock’s tokenized gold product (XAUm) to include its tokenized silver product (XAGm). More than another audit milestone, this reflects Matrixdock’s broader commitment: building reserve assets that institutions, ecosystem partners, and builders can use with confidence.
Two Years of Continuous Verification. One Operating Standard.
By completing two years of reserve audits with the same independent auditor, Matrixdock has established a consistent verification process. That continuity gives Bureau Veritas a deeper understanding of Matrixdock’s reserve structure and positions them to better identify inconsistencies should they arise. Recurring audits are a form of proof: a verification process that operates consistently over time.
As tokenized assets become increasingly integrated into financial infrastructure, long-term trust is built through continuous operation.
The Reserve Transparency Stack
Reserve transparency at Matrixdock is built in layers of verification that together give holders ongoing visibility into the assets backing each token. Matrixdock calls this the Reserve Transparency Stack.
Independent Verification: Inside the July Audit
Bureau Veritas physically verified the underlying precious metal reserves, confirming that reserve holdings remain consistent with Matrixdock’s records.
As in previous audit cycles, the inspection was conducted bar by bar covering 574 gold and silver bars from LBMA-accredited refiners across three institutional vault facilities:
Malca-Amit Singapore (conducted on 3 July 2026)Brink’s Hong Kong (conducted on 8 July 2026)Brink’s Singapore (conducted on 15 July 2026)
Each bar was individually weighed and measured. 26 gold bars have been added since the H2 2025 audit, and 66 silver bars are included for the first time this cycle.
Gold (XAUm)
Total gold audited: 508 barsEquivalent weight: 16331.184 troy ouncesXAUm circulating supply: 16331.179 tokensEVM chains (Dune): 11242.657 tokensSui network (Suiscan): 2677.413 tokensSolana network (Solscan): 1575.248 tokensStellar network (Stellar expert): 771.552 tokens Approximate market value: USD $66.09 million, based on gold at $4,046.86 per troy ounce
Silver (XAGm) - new to this audit
Total silver audited: 66 barsEquivalent weight: 65,934.000 troy ouncesXAGm circulating supply: 65998.551 tokensEthereum network (Etherscan): 33004.219 tokensSui network (Suiscan): 32990 tokensCurrent ozPerToken value: 0.999021918Approximate market value: USD $4.04 million, based on silver at $61.24 per troy ounce
Each bar was reconciled against the relevant vault records with no discrepancies identified. As of the audit date, XAUm reserves were consistent with the circulating token supply, and XAGm reserves were consistent with the circulating token supply when applying the applicable ozPerToken value.
Ongoing Transparency
A semi-annual reserve audit is one layer of verification. Between audits, holders can check monthly reserve asset statements, on-chain proof-of-reserves for the precious metals products, and the Gold Allocation Lookup tool, which maps specific gold bars to tokens so holders can verify the backing directly. Together, these provide a running record rather than periodic snapshots.
Building the Reserve Layer requires continuous improvement. Looking ahead, Matrixdock is evaluating opportunities to work with global third-party service providers that could strengthen asset-level verification for off-chain reserves while preserving client-level privacy.
Continuous Transparency as the Reserve Layer Discipline
Reserve transparency is the foundation that makes reserve assets trusted enough to participate confidently across on-chain finance.
When reserve backing can be verified at any time, a reserve asset can move deeper into on-chain finance: held in treasuries, integrated into financial applications, and used as collateral in lending markets. By reducing uncertainty around backing, verification expands what a reserve asset can do. That is why reserve transparency is a product feature at Matrixdock.
This is the work of building the Reserve Layer for on-chain finance. As tokenized assets evolve from simple representations into financial infrastructure, their quality will be defined by how well their backing holds up to verification, cycle after cycle. The fourth consecutive semi-annual reserve audit reflects Matrixdock’s long-term commitment to building the Reserve Layer.

Samoa City, July 17, 2026 -HTX DAO announced the successful completion of its $HTX token burn for Q2 2026 on July 15, 2026. On-chain data shows that a total of 7,474,935,439,560 $HTX tokens were burned in this round, valued at over $13.6 million. Following this latest burn, the cumulative volume of $HTX burned and pledged has reached 117.79 trillion tokens (backed by verifiable on-chain burn proofs.)
Combined with Q1 data, HTX DAO burned a total of over $32.82 million worth of $HTX in the first half of 2026. At a time when broader market liquidity remains under sustained pressure, this deflationary track record stands out as a highly compelling achievement.
Retaining Strong "Value Generation" Capabilities in a Downturn
Looking back at the first half of the year, the crypto market experienced highly complex sentiment shifts and tight liquidity conditions—with BTC temporarily slipping below the $60,000 threshold. These headwinds were largely driven by macro factors, including diminished expectations for Fed rate cuts and consecutive net outflows from Spot ETFs.Concurrently, spot and derivatives trading volumes across the industry fell sharply, and the aggregate stablecoin supply contracted on a quarterly basis for the first time since Q3 2023.
Despite these industry-wide challenges, $HTX maintained a multi-million-dollar burn scale across consecutive quarters. This consistency not only reflects the steady execution of the HTX DAO deflationary mechanism but also highlights the exceptional operational resilience and counter-cyclical capabilities of the HTX platform.
According to H1 data disclosed by HTX, the platform's cumulative registered users reached 59.49 million, with total trading volume approaching $90 million. Additionally, the platform now supports over 612 trading pairs, covering mainstream assets, trending sectors, and high-potential new projects.
This robust trading activity and steady pipeline of asset listings have provided sufficient cash flow to support the ongoing deflation of $HTX.
Ecosystem Expansion Uplifts the Long-Term Value Potential
While large-scale token burns build the essential scarcity foundation for $HTX, the true driver of its long-term value is the continuous expansion of its use cases and ecosystem demand.
The HTX Genesis Hackathon — co-hosted by HTX DAO and B.AI, and co-organized by TinTinLand — is now entering its final stage. Featuring a 20,000 USDT prize pool alongside over $100,000 in computing power resources, the event drew participation from more than 200 developer teams. Participants focused on pioneering sectors, including $HTX utility scenarios, AI agent finance, on-chain asset management, DAO tools, and smart financial operating systems.
