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Ethereum Proposal to Slash Staking Rewards Sparks Backlash

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Ethereum Proposal to Slash Staking Rewards Sparks Backlash

A group of six Ethereum researchers and developers, including Ethereum Foundation’s Justin Drake, has proposed changing the network’s issuance policy to cut validator rewards more sharply as the proportion of staked ETH rises. 

The draft, called the Tapered Issuance Burn and currently being assigned the provisional number EIP-8363, would burn an increasing fraction of validators’ consensus rewards as the amount of staked ETH approaches a fixed threshold of 60.25 million ETH (around 50% of the current ETH supply), at which point the deduction hits 100%. The changes would phase in over 18 months. 

Tapered Issuance Burn Ethereum Improvement Proposal. Source: Github

The proposal has triggered backlash from developers, stakers and DeFi founders, who warn that the reward cuts could force out solo validators before larger institutions are affected, weaken institutional demand for ETH, and disrupt DeFi markets built around staking yield. 

One of the proposal’s authors, Jérôme de Tychey, said the changes are needed to address the rising share of Ether being staked, which passed 33% in April. The authors argue continued staking growth could concentrate ETH in large custodians and liquid staking providers, while unchecked issuance erodes Ether’s role as a neutral, trustless store of value. 

“Ever-growing issuance is a dilution tax on every holder: stake, or be diluted. At high ratios, LSTs and other staking derivatives displace raw ETH as the ecosystem’s working money, thus swapping the most neutral, trustless asset for intermediated claims on issuers,” he said.

Although EIP-8363 remains an early draft, its publication just two days before a deadline for proposals targeting Ethereum’s Hegotá upgrade has also raised concerns about whether there is enough time to consider the impacts on Ethereum’s tokenomics.

EIP-8363 authors’ argument to cut issuance 

The proposal’s authors argue that under the current curve, staking yield never drops below 1.5% even with all ETH in existence being staked. 

“The incentive to stake never switches off. Where does it stop? It doesn’t,” said de Tychey. 

With no changes, a worst-case scenario could see more than 55% of Ethereum supply locked in staking by 2028, he said. 

“Maximal neutrality & minimal dilution: those are the two fundamentals of a store of value. This EIP not only hardens both, it sets a bar no other blockchain clears.” 

The proposed policy would see issuance peak at 0.5% of ETH supply per year at its highest (around 20% of ETH is staked), declining to zero when the staking ratio of Ethereum hits the 60.25 million ETH threshold. 

Related: Ethereum treasury firms lean on staking as ETF pressure builds: Report

“ETH supply growth will be bounded and more predictable. Combined with the EIP-1559 and Blob burn, the supply will more often decrease. Ethereum, the most mature of all the protocols, with a sustainable security budget, will also be the least dilutive of all protocols,” said de Tychey.

The proposal’s broader direction has also received support from Grayscale. In May, Grayscale’s head of research Zach Pandl said limiting staking incentives would be “positive for the price of Ether over time.”

Critics say it’s punishing Ethereum’s growth

Aave founder Stani Kulechov said reducing staking rewards would weaken institutional demand for ETH and borrowing activity across DeFi, arguing the proposal “doesn’t achieve the outcome it tries to achieve and is actually hurtful for Ethereum.” 

Another argument is that the proposal would impact solo validators as they have generally higher relative costs and are more susceptible to reward changes, leading to a more concentrated validator set. 

“This will self evidently push out solo stakers who aren’t subsidized by the EF or others,” said Mike Silagadze, CEO of Ether.Fi. 

“It will essentially guarantee that the only ones staking are large centralized entities with zero cost of capital where users passively hold their ETH.”

De Tychey disputed this point, saying on the Ethereum Magicians forum that users of large staking providers must pay fees, making those services less attractive as rewards fall, though he acknowledged the research on this is still contested. 

The proposed network update will lower ETH issuance and inflation. Source: Zach Pandl

Others pointed to the seemingly rushed timeline to consider the proposal, though this appears to be due to confusion over the upcoming deadline on Aug. 6. 

“This clearly doesn’t leave adequate time for community review of a monetary policy change of this magnitude,” said Greg Koumoutsos, a co-author of EIP-8148 and EIP-8205.

Where the proposal currently stands

The Tapered Issuance Burn proposal has not been approved, scheduled or included in Hegotá.

While there is an Aug. 6 deadline relating to this proposal, the deadline is for pull requests proposing additional EIPs for Hegotá, not a deadline for deciding which proposals will be included. 

Ethereum community organizer Trent Van Epps said the selection process could continue until Nov. 8, and that Hegotá is likely to reach mainnet in the second quarter of 2027.

