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According to Etherealize co-founder Danny Ryan, Wall Street's growing adoption of cryptocurrencies will be a driving force for advancing privacy on the Ethereum blockchain. Ryan states that as financial institutions move their operations on-chain, they require a level of confidentiality that public blockchains currently lack. He views this demand for privacy as a "Trojan horse" that will lead to the development of new, more private infrastructure that will benefit all users of the network, not just large institutions.
Etherealize recently raised $40 million to build infrastructure for trading and settling tokenized assets on Ethereum, with a focus on using zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to ensure privacy. While other companies are also creating their own blockchains with built-in privacy features, Ryan believes the significant investment already made in ZK technology within the Ethereum ecosystem gives its developers a distinct advantage. He anticipates that privacy will become more commonplace on Ethereum in the coming years through specialized applications. Source
Binance is adding a new project, OpenLedger (OPEN), to its HODLer Airdrops program, which provides tokens to users who hold BNB. OpenLedger is an AI-blockchain infrastructure designed to enable the training and deployment of specialized AI models using community-owned datasets, known as "Datanets." The project aims to create a transparent system where data contributions and model training are executed on-chain, and contributors are rewarded for their work.
The OPEN token will be listed for trading on Binance, and it will be designated with a seed tag, which signifies a potentially higher-volatility asset. This requires users to complete a quiz every 90 days to ensure they are aware of the risks involved. The airdrop itself is a part of Binance’s program that rewards loyal BNB holders by distributing tokens from new projects based on snapshots of their balances. Source
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has publicly refuted rumors that the company is selling its Bitcoin holdings to acquire gold. He confirmed via a post on X that Tether has not sold any of its Bitcoin and that its investment strategy continues to focus on allocating a portion of its profits into a mix of "safe assets" including Bitcoin, gold, and land. The speculation was based on a perceived drop in Bitcoin holdings from the company's Q1 to Q2 2025 attestations.
However, the CEO of Jan3, Samson Mow, and Ardoino himself clarified that the reduction in holdings was not due to a sell-off but rather a transfer of 19,800 BTC to a separate financial platform called Twenty One Capital (XXI). Mow stated that when this transfer is taken into account, Tether's net Bitcoin holdings have actually increased. The company has a total of over 100,000 BTC, and this strategic move to a new platform is part of its ongoing investment and diversification efforts. Source
Radix, a full-stack layer-1 protocol, is introducing a new incentive model called the Radix Rewards campaign to promote sustainable growth in its DeFi ecosystem. This program aims to move beyond traditional airdrops, which often attract short-term "mercenary capital," by rewarding genuine and active participation. The rewards system uses a three-tier architecture to convert on-chain activities like trading and providing liquidity into Activity Points, with participants earning Season Points based on their performance, ensuring rewards are distributed to genuine contributors.
The launch of this new incentive model is synchronized with a major infrastructure upgrade: a new integration with the interoperability protocol Hyperlane. This integration will connect Radix to over 150 other blockchains, creating a frictionless gateway for liquidity and users to enter the network. This combination is designed to create a "flywheel effect," attracting new capital and directing it toward the network’s reward-eligible DeFi applications. This new initiative is also seen as a way to honour the legacy of Radix founder, Dan Hughes, who recently passed away and was deeply involved in planning these projects. Source
The Ethereum layer-2 network Linea is set to airdrop its native token, LINEA, on September 10, with more than 9 billion tokens available for early users. The token is being distributed by the Swiss non-profit Linea Association and was developed by Consensys. Unlike other layer-2 tokens, LINEA will not be used for gas fees, which will continue to be paid in ETH. The token has no governance powers but will be subject to a buyback and burn mechanism, where a portion of the ETH transaction fee revenue will be used to buy and remove LINEA from circulation.
The LINEA token will be distributed in three main categories: early users who participated in the Linea Voyage and Linea Surge campaigns, active ecosystem participants, and the Consensys treasury. A large portion of the tokens will be managed by the Linea Consortium, a group of Ethereum-aligned entities, to encourage long-term participation and growth on the network. A total of 750,000 wallets are eligible for the initial airdrop, which will distribute 10% of the total token supply to qualifying early users. The remaining tokens are allocated to an ecosystem fund and a locked treasury for Consensys. Source
The Markethive Founding Share Token (MFST) is a core component of the Markethive ecosystem, serving as a dual-purpose asset for both the company and its community. For Markethive, the issuance of these tokens, which are linked to its innovative Initial Loan Procurement (ILP) program, is a strategic method for raising capital. This capital is crucial for the company's development and expansion. For community members, the MFST offers a way to generate wealth by providing a stake in the platform’s growth and potential value appreciation, as it is a limited-edition token. This approach of directly engaging the community through the MFST and ILP is a departure from traditional fundraising methods like relying on venture capital.
