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Mastercard Launches AI Agent Pay System With Ripple and Solana Help

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Crypto Breaking News

Mastercard has launched Agent Pay for Machines, a payments system built for autonomous software agents. The service allows AI agents to send and receive payments without direct human action. It brings Ripple, Coinbase, and Solana Foundation into Mastercard’s push for automated digital commerce.

Ripple Brings XRPL and RLUSD to Mastercard’s Agent Pay System

Mastercard introduced Agent Pay for Machines on June 10 as a tool for machine-led payments. The system targets high-volume and low-value transactions across business and consumer use cases. It also supports automated settlement between software agents and connected machines.

Ripple will support the system through the XRP Ledger and its RLUSD stablecoin. The company said that settlement will become more important as automated commerce grows. It also sees blockchain rails as useful for fast and rule-based payments.

RippleX senior vice president Markus Infanger said XRPL and RLUSD support enterprise-grade agent payments. He said the tools offer settlement in seconds, predictable costs, and programmable compliance. The setup also creates an audit trail for automated transactions.

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Coinbase Supports Open Standards for Agent Payments

Coinbase joined the Mastercard program as demand rises for faster machine payments. The company said AI agents need open and interoperable payment systems. It also pointed to programmable digital dollars as a key part of this shift.

Nina Coughlin, Coinbase’s head of Stablecoin Business Development, said AI agents are creating a new economy. She said this market needs payment tools that move faster than legacy systems. Coinbase will work with Mastercard on standards for agentic payments.

The company also highlighted x402, an open standard for internet-native payments. This framework can support automated transactions between apps, services, and agents. Therefore, Coinbase’s role adds stablecoin and standards expertise to the Mastercard system.

Solana Foundation Adds Scale for Machine Transactions

The Solana Foundation also backed Mastercard’s new agent payment system. It said automated commerce needs infrastructure that can process payments across several rails. These rails include stablecoins, cards, and other settlement networks.

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Rishin Sharma, head of AI Growth at Solana Foundation, said payment systems must support different settlement options. He said AI agents need rails that operate across stablecoins and cards. He added that Solana can support such systems at scale.

Solana’s involvement gives Mastercard access to a high-throughput blockchain network. The network has positioned itself for fast and low-cost transactions. As a result, it fits use cases that depend on frequent machine-to-machine payments.

Mastercard Builds a Wider Automated Commerce Network

Mastercard said Agent Pay for Machines can set spending limits and authorization rules. The platform can also define settlement conditions before agents complete payments. These controls aim to reduce risk while supporting independent transactions.

The program includes more than 30 payments, blockchain, and fintech companies. Partners include Adyen, Stripe, OKX, Coinbase, Ripple, Cloudflare, and Solana Foundation. Mastercard is using this group to build infrastructure for autonomous digital commerce.

The launch expands Mastercard’s work with blockchain-based settlement and stablecoin payment tools. It also shows growing interest in payment systems built for software-led activity. However, the company is presenting the system as a controlled framework for business use.

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Understanding Bitcoin beyond the price charts

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Line chart showing Bitcoin's price falling 77% from its $69,000 all-time high in November 2021 to a $15,800 trough in November 2022, with three unchanged mechanics: scarcity, consensus, and self-custody.

Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.

A growing number of readers are turning to educational crypto books that explain Bitcoin’s fundamentals, moving beyond price charts and market speculation.

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Summary

  • Heidi Chakos’ Why Crypto? tops a 2026 reading list by explaining Bitcoin, blockchain, and crypto fundamentals beyond price charts.
  • Readers seeking crypto fundamentals over market hype can start with Heidi Chakos’ Why Crypto?, a top 2026 book recommendation.

Bitcoin hit an all-time high near $69,000 in November 2021, then fell below $16,000 by November 2022, a roughly 77% drop in exactly a year. Most people who watched that swing on a chart still can’t explain why the supply is capped at 21 million, what a miner actually does, or why a network of strangers agrees on a shared ledger without a bank in the middle. Price is the easiest thing to track about Bitcoin and the least useful thing to understand it by.

That gap is what separates the crypto content built for traders from the crypto content built for readers. Candlestick patterns expire the next trading session. The mechanics behind scarcity, consensus, and custody don’t. They stay the same in a bull market or a crash, and they determine whether the asset does what its holders think it does. The top crypto books to read in 2026 are the ones that teach the mechanics, not the chart. The list below is built around that distinction, with Heidi Chakos’ Why Crypto? at the top.

Line chart showing Bitcoin's price falling 77% from its $69,000 all-time high in November 2021 to a $15,800 trough in November 2022, with three unchanged mechanics: scarcity, consensus, and self-custody.
Line chart showing Bitcoin’s price falling 77% from its $69,000 all-time high in November 2021 to a $15,800 trough in November 2022, with three unchanged mechanics: scarcity, consensus, and self-custody.

What separates a Bitcoin book worth reading in 2026 from the rest?

A Bitcoin book earns a place on this list by explaining the system, not just narrating the price.

Three ideas recur across every title here, so it’s worth defining them once. Scarcity, in Bitcoin’s case, means a hard-coded issuance schedule that halves the new-coin reward roughly every four years until the total supply approaches 21 million, a fixed ceiling no central authority can vote to raise. Consensus is how a network of independent computers agrees on which transactions are valid and in what order, without a central party adjudicating disputes; Bitcoin does this through proof-of-work, where miners compete to solve a computational puzzle, and the winner adds the next block. Self-custody is about who actually controls the private keys, held by the owner rather than parked with an exchange, and it’s the line between truly owning bitcoin and merely owning a claim on bitcoin that someone else controls.

