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NEAR Governance Votes to Scrap Developer Gas Rebate

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NEAR Governance Votes to Scrap Developer Gas Rebate

NEAR’s on-chain governance body, House of Stake, passed proposal HSP-027 to eliminate the protocol’s developer gas rebate, a change that will send all network gas fees to be burned rather than partly rebated to smart-contract owners. NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin confirmed the outcome Monday,…

NEAR’s on-chain governance body, House of Stake, passed proposal HSP-027 to eliminate the protocol’s developer gas rebate, a change that will send all network gas fees to be burned rather than partly rebated to smart-contract owners. NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin confirmed the outcome Monday, calling it a step “to keep NAER Protocol simpler and cleaner going forward.”

Under the current design, 30% of gas fees generated by calls to a smart contract go to that contract’s owner, with the remaining 70% burned. Once implemented, expected around August 2026 with the nearcore v2.14 release, the rebate drops to 0%, so all gas fees are burned, according to a delegate who voted on the proposal. The same account put the final tally at 46 votes representing 4.66 million veNEAR in favor versus two votes representing 1,819 veNEAR against.

NEAR’s developer-relations account had flagged the vote in early July, warning builders “don’t factor this gas bonus into your dApp’s budget anymore.” NEAR’s governance account had described the measure as aimed at reducing “protocol complexity and misaligned incentives for builders.”

Polosukhin, who designed the original rebate to incentivize developers to build reusable components, said the mechanism no longer reflects how most NEAR applications monetize, since projects typically sponsor gas costs and recoup revenue through spreads, subscriptions or ads instead. He also cited an accounting problem: the rebate was hard to distinguish from ordinary user deposits of funds.

Polosukhin framed the vote as a trial run for House of Stake’s authority over NEAR’s core economic parameters, saying it is “a great test” ahead of future proposals and that he was “excited to have explicit governance for economics of $NEAR.” The change makes NEAR’s token issuance more deflationary by removing a carve-out from fee burning, though it does not alter the network’s broader value-capture model.

Japan’s collapsing yen is pushing companies into bitcoin and XRP

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Japan’s collapsing yen is pushing companies into bitcoin and XRP

The yen is trading near its weakest level in four decades, and Japanese companies are moving crypto onto their balance sheets to escape it.

SBI VC Trade on Tuesday said corporate demand for bitcoin and XRP is climbing as the currency’s slide pushes firms to diversify reserves beyond cash, with the exchange’s registered accounts passing 2 million, roughly double its 2025 count.

Hedge funds have turned the most bearish on the yen since 2007, boosting bets on further losses to nearly 138,000 contracts as of June 30, per CFTC data. The dollar buys around 162 yen as of Asian morning hours Wednesday.

The driver is the interest-rate gap between a hawkish U.S. Fed and a Bank of Japan still far behind it, the same gap that makes holding yen cash a losing position and sends firms looking for harder assets.

SBI, the crypto arm of Tokyo-based SBI Holdings, noted demand for its corporate service has grown alongside companies that hand out bitcoin or XRP through shareholder-perk programs.

The move fits a pattern the market has watched all month. A weak yen has fed the carry trade, where investors borrow cheaply in yen to buy higher-returning assets elsewhere, and some of that flow is now reaching crypto through regulated Japanese channels rather than offshore ones.

Bitcoin traded near $62,650 on Tuesday, up 6.1% on the week, per CoinDesk data.

Strike Launches Volatility-Proof Bitcoin-Backed Loans

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Strike Launches Volatility-Proof Bitcoin-Backed Loans

Bitcoin financial services platform Strike has launched a “volatility-proof” Bitcoin-backed loan that eliminates margin calls and forced liquidations amid the depths of a bear market, but only for those who can pay on time and handle a 14% interest rate.

In an announcement on Tuesday, Strike CEO Jack Mallers said the offering came in response to broad customer feedback on Strike’s first Bitcoin loan product, which launched in May 2025 and triggered many liquidations during a timeframe in which Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 54% from peak to trough.

“No margin calls. No price liquidations. No matter how far bitcoin falls, your bitcoin doesn’t move,” Strike CEO Jack Mallers said of the new Bitcoin loan product. The trade-off is an expensive interest rate, a shorter six-month loan term, and an obligation to pay on time to avoid liquidation, Mallers said.

