Category: Business

Binance has released its 44th proof-of-reserves report, showing that customer Bitcoin holdings increased during June while Ethereum and Tether balances declined.

The report used a snapshot taken on July 1 and compared the figures with customer balances recorded on June 1.

Customer Bitcoin holdings rose 1.22% to about 640,000 $BTC, an increase of 7,715 $BTC. Ethereum holdings fell 1.41% to around 4.08 million $ETH, a decline of 58,591 $ETH. Customer Tether holdings dropped 1.51% to about 33.7 billion $USDT, falling by roughly 510 million $USDT.

Binance customer Bitcoin holdings continue rising

The July figures extend the rise in customer Bitcoin balances reported one month earlier. Binance users added 25,838 $BTC in May, lifting their total holdings by 4.26% to about 630,000 $BTC in the exchange’s 43rd proof-of-reserves report.

The latest increase was smaller than the previous month’s gain, but it kept customer $BTC balances moving higher. The report does not show whether the change came from purchases, deposits, transfers between Binance services, or movements from other assets. It records balances at one point in time rather than individual customer activity.

Ethereum and $USDT balances decline

Ethereum moved in the opposite direction after recording a strong increase in the previous report. Customer $ETH holdings had risen 10.17% in May to about 4.14 million $ETH. The July snapshot showed that the total fell by 58,591 $ETH during June.

$USDT balances also declined for a second monthly report. Binance users held about 34.3 billion $USDT in the June 1 snapshot after balances fell by roughly 460 million tokens in May. The latest decrease brought the total to about 33.7 billion $USDT. Lower stablecoin balances do not confirm that users converted $USDT into Bitcoin or withdrew funds.

A similar pattern recently appeared at other major exchanges. As reported by crypto.news, Bybit and OKX recorded higher customer Bitcoin holdings while $USDT balances fell in their latest reserve snapshots. However, the reports did not identify the reasons behind the balance changes.

Binance says customer assets remain backed

Binance states on its proof-of-reserves page that it holds customer assets on a 1:1 basis, along with additional reserves. The exchange uses Merkle Trees and zero-knowledge proofs to let customers check whether their account balances were included in the total liabilities covered by each report.

A proof-of-reserves report can show whether listed wallets hold assets linked to customer balances at the time of a snapshot. However, it does not provide a complete financial audit or explain every off-chain liability. A recent proof-of-reserves explainer noted that useful disclosures should remain recent, frequent and matched against customer liabilities.

The figures should therefore be read as a record of asset backing and customer balances on a specific date. They do not show the exchange’s complete financial position or the reasons customers moved assets between accounts, platforms or private wallets.

Report follows braoder changes at Binance

The latest reserve report arrived after a month of active derivatives trading. Binance recorded about $1.63 trillion in futures trading volume during June, its highest monthly total of 2026, according to CryptoQuant data.

Binance also introduced service changes for some European users when the European Union’s MiCA transition ended on July 1. As previously reported, the exchange said affected users could continue using options already communicated to them, including withdrawals where available. The date matched the snapshot used for the latest reserve report.

Earlier reserve rankings placed Binance ahead of other major exchanges. As reported by crypto.news, CoinMarketCap data ranked the platform first in January 2026 with about $155.6 billion in proof-of-reserve assets. The July report adds a new monthly view of customer balances, with $BTC rising while $ETH and $USDT moved lower.

Long-time crypto trader Ogle warned on July 13 that small meme coins with limited liquidity can collapse within minutes when a few large holders decide to sell.

Pointing to recent losses around the latest sensation in the space, $CASHCAT, the market watcher reiterated the risks in chasing fast-moving tokens, where paper gains can disappear really fast when leverage, thin markets, and concentrated ownership collide.

Why a Few Wallets Can Move the Whole Market

In a post on X, Ogle made a basic observation about this market: that a lot of people are sitting on hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of dollars in gains that they have not actually cashed out. According to him, if even two or three of these traders were to sell, it would trigger a major price drop, especially for smaller meme coins.

