Weekly crypto headlines: Uniswap launches yield product, Bybit adds tokenized equities as collateral, Tether reports $1.5B Q2 profit, RWA perps hit $61.7B volume, regulatory actions against Shelbit, and BIS cross-border payments trial succeeds.
DeFi & Yields ·
Bitcoin acquisition activity by Strategy outpaced its token issuance substantially in the year-to-date period, with the firm purchasing 48 times more of the asset than it sold while distributing 300 times the volume of STRC tokens it repurchased. Michigan State Retirement Fund expanded its Strategy stake by 141 percent to reach 14,000 shares, signaling institutional confidence in the platform's operations and direction.
Tether's second-quarter financials showed $1.5 billion in net operating profit alongside a reserve cushion enlarged to $4.11 billion and physical gold reserves exceeding 146 tons. Real-world asset derivatives sustained momentum with perpetual trading volume reaching $61.7 billion, approaching levels seen on major Bitcoin derivatives venues. A cryptocurrency custody incident preceded the disclosure of a Coldcard Mk3 flaw by roughly 30 hours, during which 1,082 BTC valued at $70.2 million flowed from 1,196 addresses, per Galaxy analysis.
Regulatory attention shifted across multiple jurisdictions: the United Arab Emirates' financial regulator fined Shelbit on July 24 for unlicensed operations after the Dubai exchange moved $4 billion via networks tied to Iranian sanctions evasion, according to reporting by Reuters. Circle secured a limited-purpose trust charter from New York regulators, while a central bank group led by the BIS settled $1 million across six currencies in an average of 80 seconds using tokenized money in Project Agorá trials involving JPMorgan and Citi, among others. Specific timelines, settlement mechanisms, or outcomes from enforcement actions remain partially undisclosed.