Strike’s Jack Mallers is presenting the new Bitcoin-backed loan product. Source: Jack Mallers

The Bitcoin industry has spent the better part of a decade racing to build financial products that expand Bitcoin’s use case beyond a savings technology. A report in June from crypto lending platform Ledn, however, found that while 88% of surveyed crypto investors said they would consider a crypto-backed loan, only 14% use them.

Ledn said confidence in crypto-lending products and market volatility are among the main reasons for this 6-to-1 “crypto collateral gap” that has slowed adoption.

Volatility has been one of the biggest obstacles behind that push, with Bitcoin dropping 30% or more in 10 of the past 12 years, while also experiencing a 50% or more drawdown four times since 2014, Mallers noted.

Other crypto market participants offering Bitcoin-backed loans are Binance, Coinbase, Nexo and Xapo Bank.

Strike charges double-digit interest

The maximum initial loan-to-value ratio for the volatility-proof loans is 45%, meaning that a customer who puts up $100,000 in Bitcoin as collateral can borrow up to $45,000, while the annual percentage rate (APR) is also 2.95 percentage points higher than Strike’s standard loan product.

“The secret sauce is that we’re taking the extra charge that we’re giving you guys and we’re putting it on extra hedges in the market to protect all of us.”

Strike’s standard Bitcoin loans charge an annual percentage rate between 7.75% and 11.25%, meaning the volatility-proof products could carry interest between 10.7% and 14.2%. 

“If you’re OK with a slightly shorter term and a little bit higher of a fee, there is no price move that can liquidate you,” Mallers said.

Over the past year, Bitcoin has fallen 54% from its all-time high of $126,080 in October to $58,190 on June 25.

Bitcoin investor Fred Krueger said the loan product “could eliminate one of Bitcoin’s biggest structural problems: forced selling during market crashes.” 

“Instead of volatility causing automatic liquidations, defaults would be driven by borrowers’ inability to service debt rather than by temporary price swings,” he said.

Related: Coinbase rolls out UK crypto-backed loans as FCA shapes rules

“Great product for those who need near-term liquidity and don’t want to risk liquidation,” added Vibes Capital Management executive chairman Rob Topping, though he also acknowledged the 14% APR was expensive. 

Customers must pay up or face consequences

If a client misses a payment, they have 10 days to make the payment or contact Strike to explain their financial situation, Mallers said.

Failing to pay after that 10-day period may mean Strike starts liquidating their Bitcoin to cover the overdue amount, Mallers warned.

“If we don’t hear from you for a few weeks, then I may have no choice but to sell off some of the Bitcoin because it seems like you’re doing a hit-and-run.”

“That’s why we call it ‘volatility-proof,’ not ‘liquidation-proof,’” Mallers added.

The Bitcoin loans are offered in most US states and can be taken out in both personal and business names. They can be used for new loans, refinancing or consolidating.

While the minimum loan amount varies from state to state, the minimum loan offered through personal loans is $10,000, while businesses in certain states can access loans as low as $5,000.

Features: Bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI, so why is the hashrate near ATHs?

Major tokens under pressure as U.S. attacks Iran

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Major tokens under pressure as U.S. attacks Iran

Bitcoin BTC$62,662.50 and the broader cryptocurrency market came under pressure Tuesday after the US and Iran exchanged aerial strikes, sending the dollar higher.

BTC, the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization, slipped to $62,657 in Asian trading hours, down nearly 1% since midnight UTC, according to CoinDesk data. Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), and solana (SOL) fell between 1% and 2.3%. WTI crude futures jumped more than 2% to $72.27, while the Dollar Index held steady above 101.00, maintaining Tuesday’s gains.

The U.S. said it launched “powerful strikes” against Iran following attacks on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz, including Qatari and Saudi tankers. In response, Iran said it targeted “85 US military installations” in retaliation for strikes on its Hormozgan and Mahshahr provinces.

The scale of the escalation appears to have pushed the two nations’ ceasefire to the brink of collapse.

The Iran war erupted in late February, pushing oil prices well above $100 per barrel and generating a massive inflationary shock worldwide. While prices have since crashed back below $60, inflation expectations among consumers have continued to rise, fueling fears of interest rate hikes across the world, including in the US.

Higher rates make it more difficult for traders to abandon yields from supposedly safe bonds in favor of higher-risk assets such as cryptocurrencies.