Notably, developer incentive programs of this kind do more than just introduce innovative projects to the ecosystem. They actively expand the utility of $HTX in decentralized governance, payments, incentives, and collaborative ecosystem synergies, creating more sustained and genuine utility demand for the token.
Looking ahead, as the HTX DAO governance framework matures, the developer ecosystem expands, and additional innovative applications go live, $HTX is poised to evolve from a standalone governance token into a critical value carrier. It will serve as the core link connecting trading, decentralized governance, developer networks, and AI innovation, securing a robust and sustainable foundation for the entire HTX DAO ecosystem
About HTX DAO
As a multi-chain deployed decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), HTX DAO demonstrates an innovative governance approach. Unlike traditional corporate structures, it adopts a decentralized governance structure composed of a diversified group, jointly committed to the success of this organization. This unique ecosystem advocates openness and encourages all DAO participants to propose ideas that can promote the development of HTX DAO.

WOO X, a leading global centralized digital asset exchange, and Payward Services, the B2B infrastructure platform from Payward, the company behind global crypto platform Kraken, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to bring crypto trading to WOO X's European users through Payward Services’ trading-as-a-service offering.Under the agreement, the companies intend to enable spot crypto trading for WOO X’s EU users powered by Payward's regulated European infrastructure and licensing. WOO X will join a growing roster of financial institutions using Payward Services’ trading-as-a-service offering, including bunq, one of Europe's leading neobanks.
"We're excited to bring WOO X the power of fifteen years of Payward's regulated infrastructure, creating an easy path to meet customer demand with an expanded trading offering and the right licenses to unlock crypto trading across the EU. When partners work with Payward Services, they can launch crypto trading in a few weeks without building complex in-house infrastructure," said Mark Greenberg, Global Head of Payward Services.
The MOU serves as a foundational framework for future cooperation. Both entities will share further operational updates as specific initiatives are finalized.
About WOO X
WOO X is a leading global centralized digital asset exchange built by traders, for traders. Backed by YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs) and engineered by a premier team of quantitative traders, engineers, and technologists originating from top-tier Web2 and Web3 projects, WOO X delivers an elite trading environment tailored for both retail and institutional investors. The platform is globally recognized for its superior trade execution, offering deep aggregated liquidity, ultra-tight spreads, and zero-slippage execution.
Prioritizing user trust and platform integrity, WOO X features an industry-first, live-updating Proof of Reserves and Liabilities transparency dashboard. The exchange offers advanced trading architecture, fully customizable workspaces, and professional-grade infrastructure that supports flexible, professional withdrawal standards alongside top-tier asset custody solutions. Driven by a corporate culture of compliance, technical excellence, and relentless innovation, WOO X continues to pioneer transparent, high-performance trading environments for the global digital asset ecosystem. For more information, visit https://www.wooxpro.com/ ; https://woox.io/
About Payward Services
Payward Services is the B2B infrastructure platform built on 15 years of operating Kraken, one of the world's largest crypto platforms. Through a single integration, partners can access crypto and tokenized equity trading, fiat and stablecoin payments, yield, lending, prediction markets and derivatives. Fintechs, banks, brokerages, payment providers, exchanges, consumer tech platforms and asset managers can use Payward Services to offer digital assets to their clients without building the stack themselves. For more information, visit https://www.payward.com/payward-services .
Risk Disclaimer
The content above is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation, solicitation, or offer to buy or sell any product or service.
Cryptocurrencies and related instruments involve significant risks, including extreme volatility. You should carefully consider your investment objectives, experience, and risk tolerance before engaging in any crypto-related activities. We strongly recommend consulting a qualified independent financial advisor before making any decisions.
WOO shall not be liable for any direct or indirect loss or damage arising from the use of or reliance on this information.
Nothing in this article creates or implies any partnership, joint venture, agency, or other legal relationship between WOO and its collaborators. Each party remains fully independent and responsible for its own actions and risks. This content does not guarantee any business outcomes, success, or profitability.

Primit × Avalanche Season 1 "On-Chain Perp Frenzy" is now officially live on the Avalanche network. With a total prize pool of 100,000USDT equivalentin AVAX and four simultaneous reward mechanisms, this marks the first large-scale on-chain perpetual trading incentive event in the Avalanche ecosystem.
Full Mechanism Overview
Daily Random User Rewards ($7,000 pool)Every day, 20 users with ≥$200 trading volume are randomly selected to share a $500 pool. 280 total winner slots over 14 days. Draws execute automatically via script daily, with off-chain public verification.Twitter Contributor Rewards ($5,200 pool)For community content creators. Post high-quality Primit tutorials, strategy analysis, risk management, or reward breakdowns on Twitter/X with #PrimitAvalanche. Human + Agent review. Top contributors earn $300–$500 each.Referral Rebate Mechanism ($50,000 pool)Every user receives an auto-generated unique Referral Code. A referred user must register via the code and achieve ≥$500 cumulative volume with ≥5 trades during the event to count as valid. After the event, the $50,000 pool is distributed proportionally by valid referral volume. No individual cap.Volume Leaderboard ($37,800 pool, Top 120)Ranked by cumulative volume after the event:Top 1: $4,000Top 2: $2,500Top 3: $1,800Top 4–10: $1,000 each (total $7,000)Top 11–30: $450 each (total $9,000)Top 31–60: $250 each (total $7,500)Top 61–120: $100 each (total $6,000)
Avalanche Multiplier
Volume from AVAX-related pairs or using native gas receives a 1.5x weighting. This design directs traders toward Avalanche's core ecosystem assets while providing quantifiable on-chain activity data for the Avalanche Foundation.
Founder Quote
"Season 1 is not a simple airdrop event. It's a product stress test. We aim to prove that on-chain perpetual trading is ready to carry real, high-frequency, professional demand. Avalanche's infrastructure makes this possible." — Team Primit
About Primit & Avalanche
Primit is a next-generation on-chain perpetual contract trading platform focused on low-latency, low-fee, fully transparent on-chain derivatives. Avalanche is a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain known for sub-second finality and minimal gas costs.

The acquisition brings key talent on board, promotes Sovereign Labs Co-founder Preston Evans to CTO, and establishes Celestia Labs as a full-stack custom blockchain development partner for enterprises.
