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Phantom has hired two co-founders and a software engineer from Ventuals, a recently shuttered platform for trading unlisted stock tokens based on Hyperliquid (HYPE). According to The Block, Phantom described the move as a talent acquisition rather than an acquisition of the company or its products.

Binance has announced a partnership with Anchorage Digital to provide inter-bank, third-party custody services for institutional crypto trading, Cointelegraph reported.

Whale Alert reported that 246,200,000 USDT has been transferred from an unknown wallet to Bitfinex. The transaction is valued at about $246 million.

Corporate adoption of stablecoins is expected to surge over the next 12 months, according to a survey from payment infrastructure firm Cybrid, as reported by Cointelegraph. The report found that 42% of companies surveyed already use stablecoins for overseas payments. Furthermore, 88% of all respondents said they are likely or very likely to use stablecoins within the next year. According to the survey, companies using stablecoins saw their global payment costs decrease by an average of 35%. For firms with monthly payment volumes over $100 million, the savings were as high as 47% on average. The survey was conducted among 468 executives and corporate leaders.

Cryptocurrency prime brokerage firm FalconX announced it has obtained a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) license from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). The license permits the company to offer crypto trading, custody, liquidity, and institutional services across the European Union and the European Economic Area (EEA). The development comes as the grace period granted by the EU for firms to comply with MiCA regulations expires on July 1.

According to statistics, the 14 largest global funding rounds in the first half of 2026 totaled $4.3 billion. The sectors attracting the most capital were prediction markets, artificial intelligence, and payments. Prediction market platform Kalshi led the way by raising $1.2 billion, followed by Polymarket, which secured $600 million. The combined $1.8 billion raised by the two platforms represents over 40% of the total investment from the top 14 deals, demonstrating strong market interest. In the AI sector, Replit raised $400 million, Exa AI secured $250 million, and OpenRouter obtained $113 million in funding.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced it is seeking public comment on new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) focused on cryptocurrency and on-chain innovative products, including prediction markets. The agency noted it is continuously monitoring market interest in a range of innovative products, such as crypto-related funds, investment opportunities based on blockchain technology, and new financial derivatives like event contracts. According to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, the move is part of an effort to establish criteria for what can be recognized as an ETF, standardize the approval process, and limit indiscriminate approval attempts by issuers.

Memecoin issuance platform Pump.fun has announced it will discontinue support for its 'Tokenized Agent' issuance feature. However, tokens previously issued through this function will be maintained. Pump.fun stated that it plans to focus on a model that can significantly improve the trading experience for retail investors, aiming to optimize user interaction and the trading process at the token launch stage.

U.S. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has described digital assets as the most important financial frontier of our time, The Block reported. Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, he emphasized that the SEC is taking a new approach to cryptocurrency regulation and will continue to pursue his strategy of advancement, clarification, and innovation (ACT).

Solana has evolved into a blockchain network capable of supporting large-scale applications and now hosts over 1,000 decentralized applications, according to Grayscale's Head of Research Zach Pandl. He noted that in 2026, Solana has processed an average of over 1,200 transactions per second, surpassing 100 million daily transactions. The network has approximately 4.3 million daily active users, who have contributed to around $100 million in transaction fee revenue. Grayscale highlighted that the Solana ecosystem spans various sectors, including decentralized finance (DeFi), social trading, and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN). The firm concluded that this rich application ecosystem continuously generates on-chain activity, offering SOL holders investment opportunities tied to the network's long-term growth.

U.S. cryptocurrency mining company Riot Platforms has deposited 500 BTC, worth approximately $29.48 million, into an NYDIG custody account in a suspected sell-off, according to Onchain Lens.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has informed mediators that it will blockade the Strait of Hormuz again if its sole control over the waterway is not guaranteed in the Doha talks, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, citing sources. The IRGC also demanded that the U.S. and other nations abandon plans to navigate ships through the southern waters of the strait near Oman.

OKX has launched OKX AI, a new beta platform for building a task and trading marketplace for artificial intelligence agents. According to Odaily, the system consists of two main modules: - The Agent Marketplace: A space where developers can register their AI agents, set services and prices, and automatically receive payment upon task completion. - The Task Marketplace: A venue where users can post task requests. AI agents then match with these tasks, submit the results, and receive payment.

