MoneyGram expanded its blockchain payments strategy on Aug. 11 by launching MoneyGram Ramps on Solana, giving wallets, exchanges and developers access to its cash network through one API. 

The company’s release says the integration supports cash deposits in more than 25 countries and cash withdrawals in more than 170 countries and territories.

Rift is the first Solana wallet to integrate the service. The launch builds on MoneyGram’s June entry into Solana as a validator and participant in the Solana Developer Platform, extending the relationship from network infrastructure into customer facing payment access.

MoneyGram Ramps gives Solana cash access in 170+ markets

MoneyGram says developers can obtain API credentials, use a sandbox and integrate software development kits without building separate banking connections. Solana has embedded Ramps in the payments module of its Developer Platform, allowing apps to connect onchain activity with MoneyGram’s physical cash network.

MoneyGram says its wider network serves more than 60 million active customers and includes nearly half a million retail locations. Solana’s announcement lists international payouts, stablecoin payroll and aid distribution as possible applications. Those are proposed use cases, not announced customer deployments.

MoneyGram’s corporate site says its broader network spans more than 200 countries and territories, with more than 480,000 retail locations and over five billion digital endpoints. Ramps does not mirror that full footprint: the product currently advertises crypto to cash access in more than 170 countries, while cash deposits are available in more than 25.

The current MoneyGram Ramps page describes customer flows using USDC. Users can add cash to a crypto wallet at participating locations or convert USDC into cash. The Solana announcement does not say MoneyGram’s MGUSD stablecoin is moving networks. MGUSD launched on Stellar in June, initially in the U.S., as crypto.news reported in its June stablecoin coverage.

U.S. access comes with state limits

The launch also carries a direct U.S. payments angle. MoneyGram Payment Systems is registered as a money services business with FinCEN and says it is authorized to do business in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories. However, its current Ramps page says the product is unavailable in Alaska, Louisiana, Hawaii and New York.

Solana developers can therefore connect to a U.S. regulated payments operator, but customer availability still depends on location and product rules. MoneyGram says it handles identity checks, compliance and real time stablecoin settlement within Ramps. Its existing licensing does not make every Ramps function available everywhere.

The product page says MoneyGram handles stablecoin settlement, fiat payout and compliance checks behind the integration. That setup lets a wallet or exchange add cash access without separately assembling MoneyGram’s underlying payment and compliance connections.

The integration follows MoneyGram’s June 22 move to become an active Solana validator and join the Solana Developer Platform, as crypto.news reported in its earlier validator coverage. MoneyGram said it stakes SOL, processes transaction blocks and participates directly in network consensus.

What happens next for MoneyGram’s Solana push

MoneyGram is positioning Ramps as a multichain product rather than replacing its Stellar work. Its latest official materials still identify MGUSD as natively issued on Stellar, while Solana now gains access to the company’s cash connectivity. The approach also puts MoneyGram alongside established payment firms expanding blockchain rails, including Western Union’s Solana expansion covered in related reporting.

MoneyGram CEO Anthony Soohoo described the launch as “another step toward building a truly open, global payments network.” The statement sets out the company’s objective, but the immediate measure will be adoption. MoneyGram has not announced another Solana wallet integration beyond Rift or provided a timetable for additional partners.

MoneyGram’s current Ramps page also marks bank, mobile wallet and card withdrawals, along with debit card and bank account funding, as “coming soon.” Those functions would extend Ramps beyond physical cash locations if released. No firm launch date is listed, so the Solana rollout currently centers on the cash access announced this week.

Ethereum price fell 2.6% toward $1,870 on Aug. 11 after another rejection below $1,950 triggered long liquidations, while traders reduced risk ahead of the latest U.S. inflation report.

Ethereum price falls below $1,900

According to data from crypto.news, Ethereum (ETH) price traded near $1,870 during the latest session after sellers rejected another attempt to hold above the $1,900 psychological level. The decline extended from the Aug. 10 high near $1,935 and briefly pushed the token toward an intraday low of approximately $1,867.

ETH had recovered to around $1,886 by the time the accompanying charts were captured, reducing part of the daily loss. However, the rebound left the price below the short-term resistance area that has contained every advance since late July.

