
The GENIUS Act, which governs U.S. stablecoin issuers, marks its first anniversary, leaving Tether and other non-U.S. issuers two years to devise compliance strategies. Federal regulators missed the deadline to finalize implementing rules, creating ongoing uncertainty. The law‘s basic standards would require major changes for Tether’s USDT, the world‘s leading stablecoin by volume, potentially pushing it out of U.S. markets if the company does not revamp dramatically. Despite CEO Paolo Ardoino’s assurances last year, Tether has not yet pivoted decisively toward the Acts demands. While the anniversary has seen a surge in stablecoin interest and many firms seeking trust bank charters, experts still disagree on key interpretations.

Kraken is launching a new crypto options platform as part of its evolution into a broader financial services provider, aiming to expand the options market by simplifying access for retail traders. While derivatives dominate crypto trading volumes, options remain a niche dominated by venues like Deribit, CME Group, and Binance. Krakens global head of product, Mayurita Theodorou, emphasizes that the goal is not merely to capture market share from incumbents but to grow the overall addressable market by offering straightforward, dollar-settled contracts in the same account used for spot and futures. She argues that the slow adoption of crypto options is a product design issue, not a lack of demand, noting that existing platforms primarily serve institutions and market makers, while retail traders have gravitated toward the simplicity of perpetual futures.

Supporters of BIP-110 view Bitcoin as a public utility whose scarce block space should be reserved primarily for monetary settlement, potentially requiring new consensus rules to protect financial transactions. In contrast, DOG Mode argues Bitcoin should remain a neutral marketplace where any valid transaction is equally legitimate if the sender pays the prevailing fee, rejecting any objective distinction between a bitcoin payment and an Ordinals inscription. Rather than seeking a protocol upgrade, DOG Mode aims to remove policy restrictions its proponents believe Bitcoin never required. This could widen existing mempool fragmentation—where different nodes relay different unconfirmed transactions—affecting fee estimation and transaction propagation speed, even as consensus remains intact.

Jan of Binance noted that many employees, including himself, keep most assets on the exchange, using debit cards for payments. Eneko Knorr, CEO of Stabolut, said the line between banks and crypto companies is blurring, with both sides offering hybrid services, and younger users may prefer apps combining stablecoins with daily banking. Rohan Misra of AMINA Bank stressed that stablecoins need regulated banking infrastructure, not just wallets, and questioned self-custody as a default due to the lack of recourse or insurance if private keys are compromised.

A new zero-knowledge proof system from Project Eleven offers a practical way to recover bitcoin locked under BIP-361‘s proposed freeze of quantum-vulnerable coins, including Satoshi Nakamoto’s holdings. The scheme exploits the fact that quantum computers can break elliptic curve signatures but not the one-way hashing used in modern wallet key derivation, allowing only true owners with seed material to prove control. Benchmarks show Project Elevens prototype is dramatically faster than prior work, but it remains unaudited, incomplete, and would require contentious changes to blockchain rules before it could protect any live coins.

On Uniswap v3, about 54% of liquidity in positions under $1,000 was out of range compared to 26% for positions above $1 million, yet those larger positions represented 47% of all idle capital, roughly $260 million. Individual wallets accounted for 82–94% of idle capital across chains, indicating user-deposited liquidity requiring manual adjustments is more likely to fall out of range. Dune estimated these out-of-range providers could miss roughly $150 million in annual fees, based on a blended in-range fee APR of about 35%, though the income is not guaranteed due to transaction costs, execution risk, and adverse price exposure. The research was commissioned by 1inch ahead of a planned liquidity protocol launch, with Dune developing its methodology independently.

Dollar-linked stablecoins account for roughly 90% of crypto transaction volume in Brazil, with monthly flows of $6–8 billion used largely for payments and settlement. Despite their proliferation, Brazil‘s central bank issued Resolution 561, effective October 1, barring payment firms from settling cross-border transactions in stablecoins, citing threats to monetary sovereignty, tax enforcement, and anti-money laundering controls. Meanwhile, the central bank’s popular instant-payment system Pix faces U.S. pressure as a trade barrier, while regulators shield it from competition with dollar-backed stablecoins. Industry observers, however, view stablecoins as complementary to Pix, not competitors, as they expand capabilities on blockchain networks. U.S. pressure may accelerate Brazils regulatory debate and development of Drex, its own tokenized-settlement system.

Bitcoin traders have purchased $2.5 billion in notional call spreads on Deribit, betting the cryptocurrency‘s spot price will reach $72,000 by July 31, coinciding with the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision on July 29 where markets currently expect a hold. The strategy involves buying 20,000 contracts of the $70,000 call and selling 20,000 contracts of the $72,000 call with the same expiry, creating a bull call spread. This structure limits maximum loss while capping upside beyond $72,000, allowing traders to lower entry costs in exchange for surrendering any gains above that level.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) executed its first live production trades of tokenized securities, a milestone for blockchain integration in mainstream finance. A Broadridge survey indicates growing industry momentum, with 68% of respondents expecting tokenization to at least partially reshape financial markets within three to five years and nearly one-third planning to boost investment by 26–50% or more. However, a full shift to onchain systems is not anticipated: 92% foresee digital and traditional assets coexisting, and 69% plan to embed tokenization into existing infrastructure rather than building separate systems. Adoption is uneven—44% of capital markets firms have tokenization initiatives in production, versus 20% of asset managers and 9% of wealth managers. Tokenized mutual and money market funds are expected to gain traction faster, with 80% predicting meaningful adoption within five years, compared to only half for tokenized equities.

WOO X and Payward Services have signed an MOU to enable spot crypto trading for WOO X‘s European users through Payward’s regulated infrastructure and licensing, leveraging its trading-as-a-service offering. Payward Services, the B2B arm of the company behind Kraken, already provides similar services to institutions like neobank bunq. Mark Greenberg, Global Head of Payward Services, highlighted that the partnership allows partners to launch crypto trading quickly without building their own infrastructure. The MOU establishes a framework for future cooperation, and both companies will share updates as initiatives are finalized.
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