The Block

TSB: Ethereum Merge Cut Electricity Use by 99% - Cambridge Report x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

NEW: Japan's SBI Group plans to launch a lending service that offers a 3% annual yield on users' JPYSC stablecoins, according to Nikkei. The service could launch as soon as this month.

NEW: Thailand's central bank and the SEC have launched audits into high-volume stablecoin transactions — specifically targeting Tether's USDT, local news outlet Thansettakij reported.

NEW: Lawson, one of Japan's largest CVS chains, will allow customers to pay with JPYC stablecoin at one of its stores starting in early August, according to Nikkei. This is part of a demonstration in collaboration with KDDI and HashPort.

🎉 Edition 55 of my newsletter, The Funding, is live! Many thanks to @josephgjh, @ysiu, @Quynh__Ho, @MikeBucella, @sbigroup, @markets_edx's Tony, and @tarunchitra, for sharing insights 🙌

THE BLOCK: Circle Co-founder Jeremy Allaire shares personal thesis on the agentic economy and onchain finance. "An economy run by software agents must run on software money, software contracts, and software governance, or it cannot run at all," Allaire writes.

NEW: A bitcoin whale moved 2,931 BTC, worth $188 million, after seven years of dormancy, according to Onchain Lens. The whale's bitcoin:native stash was previously worth $19 million.

The Funding: Why Japan's SBI Holdings is investing big in crypto theblock.co/post/407977/th…

THE BLOCK: A fatwa on crypto? Pakistan's most influential Islamic scholar ruled purchases made with USDT or any other token impermissible under Sharia, calling crypto "fictitious numbers in an account." Days later, the country's crypto regulator sat down with him to push back.

Crypto fatwa sparks debate over Pakistan’s digital asset framework theblock.co/post/407969/cr…

THE BLOCK: Michael Saylor posted Strategy's bitcoin tracker Sunday with an ambiguous caption: "Orange dots tell only part of the story." It's his first Sunday chart post since Strategy sold 3,588 BTC for $216 million, its largest sale ever.

Michael Saylor posts cryptic Strategy chart after $216 million bitcoin sale: 'Orange dots tell only part of the story' theblock.co/post/407965/mi…

THE BLOCK: An attacker borrowed roughly $9.05 million from Hedera $HBAR lending protocol Bonzo Lend using a manipulated SAUCE price accepted by a flawed Supra oracle verifier. A second wallet borrowed another $1 million during the exploit window but identified itself as a white hat and said the funds would be returned.

Hedera lending protocol Bonzo Lend hit for $9 million after Supra verifier accepts manipulated price update theblock.co/post/407960/he…

THE BLOCK: U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs took in a net $197.4 million in the week ending July 10, their first positive week since early May, snapping a record eight-week outflow streak that drained $8.26 billion. Spot ether ETFs added $84.4 million, ending their own eight-week slide.