BSC News

A peer-reviewed study presented at USENIX Security '26 has put a number on one of blockchain's most persistent problems. Researchers identified 65,340 high-risk address instances across Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain, with associated asset losses amounting to roughly 127,000 ETH and 17,700 BNB, equivalent to over $574.8 million.
The loss figure was calculated using token prices as of May 2025, at $4,408 per ETH and $847 per BNB, meaning actual losses at the time of each incident may differ. Two active attack vectors described in the paper directly account for about $15.7 million, or 2.7% of the broader estimate.
How Attackers Exploit Address Misuse
The study separates the problem into contract-account misuse and externally owned account misuse. Contract-account misuse occurs when someone sends a function call to an address that has no contract code on the selected network. The transaction can still succeed as a simple transfer without executing the intended function, leaving funds stranded at that address unless later-deployed code can move them.
To build their dataset, researchers mined 63,004 GitHub repositories created between January 2015 and May 2025, as well as a Stack Exchange archive. They extracted more than 16.3 million deduplicated private keys from GitHub, then combined direct key matches with transaction-pattern rules and lightweight symbolic execution across Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain.
The research also flagged EIP-7702, a relatively recent Ethereum improvement proposal, as an emerging attack surface. With EIP-7702 delegation in place, the assets in a user's account may be entirely controlled by smart contracts. If a user unknowingly delegates their account to a malicious contract, an attacker could gain control and steal funds, according to Ethereum's own developer documentation. Anti-fraud service Scam Sniffer has confirmed that phishing attacks targeting EIP-7702-upgraded addresses have been on the rise.
High Detection Accuracy, Broad Implications
The authors reported 99.11% precision for their overall address-misuse detection. The researchers also noted that address misuse is not unique to EVM-based chains. Any account-based blockchain employing the same deterministic address derivation mechanism, such as Solana and its testnet, is susceptible to the same risks.
Both types of address misuse can also affect standard tokens such as ERC-20 and ERC-721 assets. The authors describe their findings as a lower bound for the severity of this risk, with plans to examine a broader range of chains and tokens in future work.
The findings underscore a structural vulnerability that spans two of the largest blockchain networks and reaches well beyond individual user errors, pointing to systemic gaps in how addresses are generated, reused, and verified across platforms.
Sources:
USENIX Security '26: Lost in Blockchain Address Misuse (Official Presentation Page)
CryptoSlate: Risky crypto addresses flagged in USENIX study
Ethereum.org: Pectra EIP-7702 Security Guidelines

Cronje: Most Protocols Have Left True DeFi Behind
Andre Cronje (@AndreCronjeTech), founder of Flying Tulip (@flyingtulip_) and creator of the Fantom Network, says the decentralized finance sector has drifted so far from its origins that the label no longer applies to most of what it describes.
Cronje, who also founded Yearn Finance and the Keep3r Network, told Cointelegraph during the Chain Reaction X Spaces show that most DeFi protocols are no longer truly decentralized. "I don't think DeFi exists anymore outside of those very small niches," he said.
In his view, genuine decentralized finance requires three conditions: real decentralization, immutability, and the absence of intermediaries. He argued that many protocols are no longer immutable public goods, but rather "teams running for-profit businesses" with upgradeable contracts, offchain infrastructure and operational controls.
Cronje had already raised the issue in early 2026, pointing out that much of the ecosystem had abandoned its foundational principles amid a developer debate over emergency mechanisms such as circuit breakers. For Cronje, that debate is itself evidence of the problem: incorporating risk committees, curators, and decision-makers reproduces the logic of traditional banking under a decentralized interface.
Cronje frames the shift as a move toward "onchain finance or open finance" rather than the original DeFi model. He stopped short of declaring true DeFi dead, however, noting that he still sees genuine innovation among some protocols.
TVL Decline Adds Weight to the Argument
Total value locked in DeFi more than halved over the past ten months, falling to around $75 billion from $167 billion in early October 2025, according to DefiLlama. The contraction spans the broader ecosystem. The weakness extends across lending, liquid staking, and bridge protocols, suggesting participation is shrinking across multiple sectors rather than within a single one.
Curve Finance and Yield Basis founder Michael Egorov shared a similar view, telling Cointelegraph that recent exploits stemmed not from errors in code but from "centralization risks, single points of failure which live off-chain."
Developers and other industry participants continue to debate the trade-offs between using human-operated controls to reduce risk and preserving decentralized, trustless governance. Some argue timelocks, multisignature emergency keys and other mechanisms are needed to protect users, while others argue those same mechanisms concentrate decision-making.
Cronje's intervention reflects a wider sector shift, moving the conversation from whether DeFi is dead to how it should be structured if decentralization is treated as a measurable standard. When TVL declines and governance concentration becomes a regulatory talking point, protocol designers face increasing pressure to demonstrate that decision-making is genuinely distributed.
Sources:
Cointelegraph: 'DeFi Doesn't Exist Anymore' Just Onchain Finance: Andre Cronje
Cointelegraph: DeFi Exploits Push Builders to Rethink Emergency Controls

Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) has sold 4,300 $BTC from its treasury to finance day-to-day operations and accelerate its push into large-scale data center infrastructure, according to the company's second quarter 2026 financial results.
Treasury Reduction and Mining Output
The sale brought Riot's total holdings down from 15,680 to 11,380 $BTC. Of those remaining holdings, 5,821 BTC are held as collateral, with the full Bitcoin position valued at approximately $666 million based on a closing price of $58,527 on June 30, 2026.
During the quarter, Riot produced 1,587 $BTC at an average cost of $49,912 per coin, excluding depreciation, an increase driven primarily by higher power costs and expansion at its Kentucky facilities. The company continues to sell a portion of its monthly Bitcoin production to support operations and fund the equity component of its data center capital expenditures.
A Broader Pivot Toward AI Infrastructure
Riot's Q2 report also announced a landmark 20-year, 191-megawatt data center lease with a leading frontier AI lab, alongside data center revenue of $23.2 million for the quarter, which included the completed delivery of the initial 25 MW to AMD.
The AI lab deal is expected to generate approximately $9.1 billion in total contract revenue, rising to $16.1 billion if two five-year extension options are exercised. Combined with the existing AMD lease, Riot now holds $9.8 billion in contracted data center revenue.
Total revenue for the quarter reached $174.2 million, a 14% increase year-over-year. However, a GAAP net loss of $237 million was recorded, weighed down by over $240 million in non-cash charges including a $75 million mark-to-market loss on Bitcoin holdings and $98 million in depreciation. CFO Jason Chung stressed that these figures do not reflect the company's underlying operations, which are rapidly pivoting toward high-margin, recurring lease income.
Sources:
Riot Platforms Q2 2026 Financial Results (GlobeNewswire)
Riot Platforms Official Q2 2026 Press Release

Four in Five Firms Left Without a License
Europe's crypto industry has undergone a sharp consolidation following the expiry of MiCA's transitional period. MiCA's grandfathering period, the window that let firms already operating under national rules keep going, ended on July 1, 2026, dividing the European Economic Area's crypto service providers into those that gained authorization and those that did not.
Roughly one in five of the EEA's crypto service providers, 281 of 1,343, had gained MiCA authorization when the grandfathering period ended. The remaining 1,062 must now exit, restructure, or move their customers to an authorized firm.
MiCA officially came into force on December 31, 2024, with the regulation designed to replace the previously fragmented approach with a single set of rules for all 27 EU member states. Under the new framework, crypto firms can secure a single license with passporting rights across all 27 EU member states, avoiding the need to secure a national license in each jurisdiction.
Uneven Results Across Jurisdictions
The authorization process has produced sharply different outcomes depending on the country. Eight firms obtained authorization in Lithuania from a previous register containing more than 400 providers, while Poland issued none despite its old register exceeding 1,800 entries. Greece and Portugal also issued no home authorizations in TRM's dataset.
In contrast, by May, the ESMA register contained 204 authorized CASPs, with Germany accounting for 55, followed by the Netherlands with 25 and France with 17. Malta, Cyprus, Ireland and Luxembourg together accounted for 63 of 272 home authorizations identified by TRM, even though only 101 operating firms came from their previous registers.
The risk profile of the two groups is also starkly different. TRM found that 12% of firms without authorization carry a High or Severe risk rating, compared with 2% of authorized providers, while every firm assigned a Severe rating belonged to the unauthorized group. TRM Labs concluded that MiCA has concentrated Europe's crypto market among more regulated providers, effectively filtering out higher-risk operators in the process.
The longer-term impact of the regulation could extend well beyond Europe. MiCA may serve as a model for other regulators worldwide who are considering introducing or adapting laws to address crypto market needs, potentially leading to a more unified regulatory landscape for crypto and Web3 projects globally.
Sources:
TRM Labs: EU VASPs After MiCA, Authorization Rates and Illicit Exposure
Crypto.news: MiCA deadline left 1,062 EEA crypto firms without authorization
BeInCrypto: MiCA is Turning Europe Into a Licensing Test for Every Type of Crypto Company

A Price Gap That Forced a Rethink
Evernorth Holdings, the crypto treasury firm targeting a Nasdaq listing under the ticker XRPN, has amended the terms of its planned $1 billion deal after $XRP traded far below the level assumed when the original agreement was signed.
The company is revising its listing terms through a merger with SPAC Armada Acquisition Corp. II, after XRP fell to around $1, well below the $2.36 price originally assumed in the agreement. That gap effectively made the original capital structure misaligned with the real value of Evernorth's underlying treasury.
Instead of using a fixed company valuation, the parties are switching to a flexible mechanism, with the final number of shares tied to XRP's volume-weighted average price (VWAP) at the time the deal closes. Because the token's price has fallen, Evernorth will issue fewer shares at a fixed price of $10.00 each, but each share will be backed by more XRP.
Investors Back the Revision
All advance funders, representing more than 95% of committed capital, have agreed to the revised terms, demonstrating continued support for Evernorth's strategy and public market debut.
The company currently holds a substantial XRP position. At current prices, Evernorth controls 473.27 million XRP worth roughly $473 million. The revised agreement does not change its XRP holdings or treasury strategy. Evernorth plans to grow XRP per share through capital allocation, treasury operations, and participation across the XRP ecosystem after the proposed listing.
Evernorth's investors include Arrington Capital, SBI Group, Ripple, Pantera Capital, Kraken, and GSR, among others. Ripple Labs is contributing 126.79 million XRP to the deal, with institutional investors adding cash and XRP commitments.
The business combination is expected to close in late Q3 or early Q4 2026, subject to SEC review and customary closing conditions.
Sources:
Evernorth official press release via PR Newswire
XRP Price Shift Reworks Evernorth Shares, Bitcoin.com News
Ripple-Backed Evernorth Rewrites $1B Nasdaq Listing Formula, TradingView

