Crypto's Biggest Upgrades Still Ahead in 2026
Before 2026 is out, eight different chains ship their biggest upgrades in years — and the first lands this week. Zcash's Ironwood goes live July 28 (new shielded pool, quantum-recoverable funds).
Before 2026 is out, eight different chains ship their biggest upgrades in years — and the first lands this week. Zcash's Ironwood goes live July 28 (new shielded pool, quantum-recoverable funds).
Zcash update is followed by Ethereum's Glamsterdam, Solana's Alpenglow, Polkadot's JAM, and Cardano's largest upgrade ever. Chainlink is bringing Wall Street's DTCC settlement on-chain, while Polygon and BNB Chain race toward 100k and 10k+ TPS.
Subgraphs vs Substreams: Picking the right blockchain data tool
Every onchain app needs data — but how you index it matters. The Graph ecosystem gives you two tools: Subgraphs (built-in GraphQL, 15,000+ ready to fork, great for dApps) and Substreams (parallel processing via Firehose, built for high-volume data, ML, analytics).
👉 coincodex.com/article/87853/subgraphs-vs-substreams-picking-the-right-blockchain-data-tool/
Every onchain app needs data — but how you index it matters. The Graph ecosystem gives you two tools: Subgraphs (built-in GraphQL, 15,000+ ready to fork, great for dApps) and Substreams (parallel processing via Firehose, built for high-volume data, ML, analytics).
The simple rule: Subgraphs for queries, Substreams for scale. And with substreams-convert, moving between them is easier than ever.
👉 coincodex.com/article/87853/subgraphs-vs-substreams-picking-the-right-blockchain-data-tool/
Exchange Winners & Losers: 30-Day Asset Flows
Bitget and OKX led every exchange in net inflows over the past 30 days, adding +$677M and +$420M. Binance and Bybit went the other way, shedding $1.65B and $416M.
Across all CEXs, $2.09B left the books on net this month. 42 exchanges saw outflows, only 23 saw inflows. Most exchanges lost assets this month. A handful didn't.
Bitget and OKX led every exchange in net inflows over the past 30 days, adding +$677M and +$420M. Binance and Bybit went the other way, shedding $1.65B and $416M.
Across all CEXs, $2.09B left the books on net this month. 42 exchanges saw outflows, only 23 saw inflows. Most exchanges lost assets this month. A handful didn't.
Senate Bill Would Bar Officials From Issuing Crypto
An updated CLARITY Act adds an ethics section that would bar presidents, the VP, Congress, federal officials and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring any cryptocurrency.
👉 cnbc.com/2026/07/22/senate-crypto-bill-would-ban-federal-officials-from-issuing-digital-assets.html
An updated CLARITY Act adds an ethics section that would bar presidents, the VP, Congress, federal officials and their spouses from issuing or sponsoring any cryptocurrency.
Covered officials would have to sell their crypto and stakes in crypto firms, move them into a blind trust they do not control, or both — plus disclose any crypto sale over $1,000, with the GAO hunting for more loopholes. Enforcement could reach $250K a day in fines. The catch: it targets Washington’s biggest crypto portfolio. Trump booked ~$1.2–1.4B in crypto income in year one — and reportedly signed off. Democrats balk over who enforces it, and it is not law yet.
👉 cnbc.com/2026/07/22/senate-crypto-bill-would-ban-federal-officials-from-issuing-digital-assets.html
AMD and Anthropic Strike a Major Chip Deal
AMD and Anthropic have signed a strategic deal that pairs a huge chip-supply commitment with an equity investment — AMD will put up to $5B into Anthropic, tied to milestones.
👉 wsj.com/tech/ai/amd-and-anthropic-sign-major-chips-and-investment-deal-4adfdc45
AMD and Anthropic have signed a strategic deal that pairs a huge chip-supply commitment with an equity investment — AMD will put up to $5B into Anthropic, tied to milestones.
Anthropic will deploy up to 2 gigawatts of AMD Instinct MI450-series GPUs in AMD’s “Helios” rackscale systems, with the first gigawatt live in H1 2027, and has committed to buy tens of billions of dollars of AMD AI chips. Anthropic will own some chips outright and rent the rest via clouds. For AMD, landing a marquee AI lab is a major push against Nvidia’s grip on AI compute.