“When a ton of people have made hundreds of $k or $m in a token, unrealized, in this type of market, it only takes 2-3 of them to sell (if the token is small, especially a meme with little liquidity) for everything to collapse quickly,” he wrote.

The analyst explained that the problem became even worse if the token was listed on perpetual futures exchanges, where traders often borrowed funds to place large bets.

He gave an example of $CASHCAT, the meme coin built on the Robinhood Chain, that jumped more than 3,200% over the past week and briefly pushed its market cap to around $226 million about a day ago when its price hit an all-time high ($ATH) of $0.2288 per CoinGecko data.

According to Lookonchain, that rally saw a few winners, including one trader who bought 15 million $CASHCAT tokens for about $838 and turned that into a profit of over $1 million. However, had they waited a few more days, they would have walked away with nearly $2.9 million. Another trader spent $69 and sold for $711, which, while a tidy 10x on their investment, would have been worth $2.7 million had they also waited.

However, things may have also gone south for those traders since, as Ogle noted, the asset experienced some pretty big liquidations, which came right after the launch of a perpetual contract on Hyperliquid.

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Data from CoinGecko shows $CASHCAT’s value crashed by approximately 60% with about 90% of long positions liquidated, intensifying selling pressure and volatility. At the time of writing, the meme coin had made some recovery and was trading just below $0.16, although that price still represented an over 18% dip in 24 hours, pushing the coin more than 30% below its $ATH.

Utility Tokens vs. Short-Term Meme Bets

In his X post, Ogle, who’s an advisor for the Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial, said that while meme coins can produce quick returns, his trading experience had seen him make the biggest gains from utility-focused assets such as Solana, BNB, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin.

According to him, those investments are slower plays that require patience, and many traders often lose interest before the assets can deliver larger returns.

A hacker made off with over $135,000 after hijacking the X accounts of SpaceX and Starlink to promote a meme coin.

The profiles were used to shill a Robinhood-based token that briefly hit a $2 million market cap before crashing to almost zero.

SpaceX and Starlink Fall Victim to Compromise

Screenshots circulating on social media show both accounts reposting content from the token’s profile, with the posts featuring a Sam Altman (SCATMAN) meme coin and tags claiming they were associated with SpaceX.

On-chain data shows the hacker created 10 trillion tokens and sold the entire stash, converting it into 59 Ether ($ETH) worth around $108,000 shortly after the posts went live.

According to Lookonchain, a separate wallet linked to the attacker made another sale of 59.28 million SCATMAN tokens for 14.7 $ETH, valued at approximately $27,000, bringing the total profit to roughly $135,000. The on-chain analytics platform also identified the two addresses used by the hacker.

Per GeckoTerminal data, SCATMAN’s market cap surged to over $2 million before being immediately rug-pulled. Meanwhile, both companies have since deleted the fake posts and regained control of their accounts.

Rug Pulls Remain Common in Crypto Space

Prominent social media account takeovers have become common in the crypto space, many of which have been used to pump and dump low-cap cryptocurrencies.

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For instance, Scroll co-founder Ye Chen’s X account was hijacked in January 2026, with attackers impersonating platform staff and sending phishing messages about copyright violations that tricked crypto leaders into clicking malicious links.

A couple of months later, Pepe creator Matt Furie’s account was used to promote a scam token. Around the same time, WinRAR’s official account was also compromised to push a fake Solana meme coin to its followers.

The most notable breach came in May when Keith Gill, popularly known as Roaring Kitty, had his dormant account breached. In this case, hackers launched Red Kitten Crew (RKC) on Solana and walked away with more than $600,000 in half an hour.

Each case followed a pattern seen in crypto several times, where influencers create hype, developers cash out, and retail traders are left dealing with losses.

