U.S. inflation slowed more than expected in June, giving risk assets fresh support after months of pressure from rising energy costs.

The annual Consumer Price Index fell to 3.5% from 4.2% in May, marking its first decline in five months and coming below the 3.8% market forecast.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that consumer prices fell 0.4% from May, the largest monthly decline since April 2020. Core inflation, which removes food and energy costs, eased to 2.6% annually from 2.9% and remained unchanged during June.

Falling energy prices drive inflation lower

Energy prices remained 15.7% higher than a year earlier, but that was well below the 23.5% increase recorded in May. Gasoline inflation slowed to 26.7% annually, while the broader energy index fell sharply during June as oil markets received temporary relief from easing U.S.-Iran tensions.

Gasoline prices fell 9.7% during the month, helping offset increases in food and shelter costs. Food prices rose 0.2% from May and 3% from a year earlier. Shelter costs increased 0.1% monthly and remained one of the main areas where prices continued moving higher.

The headline decline also came in much stronger than economists expected. Markets had forecast a 0.1% monthly fall, compared with the reported 0.4% drop. Core CPI also beat expectations for a 0.2% monthly increase and a 2.8% annual gain.

Bitcoin rebounds as inflation fears ease

Bitcoin moved higher following the softer inflation report. As reported, BTC climbed nearly 5% to an intraday high of about $64,830 before trading near $64,560. The move followed a decline below $62,000 as renewed tensions between the U.S. and Iran weighed on markets.

The softer CPI data reduced immediate concerns that persistent inflation could force the Federal Reserve into tighter monetary policy. U.S. stock futures also moved higher, Treasury yields declined and the dollar weakened following the release. Bitcoin joined the broader recovery in risk assets.

Before the report, crypto.news reported that Bitcoin was trading near $62,500 as investors weighed higher oil prices and the possibility of another inflation surprise. The June CPI reading removed part of that immediate concern, although energy markets remain a source of uncertainty.

Core CPI gives markets another positive signal

Core inflation falling to 2.6% gave investors another measure of easing price pressure. The reading remains above the Federal Reserve’s long-term 2% inflation goal, but its decline from 2.9% showed that the June slowdown was not limited entirely to energy.

The next U.S. CPI report, covering July, is scheduled for Aug. 12. Markets will watch whether lower inflation continues or whether renewed increases in oil and gasoline prices reverse part of June’s decline.

Energy risks remain despite softer June CPI

The inflation report reflects economic conditions during June, when a temporary easing in U.S.-Iran tensions helped lower energy prices. Since then, renewed hostilities have again raised concerns about oil supplies and future transportation costs.

That leaves Bitcoin and other risk assets exposed to both inflation data and geopolitical developments. June’s softer CPI has eased near-term inflation pressure and supported Bitcoin’s recovery, but the next direction will depend on whether energy prices stay contained and whether the broader decline in core inflation continues.

Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have reportedly submitted a joint offer to acquire PayPal for more than $53 billion.

The proposed deal would combine two major payments businesses as stablecoins and digital settlement become a larger part of the global financial sector.

Reuters reported that Stripe and Advent offered $60.50 for each PayPal share. The price represents a roughly 28% premium to PayPal’s Tuesday closing price. About $50 billion in bank financing has been committed to support the proposed transaction, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Stripe and Advent seek equal ownership of PayPal

Under the proposal, Stripe and Advent would each hold an equal stake in PayPal rather than dividing the company into separate businesses. The offer was reportedly submitted earlier in July after an initial approach in April.

PayPal, Stripe and Advent declined to comment on the reported talks. Reuters said PayPal had not responded to the latest proposal when the report was published. The sources also warned that there is “no certainty” that discussions will result in a completed transaction.

The reported $53 billion valuation comes after a sharp decline in PayPal’s market value from its 2021 peak. The company has faced stronger competition across checkout, digital wallets and alternative payment methods. New CEO Enrique Lores began restructuring the business after taking over in March.