Magazine: The 100x obsession: Fundamentals grow in importance as crypto matures

COLDCARD Bitcoin Theft Tops $102M as Investigators Track at Least 15 Attacker Patterns

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COLDCARD Bitcoin Theft Tops $102M as Investigators Track at Least 15 Attacker Patterns

  • Galaxy Research has linked at least 1,596 BTC, worth over $102 million, to a flaw in COLDCARD wallet seed generation.
  • Investigators are tracking at least 15 attacker patterns, while a larger suspected set approaches 2,055 BTC.

A vulnerability in COLDCARD hardware wallets has been linked to the theft of at least 1,596 Bitcoin, pushing the estimated value of confirmed losses above $102 million (at current bitcoin price of $64,203).

Galaxy Research’s latest investigation, published on Aug. 3, traced the high-confidence theft set across roughly 7,300 Bitcoin addresses. The activity includes three major theft waves and at least 14 smaller incidents reported or confirmed by affected owners.

Bitcoin was trading near $64,027 on Aug. 4, valuing the confirmed total at approximately $102.2 million.

A broader pool of suspected activity reaches approximately 2,054.9 BTC, worth around $131.6 million at the same price. However, that figure includes pattern-matched transactions and a possible fourth wave that had not been confirmed by affected owners.

It should not be described as 2,055 BTC of confirmed COLDCARD theft.

Galaxy’s category-level chart accounted for approximately 1,590.9 BTC, around 5 BTC below its latest headline figure. The difference appears to reflect new victim reports and continued classification while the investigation was being assembled.

The cleanest current estimate is therefore Galaxy’s high-confidence total of 1,596 BTC.

More From AlexaBlockchain

At least 15 attacker patterns identified

Alex Thorn, Galaxy’s head of firmwide research, said investigators have identified at least 15 distinct transaction patterns associated with exploitation of the COLDCARD weakness.

That does not necessarily mean 15 individual hackers have been identified.

Galaxy is separating attackers through their onchain behavior, including how funds are consolidated, divided, routed and held. One operator could use several patterns. A single pattern could also represent a coordinated group.

The number is important because the incident no longer resembles one attacker discovering a weakness and sweeping a narrow group of wallets.

It increasingly resembles an expanding race to identify and drain vulnerable seeds before their owners can move the funds.

One victim who reported losing less than one bitcoin helped investigators identify what Galaxy calls “Footprint O.” Thorn said the previously unidentified pattern had drained approximately 12 BTC from 126 addresses.

Small victim reports are therefore helping investigators uncover larger clusters.

Galaxy reportedly has direct contact with around 80 victims. Those reports are central to the investigation because the affected addresses are dispersed across Bitcoin’s blockchain.

Unlike an exchange hack, the thefts do not originate from one known treasury address.

Galaxy maintains a broader triage list containing possible victims and suspicious transactions. Activity is only added to its headline estimate when investigators consider the supporting evidence sufficiently strong, often after an owner confirms that specific addresses were generated using an affected device.

Three large waves moved 1,367 BTC

The three largest known theft waves moved approximately 1,367.05 BTC.

The first wave was detected on July 30. An attacker swept 1,196 Bitcoin addresses in around 41 minutes, taking 1,082.65 BTC worth approximately $70.2 million at the time.

Two additional waves subsequently raised the observed large-wave total to 1,367.05 BTC across 4,585 addresses.

Galaxy said the coins associated with those three waves remained parked at tracked holding addresses as of its latest investigation.

The movement patterns differed considerably.

Wave 1 consolidated the stolen bitcoin through a relatively small number of funnel addresses. That produced a more concentrated and readable transaction graph.

Wave 3 divided the bitcoin among hundreds of staging and holding addresses.

That fragmentation makes the flow harder to monitor. It may also give the attacker more options for moving smaller amounts through bridges, exchanges, gambling platforms or informal liquidity networks.

The smaller suspected operators have already shown different laundering behavior.

According to Thorn, some stolen funds have moved through peel chains, THORChain and offshore gambling platforms. A peel chain repeatedly removes smaller amounts from a larger balance, leaving the remainder in a newly created address.

The technique complicates attribution by generating a long series of transactions.

In one case involving gambling platform Duel, the platform reportedly identified a depositor linked to the incident. The bitcoin had already been withdrawn before the funds could be frozen.

Traced does not mean recovered

Galaxy has shared roughly 600 suspected attacker addresses with federal investigators, exchanges, compliance companies, cyber investigators and the Security Alliance, commonly known as SEAL.