Celestia Labs, developer of the leading modular Layer 1 blockchain Celestia, today announced it is bringing on the technology and talent behind Sovereign Labs. This acquisition expands Celestia Labs’ expertise to span the full stack of blockchain engineering, from Layer 1 through the execution and application layers — enabling end-to-end development for peak scale, performance and customisation.
Sovereign Labs has been a core pillar of the Celestia ecosystem since its founding in 2021 by Cem Ozer and Preston Evans. Now in 2026, the Sovereign SDK is the industry's leading framework for application-specific, high-performance blockchains. It powers applications like Relay, the #1 bridge by volume powering over $8.5B of transfers, and Bullet, a perpetuals exchange capable of clearing orders in 1.2 milliseconds and processing over 30,000 TPS.
Together, the teams behind both groups have shipped more than 25 production blockchains and built the industry's leading framework for high-performance blockchains. As part of the acquisition, 6 team members join Celestia Labs including Sovereign Labs Co-founder Preston Evans who has been promoted to Chief Technology Officer.
Companies migrating onchain can’t build in-house what Celestia Labs’ team and tech offers, in terms of reliability or scale. I’m excited to keep building on the legacy Celestia Labs has created, and push the boundaries of blockchain infrastructure engineering to meet the demands of the next era of onchain applications.
— Preston Evans, Chief Technology Officer, Celestia Labs
The market is already seeing an increase in demand for custom blockchains because existing general-purpose chains can’t offer the scale and performance necessary for the next generation of applications. Hyperliquid, the leading decentralized exchange, built its own blockchain to optimize for low latency and custom order flow rules. Polymarket, the prediction market which processed $6B in volume in H1 2025, is migrating to a custom chain to resolve congestion issues. As more applications run up against the constraints of existing blockchain infrastructure, they will need a design and engineering partner to build the solutions they need.
“Internet-scale applications, from agentic payments solutions to global exchanges and prediction markets, require custom infrastructure that only a highly experienced implementation team can provide. The newly combined expertise and technology from this acquisition position Celestia Labs as a full-stack infrastructure and design partner for companies that need their own blockchains.”— Nick White, CEO, Celestia Labs.
About the Celestia Foundation
The Celestia Foundation is a non-profit organisation supporting the long-term development, governance, and ecosystem of the Celestia network, led by CEO and Co-founder Mustafa Al-Bassam.
About Celestia Labs
Celestia Labs is the core engineering team building and maintaining the Celestia network. The team has collectively shipped more than 25 custom chains into production, built the industry's leading framework for high-performance blockchains, and raised over $155M from Bain Capital Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, and others.

TxFlow L1, the Layer 1 blockchain powering a multi-application onchain financial ecosystem built around its TIP Liquidity Standards, today announced its second Channel: Probly, the first prediction-market application built on TxFlow Improvement Protocol 3 (TIP3).
Following TxFlow DEX—the blockchain’s first application and a central limit order book (CLOB) decentralized exchange for perpetual trading, Probly expands the TxFlow L1 ecosystem into real-time prediction markets. At launch, the platform offers 172 live markets covering more than 7,000 events, including continuously rolling markets with durations as short as five minutes, backed by fully onchain settlement and TxFlow L1’s shared financial infrastructure. The launch marks the next stage in TxFlow L1’s expansion from a network anchored by a flagship onchain exchange into a multi-application financial ecosystem.
TxFlow L1 was designed around a different structure. Through its TxFlow Improvement Protocol standards and Channel architecture, financial applications can operate on the same purpose-built network while connecting to shared execution and settlement infrastructure. Probly extends the ecosystem into prediction markets as the second.
TIP3(TxFlow Improvement Protocol 3) makes prediction markets native to TxFlow L1
TxFlow Improvement Protocol, or TIP, is the standards framework that defines how financial products are built and connected on TxFlow L1.
Within the framework, TIP1 supports spot markets, TIP2 supports derivatives and TIP3 establishes the standard for prediction-market Channels. TIPn remains open for future products, including real-world assets, structured products and financial instruments that have not yet been developed onchain.
TIP3 defines how prediction-market applications connect to TxFlow L1’s execution, settlement and Shared Liquidity Layer. Rather than operating through an independent infrastructure stack, a TIP3 Channel can build on the same financial foundation supporting the wider TxFlow L1 ecosystem. Its architecture uses DAG-based parallel execution and a multi-threaded processing pipeline, enabling non-conflicting transactions to be processed simultaneously. Market activity and settlement records are executed onchain, providing an open and verifiable system. Probly therefore settles directly on TxFlow L1 instead of relying on a shared general-purpose network or a centralized offchain ledger.
Markets are resolved through designated oracle sources. Automatically resolved price-source markets can settle immediately, while manually adjudicated markets are expected to settle within 24 to 72 hours. Following resolution, eligible settlement amounts are credited automatically in USDC without a separate claim step.
This creates a direct infrastructure advantage for Probly: fully onchain settlement and native connectivity to the broader TxFlow L1 ecosystem.
Probly brings real-time probability signals to TxFlow TIP3
Probly comes from “probably”, the word we use when the future is still open. Inspired by P(A), the notation for the probability of an event, Probly turns individual perspectives into a live collective signal: before it happens. At launch, Probly features 172 live event pages across 15 categories, including politics, sports, crypto, finance, geopolitical events. Discovery tools help users explore trending, highly active, fast-moving and soon-to-conclude events, while lightweight polls offer a simple way to engage with topics attracting attention.
Probly also introduces continuously refreshed five-minute, 15-minute, one-hour and four-hour experiences covering BTC, ETH, SOL and XRP price movements. Each page includes live data, a real-time countdown and automatically refreshed rounds, helping users follow changing expectations as events unfold. The platform combines fully onchain infrastructure with a clear, accessible interface designed for both new and experienced users. Probly presents real-time information, probability changes and event timelines in one streamlined experience. Users can access Probly through an email-based embedded wallet without managing a seed phrase, or connect compatible wallets including MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Phantom and Uniswap Wallet.
A consolidated account interface provides a clear view of activity, history and ongoing event engagement. Combined with TxFlow L1’s transparent onchain infrastructure and automated resolution process, these features reduce friction from access through completion.