The decline follows several days of compression between roughly $1,850 and $1,950. Ethereum briefly approached the upper end of that range during the previous session, but buyers could not generate enough momentum to secure a daily close above $1,900.

That rejection reversed the setup observed one day earlier, when Ethereum had held $1,900 while traders watched liquidity near $1,950. The loss of $1,900 has now returned attention to the lower boundary of the range.

The 4-hour chart shows that ETH remains in a wider recovery from its late-June low near $1,520. Still, its recent sequence of higher lows has not produced a decisive higher high above the July peak near $1,970, leaving the market without a confirmed breakout.

Why Ethereum price is under pressure

The immediate pressure came from Ethereum’s failure to clear the $1,900–$1,950 resistance zone. Repeated rejections in the same area encouraged short-term traders to take profits, while the move below $1,900 exposed leveraged long positions opened in anticipation of a breakout.

The 4-hour Bull Bear Power indicator has fallen to -25.44, showing that sellers have regained short-term control. Negative readings do not guarantee an extended decline, but they show that buying pressure has weakened since ETH approached $1,930.

The 4-hour Supertrend has also flipped bearish, placing dynamic resistance at approximately $1,925. ETH would need to reclaim that level before the indicator supports another move toward $1,950.

Broader risk appetite remains cautious before the July U.S. Consumer Price Index report. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish the data on Aug. 12 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, making it the next major macroeconomic catalyst for U.S. crypto traders.

A hotter-than-expected reading could support a higher-for-longer Federal Reserve policy outlook and pressure speculative assets. Softer inflation, by contrast, could improve liquidity expectations and help ETH challenge its overhead resistance.

Rising energy prices have added uncertainty to that outlook. Higher oil costs can feed into headline inflation and complicate expectations for future U.S. interest-rate decisions, although the direct effect on Ethereum will depend on the CPI result and the market’s response.

ETH liquidation map points to $1,895 and $1,940

The 3-day CoinGlass liquidation heatmap shows a dense concentration of leveraged positions near $1,895, just above Ethereum’s current price. This is the closest major upside liquidity pool and could attract price if ETH’s recovery continues.

A move through $1,895 could liquidate nearby short positions and accelerate a return above $1,900. The resulting forced buying may then expose smaller liquidity bands between approximately $1,915 and $1,930.

The strongest overhead concentration appears near $1,940. That level sits inside the same resistance zone that stopped Ethereum’s recent advances, making it both a technical barrier and a potential short-squeeze target.

Downside liquidity is concentrated around $1,857. A decline into that area could trigger another wave of long liquidations before buyers attempt to defend the broader $1,840–$1,850 support zone.

The heatmap therefore places ETH between two nearby leverage targets. Price compression within this structure raises the chance that a break on either side produces a sharper move as exchanges close positions caught offside.

Ethereum technicals keep $1,850 in focus

Ethereum’s daily chart presents a mixed setup. ETH is trading below its 20-day simple moving average at $1,892.52 and its 100-day average at $1,895.32, creating immediate resistance around $1,890–$1,900.

The token also remains well below the 200-day SMA at $2,040.56. That long-term average would become relevant only if ETH first breaks $1,950 and then establishes support above $2,000.

The 50-day SMA at $1,810 provides the closest major dynamic support below the current range. Its upward slope reflects the recovery from June, but a move toward that average would confirm that the $1,850 floor had failed.

Daily momentum remains neutral rather than deeply bearish. The Relative Strength Index stands at 51.63, slightly below its signal average of 53.51. That reading gives sellers some short-term control without placing Ethereum near oversold conditions.

Analyst Ted Pillows identified $1,850 as a must-hold area if Ethereum is to produce another push above $1,900. His chart places subsequent upside levels near $2,000 and $2,190, while a confirmed loss of the current support could open a decline toward $1,700 and eventually the $1,550 region.

Chainlink price rose 4.5% to $8.67 on Aug. 11 after Standard Chartered initiated coverage with a $200 target for 2030, while technical indicators pointed to improving short-term momentum.