BTC pulls back after run above $64,000

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BTC pulls back after run above $64,000

“The institutional bid has all but vanished,” said Yusuf Fakhro, partner at ARP Digital, pointing to CME futures open interest at a 32-month low and a term structure at its tightest since early 2023.

He added that six-month options skew, a measure of how much traders pay to protect against a drop, has spiked to its fourth-highest on record, with the only parallels in June and November 2022, both of which came near major cycle bottoms.

When downside insurance gets this expensive, he said, the market is paying up for protection just as the worst may already be priced in.

Oil re-entered the picture overnight. Brent crude rose 0.6% to about $72.45 a barrel after a laden liquefied natural gas carrier was struck by a projectile near the Omani coast as it left the Strait of Hormuz, according to Bloomberg, a fresh attack that tests the peace deal reached in late June.

Energy shocks tied to the Iran conflict drove crypto’s selling earlier this year before the truce eased them, and a renewed flare-up is the kind of macro risk that had faded from the market’s view.

Elsewhere, Asian shares fell as technology stocks came under renewed selling, with South Korea’s Kospi down 6.7%, according to Bloomberg. Samsung Electronics slid 8.3% even after quarterly profit surged, and SK Hynix fell the same as it began marketing a U.S. listing. U.S. futures pointed lower, suggesting Monday’s Wall Street rebound may not carry.

Bitcoin Bounces Above $63K Following Strategy-fueled Selloff

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Bitcoin Bounces Above $63K Following Strategy-fueled Selloff

Key takeaways:

  • Bitcoin derivatives show resilience despite bearish pressure from Strategy’s Bitcoin sales.
  • Onchain Bitcoin data points to sellers’ exhaustion, strengthening the $60,000 support level.

Bitcoin price quickly recovered from the selloff to $61,300 that followed Strategy’s Bitcoin sale announcement. Despite the negative impact on traders’ sentiment, the additional $216 million cash position eased concerns about the company’s ability to pay dividends and cover its debt. Does the quick recovery suggest that Bitcoin bulls back in control?

Bitcoin perpetual futures annualized funding rate. Source: Laevitas

The Bitcoin perpetual futures annualized funding rate jumped to 9% on Monday, indicating balanced demand between bullish and bearish leverage. While far from displaying conviction, the indicator distanced itself from the bearish momentum on Saturday marked by negative funding rates. But unlike the futures markets, Bitcoin options signaled minor stress on Monday.

Bitcoin options premium put-to-call ratio at Deribit. Source: Laevitas

The put (sell) options premium at Deribit outpaced the equivalent call (buy) instruments on Monday, reverting the trend from Thursday and Friday. Typically, periods of stress can easily push the indicator above 2 times, hence the current 1.15 level remains under the neutral range. Bitcoin futures and options displayed resilience, although the bounce to $63,500 was unable to instill bullishness.

Bitcoin ETF flows reversal and long-term holders conviction favor $65,000 rally

Bitcoin bears might have underestimated the relevance of the $223 million net inflows into US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Friday, the first after 10 consecutive outflows. The record-high $4.51 billion net outflows in June negatively impacted trader sentiment.

Still, the sell pressure will eventually subside, and the potential reversal in ETF flows could be enough to instill bullishness in Bitcoin derivatives markets.

US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs daily net flows, USD. Source: SoSoValue

Part of the recent bearishness can be pinned to the record drawdown in Strategy preferred perpetual equity Stretch (STRC US), which offers holders an attractive 12% yield. However, new stock issuance can occur only at the fixed $100 price; hence, the company currently has fewer instruments available to support the dividend payout.

Strategy holds sufficient cash reserves to cover 17 months of dividends; thus, the urgency of additional Bitcoin sales is debatable.

Strategy preferred perpetual equity Stretch (STRC US). Source: TradingView

Regardless of Strategy’s extremely low 8% debt leverage, Bitcoin bears have the upper hand as the company endures $8 billion in unrealized losses from its Bitcoin purchases. Bitcoin bulls’ biggest hopes rely on long-term holders’ conviction and onchain data pointing to selling exhaustion, strengthening the $60,000 support level.