Research First, Deploy Later
Crypto investor Ansem (@blknoiz06) has a straightforward message for investors sitting on the sidelines: you do not need to put capital to work right now, but you should start paying attention again.
In a video posted on August 14, Ansem argued that the window to do meaningful research is open today, and it will close the moment the broader market turns positive. "Researching a small amount daily will payout 10x more now than in 6 months when it's consensus that we are back and crypto isnt a scam," he said. The logic is simple: spotting opportunities during a period of low confidence costs far less effort than chasing them when everyone else is already bullish.
Ansem, whose real name is Zion Thomas, is a crypto trader, investor, and influencer primarily associated with the Solana ecosystem who became well known during the 2023 to 2025 cycle after publicly supporting several Solana-based projects and memecoins long before they reached mainstream attention. He has built a following by calling trends early, and his current advice follows that same contrarian pattern.
Why the Current Sentiment Window Matters
The backdrop to Ansem's comments is a crypto market that has been under sustained pressure. The 2026 data shows the bull run has not resumed. Bitcoin bottomed at a 21-month low near $59,300 in June, rebounded almost 10% in July, and has held the low-to-mid $60,000s since, still roughly 49% below its October 2025 record.
Sentiment reflects that weakness. In early 2026, the Fear and Greed Index dipped into "Extreme Fear," and historically, buying when market sentiment is at its lowest has yielded the highest long-term returns for disciplined investors. Retail demand has historically been pro-cyclical: it tends to return after prices begin moving, not before. That gap between price recovery and retail participation is exactly where Ansem sees the research opportunity sitting.
Underneath the surface, ownership is shifting. Large holders are accumulating, exchange balances keep falling, and ETF outflows have stopped. Those are the kinds of signals that reward investors who have already done their homework before the crowd arrives.
Ansem's broader view on the space remains constructive. In an earlier post, he described crypto as going through "a maturation phase" and pointed to stablecoins, perpetuals, and tokenization as themes that will continue to grow within the global economy, regardless of short-term price action.
For now, his advice is disciplined: stay risk-off if you need to, but do not stop watching the market. The investors who know what they want to buy before sentiment recovers are the ones most likely to benefit when it does.
Sources:
Bitcoin Foundation: Will Crypto Market Recover by End of 2026?
CoinDCX: Crypto Bull Run Outlook 2026
KuCoin: Will Crypto Recover in 2026?

Michael Saylor (@saylor) has outlined a framework that positions $BTC not just as a store of value, but as the base layer of a broader digital financial system. He calls it the Digital Finance Stack, a model that distributes assets across what he describes as a monetary spectrum, running from high-return capital on one end to stable transactional instruments on the other.
Bitcoin as the Foundation of a Financial Stack
Saylor draws on a crude oil analogy to make the case. He argues that crude oil is valuable, but civilization gets more utility by refining it into gasoline, jet fuel, plastics, lubricants, and asphalt. In his view, $BTC functions the same way. Bitcoin should be seen not merely as a means of payment, but as a fundamental layer of digital capital upon which credit, money, and other financial products can be built.
Within the monetary spectrum Saylor has outlined, Bitcoin is defined as Digital Capital, STRC as Digital Credit, SR-strcUSX as Digital Money, and $USDT as Digital Currency. Moving from left to right on the spectrum, volatility and potential returns decrease, while price stability and ease of use in transactions increase.
STRC is a Nasdaq-listed perpetual preferred stock issued by @MicroStrategy, and the company describes it as short-duration, high-yield credit carrying a 12% variable annualized dividend rate for August. Critics see the model differently, arguing that it layers leverage and financial engineering on top of volatility, amplifying both the upside and the risk.
Solstice Finance Brings the Stack to DeFi on Solana
The framework is already producing real products. Solstice Finance launched strcUSX on Solana, a structured product that offers DeFi users exposure to the dividends and price risk of Strategy's STRC preferred shares, without tokenizing or transferring ownership of those shares.
The product splits the indirect exposure to STRC into two tranches. The senior tranche, SR-strcUSX, receives income with priority and targets an annual yield of 7%. The junior tranche, JR-strcUSX, absorbs losses arising from fluctuations in the value of the STRC position before the senior tranche does, but in return offers a target yield of over 20% per year.
Both tokens are native Solana assets and can be traded, used as collateral, or integrated into decentralized finance applications. The result is effectively a DeFi-native restructuring of the economics of a Nasdaq-listed preferred security, rather than straightforward stock tokenization.
Together, the framework and the products emerging around it suggest that Strategy's Bitcoin-backed capital structure is expanding well beyond a simple treasury play, with each layer designed to serve a different type of investor, from those seeking appreciation to those prioritising income or stability.
Sources:
Michael Saylor Maps Bitcoin Into 4-Part Digital Money Stack, CryptoNews
Solstice Rolls Out Strategy's STRC Preferred Stock Income to Solana, CoinDesk
Saylor Bridges Bitcoin to Stablecoin, TradingView