Jito has proposed a governance overhaul that would direct 100% of the DAO’s JTX revenue share toward open-market $JTO buybacks and permanent token burns through at least Q4 2027.

According to a governance proposal published by Jito on July 13, the protocol has introduced JIP-38, which would formally classify Jito as a token-centric network where nearly all major network revenue flows to the decentralized autonomous organization and remains under the control of $JTO token holders.

The proposal triggered an immediate market reaction, with Jito ($JTO) climbing as much as 8% shortly after its release, according to data from crypto.news.

Revenue would be redirected to $JTO holders

Under JIP-38, Jito proposes using the DAO’s entire share of JTX revenue to buy $JTO tokens on the open market before permanently removing those tokens from circulation. According to the proposal, this arrangement would remain in place for at least one year, extending through the fourth quarter of 2027.

One exception remains in the framework. The proposal states that 20% of JTX platform fees would continue to be reinvested into JTX development rather than being allocated to buybacks and burns. Jito said the remaining major revenue streams would continue flowing through the DAO under governance controlled by $JTO holders.

To carry out the program, the proposal calls for buybacks to be executed automatically through a Rev Splitter mechanism overseen by the project’s Dev Council. Alongside the automation process, Jito plans to update its governance documentation so the protocol’s operating model formally recognizes the token-centric structure.

According to JIP-38, existing revenue allocation commitments would be completed before a comprehensive review of protocol fee streams takes place in Q4 2027.

During that review, governance participants would evaluate the performance of token buybacks, ecosystem incentives, and other capital allocation methods before $JTO holders vote on the network’s next long-term revenue framework.

Governance changes extend beyond token burns

Beyond the buyback program, JIP-38 outlines several operational changes intended to support the new revenue structure. According to the proposal, the Rev Splitter would become progressively more automated while governance records would be updated to match the revised economic model.

Jito also stated in the proposal that the framework is designed so value generated across the network accrues to the $JTO token instead of external corporate entities. Any future changes to revenue allocation after Q4 2027 would require approval through governance voting by $JTO holders.

The proposal arrives as Jito continues expanding its presence across the Solana ecosystem. Earlier this year, as previously reported by crypto.news, 21Shares launched the 21Shares Jito Staked SOL ETP (JSOL) on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Paris.

The issuer said the product provides regulated exchange-traded exposure to Solana through JitoSOL while embedding staking rewards, allowing investors to access the asset through traditional brokers and banks without managing wallets or staking infrastructure.

Institutional support for the protocol has also grown over the past year. As previously reported by crypto.news, Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) crypto division invested $50 million in Jito to help expand the Solana staking protocol’s ecosystem.

The investment included an allocation of $JTO tokens to the venture firm, adding another high-profile backer as the protocol seeks approval for its latest governance proposal.

Bolivia’s government has begun exploring the possibility of integrating Tether’s $USDT stablecoin into the national payments system, a move that would have been unimaginable just two years ago when the country maintained one of the strictest total bans on cryptocurrency activity in the hemisphere. According to the original report, this policy shift comes after crypto transaction volumes jumped to $430 million in the year following the central bank’s decision to remove restrictions in mid-2024. The figure signals a rapid reorientation of everyday financial behavior in a country where traditional banking access remains uneven and confidence in local monetary instruments is fragile.

The number isn’t just a headline—it reflects actual settlement flows in a dollarized informal economy that has long relied on physical cash and unregulated exchange houses. Stablecoins like $USDT already function as de facto digital dollars across many emerging markets, but Bolivia’s consideration of a formal government-endorsed integration would be a first. It would place a sovereign payments apparatus squarely on top of a privately issued stablecoin, a concept that blurs the line between state-sanctioned rails and permissionless digital currency protocols.

