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Cloudflare starts stablecoin wallet rollout for AI agents
Cloudflare is rolling out programmable stablecoin wallets that let AI agents pay for APIs, data and online content on their own.
The wallets run on Coinbase's x402 protocol, which serves payment instructions when an agent hits a paywall, so no accounts or API keys are needed. Owners can set spending limits, approved-merchant lists and per-transaction caps. Wallet handles are claimable now; funding and payments arrive soon.
Yellow Card Closes a $40M Strategic Round
Yellow Card, a stablecoin payment platform built for emerging markets, has closed a $40M strategic funding round, taking the total it has raised so far to $129.5M.
The round drew SC Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, Polychain Capital, Blockchain Capital and others. The capital will grow Yellow Card's Global USD Accounts, letting businesses hold USD, swap stablecoins, manage treasury and tap local payment rails across more than 50 countries.
Lumia Recaps July With AI, RWA Growth, and Institutional Adoption
Lumia's July update highlighted continued momentum across the real-world asset sector, as tokenized asset value reached $37.55 billion and the number of RWA holders climbed to 1.48 million.
During the month, Lumia outlined its upcoming AI infrastructure, designed to support the full RWA lifecycle by helping users evaluate assets, manage portfolios, and navigate compliance, while assisting issuers with tokenization and market access.
OKX Reports Record Exchange Inflows After Coldcard Exploit
OKX Chief Compliance Officer Jonathan Brockmeier said the recent Coldcard exploit, one of the largest bitcoin hardware-wallet thefts on record, is pushing users back toward centralized exchanges.
“We're seeing record levels of inflows now to centralized exchanges post-Coldcard,” according to Brockmeier, adding that the trend is “the flip side of FTX,” when users rushed into self-custody after the exchange collapse.
Last week, Kulipa shut down, and 120,000 crypto cards stopped working overnight
Most holders had never heard of Kulipa. That's the catch: you don't choose the company that actually issues your crypto card. A handful of invisible issuers power the cards you use every day: MetaMask (Baanx), Phantom (Bridge), Ledger, Bitget Wallet, and more.
And the layer is consolidating fast: Stripe bought Bridge ($1.1B), Mastercard bought BVNK ($1.8B). The strong get acquired — the weak, like Kulipa, brick their partners' cards and disappear.
Your card is only as alive as its issuer. Here's who's really behind them 👇
DCG's Fortitude Buys a Nebraska Mining Site
Fortitude, the Zcash-mining arm of DCG, has bought a 12.5 MW data-center facility in Prosser, Nebraska, for a net $4.7M, expanding its owned-and-operated mining portfolio.
The site comes with land, a building and a 67 kV substation, plus cheap power near $0.045 per kWh that Fortitude says could cut its cost to about $40 per ZEC. It is the company's third Nebraska site in a 60+ MW, seven-site footprint.
The headline price is a gross $6.25M, or a net $4.7M after adjustments, so do not conflate the two. Fortitude's planned Nasdaq listing as TUDE, via a HeartSciences merger, is still pending and not yet approved. ZEC's recent rally is broader market momentum, not a result of this deal, and there is no token or airdrop tied to it.
Most exchanges keep your crypto, your stocks and your margin in separate boxes. Bitget just merged them
Its Unified Trading Account (UTA) is the industry's first to pool crypto, 100 tokenized US stocks (rTokens) and RWA into one shared margin account; 370+ assets, a single collateral pool.
That means one tokenized stock like rNVDA does four jobs at once: hold your exposure, earn dividends in USDT, back your futures margin, and pledge it for a stablecoin loan.
It's the third generation of the trading account, and $100M+ flowed in within the first month.
DeFiLlama Launches Its Mobile App With LlamaAI
DeFiLlama has launched an official mobile app for iOS and Android, putting its LlamaAI analyst in your pocket to build charts and dashboards from a single prompt.
DeFiLlama is the most-used free dashboard for DeFi data like TVL, yields and perps. In the app you type a plain-English question and LlamaAI returns live crypto charts and analysis, instead of building the view by hand. App users also get extra free queries.
LlamaAI itself is not new, having launched in late 2025, so the fresh part here is the mobile app, and being new it may have some beta rough edges. DeFiLlama has no token, and it warns users to avoid fake copies and download only from its official site. There is no airdrop involved.