Exemption Put on Hold as Legislative Talks Drag On
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has again delayed the release of its planned innovation exemption for tokenized securities, with details unlikely to surface in the near term. Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported that she had been told details of the exemption are expected to remain under wraps for the time being.
Terrett indicated that specific details of the measure are unlikely to be released in the near term, as ongoing discussions among stakeholders continue over Section 10505, the tokenization provision of the CLARITY Act. If the SEC pushes ahead with the exemption on its own, it could unsettle consensus around those provisions. As a result, the measure may remain on hold until the direction of the CLARITY Act becomes clearer.
Section 10505 of the latest Senate CLARITY Act text deals directly with the tokenization of securities, creating an overlap between congressional negotiations and the SEC's own tokenization plans. The Senate Banking and Agriculture committees' July 22 section-by-section summary states that tokenized securities would remain securities for regulatory purposes, and directs the SEC to study their treatment, including custody requirements, consumer protection, cross-border issues and coordination between regulators.
Open Meeting Also Cancelled at the Last Minute
The SEC cancelled the August 14 meeting where commissioners were expected to decide whether to formally propose a tailored regime for crypto offerings, citing an unforeseen scheduling issue. The statement, issued at 5:13pm on August 13, said the meeting would be moved, with no new date included.
The now-delayed session had been set for 10am on Friday August 14 at the SEC's Washington headquarters, where the three-member commission was due to consider whether to formally propose Regulation Crypto, a framework built around tailored fundraising exemptions for token projects. The agency had announced the meeting on unusually short notice on August 10, giving only four days warning rather than the standard week required for public sessions.
The Senate failed to advance a procedural cloture vote on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act before departing for its August recess, pushing the broader legislative framework for crypto market structure into limbo. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has filed to schedule a procedural vote on the bill when lawmakers return in mid-September. Until then, the SEC has limited room to act unilaterally without risking interference in the congressional process.
Sources:
Crypto Times: SEC Tokenization Exemption Delayed Over CLARITY Act
Bloomberg: SEC Delays Crypto Regulation Meeting in Latest Industry Setback
CoinDesk: SEC Cancels Long-Awaited Proposal of Reg Crypto

Robinhood Chain is closing in on $1 billion in total value locked (TVL) just over a month after its public launch, with Uniswap serving as the primary engine behind that growth, according to Standard Chartered.
Fastest-Growing Blockchain by TVL
Standard Chartered analyst Geoffrey Kendrick said Robinhood Chain has grown to nearly $1 billion in TVL, which he described as the fastest growth of any blockchain by that measure. Robinhood Chain launched its public mainnet on July 1, 2026, as an Ethereum Layer 2 solution built on the Arbitrum Orbit stack. The chain launched with a focus on bringing real-world assets onchain, and adoption accelerated quickly, reaching 194,000 daily active users during its first week.
Virtually all of Robinhood Chain's liquidity needs are being met through Uniswap V2, V3, and V4. The arrangement gives Robinhood access to established decentralized finance infrastructure as it scales its blockchain, potentially strengthening its ability to attract users without having to build liquidity from scratch. Uniswap launched all three versions of its decentralized exchange on Robinhood Chain when the layer-2 network went live on July 1.
A Boost for UNI Token Economics
According to Standard Chartered, protocol fees generated through Robinhood are now the largest source of UNI token burns. The UNI burn rate has roughly doubled since a Robinhood-linked fee switch was activated on July 27, reaching an annualized pace of about $90 million. At UNI's current price of roughly $3.50, that would translate to 25 million UNI tokens, or just over 4% of the circulating supply, being burned annually.
Uniswap collected $1.81 million of the chain's $2.28 million in daily fees, or 78.8%. Geoffrey Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered, wrote in his latest note: "I fear my 2030 UNI target of USD100 is too low!"
Standard Chartered said Robinhood's Uniswap integration could solve a key challenge for new blockchains while accelerating UNI token burns. Robinhood's partnership with Uniswap is helping the brokerage rapidly build liquidity on its new blockchain, potentially removing a key obstacle to attracting users and assets. For Uniswap, the deal channels a large retail user base directly through its protocol, compounding both fee revenue and burn momentum.
Sources:
Robinhood Chain Relies on Uniswap as Liquidity Nears $1B, CoinTelegraph
Robinhood Chain Mainnet Launch, Robinhood Newsroom
Standard Chartered Rethinks Uniswap Price Target, BeInCrypto