The Road from Ban to Boom

Bolivia’s relationship with crypto was aggressively hostile for nearly a decade. In 2014, the financial regulator issued a blanket prohibition on any cryptocurrency use, citing risks to monetary sovereignty and consumer protection. Banks were forbidden from facilitating crypto transactions, and even private peer-to-peer trading operated in a legal gray zone that exposed users to enforcement risk. That stance held firm even as neighbors like Argentina and Brazil saw explosive stablecoin adoption.

Then, in mid-2024, the central bank abruptly lifted the restrictions. The reversal wasn’t accompanied by a lengthy public debate or a major legislative overhaul—it was an administrative policy update. But the effects were immediate. Within twelve months, $430 million in crypto volumes moved through the economy, much of it channeled through $USDT on low-cost layer-1 networks. The demand wasn’t speculative. It was transactional. People were paying for services, settling invoices, and moving remittance money across borders without using the conventional banking corridor.

The government’s current exploration of $USDT integration is being treated as a natural next step. It mirrors other recent crypto payment integrations in emerging markets, such as Sui’s partnership with Nigerian fintech Paga, which aims to bring digital assets into everyday transactions for a population familiar with mobile money but excluded from dollar-denominated banking. Bolivia’s path is less about technology hype and more about practical necessity: the boliviano’s long-term depreciation has made foreign currency a household survival tool, and $USDT offers a digital bypass.

Why Tether’s $USDT Specifically?

Tether dominates the stablecoin market in Latin America not because of marketing campaigns but because it’s already the preferred dollar substitute in informal economies. In Bolivia, users aren’t trading exotic derivative products; they’re using $USDT on mobile wallets and peer-to-peer platforms to store value and move money. The coin’s liquidity depth and wide exchange support mean a street-level vendor in La Paz can accept a $USDT payment and convert it locally with minimal friction. No central bank digital currency prototype has achieved that kind of organic penetration in the region.

The proposal being studied would elevate $USDT from a parallel tool to a recognized component of the national payments system. That would mean payment processors, utility companies, and possibly tax collection systems could be wired to accept or settle in $USDT. For a government that still struggles to maintain a unified exchange rate and grapples with dollar scarcity, this could stabilize daily commerce. But the legal architecture is untested. Tether is a private issuer domiciled outside Bolivia, and its reserves—while transparent—are not subject to local monetary authority oversight.

While Bolivia’s pivot toward stablecoins remains a domestic experiment, it contrasts sharply with the ongoing regulatory battles in the United States, where banks are fighting to kill a landmark crypto bill just days before a Senate vote. The difference in approaches reveals how advanced economies and developing nations are moving in opposite directions on stablecoin regulation. In Washington, the focus is on containing perceived systemic risk. In La Paz, the calculus is simpler: millions of people are already using $USDT, and the state can either ignore it or build a bridge.

What This Signals for Stablecoin Adoption

The real significance of Bolivia’s $USDT exploration isn’t the $430 million figure—it’s the precedent of a government actively building infrastructure around a private stablecoin instead of fighting it. This hasn’t happened even in El Salvador, where Bitcoin is legal tender but not widely used for daily payments. If Bolivia moves forward, it would create a template for other dollarized economies: integrate what citizens already trust, and accept the trade-offs.

The broader tokenization of real-world assets, now exceeding $20 billion on-chain, has shown that stablecoins like $USDT are foundational to the digital dollar ecosystem. But a national payments integration would move the asset class from a trading settlement layer into the real economy at scale. That brings new questions: what happens during a network congestion event? Who handles dispute resolution? And how does the government enforce anti-money laundering rules when value moves on public blockchains?

These are not insurmountable problems, but they require a regulatory posture that Bolivia hasn’t built yet. The central bank’s initial ban was a blunt instrument; the post-2024 openness has been driven largely by market reality. Now the hard institutional work begins. Treasury officials will need to decide whether $USDT is treated like foreign currency, a payment instrument, or something entirely new. The answer will shape tax treatment, reporting requirements, and consumer protection frameworks—and it could influence how other Latin American regulators approach stablecoin policy in the next cycle.