👉 wsj.com/tech/ai/amd-and-anthropic-sign-major-chips-and-investment-deal-4adfdc45
BitMEX Is Shutting Down on September 23
BitMEX, the exchange that pioneered the crypto perpetual swap, will cease all operations on September 23, 2026, following a strategic review by parent HDR Global Trading.
Launched in 2014 and built around Bitcoin, BitMEX defined an era of crypto leverage before a 2021 US settlement and years of fading volume. Its shutdown closes one of the industry’s original venues for good.
👉 bitmex.com/blog/bitmex-closure
BitMEX, the exchange that pioneered the crypto perpetual swap, will cease all operations on September 23, 2026, following a strategic review by parent HDR Global Trading.
New sign-ups are already closed. From August 26, users can only reduce positions, and anything still open at shutdown will be force-liquidated. KYC-verified users must withdraw beforehand or face a monthly account fee of $50 or 1% of the balance.
Launched in 2014 and built around Bitcoin, BitMEX defined an era of crypto leverage before a 2021 US settlement and years of fading volume. Its shutdown closes one of the industry’s original venues for good.
👉 bitmex.com/blog/bitmex-closure
Three protocols were drained in a matter of hours, $35M+ gone
AFX Trade lost $24M on Arbitrum after its bridge validator keys were compromised. Verus lost $7.5M in a repeat of a bug it never fully fixed. B² Network lost $3.9M when an attacker seized its staking contract.
None of it was broken cryptography. It was keys and permissions, again. That's how most of crypto gets stolen in 2026.
AFX Trade lost $24M on Arbitrum after its bridge validator keys were compromised. Verus lost $7.5M in a repeat of a bug it never fully fixed. B² Network lost $3.9M when an attacker seized its staking contract.
None of it was broken cryptography. It was keys and permissions, again. That's how most of crypto gets stolen in 2026.
Kalshi Launches a Midterms Election Hub
Kalshi has launched the Midterms Hub — what it calls the first election hub built on the wisdom of the crowd, where real people put real money on what they think will happen.
The pitch is a real-time read on where each race actually stands — built for voters, political junkies and anyone who follows the midterms closely.
👉 x.com/Kalshi/status/2079947783482581406
Kalshi has launched the Midterms Hub — what it calls the first election hub built on the wisdom of the crowd, where real people put real money on what they think will happen.
Its markets trade 24/7, so the odds move the second news breaks, a debate lands, or results roll in. The hub pulls polling, fundraising, historical results and live market odds into one place — no spin, just skin in the game and prices that update in real time.
The pitch is a real-time read on where each race actually stands — built for voters, political junkies and anyone who follows the midterms closely.
👉 x.com/Kalshi/status/2079947783482581406
Plume’s nOPAL Brings RWA Yield to Avalanche
Plume has gone live on Avalanche with nOPAL, a tokenized vault that brings institutional-grade Brazilian credit-card receivables onchain as composable RWA yield.
The vault reports a 0% default rate since inception, audits by 0xMacro and Spearbit, and BlackOpal’s 25+ years and $200M+ in institutional backing. Avalanche is fast becoming a hub for tokenized private credit.
👉 plume.org/blog/plumes-nopal-is-now-live-on-avalanche
Plume has gone live on Avalanche with nOPAL, a tokenized vault that brings institutional-grade Brazilian credit-card receivables onchain as composable RWA yield.
Issued by BlackOpal, nOPAL turns real credit-card receivables — settled via Visa and Mastercard and registered with Brazil’s Central Bank — into an onchain asset whose returns come from real economic activity, not token incentives.
The vault reports a 0% default rate since inception, audits by 0xMacro and Spearbit, and BlackOpal’s 25+ years and $200M+ in institutional backing. Avalanche is fast becoming a hub for tokenized private credit.
