The Defiant

NON-CRYPTO MARKETS EDGE OUT CRYPTO ON HYPERLIQUID @HyperliquidX was built to trade crypto but this month for the first time ever, its HIP-3 builder-deployed markets for stocks, commodities and indices started beating crypto volume outrightm, according to our analysis. Read more here: thedefiant.io/news/defi/buil… 1/2

@ryandcrypto Not quite: x.com/DefiantNews/st…

people are officially trading more stocks than crypto on hyperliquid

But the take that "people are trading more stocks than crypto on Hyperliquid" is not quite right. We pulled the onchain data and builder markets (stocks + commodities + indices) did edge past crypto, but stocks alone still trail, and nearly half of that is one Korean chip stock. 2/2

Coinbase @coinbase and Robinhood @RobinhoodApp are both dangling ~7% on USDC. Same rails too: Morpho vaults curated by Steakhouse. But the designs are opposite. Robinhood pays the gap to a fixed 7% target for a year. Coinbase pays market rate + MORPHO rewards, no ceiling, no end date. h/t @PinkBrains_io and @tomwanhh thedefiant.io/news/cefi/coin…

BREAKING: BITMINE AND SHARPLINK BACK A NEW ETHEREUM ENTITY "The next $100 trillion of assets won't migrate on-chain without it." Bitmine's @fundstrat Tom Lee on why he and SharpLink backed EthSystems, the third spinout from a narrowing Ethereum Foundation. EthSystems will build out privacy infrastructure for institutions on Ethereum. Read more here: thedefiant.io/news/blockchai…

ENS @ensdomains co-founder Nick Johnson blocked the DAO's Security Council renewal last month. Now @nicksdjohnson wrote the proposal to seat a new one. He's a member of it, but so are some of his strongest critics. We have the roster, read straight off the multisig. The onchain vote is passing and closes ~July 20 👇 thedefiant.io/news/defi/ens-…

Wall Street is building closed chains. Coinbase is betting on open ones. @brian__foster, Head of Infrastructure Growth & Strategy @Coinbase, joins @ChrisStoraker on Converge to explain why stablecoins are now more existential than trading for banks — and why the smart CEOs already know their stablecoin volume could surpass fiat in 3-5 years. The dominoes are falling. Full episode out now

CAP SLASHES ITS STABLEDROP Cap @caplabs_ slashes its stabledrop airdrop to $4.2M from $12M. Founder apologizes for committing to the larger figure before securing funding. Read more here: thedefiant.io/news/defi/cap-…

SABLIER, PAYMENTS STREAMING PROTOCOL, IS WINDING DOWN @Sablier Labs enters maintenance mode, halting new development. The token-streaming protocol's smart contracts will continue running onchain, serving 345K+ Ethereum addresses. Read more here: thedefiant.io/news/defi/sabl…

Coinbase CEO @brian_armstrong says @coinbase's Base pivoted away from creator tokens early 2026, calling the experiment unsuccessful. He defended the chain's new AI agent focus against criticism. Read more: thedefiant.io/news/blockchai…

Trump is pushing the Senate to pass the Clarity Act, framing crypto regulation as essential to competing with China and AI Read more here: thedefiant.io/news/regulatio…

SKY JUNE FINANCIALS SHOW RECORD ANNUALIZED GROSS REVENUE @SkyEcosystem hits $419M revenue run-rate in June as sUSDS yield payouts exceed $250M. Grove launches GROVE token and Fixed Yield product reaches $44.1M TVL. Read more here: thedefiant.io/news/defi/sky-…

🦄 Uniswap's fee switch is coming for v4 @Uniswap Labs proposed activating protocol fees on select v4 pools, as UNI burn ramps up. Supporters say the mechanism scales well. One LP-side critic says it "risks killing the protocol." Snapshot vote is live: thedefiant.io/news/defi/unis…

South Korea fintech with 30M users to run $KRW stablecoin pilot on @Optimism Read more here: thedefiant.io/news/blockchai…

@jerallaire Our coverage here: thedefiant.io/news/cefi/circ…

Today is a historic day for Circle, and I think symbolic of a much bigger evolution in the architecture of the emerging internet financial system. Circle has received final approval from the OCC to operate as a national trust bank. We have been granted a charter for First National Digital Currency Bank, NA. Over 10 years ago, as we were forging the concepts of Circle, we believed a new kind of national bank would ultimately be needed to issue full-reserve dollar digital currency. This was before USDC even existed. The vision was clear: a new base layer of money on the internet would be necessary, and for it to reach widespread use, it needed to operate under national banking supervision. Years later, after launching USDC and achieving strong product-market fit, I wrote that we sought a charter for a full-reserve digital currency bank. Then, through a half-decade of work with policymakers and regulators, we saw the GENIUS Act codify into federal banking law a framework for these safe, efficient, and technologically superior digital dollars. Launching and operating as Circle National Trust, we will offer custodial services for digital assets, including stablecoins and other tokenized assets, held to the highest standards afforded under Federal national trust bank supervision. As the GENIUS Act approaches full implementation in early 2027, we are now poised not only to be supervised by the OCC, as required by law, but to bring critical components of USDC's operation and reserves into this structure. This is all part of building a new fundamental money layer for the internet. A layer that can scale from an AI agent paying another AI agent in fractions of a second for fractions of a cent, to retail transactions, to investments, trading and lending, to the largest wholesale transactions between global systemically important institutions. All of this needs a form of money and regulated infrastructure that can support the entirety of this new internet-native economic system. A new architecture for money on the internet has arrived. It is now being hardened into an edifice the world can trust and build on. We are thrilled to be the first of a new cohort of firms establishing this kind of banking infrastructure. Jeremy

BREAKING: CIRCLE WINS REGULATORY APPROVAL TO ESTABLISH A NATIONAL BANK TRUST @circle wins OCC charter for First National Digital Currency Bank, enabling direct federal custody of digital assets and USDC reserves. $CRCL shares are up +7% Read more here: thedefiant.io/news/cefi/circ…

JUST IN: @HSBC said it issued its first onchain structured product, with Marketnode as its tokenization agent. Read more here: thedefiant.io/converge/tradf…

After 6 years I’m leaving @Coinbase. I’ll be transitioning to an advisory role at the end of the month and continue my service on the Board of Coinbase National Trust Company. I will be a Coinbase ally for life and am grateful to @brian_armstrong, @emilemc and the Coinbase board for the opportunity of a lifetime. ⬇️

Hyperliquid, Phantom Ask CFTC to Exempt DeFi From Broker Rules @HyperliquidX and @phantom filed jointly with the @CFTC seeking to formalize exemptions for non-custodial wallet providers from broker rules, building on Phantom's March no-action relief. Read more here: thedefiant.io/news/regulatio…