News linked to both this project and an event.
Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin stated that he has built a toy-level demo version on Aztec based on the concept of a "moderated anonymous bulletin board" via vibe-coded methods, and has published the related experimental project on GitHub. He noted that the project is still in an early stage, but it can already implement some "very interesting and not simple" features; he also added that the project is currently at Stage 2.
Odaily News: Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has launched USD-settled BTC and ETH options on Kraken Pro, initially available via Request for Quote (RFQ), with the European market to follow soon. Kraken plans to further expand the product through an order book, broader regional coverage, and additional assets. It noted that existing crypto options products are primarily geared toward institutional investors, with insufficient retail participation.
decentralized hedge fund Numerai has completed its third strategic purchase of NMR, acquiring an additional $1.2 million worth of NMR from the open market, bringing its total NMR repurchases over the past year to $3.2 million. Numerai stated that this repurchase is used to support its staking system. This system allows independent data scientists to stake NMR on models. Models that perform better in predicting future market data will receive additional NMR, while those that underperform will lose their staked tokens. Numerai noted that since announcing its first strategic repurchase in July 2025, its number of active accounts has more than doubled. It has also launched infrastructure including Numerai Skills, the Numerai Model Context Protocol, and Atomic Blockchain Staking. Numerai currently manages approximately $700 million in assets, up from around $560 million at the end of 2025. Numeraire is a fixed-supply Ethereum token with a cap of 11 million NMR. This repurchase was executed on the open market over several weeks via Coinbase Institutional.
Robinhood is betting on the decentralized finance (DeFi) market by building its own blockchain, Robinhood Chain, aiming to bring over 10 million active users into the on-chain ecosystem. However, current trading activity on the network is still primarily driven by meme coin speculation, while the initial vision of tokenizing real-world assets (RWA) has yet to gain traction.Trading volume on Robinhood Chain has seen rapid growth recently. On July 12, the chain’s 24-hour DEX trading volume reached approximately $878 million, briefly surpassing Coinbase’s Base and Ethereum to rank among the top in decentralized trading volume, sparking interest in the crypto community. However, Robinhood Chain is still in its early stages. Data shows:1. On July 13, the chain’s perpetual contract trading volume was only about $5.9 million, while leading on-chain derivatives platform Hyperliquid recorded a trading volume of $8.9 billion during the same period;2. Robinhood Chain’s bridged TVL is reported at around $734 million, but the actual on-chain total value locked (TVL) is approximately $211 million, with some assets remaining in wallets and not entering lending or yield protocols;3. The market capitalization of tokenized RWA assets currently stands at just about $12.66 million.Currently, most of the trading activity on Robinhood Chain comes from meme coins. The CASHCAT token, recently launched on the chain, surged over 2,100% in one week, reaching a market cap of $156 million at one point—12 times the size of the entire RWA market on the chain.Robinhood stated that early on-chain activity is meeting expectations, with developers building out the ecosystem and users actively engaging with the network. The company emphasized that the long-term goal remains to bring real-world assets like stocks and ETFs on-chain, enabling services such as 24/7 trading and on-chain lending.Analysts believe Robinhood Chain’s development trajectory mirrors the early stages of some new public chains: gaining initial traction through speculative trading before proving whether it can convert this into long-term users, a developer ecosystem, and real financial applications. The key going forward will be whether Robinhood can leverage its massive retail user base to transform the short-term meme coin frenzy into a sustainable on-chain financial ecosystem. (CoinDesk)
Ethereum Layer 2 infrastructure Optimism has officially announced a tripartite strategic collaboration, joining forces with Upbit operator Dunamu, fintech platform Toss, and DB Securities to comprehensively expand into the Korean market. On the cooperation front with Dunamu, both parties will upgrade the GIWA public chain based on the OP Stack and promote its global development. A three-month technical verification will be conducted with Toss to build a compliant Korean won digital financial infrastructure. Optimism and DB Securities are focusing on the STO and RWA sectors, planning to transform Jeju Island's smart agriculture, livestock assets, and Korean intellectual property into tokenized securities and real-world asset products. This will facilitate the phased on-chain commercialization of local physical assets, with the entire cooperation framework tailored to align with Korea's financial regulatory framework.
