Circle has integrated its Gateway and Circle Payments Network with Fireblocks, giving institutional customers new ways to manage USDC across blockchains and settle cross-border payments. 

The services are now available directly through Fireblocks’ existing infrastructure, including its transaction controls, approval systems and audit records.

The integration targets trading firms, neobanks and payments companies that use stablecoins for treasury operations and international settlement. According to Fireblocks, stablecoins accounted for 69% of all digital asset transaction volume on its platform during the second quarter of 2026. The company also said USDC became its leading stablecoin earlier this year.

Circle Gateway allows institutions to maintain one virtual USDC balance across supported networks instead of keeping separate pools on each blockchain. Funds can move to supported chains when required, while incoming USDC can automatically return to the unified balance. Fireblocks said the system also reduces the need to hold separate gas tokens for destination networks. 

Circle Payments Network connects USDC with local fiat payouts

The second part of the integration brings Circle Payments Network, or CPN, into the Fireblocks Network for Payments. Customers can send USDC and route payments to recipients who receive local fiat currency through supported providers in more than 50 countries. The companies said settlement can take minutes rather than relying on multi-day correspondent banking processes. 

Circle 🤝 @FireblocksHQ

Gateway and Circle Payments Network are now accessible through Fireblocks, helping institutions manage USDC operations with the policy controls, approvals, and audit trails they already use.

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→ Unified USDC balances across supported chains with Gateway… pic.twitter.com/JPEZoF9Hdd

— Circle (@circle) July 16, 2026

Meanwhile, Fireblocks will apply its existing policy controls to Gateway transfers and CPN payouts. These include transaction approvals, counterparty lists, sanctions screening and Travel Rule processes. The aim is to let institutions use stablecoin payment rails without building a separate control system for each network or payment corridor.

The rollout builds on a partnership Circle and Fireblocks announced in September 2025. At the time, the companies said Fireblocks customers would gain access to Circle products, including Gateway and CPN, as financial institutions increased their use of stablecoins for payments and treasury operations.

As crypto.news previously reported, Circle expanded CPN in April with Managed Payments, a service designed to let banks and fintech companies use USDC-based settlement without directly managing digital assets or blockchain infrastructure. That service handles parts of the stablecoin process while participating institutions continue sending and receiving fiat currency.

Moreover, Circle added Nium to CPN in May, connecting USDC settlement with payout infrastructure spanning more than 190 countries and 100 currencies. The Fireblocks integration now adds another institutional access point to the network.

Fireblocks said stablecoin transaction volume reached $33 trillion across the wider market in 2025, up 72% year over year. With Gateway and CPN now available inside its platform, customers can manage cross-chain USDC liquidity and fiat payouts under the same operating and compliance controls they already use for other digital asset transactions.

Bitcoin Ordinals advocate Leonidas has proposed building an alternative open-source Bitcoin client designed to loosen specific protocol and relay constraints that, according to its creator, have limited certain “Runes” and “Ordinals” transaction patterns on the network.

In a post on X on Friday, Leonidas outlined what he calls “Bitcoin $DOG Mode,” arguing it would reduce barriers for sending inscriptions and Runes while challenging long-standing default settings used by widely deployed Bitcoin software.

Key takeaways

• Leonidas’ proposed “Bitcoin $DOG Mode” would raise the maximum individual transaction size to 3.9 million weight units (WU), versus Bitcoin Core’s 400,000 WU.
• The client would lower the dust limit to 1 satoshi, from Bitcoin Core’s commonly cited range of 294–546 sats, changing how small outputs can be handled economically.
• Supporters say these changes would make it easier to batch larger Ordinals inscriptions and Runes into single transactions, while critics have called such activity “spam.”
• Leonidas positions the proposal as an alternative to Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots, aiming to force broader policy reconsideration through user adoption.

What Leonidas wants to change

Leonidas’ proposal centers on two rules he says are unnecessarily restrictive relative to what he views as Bitcoin’s intent. First, he targets the maximum size of an individual transaction. In his description, “Bitcoin $DOG Mode” would allow transactions up to 3.9 million WU, compared with Bitcoin Core’s 400,000 WU setting.

