Headline
▌U.S. Treasury Secretary Basant: The dollar is coming on-chain
U.S. Treasury Secretary Basant tweeted on the X platform that blockchain technology will power the next generation of payments, with the U.S. dollar coming on-chain, thanks to Trump's leadership and Senator Bill Hagerty's important work in Congress. The (GENIUS Act) will help solidify the dollar's position as a global reserve currency for generations to come. Additionally, U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender stated that with the (GENIUS Act) providing legal clarity for stablecoins, the U.S. now has a faster, cheaper, and safer way to transact, increasing the global acceptance and demand for digital payments supporting the dollar, reinforcing the commitment to make the U.S. a global crypto hub.
▌UK media: The London Stock Exchange Group considers launching 24-hour trading
According to the Financial Times, the London Stock Exchange Group is considering whether to launch 24-hour trading. As demand from active small investors outside normal business hours continues to grow, exchanges are competing to extend stock trading hours. According to informed sources, the London Stock Exchange Group is researching the feasibility of extending trading hours, covering the required technology and regulatory impacts. One source noted that the London Stock Exchange is 'seriously considering this matter, whether to implement 24-hour trading or extend trading hours,' adding that the exchange group is engaging in 'important business, policy, and regulatory discussions' on this 'ongoing issue.' Another informed source said this exploration is part of a broader discussion about potential new products and services.
Market Trends
As of the time of writing, according to CoinGecko data:
The price of BTC is $117,345, with a 24-hour change of -0.5%;
The price of ETH is $3,748.92, with a 24-hour change of +4.6%;
The price of BNB is $756.99, with a 24-hour change of +3.3%;
The price of SOL is $180.77, with a 24-hour change of +2.3%;
The price of DOGE is $0.2732, with a 24-hour change of +13.2%;
The price of XRP is $3.45, with a 24-hour change of +0.5%.
The price of TRX is $0.3136, with a 24-hour change of -1.3%.
Policy
▌Hong Kong's Financial Secretary: Stablecoins are a long-term game, and different assets will be tokenized in the next step
The Chairman of the Hong Kong Financial Development Council, Hong Pi Zheng, recently stated at an annual report press conference that stablecoins should not become speculative objects. The digitization of asset markets is a long-term game. Stablecoins should play a stabilizing role and should not have a shortsighted vision, believing that Hong Kong's development pace is currently among other financial centers. Hong also revealed that stablecoins are one part of the digitization of the Hong Kong financial market, allowing trading currency intermediaries to be tokenized, and believes that there will be different assets tokenized in the next step, but the development process will take time and will not be fully tokenized for now.
▌Chen Maobo: The Hong Kong SAR government positions AI as a key industry
Hong Kong's Financial Secretary Chen Maobo published a secretary's essay, noting that the 35th Hong Kong Book Fair, which lasted for seven consecutive days, opened on the 16th at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, featuring a 'Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Special Exhibition Area' for the first time. The SAR government positions artificial intelligence as a key industry, vigorously supporting fundamental research to promote the transformation of results, nurturing local startups, attracting global leading tech companies to settle, accelerating the development of the Northern Metropolis, and strengthening cooperation with brother cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in innovation and technology. The development of Hong Kong's innovation and technology industry has already produced a solid blueprint. The SAR government will stay focused on its goals, painting a blueprint to the end, and the innovation and technology industry will provide more diverse and quality career development opportunities for Hong Kong's youth.
▌U.S. media: The Trump administration reviews contracts with Musk's company
According to U.S. media reports on the 20th, after the relationship between President Trump and billionaire Musk soured, the Trump administration has begun reviewing contracts between Musk's SpaceX and several federal government agencies. The U.S. (Wall Street Journal) reported that the General Services Administration has asked the Department of Defense, NASA, and other government agencies to fill out forms to report on their collaboration with SpaceX and to understand whether competitors in the industry can perform the same work more efficiently. Preliminary assessments show that due to SpaceX's dominance in rocket launches and low-Earth orbit satellite services, most government contracts are difficult to cancel. Previously, Trump stated on social media that the easiest way to save federal spending is to 'terminate' the government contracts signed with Musk's company. Musk had fully supported Trump in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, but recently the two sides have had serious disagreements over issues such as the 'Big and Beautiful' tax and spending bill, leading to a public spat.