Bitcoin transfers from long-term holders to exchanges, BTC. Source: Glassnode

Transfers from long-term holders to exchanges are down to 4,130 BTC per day on average, from 8,040 BTC one week prior. Nonetheless, unless the spot Bitcoin ETFs exhibit a sequence of relevant net inflows, derivatives traders will likely remain skeptical of sustained bullish momentum, reducing the odds of a sustained rally above $65,000.

Presently, Strategy’s huge unrealized losses and skepticism in Bitcoin derivatives point to further pressure from bears.

Tether’s Former CIO Heathcote Plans to Sell Equity Stake

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Tether’s Former CIO Heathcote Plans to Sell Equity Stake

Richard Heathcote, who until earlier this year served as Tether Holdings SA’s chief investment officer, is planning to sell a small stake in the stablecoin issuer, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. Heathcote is working with investment bank PJT Partners to sell part…

Richard Heathcote, who until earlier this year served as Tether Holdings SA’s chief investment officer, is planning to sell a small stake in the stablecoin issuer, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Heathcote is working with investment bank PJT Partners to sell part of his 1.26% holding in Tether, according to Bloomberg’s sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly. Negotiations with potential buyers are underway, though no final price or buyer has been disclosed.

Executive Handover

Tether said in March that Heathcote was stepping down as CIO to move into a non-executive advisory role, giving up day-to-day responsibilities. His deputy, Zachary Lyons, took over the position.

As CIO, Heathcote had overseen the reserves backing Tether’s USDT stablecoin, the largest by circulating supply, and steered an aggressive investment push that included stakes in soccer clubs and humanoid-robotics ventures, per Bloomberg’s March report.

Rare Window Into Ownership

Tether has historically disclosed little about its capitalization table or the equity stakes held by executives. A sale process run through a Wall Street bank offers one of the first concrete data points on how the company’s ownership is structured below its founders, and could eventually signal a market-set valuation if a transaction price becomes public.

The stake sale comes as Tether’s stablecoin business continues to dominate the sector, with USDT remaining the largest stablecoin by circulating supply. Bloomberg’s reporting did not disclose the size of the stake being sold in dollar terms or identify any prospective buyers.

Tether did not comment on the planned sale in Bloomberg’s report, and Heathcote could not immediately be reached through the company’s channels.

Ex-Tether CIO plans to sell a piece of his stake in the crypto giant

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Ex-Tether CIO plans to sell a piece of his stake in the crypto giant

Richard Heathcote, who until March was Tether’s chief investment officer, is planning to sell part of his 1.26% stake in the stablecoin giant, according to a Bloomberg report.

Heathcote is working with PJT Partners to sell his holding in the San Salvador, El Salvador-based company, Bloomberg said, citing sources close to the matter. The sources said discussions with potential buyers were ongoing. They declined to comment on the company’s potential valuation.

Heathcote took on a non-executive advisory role at the issuer of USDT, the largest stablecoin by market capitalization, in March, and was replaced by his deputy Zachary Lyons.

In February, Tether scaled back from plans to raise as much as $20 billion after facing investor resistance to a proposed $500 billion valuation that would rank the stablecoin issuer among the world’s most valuable private companies. Tether advisers then followed up with plans to raise $5 billion. Tether reported a full-year profit of more than $10 billion for 2025.

Tether did not respond to a CoinDesk request for comment. PJT Partners declined to comment. Heathcote could not be reached.

Kraken Seeks Final Judgment After $22 Million Award Against Former Auditor

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Kraken Seeks Final Judgment After $22 Million Award Against Former Auditor

Payward, the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has asked the Delaware Court of Chancery to enter a final judgment against its former auditor, Mazars USA, after an arbitrator awarded the firm $22 million. 

The exchange disclosed the request on July 7 through an open letter from co-CEO Arjun Sethi and a series of posts from CEO Dave Ripley.

The dispute traces to December 2023, when Mazars withdrew from Kraken’s 2022 audit days before its completion. Mazars had audited Kraken for three prior years and issued two clean opinions, according to the company. 

In writing, Sethi said, the auditor confirmed it had no disagreement with management, no concerns about the firm’s integrity, and no findings of fraud.

Mazars attributed its resignation to legal developments, among them a complaint the Securities and Exchange Commission had filed against Kraken weeks before.

That SEC complaint was dismissed with prejudice, with no penalties and no admission of wrongdoing. Kraken said the abandoned audit cost it years and millions of dollars in legal fees to secure new auditors and reassure banks, regulators, and counterparties. The exchange said it has received a clean audit in each year that followed.