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A book that skips these and goes straight to price targets or trading setups isn’t one of the best bitcoin books in any meaningful sense. It’s market commentary with a Bitcoin logo on it. Among cryptocurrency books generally, the ones that hold up are the ones built around scarcity, consensus, and custody, not around a ticker. The six Bitcoin books below don’t skip any of the three.

The top crypto books to read in 2026

Rank Book Author Best For Level
1 Why Crypto? Heidi Chakos Building the full picture, from fiat’s flaws to Bitcoin’s mechanics Beginner/Intermediate
2 The Bitcoin Standard Saifedean Ammous The monetary-history case for a fixed supply Intermediate
3 Mastering Bitcoin Andreas M. Antonopoulos Verifying how the protocol actually works, at the code level Advanced
4 The Blocksize War Jonathan Bier Understanding how Bitcoin’s own rules get decided Intermediate
5 Digital Gold Nathaniel Popper The people and events behind Bitcoin’s first decade Beginner/Intermediate
6 Layered Money Nik Bhatia Placing Bitcoin inside the existing monetary system, not outside it Intermediate

1. Why Crypto? by Heidi Chakos

Why Crypto? is built for the reader this list is written for: someone who has watched Bitcoin’s price for years and never gotten a straight answer on what they were actually watching. Chakos starts with fiat currency: how it loses purchasing power over time and what that erosion has cost savers across market cycles, before a single blockchain term appears. From there, the book moves into Bitcoin’s origins, then blockchain mechanics and consensus explained in plain language, then tokenomics, stablecoins, and lending, and closes on regulation and risk instead of treating them as an afterthought.

"Why Crypto?" by Heidi Chakos resting on a rainy windowsill, a top pick among cryptocurrency books for readers questioning the traditional financial system.
“Why Crypto?” by Heidi Chakos resting on a rainy windowsill, a top pick among cryptocurrency books for readers questioning the traditional financial system.

The chapter on consensus mechanisms is the one readers cite most often, because it explains proof-of-work without either oversimplifying it into a slogan or burying it in cryptography. The closing chapters do the same for risk: security failures, regulatory uncertainty, and volatility get covered directly, not waved off. That combination of plain language on the mechanics and honesty on the downside is why it holds the top spot on this list of the top crypto books to read in 2026. It’s available now as her book, Why Crypto?, in paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

2. The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous

Ammous traces the concept of “hard money,” currency that’s difficult to debase, from seashells and gold through to Bitcoin’s fixed 21-million-coin supply. For a reader whose only reference point for scarcity is a price chart, this book supplies the centuries of monetary history that make the 21 million figure meaningful instead of arbitrary.

3. Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas M. Antonopoulos

This is the book for readers who want to verify, not take on faith, how Bitcoin works. Antonopoulos covers wallets, private keys, mining, and the protocol layer at the level of code, which is the only way to actually confirm what a blockchain does rather than what a headline says it does.

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4. The Blocksize War by Jonathan Bier

Bier documents the 2015-2017 fight over how big a Bitcoin block should be, a technical dispute that split the community and produced a hard fork. It’s the clearest illustration on this list of a fact price charts never show: Bitcoin’s rules aren’t fixed by decree; they’re fought over and negotiated by the people who run the software.

5. Digital Gold by Nathaniel Popper

A financial journalist’s account of Bitcoin’s first several years: the early adopters, the failures, and the personalities who kept building through both. It’s useful precisely because it isn’t instructional: it shows the system’s founding moments instead of arguing for them, which gives context the more technical books on this list assume you already have.

6. Layered Money by Nik Bhatia

Bhatia maps how money has always existed in layers: gold, then paper claims on gold, then bank deposits, then central bank reserves. He places Bitcoin as a new base layer within that structure, rather than as something wholly outside it. For a reader trying to understand where Bitcoin actually sits relative to the dollar system, this is the book that draws the map.

Which Bitcoin book should someone start with?

Start from what you’re actually missing, not from the ranking above.

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  • Never gotten the full picture, from fiat to blockchain to risk: start with Why Crypto?, which is built to be read start to finish by someone with no prior background.
  • Want the monetary-history case for scarcity: read The Bitcoin Standard next.
  • Want to verify the technical claims yourself: go straight to Mastering Bitcoin.
  • Want to understand how Bitcoin’s own rules get changed, or don’t: read The Blocksize War.
  • Want the human story before the technical one: read Digital Gold.
  • Want to see where Bitcoin fits against the dollar system: close with Layered Money.

About the author

Based in Dubai, Heidi Chakos has spent close to a decade building CryptoTips, her crypto and macro-focused YouTube channel, into one with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, plus a following on X, since co-founding it in 2016. Why Crypto? is her debut book, built on the same explain-the-mechanics-first approach that’s shaped her channel throughout.

Where to go after the book

Most readers hit the same wall right after the last page: the book explains how Bitcoin works, but holding it yourself, checking a token’s real supply schedule, or reading a project’s incentives instead of its marketing takes practice a book alone can’t give you. That’s the specific gap LearningCrypto is built to close, with structured lessons on self-custody, tokenomics, and risk management from the CryptoTips team that start exactly where the reading leaves off. If this list left you wanting to go past the charts and into the mechanics yourself, learningcrypto.com is a reasonable next stop.

Disclosure: This content is provided by a third party. Neither crypto.news nor the author of this article endorses any product mentioned on this page. Users should conduct their own research before taking any action related to the company.