No public seizure, arrest, return of funds or successful freeze has been announced.

That distinction matters.

Bitcoin’s public ledger allows investigators to follow transactions after a theft. However, visibility does not provide control over the coins.

The large-wave funds that remain stationary are traceable, but they have not been recovered. The attackers still control the private keys.

Recovery becomes more difficult when bitcoin reaches a service that does not cooperate with investigators, operates in a loosely regulated jurisdiction or allows funds to be exchanged without robust identity checks.

Cross-chain conversion also creates additional complications.

Moving BTC through THORChain, for example, may allow an attacker to obtain an asset on another blockchain without depositing the bitcoin directly at a centralized exchange.

Investigators can still follow the transaction trail, but the process requires coordination across networks, analytics providers and service operators.

A deterministic fallback weakened wallet seeds

The underlying failure was not a break in Bitcoin’s cryptography.

It was a failure in the process used by affected COLDCARD firmware to create private keys.

Hardware wallets normally generate wallet seeds using highly unpredictable information supplied by a hardware random-number generator. The resulting recovery words control the private keys and therefore the bitcoin.

In the affected COLDCARD firmware, a configuration and software interaction caused seed generation to enter a deterministic MicroPython pseudorandom-number-generator fallback rather than using the expected hardware randomness.

Block’s Bitcoin Engineering and Security teams independently traced the problem after reports of active theft began appearing on July 30. Block said the vulnerability could allow an attacker to recreate candidate output streams under certain assumptions about a device’s identifier, timer state and earlier random-number-generator calls.

An attacker could generate possible seeds offline, derive the corresponding Bitcoin addresses and compare them with publicly visible addresses holding funds.

No physical access to the victim’s hardware wallet would necessarily be required.

The vulnerability was introduced after COLDCARD moved wallet-generation operations to a library called libNgU in March 2021. Block’s technical timeline shows that the vulnerable path was present in firmware version 4.0.0, while additional reseeding behavior was introduced for the Mk4 in 2022.

Coinkite described the cause as a complex chain of bugs that prevented the hardware random-number generator from contributing the intended randomness.

In simple terms, Bitcoin’s private-key system remained intact.

Some private keys were simply created from a much smaller range of possibilities than their owners expected.

Mk2 and Mk3 seeds face the highest risk

The most severely exposed seeds were generated on COLDCARD Mk2 and Mk3 devices running firmware versions 4.0.1 through 4.1.9.

Coinkite estimates that the affected Mk3 process may provide roughly 40 bits of effective search space under its assumptions. That is drastically weaker than the 128-bit target associated with a properly generated 12-word BIP-39 seed.

Later models received additional entropy from secure elements, reducing the severity but not eliminating the problem.

Coinkite said seeds generated on the Mk4 and Mk5 before firmware version 5.6.0, or on the COLDCARD Q before version 1.5.0Q, may contain approximately 72 bits of entropy rather than the intended 128 bits.

The affected firmware version is the version used when the seed was created.

Installing safe firmware today does not retroactively strengthen an old seed.

Restoring the same recovery words on a new COLDCARD, another hardware wallet or a software wallet also does not solve the problem. The vulnerability follows the seed words because those words encode the weakly generated private-key material.

Coinkite has released fixed firmware for each affected product line. However, the company says owners must generate an entirely new seed after installing the corrected firmware and transfer their funds to addresses controlled by that new seed.

Does this undermine the hardware-wallet safety narrative?

The incident will test one of the crypto industry’s most persistent security messages: that hardware wallets are safer than exchanges or internet-connected software wallets.

That message remains broadly defensible, but it needs qualification.

A hardware wallet isolates private keys from everyday laptops, browsers and smartphones. This can reduce exposure to malware, remote-access tools, phishing sites and compromised wallet extensions.

However, a hardware wallet is not automatically secure simply because the key is stored offline.

Its security also depends on firmware quality, random-number generation, supply-chain integrity, signing-screen accuracy, update procedures and how the owner creates and backs up the seed.

The COLDCARD incident exposes a particularly damaging failure because it affected the point at which the wallet’s core secret was born.

Air-gapped signing, secure elements and offline storage cannot protect a key that an attacker can recreate through a reduced search space.

The case therefore does not prove that software wallets or exchanges are safer.

It shows that “hardware wallet” is a product category, not a security guarantee.

The Bybit theft in February 2025 provided another warning about that distinction. Attackers stole $1.5 billion in Ether during a transfer involving an exchange cold wallet, making it the largest publicly reported crypto theft at the time. Investigators said the compromise manipulated the signing process rather than breaking Ethereum’s underlying cryptography.