DeFi infrastructure company Enso disclosed a type of malicious liquidity pool called "toxic pools" in a report on July 16th. These pools manipulate transaction simulations to return false optimal quotes to wallets and DEX aggregators, subsequently altering the logic during actual on-chain execution. Enso stated that the relevant malicious contracts can identify read-only simulation environments and return optimized prices, but when the transaction is broadcast on-chain, it is executed at a worse price or causes the transaction to fail. One manipulated Curve pool processed over 129,000 swaps, resulting in approximately $225,000 in inflated quotes. Additionally, over 37,000 transactions were reverted, consuming nearly $30,000 in gas fees. On Polygon, a malicious Uniswap v4 hook attracted routing systems with fake exchange rates, subsequently triggering a 99.1% transaction failure rate. Enso stated that it has updated its execution protection product, Enso Shield, to detect fake quotes in Ethereum and Polygon environments.
Gate DEX has announced its full integration with Robinhood Chain, becoming one of the first mainstream exchange on-chain gateways to support this ecosystem, further expanding the platform's multi-chain ecosystem layout and Web3 infrastructure capabilities. This integration covers core scenarios such as asset discovery, wallet management, on-chain trading, cross-chain swaps, market tracking, and DApp interaction, providing users with a more complete and efficient on-chain experience.With this upgrade, Gate Main Site Alpha has added support for the display and trading of Robinhood Chain ecosystem assets, and has integrated with ecosystem launch platforms such as Noxa.fun and Bankr; Gate Wallet supports Robinhood Chain asset management and DApp interaction; Gate DEX Swap supports single-chain and cross-chain swaps on Robinhood Chain, and achieves asset interoperability with mainstream public chains such as BSC, Ethereum, and Base via Across and LayerZero, further improving the efficiency of multi-chain asset flow.As emerging public chain ecosystems like Robinhood Chain develop rapidly, Gate DEX continues to enhance its one-stop on-chain service capabilities covering asset discovery, trading, cross-chain connectivity, and ecosystem applications. Looking ahead, Gate will continue to deepen its multi-chain ecosystem development, connect with more high-quality public chains and innovative applications, continuously improve its Web3 product capabilities, and create a more open, efficient, and convenient on-chain experience for global users.
According to the Ethereum Magicians forum, developer Leo Glisic has officially released Privacy Guardians 2.0 and announced the open-sourcing of its design proposal. The project is positioned as a decentralized privacy payment system, aiming to achieve maximum privacy protection for on-chain payments to counteract issues such as freezing and monitoring inherent in centralized payment solutions (such as OUSD launched by Corpo Consortium). The current V1 version covers multiple modules including private payment mechanisms, insurance mechanisms, honeypot design, exchange rate management, liquidity pools, and metadata processing. Glisic stated that this version is still in an early stage, with significant room for optimization in areas such as cryptographic security, incentive mechanism alignment, and capital efficiency, and called on the community to participate jointly in its improvement. The whitepaper has been simultaneously published at glisic.xyz.
According to Bits.media, the Russian State Duma Committee on the Financial Market has recommended rejecting several loosening amendments to the government's cryptocurrency regulation bill, which is currently prepared for its second reading. The rejected amendments mainly include: increasing the annual limit for non-professional investors purchasing cryptocurrency through a single intermediary from 300,000 rubles to 600,000 rubles; expanding the scope of tradable cryptocurrencies to coins with a market cap exceeding 1 trillion rubles and average daily trading volume exceeding 100 billion rubles (the current draft requires a market cap of no less than 5 trillion rubles and trading volume of no less than 1 trillion rubles, effectively allowing only a very small number of coins such as BTC and ETH to be listed); allowing Russian citizens to use non-custodial crypto wallets; canceling the mandatory review power of digital custodians over every transaction; and postponing the bill's effective date to January 2027. The current version of the bill retains the power of digital custodians to review every transaction and freeze transactions. The bill completed its first reading in April this year and was originally planned to be passed before July 1, but has now been postponed to September 1, with the deliberation of the supporting criminal liability bill also scheduled no earlier than September.