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MicroStrategy Earnings Flip From $10 Billion Profit to $8.2 Billion Loss in 1 Year

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Bitcoin Price Performance, Source: BeInCrypto

MicroStrategy earnings for the second quarter carried an $8.22 billion net loss and a new metric, BTC Hurdle ARR, that Strategy’s own Bitcoin yield is currently running below.

The company set that hurdle at 10.8% and reported a 4.5% bitcoin yield for the year. Chief Financial Officer Andrew Kang called the figure its effective cost of credit.

What the New Metric Is Meant to Show

Strategy published BTC Hurdle ARR and Net Bitcoin Per Share on its website this week, timed to results. Together they are meant to show whether Bitcoin accretion outruns what the company pays creditors and preferred holders.

Kang set out the test himself.

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“Our BTC Hurdle ARR of 10.8% represents our current effective cost of credit. If BTC ARR is above this rate, Net BTC Per Share captures a positive spread and appreciates faster than bitcoin on a go-forward basis,” Andrew Kang, Chief Financial Officer, Strategy said in the statement.

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The comparison is not perfectly clean. Strategy published no current BTC ARR figure, and BTC Yield tracks per-share accretion over a fixed window rather than an annual rate.

The Distance Between 4.5% and 10.8%

The direction is still checkable. A 4.5% yield banked between January 1 and July 26 works out near 8% annualized, leaving a shortfall of roughly three percentage points.

On the company’s own logic, a negative spread means Net Bitcoin Per Share fails to outpace Bitcoin itself. Anyone holding MSTR for leveraged exposure is currently paying more for credit than the machine returns.

Scrutiny of that machinery is not new. The debate over new metrics has trailed Strategy through 2026, as has the collapse in MSTR’s premium to its holdings.

Why the Cost of Credit Keeps Climbing

The hurdle rises with whatever Strategy pays for money. STRC issuance brought in $7.53 billion this year, growth of 254%, and management pushed the payout rate on those preferred shares to 12%.

Preferred dividends alone consumed $400.7 million during the quarter, against $49.1 million a year earlier. Roughly $218.4 million of Bitcoin was sold to help cover them.

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The quarter was punishing. An $8.32 billion writedown produced a net loss of $8.22 billion, or $24.45 per diluted share. With Bitcoin trading near $64,713, the 843,775 coin position sits about $8.9 billion beneath its $63.69 billion cost.

Bitcoin Price Performance, Source: BeInCrypto
Bitcoin Price Performance, Source: BeInCrypto

Founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor reads the period as a transition rather than a strain.

“In the midst of this phase of muted bitcoin sentiment and market skepticism, we continue to evolve our business model and establish Digital Credit as a new asset class,” said Saylor.

Parts of the release support that reading. Convertible notes fell from $8.21 billion to $6.71 billion after a May buyback struck at an 8% discount to par, and software revenue grew 6.9% to $122.4 million.

A $3.75 billion reserve covers dividends and interest for 2.1 years, so nothing breaks imminently, though STRC’s durability remains contested. The sharper question is whether the spread flips positive before that cushion thins.

The post MicroStrategy Earnings Flip From $10 Billion Profit to $8.2 Billion Loss in 1 Year appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Sam Altman ChatGPT AI Predicts Bitcoin Will Make History by End of 2026

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Sam Altman ChatGPT AI Predicts Bitcoin Will Make History by End of 2026

ChatGPT AI predicts a steady climb for Bitcoin, and this price prediction begins with an unusual correction built right in. At roughly $63,500, the model is explicit that this is Bitcoin trading near $63,479 today, not Cardano, before laying out a probability-weighted year-end 2026 target of $95,000, with a credible bull case range of $115,000 to $140,000.

The rally catalysts here lean heavily on hard numbers rather than vague sentiment. US spot Bitcoin ETFs retain about $81.2 billion in assets, including roughly $46.9 billion held in BlackRock’s IBIT alone, suggesting that renewed institutional allocations could generate genuinely powerful marginal demand.

Corporate treasury vehicles remain committed buyers on top of that ETF base. The US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve permanently removes deposited government BTC from potential sale and permits budget-neutral acquisition strategies, effectively taking a slice of supply off the table for good.

Source: ChatGPT AI Bitcoin Price Prediction

Clearer SEC rules are increasingly distinguishing non-security crypto assets from those that fall under stricter regulation. Expanding regulation of stablecoins and market structures is strengthening institutional confidence at the same time.

Macro liquidity adds another layer. US M2 money supply has grown to $23.16 trillion from $21.94 trillion year over year, and any eventual easing from the Fed’s current 3.50% to 3.75% rate would improve liquidity conditions for an asset capped at 21 million coins total.

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ChatGPT lays out a clear technical staircase for how the bull case plays out. A sustained break above $80,000 should open the door to $100,000 to $115,000, while recovering ETF inflows, easier monetary conditions, and a retest of Bitcoin’s 2025 record could drive the price toward $140,000.

The bear case is treated with real weight rather than as an afterthought. If the Fed turns more hawkish, ETF outflows persist, leveraged treasury companies become forced sellers, geopolitical or recession risks trigger deleveraging, or regulation stalls, ChatGPT sees Bitcoin falling to $45,000 to $55,000, broadly consistent with Citi’s own current bear scenario of $53,000.

Bitcoin (BTC)
24h7d30d1yAll time

Bitcoin Price Prediction: BTC Has Spent Six Months Chopping Between The Same Two Levels

Price closed at $63,402, down 0.70%, in a session ranging between $63,309 and $64,658. That quiet red day sits almost exactly in the middle of a range this chart has been stuck inside since spring.