POAP Winds Down, but its Badges will Stay Onchain
POAP, the platform that turned event attendance into onchain badges, is winding down after more than five years, ending active development over unsustainable economics.
POAPs are free digital 'I was there' badges, NFTs that events and brands handed out to prove you showed up. More than 7.6M were minted by 46,000+ issuers, from Coinbase to American Express, before the team decided the model was not sustainable.
Crucially, existing POAPs stay on the Gnosis chain and remain viewable and tradable, so nothing is destroyed; only new issuance through the platform stops. The wind-down actually began in March 2026 when the project moved to maintenance mode, and co-founder Isabel Gonzalez cited crypto's funding and distribution dynamics. There is no POAP token, and the team is pivoting toward an open standard for collectibles.
FalconX Cuts 10% of Workforce Amid Prolonged Crypto Market Downturn
Digital asset brokerage FalconX has laid off 10% of its global workforce as it prepares for an extended downturn in the cryptocurrency market.
The company is also reshaping its operations in Singapore, where it plans to focus on crypto derivatives trading and withdraw its license application with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), according to reports.
Horizon3 Raises $250M at $2B Valuation as Demand for AI-Powered Cybersecurity Surges
Cybersecurity startup Horizon3 has raised a $250 million Series E funding round at a $2 billion valuation, more than tripling its valuation in just 14 months. The round was led by returning investors NightDragon and NEA.
The funding comes as enterprises accelerate investments in cybersecurity amid the rise of AI-driven threats. Horizon3's NodeZero platform performs fully autonomous penetration testing, continuously scanning live production environments without disrupting operations, enabling organizations to identify vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them.
Treasuries & ETFs Board. Crypto Accumulation and Capital Flows
Institutional activity stayed fairly quiet, with only a few notable corporate treasury moves, while ETF flows remained relatively light across both Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Corporate Treasuries
- BitMine acquired 10,399 ETH (~$19.2M), increasing its holdings to 5.8M ETH.
- Strategy sold 1,638 BTC to boost its USD reserve to $4B and repurchase $81M of STRC, reducing its Bitcoin holdings to 842,138 BTC.
Outside of these moves, public companies made no other major Bitcoin or Ethereum purchases during the week.
ETF Flows
Bitcoin ETFs recorded $61.5M in net outflows.
Ethereum ETFs posted mild net inflows of $10M.
Iran-linked exchange sent $676M to Binance wallets
Reuters says Shelbit, an unlicensed Dubai exchange with Iran links, funneled at least $676M to Binance wallets, part of an alleged sanctions-evasion and gambling money network.
About $540M of that reportedly moved after Dubai regulators fined Shelbit in early 2025 for operating without a license. Binance says Shelbit never held an account with it, and that linked user accounts were investigated, frozen and reported to law enforcement.
Shelbit allegedly processed around $4B since May 2024, acting as a hub linking a Farsi-language gambling network, Iranian exchange Nobitex and suspected IRGC-linked wallets, per blockchain analysts cited by Reuters. This is an allegation built on third-party analysis, not a proven finding. Binance itself is not accused of wrongdoing, Reuters could not confirm direct IRGC control, and no token is involved.
Trump Media has launched API access for $100K/month
The feed carries about ten accounts, including Trump and top officials, faster than normal notifications. That head start lets algorithms trade on policy news like tariffs before the wider market reacts, and reports say at least five firms have signed up.
The pitch is a speed edge: on April 9, 2025, Trump posted that it was a great time to buy, then hours later paused tariffs, and the S&P 500 closed up about 9.5% while Bitcoin jumped and hundreds of millions in crypto shorts were liquidated. Critics call the feed front-running, though nothing has been ruled illegal. Note this is the Truth API data product, not the separate $TRUMP memecoin, and no new token is involved.
Pump fun Laid Off Part of its Staff Ahead of PUMP Token Vesting
Former Pump.fun employees say they were laid off just before their PUMP token grants vested, forfeiting allocations reportedly worth over $1M for at least one of them.
Staff were promised PUMP tokens that become theirs only after a set time on the job. Ex-employees claim the company let them go right before those tokens unlocked, leaving them with nothing, even as founders and investors released tens of millions in PUMP to themselves around the same time.
There were two layoff rounds, in April and mid-July, the second reportedly hitting about 40 people. The grants were agreed in mid-2025 with a one-year cliff, so the first tranche was due to vest around June 2026. These are unverified allegations from former staff, Pump.fun (run by Baton Corporation) has not publicly responded, and the $1M figure is one ex-employee's own estimate. PUMP is a live token, so treat this as a labor and optics story, not investment advice.