A different infrastructure approach to prediction markets
Probly enters a prediction-market category shaped by platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi, but is built on a different infrastructure model. Probly operates and settles directly on TxFlow L1, a Layer 1 designed for onchain financial applications, bringing real-time probability signals, verifiable onchain records and automatic USDC settlement into one financial stack. Probly extends the same architecture into prediction markets through TIP3.
About Probly
Probly is a prediction market built on TxFlow L1 through TxFlow Improvement Protocol 3 (TIP3). It turns views about future events into continuously updated market signals across sports, crypto, economics, news, culture, weather and other real-world categories.
Probly combines real-time markets, broad event coverage, fully onchain settlement and self-custodied USDC infrastructure. Its mission is to make collective expectations more immediate, transparent and useful by converting uncertainty into a price.
Before It Happens.
About TxFlow L1
TxFlow L1 is a high-performance blockchain built for on-chain financial infrastructure, organized around TIP Liquidity Standards that define how financial products are built, composed, and settled on-chain. TxFlow DEX is the first Channel on TxFlow L1, a CLOB orderbook DEX for perpetual trading, processing over 250,000 TPS with one-block finality. Through its TxFlow Improvement Protocol standards and Channel architecture, TxFlow enables spot markets, derivatives, prediction markets and future financial products to operate on the same chain while connecting to shared execution and settlement infrastructure where all finance happens.
TxFlow L1 is building an open, composable and community-owned financial ecosystem in which each new application can strengthen the infrastructure available to those that follow.
Important notice
This press release is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer, solicitation, recommendation or invitation to access or participate in any financial, event-based or prediction-market product.
Probly is available only to eligible users in jurisdictions where access is permitted under applicable law. Product availability, market coverage and functionality may vary by jurisdiction and are subject to applicable terms, eligibility requirements and geographic restrictions.
Participation in prediction markets involves risk, including the possible loss of funds. Market prices reflect participant expectations at a particular time and do not guarantee any outcome. Nothing in this release constitutes financial, investment, trading, legal, tax or any other advice.

Javier Mascherano said that a team does not stay at the top for years through casualty. You can pull to your side in football, and anyone can find a reason to doubt a specific result on a specific night. But over six years, across a Copa América, a World Cup, and a run that broke record after record, Argentina has not been at the front of global football by accident. That is not a theory. That is a pattern.The 2014 team reached the final on desire, on sacrifice, and on the quality of specific individuals who covered the gaps in what was never a complete side. The current team is different in kind. In Mascherano's view, it is the best Argentina team he has ever seen, not because of one player or one game, but because of the regularity of the performance.The panel arrived at the same point from a different direction. You do not override a system because one session went against you. You do not panic when the position moves the wrong way. The plan was built before the session opened, and the plan is what you return to when the scoreline or the chart says otherwise.
Zoomex hosted the fourth episode of its World Cup Edition X Space as part of the Zoomex World Cup Impact Pledge, bringing together two-time Champions League winner and World Cup finalist Javier Mascherano alongside three panellists: Haskell Gz, Secreto DeFi, and Miguel Serrano. Fernando Aranda hosted from Boston with the quarterfinals beginning in a matter of hours, which gave the whole session the particular energy of a conversation happening right before something that cannot be undone.
The session continued the five-part charity initiative running across the series. Zoomex is committing 1,000 USDT per episode to a charity of each football guest's choosing, rising by an additional 5,000 USDT if the prediction proves correct. Mascherano picked Argentina to win the World Cup and chose to direct the funds toward community organisations helping people with fewer resources in San Lorenzo, his hometown in the interior of Argentina, a small city twenty kilometres from Rosario that has nothing to do with the Buenos Aires football club of the same name.
Character Is Not a Substitute for Quality. It Is Part of Quality.
When Secreto DeFi raised the Argentina versus Egypt match directly and described a team that seemed cold, absent, and lacking the typical Argentine spirit for large stretches of the game, Mascherano did not dismiss the observation. He inverted it.
"I think it was quite the opposite. Seeing it from the side of Argentina, with the nerves of a fan, with everything that happened in the game, I don't remember a victory like that of Argentina in a World Cup. Lacking so little to finish the game, the team losing, finding themselves with difficulties, because obviously the rival also plays."
He then took the analysis further. Argentina had created arrivals in the first half that did not convert. Egypt's threats were punctual and precise. When it went to 2-0, the variables multiplied. "When it gets to 2-0, nervousness comes in, a lot of factors come in, but I think that Argentina with heart, with claw, with head too, and showing why they have been champions, reversed the result in thirteen or fourteen minutes." Not by going crazy. Not by each player trying to win the game individually. As a group. As a team. With the knowledge that ninety-five minutes is a long time, and that cutting the result opens everything.
He was equally direct on the question of comparing Argentina across tournaments. The 2014 side competed through sacrifice and great individuals in the middle of the pitch. This team operates on a different level entirely. "For me, this team is completely different. This team has played football that I don't remember from the Argentine team. By far the best Argentine team that I've seen, especially for the regularity, for the quality of the players they have, for the identity."
And on the social media narrative that has built around Argentina in this tournament, framing results as suspicious or treated differently by referees and institutions, he offered a single line that ended the debate as cleanly as anything said in the session. "A team does not stay so many years above casualty."
The 2014 Tackle. The Di María Admission. What It Means to Give Everything.
Miguel Serrano raised the moment that stays in the memory of anyone who watched the 2014 semifinal against the Netherlands: a last-ditch intervention Mascherano made in extra time that kept Argentina in the game, after which he later admitted he had hurt himself in the process. Miguel also referenced a moment from the famous Camp Nou comeback, in which Mascherano had made contact with Di María just enough to slow the play, then acknowledged it to the player afterwards.
On the tackle: "Nothing happens. Because now you imagine something, but now it wouldn't even come close." When Fernando pressed him, he gave the real answer. "It's the fact of believing until the end that you can make it. I can also show you a few scenes where I didn't make it and it ended up being a goal. It's like that, it's football. But it has to do with that, with giving everything until the end."
On the Di María moment from the comeback: "Yes, a little bit, yes. I'm not going to lie to you, you can see it. But it's been more than five years, so it has already been prescribed."
Haskell connected the observation to something broader across elite sport. The average quality of players has risen so significantly across every position and every national team that the gaps which once allowed a top ten nation to be comfortably superior for ninety minutes no longer exist. Egypt and Cape Verde are not the same teams they were twenty or thirty years ago. "There are no easy games." The teams that keep winning in that environment are the ones that have solved for the difficult moments, not the teams that have managed to avoid them.