Second, he proposes reducing the dust limit to 1 satoshi. Leonidas frames this as a way to eliminate the need for users to pad outputs—an issue associated with whether certain tiny outputs remain economical to include and whether nodes relay them under default policies.

In the same post, Leonidas argued that these adjustments would directly improve usability for projects built around inscriptions and token-like transfers on Bitcoin, including Ordinals and Runes, which have been debated within the broader Bitcoin community.

Why transaction size and dust limits matter

For Ordinals and Runes, the practical challenge is often not just whether the network can technically include data or outputs, but whether standard relay and policy behaviors make certain transaction constructions inconvenient or difficult to broadcast.

Leonidas’ proposed higher transaction size limit would be particularly relevant for users who want to bundle much larger pieces of content into one transaction. The larger the single transaction the client permits, the more data can be placed into one on-chain action—potentially even nearing the capacity of an entire block.

On the relay side, lowering the dust limit is meant to change the economics and mechanics of outputs. Dust limits define the smallest output amounts that can be sent economically, typically tied to whether the network and default node software treat those outputs as non-viable or non-relayable. By pushing the dust threshold down to 1 satoshi, Leonidas suggests users would no longer have to add extra value to make transactions acceptable to default Bitcoin Core nodes.

“Rules that Bitcoin itself does not have,” Leonidas says

Leonidas’ argument is explicitly political as well as technical. He claims that Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots—two of the most commonly used Bitcoin clients—have “spent years enforcing rules that Bitcoin itself does not have,” positioning his $DOG Mode as a corrective.

According to Leonidas, the initiative is not just about supporting Ordinals and Runes, but about removing what he characterizes as “permission” requirements imposed by mainstream software operators and maintainers. He casts the effort as a bid to widen the set of acceptable transaction behaviors without needing users to seek approval through existing default implementations.

While Ordinals and Runes are often described as Bitcoin’s approach to non-fungible and fungible token concepts, the methods have remained controversial. Critics have argued that large-scale inscription or runes-related activity resembles network “spam” and may degrade overall usefulness or impose additional burdens. Leonidas’ proposal directly targets the infrastructure choices that enable or limit such activity, turning a community debate into an engineering proposal.

A strategy to pressure Bitcoin Core policy

Leonidas said “Bitcoin $DOG Mode” is intended to operate as an alternative to Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots. His stated goal goes beyond shipping a fork-like client: he wants to attract enough users that Bitcoin Core would eventually face pressure to loosen its own restrictions.

This approach matters because Bitcoin Core’s policy and configuration choices influence what transactions are easiest to propagate through the network, particularly for nodes using default settings. A competing client with meaningfully different limits could shift practical behavior: if more users and services adopt it, standard assumptions about what transactions can be relayed efficiently might change.

At the same time, the proposal raises questions readers may want to watch closely—especially around where boundaries would end. If larger transaction sizes and lower dust limits become widely used, it could lead to new tradeoffs involving bandwidth, verification workload, and network-level resource consumption. Leonidas’ plan also depends on adoption: without broad usage, Bitcoin Core’s policies may remain unchanged.

Next, investors and builders watching Bitcoin’s on-chain asset ecosystem should pay attention to whether $DOG Mode attracts real-world adoption and how the proposal is received by other parts of the Bitcoin software ecosystem, particularly around relay behavior and policy settings that affect everyday transaction broadcasting.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has confirmed that hackers compromised his X account earlier this week after the profile published a lengthy thread about blockchain-based real-world asset tokenization. 

The posts later disappeared, and Chesky has now responded with a joke about the unexpected audience the incident brought to his account.

In a July 17 post on X, Chesky wrote, “To the person who hacked my account earlier this week: thanks for all the new crypto followers.” He then added, “To my new crypto followers: I’m going to be a very disappointing follow.” His statement confirmed that the earlier tokenization posts did not represent commentary he intended to publish.

To the person who hacked my account earlier this week: thanks for all the new crypto followers.