Record Outflow Signals Thinning Exchange Supply
@Morpho recorded its largest single-day exchange outflow on August 13, 2026. According to on-chain analytics platform Santiment, 5.59 million $MORPHO tokens left centralized exchanges, marking the biggest net daily outflow since the token became transferable and began spot trading on November 21, 2024.
When tokens move off exchanges, they are no longer part of the pool available for immediate sale. Santiment noted the tokens moved away through on-chain transfers, reducing the amount held on trading platforms and easing near-term sell pressure. The move is the clearest supply-side signal the token has produced since spot trading launched.
The August 13 outflow is not the first time this pattern has appeared. In late July, traders withdrew 4.35 million MORPHO from exchanges, the largest single-day outflow at that time since February 4, 2026, a move that coincided with Upbit opening a Korean won trading pair for the token. Won pairs across all venues account for roughly 13% of MORPHO turnover, giving Korean retail traders meaningful influence over short-term price direction.
Protocol Momentum Builds Behind the Data
The on-chain activity comes against a backdrop of growing institutional momentum for the protocol. Morpho powers Robinhood's Earn product, which provides risk-adjusted yield on idle balances using USDG, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, delivered through Robinhood's app. Morpho serves as the underlying credit network, Steakhouse Financial curates the vault infrastructure, and Robinhood Chain acts as the settlement layer.
The Robinhood partnership followed a significant fundraise. Morpho raised $175 million in a round co-led by Paradigm, a16z crypto, and Ribbit Capital, with Apollo Funds, Circle Ventures, and VanEck among participants. Fortune reported the round valued the protocol at up to $2 billion. The raise marked Morpho's fourth institutional fundraise since 2021.
Santiment's outflow data does not identify the individual traders behind each transfer, and large single-day movements do not guarantee a sustained directional price move. Still, the combination of record exchange outflows, a major retail integration, and heavyweight institutional backing adds context to why $MORPHO supply on trading platforms continues to thin.
Sources:
Crypto Times: Morpho Sees Record 5.59M Token Exodus From Exchanges
Business Wire: Robinhood Chooses Morpho to Power New Earn Product
Fortune: Morpho Raises $175 Million Led by a16z Crypto, Paradigm, and Ribbit Capital

$ETHFI climbed 15.4% to $0.4316 on August 13, making it the standout performer of the day as the broader crypto market traded largely flat. The move came on the back of a major product update from @ether_fi, which relaunched its neobank application with a significantly expanded feature set.
EtherFi Summer Release Adds Tokenized Assets and DeFi Borrowing
Ether.fi, which describes itself as the first and largest non-custodial crypto neobank, announced the next generation of its product as part of the ether.fi Summer release. The new app allows users to trade tokenized stocks and metals alongside crypto assets while maintaining self-custody, and includes an integrated Aave market on Optimism that lets users borrow against their portfolios at DeFi rates currently around 4% without selling their holdings.
New fiat accounts also support deposits and withdrawals worldwide. Ether.fi is best known for its restaking platform on Ethereum, but has since expanded its focus toward building crypto-native neobanking products that combine yield, self-custody, and onchain financial services. The relaunch positions the protocol as a direct alternative to traditional retail banks rather than a niche crypto product.
Other Movers and Broader Market Conditions
Beyond $ETHFI, a handful of other tokens posted gains on an otherwise subdued day. $ATOM rose 8.3% to $1.51, $OKB added 5.1% to $102.86, and $PUMP gained 6.3% to $0.002844. Total crypto market capitalisation sits at $2.17 trillion, while the Fear and Greed Index stands at 37, indicating that sentiment remains in cautious territory.
@AskVenice also reported a milestone on the day, saying its platform passed 4 million users. That figure marks continued strong growth for the privacy-focused AI platform. Venice had reached 3 million active users by April 2026 and turned profitable in Q1 2026, with annualized revenue exceeding $70 million from subscriptions and API access.
Sources:
Decrypt: Ethereum DeFi Platform Ether.fi Adds Tokenized Stocks and Portfolio-Backed Loans
EIN Presswire: ether.fi Launches Next-Generation Crypto Neobank
TechCrunch: Venice AI Becomes a Unicorn with $65M Series A

Revenue Mix Shifts as Trading Volumes Soften
@Gemini reported a net loss of $107.7 million for the second quarter of 2026, down 19% from the $133.2 million loss recorded in Q2 2025, according to the company's latest earnings release. The improvement came even as the exchange continued to operate at a significant deficit, reflecting the persistent pressure facing mid-tier crypto platforms in a softer trading environment.
Total revenue grew 37% year over year to $45.5 million, up from $33.3 million in Q2 2025, but the composition of that revenue tells a more cautious story. Exchange revenue, the core trading business, fell 38% to $12.5 million from $20.2 million in the same period a year earlier. The decline reflects broader weakness in spot trading volumes across the crypto market.
Services revenue was the standout, surging 149% year over year from $9.5 million to $23.5 million, helping to offset the trading shortfall and underpin the overall revenue gain. The company said it continued to benefit from cost optimisation initiatives put in place earlier in 2026.
Bitcoin Losses Weigh on Adjusted EBITDA
While the net loss narrowed and operating loss improved for a third consecutive quarter, adjusted EBITDA deteriorated to negative $74 million, compared to negative $51.9 million in Q2 2025. Gemini attributed the decline primarily to market-driven realised and unrealised losses on $BTC received as part of a May 2026 private placement, following a fall in bitcoin prices after the transaction closed.
Operating expenses fell 15% sequentially to $122.4 million, down from $144.5 million in Q1 2026, reflecting lower restructuring charges, reduced stock-based compensation, and continued cost discipline. Operating loss improved by approximately $17.2 million, or 18%, quarter over quarter.
Monthly transacting users rose 11% year over year to 580,000, though assets on platform fell to $8.4 billion from $18.2 billion in Q2 2025, reflecting lower crypto asset valuations relative to elevated market levels in the prior year period. Cash and cash equivalents stood at $188.6 million at quarter end, compared with $252.2 million at the close of Q4 2025.
The results come after a turbulent stretch for the Winklevoss-founded exchange. Earlier in 2026, the company exited the UK, EU, and Australian markets and cut around 200 jobs as part of a restructuring plan aimed at returning the business to profitability.
Sources:
Gemini Q2 2026 Results, via GlobeNewswire (Manila Times)
CoinDesk: Gemini Q1 2026 Earnings and Bitcoin Private Placement