Stars at the Service of the Team. Or the Team in Service of One Star.
The question of team versus individual quality produced the most direct answer of the session, stripped of any diplomatic softening.
"No, the best thing is always to have the stars by your side, there's no doubt about that, because they're the ones who make the difference. In the end, the ones who change the equation are the different players. That's the reality."
Then the qualification that makes the principle complete. "But clearly, we've seen throughout the history of football that there have been teams with huge stars that, as a team, haven't worked. And obviously, the team is always ahead. It's much better if those stars put all their talent at the service of the team."
He spoke about Messi in those terms, not as a player who carries the team because the team cannot operate without him, but as a player who places everything he has in service of something larger. "There are great players, players that maybe even because of their youth they don't show off their skills which, to me, they already are. They put everything at the service of the team and that's why they've managed to build a team that will always fight until the end."
Fernando raised Cristiano Ronaldo as an obvious counterpoint without naming him directly. Mascherano declined to name names in return. "I think it's unfair to talk about names or give names in particular. In the national team, where there's very little time to work, there are many national teams that have had great players and have never managed to finish building a team. If you have four number nines at the first level but they can't play together, it also has to coincide with the fact that you can have great players in all the lines. It's not that easy in the national team. In a club team you choose. In the national team you have them."
Secreto and Miguel had been thinking through the same dynamic from the panel perspective: a portfolio of assets, each of which has individual strength, does not automatically produce a coherent strategy. The composition has to serve a purpose that is larger than any single position. A player with extraordinary individual statistics inside a system that cannot use them is the same problem as a high-performing asset in a portfolio built for a different objective.
Enzo Fernandez. And Why No One Is the Heir.
Fernando asked who Mascherano saw as his own heir in the Argentina midfield. The answer rejected the framing before addressing the substance of it.
"I don't think he's the heir because the midfielders in the Argentine national team are much better than I was. They're much more complete. In the end, football has changed a lot. I was a central midfielder with a classic cut like they used to play before, more defensive. Today the central midfielder has to do a lot more things. He doesn't just have to be a classic cut. He has to play, step on the area, be a total player."
On Enzo Fernandez specifically: "He's a player that I love. He can play in all the positions of the midfield and he does well in all of them. He's very complete not only when it comes to defending but he does everything. He has a goal, he has a goal pass, he gets to the area like the other day in the ninety-second minute. He's a total player."
The evolution of the holding midfielder role is worth sitting with. What Mascherano did across Liverpool, Barcelona, and the Argentine national team was essential and brilliantly executed, but it was a narrower function than what the modern central midfielder is asked to perform. The position now requires defending, building, progressing, arriving, and occasionally deciding the game with a late run. Enzo Fernandez does all of it. That is not an heir to Mascherano. It is a different position that absorbed and expanded what Mascherano defined.
VAR, Offside, and What Justice Actually Looks Like in Football
Secreto raised VAR and the question of whether technology has improved football or disrupted it, specifically in relation to the length of offside checks and the granularity of the measurements being applied.
Mascherano's answer surprised Fernando, who expected a more sceptical read from someone whose era of football operated without it. "The thing is, ask Germany in 1966 if there was a bar, what would the players think who played that final? Even us in 2014, there are two or three plays that I can show you. A cross to Zabaleta to the knee that today would be a red card and it was in the first half. So after twenty minutes we would have played with another name. Or the play of Neuer against Higuaín, I don't know what it would be."
He made peace with the principle before addressing the imperfections. "I think it's important that VAR can intercede in decisive plays, where the result changes. To me, this thing about the corner is bad for the team that's attacking, and I think it's good, because in a play like that, a goal can come from a stopped ball."
The offside rule itself he identified as the harder problem, not because VAR is wrong to apply it, but because the rule has edges that are genuinely difficult to square. "You end up scoring a header and they see the tip of your foot. Maybe that's to be reviewed. But how do you find a way to be able to score in all the plays within the same rule? It's not that easy to square the rule in offside. There are a lot of edges in the middle."
His fundamental position: "You have to evolve. For me, the spirit of VAR comes from wanting a little more justice to the game. There's always a margin of interpretation. It's the referee's, and in the end, he's a human being and he'll have to make the decision." When Fernando joked that robot referees might be the next step, Mascherano was clear. "We don't want them either, otherwise it would stop being football."
The Biggest Surprise: Norway. The Best Individual: Issa Saibari at 18.
Asked which team had most surprised him across the tournament, Mascherano went immediately to Norway.
"I think that having come all the way, Norway, which I hadn't seen so much, has surprised me. First of all, his group wasn't easy. He was second in front of Senegal, which was a fantastic team. And then, eliminating Ivory Coast, which I also saw in that game, and the other day against Brazil. Two selections that for me were among the ones I liked most."
Norway against Brazil, he said, was a very good game for long stretches, and Norway went out to play rather than park. "He made a face." For a team that many in the broader conversation had not tracked closely before the tournament, that was a significant statement.
The individual revelation was easier and more emphatic. The midfield player from Morocco, eighteen years old, whose name came up in the previous Zoomex session with Didi Hamann and again here without being prompted.
"I have the midfielder very clear. He's a guy I love, especially because of his age. And also because I hadn't seen him. The truth is that when I saw him in the first match against Brazil, I thought it was impressive. But then he ratified it in the following matches. At only eighteen years old, how he makes the whole team play and also how he recovers. The truth is that it's impressive."
Secreto brought up the Cape Verde goalkeeper Bosinha with a detail that went beyond football analysis: the man had a market value of forty thousand dollars before the tournament, was playing in the lower levels of Portuguese football, and had wanted to bring his wife to the World Cup but could not afford the flights until FIFA intervened. One tournament performance, and a career is transformed. "That's the magic that football generates. The attention of people. The ability to show that affection, that support, and give them that visibility."
Haskell made the point that the World Cup forces you to watch players you would otherwise never encounter. If your team faces Cape Verde, you see Bosinha. If your team faces Morocco, you see an eighteen-year-old who plays with the composure of a ten-year veteran. "When you consume football, you consume your team, you consume the teams that everyone consumes. But when you have to see your team against different teams, with different players, it shocks you, because you discover these kinds of players."