To my new crypto followers: I’m going to be a very disappointing follow. https://t.co/DtO2gtgHjQ

— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) July 16, 2026

Chesky confirms hack after unusual tokenization thread

The deleted thread attracted attention because it presented detailed arguments about tokenized real-world assets rather than promoting Airbnb’s core business. It discussed blockchain-based ownership and financial markets in a way that initially led some observers and publications to treat the posts as genuine comments from the Airbnb chief.

According to Fortune’s report on the incident, Airbnb treated the episode as a high-profile account compromise and moved to secure the profile with X. However, the nature of the posts caused confusion because the thread focused on tokenization rather than pushing a meme coin, fake presale or cryptocurrency giveaway.

The episode differs from many recent social media hacks linked directly to token schemes. As crypto.news reported this week, attackers also compromised SpaceX’s X presence in an incident linked to the SCATMAN token, renewing concerns about criminals using trusted brands to attract crypto traders.

Earlier, as crypto.news reported in May, hackers used Keith Gill’s verified Roaring Kitty account to promote and dump a Solana-based token. The incident reportedly left traders with $2.8 million in losses after users trusted posts coming from the well-known market personality’s account.

By contrast, available reports have not identified a token sale, wallet-draining link or fraudulent giveaway connected to Chesky’s deleted posts. Instead, the compromised account published commentary that users could have mistaken for a genuine shift in the Airbnb CEO’s public position on crypto. That makes the episode different from attacks built around immediate token promotion.

High-profile X profiles remain attractive targets because their established audiences can give unfamiliar crypto claims instant credibility. As previously reported by crypto.news, attackers have compromised accounts belonging to executives, companies, entertainers and market personalities to promote fraudulent tokens, fake airdrops and phishing links.

Bitcoin and Ethereum options worth about $1.43 billion expired on July 17 as crypto markets remained within established trading ranges. 

According to Greeks.live data, 19,000 Bitcoin options worth $1.2 billion expired with a put-call ratio of 0.9 and a maximum pain point of $63,000.

Meanwhile, 123,000 Ethereum options worth $230 million expired with a put-call ratio of 1.61. The maximum pain level stood at $1,800. The elevated ratio showed that put positions continued to outweigh calls, extending a trend that Greeks.live said has lasted for about a month.

Bitcoin remained above $60,000 during the week and has traded mainly between $60,000 and $65,000 for more than a month. Despite sharp moves in parts of the U.S. stock market, crypto volatility remained relatively subdued. The latest weekly expiry represented only about 5% of outstanding options, while open interest declined slightly amid fewer short-term trading opportunities.

Ethereum options show deeper divide as Bitcoin volatility stays low

Greeks.live said Bitcoin gamma exposure remained concentrated around the $64,000 and $70,000 strikes. Ethereum’s exposure was more widely spread between $1,825 and $2,000 as some traders used shallow out-of-the-money options to position for a possible rebound. The firm also said large bullish trades increased, led mainly by short-term bull spreads.

However, Ethereum’s put-call ratio continued to show strong demand for downside positions. “The proportion of put options has exceeded 1 for a consecutive month and continues to rise,” Greeks.live said, describing the current positioning as unusually divided between bullish and bearish traders.

July 17 Options Data

19,000 BTC options expired, with a put-call ratio of 0.9, a maximum pain point of $63,000, and a notional value of $1.2 billion.
123,000 ETH options expired, with a put-call ratio of 1.61, a maximum pain point of $1,800, and a notional value of $230 million.… pic.twitter.com/nlzAux4vBa

— Greeks.live (@GreeksLive) July 17, 2026

The latest expiry follows several weeks of cautious derivatives positioning. As previously reported by crypto.news, Bitcoin and Ethereum options worth about $1.75 billion expired on July 10, with Bitcoin’s maximum pain level at $62,000 and Ethereum’s put-call ratio at 1.26.

A week earlier, $1.9 billion in Bitcoin options expired while traders continued to watch the $60,000 area. Ethereum already showed heavier demand for downside protection at that time, with its put-call ratio standing at 1.29.