CFTC's neuer Beratungsausschuss befasst sich mit Krypto, KI und Prediction Markets
@ChairmanSelig, Vorsitzender der Commodity Futures Trading Commission, hat die Tagesordnung für den Innovation Advisory Committee (IAC) der Behörde veröffentlicht und dessen erstes Treffen für den 20. August in Washington, D.C., angesetzt. Die dreistündige Sitzung läuft von 13:00 bis 16:00 Uhr Eastern Time; es gibt außerdem die Option, dass die Öffentlichkeit virtuell teilnehmen kann.
Der Ausschuss wird die Struktur der Krypto-Märkte, die Zuständigkeit für Prediction Markets und die Rolle von KI in den Finanzmärkten untersuchen. Auf Krypto-Seite werden Themen erwartet, die unter anderem „Bereiche umfassen, in denen regulatorische Maßnahmen die künftige Gesetzgebung des Kongresses ergänzen können“—eine vermutlich Anspielung auf das Scheitern des U.S.-Senats, den Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY)-Act zu verabschieden, bevor er in seine August-Pause gegangen ist.

@FireblocksHQ has added @trondao support to Flow, its stablecoin acceptance product for payment service providers and fintechs. Businesses using Flow can now accept payments and deposits from Tron wallets, with settlement handled in a stablecoin of their choosing.
What Flow does
Fireblocks launched Flow in June 2026, billing it as a way for PSPs and fintechs to accept digital assets without building out separate wallet connectivity, compliance tooling, conversion infrastructure, and reconciliation systems. The platform, unveiled at Money20/20 Europe in Amsterdam, integrates into a payment company's existing transaction process and lets all its merchants accept payments in any digital asset, settling funds in the stablecoin of their choice. Flow supports more than 800 wallet types across EVM networks, Solana, and Bitcoin, along with exchange deposits from Coinbase, Kraken, and Crypto.com. Flutterwave, Africa's largest payment company, is among the launch customers that added the solution into its stablecoin infrastructure. Tron was listed as a planned addition at launch and has now been formally integrated.
Why Tron matters for payments
The timing reflects Tron's growing weight in global stablecoin flows. Tron processed $2.1 trillion in $USDT transfers during the second quarter of 2026 as its stablecoin market reached a record $89.2 billion, according to Messari's August 10 report. As of June 30, approximately 93% of Tron's total stablecoin transfer volume was peer-to-peer, the highest share among all chains tracked. Near-zero transaction fees, fast confirmation times, and EVM-compatible tooling make it the preferred rail for high-volume, cost-sensitive transfers, particularly in emerging markets and for remittance use cases.
For Flow users, the addition opens a direct channel into that volume. Businesses can now reach senders in remittance corridors where Tron wallets holding $USDT are a common payment method, without managing a separate blockchain integration.
Sources:
Fireblocks Flow launch press release, PR Newswire, June 2026
Introducing Fireblocks Flow, Fireblocks Blog, June 2026
TRON USDT transfers hit $2.1T, Crypto.news, August 2026