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Zoom out, and the shape since October 2025 is one long staircase down. Bitcoin peaked near $128,000 that month, then broke down hard through January, gapping from above $92,000 to under $76,000 in a matter of weeks.

Since that crash, price built a rounded recovery through spring that peaked near $82,000 in May, then rolled over into a sharp flush back to $60,000 in June. The climb since that June low has been gradual, and it has now pushed XRP price back to almost exactly where the May rally first stalled.

Support sits at $60,000, the level defended through June. Below that, there is limited recent chart history before XRP price moves into territory not visited this entire period.

Resistance stacks at $66,000, then $70,000, then the heavier May ceiling near $82,000 that has already rejected one full rally attempt this year. Momentum here is mildly negative after today’s session, consistent with a market still working through the same range rather than committing to a direction.

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For ChatGPT’s bull case to gain real traction, Bitcoin needs to clear $82,000, the exact level that stopped this chart cold once already this year. Until that happens, this remains the same six-month range, just tested from a slightly different angle each time.

Here is What ChatGPT AI Predicts About LiquidChain: Spoiler Alert, Very Bullish

Hindsight is the only place most people will see this rotation clearly. The money that moves early does not announce itself.

Large caps are not broken. They are boxed in. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP keep testing the same ceilings with nothing giving way. Every macro catalyst comes with a new arrival date. Every institutional wave lands next quarter. Sitting in assets where the next leg depends entirely on someone else’s decision is not a position. It is a waiting room.

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A capital that has survived enough cycles operates on one principle. It moves before the destination has a name.

Small-market-cap infrastructure plays by a different set of rules entirely. A rotation that would not register at Bitcoin’s scale can reprice an undiscovered project by multiples. The return lives in the distance between what something is genuinely worth and what the market has assigned it so far. That distance exists only while the project remains unfound. The moment it gets found, the gap closes for good.

Multi-chain fragmentation drains value from DeFi every single day. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana operate as completely isolated systems with no native bridge connecting them. Every user who crosses those boundaries pays for that disconnection directly in fees, slippage, and failed transactions. Every crossing. Every time.

ChatGPT AI predicts LiquidChain eliminates that entirely. All 3 networks are unified inside a single execution layer. One deployment reaches every ecosystem. Zero cross-chain tax on any interaction.

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The presale sits at $0.01454 with just over $920,000 raised. The market has not found this yet. That is exactly the opportunity.

Visit LiquidChain.

The post Sam Altman ChatGPT AI Predicts Bitcoin Will Make History by End of 2026 appeared first on Cryptonews.

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World Cup Boosted Blockchain Prediction Markets to $20B

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Crypto Breaking News

The 2026 FIFA World Cup turned into a major proving ground for crypto-based consumer activity, with blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis estimating $20 billion in blockchain-linked prediction market volume and $24 million in trades of FIFA-related digital collectibles during the tournament cycle.

In Chainalysis’s analysis, bettors placed about $5.7 billion in wagers over the five weeks of the World Cup itself, while activity tied to World Cup markets made up roughly 63% of all prediction market trading during that span. The numbers point to how quickly blockchain infrastructure can become embedded in mainstream global events—if platforms can onboard large audiences while keeping compliance controls effective.

Key takeaways

  • Chainalysis attributes $20 billion in blockchain-based prediction market volume to the 2026 World Cup, including trading before and during the tournament.
  • About $5.7 billion was wagered across the five-week event window, with World Cup markets representing approximately 63% of prediction market activity during that period.
  • More than 400,000 wallets participated in blockchain betting, with the United States and China leading in attributable volume.
  • Illicit exposure appears limited by wallet count: fewer than 1% of participating wallets had ties to illicit actors, though Chainalysis detected roughly $5.4 million in flows from sanctioned and other illicit sources.
  • Fan engagement extended beyond betting: around $24 million in FIFA Collect NFT trades and over 100,000 match tickets distributed through the platform, with sanctioned-linked users under 0.01%.

World Cup prediction markets draw large-scale participation

Chainalysis’s report frames the World Cup as a rare instance where blockchain-based prediction markets reached a broad, geographically distributed audience. According to the firm, participation came from every continent except Antarctica.

In terms of where attributable trading volume originated, the United States and China topped the list, followed by Canada, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. That distribution matters for investors and builders because it suggests these platforms are no longer confined to a small, crypto-native user base—at least for high-interest global events.

Chainalysis also noted that World Cup-related prediction markets dominated the sector’s activity during the five-week tournament window. With World Cup markets accounting for about 63% of prediction market trading during that period, the event effectively acted as a concentration point for demand, liquidity, and user attention.

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Wagering volume is huge, but illicit activity stays comparatively low

While the scale of betting activity was significant, Chainalysis’s findings indicate that outright illicit participation was limited when measured by the number of wallets involved. The firm said fewer than 1% of wallets participating in World Cup prediction markets had ties to illicit actors.

However, the report does not claim the ecosystem was free of risk. Chainalysis identified roughly $5.4 million in flows that originated from sanctioned entities and other illicit sources. The distinction is important: even if bad-actor wallet counts are low, illicit flows can still materialize within total volume—especially in markets with high throughput during major events.

For platforms and users, the takeaway is not simply that “crime is small,” but that compliance controls likely play a central role in keeping participation cleaner as user numbers expand.