3AC Liquidators Sue Zhu Su's Wife Over $40M Villa
Liquidators for collapsed hedge fund Three Arrows Capital are suing Evelyn Tao, wife of co-founder Zhu Su, to recover $40M tied to a Dubai villa.
The claim: Zhu bought the villa with a $50M loan from the firm, then transferred it to Tao without payment. The liquidators now want the $40M in sale proceeds returned. It is the latest of many moves to recover assets lost in 3AC's 2022 collapse.
Ethereum Devs Propose Capping Staking at 50%
Ethereum researchers, including the Ethereum Foundation's Justin Drake, have proposed burning validator rewards to keep staking from passing half of all ETH.
The 'Tapered Issuance Burn' would destroy a growing share of each validator reward as the staking ratio climbs, reaching 100% near 60.25M ETH staked, about half the supply. Rewards would taper over roughly 18 months. Backers argue that beyond a point, extra stake concentrates power and makes Ethereum less secure. Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov pushed back, calling the proposal hurtful for Ethereum and its DeFi yield strategies.
Wells Fargo Launches Tokenized Deposits for Corporate Clients
Wells Fargo will roll out tokenized deposits for select corporate and commercial clients later this year, beginning with 24/7 U.S. dollar-to-British pound settlements on its proprietary blockchain.
Unlike stablecoins, the tokenized deposits represent traditional bank balances onchain while maintaining the same regulatory protections and deposit insurance eligibility as conventional deposits. The bank plans to introduce programmable payments through smart contracts and expand support to additional clients, countries, and currencies throughout 2027.
Western Union Launches Stablecard for Instant Cross-Border Payments
Western Union has launched Stablecard, enabling customers in 37 markets to receive remittances as USDPT, its dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank on Solana, and spend funds instantly through a Visa card powered by Rain.
The new service allows recipients to hold USDPT in the Stablecard app, convert it to local cash at Western Union locations, or make purchases at more than 175 million merchants worldwide via Apple Pay, Google Pay, or the physical card.
Beyond improving the customer experience, Stablecard helps Western Union reduce reliance on prefunded bank accounts by enabling near-instant stablecoin settlement, making cross-border remittances more capital efficient while keeping funds within its digital ecosystem.
Bending Spoons to Acquire Airtable for $1.285B
Bending Spoons, the Italian software firm behind Evernote and WeTransfer, has agreed to acquire no-code database platform Airtable for $1.285B in an all-cash deal.
Airtable blends a spreadsheet with a database so teams can build simple apps without code, and it runs about $480M in annual recurring revenue.
Including Airtable's net cash the implied equity value is around $2.25B, while the headline enterprise price is $1.285B, so do not conflate the two. The deal is expected to close later in 2026. This is a traditional software acquisition, with no crypto or token angle to it.
Boltz, a non-custodial Bitcoin bridge, halted swaps indefinitely
Boltz has disabled its swaps indefinitely after months of automated, AI-assisted attacks outpaced its small team's ability to patch bugs. Boltz is the trustless engine that lets wallets swap between Bitcoin, Lightning and Liquid.
Because it never holds your coins, no user funds were lost or at risk, and Boltz itself absorbed the cost of the exploits. This is a pause until further notice, not a permanent shutdown.
Boltz says attackers now iterate faster than a team its size can find and patch, and that it cannot responsibly re-enable swaps for now. AI-assisted here means automated probing that surfaces bugs quickly, not an AI breaking Bitcoin. Refunds are still processed through the API and can also be claimed unilaterally, and wallets that used Boltz, like Aqua and Bull Bitcoin, are lining up other swap rails.
BlackRock has launched two tokenized money-market funds
BSTBL and BRSRV are built as onchain reserve assets that stablecoin issuers can hold to back their coins. These wrap money-market funds, which hold cash and US Treasuries, as blockchain tokens, so stablecoin firms can hold them as reserves and settle onchain.
Both are structured to qualify as eligible reserves for payment stablecoins under the GENIUS Act. BSTBL is issued on Ethereum via BNY Mellon, and BRSRV is multichain via Securitize.
