Cardano developer Input Output is handing control of core blockchain infrastructure to outside teams, reducing the network’s dependence on the company that built it, Input Output announced Friday.
Input Output said the handover is the next phase of Cardano’s decentralization. It covers Cardano’s Haskell node, Plutus smart-contract platform, Daedalus wallet, Hydra scaling technology and developer relations.
Specialist companies include Se7en Labs, a development agency specializing in Solana blockchain infrastructure, and Teragone, a specialist software development and cryptographic research team that leads the development of Mithril, a stake-based signature protocol for the Cardano blockchain. Both will take responsibility for some of the components. The handover will begin in August and continue into 2027.
Cardano has already moved protocol decisions and governance to its community. Input Output said the next step is to spread responsibility for developing and maintaining the software.
“The last stage of the Voltaire era is full decentralization of node and reference blueprint development,” Input Output CEO and Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said in the statement.
“Both Stripe and PayPal do approximately the same amount of payment volume, but Stripe has about one-fifth the net revenue,” Hadick said. “From a financial perspective, this is obviously accretive, and it helps them connect their merchant processing business, which is at risk of being commoditized, with a broad subset of PayPal’s more than 400 million accounts.”
Hadick also cautioned that executing a deal of that size would be difficult. “M&A integration in something of this size is incredibly hard,” he said.
Beyond merchant payments
Eric Queathem, CEO of Velocity, said the acquisition would also give Stripe access to one of the world’s largest consumer payments ecosystems, providing a platform to expand beyond merchant payments.
The proposed acquisition would also determine who controls the consumer side of blockchain-based payment infrastructure, complementing Stripe’s existing merchant network and stablecoin capabilities.
Several executives said the competitive focus has shifted from proving blockchain technology works to controlling distribution.
Pankaj Bengani, founder and CEO of Meld, agreed with Larbi that the race is on.
“The race has shifted from proving the technology works to owning distribution,” said Bengani, adding that “stablecoins have graduated from experiment to core payments infrastructure.”
Citi analysts reached a similar conclusion in a research note, writing that stablecoin competition has become “a default-setting game,” with scale accruing to whichever stablecoin becomes the default across the largest merchant, consumer wallet or autonomous transaction base, rather than to the issuer with the best technology.
The Bitcoin bottom may be in — but don’t get your hopes up: It might struggle to go up anytime soon, according to one investment firm.
A Friday report from European asset management firm CoinShares said that investors last week threw fresh cash at Bitcoin — and other crypto — exchange-traded products, indicating a change in sentiment.
But other factors may hold digital asset markets from going higher, James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, wrote.
“We have said for some time that Bitcoin has probably reached, or is close to, its floor,” the report read. “But we see no significant upside potential from here.”
The report added that current macroeconomic headwinds, such as the US bombing Iran and rising oil prices, could see inflation go up again.
Bitcoin’s price was up earlier this week, hitting a seven-day high of $65,501 on news that inflation in the US was softer than expected. It has since erased those gains and was recently trading for $64,010.
The price of Bitcoin has typically done well on news that inflation is coming down because investors expect interest rates to come down. But Butterfill said that “a rate cut does not look probable at this stage.”
Bitcoin’s worst run on record
CoinShares’ data showed that investors pulled a total of $8 billion out of funds giving crypto exposure — “the worst run on record.”
Last week, though, things reversed when $287 million hit crypto funds, CoinShares said, with the data so far showing that this week looks likely to be another positive streak.
The price of Bitcoin has typically done well when US investors — previously excluded from crypto investing — have bought shares in exchange-traded funds approved in 2024.
The products — handled by the likes of BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale — allow more traditional investors or Wall Street institutions to buy positions in Bitcoin via shares that trade on stock exchanges.
Since BTC’s October all-time high of $126,080, crypto markets have faced a battering as those investors have fast cashed out of the funds. Bitcoin has struggled to make gains, especially after the US and Israel started bombing Iran, leading to a surge in the price of oil.
The leading cryptocurrency is now nearly 50% below its record.
“The dominant picture is that the current setup is prompting interest in adding positions, but caution prevails while sentiment remains broadly negative,” CoinShares added.
More than $1 out of every $10 of the world’s tokenized US Treasuries is issued by a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.
That places the small Caribbean territory behind only the United States as a key jurisdiction for the rapidly growing asset class, according to BVI Finance.
BVI Finance’s Destination Digital report in June found that BVI entities accounted for approximately $1.5 billion of the $14.98 billion global market for tokenized US Treasuries as of June 1.
A growing list of digital asset firms now call the British Virgin Islands home, including Kraken’s parent company, Payward, Bitstamp (recently acquired by Robinhood), 1inch and Bitfinex.
The territory boasts a stablecoin market cap of about $1.2 billion held in BVI-linked addresses and has roughly 28,000 stablecoin asset holders.