Global investment bank Jefferies warned in a recent report that the CLARITY Act still faces significant legislative hurdles in the U.S. Senate, suggesting that progress over the next few weeks could heighten volatility in the crypto market. Jefferies noted that while the bill previously passed the Senate Banking Committee with a bipartisan 15-9 vote, only about 20 legislative days remain before the August congressional recess. The bank described the timeline as extremely tight, considering the remaining steps of bill consolidation, procedural votes, reconciliation with the House version, and submission for a presidential signature. Data from the prediction market platform Polymarket shows that the probability of the bill passing by the end of 2026 has plummeted from 70% in mid-May to its current level of 48%. The report concluded that legislative delays could prolong regulatory uncertainty, potentially slowing the pace at which traditional financial institutions pursue blockchain-related business ventures.

Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said the labor market is near full employment and the growth outlook is positive. However, she noted that inflation remains too high, adding that the Fed might have to consider raising interest rates.

Sovright, a non-profit organization founded by former members of Zcash core developer Electric Coin Company (ECC), has launched a wallet recovery tool named 'Argos' to support early Zcash users. The tool was developed to help users recover assets that became inaccessible in shielded addresses following the discontinuation of the ZEC Wallet Lite service in 2022. Sovright Chair Michelle Lai explained that users who possess the mnemonic phrase for their original wallet can recover their funds using Argos. While the exact number of affected addresses is difficult to determine, it is estimated that a significant amount of funds is locked, primarily belonging to early and long-term Zcash investors.

Shares of Circle (CRCL) have fallen over 9% amid reports that a consortium of global financial and crypto firms, including Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, BlackRock, and Coinbase, are pursuing the joint launch of a new stablecoin called OUSD. CRCL is currently trading at $68.80, down 9.28%.

According to data from CryptoRank, ETH fell 25.2% in the second quarter, marking its first-ever three consecutive quarters of negative returns. The data shows that since 2020, Ethereum has posted gains in 16 out of a total of 26 quarters, with an average quarterly return of 20.1%.

A new wallet has withdrawn 5,926 ETH (approx. $9.29 million) from Binance and staked the funds, according to Onchain Lens.

Funds stolen from the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Grinex in a large-scale cyberattack in April, totaling over $13.7 million, have begun to move. According to Chainalysis data, the funds appear to be moving through mixers and cross-chain bridges to major exchanges for withdrawal. Chainalysis noted it is unclear whether the activity is the work of the original hackers or an insider laundering the funds. Grinex was launched just two weeks after the sanctioned exchange Garantex shut down in March 2025 and is suspected of being a rebranded exchange using the same team and infrastructure.

Wall Street financial market research firm Canaccord Genuity has lowered its price target for Strategy to $130 from $163. A Canaccord analyst noted that the company's leveraged model is vulnerable in a Bitcoin bear market, comparing it to a car that performs better in forward gear than in reverse.

Web3 wallet MetaMask has launched "Money Account," a new self-custody feature based on the Monad blockchain that converts stablecoin balances into yield-bearing accounts. Users can earn a variable annual percentage yield (APY) of up to 4% on MetaMask's native stablecoin, mUSD, simply by depositing funds. No separate staking, lockups, or manual actions are required. The account balance is linked to the Mastercard-based MetaMask Card, allowing users to spend funds directly from their interest-earning account. The feature also connects with other on-chain services within MetaMask, including Swaps, perpetual futures (Perps), and prediction markets.

The possibility of Bitcoin's price falling to $20,000 is not low, according to noted Bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital. He questioned why Bitcoin holders would consider such a price drop unlikely, pointing out that BTC was trading below that level just three and a half years ago. Schiff drew a parallel to the stock market, arguing that three and a half years is not a long time for an asset. He added that it is not uncommon for stocks to hit new lows over such a period, a scenario he believes is even more plausible for Bitcoin given its higher volatility compared to most equities.

Crypto companies have emerged as the largest industrial sector for U.S. political donations, spending a total of $189 million on the 2026 midterm elections, Walter Bloomberg reported. The industry's sustained lobbying efforts have already resulted in legislation regulating stablecoins, and it is now pushing for the passage of further crypto-related laws.

Asian Web3 research and consulting firm Tiger Research argued in a new report that the combination of blockchain and AI is currently being overlooked due to a mismatch between the demands of established industries and the technology's current trajectory. The firm clarified that this does not mean the combination is without value, but rather that a "business time lag" is needed to bridge this gap. The report concluded that the core nature of the blockchain industry has always been to proactively prepare for the next paradigm rather than focusing solely on the present.