The July 17 expiry was smaller than major monthly and quarterly settlements, reducing the likelihood that the event alone would drive a large spot-market move. Still, Bitcoin traded close to its $63,000 maximum pain level, while Ethereum’s growing put exposure showed that traders remained divided over its near-term direction.

Greeks.live said overall market activity remained subdued despite the increase in bullish block trades. With Bitcoin still locked inside its month-long range, traders continue to watch the $64,000 and $70,000 options concentrations for signs of the next broader move.

Bitcoin Ordinals advocate Leonidas has proposed developing a new open-source Bitcoin client, aimed at removing restrictions affecting Runes and Ordinals transactions. 

In a post to X on Friday, Leonidas called the proposed client “Bitcoin $DOG Mode,” which would lift the maximum individual transaction size to 3.9 million weight units (WU), compared to Bitcoin Core’s 400,000 WU, and lower the dust limit to 1 satoshi (sats) from 294-546 sats.

The changes would make it easier to send Ordinals inscriptions and Runes, which have been described as Bitcoin’s take on fungible and non-fungible tokens. Both have been controversial within the Bitcoin community, with critics arguing they amount to “spam” on the Bitcoin network. 

“Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots have spent years enforcing rules that Bitcoin itself does not have,” Leonidas said in a statement. “The $DOG Army is done asking for permission. It is time to remove even more of these frivolous restrictions.”

Source: Leonidas

Increasing the maximum transaction size would make it easier for Ordinals users to place much larger files or collections into one transaction, even ones that take up nearly an entire block. 

Meanwhile, the dust limit is a rule on the Bitcoin network defining the smallest transaction amount, or UTXO, that can be economically sent. Lowering the dust limit would stop users from having to “pad” outputs to get their transaction broadcast on default Bitcoin Core nodes.

Related: Bitcoin bulls Michael Saylor, Adam Back slam BIP-110 Ordinals proposal

Bitcoin $DOG Mode would be an alternative to Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots, the two most widely used Bitcoin clients.

Leonidas said the goal is to attract enough users to the new client that Bitcoin Core would eventually have to loosen its own policy restrictions.

Magazine: Bitcoin nearing late stages of bear market: Jamie Coutts, Real Vision

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MegaETH is shutting down its Mega Mafia accelerator after two years, saying the program helped startups raise substantial capital but failed to keep enough value inside its ecosystem. 

Core team member Shuyao Kong said on X that most successful applications backed by the program are no longer being built on MegaETH.

The accelerator supported about 20 teams across two cohorts, which collectively raised roughly $80 million from pre-seed through Series A rounds. MegaETH selected teams to work closely with its core developers and provided technical, management and market-making support. However, the network did not take equity, governance rights or ownership positions in the projects it helped build.

MegaETH shifts resources toward first-party applications

Kong said MegaETH originally believed founders would remain aligned with the network without formal ownership arrangements. That approach produced successful startups, but many later chose different technical paths. “Very little of that value has trickled to Mega,” she wrote, while announcing that there will be no Mega Mafia 3.0 cohort.

After spending the last two years building the MegaMafia, we’ve decided to sunset the program.

While it was a success in many ways, we believe that the program was built on assumptions that no longer hold.

Here are some reflections, and what’s coming up next.

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> We had real…

— Shuyao Kong (@hotpot_dao) July 16, 2026

Several projects show how that model changed. Global Token Exchange, or GTE, decided to build its own chain after participating in the first accelerator cohort. 

Social attention market Noise later chose Base, while HelloTrade moved toward Monad. Meanwhile, stablecoin project Cap launched on MegaETH but has pursued a broader multichain strategy.

The decision comes only months after Mega Mafia applications helped MegaETH reach a key network milestone.MegaETH launched its MEGA token on April 30 after 10 ecosystem applications met the first performance target required to trigger the token generation event. The milestone tied the accelerator directly to the network’s early growth strategy.

