Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s tech newsletter covering the most important stories in blockchain. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, a reporter at CoinDesk.

We’re giving you a deeper look at the biggest trends, breakthroughs and debates shaping blockchain technology each week.

This week, we’re unpacking the timeline of all the changes at the Ethereum Foundation since the year began.

USDC’s circulating supply has fallen to about $73 billion from nearly $80 billion in March, trimming its share of the roughly $312 billion stablecoin market as competition from newly regulated issuers intensifies.

Circle shares fell more than 17% on the day Open USD was announced, though CoinShares said the decline was likely amplified by technical selling linked to the Russell index reconstitution.

Still, the report argued the market may be overreacting. Open USD has yet to launch, important details remain unresolved and Circle retains a significant advantage through USDC’s deep liquidity and years of integrations across exchanges, DeFi and payments.

Open USD is unlikely to pose a major threat to Tether, whose dominance in emerging markets and offshore dollar liquidity gives USDT, the largest stablecoin by far, a different competitive moat, the report added.

For now, investors should watch whether Circle changes its distribution strategy and whether Open USD can convert its high-profile backing into adoption, CoinShares said. Until then, the project remains a credible, but unproven, challenge to USDC.

CoinShares is not alone in noting the challenge posed by Open USD. Japanese investment bank Mizuho downgraded Circle to underperform from neutral and slashed its price target to $50 from $85 in a note to clients on Tuesday, arguing that the new rival’s business model threatens the stablecoin issuer’s long-term economics.

Following Michael Saylor’s advertisements likening STRC to a high-yield bank account or money market, Strive swapped $50 million of the cash it had in March for STRC, and soon added another $500,000.

As of a new filing, the asset manager quietly disclosed that its shares were worth just $44.18 million as of July 10, a paper loss of roughly $6.3 million excluding dividends.

Although it published a glowing press release about its purchase, the admission of loss sat otherwise unannounced in an SEC filing, tucked between cash and BTC balances.

Unlike the purchase, no press campaign trumpeted the loss.

The instrument that Strive pitched as a cash-like hold has lost about 12% of its value relative to cash, and the dividends it received from holding STRC came nowhere close to closing that gap.

Strive used over a third of its cash holdings at the time for its STRC purchase.

What Strive said it was buying

CEO Matt Cole, who serves at Strive after years managing money at the California pension giant CalPERS, initially sold the trade as prudent treasury management.

Incredibly, he claimed at the time that Strive opted for STRC “instead of holding idle cash earning low yields in money market funds.”

Although STRC is nothing like a money market and has, in fact, lost 28% of its value at its June 26 low, Strive initially claimed that STRC would “provide strong yield dynamics while maintaining stable price behavior.”

Obviously, it hasn’t.

Unlike a bank account or money market, STRC fluctuates in price daily on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Strategy says it should trade close to its $100 par value due to its fine-tuning of dividend rates, a dubious mechanism Protos has documented at length.

Strive even counted its STRC shares toward its own so-called “reserve” backing dividends on its competing product, SATA, another quasi-stable, dividend-paying stock.

Unlike an insured savings product, neither STRC nor SATA offer guarantees to preserve principal, offer deposit insurance, nor provide rights to redeem at par from the company. 

Whatever a Nasdaq trader will pay is what the shares are actually worth.

A 20-year-old man who suffered significant losses after following the advice of a South Korean investment YouTuber has allegedly stabbed the man in an act of revenge. The July 13 attack coincided with a 9% crash in the South Korean stock market — its seventh-largest dip on record.

The Chosun Daily reports that police arrested the man, known only as “Mr A,” on Tuesday on suspicion of attempted murder after he travelled to Busan’s Nam District and stabbed the victim — known as “Mr B” — multiple times in the face.

Mr A reportedly subscribed to a YouTube channel run by 40-year-old Mr B, and structured his investments based on his recommendations. 

However, the investments caused Mr A to suffer significant losses.

This all took place as South Korea’s stock market, the KOSPI, was in the midst of a 9% nosedive.

Stocks representing AI giant SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics fell by 15.4% and 10.7%. Indeed, SK Hynix wiped out the gains it had made from its US debut last week.

South Korea is preparing a major overhaul of how the government manages “state assets,” including digital assets and intellectual property, as part of efforts to modernize public-sector finance. The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) says it plans to replace the State Property Act—dating back to 1950—with a new National Asset Basic Act, using a broader definition of what qualifies as state-owned value.

Officials also reiterated plans to test the tokenization of government bonds on a blockchain as early as a 2027 pilot, with an eye toward reducing transaction friction. Beyond securities, the ministry said it will examine tokenizing state-owned real estate to widen retail participation and share a portion of the generated returns with the public.

Key takeaways

• MOEF is moving toward a new National Asset Basic Act to modernize public asset management and expand the legal definition to cover digital assets and intellectual property.
• The government bond tokenization plan is targeted for a 2027 pilot, framed as a way to streamline transactions.
• South Korea is also considering tokenized real-estate models designed to attract retail users and share returns.
• Separately, Seoul’s 2026 growth strategy includes a study period aimed at connecting tokenized government bonds with the Bank of Korea’s CBDC infrastructure.
• Upcoming legal changes to tokenized securities frameworks are scheduled to take full effect in early 2027, with blockchain-ledgers recognized as valid securities registries.

Replacing a decades-old asset framework

MOEF’s proposal centers on updating the legal structure for state asset management. According to the ministry, the National Asset Basic Act is intended to shift policy from a legacy approach—historically focused on tangible, real-estate-heavy state property—toward a framework centered on value creation.