▌Multiple regions warn of illegal fundraising risks associated with virtual currencies
Recently, the so-called '2% daily interest' Ponzi scheme 'Xinkangjia' collapsed, raising society's attention and vigilance towards new types of online fraud. Regulatory bodies have been intensively 'sounding the alarm'. According to incomplete statistics, since July, financial regulatory authorities in multiple regions, including Guangdong, Yunnan, Hunan, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Zhejiang, and Fujian, have issued warnings about illegal fundraising risks associated with 'virtual currencies' and new types of online fraud.
Blockchain Applications
▌Kraken will provide on-chain loans to its users through the Ink Chain Aave white-label market
According to Aave co-founder Stani.eth's post on the X platform, the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken will provide on-chain loans to its users through the Ink Chain Aave white-label market. According to a previous proposal by Aave DAO, by granting a centralized version license for the deployment of the Aave codebase, Aave can expand its technology adoption while creating new revenue streams through partnerships with innovative platforms, with a portion of the revenue returned to the DAO. It is reported that the Ink Foundation has agreed to work exclusively with Aave for at least 12 months after deployment, avoiding integration with any other lending protocols.
▌CoinDCX reaffirms customer fund safety and will soon launch a recovery bounty program
Sumit Gupta, co-founder of the Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX, which was disclosed by 'on-chain detective' ZachXBT to have suffered a hacking attack, reiterated on the X platform that customer funds are safe, with all user assets stored in isolated cold wallets. This incident is limited to a single operational liquidity provision account, and trading and withdrawals are proceeding normally. CoinDCX is cooperating with law enforcement to recover stolen funds and will soon launch a recovery bounty program.
Cryptocurrency
▌Bloomberg analysts: BlackRock's Ethereum ETH staking approval deadline should be April next year, but it may be approved as early as Q4 this year.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart tweeted on the X platform that the Ethereum ETH staking options submitted by several institutions 'will take time to complete,' with the final deadline for early applicants being around late October 2025, but the approval deadline for BlackRock's Ethereum ETH staking application is expected to be around April 2026 (though we believe it may be approved as early as Q4 2025). However, VanEck, 21Shares, and Canary Capital have urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to consider adopting a first-in, first-out approval process, rather than wanting to 'bulk approve' with BlackRock, which submitted its application later.
▌Bitcoin's market share has fallen below the annual peak for 2024
According to market data, Bitcoin's market share (BTC.D) has declined for 8 consecutive days, currently at 61.15%, below the annual peak of 61.53% in 2024. Previously, Matrixport stated that the continued decline in Bitcoin's market share indicates that the altcoin season has truly arrived.
▌Ethereum's market capitalization surpasses Vanguard Group, rising to 28th in global asset market capitalization rankings
According to 8marketcap data, Ethereum's market capitalization has surpassed $456 billion, surpassing asset management giant Vanguard Group, ranking 28th in global asset market capitalization.
▌Michael Saylor again releases Strategy's Bitcoin holdings tracking information
Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor once again released information regarding Strategy's Bitcoin holdings tracking on the X platform, stating: 'Stay Humble. Stack Sats.' Typically, the day after he releases such information, he discloses Strategy's Bitcoin accumulation data.
▌The Pump.fun project party's associated address transferred 2 billion PUMP to Binance, valued at $12.75 million
According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa), the Pump.fun project party's associated address transferred 2 billion PUMP to Binance. The address 58WQi...gv33E received 12.5 million PUMP from the project party, of which 2.5 billion is suspected to be used for Wintermute market making, 8 billion was deposited into Bybit, and another 2 billion was deposited into Binance, valued at $12.75 million. Binance's current support for PUMP is limited to Alpha and contracts. Ai Yi analyzes that this deposit action may correspond to the following possibilities: PUMP is about to conduct an airdrop or other activities in Alpha; PUMP is about to be listed on Binance's main site; this operation is merely to confuse the audience.
