News linked to both this project and an event.
Coinbase announced on X platform that Pre-IPO perpetual contracts have been listed on Coinbase, with the first underlying asset being SpaceX, and are now open for trading to eligible non-US users. The contract supports 24/7 trading, settled in USDC, with no expiration date. After the IPO, related positions will be automatically converted to regular perpetual contracts with no action required.
Ivan Chebeskov, Deputy Minister of Finance of Russia, stated that the ministry does not wish to allow dollar-denominated stablecoins to circulate in the Russian market.Chebeskov pointed out that issuers of foreign stablecoins like USDT and USDC have the capability to freeze wallet assets held by users. Once such wallets engage in transactions with platforms licensed by the Central Bank of Russia, the risk of asset freezes for holders will significantly increase. He revealed that dollar stablecoins held by Russian legal entities have previously been frozen by issuers, while no similar incidents have occurred with Bitcoin and Ethereum due to the lack of relevant technical means.The Russian Finance Ministry believes it is necessary to establish a regulatory framework specifically for stablecoins, prioritize supporting the development of stablecoins pegged to the ruble and currencies of friendly nations, and grant the Central Bank of Russia the authority to adjust the list of related assets. (Bits.media)
Global payment networks Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard are close to launching a new stablecoin platform.According to sources familiar with the matter, U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is also exploring the possibility of participating in this stablecoin platform. Meanwhile, Binance, Coinbase, Stripe, and Visa have all declined to comment, and Mastercard did not respond to requests for comment before publication. Additionally, the revenue-sharing agreement between Coinbase and Circle Internet is set to expire and be renewed in August of this year, with the current market cap of USDC reaching $76 billion. (CoinDesk)
Mastercard is expanding its settlement network to support regulated stablecoins, planning to introduce stablecoin settlement, intraday settlement, as well as weekend and holiday settlement services to meet the demand for real-time fund movement.According to the introduction, the new settlement framework will operate in parallel with the existing fiat settlement system, providing financial institutions with more flexible liquidity management solutions. The first supported stablecoins include Circle-issued USDC, Paxos-issued PYUSD, USDG and USDP, Ripple-issued RLUSD, and SoFiUSD.The related services will cover blockchain networks such as Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, and XRPL. (CoinDesk)
According to The Block, Coinbase Ventures announced its investment in Ethena by purchasing ENA tokens on the public market. The two parties also announced a strategic partnership to jointly expand onchain financial and savings products. According to Guy Young, Ethena’s founder, the integration will go live next week, marking the first time Ethena’s products will be made available to Coinbase’s over 100 million users. Additionally, the collaboration involves Circle’s USDC stablecoin, though specific details of this cooperation have not yet been disclosed.
Coinbase Ventures stated it has invested in Ethena by purchasing ENA tokens on the open market. Following the announcement, ENA rose approximately 6% over the past 24 hours.Ethena said the two parties will collaborate to advance on-chain finance and savings products. Coinbase also mentioned that they will establish closer cooperation, which involves Circle's stablecoin USDC.Ethena founder Guy Young stated that Ethena's products will be integrated with Coinbase's user base of over 100 million for the first time next week, to support its dollar savings products. The market is watching how the two parties will subsequently collaborate around USDC and Ethena's synthetic dollar, USDe. This move also comes as the US "Clarity Act" remains deadlocked in the legislative process. The bill concerns whether platforms like Coinbase can offer users rewards for holding stablecoins, while banking lobbying groups have consistently opposed similar stablecoin yield arrangements.
the decentralized contract trading platform Pingu Exchange has announced its permanent closure, with the platform set to go offline on July 31, 2026. Launched on Arbitrum in January 2024, Pingu started with approximately $270,000 in seed capital, achieving a cumulative trading volume of around $2.4 billion and distributing about $650,000 in ETH and USDC to stakers. The team subsequently migrated to the Monad mainnet, but over the roughly six months following the migration, the platform's trading volume reached only about $80 million. The team has not taken salaries since February to avoid depleting the treasury.