👉 plume.org/blog/plumes-nopal-is-now-live-on-avalanche
Sentient Foundation Launches $42M Fund for Open-Source AI Builders
The Sentient Foundation has unveiled a $42 million funding initiative to support developers building open-source AI, with grants and investments available for projects ranging from AI models and agents to infrastructure, datasets, evaluations, and consumer applications.
The initiative aims to accelerate the open AI ecosystem by funding projects that expand the Sentient Stack and advance privacy-preserving, open-source AGI development.
👉 x.com/sentient_found/status/2070145001443729507?s=20
The Sentient Foundation has unveiled a $42 million funding initiative to support developers building open-source AI, with grants and investments available for projects ranging from AI models and agents to infrastructure, datasets, evaluations, and consumer applications.
The program is open to both individual developers and established teams, encouraging builders at every stage to develop AI that is transparent, locally deployable, and accessible without relying on centralized providers.
The initiative aims to accelerate the open AI ecosystem by funding projects that expand the Sentient Stack and advance privacy-preserving, open-source AGI development.
👉 x.com/sentient_found/status/2070145001443729507?s=20
Uniswap Launches DualPool Hook for Yield on Idle Liquidity
Uniswap has released DualPool, an audited, open-source hook for Uniswap v4 that lets liquidity providers earn yield on idle capital while still collecting swap fees, built in collaboration with Spark and developed by Uniswap Labs.
Spark will operate the largest DualPool deployment, migrating $150 million in stablecoin liquidity to it, with a livestream today at 2 p.m. ET featuring Uniswap founder Hayden Adams.
The hook has been audited by OpenZeppelin with no critical or high severity findings, and any team can now deploy their own DualPool to start earning on both active and idle assets.
👉 x.com/Uniswap/status/2079928526501785911?s=20
Uniswap has released DualPool, an audited, open-source hook for Uniswap v4 that lets liquidity providers earn yield on idle capital while still collecting swap fees, built in collaboration with Spark and developed by Uniswap Labs.
The hook works by parking pool capital in ERC-4626 yield vaults between trades, then pulling exactly what's needed into concentrated liquidity positions the moment a swap arrives, executing atomically, and re-depositing the remainder back into the vaults — all within the same block and without any keeper infrastructure.
Spark will operate the largest DualPool deployment, migrating $150 million in stablecoin liquidity to it, with a livestream today at 2 p.m. ET featuring Uniswap founder Hayden Adams.
The hook has been audited by OpenZeppelin with no critical or high severity findings, and any team can now deploy their own DualPool to start earning on both active and idle assets.
👉 x.com/Uniswap/status/2079928526501785911?s=20
Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Raises $1.7B for Atoms Industrial AI Venture
Travis Kalanick has announced a $1.7 billion equity investment into Atoms, his industrial AI venture, led by Andreessen Horowitz, with a16z partner Ben Horowitz joining the board. As part of the round, Kalanick's various businesses have been merged into a single Atoms equity structure.
Kalanick frames the round as unfinished business, having nearly partnered with Andreessen Horowitz back in 2011 during his Uber days.
The round also brought in equity partners including Bain Capital, Uber, Fifth Wall, and SV Angel, alongside debt partners Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, and Barclays, positioning Atoms as a major bet on Industrial AI powering the next wave of automation across trillion-dollar physical economy sectors.
👉 x.com/travisk/status/2079997954363117844?s=20
Travis Kalanick has announced a $1.7 billion equity investment into Atoms, his industrial AI venture, led by Andreessen Horowitz, with a16z partner Ben Horowitz joining the board. As part of the round, Kalanick's various businesses have been merged into a single Atoms equity structure.
Atoms targets heavy industries like food, mining, construction, and transport with specialized robotics and automation, framing manufacturing as the "CPU," real estate as "storage," and transportation as the "network" — extending the same bits-to-atoms thesis Kalanick pursued at Uber and later at CloudKitchens.
Kalanick frames the round as unfinished business, having nearly partnered with Andreessen Horowitz back in 2011 during his Uber days.
The round also brought in equity partners including Bain Capital, Uber, Fifth Wall, and SV Angel, alongside debt partners Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, and Barclays, positioning Atoms as a major bet on Industrial AI powering the next wave of automation across trillion-dollar physical economy sectors.