Digital collectibles and ticketing add another layer of on-chain engagement

Beyond prediction markets, Chainalysis highlighted growing usage of blockchain-based digital collectibles connected to major sports moments. Fans traded approximately $24 million worth of FIFA Collect NFTs during the tournament period.

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The report also cited a distribution figure that is relevant to how tokenized collectibles can move beyond trading: more than 100,000 match tickets were distributed through the platform. Together, NFT trading and ticket distribution suggest that blockchain tooling is being used for both monetization and operational delivery of event-related assets.

Chainalysis further reported that wallets linked to sanctioned entities represented less than 0.01% of FIFA Collect users. The analytics firm attributed this low level, at least in part, to identity verification requirements implemented by the platform. That correlation between onboarding friction and lower sanctioned exposure is likely to remain a key design and regulatory consideration as more mainstream consumers join tokenized experiences.

Why Chainalysis’s analysis matters for the next wave of mainstream crypto

The World Cup data illustrates two simultaneous trends. First, blockchain ecosystems can absorb large numbers of users during mass-market events—pushing prediction markets to multi-billion-dollar volumes and turning collectibles into a meaningful consumer behavior. Second, scale increases the importance of compliance: even with sub-1% illicit wallet participation, the report still found millions in flows tied to sanctioned or illicit sources.

Chainalysis said its results point to blockchain playing a growing role in major global events, while also underscoring the need for compliance measures as platforms attract broader participation.

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For market participants, the practical question going forward is whether the same pattern—high engagement combined with strong enforcement—will hold outside tournament peaks. Investors and traders will likely watch whether platforms can sustain clean onboarding and monitor activity as user bases expand beyond the temporary surges created by global championships.

As blockchain-based prediction markets and collectibles keep testing mainstream adoption, the next signals to monitor are how platforms refine identity verification, how compliance improves over time, and whether illicit flows remain constrained as user participation grows beyond event-driven demand.

Risk & affiliate notice: Crypto assets are volatile and capital is at risk. This article may contain affiliate links. Read full disclosure

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Apple Beats Earnings but Services, China Disappoint. How Should Stock Traders Position?

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Apple (APPL) Stock Performance. Source: Yahoo Finance

Apple reported its strongest June quarter on record, topping Wall Street forecasts on both revenue and earnings. Shares still fell in extended trading on Thursday as investors picked apart the composition of the beat.

Services revenue and Greater China sales landed below analyst forecasts. A one-time tariff refund also flattered profitability, leaving traders to judge how much of the quarter reflects durable demand.

Apple Q3 Earnings Rest on iPhone and Mac Strength

Revenue reached $109.42 billion for the quarter ended June 27, up 16% year over year. Diluted earnings per share rose 29% to $2.02, ahead of the $1.89 consensus.

Mac produced the quarter’s biggest upside surprise. The segment generated $10.35 billion, roughly 29% above last year and well clear of forecasts near $8.7 billion.

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iPhone revenue climbed 22% to $54.25 billion. Every geographic segment grew by double digits, and the installed base of active devices set a record.

“Today, Apple is proud to report our strongest June quarter ever, with double-digit revenue growth across iPhone, Mac and Services, and in every geographic segment,” Tim Cook, Apple CEO, in the company’s earnings release.

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Tariff Refunds Cloud the Quality of the Beat

Gross margin reached 50.1%, but tariff refunds contributed about 2 percentage points of that figure and $0.11 of earnings per share. Strip those out and the beat narrows considerably.

Those refunds trace back to the Supreme Court tariff ruling in February, which struck down the White House’s global tariff regime. The benefit is unlikely to repeat at the same scale.

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Services grew 12% to $30.74 billion, short of estimates near $31.2 billion. Apple pointed to foreign exchange headwinds as one factor. Greater China revenue rose 22% to $18.82 billion, though analysts had set a higher bar after recent share gains.

How Stock Traders Are Framing the Setup

Shares closed at $338.43 on Thursday, down 0.56%, then eased to roughly $317.66 after hours. Market value sits near $4.97 trillion, just under the $5 trillion market cap the stock touched earlier this week.

Apple (APPL) Stock Performance. Source: Yahoo Finance
Apple (APPL) Stock Performance. Source: Yahoo Finance

That run created the problem. Apple gained about 15% in July and closed a week of megacap earnings that had already lifted expectations beyond a routine beat.

Some analysts had already flagged the valuation risk heading into the print, including warnings on Apple’s valuation from investor Dan Niles. The soft Services line gives that argument fresh support.

The report also marks Cook’s last as chief executive. John Ternus takes the role on September 1, adding a leadership variable to a September quarter that already carries memory supply constraints and recent hardware price increases.

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Guidance from the earnings call now matters more than the headline numbers. Traders will watch whether management signals that Services growth reaccelerates, or whether this quarter marks the peak of the current cycle.

The post Apple Beats Earnings but Services, China Disappoint. How Should Stock Traders Position? appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Evernorth updates SEC filing for $1B XRP treasury

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Who actually trades XRP? Korea and Japan order books

Ripple-backed Evernorth Holdings has amended its SEC registration statement after finalizing employment terms for three senior executives as it works toward a Nasdaq listing and a planned $1 billion public XRP treasury.

Summary

  • Evernorth filed Amendment No. 5 to its Form S-4 registration statement with the SEC.
  • Three executives secured employment agreements, including equity awards worth up to $4.5 million.
  • Evernorth plans to merge with Armada Acquisition Corp II and trade on Nasdaq under XRPN.
  • Falling XRP prices reduced the company’s combined holdings to approximately $640 million.