Binance has opened access to over 7,000 US stocks and ETFs for non-US users, supporting fractional shares with zero commission and a minimum investment of $5. Users can purchase these assets using cryptocurrencies such as USDC, USDT, and BNB. The trading is executed by brokerage Nest Trading, while custody, brokerage, and dividend distribution are managed by the New York-based company Alpaca.Binance also plans to launch "bStocks" based on the BNB Chain, allowing users to convert their held stocks into tokenized assets that can circulate on-chain. These assets can be used for instant settlement and potential DeFi scenarios (such as lending and liquidity provision), further bridging traditional equity and on-chain assets. (Fortune)
Blockaid disclosed on X that the Alephium TokenBridge Ethereum cross-chain bridge was attacked. The attacker compromised three out of four Guardian private keys, forged a Verified Action Approval (VAA) message, and executed the attack within approximately seven minutes, stealing roughly $815,000 worth of assets. During the attack, the attacker minted 13.76 million Wrapped ALPH tokens out of thin air—exceeding the pre-attack circulating supply by over 100%—and simultaneously unlocked and withdrew assets including USDT, USDC, WBTC, and WETH from the custody pool. As of now, the attacker’s address still holds approximately $815,000 in stolen assets and 13.76 million uncollateralized Wrapped ALPH tokens; the largest anomalous transaction involved the out-of-thin-air minting of 13.76 million Wrapped ALPH tokens.
Odaily Odaily founder Rand posted on platform X, stating that with the assistance of on-chain detective ZachXBT, the team has identified the root cause of the recent cUSDC freeze incident, which is unrelated to the Zama protocol itself or privacy technology. The incident originated when a wallet address associated with the Overnight Finance hack deposited over $12.5 million USDC into Zama's cUSDC wrapper contract. Since the address was not on any sanctions list at the time of deposit and was not flagged by KYT (Know Your Transaction) tools, the funds were able to enter the protocol.Rand stated that law enforcement agencies recently issued asset restriction orders against several wallets linked to the hacker. At that time, the cUSDC wrapper contract held relatively small funds, with over 99% coming from the aforementioned hacker address. Consequently, the court ordered the freezing of the entire wrapper contract to restrict the movement of the related funds. Rand emphasized that this measure is not a sanction against Zama or privacy protocols, but a common judicial freezing measure in the DeFi space.To cooperate with the investigation, Zama has suspended the operation of the cUSDC, cUSDT, and cWETH contracts until the investigation is complete, all involved addresses are identified, and corresponding measures are taken. Rand reiterated that Zama adheres to the principle of "compliant confidentiality" and will not tolerate any illegal activities. He also indicated that a more detailed post-mortem of the incident and a plan for handling similar requests in the future will be released subsequently.
Circle has released a post-quantum security white paper, proposing a phased upgrade plan covering Arc, USDC, smart contracts, and the validator system to address potential security risks posed by future quantum computing.
Circle has released a "Post-Quantum Security Whitepaper," proposing a phased post-quantum resilience roadmap centered on the long-term security of the Arc blockchain ecosystem.The roadmap covers multiple technical areas, including quantum-safe signatures, private execution environments, validator hardening, infrastructure migration, and account recovery, applicable to core components such as the Arc network, USDC, smart contracts, and validators.Circle stated that it plans to provide post-quantum signature support at the launch of the Arc mainnet (2026) to enhance the ecosystem's ability to withstand future quantum computing threats.
TownSquare, an infrastructure provider for institutional yields and cross-chain lending brokerage services, has partnered with Native, a non-custodial automated trading infrastructure, to launch a $10 million yield-generating vault on the Monad L1. This vault will support assets including USD1, USDC, cbBTC, and MON, offering higher yields than conventional lending through trading-based yield generation. This marks TownSquare’s first collaboration with a trading-based yield manager. The partnership aims to bring real-world asset (RWA) and stablecoin institutional yields to a broader user base. Native is a close partner of Binance Wallet and Buidlpad, having previously launched vaults for BNB and wETH on BNB Chain and Ethereum—demonstrating its stability, scalability, and ability to generate yields for liquidity providers (LPs) managing tens of millions of dollars. This initiative also represents the first trading-yield vault on the Monad chain. Native already operates credit pools across multiple EVM chains with over $35 million in liquidity, achieving daily trading volumes of $50–100 million and cumulative trading volume exceeding $25 billion. Its Proactive Market Making (PMM) structure enables retail users to access institutional-grade trading yields. TownSquare previously launched a $100 million USD1 liquidity program and has raised over $16 million to date—including funding from this collaboration.
Cash App, the payment application from Block, now allows users to send and receive Circle-issued USDC stablecoins on Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, and Arbitrum. These transfers are currently fee-free. USDC stablecoins received via Cash App are automatically converted into U.S. dollar balances. This feature is not yet available to customers in New York State. Users must complete identity verification and are subject to transaction limits. Block has previously focused primarily on Bitcoin, including the development of mining hardware and the self-custody wallet BitKey. Earlier this year, Jack Dorsey described stablecoins as “moving from one gatekeeper to another,” while acknowledging the growing customer demand.