More than 25 virtual asset service providers (VASPs) have been approved under the BVI’s VASP regime, and, according to Bernstein Research, the Islands host 305 tokenized securities — the highest count for any single jurisdiction in the RWA.xyz dataset.
US tokenized securities distributed value by jurisdiction. Source: Destination Digital
The statistics suggest the Virgin Islands has become one of the world’s top crypto hotspots, but the reality is a little more nuanced.
Tokenized assets are designed to be borderless, and crypto projects often have the choice of which offshore jurisdiction to incorporate in.
In most cases, digital asset companies aren’t physically relocating to the Virgin Islands; they’re simply using the territory to incorporate legal entities, such as token issuers, treasury vehicles, holding companies or special purpose vehicles (SPVs).
Crypto companies aren’t just choosing BVI for tax reasons
Andrew Jowett, a partner at Appleby (BVI) Ltd who advises digital asset businesses on corporate structuring, told Cointelegraph that clients researching the BVI typically compare several jurisdictions, such as the Cayman Islands, United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Switzerland.
Despite long-held assumptions about offshore Caribbean tax havens, tax neutrality is no longer the primary driver.
Related: Dubai crypto market hits 50 licensed firms after new VARA approval
“The overriding factor for choosing the BVI has been digital asset regulation and not tax,” Jowett said. The British overseas territory does have attractive tax policies, and imposes no corporate income tax or capital gains tax on BVI companies.
But all the leading crypto hubs now have favorable crypto tax policies, meaning it’s no longer the deciding factor.
The Cayman Islands imposes no corporate income tax or capital gains tax, and the UAE has zero personal income tax or federal corporate tax on qualifying free zone entities.
“Tax neutrality is table stakes,” said Saeed Al-Marri, chief executive of digital asset infrastructure firm Ethra, which is incorporated in the BVI. He added that the BVI provides legal certainty and clarity, factors he said will determine which jurisdictions survive institutional adoption.
LTP is an institutional digital asset infrastructure provider that operates regulated entities in the BVI, Hong Kong, Australia and the UAE. Its founder and chief executive, Jack Yang, told Cointelegraph that while favorable taxation is relevant for cross-border structures, it is secondary to legal and regulatory certainty as tokenization moves further into institutional finance.
“A tax-neutral structure that cannot pass review by banks, custodians, auditors, investment committees, or regulators has limited practical value,” he said.
Number of tokenized securities by jurisdiction. Source: Destination Digital
Orest Gavryliak, chief legal officer at decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch, which is incorporated in the BVI, said that more and more decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols are choosing jurisdictions that provide predictable rules, rather than simply the lowest tax burden.
“Jurisdiction isn’t exactly becoming irrelevant, but its role is changing,” Gavryliak told Cointelegraph. “Protocols are increasingly weighing factors such as regulations, institutional credibility and long-term sustainability.”
Crypto hubs now compete on legal infrastructure
Jurisdictions vying to be “crypto hubs” like Singapore and the UAE increasingly compete via favorable legal infrastructure and licensing regimes, such as Singapore’s Payment Services Act and Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) rulebooks.
The BVI introduced the Virtual Assets Service Providers Act (VASP Act) in 2023, overseen by the BVI Financial Services Commission (FSC).
Compared with many larger financial centers, it offers a speedy turnaround, responds to VASP applications within six weeks and aims to complete the review process within six months, according to BVI Finance and FSC guidance.
Jowett said beyond favorable tax regimes, clients prioritize “ease of launch” and efficient corporate structuring, which has long been part of the BVI’s appeal. Companies can be set up quickly, the legal framework is flexible, and ongoing reporting is generally lighter than in onshore jurisdictions.
The Virgin Islands has also historically been favored because it offers more corporate confidentiality than many larger financial centers.
While BVI companies are still subject to anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) requirements, beneficial ownership information is held by registered agents rather than a public register, which reduces disclosure requirements.
British Virgin Islands. Source: Destination Digital
However, none of the companies interviewed by Cointelegraph cited tax neutrality or greater corporate confidentiality as deciding factors for incorporating in the BVI, pointing instead to legal certainty, regulatory clarity and corporate flexibility.
Incorporating, not physically relocating to the Virgin Islands
Yang told Cointelegraph that LTP does not employ full-time staff “on the ground.” Instead, the entity is overseen by its board and supported by staff from elsewhere in the LTP group.
The same distinction can be seen elsewhere in the industry. Kraken’s parent company, Payward, is incorporated in the BVI, but the exchange’s operations are primarily based in the United States, while 1inch’s team and operations are spread across multiple jurisdictions.
The BVI isn’t winning the race to attract glitzy headquarters or large-scale engineering teams. Instead, it has become the legal home for many digital asset businesses, while much of the work happens elsewhere. For jurisdictions competing to attract the industry, that just may be enough.