Record Quarter Driven by Marketplace Expansion
Figure Technology Solutions (Nasdaq: FIGR) posted its strongest quarter to date, reporting net revenue of $225.6 million and net income of $87.4 million for the three months ended June 30, 2026. Net revenue and net income rose 113% and 192% year-over-year, respectively, with the net income margin improving to 38.8%, reflecting higher scale and operating leverage.
Adjusted EBITDA reached $119.4 million, while Consumer Loan Marketplace volume rose to $4.26 billion, driven by the expansion of Figure Connect and new origination partners. Figure Connect, the company's capital-light marketplace model, now accounts for 65% of total volumes.
On the earnings-per-share front, Figure posted $0.35, blowing past the consensus estimate of $0.23 by roughly 52%. Adjusted EBITDA margin came in at 54.6%.
$YLDS Circulation Climbs as Regulated Yield Product Gains Traction
$YLDS in circulation rose to $556 million, with third-party borrowing activity on Democratized Prime reaching approximately $170 million as of August 6, 2026. That compares with $328 million at the end of December 2025, reflecting rapid adoption of the product since the start of the year. The net take rate slipped modestly to 3.6% from 4.0% a year earlier.
$YLDS is an SEC-registered yield-bearing stablecoin that operates as a tokenized money market fund. It is a digitally native, SEC-registered security pegged 1:1 to the dollar while automatically accruing interest. YLDS originally launched on Provenance Blockchain in February 2025, added Solana in November 2025, and has since expanded to the Stellar network.
Looking ahead, Figure's pending acquisition of real estate lender Kiavi remains on track to close in the second half of 2026, a deal that would expand Figure into adjacent real estate lending markets and bring more loans to its marketplace. Weekly applications had already surpassed $1 billion as of July 2026.
Sources:
Figure Technology Solutions Q2 2026 Earnings Release, Stock Titan / Globe Newswire
Figure Technology beats Q2 estimates, Crypto Briefing
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The XRP Ledger's decentralized exchange is seeing a pickup in activity. Weekly DEX volume climbed 45% to $19.89 million, while daily transactions approached 3 million in the latest 24-hour window, with 48,403 active addresses recorded on the network.
Onchain Trading Still a Fraction of Total Volume
Despite the uptick, XRPL's onchain trading remains a small slice of its overall market footprint. DEX activity accounts for roughly 0.04% of total $XRP volume when measured against centralized venues, underscoring how dominant exchange-based trading continues to be for the asset.
DeFi total value locked (TVL) on the ledger sits at $29.97 million, according to DefiLlama data. That figure is down sharply from a peak of nearly $120 million reached in July 2025, reflecting a broader pullback in locked liquidity even as transaction counts hold near multi-month highs.
Stablecoin Supply Nears $920 Million, RLUSD Dominant
One area where XRPL continues to show structural growth is stablecoins. The chain's total stablecoin supply stands at $920 million, with Ripple's RLUSD accounting for 88% of that figure. DefiLlama data shows RLUSD dominance on XRPL at 88.39%, with the chain's stablecoin market cap near $925 million. The stablecoin's rapid rise tracks a broader expansion: supply on the XRP Ledger more than doubled since December 2025, reaching $568 million as of March before continuing higher.
The fee picture illustrates just how low-cost the network remains. Those 2.96 million daily transactions generated only $333 in chain fees over the same period, with app-level fees reaching $26,874, per DefiLlama. XRPL supports native tokenization through built-in ledger objects and includes a built-in decentralized exchange that automatically provides order-book-based liquidity for issued tokens. That low-cost design has helped the ledger attract stablecoin issuers and institutional settlement flows, even as DeFi TVL has yet to recover to prior highs.
The gap between XRPL's stablecoin footprint and its DeFi TVL points to a network where capital sits largely in transit or custody rather than deployed into lending or liquidity pools. Whether rising DEX volume and transaction counts can close that gap remains a key question for the ledger's onchain economy.
Sources
DefiLlama: XRPL Chain Overview (TVL, Fees, Stablecoins)
Bitcoin Foundation: 5 Major XRPL Changes in 2026

Base Takes the Lead in Onchain Card Settlement
Onchain crypto card spending surpassed $635 million in July 2026, with settlement activity spreading across multiple blockchain networks, according to data from Paymentscan. @base handled $184.4 million of that volume, placing it ahead of @Optimism at $106.2 million and @solana at $84.8 million for the month.
The momentum has carried into August, which has already logged $285.5 million in onchain card volume, suggesting the full-month total could comfortably exceed July's figure.
The growth in absolute terms is striking when set against recent history. According to a16z crypto, which highlighted Paymentscan data, broader tracked crypto card spending reached $759 million in July across all programs, up roughly 2.5 times from $306 million a year earlier, and up from less than $1 million when tracking began in October 2023.
A Settlement Landscape That Has Shifted Quickly
The network mix behind crypto card settlement has changed considerably over the past two years. In early 2024, Gnosis dominated, carrying nearly all tracked card spend as the home of Gnosis Pay, one of the first Visa cards connected directly to a self-custodial wallet. By July 2026, Gnosis had fallen to roughly 2% of volume, per Paymentscan, as newer card programs launched and gravitated toward higher-throughput networks.
Dollar-backed stablecoins now drive the majority of card spending. Data highlighted by a16z and Paymentscan shows USDC and USDT accounting for approximately 84% of tracked spending, a sharp reversal from early 2024 when euro-backed stablecoins controlled most of the market.
The cards themselves largely run on Visa's network, with stablecoins typically converted into local currency at the point of sale. Merchants receive payment through familiar card infrastructure without directly handling digital assets. Visa and Stripe-owned Bridge have also announced plans to expand stablecoin card availability to more than 100 countries by end of year, pointing to further growth ahead.
Despite the rapid expansion, the segment remains small relative to traditional card networks, which process trillions of dollars monthly. But the trajectory over the past year leaves little doubt that onchain card payments are becoming an increasingly measurable part of everyday commerce.
Sources:
a16z Crypto: 5 charts on crypto card stablecoin spend
Yahoo Finance: Crypto Card Spending Tops $750 Million, a16z Reports
Cryptopolitan: Crypto card spending hits $759 million as USDC takes 58% of volume