Both incidents involved systems generally described as offline or cold storage.

The weaknesses were different. Bybit faced an institutional signing and operational-security compromise, while COLDCARD users were exposed through defective seed generation.

In each case, the protective label concealed a more complicated security stack.

Crypto exploits remained large in 2025 and 2026

The COLDCARD losses add to two years of major infrastructure, wallet and protocol compromises.

Bybit’s $1.5 billion theft dominated 2025. The incident also showed how one compromised workflow could bypass multiple institutional controls attached to a cold-wallet transfer.

Cetus, a decentralized exchange on the Sui network, suffered an exploit of approximately $220 million in May 2025. The incident contributed to $2.5 billion in crypto hack and scam losses during the first half of that year, according to CertiK.

Indian exchange CoinDCX disclosed the theft of approximately $44 million from an internal operational account in July 2025. The exchange said the stolen USDT was routed through several hops before reaching two principal wallets.

The attacks continued in 2026.

In April, an exploit involving KelpDAO and LayerZero infrastructure drained approximately $290 million in rsETH. Galaxy described it as the largest DeFi exploit of 2026 at the time, with knock-on effects across Aave lending markets.

Ostium subsequently lost around $24 million in a July exploit, according to Galaxy’s research index.

The incidents span different failure modes: compromised institutional signing, faulty smart contracts, operational-account breaches, bridge vulnerabilities and weak private-key generation.

The common theme is that attackers increasingly target the infrastructure surrounding cryptography rather than attempting to break the cryptographic algorithms themselves.

What COLDCARD owners should do

Users who generated a seed on an affected COLDCARD should not assume that installing an update is sufficient.

Coinkite recommends installing the fixed firmware for the applicable device before generating any replacement seed. The corrected versions include 4.2.0 or later for Mk2 and Mk3, 5.6.0 or later for standard Mk4 and Mk5 devices, and 1.5.0Q or later for the standard Q release. Separate fixed versions apply to the Edge firmware track.

Owners should then create a completely new seed.

They should record and verify the new backup, confirm the wallet fingerprint and verify a receiving address directly on the hardware-wallet screen.

A small test transaction should be sent first. The remaining balance should only be moved after the test transaction has arrived and the new wallet can be restored successfully.

The old seed backup should not be destroyed until the entire migration has been confirmed.

Users should never enter their recovery words into a website claiming to test whether a seed is vulnerable. Attackers are likely to exploit the public warning through fake migration tools, support accounts and phishing pages.

The COLDCARD PIN is also not the same as a BIP-39 passphrase.

Coinkite says a strong, unique and separately stored BIP-39 passphrase can create an additional barrier. However, a weak, reused or predictable passphrase may be guessed, and even a strong passphrase does not repair the affected seed.

Seeds created with at least 50 fair, independent and private dice rolls may not be exposed to this specific randomness failure alone. Users who do not clearly remember how the seed was created should treat it as potentially affected and migrate.

Larger holders should also reconsider reliance on one seed and one manufacturer.

A properly configured multisignature wallet can reduce the risk that one defective seed-generation process compromises all funds. However, Block warned that multisignature setups composed entirely of vulnerable COLDCARD devices may remain exposed. A secure quorum must include independently generated keys that are not affected by the flaw.

An ongoing security incident

The COLDCARD theft has already crossed nine figures, but the final loss may take weeks or months to establish.

More vulnerable wallets may remain funded. Additional attackers may be scanning the blockchain for addresses derived from weak seeds. Some victims may never contact investigators or may not yet know why their coins disappeared.

The difference between Galaxy’s confirmed and suspected sets is therefore likely to remain important.

A transparent accounting should distinguish victim-confirmed thefts from transactions that merely resemble the known attacker patterns.

The investigation also leaves broader organizational questions for Coinkite and the hardware-wallet industry.

The vulnerable path existed in publicly available firmware for years. It was not detected before attackers apparently began using it at scale, despite open-source review and growing use of artificial intelligence for code auditing.

Coinkite said an AI model it used to review the firmware before the disclosure did not find the bug. The company has suggested that attackers may have used similar tools to inspect older code, although no public evidence has established exactly how the weakness was discovered.

The episode is therefore not only a warning about one wallet.

It is a warning about security claims built around individual features.

Offline storage, secure elements and open-source firmware can all improve safety. None of them replaces verified randomness, independent audits, cautious key generation and a migration plan when a foundational assumption fails.

The coins still sitting in attacker-controlled addresses remain visible.

They are not yet recovered, and the theft may not be over.