Magazine: Singapore isn’t a ‘crypto hub’ — it’s something better: StraitsX CEO
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The lack of an ethics provision remains one of the biggest sticking points. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), one of two Democrats who voted to advance the bill out of the Senate Banking Committee, has repeatedly said he will not support the legislation on the Senate floor without a bipartisan ethics provision. Other Democrats have raised similar concerns over conflicts of interest involving public officials and digital assets.
As of Friday, there had been no public readout from Thursday’s White House meeting, and no bipartisan ethics language had emerged, leaving one of the bill’s largest obstacles unresolved.
If passed, the Clarity Act would establish a federal framework for digital asset markets by drawing a clearer line between assets regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and those overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Supporters argue the measure would replace years of regulation through enforcement with rules written by Congress.
Industry executives reiterated that message during a House hearing Friday marking one year since the chamber passed the legislation.
“The community has already done the hard work,” Nova Labs executive Sarah Aberg told lawmakers, arguing that regulatory uncertainty delayed investment in the Helium wireless network after the SEC sued the company in a case that was later settled. “Clarity is not a call for deregulation; it is a call for the right regulation from the right regulator.”
SBI Holdings has completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Coinhako, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency platform, after securing approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The Japanese financial group made the purchase through its subsidiary SBI Ventures Asset Pte. Ltd., which injected capital into Coinhako parent Holdbuild Pte. Ltd. and bought shares from existing shareholders. The transaction closed July 16, making Coinhako a consolidated subsidiary.
Coinhako operates through Hako Technology Pte. Ltd., holder of a Major Payment Institution license from MAS, and Alpha Hako Ltd., a crypto asset service provider registered with the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission.
The platform spent a decade building a customer base across Southeast Asia, a region SBI now positions as a base for its digital asset strategy.
SBI plans to combine Coinhako’s customer base, operational expertise, and regional network with its own financial services, technology, and global footprint. The company intends to expand a digital asset corridor that starts with Japan and Southeast Asia, and to develop services tied to its JPYSC yen-denominated stablecoin. SBI also flagged opportunities in tokenization, on-chain finance, and cross-border trading.
“Our group aims to create a global corridor for digital assets by connecting exchanges around the world, enabling investors worldwide to make optimal investments without being hindered by national borders or currency barriers,” Chairman Yoshitaka Kitao said. He described Singapore as a crucial region because its digital asset regulations are ahead of the curve.
Coinhako co-founder and CEO Yusho Liu called the deal a natural step. “For the past 10 years, we have built from the ground up Southeast Asia’s most trusted and legally compliant cryptocurrency platform in the world’s most advanced regulatory environment,” he said, adding that SBI’s backing gives the firm a stronger foundation.
SBI Holding’s crypto moves
The acquisition caps a run of crypto moves by the conglomerate, which holds more than 14 million users and $308 billion in assets under custody. In the past month, SBI led EDX Markets’ $76 million Series C, backed risk manager Gauntlet, launched JPYSC, and partnered with the Solana Foundation on an on-chain financial market in Japan.
In June, the group agreed to buy Tokyo exchange Bitbank for about $289 million, and this week it teamed with Ondo Finance to tokenize Japanese equities.
One limit remains: JPYSC does not yet support withdrawals to external wallets, which confines its use to SBI’s own platform.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the more outspoken voices in the US Congress associating digital assets with illicit activities, has called on President Donald Trump to release additional information on his crypto investments ahead of a mandated deadline.
In a Thursday letter, Warren requested Trump voluntarily release a financial disclosure report on his earnings related to cryptocurrency between Jan. 1 and July 15. The request came after Trump’s 2025 financial disclosures showed he had earned $1.4 billion from crypto-related ventures in 2025, including through his memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP), and his family’s company World Liberty Financial.
“Your financial disclosure raises key questions about the appropriateness of Presidents, Vice Presidents, senior administration officials, members of Congress, and their families profiting off the crypto industry, just as the US Senate debates crypto market structure legislation that has the potential to increase the value of your crypto holdings,” said Warren.
Thursday letter from Elizabeth Warren requesting financial disclosures from Donald Trump. Source: Senate Banking Committee
Trump’s 2025 disclosure was filed on June 30 as part of a US Office of Government Ethics mandate to prevent conflicts of interest with elected officials. Warren noted that the president was not required to file his 2026 annual report until May 2027, but requested that he do so voluntarily by July 23 as the Senate considers a crypto market structure bill, the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act.
Warren added:
“[W]ithout adequate guardrails, [CLARITY] would turbocharge the President’s significant conflicts of interest and almost certainly boost the value of his and his family’s crypto holdings.”
Related: US indicts crypto investor over alleged $20M fraud scheme
Cointelegraph reached out to the White House and Warren’s office for comment but did not receive an immediate response. In a July 2 interview, Trump said that there was “nothing illegal” and “nothing wrong” with profiting from his crypto investments as president.