Odaily Odaily A new study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance reveals that approximately 31% of Ethereum node activity is located in the United States, with another 39% distributed across EU countries excluding the UK, indicating that the geographic distribution of Ethereum nodes remains relatively concentrated in Western nations.Lead researcher Alexander Neumuller stated that while node distribution is not currently concentrated in any single country, it is heavily reliant on a few major cloud service providers, including Hetzner, Amazon AWS, and OVH. Notably, the Ethereum network does not require half of its validators to fail for problems to arise. If more than one-third of validators go offline simultaneously, the network may be unable to finalize block checkpoints (finalization). Neumuller pointed out that nodes and validators do not have a one-to-one correspondence; a single node may run multiple validators. Therefore, it is currently impossible to precisely assess the actual impact on the validator network from the failure of a specific node or service provider.Furthermore, the study reassessed the energy consumption of Ethereum following The Merge. Data shows that Ethereum's current annual energy consumption is approximately 7.9 GWh, equivalent to a continuous power draw of about 1 MW. This represents only about 0.02% of pre-merge levels, a reduction of approximately 99.98%. Currently, over 56% of the energy used by the Ethereum network comes from sustainable sources, exceeding the global average.The study also noted that client software diversity is another potential risk. If a dominant client software has a vulnerability, it could affect a large number of network participants. The report was published by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance and supported by the Ethereum Foundation. (The)
E*TRADE, the online investment platform under Morgan Stanley, has launched spot cryptocurrency trading functionality. Eligible clients can now directly buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) through the E*TRADE platform.This crypto trading service is powered by digital asset infrastructure provider zerohash. Users can trade through a linked zerohash account and view both their digital asset and traditional investment portfolios within the E*TRADE platform.E*TRADE stated that the fee for spot crypto trading is priced at 50 basis points (50 bps), with asset transfer functionality expected to be launched later this year.This launch marks a further step in Morgan Stanley's digital asset strategy. Previously, E*TRADE has been continuously upgrading its investment service system, including launching retirement planning tools, fractional share trading, an upgraded IPO center, and feature optimizations for Power E*TRADE Pro aimed at active traders. (Businesswire)
Coinbase officially announced that the regulated derivatives clearing business of UK financial services group Marex has now formally supported the use of USDC as Initial Margin collateral. This marks the first entry of a stablecoin into the actual operational processes of traditional clearing infrastructure. The first transaction was completed by Prime Trading, LLC, with Coinbase providing the underlying infrastructure support, including custody services, 1:1 instant conversion between fiat currency and USDC, and a customized daily reporting system that meets clearing industry standards.The implementation of this business was made possible by a "No-Action Letter" issued by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in December 2025. This policy opens the door for Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) to accept stablecoins, Bitcoin, and Ethereum as client margin collateral.Coinbase stated that USDC, as a collateral asset, can provide round-the-clock liquidity, helping institutions break free from the limitations of traditional banking hours, allowing margin funds to be transferred in line with market operating hours. In this partnership, the core capabilities provided by Coinbase include:24/7 instant conversion between fiat currency and USDC: Institutional clients can convert between USD and USDC at any time, improving the efficiency of margin allocation;Customized reporting system: Meets the requirements of traditional clearing systems for asset recording, reconciliation, and regulatory reporting;NYDFS-compliant custody: Provides institutional-grade security for USDC collateral assets.
Odaily reports, perpetual contract DEX Ostium stated that platform trading remains paused following a security incident. User positions remain open but cannot be modified for now, and trading margin funds are still held in the frozen trading smart contract without any movement.Ostium stated that its team is continuously coordinating with relevant authorities, SEAL 911, and multiple security researchers. Updates regarding the resumption of smart contract activities and the timeline for fund recovery will be released subsequently.According to PeckShield monitoring, approximately 24 million USDC from Ostium's public OLP vault was stolen. The attacker subsequently swapped these funds for approximately 12,100 ETH, of which about 10,500 ETH was transferred to Tornado Cash.