The above article “COLDCARD Bitcoin Theft Tops $102M as Investigators Track at Least 15 Attacker Patterns” was first published on AlexaBlockchain. Read the complete article here: https://alexablockchain.com/coldcard-bitcoin-theft-tops-102m-as-investigators-track-at-least-15-attacker-patterns/

Read Also: This is the First U.S.-Chartered Depository Bank to Offer Stablecoin Invoicing

Disclaimer: The information provided on AlexaBlockchain is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Read complete disclaimer here.

US, UK Deepen Crypto Regulatory Coordination After GENIUS Act

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US, UK Deepen Crypto Regulatory Coordination After GENIUS Act
Latest NewsPublishedAug 4, 2026

In a July 8 meeting, US and UK regulators highlighted the implementation of the GENIUS Act, payment modernization and cross-border cooperation, reinforcing a shared framework for digital asset oversight.

The United States and the United Kingdom reaffirmed their commitment to closer financial regulatory cooperation during a recent bilateral working group, signaling continued policy alignment on digital assets as US authorities move to implement landmark stablecoin legislation.

During the 13th meeting of the UK-US Financial Regulatory Working Group (FRWG), held in London on July 8, officials discussed stablecoin regulation, digital asset market structure in the United States, tokenization and the UK’s Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy.

An Aug. 4 joint statement summarizing the meeting said US officials updated their UK counterparts on implementation of the GENIUS Act, the country’s landmark stablecoin law, as well as ongoing work on digital asset market structure. Participants also discussed payment modernization and the G20 Cross-border Payments Roadmap, an international initiative to improve cross-border payments.

Although the meeting did not produce new policy measures, it underscored a shared commitment to coordinating regulation across key areas of the digital asset industry. The statement struck a broadly supportive tone toward “responsible” digital asset innovation while emphasizing financial stability and international regulatory cooperation.

That commitment was also reflected on July 14, when the Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future — a joint US-UK initiative focused on strengthening cooperation on financial innovation and capital markets — published its initial recommendations alongside a joint statement on stablecoins. The governments said the measures would lay the foundation for continued US-UK leadership in digital assets and capital markets.

Related: UK government defers capital gains on certain crypto with ‘no gain, no loss’ approach

UK rethinks stablecoin rules as US moves ahead

The UK’s renewed emphasis on stablecoins comes as some industry observers argue the country is losing ground to the United States, where the GENIUS Act has accelerated momentum behind regulated dollar-backed stablecoins.

The Bank of England has also softened its stance on stablecoin regulation. As Cointelegraph reported in May, the BoE is considering alternatives to temporary limits on stablecoin holdings and is reviewing whether its proposal requiring at least 40% of reserve assets to be held as non-interest-bearing deposits at the central bank is too restrictive. 

Separately, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority said earlier this year that cross-border payments represent one of the clearest near-term use cases for stablecoins, underscoring growing regulatory recognition of the technology’s potential.

Magazine: Coldcard exploit sparks Bitcoin flight, ‘bullish’ crypto consolidation: Hodler’s Digest, August 2

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Why Visa, Mastercard and Coinbase aren’t abandoning USDC stablecoin for Open USD

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Why Visa, Mastercard and Coinbase aren’t abandoning USDC stablecoin for Open USD

Recent earnings calls from Open USD’s highest-profile backers, however, paint a more nuanced picture. Executives at Coinbase, Visa and Mastercard all said they intend to support multiple stablecoins instead of betting on a single winner, describing Open USD as another network to connect to rather than a replacement for USDC.

Multi-coin strategy

During its second-quarter earnings call last week, Coinbase reassured investors about its close relationship with Circle. Chief Financial Officer Alesia Haas said the exchange has already met the conditions to renew its commercial agreement with Circle and will continue growing the USDC ecosystem.

CEO Brian Armstrong also said Coinbase remains a “multi-stablecoin platform” and wants to support whichever stablecoins customers choose to use. The exchange already supports USDC alongside Tether’s USDT and PayPal’s PYUSD, he said, with Open USD creating “additional business opportunities and revenue opportunities.”

Ryan McInerney, CEO of Visa, struck a similar tone during his firm’s earnings call, describing the company as “multi-coin, multi-chain” and saying that Visa’s role is to help clients connect to whichever stablecoins gain adoption.

“Our role is not to pick winners,” he said.