The MOEF briefing held at the President’s Blue House on Wednesday emphasized that the reform would explicitly bring digital assets and intellectual property into the umbrella of state assets. The ministry linked this to a broader modernization goal: aligning the governance of government-held resources with how value is increasingly stored, transferred, and monetized in digital form.

For market participants, the significance is twofold. First, clearer legal coverage can reduce uncertainty around how non-traditional assets may be handled in government programs or public investment strategies. Second, it sets a policy foundation that can support later pilot initiatives—such as bond and real-estate tokenization—without relying on narrow interpretations of older statutes.

Tokenized government bonds and the push toward a “blockchain economy”

Regulatory and infrastructure plans are converging around tokenized government debt. Earlier coverage noted that South Korea’s government unveiled a 2026 Economic Growth Strategy for the second half, which includes a 2027 pilot intended to link tokenized government bonds to central bank digital currency (CBDC) infrastructure. As described in the government strategy, authorities plan to study how to make the Bank of Korea’s (BOK) CBDC system interoperable with other blockchains.

The interoperability concept was first publicly discussed on July 1, when BOK Governor Hyun Song Shin outlined the idea at the European Central Bank Forum on Central Banking. Building on that, the latest strategy positions the research and pilot work as part of a broader effort to develop a “blockchain economy.”

In practice, this matters because interoperability between a CBDC infrastructure layer and public or permissioned blockchain networks can affect how tokenized instruments are issued, transferred, and settled. A pilot that tests that connection in the context of government bonds—an asset class that is typically central to liquidity and price discovery—could serve as a benchmark for future tokenized issuance across other sectors.

From pilots to legal recognition for tokenized securities

South Korea’s push for tokenization is not only about infrastructure; it is also about legal status. The MOEF previously announced a pilot using tokenized deposits to execute government operational spending, with a full rollout planned for the fourth quarter of 2026. That initiative reflects a wider pattern: tokenized rails are being tested in day-to-day state functions before scaling.

Separately, changes to South Korea’s Capital Markets Act and Electronic Securities Act—designed to support the country’s early tokenized securities framework—are scheduled to take full effect on Feb. 4, 2027. The reforms aim to legally recognize blockchain-ledgers as valid securities registries.

Officials say this would bring tokenized assets under the Financial Services Commission’s jurisdiction, moving them out of a purely experimental stage. For investors, that shift is particularly important: securities registration is a core component of custody, ownership tracking, and compliance. Legal recognition of blockchain-ledgers as registries can improve clarity around operational responsibilities and investor protections, although the practical impact will depend on how regulators implement standards and supervision.

Tokenizing state real estate for retail access

Alongside the bond and CBDC-related work, MOEF is exploring tokenization of state-owned real estate. The stated goal is to encourage retail participation and share part of the returns generated from these assets with the public.

While the proposal is framed as an area for further exploration rather than a fully specified rollout, it fits the broader theme of shifting government asset management toward models that can potentially broaden access and reduce barriers to entry. Real estate has historically been difficult for retail investors to access at scale due to high capital requirements and complex transaction processes. Tokenization, at least in theory, could address parts of that problem by enabling smaller ownership units and faster transfer mechanisms.

Still, major details typically determine whether tokenized real estate becomes commercially viable—such as custody arrangements, investor suitability rules, valuation practices, and the regulatory treatment of tokenized property rights. Until those elements are clarified, the move should be viewed as a policy direction that may shape future pilots and rulemaking.

Looking ahead, investors and builders should watch for how MOEF’s National Asset Basic Act language translates into implementation, particularly regarding digital asset classification and governance. The 2026 strategy’s 2027 CBDC interoperability and the Feb. 4, 2027 legal changes to securities registries are likely to be the clearest near-term signals of how quickly tokenization can move from pilots into regulated, scalable markets.

Revolut has secured in-principle approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority to expand its regulated crypto business in the United Arab Emirates, adding another regulatory milestone to its global digital asset strategy.

According to a company announcement on Tuesday, the approval allows Revolut to move toward offering virtual asset broker-dealer, management, investment, and exchange services in the UAE, subject to receiving final authorization from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA).

Once fully licensed, Revolut said eligible customers in the UAE will be able to buy, sell, and hold digital assets through its main retail app and its dedicated trading platform, Revolut X.

The latest approval follows an earlier authorization from the Central Bank of the UAE for Revolut’s payments business, as the fintech continues building a locally regulated financial platform in the country.

Joseph Khair, head of Revolut Digital Assets FZE, UAE, said the UAE has established “a robust and transparent framework for virtual assets” and added that the approval creates the foundation for the company to launch regulated crypto services while supporting VARA’s efforts to develop a safe and innovation-focused digital asset ecosystem.

UAE becomes the latest step in Revolut’s regulated crypto expansion

Outside the UAE, Revolut has continued to adapt its crypto business to local regulatory requirements across several markets.

Earlier this month, the company confirmed it would remove Tether’s USDT from eligible European accounts after the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework entered full enforcement. Revolut said affected users can continue selling or transferring their USDT until Aug. 31 before the stablecoin is removed from supported accounts.

The company said the restriction applies only to notified customers in eligible European jurisdictions and does not affect markets where USDT remains supported.

MiCA requires crypto service providers and stablecoin issuers operating in the European Union to comply with licensing, reserve, disclosure, and supervisory requirements. Tether has not received MiCA authorization, and Chief Executive Officer Paolo Ardoino has previously argued that some of the framework’s reserve rules were not suitable for the issuer.

The UAE approval also comes as Revolut continues preparing for its U.S. expansion. Reuters reported in June that the fintech plans to launch a U.S. bank next year after filing for a national bank charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. According to Reuters, the planned platform will combine FDIC-insured banking products with crypto trading, stablecoins, and multi-currency services.