Importantly, this is not a BlackRock stablecoin but a set of backing vehicles for issuers, and the shares are institutional-only for whitelisted wallets, so there is no retail token or airdrop. For context, BlackRock already manages about $60B in reserves for Circle, and its BUIDL fund holds over $2.6B, as tokenized Treasuries have grown to roughly $16B.
Base Unveiled Plans to Launch Cobalt Upgrade in September
Cobalt follows the Beryl upgrade and brings three headline features: gas sponsorship, batch calls and session keys. Base is building it with Optimism and WalletConnect for wider EVM rollout. No token is tied to the upgrade, so there is no airdrop.
Smart accounts let apps cover your gas, bundle several actions into one click and remember permissions, without you holding ETH or approving every step. Cobalt builds this in via EIP-8130, so features that need add-on software today become native. A USDC transfer uses about 63% less gas than with ERC-4337.
Squid (QUID) TGE Goes Live August 4 Across Multiple Exchanges
QUID will officially launch on August 4 at 13:00 UTC, with trading set to go live on Binance Alpha, Bitget, Kraken, PancakeSwap, and other supported platforms.
Squid is a cross-chain interoperability protocol that enables seamless swaps, bridging, and smart contract calls across 100+ blockchains through a single integration.
Mastercard Completes BVNK Acquisition to Expand Stablecoin Payments
Mastercard has officially completed its acquisition of BVNK, strengthening its strategy to bridge traditional finance with digital assets and expand global stablecoin payment capabilities.
By combining Mastercard's global payments network with BVNK's stablecoin-native infrastructure, the company aims to enable financial institutions, fintechs, and enterprises to seamlessly move, manage, and convert value across fiat currencies, stablecoins, and tokenized assets.
The rules for tokenized assets are being written in the US right now, and there are two ways to be in the room
Some are already registered with the SEC. Others are shaping the rules from the inside.
We mapped the RWA players doing both — including Lumia, advised by two former US Congressmen, one from each side of the aisle 👇
Cold storage is supposed to be unhackable. Coldcard proved otherwise
A firmware build-error made Coldcard seeds reproducible from public data, letting an attacker drain ~$88,6M (1,367 BTC) remotely, without ever touching a device.
Zoom out and the pattern is clear: every earlier "hack" either needed physical access (Trezor) or was just a data leak (Ledger). Coldcard is the first to break cold storage remotely, at scale.
Tether made $1.5B in Q2, but the profit isn't the real story
The stablecoin issuer is quietly becoming a conglomerate. Behind USDT sit $115B in US Treasuries, 146 tons of gold and ~99K BTC, plus a growing portfolio of stakes: media (Rumble), data centers (Northern Data), agriculture (Adecoagro, 70%), Bitcoin mining (Bitdeer), royalties (Elemental Altus) and even football (Juventus).
One company. ~200 people. An empire in the making.
Bithumb announced plans for a 2028 KOSDAQ IPO
South Korea's Bithumb, one of the country's largest crypto exchanges, is aiming to go public on Korea's KOSDAQ market around 2028, with a possible follow-on Nasdaq listing later.
The 2028 date is a stated target, not a fixed schedule, and an earlier 2025 IPO attempt was postponed. No valuation has been disclosed. Bithumb is a centralized exchange and this is an equity IPO, so there is no Bithumb token or airdrop involved.
The exchange split into two entities in July 2025, Bithumb Korea (the exchange, which pursues the listing) and Bithumb A (asset management), to simplify its structure ahead of a float. It has tapped Samsung Securities as underwriter and is upgrading internal controls while moving to K-IFRS accounting standards.
Coldcard Hack Grows to $88.6M as Third Wave
The firmware flaw in Coldcard hardware wallets has now drained about 1,367 BTC, worth roughly $89M, from 4,585 wallets across three waves, per Galaxy Research.
A Coldcard is a physical device for holding bitcoin. A 2021 coding mistake quietly weakened the randomness of the seeds it created, so keys for thousands of wallets became guessable. Attackers computed those keys and swept the coins remotely, with the physical devices never touched at all.
The bug dropped seed entropy to about 72 bits instead of 128, making keys enumerable offline. It affects seeds generated on Mk3 (firmware 4.0.1+), and Mk4, Q and Mk5 before their fixes, not every Coldcard. Coinkite urges owners to move funds to a fresh seed on patched firmware. The total is a Galaxy Research estimate, cumulative and still climbing as of August 2, and there is no token involved.