Chainlink price rallies above $8.48 resistance

According to data from crypto.news, Chainlink (LINK) price traded at $8.67 at the time of writing, up 4.5% over the previous 24 hours. LINK opened the daily session near $8.30, fell briefly to $8.29, and then climbed as high as $8.72.

The move pushed LINK above the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level at $8.48, calculated from its May high of $10.87 to its June low near $7.00. That level had restricted several recovery attempts since late July.

Holding above $8.48 would give buyers a stronger base for challenging the 50% retracement at $8.93. The latter also sits near a local high identified by trader Daan Crypto Trades, making the $8.90–$8.93 area the most important immediate resistance zone.

LINK has now recovered about 24% from its late-June low. However, it remains below its May peak and has yet to confirm a broader trend reversal on the daily chart.

The daily Aroon indicator showed a sharp improvement in bullish momentum. Aroon Up reached 100%, compared with Aroon Down at 28.57%, indicating that LINK recorded a recent high while downside momentum weakened.

Still, the Chaikin Money Flow remained marginally negative at -0.01. The reading suggests that the price breakout has not yet received strong confirmation from sustained capital inflows. A move above zero would add weight to the bullish setup.

Standard Chartered’s $200 LINK target drives demand

The rally followed a Standard Chartered research note that initiated coverage of LINK with a $200 price target for the end of 2030. The target represents a gain of more than 2,200% from the token’s current price.

Geoff Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital assets research, reportedly set interim targets of $13 for the end of 2026, $41 for 2027, $82 for 2028, and $133 for 2029.

The forecast rests largely on Standard Chartered’s expectation that tokenized assets held on public blockchains could grow from about $340 billion to $4 trillion by the end of 2028. The bank expects increased tokenization to raise demand for oracle data, cross-chain transfers, and compliance infrastructure.

Chainlink currently secures more than $110 billion in oracle-dependent value, representing about 70% of the global market and over 80% of the value secured by oracles on Ethereum, according to figures cited in the report.

Standard Chartered also estimated that Chainlink’s fee revenue could expand about 25-fold by 2030 as tokenized assets move between traditional finance and decentralized networks. However, the $200 figure remains a long-term forecast rather than a guaranteed price outcome.

The positive report arrived as LINK supply on centralized exchanges continued to decline. More than 15.7 million tokens reportedly left exchanges over a recent one-month period, reducing exchange-held supply by about 12%.

Separately, approximately 1.26 million LINK, valued at more than $10 million at the time, left centralized platforms in one day in early August. Exchange withdrawals can reduce immediately available selling supply, although they do not reveal whether holders intend to accumulate, use the tokens on-chain or transfer them elsewhere.

LINK technical indicators favor another test of $8.90

The 4-hour chart supports the short-term bullish case. LINK broke above the Supertrend resistance near $8.37, causing the indicator to flip positive and establish trailing support at $8.21.

Price also cleared the narrow consolidation range between roughly $8.10 and $8.40 that had been in place since the beginning of August. Buyers must now defend the former upper boundary around $8.36 during any retest.

The Awesome Oscillator rose to 0.116 and printed an expanding green bar above the zero line. This shows that short-term momentum is accelerating relative to the longer-term average.

Immediate resistance sits around $8.72, corresponding with Tuesday’s intraday high. A close above that level would leave $8.90–$8.93 as the next target. Beyond $8.93, the daily Fibonacci chart identifies resistance at $9.39, followed by $10.04.

A rejection from the current area would put $8.48 back in focus. Below that, the former Supertrend resistance at $8.36 and active Supertrend support at $8.21 form the main defense for the breakout.

Losing $8.21 could invalidate the immediate bullish setup and expose LINK to $7.91, the daily chart’s 23.6% Fibonacci level. The larger downside liquidity concentration sits near $8.00, making that psychological level important if broader crypto market conditions weaken.

Liquidation map points to volatility above $8.70

CoinGlass’ one-week LINK liquidation heatmap shows that the token has already moved through a dense concentration of leveraged positions around $8.45–$8.55. LINK’s price was approaching another set of liquidation bands above $8.70 when the chart was captured.