MegaETH has since expanded the economic systems around its blockchain. As crypto.news reported in May, the MegaETH Foundation started a MEGA token buyback program funded by net income generated by the USDm stablecoin issuer. The structure connects stablecoin activity with recurring token purchases as MegaETH develops high-speed onchain applications.

However, ending Mega Mafia changes how the team plans to build future demand. Kong said MegaETH will focus resources on “OMEGA” applications, meaning products designed around capabilities that the team believes are specific to MegaETH. The network also plans to invest more directly in first-party consumer applications.

Under the new approach, MegaETH expects to build direct relationships with users instead of depending mainly on independent startups to create products and eventually return value to the network. Kong said first-party development would also give the team greater responsibility for product results.

The change comes after Mega Mafia played a central role in MegaETH’s move from development into mainnet activity and its MEGA token launch. The network is now testing whether building more consumer-facing products itself can keep users, activity and economic value closer to its core ecosystem.

Crypto trader Ansem has questioned whether token buybacks can create lasting value on their own, pointing to the wide valuation gap between Hyperliquid’s HYPE and Pump.fun’s PUMP. 

In a July 17 X post, he argued that both businesses generate large revenues and regularly repurchase their tokens, yet the market values them very differently.

According to Ansem’s figures, Hyperliquid generates about $800 million in annualized revenue and carries a fully diluted valuation near $65 billion. Pump.fun, by comparison, generates roughly $440 million in annualized revenue while PUMP trades at an FDV of about $1.4 billion. He said the contrast challenges the view that recurring buybacks alone determine crypto valuations.

“I have a thesis that buybacks don’t actually work,” Ansem wrote. 

His broader argument was that market confidence, community alignment and a project’s record of delivering on commitments can create an additional “trust premium” that financial metrics cannot fully measure.

i have a thesis that buybacks don’t actually work

hyperliquid makes $800M annualized revenue
pump fun makes $440M annualized revenue$HYPE trades at $65B FDV while $PUMP trades at $1.4B FDV

both teams do regularly recurring buybacks with portions of their profits from the…

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— Ansem 🐂🀄️ (@blknoiz06) July 16, 2026

Hyperliquid and Pump.fun show different results from buybacks

Ansem pointed to Hyperliquid as a platform that built strong confidence among core users. He said the team focused on shipping products without overpromising and rewarded users according to measurable activity. In his view, that approach strengthened trust and helped HYPE command a higher valuation relative to revenue.

Hyperliquid also operates one of crypto’s largest token repurchase programs. As previously reported by crypto.news, its Assistance Fund directs most protocol fees toward continuous open-market HYPE purchases. By May 2026, the mechanism had spent more than $1.3 billion on buybacks.

Pump.fun has also committed substantial resources to supporting PUMP. However, its token has struggled despite aggressive repurchases and burns. As crypto.news reported ahead of the July vesting event, the platform had spent $233 million buying back 62.2 billion PUMP by early January and later carried out a large token burn.

Meanwhile, Pump.fun distributed 57.279 billion PUMP worth about $86.49 million to 121 team and investor wallets on July 15, beginning a three-year vesting cycle after a one-year lockup. The transfers made the tokens available to move but did not confirm that recipients sold them.

Ansem argued that the missing factor is community trust. He pointed to Pump.fun’s previously discussed user airdrop, which has not yet been delivered, as a source of weaker alignment with its core audience. Pump.fun co-founder Alon Cohen said in July 2025 that an airdrop remained planned but would not arrive in the immediate future.

Therefore, Ansem said Pump.fun could potentially close part of its valuation gap by improving communication and delivering the distribution expected by users. That remains his market thesis rather than a guarantee of future price performance. He estimated that stronger community alignment could raise PUMP’s valuation and activity.

He also cited Bitcoin as an example of what he views as an extreme trust premium. Bitcoin produces no business revenue, yet its fixed 21 million supply and established network rules support a far larger valuation. 

Bybit has moved deeper into Southeast Asia by launching a locally operated crypto trading platform in Indonesia, a step it says follows a majority acquisition of NOBI. The exchange announced Thursday that it has launched the new Indonesia entity after taking control of digital asset firm PT Enkripsi Teknologi Handal, which previously operated under the name NOBI.