Block's Cash App is gradually rolling out stablecoin payment functionality to its nearly 60 million users. According to sources familiar with the matter, the feature currently covers approximately 25% of users and is expected to reach full 100% availability within this week.The core functionality supports users in depositing and withdrawing via USDC, allowing free transfers of funds between external wallets and Cash App balances, and using stablecoins as a settlement tool for payments rather than as investment products. It currently supports transactions across four blockchain networks, including Solana, Ethereum, Polygon, and Arbitrum. Due to the irreversible nature of on-chain transactions, incorrect addresses or unsupported network transfers may result in permanent loss of funds.Block CEO Jack Dorsey previously stated that despite his longstanding preference for Bitcoin, user demand for stablecoins has prompted the company to adjust its strategy. (CoinDesk)
decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid has launched a pre-listing perpetual contract for SpaceX (SPCX-USDC) via Trade.xyz, sparking controversy over a global regulatory gap. The contract provides leveraged trading without requiring users to hold any SpaceX stock or authorization from the company. Initially priced at $150, corresponding to an implied valuation of approximately $1.78 trillion, the contract surged to $216 shortly after launch.According to reports, the contract is settled in USDC, with prices derived from market oracles and not linked to SpaceX's actual financials or equity structure. SpaceX itself has neither authorized nor participated in this market, yet its valuation is being priced and traded in real-time on-chain, raising concerns that "decentralized derivatives are taking over price discovery for private companies." This market originates from Hyperliquid's HIP-3 mechanism, suggesting that private company valuations may increasingly be re-priced by on-chain derivatives, while regulatory frameworks have yet to establish corresponding standards. (Forbes)
: Circle Internet Group's affiliate, Circle Technology Services, and Nium, a global real-time cross-border payment infrastructure provider, today announced a strategic partnership to deeply integrate Circle's USDC stablecoin settlement capabilities with Nium's global distribution network, which covers over 190 countries and 100+ local currencies.According to the agreement, Nium has officially joined the Circle Payment Network (CPN) as a global payment partner. Financial institutions within the CPN can directly access Nium's global payment infrastructure through a single integration entry point, enabling a complete closed-loop process: from USDC on-chain settlement to Nium's real-time currency exchange, and finally to local currency deposit. Funds can be directly routed to bank accounts, e-wallets, and payment cards worldwide, simplifying cross-border capital flows, reducing prepaid fund commitments and currency exchange risks for Circle. (Prnewswire)
According to The Block, Circle Technology Services, a subsidiary of Circle, has announced a partnership with Nium, a global real-time cross-border payments platform. Nium has joined the Circle Payments Network (CPN), providing financial institutions within the network with access to payment infrastructure spanning over 190 countries and more than 100 currencies—enabling fund disbursement to bank accounts, digital wallets, and debit cards. Financial institutions can complete the entire process—from USDC settlement to local-currency cash-out—via a single integration, eliminating the need to pre-fund across multiple channels.
yesterday, YC official posted on X platform that the prediction market derivative layer Totalis has officially launched. The market allows users to conduct parlay trades on any subject, combining multiple event markets (such as politics, cryptocurrency, stocks, sports, weather, and macro) into a single trade. Starting with parlay bets, it will expand to structured products.Previously, Totalis completed a $500,000 seed round in April, with Y Combinator participating. It is also the first enterprise to receive Y Combinator investment entirely in USDC, with the funds settled via the Solana network and custodied by Ramp.
According to the official announcement, the ICON network will permanently shut down on December 31, 2026. At that time, on-chain transactions will cease, and only a read-only archive will remain for historical queries. The final deadline for the ICX → SODA token migration is also December 31, 2026; no migrations will be possible after this date. Starting September 30, 2026, two-way migration will terminate, and only one-way ICX → SODA conversion will be supported. Launched in 2017, the ICON network has operated for nine years. As industry demand has shifted from cross-chain settlement to liquidity and execution efficiency, the project team has decided to concentrate all resources on SODAX. SODAX is now integrated with 18 blockchain networks and has launched cross-network trading, lending, SDK v2, and money market functionalities. It has also been accepted into the Circle Consortium and added to Kraken’s listing roadmap.