He ended with Messi, as most conversations in this tournament eventually do. "Every time he takes the ball, as he's close to the area, they have to put him at three or four, because if not, it's incredible what he has at his age."
France, Spain, Argentina. And the Prediction That Held.
On the wider tournament picture, Mascherano identified three teams with the names, the personality, the idea, and the recent history to dream of reaching the top: France, Spain, and Argentina. He acknowledged England had reached two European Cup finals in recent years and had earned its place in the conversation. He also acknowledged Morocco and the quarterfinal against France as a genuinely open game, not a formality.
"Football is not a science, it's not math where you say, there are a lot of variables within a football game and that's why it's so beautiful. Nobody has the truth about this, it's a matter of tastes, very subjective. But I think it goes that way. The teams that have the names, the personality, the idea, they have the journey in recent years."
The panel split along familiar lines. Haskell backed Spain with obvious personal investment. Miguel gave a detailed tactical argument for why Spain's style of pressing and ball retention represents a form of Kryptonite for France specifically, before settling on France because of the concentration of decisive individual talent. Secreto agreed that France had the individual quality and possibly the one additional point of advantage at this stage of the tournament. Both Haskell and Miguel ended their analysis by noting that Spain against Argentina would be a final worth watching from any seat in any timezone.
On the prediction market, Haskell described using it regularly, with the caution that it should stay an incentive to engage rather than a primary financial strategy. Secreto had been active across the World Cup campaign and found the reward structure a genuine reason to engage more carefully with individual matches. "Since you're going to watch the game anyway, that's an incentive, isn't it? To put a little bit of chicha and that emotion that rises a little higher." Miguel's 2010 prediction, made in a Spanish television production office the day after Spain lost to Switzerland, that Spain would win the entire World Cup, which proved correct, established his credentials and his regret that it had been made in a room rather than on a platform where it could have been worth something.
The Lesson From the Zoomex Space
The thread that connected both halves of the session was the gap between pattern recognition and outcome prediction, and the discipline required to trust the pattern even when a single result goes against you.
Mascherano's description of Argentina's five-match run at this tournament was not a piece of fan sentiment. It was a statistical observation: in each of the five games, Argentina was clearly superior to the opponent. One of those games ended with Argentina coming from behind in the final minutes. That does not change the pattern. It confirms the character that makes the pattern sustainable.
Miguel's observation about Messi holds across both domains. "How does he always know where to hurt the opposing team? He knows perfectly well the inside pass." The answer is experience, accumulated pattern recognition that has become instinct, and the combination of physical and cognitive intelligence that still, at thirty-seven years old, makes defenders assign three or four players to the same man. The instinct is not magic. It is the distilled output of two decades of preparation and attention.
In trading, the same logic applies. Secreto's acknowledgment that this has been a complicated year in predictions because of the volume of surprises is the same honest read a trader gives when volatility exceeds the model. The system is not wrong because one result deviated. The adjustment is to make better use of the system in the next session, not to abandon the framework.
Mascherano's line on VAR captures it most precisely. You evolve. The spirit of the technology is more justice. There will always be a margin of interpretation that falls to a human being in real time. That human will sometimes get it wrong. The goal is to reduce the number of decisive errors, not to eliminate all uncertainty. That is also what a stop loss is for.
The Zoomex World Cup Impact Pledge continues with one more episode remaining. Argentina are going to win the World Cup. Javier Mascherano said so, and 5,000 USDT for community organisations in San Lorenzo is waiting on the other side of it.
About Zoomex
Founded in 2021, Zoomex is a global cryptocurrency trading platform with over 3 million users across more than 35 countries and regions, offering 600+ trading pairs. Guided by its core values of "Simple × User-Friendly × Fast," Zoomex is committed to fairness, integrity, and transparency in delivering a high-performance, low-barrier, trustworthy trading experience.
As an official partner of the Haas F1 Team and global brand ambassador partner of goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, Zoomex brings the same focus on speed, precision, and discipline from the racetrack and the pitch to trading. The platform holds regulatory licenses including Canada MSB, U.S. MSB, U.S. NFA, and Australia AUSTRAC, and has passed security audits conducted by Hacken.

EBC12 brings together speakers from J.P. Morgan, the Financial Conduct Authority, Invesco, Coinbase, Fidelity International, and more than 300 leaders from the banks, regulators, and asset managers shaping Europe's digital asset market.
Barcelona, Spain, July, 2026 — Eleven weeks after the European Union's MiCA deadline, the 12th edition of the European Blockchain Convention (EBC12) returns to Barcelona at a pivotal moment for the industry. It is the region's first major institutional gathering since the world's first comprehensive cross-border digital asset regulation became fully law, and the event where European deal flow happens.
MiCA is now fully in force. For European markets, the focus shifts to what comes next: CASP licensing, stablecoin issuance, and the role of CBDCs in cross-border settlement. EBC12 is where that conversation takes place.
Rather than chasing mandates city by city across London, Paris, Frankfurt, Zurich, and Barcelona, EBC12 compresses the European digital asset market into a single two-day commercial arena. It takes place on 16–17 September 2026 at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya.
Europe has set the pace for compliant digital asset markets, giving the industry a clearer framework for how crypto can scale within regulation rather than around it. The institutional signal is unmistakable: Deutsche Börse has invested $200 million in Kraken; Santander’s digital bank, Openbank, has expanded its crypto trading for customers across Germany and Spain. Both will be among the institutions discussing what comes next in Barcelona this September.
EBC expects 80 of Europe's top 100 banks in Barcelona this September, up from 50 last year. The debate about whether institutions will enter digital assets is over. EBC12 is where they come to work out what comes next.
"Eight years ago, we built EBC because we believed Europe would be where this industry matured. A lot of people thought we were early. In 2026, European banks are deploying capital, institutional products are live across major markets, and the regulatory framework is in place. EBC is where the people driving that change meet once a year to do real business," said Victoria Gago, Co-CEO of European Blockchain Convention and Digital Assets Forum.
Sessions cover institutional capital allocation, real-world asset tokenisation, regulatory market structure, and the future of stablecoins and CBDCs as global settlement infrastructure.