According to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, the chamber will hold a vote on the crypto bill before the Senate breaks for August states work periods. However, many Democrats have publicly said that they will not support any legislation without clear provisions on ethics, with some citing Trump’s potential conflicts of interest.
House Republicans hold CLARITY hearing as Senate debates bill
On Friday, the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence held a field hearing in New York City on the CLARITY Act. Although the bill was already passed by the House of Representatives in July 2025, it will return to the chamber if approved with 60 votes in the Senate.
Representative French Hill, who chairs the full committee and attended on Friday, said CLARITY has been “a bipartisan priority” for Congress. However, no Democratic representatives appeared to be present at the hearing. Cointelegraph reached out to Democratic lawmakers on the committee for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
Magazine: Crypto’s CLARITY Act faces partisan fight over ethics on Senate floor
US stocks opened in the red, with the Nasdaq Composite Index also down nearly 2% at the time of writing. Fresh military strikes on Iran fueled the risk-asset retreat, while tech stocks continued to see selling pressure.
Trading resource The Kobeissi Letter also flagged weakness arising from earnings disappointments, with Netflix shedding over 10% to start the US session.
“The stock is now down -50% over the last 12 months and trading at its lowest level since August 2024,” it noted in a post on X.
Trader Jelle, meanwhile, remained optimistic, seeing range lows holding.
Related: Bitcoin bottom countdown nears 50 days after BTC supply in loss passed 50%
“Still think this looks good for a relief rally in the next weeks – which would give the market room to drop into October without nuking much deeper,” he told X followers.
BTC/USD one-day chart. Source: Jelle/X
In updates on the bear market’s progress, trader and analyst Rekt Capital suggested that Bitcoin’s long-term downtrend was now in its final stages.
BTC/USD, he wrote, had flipped its 50-month exponential moving average (EMA) to resistance, repeating bear-market history to set up its drop to a long-term floor.
“The necessary technical milestone has been achieved,” he confirmed.
“Which technically indicates that the majority of the anticipated move has already happened.”
BTC/USD one-month chart with 21, 50EMA. Source: Rekt Capital/X
As Cointelegraph reported, Rekt Capital saw the July relief bounce ending with the onset of next month.
Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) account for just $12.66 million in active market capitalization despite the recent spike in trading activity.
Much of that larger activity, instead, came from memecoin traders piling into a new token, CASHCAT, named after Robinhood’s former company mascot. The token rallied by more than 2,100% in its first week, briefly reaching a $156 million market cap, which is 12 times larger than the chain’s entire tokenized real-world asset market.
It’s worth noting, though, that memecoins are volatile and hype-driven by nature, often lacking durable growth. That lack of sustainability was evident on Wednesday, when Noxa, the token launcher that spawned CashCat, announced it had stopped operating while directing all revenue to creators. The shutdown does not determine the fate of Robinhood Chain, but it underscores how quickly activity built around memecoin launches can disappear.
Ironically, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev told CNBC on July 2 that memecoins were a dead end – assets with no utility that serve no purpose. Six days later, he posted that Robinhood Chain “works great for memes too,” presumably after seeing CASHCAT’s success.
Asked about the apparent contradiction, the company did not directly address it. “The early activity on Robinhood Chain is exciting: developers are building, users are engaging, and the chain is performing as designed,” Lee said.
“The real prize is the yen side of onchain settlement, one of the most strategic positions in Asian finance over the coming decade, and that is exactly what SBI is building toward,” he added.
One technical limitation remains. JPYSC does not yet support withdrawals to external wallets.
“Regarding JPYSC, its use is currently limited to accounts within SBI VC Trade, and it does not yet support withdrawals to external wallets or remittances and settlements via public blockchains,” the spokesperson said.
For now, that limits JPYSC’s use outside SBI’s own platform. Investors cannot yet move the stablecoin to external wallets or use it to settle transactions across public blockchains.
Sota Watanabe, CEO of Startale Group, which works with SBI Holdings on JPYSC, said the company’s continued investment in digital assets reflects what he sees as growing institutional confidence in blockchain infrastructure.
“SBI Holdings’ continued commitment to digital assets likely signals confidence in the future architecture of global finance,” Watanabe told CoinDesk.
He said blockchain is increasingly being viewed as financial infrastructure rather than an emerging technology, adding that Japan is well-positioned to lead the sector due to its regulatory framework and financial institutions.
SBI expansion
SBI agreed to buy Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitbank for around $289 million in June. The acquisition is expected to close in October, subject to regulatory approval. SBI previously acquired crypto exchange Bitpoint in 2022. The firm also led a $76 million Series C funding round for institutional exchange EDX Markets and a $25 million Series C round for crypto risk manager Gauntlet, the spokesperson said.