The Initial Loan Procurement (ILP) is a unique crowdfunding model where investors act as creditors who lend money to the company in exchange for interest payments. These arrangements are formalized as legally binding smart contracts on the blockchain, providing transparency and security. The article highlights that this debt-based structure is not classified as a security, offering a layer of protection to investors, as creditors have a higher priority in asset recovery during legal or financial distress compared to shareholders. The MFST token is tied to this ILP, with a limited supply of 1,000 tokens, and holders are entitled to receive interest payments from 20% of Markethive's net monthly profits. Source
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has created a new Cross-Border Task Force to combat fraud and protect American investors from schemes orchestrated by foreign companies, such as pump-and-dump operations. According to SEC Chair Paul S. Atkins, the task force aims to consolidate investigative efforts and leverage all available tools to combat transnational fraud, specifically targeting "bad actors" that attempt to use international borders to evade U.S. investor protections. The focus will be on foreign companies as well as the intermediaries, auditors, and underwriters that assist them in accessing U.S. capital markets.
This new initiative is part of the SEC's broader "Project Crypto," which seeks to reform the digital assets market and position the United States as a global leader in the crypto space. Atkins stated that the SEC will work to bring crypto asset distributions back to America by moving away from what he described as a past where "convoluted offshore corporate structures" and "decentralization theater" prevailed. The goal is to create a more welcoming regulatory environment that encourages crypto-based capital raising and innovation while still maintaining robust protections against fraud and manipulation. Source
With its legal dispute with the SEC finally resolved, Ripple is now free to pursue its original goal of competing with SWIFT, the long-standing global system for interbank financial messaging. SWIFT has been the backbone of international payments for over 50 years, but it is criticized for being slow, expensive, and opaque, with transactions often taking days and incurring multiple fees. In contrast, Ripple's blockchain technology offers significant technological advantages, including faster transaction and settlement speeds, lower costs, and greater transparency.
Despite these advantages, Ripple still faces major hurdles in challenging SWIFT's dominance. The financial industry is deeply entrenched in using the SWIFT network, which is seen as a safe and universally understood option. Banks are reluctant to undertake the costly and risky process of overhauling their existing systems, which are built around the SWIFT infrastructure. Furthermore, while the conclusion of its SEC lawsuit provides Ripple with much-needed regulatory clarity, it still has to overcome the general risk-averse nature of banks and address perceptions about the liquidity of its native token, XRP. Source
Metaplanet, a Tokyo-listed investment firm, has purchased an additional 136 Bitcoin for $15.2 million, bringing its total holdings to 20,136 BTC. This latest acquisition is part of an ambitious strategy to accumulate 30,000 BTC by the end of 2025 and 100,000 BTC by 2026. The company’s average cost per coin across its total investment is $103,196, and it has become the sixth-largest public corporate holder of Bitcoin. The firm has currently achieved 67% of its 2025 target and 20% of its 2026 goal, representing a significant expansion from its original objectives of 10,000 BTC and 21,000 BTC for those respective years.
To meet these revised goals, Metaplanet needs to acquire nearly 10,000 more Bitcoin by the end of 2025 and an additional 70,000 by 2026. Experts note that the company is on track, with four months remaining in the year to achieve a third of its near-term target. Despite a recent 65% drop in its stock price from its 2025 peak, the firm has taken steps to manage risk, including securing shareholder approval for an $884 million capital raising proposal. Analysts believe that with its low structured debt and balanced financing, the company is unlikely to face a forced liquidation scenario in the near future. Source
A Bitcoin Ordinals developer named Leonidas has stated that his community, known as the "DOG Army," would fund and develop a fork of Bitcoin Core if the developers attempt to censor Ordinals, Runes, and other large-data transactions. This threat comes amid an ongoing debate within the Bitcoin community, with some, including Blockstream CEO Adam Back, arguing that such transactions are "spam" and should be ignored or censored by node validators in favor of financial transactions. Leonidas argues that any such censorship would set a "dangerous precedent" and is a violation of Bitcoin's core principle of remaining censorship-resistant.
The debate has intensified with the upcoming release of Bitcoin Core’s v30 update, which is set to remove a size limit on a function that allows for more media files to be stored on the blockchain. Those who support Ordinals, like Leonidas, argue that the ecosystem has contributed over $500 million in transaction fees, which helps secure the network as the block subsidy for miners continues to decrease. However, critics point out that the fees generated by Ordinals transactions are volatile and unpredictable, suggesting they may not be a reliable source of income for miners. Source
The supply of stablecoins on the Ethereum network has reached a new record high of $165 billion, following a significant weekly inflow of $5 billion. This surge has more than doubled the network's stablecoin supply since the beginning of 2024. Ethereum maintains its dominant position in the stablecoin market, holding a 57% market share, far ahead of its closest competitors, Tron and Solana.
Beyond stablecoins, Ethereum is also seeing a record amount of tokenized gold, with approximately $2.4 billion now on the network. The tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) is a major driver of this growth and has contributed to the recent appreciation of Ether's price. The article credits Ethereum's "credible neutrality" as a key factor that attracts large financial institutions, with Fidelity's tokenized U.S. Treasurys fund on the network serving as a recent example of this trend. Source
Disclaimer: These articles are provided for informational purposes only. They are not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other advice.
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