Further short-liquidation liquidity appears between approximately $8.80 and $8.90. If LINK holds above $8.60, these positions could provide fuel for another short squeeze toward the $8.93 technical target.

On the downside, the largest visible liquidation cluster lies near $8.00–$8.05. A failed breakout and decline below $8.21 could therefore accelerate as leveraged long positions are closed.

Daan Crypto Trades also identified $8.90 as the key level needed to confirm a continuation. The trader said LINK had returned to its highest-volume historical price area and was holding higher-time-frame support.

“I want to see a move above $8.9 to break the local high and get a move going,” Daan said.

For U.S. traders, the next macro risk is the July Consumer Price Index report. A stronger-than-expected inflation reading could pressure crypto assets by reducing expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts. LINK’s ability to hold $8.48 during a broader risk-off move would provide a clearer test of whether the Standard Chartered-driven demand can extend beyond the initial rally.

eToro has agreed to acquire U.S.-focused brokerage TradeZero for up to $231 million as the trading platform pushes further into the American market while crypto activity among its users continues to fall.

eToro said Tuesday that the cash-and-stock transaction would add TradeZero’s active-trader customer base and brokerage infrastructure to its U.S. operations, with the acquisition expected to close in the first half of 2027 after regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions are met.

The company expects the purchase to increase adjusted earnings per share during the first year after completion. TradeZero generated about $80 million in revenue during the 12 months ended June 30, 2026, with an 81% gross margin, according to eToro.

Founded in 2015, TradeZero serves active traders in the United States and also operates in Canada and international markets. Its platforms provide trading in stocks and options alongside extended-hours access, short-selling tools, market scanners and other services geared toward frequent traders.

“Today’s announcement is an important step in building our US business,” eToro co-founder and CEO Yoni Assia said. He added that combining the companies would provide “a faster path to launching new products for US customers.”

TradeZero deal adds to eToro’s U.S. expansion

The acquisition would give eToro additional infrastructure in a market where the company has operated since launching its U.S. platform in 2019. Europe and the U.K. have historically accounted for much of eToro’s business, while the company has been expanding in the Americas and Asia-Pacific.

Under the transaction terms, eToro would pay cash and issue up to 2.5 million new Class A shares, with total consideration reaching as much as $231 million after customary purchase-price adjustments.

Jefferies is acting as eToro’s exclusive financial adviser, while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is serving as its lead deal counsel. J.P. Morgan Securities is advising TradeZero, with Choate, Hall & Stewart serving as the brokerage’s lead counsel.

The deal was announced alongside eToro’s second-quarter results, when adjusted earnings reached $0.68 per share, above the $0.61 expected by analysts surveyed by LSEG. Net trading income from equities, commodities and currencies increased 24% year over year to $141.6 million, led mainly by equities trading.

Trading patterns among existing customers also changed during the quarter. More than 60% of users who had traded commodities during the previous two quarters went on to trade equities during the second quarter, according to the company.

Chief Financial Officer Meron Shani said nearly nine in ten of the users who moved from commodities into equities had also traded cryptocurrencies on eToro, showing significant overlap between customers using its different asset classes.

Crypto trading on eToro has continued to fall

Crypto activity remained much weaker than a year earlier despite eToro continuing to invest in digital-asset products.

The company reported $1.59 billion in total revenue for the second quarter, compared with about $2 billion during the corresponding period of 2025. Revenue reported from crypto assets fell to roughly $1.34 billion from $1.9 billion a year earlier.

Because eToro reports cryptoasset revenue on a gross basis, much of the figure is offset by the cost of acquiring the cryptoassets involved in customer transactions. Crypto-related cost of revenue reached about $1.35 billion during the quarter, while net income attributed to crypto assets was $19.7 million.

Total company net income stood at $53.4 million, while equities and commodities-related trading generated about $141 million in net trading income.

The decline followed weakness recorded earlier in the year. In May, crypto.news reported on eToro’s results showing that April crypto trades had fallen 32% from a year earlier to 2 million, while the amount invested per crypto trade dropped 22% to $207. The company nevertheless posted $82 million in first-quarter net income, up 37% year over year.