What remains uncertain is whether Tether itself will need to register locally or provide real-time reserve attestation specific to Bolivia’s requirements. The company has navigated similar demands in other jurisdictions, but a national payments role would expose $USDT’s operational infrastructure to direct government scrutiny in a way that peer-to-peer trading never did. How that negotiation unfolds will tell market participants whether Bolivia’s experiment becomes a model or a cautionary tale.

• Mark Yusko claims that Elon Musk and Mark Cuban hold most of the cryptocurrency’s circulating supply.
• The analysis compares the memecoin’s financial structure with the recent initial public offering (IPO) of the aerospace company SpaceX.
• The report points to a risk of total capitulation in the digital asset’s price if major holders decide to liquidate their positions.

The popular dog-themed memecoin, Dogecoin, could face a scenario of absolute devaluation if its main commercial driver decides to liquidate his assets in the open market.

Recently, venture capital investor Mark Yusko stated that the asset’s current valuation is not grounded in traditional financial fundamentals. The expert argues that the token’s price is sustained solely by the implicit commitment of its largest holders to retain their positions over the long term.

Supply Concentration and Parallels with SpaceX

The distribution of tokens across the network represents one of the most significant vulnerabilities for the ecosystem. Yusko suggests that Mark Cuban and Elon Musk hold the vast majority of the dog-themed coin’s available supply, complemented by a retail investor base holding the value purely out of speculation. The analyst warns that if Musk were to sell even a single token, the price could immediately plunge to zero.

The dynamic of retaining value in assets with highly concentrated ownership is not unique to cryptocurrencies. According to Yusko’s analysis, the structure of SpaceX’s IPO shares similar characteristics with the behavior of the meme asset, defining both as financial instruments driven by enthusiasm surrounding a public figure. Although the aerospace company operates a real business model through its satellite division, the economist projects that its initial $2 trillion valuation presents complex mathematical inconsistencies.

SpaceX’s offering keeps 96% of its shares locked up between founders and venture funds, releasing only 4% to the secondary market. According to the current trend analyzed by Yusko, this type of low float replicates the historical volatility of Tesla, whose shares experienced a stagnation of over four years after recording negative free cash flows and revenue contractions.

SpaceX’s current operating model indicates that its infrastructure plans for artificial intelligence data centers in outer space lack near-term technical feasibility. From this technical perspective, financial projections place the firm’s cash flows in negative territory for the upcoming fiscal periods. Institutional investors anticipate that the expiration of lockup periods for company insiders will trigger a severe correction in the company’s stock prices.

Strategy has raised $466.7 million through fresh MSTR stock sales while leaving its Bitcoin holdings unchanged at 843,775 $BTC for the week ending July 12.

According to a Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Michael Saylor-led Strategy sold 4,818,781 Class A MSTR shares between July 6 and July 12 through its at-the-market (ATM) program, generating approximately $466.7 million in net proceeds. Despite the capital raise, the company reported that it did not purchase or sell any Bitcoin during the reporting period.

The filing showed Strategy continued to hold 843,775 $BTC, acquired for about $63.69 billion at an average purchase price of $75,476 per Bitcoin, excluding fees and expenses. Following the latest issuance, the company still has roughly $23.79 billion available under its MSTR ATM stock program.

Strategy keeps Bitcoin holdings unchanged after recent sale

Fresh SEC disclosures also showed Strategy held approximately $3 billion in U.S. dollar reserves as of July 12. According to the filing, the cash is intended to cover preferred stock dividends and interest payments on the company’s debt. The reported balance also includes expected proceeds from ATM share sales that had not settled by the reporting date.

The company further disclosed that it did not repurchase any shares under its existing buyback programs during the same week.

The latest filing follows Strategy’s $216 million Bitcoin sale disclosed the previous week, only the second $BTC sale in the company’s history. At the time, the company said the proceeds would be used to fund dividends tied to its STRC preferred stock and other digital credit securities. After that transaction, Strategy’s Bitcoin balance fell to 843,775 $BTC, where it has remained through the latest reporting period.