Confirmed speakers include Emma Landriault, Head of Kinexys Labs at J.P. Morgan; Mohamad Zaraket, Head of Digital Assets Strategy EMEA at BNY; Kathleen Wrynn, Global Head of DA, Invesco; Victor Jung, Vice President, Digital Assets & Currencies, Hamilton Lane; Previn Singh from Fidelity and Colin Payne, Head of Innovation at the Financial Conduct Authority, among more than 300 speakers from across banking, asset management, infrastructure, and policy.
Alongside the main programme, EBC12 features 10,000 pre-arranged one-to-one meetings, a Buy Side Breakfast for allocators and institutional investors, and a dedicated press room with direct access to speakers.
EBC12 expects over 5,000 attendees from 90+ countries for two days of market intelligence, strategic networking, and commercial momentum at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya, a new premium venue reflecting the event's institutional evolution.
Notes to Editors
Event: European Blockchain Convention 12 (EBC12)
Dates: 16–17 September 2026
Venue: Palau de Congressos de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
About European Blockchain Convention:
Founded in 2018, the European Blockchain Convention has grown into a key driver of European deal flow in digital assets, bringing together banks, asset managers, regulators, infrastructure providers, and builders annually. Alongside EBC, the Digital Assets Forum series extends this reach across London, Abu Dhabi, and New York throughout the year.

Coinfest Asia, The World’s Crypto Festival organized by Indonesia Crypto Network (ICN), will return to Melasti Beach, Bali, Indonesia, on 20–21 August 2026, bringing together institutions, builders, traders, founders, investors, developers, and global Web3 communities in one of Asia’s most dynamic crypto gatherings.
This year, Coinfest Asia will feature dedicated programs for different parts of the crypto ecosystem, helping attendees access relevant insights, networking opportunities, product showcases, and business connections across Asia’s fast-growing crypto and Web3 markets.
What Attendees Can Do at Coinfest Asia
The 2026 edition departs from traditional conference formats by organizing content into three intent-based tracks. This structure is intended to align attendees with specific functional areas of the industry:
Institutional Track
Focused on digital asset adoption, stablecoin integration, and tokenization. Programs include Stablecoins Readiness Workshop, Asia Go-To-Market Sessions, Closed-Door Stablecoins & Tokenization Roundtable, panel discussions, and keynote sessions.Builders Track
Geared toward developers and startups across AI, blockchain, and digital infrastructure. Programs include Gemini AI Masterclass, “What the Hack!” Web3 Developer Course, AI Vibe Code Competition, Asia Go-To-Market Sessions, and sessions focused on product development and ecosystem growth.Traders Track
Created for active traders and market participants looking to understand market narratives, sharpen trading strategies, and connect with trading communities. Programs include Trading Competition by TRIV, Alpha Hunting Masterclass, Yapper Masterclass, Bitcoin Crash Course, Live Degen Experience, trading-focused panels, and keynote sessions.
Through these tracks, Coinfest Asia aims to make the festival easier to navigate while keeping the experience open and connected across the wider crypto industry.
Opening Access to Asia’s Web3 Markets
A core objective of the 2026 event is providing localized insight into Asian markets. The event introduces "Asia Go-To-Market Sessions," which provide briefings on regulatory environments, user behaviors, and growth channels in specific jurisdictions.
These sessions are organized in collaboration with regional ecosystem partners:
Japan GTM Session with WebX 2026Malaysia GTM Session with MYBW 2026Vietnam GTM Session with ConvictionIndonesia GTM Session with Indonesia Crypto NetworkTaiwan GTM Session with FutureModeIndia GTM Session with India Blockchain Week 2026
Through these sessions, attendees can better understand local user behavior, regulatory direction, community dynamics, partnership opportunities, and distribution strategies across Asia.
“Asia is not one single market. Each country has its own users, regulations, culture, and growth channels,” said Joditha Winatajaya, Head of Event at Coinfest Asia. “Through Asia Go-To-Market Sessions, we want to connect the audiences with the right local ecosystems, all in one place.”
A Foundation Built on Industry Leadership
Coinfest Asia 2026 will feature speakers from across blockchain infrastructure, exchanges, wallets, stablecoins, payments, data, AI, institutional finance, venture capital, to Web3 communities.
Confirmed speakers include Charles Hoskinson (Founder, Input Output Group), Felix Fan (CEO, Trust Wallet), Alexander Svanevik (CEO, Nansen), Nick See Tong (APAC & Singapore Lead, Base), Iñaki Moreno (Strategic Partnerships Lead, Web3 & AI, Google), William Sutanto (CEO, INDODAX), Ploy Boonyavee (Thailand/Indochina Country Manager, Tether), Gabriel Rey (CEO, TRIV Group), Calvin Kizana (CEO, Tokocrypto), Angela Ang (APAC Managing Director and Singapore President, BitGo), Tianwei Liu (CEO, StraitsX), Thomas Chou (Head of APAC, Canton Foundation), Akshat Vaidya (Co-Founder, Maelstrom) and more.
The event is also supported by leading companies across crypto, fintech, infrastructure, and digital assets, including Binance, Tokocrypto, Indodax, Triv, Duitku, ClickHouse, CockroachDB, BYDFi, Zoomex, FundedXyz, WalletConnect, GOIDR, GudangKripto, and more partners to be announced.
Since its launch, Coinfest Asia has grown into one of the world’s leading crypto gatherings, bringing together global companies, local ecosystems, builders, traders, institutions, and communities in Bali.
The 2026 edition builds on that momentum by combining industry programming with a festival environment designed for more fluid interaction. Beyond the main stages, Coinfest Asia will feature expo areas, curated business matching, networking activations, product showcases, community gatherings, and side events across the festival experience.
Tickets for Coinfest Asia 2026 are now available. Companies looking to expand into Asian crypto markets can also explore partnership and marketing opportunities through the official event channels.
About Coinfest Asia
Coinfest Asia is the world’s largest crypto festival, organized by Coinvestasi, a subsidiary of Indonesia Crypto Network (ICN). Held annually in Bali, Indonesia, the event brings together institutions, builders, and traders to connect, collaborate, and drive the future of digital assets in Asia and beyond.