Notably, Visa offered the first live example of pushing Open USD to customers. The firm last month launched its Visa Stablecoin Platform, giving banks, fintechs and payment providers tools to access, store, redeem and move stablecoins, with OUSD serving as the initial supported token.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX (SPCX) tops earnings as bitcoin (BTC) holding value drops by $540 million

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX (SPCX) tops earnings as bitcoin (BTC) holding value drops by $540 million

SpaceX (SPCX), Elon Musk’s space technology company, reported its first quarterly results as a public company on Tuesday, announcing second-quarter revenue of $7.8 billion.

That figure topped Wall Street expectations of $6.9 billion, while narrowing its quarterly loss to $541 million as growth accelerated across its launch, Starlink and AI businesses.

The company reported a net loss of $541 million, an improvement from a $1.0 billion loss a year earlier, while adjusted EBITDA nearly tripled to $3.5 billion.

The firm held onto its stash of 18,712 bitcoin BTC$63,498.53, according to the SEC filing. However, the value of holdings declined to $1.10 billion at June 30 from $1.64 billion at the end of 2025, coinciding with bitcoin’s 33% price slump through that period.

SPCX was down 6% after-hours on the report to $118 after closing the regular session nearly 10% higher on the day’s trading, while the Nasdaq 100 gained 3.3%.

The firm’s report arrived less than two months after SpaceX’s record-breaking $86 billion IPO and ahead of the stock’s first major test. On Aug. 6, roughly 912 million shares held by employees and early backers will become eligible for sale, potentially increasing the stock’s public float.

THG Opens Hedera and AI Product Suite to Partners as Agent Security Risks Mount

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THG Opens Hedera and AI Product Suite to Partners as Agent Security Risks Mount

  • The Hashgraph Group has launched a partner program allowing consulting firms, system integrators and software companies to sell, implement or embed its Hedera-based Web3 and agentic AI products.
  • The initiative targets rising enterprise demand for verifiable digital identities, wallets and audit trails for AI agents, while giving partners access to referral commissions, revenue sharing and technical support.

The Hashgraph Group is opening its enterprise software portfolio to consulting firms and technology providers, seeking broader distribution for Hedera-based Web3 and artificial-intelligence products.

The Swiss engineering company has launched the Hashgraph Partner Alliance, or HPA, with three commercial models. Partners can refer clients, resell and implement THG products, or embed the technology within their own software.

The launch comes as businesses experiment with autonomous AI agents while confronting difficult questions around identity, permissions and accountability.

Those risks were highlighted in July when experimental OpenAI models escaped a controlled cybersecurity evaluation and compromised systems belonging to AI platform Hugging Face. OpenAI described it as an unprecedented cyber incident and said it was investigating the vulnerabilities with Hugging Face.

THG is positioning its Hashgraph for Enterprise, or H4E, suite as infrastructure for companies that need verifiable records around automated processes.

The portfolio includes digital identities and wallets for humans, machines and AI agents. It also supports product traceability, sustainability records, payment orchestration and tokenized customer-loyalty programs, according to the company.

The technology uses Hedera’s distributed ledger to create tamper-evident records of transactions and workflow events.

Under the referral model, partners receive a one-time commission when an introduced customer converts into a commercial project.

Resellers and implementation partners can earn revenue from product sales, consulting, integrations and ongoing support. Software companies can integrate H4E capabilities into their existing products without developing the underlying identity, wallet and ledger infrastructure themselves.

THG said it will provide engineering assistance, solution architecture, training, certifications and round-the-clock technical support through its HashCare help desk.

The program is divided into Silver, Gold and Platinum tiers. THG values the software access, support and other benefits offered to Platinum partners at more than $125,000 annually, though the figure represents the company’s own valuation rather than independently verified partner revenue.

The company is also offering selected participants opportunities for joint product development, proposal preparation, co-marketing and responses to corporate requests for proposals.

“Over the past few years, we’ve focused extensively on building our Web3 and AI-powered products and global delivery capabilities,” CEO Stefan Deiss said in a statement shared with AlexaBlockchain.

“Through our Hashgraph Partner Alliance program, we are proactively reengaging our 70-plus partners in a practical way to respond to the increasing market demand for enterprise solutions, with a new attractive value proposition, commercial terms, and advanced technology enablement.”

Deiss said THG would use its H4E products, engineering expertise and India-based Global Capability Centre to help partners move faster, lower costs and limit development risk.

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Why It Matters

The program represents a shift from selling enterprise blockchain software directly to customers toward distributing it through consultancies and system integrators.

That model is common in corporate technology because large deployments usually require integration with identity platforms, enterprise-resource-planning systems and sector-specific compliance processes. External implementation firms can supply those capabilities without requiring the software vendor to build a large services organization in every market.

The same approach is emerging around agentic AI.