Evernorth adds three executive agreements to SEC filing

Evernorth disclosed new employment agreements for chief legal officer Jessica Jonas, chief business officer Sagar Shah and chief operating officer Meg Nakamura in its latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Each executive is eligible for an annual bonus equal to 50% of their base salary. The compensation packages also include restricted stock units and employee benefits, according to the amended Form S-4.

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Jonas would receive an initial equity award valued at approximately $4.5 million. Shah and Nakamura would each receive an award worth about $2.8 million.

The awards fall under Evernorth’s 2026 Omnibus Incentive Plan. They remain subject to shareholder approval and authorization from the compensation committee of the company’s board, meaning the disclosed amounts have not yet become unconditional payouts.

The agreements complete the company’s disclosed compensation arrangements for its main leadership team. Evernorth had previously finalized employment terms for CEO Asheesh Birla and chief financial officer Matt Frymier.

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$44 million CEO package preceded the latest amendment

Evernorth’s fourth amended Form S-4, filed earlier in July, set Birla’s base salary and outlined an initial equity award valued at approximately $44 million. The package included vesting conditions linked to his continued employment and the proposed transaction.

Frymier’s agreement included a base salary, annual bonus eligibility and an equity award valued at about $5.6 million. Evernorth also disclosed $750,000 restricted stock unit awards for executives, subject to board committee and shareholder approval.

The latest filing indicates that Evernorth is continuing to settle its governance and compensation structure before completing its business combination with Armada Acquisition Corp II.

Armada is a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by Arrington Capital. If shareholders and regulators clear the transaction, the combined company plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker XRPN.

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Evernorth has disclosed more than $1 billion in expected gross proceeds backed by investors including Ripple, SBI Holdings, Pantera Capital, Kraken and Arrington Capital. The company aims to use the capital to establish what it describes as the largest publicly traded XRP treasury.

Nasdaq merger would give US investors XRP exposure

A completed transaction would give U.S. stock-market investors another way to gain indirect exposure to XRP through a publicly traded company. Unlike direct token ownership, investors would hold shares in a corporate treasury whose value could also depend on operating expenses, management decisions and changes in the market value of its XRP holdings.

The S-4 process gives the SEC an opportunity to review disclosures covering the merger, executive compensation, financial risks and the proposed company’s business model. Filing an amended registration statement does not mean the regulator has approved the transaction.

Evernorth has also appointed several directors with ties to the cryptocurrency and financial sectors. Its proposed board includes Ripple chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty, Birla, Ted Janus, OpenAI Foundation CFO Robert Kaiden and Antalpha COO Derar Islim.

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Separately, Evernorth launched a Japanese-language account earlier in July to publish local updates and explain market developments. The company opened the account by stating:

“Japan believed in XRP early on. Together, we will build from here.”

Evernorth has not announced a Japanese office, license, investment or product through the account. It also said the channel would not discuss XRP prices.

XRP decline cuts Evernorth treasury value

XRP was trading between $1.05 and $1.09, with the token recently quoted near $1.07. It had fallen about 2% over 24 hours and more than 5% during the previous week, while trading volume declined by approximately 10%.

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That weakness reduced the reported value of Evernorth’s combined XRP holdings to about $640 million. The company also disclosed a $38.4 million impairment over the past four months, showing how a treasury strategy can expose shareholders to digital-asset price declines.

Armada shares had moved only slightly lower in recent sessions and remained positive for the year. Investors will now watch for further SEC amendments, shareholder votes and the satisfaction of closing conditions required to complete the Nasdaq transaction.

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Tokenized Gold Survives DeFi Test as Lending Adoption Lags

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Tokenized Gold Survives DeFi Test as Lending Adoption Lags

Demand for tokenized gold has surged this year as physical bullion climbed to record highs, but very little of the asset is being put to work in decentralized finance, highlighting a major adoption gap, according to a new report by RedStone.

Tokenized gold spot trading volume reached $90.7 billion in the first quarter as gold futures rallied above $5,600 per troy ounce. Yet only about $63 million worth of Tether Gold (XAUT) and PAX Gold (PAXG) is currently being used as collateral on Aave v3 and Morpho, RedStone said. That’s just 1.5% of the tokens’ combined $4.2 billion market capitalization.

Despite the limited adoption, tokenized gold has already weathered a meaningful market test, RedStone said.

On March 23, Aave processed its largest cluster of XAUT liquidations without disruption during a sharp sell-off in gold, demonstrating that tokenized bullion can function reliably as DeFi collateral under market stress.

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The liquidation event came after gold fell 10% over the previous week — its worst weekly performance in more than four decades. JPMorgan precious metals strategist Greg Shearer described the sell-off as an “extremely brutal flush.”

Tokenized gold liquidations peaked in late March across Morpho and Aave. Source: RedStone.

Since peaking in January, gold futures have declined more than 26%, pressured by expectations of higher US interest rates, which reduced demand for non-yielding assets such as precious metals.

Related: Tokenized commodities market crosses $6B amid gold’s historic rally

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Tokenized gold’s next hurdle could be DeFi adoption

RedStone’s findings suggest tokenized gold has proven resilient as DeFi collateral, but adoption remains limited. With only a small fraction of the market deployed in lending protocols, the data highlights a key infrastructure challenge as tokenized real-world assets (RWA) continue to scale.

Gold is part of a rapidly expanding tokenized RWA market that also includes private credit, US Treasurys with equities growing in import. In June, Token Terminal reported that the sector had topped $43 billion in value.