The letters come as Kraken pursues a full European banking license, reportedly through Lithuania, a move that would allow the company to offer traditional banking services across the European Economic Area and potentially become the first cryptocurrency exchange to secure a full European bank license, according to CoinDesk reporting. 

The effort is part of Kraken’s broader regulatory strategy as it expands beyond crypto into mainstream financial services, building on milestones including U.S. Federal Reserve payment access and authorization in the UAE.

Operation Chokepoint 2.0

Sethi placed the episode within what critics call Operation Chokepoint 2.0, a term for what they describe as a coordinated effort by regulators to cut lawful crypto firms off from banking and other services. In December 2022, a year before quitting the Kraken audit, Mazars Group halted proof-of-reserves work for the crypto sector and removed those reports from its website.

The letter cited a chain of actions from 2022 and 2023. On January 3, 2023, the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC issued a joint statement warning that crypto business models raised safety and soundness concerns for banks. 

Documents released after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit showed the FDIC sent at least 25 letters to two dozen banks urging them to pause or refrain from expanding crypto activity. The SEC’s SAB 121 accounting guidance required public companies holding crypto to record those assets on their balance sheets, a step that made custody uneconomical for banks. 

The Federal Reserve denied a master account to Custodia, a Wyoming bank built for digital assets. And in March 2023, the payment networks run by Silvergate and Signature shut down within days of each other.

As the debanking era ends, Kraken demands rules 

Much of that framework has come undone. The SEC rescinded SAB 121, the banking regulators withdrew the joint statement, and a House committee report concluded that regulators used vague rules and informal pressure to push banks away from lawful digital asset firms. 

Sethi also recounted the experience of Kraken founder Jesse Powell, who started the exchange in 2011. In March 2023, federal agents raided Powell’s home and seized his devices in connection with a dispute involving a nonprofit unrelated to Kraken. 

After two years, the government closed the investigation, returned the devices, and brought no charges. Powell handed the chief executive role to Ripley, and Sethi joined Ripley in leading the company.

The letter closed with a call for Congress to pass the CLARITY Act, which would establish market-structure rules for digital assets, dividing oversight between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the SEC and adding protections for software developers. 

The House passed the bill in July 2025 by a vote of 294 to 134, with 78 Democrats in support, and the Senate Banking Committee advanced its version in May. 

Sethi contrasted the U.S. timeline with the European Union, where the MiCA framework took effect across member states.

AI trade loses steam as Samsung earnings fail to lift chip stocks amid open source AI shift

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AI trade loses steam as Samsung earnings fail to lift chip stocks amid open source AI shift

The AI trade, which incorporates semiconductors and memory stocks, is showing signs of fatigue as investors reassess whether the extraordinary spending boom on chips and data centers can be sustained.

Semiconductor and memory stocks such as Micron Technology (MU) and Sandisk (SNDK) came under heavy pressure on Tuesday, after Samsung Electronics (005930) reported record second-quarter earnings but missed revenue estimates.

Shares still fell nearly 7%, extending a broader selloff across AI-linked chipmakers. Concerns are growing that hyperscalers could slow AI infrastructure spending.

Meanwhile, rival SK Hynix is down 25% from its all-time high ahead of its U.S. listing this week, a deal that is also drawing investor capital away from existing chip stocks.
The weakness comes after a spectacular rally in AI infrastructure stocks this year, with Sandisk up more than 525%, Micron gaining over 120%, and SK Hynix climbing roughly 225% in 2026.

Adding to the changing narrative, China’s Zhipu AI, one of the country’s leading artificial intelligence startups, is exploring a custom AI chip as demand for its open-source GLM models surges, highlighting the rise of lower-cost AI ecosystems built around domestic hardware rather than cutting-edge US chips.

The shift comes just weeks after SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO and amid elevated valuations across AI-related stocks. Investors are increasingly questioning whether the next phase of AI will require ever more GPUs and high-bandwidth memory, or whether more efficient models will reduce demand for the infrastructure that has powered the AI rally.

Over the past year, bitcoin and the broader crypto market have suffered from the AI trade, and if investor enthusiasm for AI continues to fade, crypto bulls could see capital rotate back into digital assets.

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