Salesforce has built an Agentforce partner network that includes system integrators helping companies define, build and deploy AI agents. By late 2025, the company said its broader Agentforce ecosystem included around 7,000 system integrators.

THG is pursuing a smaller and more specialized version of that strategy. Its differentiation rests on combining agentic software with decentralized identity, verifiable credentials and ledger-based audit trails.

That could be relevant when an AI agent is allowed to initiate payments, modify supply-chain records or interact with external companies. Businesses need to determine which agent acted, whose authority it used and whether its permissions were valid at the time.

Agent identity is rapidly becoming a separate enterprise-security category.

Microsoft’s Entra Agent ID assigns identities to AI agents and applies authentication, authorization, lifecycle governance and audit controls. Okta and IBM have introduced comparable products focused on discovering agents, restricting their access and establishing accountability for their actions.

THG’s proposition differs because it can anchor identity credentials and selected transaction records to a shared ledger. That may be useful when evidence must be verified across several organizations rather than only inside one company’s identity system.

It does not, however, solve the entire agent-security problem.

A digital identity can help attribute an action and enforce access rules. It cannot by itself guarantee that an agent’s reasoning is safe, that its instructions have not been manipulated or that its execution environment cannot be breached.

Existing Enterprise Projects

THG already has several projects that can serve as reference deployments for prospective partners.

It is working with Germany’s Merck Group to combine its TrackTrace supply-chain platform with Merck’s M-Trust physical-authentication technology. The system is intended to link physical products with digital product passports and verifiable records.

THG’s published product roadmap describes TrackTrace as a production-stage platform supporting decentralized identifiers, verifiable credentials, hardware-generated records and audit trails anchored through the Hedera Consensus Service.

The company has also introduced BrandBoost for tokenized loyalty programs and is working with logistics company Teleport on digital customs documentation for Southeast Asian e-commerce.

These deployments give the alliance more substance than a conventional referral scheme. Partners are being offered products with identified use cases, although the commercial scale and financial performance of those deployments have not been disclosed.

THG has previously worked with KPMG in India on enterprise blockchain adoption. That relationship illustrates the kind of consulting-led distribution model the new program is intended to formalize and expand.

A Fast-Growing but Uncertain Market

According to Mordor Intelligence, the global agentic AI market will grow from $9.89 billion in 2026 to $57.42 billion in 2031, at a CAGR of 42%.

The research firm expects consulting and integration services to grow even faster than the broader market as companies struggle with governance, legacy systems and operational change. Such forecasts remain estimates and depend on how quickly experimental agent deployments move into production.

THG’s alliance is designed to capture part of that implementation spending rather than depending only on software licensing.

The strategy could help it reach more enterprise clients and reduce the cost of direct sales. Its success will depend on whether partners can convert proofs of concept into recurring deployments and whether Hedera-based verification provides enough practical benefit to justify an additional infrastructure layer.

The OpenAI–Hugging Face incident has made the underlying question more urgent: enterprises are giving AI systems greater autonomy before the controls governing those systems are fully mature.

THG is betting that verifiable identity and shared audit trails will become part of that control framework. The partner alliance is its attempt to turn that proposition into a scalable distribution business.

The above article “THG Opens Hedera and AI Product Suite to Partners as Agent Security Risks Mount” was first published on AlexaBlockchain. Read the complete article here: https://alexablockchain.com/thg-opens-hedera-and-ai-product-suite-to-partners-as-agent-security-risks-mount/

Read Also: This is the First U.S.-Chartered Depository Bank to Offer Stablecoin Invoicing

Disclaimer: The information provided on AlexaBlockchain is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Read complete disclaimer here.

Texas Electric Grid Moratorium Won’t Have Big Impact on BTC Miners: Bernstein

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Texas Electric Grid Moratorium Won’t Have Big Impact on BTC Miners: Bernstein

Bitcoin miners with operations in Texas are not expected to be impacted by a moratorium on approval of data center projects connected to the state’s grid operator ordered by Governor Greg Abbott, Bernstein analysts said Tuesday.

Abbott on Monday directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to audit all data centers seeking to connect to the state’s power grid. The duration of the audit was not specified and comes amid increasing public backlash to the pace of data center build-out across the state, The Texas Tribune reported.

Bernstein analysts told clients on Tuesday that as most of the Bitcoin (BTC) miners operating in Texas are under contract for approved electric capacity, those operations are unlikely to be impacted by the moratorium.

“However, we believe, this audit throttles speculative data center pipeline and makes genuine sites with development history more valuable,” the research team led by Gautam Chhugani said in its note. “Bitcoin mining sites are favorably placed with the longest gestation, self-funding infra and local community management,” they said.