👉 x.com/travisk/status/2079997954363117844?s=20
NVIDIA Competitor Etched Raises $300M Series C at $10.3B Valuation
Etched has closed a $300 million Series C at a $10.3 billion valuation, with investment from Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Jane Street, Argo, and SK Hynix, as the company works toward its mission to "run the world's inference."
The raise follows Etched's emergence from stealth with over $1 billion in customer contracts already secured and its first inference racks slated to ship this summer, building on the company's Low-Voltage Inference and Cluster-Scale Memory architecture breakthroughs unveiled alongside the funding news.
👉 x.com/Etched/status/2080307393699987849?s=20
Etched has closed a $300 million Series C at a $10.3 billion valuation, with investment from Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Jane Street, Argo, and SK Hynix, as the company works toward its mission to "run the world's inference."
The fresh capital will accelerate production of Etched's inference clusters, with the company opening an 80,000-square-foot, 10-MW facility just 15 minutes from its office to speed up prototyping and manufacturing.
The raise follows Etched's emergence from stealth with over $1 billion in customer contracts already secured and its first inference racks slated to ship this summer, building on the company's Low-Voltage Inference and Cluster-Scale Memory architecture breakthroughs unveiled alongside the funding news.
👉 x.com/Etched/status/2080307393699987849?s=20
Cryptomarket Check-In. Major Events & Headlines
AI kept attracting massive capital, stablecoin regulation moved closer to reality, major crypto companies expanded globally, while security breaches and industry shakeups continued across the market.
🔎 Recent Updates & Developments
— AMD commits up to $5B to Anthropic
— Telegram to launch a native Gram wallet
— BitMEX to shut down operations
— Movement Labs files for Chapter 11
— Tether faces GENIUS Act deadline
— Databricks reaches a $188B valuation
— Bybit expands into Indonesia with NOBI acquisition
— Samsung creates a dedicated robotics division
AI kept attracting massive capital, stablecoin regulation moved closer to reality, major crypto companies expanded globally, while security breaches and industry shakeups continued across the market.
🔎 Recent Updates & Developments
— AMD commits up to $5B to Anthropic
— Telegram to launch a native Gram wallet
— BitMEX to shut down operations
— Movement Labs files for Chapter 11
— Tether faces GENIUS Act deadline
— Databricks reaches a $188B valuation
— Bybit expands into Indonesia with NOBI acquisition
— Samsung creates a dedicated robotics division
Zama Ships a Confidential RFQ Swap on Ethereum
Zama has launched Confidential RFQ on Ethereum mainnet — what it calls the first fully onchain, composable RFQ swap where the size and direction of every trade stay confidential at all times.
👉 x.com/zama/status/2080322974557602010
Zama has launched Confidential RFQ on Ethereum mainnet — what it calls the first fully onchain, composable RFQ swap where the size and direction of every trade stay confidential at all times.
The pitch: an end to “the tyranny of MEV.” Because bots cannot see the size or side of an order, they cannot front-run or sandwich it — while the trade still settles onchain and remains composable with the rest of DeFi.
👉 x.com/zama/status/2080322974557602010
Tenor has closed Seed Round Led by Variant Fund
Tenor went live on Base on July 21, built on top of Morpho's newly launched fixed-rate primitive. It matches lenders and borrowers at predetermined rates through an interest-rate AMM, with isolated markets and fixed maturities.
👉 blog.tenor.finance/variant-leads-seed-round-in-tenor
Tenor went live on Base on July 21, built on top of Morpho's newly launched fixed-rate primitive. It matches lenders and borrowers at predetermined rates through an interest-rate AMM, with isolated markets and fixed maturities.
Nascent joined the round, with participation from Prelude, Very Early, and angel investors. Deal size and valuation were not disclosed.
👉 blog.tenor.finance/variant-leads-seed-round-in-tenor
Real Tokenizes Alpha Bulgaria’s Listed Warrants
REAL Finance has tokenized Alpha Bulgaria AD’s listed warrants — the first transaction under its securities-tokenization agreement with licensed EU broker Factori AD.