The drop accelerated into July. eToro recorded about 1.4 million cryptocurrency trades during the month, 73% fewer than a year earlier, while the amount invested in crypto fell 50%.

Earlier first-quarter figures showed the same pattern in crypto-related earnings. Crypto generated about $13 million in profit during Q1, down from $46 million in the same quarter of 2025, even as eToro’s overall net contribution increased to $258 million.

At the same time, assets under administration reached $17 billion at the end of March, up 15% year over year, while funded accounts increased 12% to 4.02 million. By April, assets under administration had increased further to $18.7 billion.

eToro is still building its crypto business

Lower crypto trading activity has not stopped eToro from adding products and infrastructure tied to digital assets.

On April 30, the company completed its acquisition of Zengo, a self-custodial crypto wallet provider that uses multi-party computation technology rather than conventional seed phrases. eToro said the purchase would help connect its traditional financial products with onchain infrastructure.

The company also activated its BitLicense earlier this year to begin offering cryptocurrency trading in New York. At the time, eToro had expanded its crypto offering to more than 150 assets globally, including more than 100 assets available to U.S. customers.

In July, eToro led a $12.5 million strategic investment in decentralized perpetual futures exchange Extended, with Jump Crypto also participating. As previously covered by crypto.news, the financing was accompanied by a partnership between Extended and Zengo to explore access to financial markets through onchain trading infrastructure.

Extended operates using StarkWare’s StarkEx technology and focuses on perpetual futures that can be traded through a self-custodial structure. The platform opened trading to all users in late 2024.

eToro has also pushed equities onto blockchain rails

eToro’s work around digital assets has included attempts to combine its equities business with blockchain-based settlement rather than relying only on cryptocurrency trading.

In July 2025, eToro announced plans to issue tokenized versions of U.S.-listed stocks on Ethereum, alongside 24/5 trading for 100 U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds. The company also disclosed work with CME Group on spot-quoted futures.

Under the proposed tokenization model, users would be able to move supported stock tokens onto Ethereum and redeem them against underlying positions held through eToro. Assia said at the time that the company planned to start with stocks as part of its tokenization work.

The initiative followed eToro’s 2019 acquisition of Danish tokenization company Firmo and its subsequent introduction of tokenized gold, silver and fiat currencies. Its U.S. product expansion has since continued alongside those blockchain initiatives, including New York crypto trading, the Zengo purchase and the planned acquisition of TradeZero.

Russia’s central bank has proposed allowing Bitcoin, Ether and Tether’s USDT to trade on regulated exchanges as the country prepares to open its new crypto market framework to investors.

The Bank of Russia said Tuesday that the three crypto assets have been included in a proposed list of digital currencies that could qualify for organized trading, based on requirements covering market capitalization, trading activity and price history in overseas markets.

Bitcoin, Ether and USDT meet the regulator’s proposed criteria because they have sufficient market size, average daily trading volume and at least five years of trading history outside Russia. The list has not yet been finalized, with the central bank accepting public comments until Aug. 24.

The selection provides an early indication of which cryptocurrencies ordinary Russian investors may be able to buy once the country’s new digital asset law takes effect on Sept. 1. Under the rules, non-qualified investors will only be allowed to purchase cryptocurrencies that satisfy standards set by the central bank.

Bank of Russia crypto list starts with BTC, ETH and USDT

Access for retail investors will remain subject to a 300,000-ruble annual purchase limit through each intermediary, equivalent to about $3,650 at current exchange rates. The cap applies separately to purchases made through brokers, crypto exchange services and asset managers.

Before completing any transactions, investors will also have to pass a knowledge test covering crypto investing and its associated risks.

“Before making transactions, all investors, regardless of their status, will have to pass a test and familiarize themselves with the risks of investing in crypto assets,” the Bank of Russia said.

The regulator said restrictions on non-qualified investors are intended to limit their exposure to sharp and unpredictable crypto price movements. Qualified investors must also complete testing, although they will not face the same purchase ceiling when trading cryptocurrencies through exchanges or over-the-counter markets.