Meanwhile, centralized crypto exchanges are fast embracing tokenized assets as they push to bridge traditional finance and digital assets. According to a recent CoinGecko report, the emerging “crypto TradFi” market had grown to $6.6 billion as of June.

Related: Crypto Biz: Is the AI-to-crypto rotation underway?

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Pavel Durov Responds After Russia Labels Telegram Ties to Terrorism

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Crypto Breaking News

Telegram founder Pavel Durov says Russian authorities have designated him a “terrorist” after he refused government demands for mass surveillance and censorship on the messaging platform. Durov posted his response publicly in a Telegram message published a day after Russia announced new criminal charges against him.

In that post, Durov claimed Russia also blocked him from “publishing information on the Internet,” adding that authorities appear to have “got confused about who can ban whom from the Internet.”

Key takeaways

  • Durov’s latest statement follows Russia’s announcement of charges, after Russia’s security service accused him of facilitating terrorist activity.
  • The Russian allegations center on Telegram’s alleged failure to remove channels tied to terrorist groups and Ukrainian intelligence services.
  • Russia’s case builds on a criminal probe reportedly launched in February over alleged non-compliance with Russian rules on extremist and terrorism-related content.
  • Durov is also facing separate legal scrutiny in France, and regulators in Australia have reportedly initiated court proceedings over terrorism-related content.

Russia escalates case with “terrorist” label

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) accused Durov of facilitating terrorist activity, according to earlier coverage from Cointelegraph. The claim is that Telegram did not remove certain channels used by terrorist organizations as well as channels linked to Ukrainian intelligence services.

Durov’s rebuttal came through his own Telegram account the day after Russia made the allegations public. In addition to responding to the charges, he framed the dispute as a conflict over Telegram’s stance toward government demands, particularly around surveillance and content restrictions.

The message also suggests a broader disagreement about control of online speech and information access—Durov saying Russian authorities barred him from publishing information on the internet, while disputing the legitimacy of who can impose such restrictions.

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February investigation tied to alleged content non-removal

Russia’s current push does not appear out of nowhere. Cointelegraph previously reported that a criminal investigation in February followed regulatory accusations that Telegram left nearly 155,000 channels, chats, and bots accessible despite Telegram’s alleged violations of Russian laws relating to extremist material, terrorism, drug trafficking, and other illicit categories.

That earlier context matters because it indicates that the case is tied to a longer-running compliance argument—how Telegram moderates content and how it responds to removal requests. For investors and platform users watching the regulatory risk landscape, these developments reinforce that messaging platforms can face escalating consequences when regulators argue they are not acting quickly or thoroughly enough to meet local legal standards.

At the same time, much remains uncertain: public allegations do not automatically translate into immediate changes on the ground, and the specifics of what was or wasn’t removed—and under what procedural thresholds—are not detailed in the statements referenced here.

Legal pressure extends beyond Russia

Durov’s legal situation has been international. Cointelegraph reported that he was arrested in France in August 2024 and has remained the subject of a judicial investigation over allegations that Telegram facilitated criminal activity, including by allegedly failing to moderate illegal content adequately and respond to law enforcement requests.

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According to earlier coverage, Durov has denied wrongdoing, arguing that French authorities did not follow due process when seeking information from Telegram. His arrest was followed by a TON Community-backed campaign that collected more than 9 million signatures on an open letter urging French authorities to release him.

There have also been reported changes in travel conditions: French authorities initially allowed Durov to return temporarily to Dubai in March 2025 before lifting travel restrictions entirely later that year, as noted by Cointelegraph. The implication is that while legal pressure can be intense, authorities may adjust constraints over time depending on the status of the proceedings.

Meanwhile, Cointelegraph also reported that Australia has moved toward court proceedings, with regulators alleging Telegram failed to remove terrorism-related content. The platform’s exposure in multiple jurisdictions highlights a recurring regulatory theme worldwide: governments increasingly expect major communication platforms to take meaningful action against content they deem illegal, even when the platforms frame enforcement as complex, global, and constrained by legal standards.

Privacy, surveillance, and the EU debate

Beyond the courtroom, Durov has publicly positioned himself around digital privacy and free speech. In April, he warned that a proposed European Union age-verification app could open the door to broader online surveillance, according to Cointelegraph. The argument—tying age verification to a wider data-collection trajectory—signals how Durov views regulatory measures as potentially expanding monitoring rather than simply improving safety.

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In the same period, Cointelegraph reported that Durov blamed alleged tax data leaks for an increase in crypto-related kidnappings in France. He said Telegram would leave the country rather than grant authorities access to users’ private messages, tying the debate back to the line between lawful access and what he frames as unacceptable intrusion into private communications.

Taken together with the Russia and France allegations, these public remarks suggest that Durov is consistent in his framing: that enforcement actions aimed at removing content or complying with requests can also become mechanisms for surveillance or compelled access to private data.

What to watch next is how each jurisdiction’s process unfolds—whether courts compel specific operational changes, whether regulators escalate further, and how Telegram responds in practice. For users, the key question is whether enforcement will lead to tangible moderation shifts; for the broader industry, it will be whether these cases set precedents for how governments can pressure encryption-adjacent communication platforms to cooperate with investigations.

Risk & affiliate notice: Crypto assets are volatile and capital is at risk. This article may contain affiliate links. Read full disclosure

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Google backs $15B Anthropic data center in Texas

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Google bans Chrome prediction market extensions amid Kalshi battle

Google is reportedly backing a proposed $15 billion financing package for an Anthropic-linked data center in Texas, extending an AI infrastructure boom that has also lifted Bitcoin miners expanding into high-performance computing.