Earlier reports also noted that Strategy has authorization to sell up to $1.25 billion worth of Bitcoin under its $BTC Monetization Program, a development that has drawn close attention from market participants even though the company has not announced additional $BTC sales.

Standard Chartered says treasury uncertainty drove recent weakness

Attention around Strategy’s Bitcoin plans increased after Executive Chairman Michael Saylor posted the company’s familiar Bitcoin acquisition chart on July 12 with the message, “Orange dots tell only part of the story.” As crypto.news reported earlier, the post did not confirm whether Strategy had bought, sold, or held Bitcoin during the latest reporting week.

Crypto.news also noted that Strategy’s public Bitcoin tracker continued to show 843,775 $BTC, matching the latest SEC filing. The company typically reports treasury activity through regulatory filings, meaning social media posts do not establish whether a transaction has occurred or indicate its direction.

The latest disclosure comes as Bitcoin has climbed back above $64,000 after Standard Chartered reaffirmed its $100,000 price target for the end of 2026. In a research note, the bank said recent weakness in Bitcoin was driven largely by uncertainty surrounding Strategy’s evolving treasury approach rather than by any deterioration in Bitcoin’s underlying fundamentals.

Standard Chartered added that the recent pullback should not be interpreted as a change to its long-term bullish outlook for the cryptocurrency.

Gondor has introduced a portfolio-backed margin account that allows Polymarket traders to borrow against their entire prediction market holdings instead of individual positions.

According to Gondor’s announcement on Monday, the new product, called V1, uses a cross-margin system that evaluates a trader’s complete Polymarket portfolio as collateral before extending credit. Private access is scheduled to begin next week, while a public launch is planned for September. Gondor also said it does not take custody of user assets.

The release expands on the company’s original lending strategy announced after its August 2025 angel funding round. As previously reported by crypto.news, Gondor raised capital in a round led by Maven11 Capital, with participation from investors associated with Polymesh, Rhino.fi, Futuur, Salt, and others to develop lending products for Polymarket traders. V1 builds on that effort by replacing position-based borrowing with portfolio-backed credit.

Cross-margin model replaces isolated lending

Before introducing V1, Gondor spent seven months testing its lending system through a closed beta. According to the company, more than 150,000 users joined the waitlist, after which it reviewed applicants’ Polymarket activity and selected 1,000 of the platform’s most active traders to participate.

During the beta, borrowers initially used an isolated lending model that treated each prediction market position separately. Gondor said this approach exposed lenders to binary market risk because a position could rapidly lose nearly all of its value before liquidation became possible.

As a result, the company said lenders had to compensate for that risk by charging higher borrowing costs and imposing tighter conditions. Lending was limited to more liquid markets, borrowing capacity was capped, and some loans had to be closed before the related prediction markets reached resolution.

Gondor added that these safeguards protected lenders but reduced the borrowing experience for traders by limiting available credit and shortening the lifespan of loans.

Portfolio collateral supports larger credit lines

The company said V1 addresses those issues by allowing gains from one position to offset losses in another, similar to how traditional prime brokers extend credit against an investor’s overall portfolio rather than evaluating assets individually.

According to Gondor, this portfolio-based structure makes it possible to provide more borrowing capacity while lowering financing costs. The company also said the system can support a larger variety of prediction markets and lets traders keep positions open until market resolution instead of forcing early loan closures.

Although Gondor outlined how the cross-margin model works, several operating details remain undisclosed ahead of the private rollout. The announcement did not specify borrowing rates, collateral requirements, liquidation thresholds, or which prediction markets will be available when early access begins.

The company has not indicated whether those terms will be finalized before the September public release, but the upcoming private access period is expected to provide the first live test of the portfolio-backed lending model outside its closed beta.