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 ·
Tether disclosed $1.5 billion in Q2 net operating profit alongside a reserve buffer increase to $4.11 billion and expanded physical gold reserves exceeding 146 tons. On the products front, Uniswap rolled out an Earn feature across its web and wallet interfaces, permitting yield generation on USDC, USDT, and ETH without withdrawal restrictions, while Bybit broadened its collateral acceptance to include tokenized equity shares from Nvidia, Apple, Tesla, Alphabet, Circle, and Robinhood for margin and lending use cases.
Several institutional and market movements underscored growing crypto adoption: Michigan State Retirement Fund grew its Strategy position by 141 percent to 14,000 shares, and real-world asset perpetuals reached $61.7 billion in weekly trading volume, approaching levels seen on Bitcoin derivatives platforms. Strategy itself reported net Bitcoin accumulation at a 48-to-1 ratio against sales year-to-date, alongside a 300-to-1 issuance-to-repurchase spread for STRC.
Regulatory and security headwinds emerged in parallel. A Dubai-based exchange, Shelbit, faced enforcement action after moving $4 billion through networks facilitating Iranian sanctions evasion; authorities issued a fine on July 24 for unlicensed operations despite prior cease-and-desist orders. Separately, 1,082 BTC valued at $70.2 million drained from 1,196 wallets approximately 30 hours before public disclosure of a Coldcard Mk3 vulnerability, though the precise mechanism linking the timing remains unconfirmed.