According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi’s monitoring, a whale that has accumulated nearly $100 million worth of ETH and WBTC since July withdrew 50 WBTC from Binance 8 hours ago. As of now, the whale has amassed 49,400 ETH and 300 WBTC, with a total value exceeding $103 million. The average cost is approximately $1,705 and $63,027.58, respectively, resulting in an unrealized profit of $11.113 million.
According to The Block, BlackRock CFO Martin Small disclosed during the Q2 earnings conference call that the company's digital asset assets under management (AUM) fell to $49 billion, down approximately 40% from a year ago, primarily weighed down by the price correction of BTC and ETH. Despite this, BlackRock's long-term strategy in the blockchain and tokenization sector has not contracted. Small stated that the company's long-term goal is to enable investors to "efficiently allocate crypto assets, stablecoins, and long-term equity and bond assets without leaving their digital wallets," and plans to gradually launch tokenized Treasury funds, iShares ETFs, and private market products. Specific progress includes: • Tokenized Money Market Funds: Two product applications have been submitted to the SEC, supporting investors to subscribe and redeem with stablecoins across multiple chains • Stablecoin Reserve Management: Currently manages approximately $60 billion of Circle's reserve assets, accounting for about one-quarter of the global $300 billion stablecoin market, aiming to become the industry's preferred reserve manager • Bitcoin ETF: Its iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) has an AUM of approximately $60 billion, making it the largest spot Bitcoin ETF globally • New Products: Launched the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BITA) last month, providing Bitcoin exposure and comes with
: SBI Group, DigiFT, and Startale Group have completed a joint proof-of-concept, utilizing the JPYSC stablecoin in an Ethereum testnet environment to demonstrate the full lifecycle of tokenized securities, including instant fund subscription settlement and on-chain automatic dividend distribution. SBI Group and DigiFT are advancing the tokenization of the SBI Japan High Dividend Equity Fund. Managed by SBI Asset Management, the fund has approximately $1.3 billion in assets under management and represents one of Japan's major public equity strategies. The three parties completed two tests. One demonstrated the near-instant settlement of fund subscriptions using JPYSC, and the other automatically calculated and distributed dividends to eligible token holders' wallets via smart contracts after the distribution register was completed. The three companies plan to explore integrating tokenized Japanese equities with institutional DeFi platforms and are considering testing use cases such as collateralized lending and on-chain asset management with ecosystem partners like Morpho and Gauntlet.
Decentralized lending protocol Aave has deployed V4 on the Avalanche network, extending the latest lending architecture beyond Ethereum for the first time and laying the foundation for the tokenized real-world asset lending market.
Robinhood Chain attracted over $141 million in bridged ETH within two weeks of launch, with DEX trading volume surpassing the Ethereum mainnet. ETH price rose approximately 15% during the same period, but whether L2 value feeds back to ETH remains controversial.
Kraken Institutional has announced a partnership with on-chain yield platform Upshift, allowing eligible institutional clients to earn yields on idle Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, and other crypto assets directly within Kraken's compliant custody framework. Upshift will build dedicated customized vaults for each client, designed according to their investment strategies, risk parameters, liquidity requirements, and asset portfolios. Assets will be allocated to these non-custodial vaults and subsequently deployed to selected on-chain contracts, with clients' segregated Kraken custody accounts receiving receipt tokens.
Odaily News on July 14, Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of $181 million, and Ethereum ETFs recorded net inflows of $58.34 million. No outflows were observed for either Bitcoin or Ethereum ETFs on that day. BlackRock's IBIT saw net inflows of $139 million, Fidelity's FBTC posted net inflows of $21.07 million; all net inflows into Ethereum ETFs came from BlackRock's ETHA. HYPE, XRP, and Solana ETFs had no trading activity on the day. Morgan Stanley submitted a proposed amended filing for spot Ethereum and Solana ETFs, with the document covering service providers such as Coinbase Custody and staking provisions. Japanese policymakers are advancing reforms aimed at classifying crypto assets under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.