👉 x.com/RealFinOfficial/status/2080316959648809142
REAL Finance has tokenized Alpha Bulgaria AD’s listed warrants — the first transaction under its securities-tokenization agreement with licensed EU broker Factori AD.
The pilot brings 5 million warrants (ALFW, ~€2.75 each) of Bulgarian Stock Exchange-listed Alpha Bulgaria onchain through REAL’s infrastructure, while Factori handles the licensed custody, KYC/AML and transfer-agent side of the deal. It is the first slice of a $100M+ institutional pipeline Factori has committed to tokenize via REAL. REAL’s model targets only real securities — listed equities, derivatives and bonds — not synthetic exposure.
👉 x.com/RealFinOfficial/status/2080316959648809142
Odos DEX Aggregator Shuts Down: Goes Offline July 30
The company operating DEX aggregator Odos is winding down. The app switches to read-only on July 27, and all Odos services shut down permanently on July 30, 2026.
👉 x.com/odosprotocol/status/2080337624922018014
The company operating DEX aggregator Odos is winding down. The app switches to read-only on July 27, and all Odos services shut down permanently on July 30, 2026.
Odos is non-custodial — user assets stay on-chain and remain fully withdrawable, unaffected by the shutdown.
👉 x.com/odosprotocol/status/2080337624922018014
Mirae Asset Acquires Controlling Stake in Korbit
Mirae Asset has completed its acquisition of a 92.06% controlling stake in South Korean crypto exchange Korbit for ₩133.48B ($91M), becoming its largest shareholder after clearing all regulatory approvals.
First announced in February, the deal folds one of Korea's oldest crypto exchanges into Mirae Asset's financial group as the country expands its regulated digital-asset market.
👉 cointelegraph.com/news/mirae-asset-korbit-acquisition-largest-shareholder
Mirae Asset has completed its acquisition of a 92.06% controlling stake in South Korean crypto exchange Korbit for ₩133.48B ($91M), becoming its largest shareholder after clearing all regulatory approvals.
Under Korea's Virtual Asset User Protection Act, customer funds stay fully segregated — Korbit's trading, deposits, and withdrawals all continue as usual.
First announced in February, the deal folds one of Korea's oldest crypto exchanges into Mirae Asset's financial group as the country expands its regulated digital-asset market.
👉 cointelegraph.com/news/mirae-asset-korbit-acquisition-largest-shareholder
Ripple Makes Strategic Investment in Notabene
Ripple has made a strategic investment in Notabene, which operates the world's largest open network for regulated on-chain transactions, and will integrate its RLUSD stablecoin into the firm's B2B platform, Notabene Flow.
The tie-up targets institutions taking stablecoins from pilots to production, pairing RLUSD and Ripple's global reach with the counterparty checks Notabene runs before any value is moved.
👉 prnewswire.com/news-releases/notabene-announces-strategic-investment-from-ripple-302833267.html
Ripple has made a strategic investment in Notabene, which operates the world's largest open network for regulated on-chain transactions, and will integrate its RLUSD stablecoin into the firm's B2B platform, Notabene Flow.
Notabene's network already clears more than $2T in annualized volume across 2,300+ institutions and 100+ jurisdictions, and will now anchor compliance for Ripple's stablecoin payment rails.
The tie-up targets institutions taking stablecoins from pilots to production, pairing RLUSD and Ripple's global reach with the counterparty checks Notabene runs before any value is moved.
👉 prnewswire.com/news-releases/notabene-announces-strategic-investment-from-ripple-302833267.html
Poolin has Filed Chapter 11, Sets $52 Million Floor Bid
Poolin, once among the world's largest bitcoin mining pools before it halted withdrawals in 2022, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and set a $52 million floor bid for its Texas mining operations.
👉 theblock.co/post/409587
Poolin, once among the world's largest bitcoin mining pools before it halted withdrawals in 2022, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and set a $52 million floor bid for its Texas mining operations.
The $52 million offer is a stalking-horse (floor) bid for Poolin's Texas mining assets, setting the opening price for a court-supervised sale of the assets.
👉 theblock.co/post/409587