Summary

  • Nexus is in advanced talks to raise $15 billion for its Hubbard, Texas, data-center campus.
  • Google would guarantee parts of Anthropic’s leases and receive an estimated 20% project stake.
  • The campus includes an on-site natural-gas plant capable of generating 1.6 gigawatts.
  • AI-focused mining stocks rallied Thursday, with IREN, Hut 8 and CleanSpark gaining more than 20%.

Google and Anthropic financing terms

A group of banks led by Morgan Stanley is discussing a financing package for Nexus Data Centers’ planned campus in Hubbard, Texas, according to a Wall Street Journal report cited by Reuters.

The proposed package includes a $14 billion bridge loan and a revolving credit facility. The report did not disclose the size of the revolving facility or identify the other lenders involved in the talks.

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Google has reportedly agreed to guarantee billions of dollars in lease and power-payment obligations if Anthropic defaults. Its backing would apply to four data-center leases signed by the AI developer and related agreements to purchase electricity from an on-site power plant.

The guarantees remain limited to the minimum amount lenders require to complete the financing, according to the report. In exchange, Google is expected to receive an equity stake of around 20% in the combined data-center and power project.

Neither Nexus nor the banks have announced a completed transaction.

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Texas campus includes a 1.6 GW power plant

Nexus plans to pair the data-center campus with a natural-gas-fired power plant capable of producing 1.6 GW of electricity. The on-site facility would allow the project to secure a large power supply without relying entirely on additional capacity from the Texas grid.

Access to electricity has become one of the main constraints on new US data centers. AI facilities require large and continuous power supplies, while new transmission lines, generation assets and grid connections can take years to approve and construct.

The Nexus structure resembles other AI projects using financially stronger technology companies to support the obligations of private AI developers. Google’s guarantee would improve the project’s credit profile and could help Nexus obtain financing on better terms than Anthropic could secure independently.

Anthropic plans to use tensor processing units co-designed by Google and Broadcom at the site. The chips would be financed separately under a vendor agreement between Anthropic and Broadcom, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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Google’s participation would therefore cover several parts of the project: chips, credit guarantees and an expected equity position. The arrangement also gives Google a larger role in Anthropic’s infrastructure even as the AI developer buys processors from competing suppliers.

Bitcoin miners secure similar AI agreements

Nexus is competing for capital and AI tenants during a month marked by several multibillion-dollar agreements involving Bitcoin mining companies.

TeraWulf signed a 20-year lease with Anthropic on July 6 for its Justified Data campus in Hawesville, Kentucky. The contract covers about 401 MW of critical IT capacity and is expected to generate approximately $19 billion in revenue over its initial term.

CleanSpark followed with a $6.6 billion lease for its Sandersville campus in Georgia. The 20-year agreement covers 175 MW and could rise to $11.6 billion if the unidentified technology customer exercises its extension options.

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Hut 8 signed a second 352 MW lease at its Beacon Point campus in Texas on July 20. The $9.8 billion contract brought the property’s total base-term lease value to $19.6 billion. Renewal options could increase the figure to $50.2 billion.

IREN announced $2.8 billion in multi-year AI cloud contracts on the same day. It raised its year-end annualized AI cloud revenue target above $4 billion, with about 85% of the target under contract.

Core Scientific then signed an agreement giving AMD access to up to 2.5 GW of data-center capacity. The initial phase will provide 500 MW of AI-ready infrastructure in 2027, although the companies did not disclose the contract’s value.

These companies accumulated power agreements and industrial sites for Bitcoin mining before AI demand raised the potential value of those assets. Their existing grid access can shorten development timelines, although AI facilities require more advanced cooling, networking and backup systems than mining operations.

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AI-focused mining stocks rally

Shares of several miners with AI infrastructure exposure rose sharply on July 30, although the broader rally cannot be attributed solely to the Nexus report.

IREN closed approximately 30.7% higher at $38.26, while Hut 8 advanced 22.7% to $108.27. CleanSpark rose 21.1%, Core Scientific added 20.4% and TeraWulf gained 18.1%.

The moves extended an earlier market response to July’s AI contracts. Hut 8 had risen as much as 17% when it announced its second Beacon Point lease, while IREN climbed as much as 19% following its cloud-contract update.

Alphabet shares moved in the opposite direction Thursday, falling about 0.9% to $333.66. The decline came as investors continued assessing the cost of Google’s AI infrastructure expansion rather than signaling a clear response to the uncompleted Nexus financing.

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What comes next for the Nexus project

The immediate catalyst will be whether Morgan Stanley and the other banks finalize the $15 billion package and disclose its maturity, interest costs and guarantee structure.

Confirmation of Google’s expected 20% stake would also clarify how much direct exposure the company is taking to Anthropic’s infrastructure obligations. Until financing closes, the loan, guarantees and equity arrangement remain proposed terms reported by people familiar with the discussions.

For US-listed miners, completion would provide another valuation benchmark for large power-backed AI campuses. It would also add a conventional data-center developer to the competition for the same tenants, lenders, chips and power supplies now driving miners’ expansion beyond Bitcoin.

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Hyperscale Data sells 100 BTC to fund Michigan AI data center

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Hyperscale Data sells 100 BTC to fund Michigan AI data center

Hyperscale Data sells 100 BTC to fund Michigan AI data center

The Bitcoin miner is using part of its treasury and a BTC-backed credit facility to fund an AI campus tied to a potential multi-billion-dollar infrastructure contract.

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