▌Ohio Public Employees Retirement System increased its holdings of 21,499 Strategy shares in Q2
According to Barron's, one of the largest public pension funds in the U.S., the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it bought more shares of Palantir Technologies and Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) in the second quarter of this year, while selling shares of Lyft. Data shows that the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System increased its holdings of Strategy shares by 21,499, bringing the total number of shares held at the end of the second quarter to 101,880. As the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, Strategy has been selling preferred shares to raise more funds to purchase this cryptocurrency, with its stock price rising by 40% in the first half of 2025 and by 4.7% in the third quarter. The total assets of the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System are $155.6 billion, making it the 14th largest public fund in the U.S.
▌This week, large amounts of AVAIL, VENOM, ALT tokens are set to unlock
Token Unlocks data shows that tokens such as AVAIL, VENOM, and ALT will face large unlocks this week (all times are in Beijing time). Among them: Avail (AVAIL) will unlock about 972 million tokens at 4 PM on July 23, accounting for 38.23% of the current circulating supply, valued at about $18.9 million; Venom (VENOM) will unlock about 59.26 million tokens at 4 PM on July 25, accounting for 2.84% of the current circulating supply, valued at about $13.4 million; AltLayer (ALT) will unlock about 240 million tokens at 6 PM on July 25, accounting for 6.39% of the current circulating supply, valued at about $8.9 million; Sahara AI (SAHARA) will unlock about 84.27 million tokens at 8 PM on July 26, accounting for 4.13% of the current circulating supply, valued at about $6.9 million; SOON (SOON) will unlock about 41.88 million tokens at 4:30 PM on July 23, accounting for 22.41% of the current circulating supply, valued at about $6.1 million.
Important Economic Dynamics
▌U.S. Secretary of Commerce: Powell has kept interest rates too high
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Rudnick: Powell has kept interest rates too high.
▌U.S. Secretary of Commerce: Small countries need to pay a baseline tariff of 10%
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Rudnick: Confident of reaching an agreement with the EU. Trump is expected to renegotiate the USMCA. Small countries need to pay a baseline tariff of 10%. August 1 is the deadline for tariff imposition.
▌Informed sources: Basant strongly advised Trump not to dismiss Powell.
According to the Wall Street Journal, informed sources say that U.S. Treasury Secretary Basant privately advised Trump in recent days not to attempt to dismiss Federal Reserve Chairman Powell. Basant's reasoning is focused on several themes: the potential impact on the economy and markets, the prospect that the Fed may lower rates later this year, and the political and legal obstacles this move may face. Basant believes that firing Powell is unnecessary because the economy is performing well, the market is responding positively to the president's policies, and Fed officials have already signaled that they may cut rates twice before the end of the year. If Powell were to be dismissed before the end of his term, he might file a lawsuit, which could drag into spring next year, by which time Powell's term would also end. Basant also pointed out that the term of Director Kugler will end in January next year, and Powell's term will end in May, which will give Trump one or two positions to fill early next year. Basant's cautious attitude contrasts with some other government officials who consider taking a more aggressive strategy. Trump stated on Tuesday that he feels Basant is 'reassuring.'
Golden Encyclopedia
▌What role do gold, oil, and BTC play in U.S. reserves?
The U.S. government has long relied on gold and oil as reserve assets, but with the increasing adoption of Bitcoin among institutions, its potential role as a strategic reserve has significantly risen. While gold has historically been the backbone of the monetary system and oil remains an important economic and security asset, Bitcoin represents a new type of digital reserve that challenges traditional financial paradigms. The U.S. holds a significant amount of gold and oil reserves, but its Bitcoin holdings are relatively small, primarily acquired through asset seizures. Gold, oil, and Bitcoin each exhibit unique liquidity and market dynamics, with gold being the most stable, oil driven by geopolitical factors, and Bitcoin characterized by high volatility and round-the-clock accessibility. Gold, oil, and Bitcoin all play strategic roles in the global economy; gold serves as a hedge, while oil impacts geopolitical stability. Over time, all these assets hold strategic and macroeconomic significance. Their narratives related to broader capital markets may just be what attracts investors' interest. With growing institutional adoption, Bitcoin's strategic value as a hedge against inflation and government debt is increasingly recognized. Policy initiatives suggest that establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve could position it alongside traditional assets like gold and oil in the future.