The deal results in a rebrand: NOBI is now Bybit Indonesia. Bybit said it intends to roll out its services in stages, beginning with 500 cryptocurrency trading pairs, and to expand from there as the platform ramps up.

Key takeaways

• Bybit has launched a locally operated Indonesia platform after acquiring a majority stake in PT Enkripsi Teknologi Handal (formerly NOBI).
• NOBI has been rebranded as Bybit Indonesia, with the company set to expand its trading offering in phases.
• The exchange plans to start with 500 trading pairs and build from there rather than opening the full set at once.
• Leadership will come from former NOBI executives, with Lawrence Samantha as CEO and Dionisius Evan as chief operating officer.
• Indonesia’s regulator reports a rapidly growing crypto user base, alongside a licensing framework covering exchanges, custodians, and traders.

Bybit’s Indonesia push: acquisition to local operation

For Bybit, the launch is not just a marketing move—it reflects a shift toward operating within Indonesia’s local regulatory and market structure. The exchange said its acquisition allows it to pair Bybit’s global capabilities with an experienced local team that understands Indonesia’s market dynamics and regulatory requirements.

The company’s statement names Lawrence Samantha as CEO and Dionisius Evan as chief operating officer. Both previously served as senior executives at NOBI, indicating that Bybit is using the acquired firm’s institutional know-how and local relationships as it enters a regulated environment.

What Bybit plans to launch first

Bybit Indonesia will be introduced in phases. According to the announcement, the rollout will start with 500 cryptocurrency trading pairs. That staged approach suggests Bybit is likely pacing market access and product configuration rather than attempting a full-scale launch overnight, which can be important in jurisdictions where onboarding, compliance processes, and platform readiness must be managed carefully.

While Bybit did not provide a detailed timeline for subsequent phases in the information available, the initial pair count is a key operational signal: the exchange is aiming to offer broad spot market coverage from day one, giving Indonesian users a range of trading choices as liquidity and infrastructure are established.

Indonesia’s growing crypto market and the licensing environment

Indonesia has been steadily expanding its crypto user base under a framework overseen by the Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK). As of February 2026, OJK reported 21.07 million registered crypto asset users, and it cited total crypto transaction value of $26.85 billion (482 trillion Indonesian rupiah) in 2025.

Regulatory activity has also accelerated. As of April 2026, OJK reported that Indonesia had licensed 31 crypto-related entities. That includes two crypto exchanges, two clearing institutions, two custodians, and 25 digital asset traders. PT Enkripsi Teknologi Handal—Bybit’s acquired company—was listed among those licensed entities.

For investors and users, the significance is that Bybit’s local launch is arriving in a market where regulatory status and licensing are increasingly central to participation. In other words, the opportunity is expanding, but so are compliance expectations. Bybit’s decision to structure entry via an acquired, locally licensed firm may reduce friction compared with trying to build a local regulated presence from scratch.

Why the local leadership model matters

Bybit Indonesia’s management lineup is drawn from the former NOBI leadership, with Samantha taking the CEO role and Evan serving as COO. That continuity can matter operationally: local executives typically have deeper context around compliance workflows, relationships with regulated counterparties, and day-to-day execution in-country.

From a broader perspective, this model reflects a common pattern in regulated crypto markets. Global exchanges often need more than technology and brand recognition—they need a team that understands local rules, user behavior, and market structure well enough to execute quickly once a platform goes live.

Even so, readers should watch how the staged launch progresses beyond the initial 500 pairs. The next question will be whether Bybit increases liquidity and expands pair availability at a pace that matches Indonesia’s user growth, and how effectively it integrates the acquired platform into its wider global systems.

With Bybit Indonesia now live and using former NOBI executives to lead operations, the key developments to track are the timing of subsequent rollout phases, any expansion beyond the initial trading pairs, and how the platform performs within Indonesia’s regulated ecosystem as OJK continues to license and supervise crypto firms.