From Hong Kong to Europe: OSL Clears MiCAR in Austria, Joining the Minority of Platforms to Meet Europe's Stringent Crypto Rulebook
OSL Group, one of the first digital asset platforms licensed in Hong Kong and listed on the HKEX, today announced a major regulatory milestone for its European subsidiary has secured MiCAR authorization from the Austrian FMA. Fewer than one in five previously registered firms successfully transitioned to full authorization. OSL Group now operates under the wider ecosystem across two highly comprehensive regulatory frameworks.
OSL Group (HKEX: 863), a global stablecoin payment and trading platform, today announced that its European subsidiary, OSL EU, has been authorized as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR). This authorization grants OSL Group the ability to passport its suite of regulated crypto-asset services across all 30 countries of the European Economic Area, positioning OSL Group one of a very small and elite tier of firms authorized under both Hong Kong's and Europe's licensing regimes.
This milestone lands at the moment MiCAR separates the fully licensed firms from the rest. Of more than 1,200 crypto firms that held national registrations across the EU, only about 210, roughly 17%, converted to full CASP authorization by the regime's 1 July 2026 deadline. The rest have exited or lost the legal right to serve EU clients, and several of the industry's largest names are not among those authorized. Narrowed to trading platforms, the field is smaller still.
“MiCAR is the most demanding test the global crypto industry has faced, and the results are now on the record: fewer than one in five previously registered firms successfully transitioned to full CASP authorization, and some of the largest names in the industry are not on the list,” said Chagri Poyraz, Chief Strategy Officer of OSL Group. “Clearing it is not a marketing line. It is evidence that a firm's governance, controls and compliance actually hold up under a regulator's scrutiny, rather than a promise that they would. That is the standard we have built OSL Group around from our Hong Kong base outward, and it is why institutions can read this authorization as a signal, not a slogan.”
Global Compliance Footprint: From Hong Kong to Europe
OSL Group's starting point is one of the most tightly regulated crypto markets in the world. The group parent company OSL Group Limited is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and it’s subsidiary OSL Digital Securities Limited was among the first virtual-asset platforms licensed by Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), a regime known for setting a high bar on custody, investor protection and market conduct. Securing MiCAR authorization in Austria extends that same licensed model into Europe and places OSL Group in the rare position of operating under two of the most stringent digital-asset frameworks in existence, one in Asia and one in the EU. For institutions choosing a partner for the long term, that dual standing is the differentiator.
“Europe set the global benchmark for digital-asset regulation, and most of the market did not make it through,” said Kevin Cui, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of OSL Group. “Building on our Hong Kong foundation, our recent Australian licence, and our authorizations across Asia and the Americas, this is what long-term, institution-grade infrastructure looks like. As the industry consolidates around the platforms that did the work properly, we intend to be one of the names that lasting trust is built on.”
Unlocking the EEA: One authorization, Thirty markets
Under the FMA authorization, OSL EU is empowered to serve institutional and eligible clients across the European Economic Area (EEA) with custody and administration of crypto-assets, spot trading, on and off-ramp and conversion services, and the transfer of crypto-assets. Because MiCAR replaces 27 separate national regimes with one harmonized framework, a single authorization passports across the entire bloc. In practice, this strengthens OSL Group's ability to open European banking relationships, access local payment rails, and win enterprise counterparties who will only work with fully regulated entities.
The European authorization extends one of the broadest multi-jurisdictional footprints in the sector. OSL Group operates under regulated frameworks across Asia, Australia, the United States, Canada and, now, Europe, and the group holds or is pursuing more than 50 trading and payment licences worldwide. The FMA authorization complements the MiCAR licence already held in the Netherlands by EU Internet Ventures B.V, another OSL Group subsidiary, providing the Group with enhanced operational resilience and a robust regulatory foundation across Europe.
“Securing MiCAR authorization from the Austrian FMA is not a formality. It requires genuine institutional-grade governance, compliance infrastructure and operational controls,” said Marie Winter, Managing Director of OSL EU. “This authorization confirms that our framework meets
the standard EU regulators set, and it lets OSL Group operate consistently and predictably across the European market from day one.”
The Flight to Quality: Leading the Post-Transition European Market
MiCAR is the first fully harmonized crypto framework of its kind, and the 1 July 2026 transition has made it a hard line rather than an aspiration. Regulators have confirmed there is no interim status and no extension. The market that emerges will be more concentrated, more institutional, and anchored by the select number of platforms that hold a licence. This authorization is a deliberate position on the licensed side of that line, consistent with the OSL Group's mission of building compliant infrastructure for stablecoin trading, institutional payments and cross-border value movement, from Hong Kong to Europe and beyond.
Remark:
The legal name of OSL EU is currently still CIGE vierte PGG GmbH. The company is expected to be renamed OSL EU GmbH in the near future, and the corresponding name change process is currently underway.
About OSL Group
OSL Group (HKEX: 863) is a global stablecoin payment and trading platform that strives to provide compliant and efficient digital financial infrastructure services globally, empowering enterprises, financial institutions and individuals to seamlessly exchange, pay, trade, and settle between fiat and digital currencies. Grounded in the core values of Open, Secure, and Licensed, it is committed to building a more efficient ecosystem that connects global markets and enables instant, seamless and compliant value movement worldwide. For media inquiries, please contact: media@osl.com
About OSL EU
OSL EU (legal entity: CIGE Vierte PGG GmbH) is the European subsidiary of OSL Group (HKEX: 863), authorized under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR) by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA). Under the newly granted authorization, OSL EU will provide custody and administration, spot trading, on/off-ramp and conversion services, and the transfer of crypto-assets to institutional and retail clients across all 30 EEA countries.
Disclaimer
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute, and shall not be construed as, an offer, solicitation, invitation, recommendation, or inducement to buy, sell, subscribe for, or otherwise deal in any digital assets, securities, or financial products. It does not constitute financial, investment, legal, tax, accounting, or other professional advice and should not be relied upon as such. The views, statements, and information contained herein do not necessarily reflect the official positions or commitments of OSL Group or any of its affiliates.
Any descriptions of future products, services, or operational capabilities are for general reference only. The rollout, provision, and participation in any related products or services are subject to operational readiness, applicable terms and conditions, and ongoing compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.
This article may contain forward-looking statements or indicative information. Actual outcomes, operational timelines, and service availability may differ materially from those projected, and OSL Group assumes no obligation to revise or update such forward-looking information.