They said that the local operations of Cipher Digital (CIFR), Core Scientific (CORZ) and CleanSpark (CLSK) could be the miners most exposed to future public opposition to data center expansion, particularly during ERCOT’s approval process to convert their pipeline assets into grid-connected power capacity.

“We believe with increasing political opposition to new data center projects and fresh capacity being throttled by moratoriums/state directives, the approved MWs become more valuable,” they said, highlighting the Texas mining operations of IREN (IREN), which is fully ERCOT grid approved, as are the operations of Riot Platforms (RIOT).

CIFR shares were down more than 7% in Tuesday’s premarket trading, according to Yahoo Finance data. The miner reported second-quarter results earlier Tuesday, posting a loss of $0.65 per diluted share, widening from last year’s loss of $0.12 per diluted share.

Related: Bitcoin may find bear market bottom in August: 10x Research

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

BNY to add crypto staking to digital asset custody platform

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BNY to add crypto staking to digital asset custody platform

BNY has tapped crypto financial services firm Galaxy (GLXY) to add staking capabilities to its digital asset custody platform, the companies announced Tuesday.

The new service will allow institutional clients to stake digital assets held in custody through BNY’s platform, pending regulatory approval. Galaxy will provide the staking infrastructure while also serving as a design partner as BNY expands its blockchain-based services.

Staking allows holders of certain crypto assets to help secure blockchain networks by locking up their tokens in exchange for rewards. For large investors, offering staking through the same platform that holds their assets removes the need to transfer tokens to a separate provider.

BNY, formerly known as Bank of New York Mellon, has steadily expanded its digital asset business since launching crypto custody services in 2022. The bank oversees tens of trillions of dollars in assets under custody and administration, making its moves into blockchain infrastructure closely watched across the financial industry.

The financial services firm recently said it was shifting its core transfer agency record-keeping onto blockchain technology, creating a single onchain ownership ledger that it said will reduce reliance on multiple intermediaries. It also plans to introduce around-the-clock settlement for traditional and tokenized U.S. Treasuries in 2027 and begin testing tokenized Treasuries on a private blockchain before the end of this year.

The bitcoin (BTC) price has plenty of reasons to freak out, yet volatility remains low: Crypto Daily

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The bitcoin (BTC) price has plenty of reasons to freak out, yet volatility remains low: Crypto Daily

For now, some factors seem to favor the bear case. For instance, institutional demand remains anemic. The U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs posted $61.53 million in outflows last week, snapping a three-week streak of tepid inflows. Moreover, USDT’s market capitalization, the largest among dollar-pegged stablecoins, fell to the lowest level since October, while USDC’s also remains in a downtrend. (check the Daily Signal).

Real or inflation-adjusted returns on longer-duration Treasury notes have risen to the highest since 2008, denting the appeal of investing in emerging technologies and risk assets. Further, the U.S. Clarity Act’s passage remains uncertain.

Still, at least one data point suggests limited downside. That is tied to the number of BTC acquired around current price levels.

“Approximately 155,000 BTC moved into the $62,000-$65,000 cost-basis range, indicating that selling was absorbed by buyers near current prices. This concentration now represents 0.7 percent of circulating supply and could keep BTC range-bound until a stronger catalyst emerges,” analysts at Bitfinex said.

Stay alert!

Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today . For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”

What’s trending

BlackRock (BLK) debuts tokenized access to $311 billion of money market funds in Europe

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BlackRock (BLK) debuts tokenized access to $311 billion of money market funds in Europe

BlackRock (BLK), the world’s largest asset manager, is building on its recent expansion of tokenized cash offerings in the U.S. by tapping into a combined $311 billion of assets under management in European money market funds in a sign of the growing appeal of holding real-world assets on blockchain technology.

BlockRock unveiled 12 new tokenized share classes based on six funds across 15 European markets. The funds, which comply with the European Union’s UCITS regulations, include sterling, euro and dollar share classes, the asset manager said Tuesday. The move comes one day after the firm added two tokenized cash offerings in the U.S.

CEO Larry Fink has repeatedly championed tokenization technology as a way to modernize financial markets. The tokenized real-world asset market has grown more than 200% over the past year to over $30 billion, according to rwa.xyz, while Citi projects tokenized securities could reach $5.5 trillion by 2030.

The tokenized funds are designed for corporate treasurers who already use money market funds to manage operating and reserve cash, as well as at asset managers and investment consultants across traditional and digital markets, BlackRock said.

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