The proposed asset list follows President Vladimir Putin’s signing of Russia’s digital currency law on Aug. 4, which placed the Bank of Russia in charge of deciding which cryptocurrencies can trade through organized markets and how the venues will operate.

As previously covered by crypto.news, the legislation created regulated access to cryptocurrencies for both retail and qualified investors while keeping crypto payments for ordinary goods and services prohibited inside Russia. The law’s main provisions are scheduled to take effect on Sept. 1.

Under the same legislation, crypto exchange providers must enter a special registry, hold at least 15 million rubles in equity and join an approved financial-market self-regulatory organization. Existing exchange services have until July 1, 2027, to comply with the registration requirements.

Exchanges will operate under new central bank rules

Before the law was signed, the Bank of Russia had already begun setting operating standards for the institutions that will support organized crypto trading.

In late July, the regulator released draft operating rules covering cryptocurrency exchanges, digital depositories and providers of digital currency accounts. The proposals allow exchanges to establish their own trading procedures while calculating market prices and weighted average prices for listed assets.

Digital depositories, which will maintain records of customer cryptocurrency holdings and transactions, would face minimum equity requirements ranging from 50 million rubles to 250 million rubles depending on the services they provide. The central bank also proposed requiring the capital backing such businesses to remain liquid and consist of high-quality financial assets.

The new system gives the Bank of Russia authority to maintain official registers of approved crypto market participants and establish requirements covering custody, accounting, trading and investor access.

Russian lawmakers had been working on the framework for several months before Putin signed it into law. During the legislative process, non-qualified investors were consistently assigned a 300,000-ruble annual limit for purchases of cryptocurrencies classified as sufficiently liquid.

A revision approved in July also removed wallet disclosure requirements that would have forced investors to declare their crypto wallet addresses. Instead, users were expected to report balances and transaction volumes under the revised proposal.

The same version allowed cryptocurrency to be used to buy Russian securities and locally regulated digital financial assets, while some large transfers abroad or to third parties could be delayed for up to two days. State Duma Financial Market Committee Chairman Anatoly Aksakov did not specify the transaction threshold that would trigger such a freeze.

Russian banks prepare for regulated crypto trading

Major Russian financial institutions have already begun preparing products for the regulated market.

Alfa-Bank has been testing cryptocurrency trading inside its Alfa-Investments brokerage application with a small group of qualified investors, according to reported testing in July. Its test interface reportedly included Bitcoin, Ether, Tether, USD Coin, Solana, Litecoin and Zcash.

The bank also plans to build a digital depository and crypto-to-ruble exchange infrastructure during 2026. Wider customer access remains dependent on regulations issued by the Bank of Russia, with Alfa-Bank previously saying a retail rollout could come closer to the fourth quarter if the regulatory timetable permits.

Sberbank has been making similar preparations. As reported by crypto.news earlier, the bank has been working on a crypto wallet and digital asset depository, with its custody infrastructure targeted for Dec. 1. It has also considered providing access to foreign crypto exchanges depending on the final licensing requirements.

T-Bank has also discussed plans to offer buying, selling, storage and crypto balance tracking through its mobile applications, while seeking approval to operate a digital depository. VTB has considered similar services as Russian banks prepare their systems for the regulated market.

Crypto payments remain banned inside Russia

The opening of regulated trading does not remove Russia’s existing prohibition on using cryptocurrency as a domestic payment method.

Under the law signed Aug. 4, cryptocurrencies cannot be used to pay for goods, services, information or intellectual property within Russia. Advertising that presents crypto as an option for ordinary domestic payments is also prohibited.

Separate provisions permit cryptocurrencies to be used for certain cross-border settlements between Russian residents and foreign counterparties. Exporters and importers can use eligible digital assets for foreign trade without the retail transaction limits applied to investment purchases, either through intermediaries or directly through crypto wallets, according to the regulatory framework.

For domestic investors, the immediate regulatory process remains focused on determining which assets can enter organized trading. Bitcoin, Ether and USDT are the first cryptocurrencies named under the central bank’s proposed eligibility criteria, while comments on the list and related requirements can be submitted to the Bank of Russia through Aug. 24.