Binance founder @cz_binance has used a data breach at Trezor's shipping provider as fresh ammunition in his argument for software-based self-custody wallets, saying the act of purchasing and receiving a physical device creates a paper trail that links a buyer's real-world identity and home address to their crypto holdings.
Writing on X, @cz_binance named Binance Web3 Wallet and @TrustWallet as alternatives that avoid that specific exposure. He also disclosed that @yzilabs invests in a number of hardware wallet companies, framing the debate as a matter of different risk profiles rather than a categorical verdict against cold storage.
What happened at ShipMonk
The breach that prompted the remarks was confirmed by Trezor on August 13, 2026. According to BleepingComputer, Trezor's shipping provider ShipMonk notified the company on August 10 that an unauthorized party had accessed its systems. The incident affected 11,742 customers whose full names, email addresses, phone numbers, and shipping addresses were exposed, along with a further 1,947 customers who suffered partial exposure of name, city, and email. Trezor itself said it was the first breach in the company's history to expose customer phone numbers and shipping addresses.
ShipMonk told affected customers that the attackers exploited a vulnerability in the third-party analytics platform Metabase. Trezor confirmed that its own infrastructure, firmware, and devices were not compromised. Affected customers covered orders placed between May 10 and August 8, 2026, across the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Colombia, Brazil, Italy, and Portugal.
Broader context for hardware wallet security
The Trezor incident follows a difficult stretch for hardware wallet makers. In late July, a firmware flaw in Coldcard Mk3 devices dating to March 2021 was exploited to drain approximately 1,082 $BTC, worth around $70 million at the time, in a window of roughly 41 minutes. CoinDesk reported that @cz_binance responded to that incident by urging holders to split funds across multiple wallets, while cautioning that even that approach carries its own risks and that nothing is 100 percent safe.
The ShipMonk breach adds a different dimension to the hardware wallet risk discussion: the supply chain and logistics layer, not just firmware. Trezor said it plans to introduce an anonymous delivery option featuring locker pickup, neutral packaging, and automatic deletion of shipping identifiers, targeting European customers by September 2026 and US customers by year-end. Affected customers are advised to treat unexpected contact with suspicion and to never enter a wallet backup online.
Sources:
BleepingComputer: Trezor discloses data breach affecting nearly 14,000 customers
Trezor: Recent customer data exposed in shipping provider incident
CoinDesk: Binance founder CZ calls for wallet diversification after Coldcard exploit

Die Burn-Rate erhöht die Messlatte
Der globale Leiter für Digital-Asset-Forschung bei @StanChart, Geoff Kendrick, sagte am Donnerstag, dass das $100-Kursziel bis Ende 2030, das er im Juni für $UNI festgelegt hat, möglicherweise bereits zu konservativ sei. Der Auslöser ist ein sprunghafter Anstieg der Protokollumsätze, der vollständig dazu genutzt wird, UNI-Token zu kaufen und zu verbrennen.
Seit dem 27. Juli hat der Umsatz des @Uniswap-Protokolls durchschnittlich 244.222 US-Dollar pro Tag betragen, also etwa 2,4-mal so schnell wie im vorherigen Zeitraum. Kendrick machte die aus dieser Zahl abgeleitete Burn-Rate bei den aktuellen Preisen als nicht nachhaltig aus; das wertete er als bullisches Signal für die langfristige Bewertung des Tokens. Zum Zeitpunkt des Verfassens dieser Zeilen wurde UNI für rund 3,50 US-Dollar gehandelt, rund 13 % niedriger als im Wochenverlauf.

From 3.5 Million to 4 Million in Six Weeks
Privacy-focused AI platform Venice (@AskVenice) has crossed 4 million registered users, the company announced on X, adding roughly half a million accounts in the six weeks since closing its landmark funding round. At the time of that round, Venice reported 3.5 million registered users and was processing 1.3 trillion tokens per month.
The growth comes at a notable pace for a platform that only launched in 2024. Venice provides access to open-source and frontier AI models through a zero-retention privacy architecture in which user prompts and AI responses are never stored on company servers, with all conversation history maintained exclusively in the user's local browser storage. That proposition has clearly resonated: the platform processes 1.3 trillion tokens per month and handles over 1.7 million daily API calls, and it turned profitable in the first quarter of 2026, a rare outcome in an industry where many AI firms still burn cash.
The native $VVV token trades near $12.38, up about 9% on the week. Venice plans to continue using a portion of its monthly revenue to buy back and burn $VVV tokens while reducing token emissions over time.
A $1 Billion Debut Round Backed by Crypto VCs
Erik Voorhees' crypto-AI startup Venice raised $65 million in a Series A at a $1 billion equity valuation, led by Dragonfly, with participation from North Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, F-Prime, Archetype, Liquid2 Ventures, Morgan Creek, and others. It was Venice's first round of outside capital.
Voorhees said Venice intentionally waited until after launching both its product and token before bringing in venture investors. The company plans to use the capital to purchase GPUs and build its own data centers to transition away from leasing infrastructure and to improve its gross margins.
In return for the $65 million investment, Series A investors received an 8.98% equity stake in Venice AI, a vesting grant of 1.5 million Venice (VVV) tokens, and warrants giving them the right to purchase another 5 million $VVV tokens during the next eight years.
Sources: TechCrunch: Venice AI becomes a unicorn with $65M Series A | Venice AI official blog: Venice Raises $65 Million Series A | The Block: Venice AI raises $65 million Series A led by Dragonfly