PayPal is reorganizing around payments and crypto

PayPal reorganized its operations in April into three main units covering checkout, Venmo consumer financial services, and payments and crypto. The company reported first-quarter revenue of $8.35 billion, up 7%, while payment volume increased 8% on a currency-neutral basis to about $464 billion.

Its crypto business includes PayPal USD, or PYUSD, a dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Paxos. PayPal says the token is backed by dollar deposits, U.S. Treasuries and similar cash equivalents and can be exchanged for dollars through its platform.

As previously reported, PYUSD recently expanded natively to Polygon through the network’s Open Money Stack. The integration gives businesses access to stablecoin payments, settlements, fiat conversion and compliance infrastructure through one system.

Stripe has built its own stablecoin infrastructure

A takeover would also bring PayPal’s crypto payment products into a company that has invested heavily in stablecoin infrastructure. Stripe acquired Bridge, a stablecoin platform, in a deal valued at about $1.1 billion, expanding its ability to support digital dollar issuance and payments.

As reported by crypto.news, the Bridge transaction marked one of Stripe’s largest moves into crypto infrastructure. Stripe has since supported stablecoin payment projects across several major technology platforms and blockchain networks.

Stripe was valued at $159 billion in a February employee and shareholder tender offer. That valuation gives the privately held company a larger reported market value than PayPal under the current takeover proposal.

Potential deal arrives as payments companies seek scale

The reported bid comes during wider consolidation across global payments. Companies are seeking greater scale while expanding into cross-border transfers, business payments, artificial intelligence and blockchain settlement.

Stablecoins have become part of that shift. As previously reported, Stripe, PayPal, Visa, Mastercard and other payment companies have expanded their use of blockchain-based dollars for settlement and money transfers.

A completed takeover could place PayPal’s consumer payments network, Venmo and PYUSD alongside Stripe’s merchant infrastructure and stablecoin technology. However, the proposal remains preliminary. PayPal has not publicly accepted the offer, and the parties have not announced a formal acquisition agreement.

The reported bidders are seeking to move discussions forward before the end of July, according to the original report. Any agreement would still face detailed negotiations and likely regulatory review before completion.

Base network creator Jesse Pollak says he is stepping back from leading the Base App, after concluding that an earlier push toward social applications was a “wrong bet” for the Ethereum layer-2’s growth. In a post on X on Wednesday, Pollak argued that Base moved too slowly in areas that are now central to DeFi competition, including prediction markets and perpetual futures.

Pollak also said he will return leadership of the Base App to Coinbase, with Jordan Fish—better known on X as “Cobie”—taking over that role, while Pollak focuses on the Base blockchain itself.

Key takeaways

• Jesse Pollak said Base’s social-app strategy failed to deliver traction, and admitted the team made a “wrong bet.”
• Pollak cited Base’s lag behind competitors in scaled prediction markets and perpetual futures despite having offerings in both categories.
• Base App leadership is expected to shift back to Coinbase, with Cobie (Jordan Fish) resuming oversight of the product.
• The network’s current emphasis remains on finance-focused use cases such as trading, payments, tokenization, and AI agent tooling.
• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently acknowledged that “content coins” “didn’t work,” reinforcing the broader pivot away from social-first narratives.

From social to finance: Pollak’s rationale

Pollak’s comments provide a clearer explanation for the changes Base has been making earlier this year. Base initially positioned itself around social products, aiming to bring crypto to a wider audience through apps and creators. Pollak named examples of those early social thrusts, including Farcaster, Zora, and miniapps, reflecting a belief that engagement and content distribution could drive mainstream adoption.

However, Pollak said the market “disintegrated completely,” and that Base ended up behind in “key areas” that have become more important for users looking for financial utility. In his post, he pointed to Base’s decentralized derivatives presence—mentioning perps, with a nod to Avantis—and prediction markets, noting that both were “well behind scaled competitors.”

For investors and traders, the timing of this self-assessment matters: it signals a second attempt to align the chain’s product priorities with the demand that tends to concentrate liquidity, volume, and user retention in DeFi. Rather than doubling down on social distribution, Pollak frames the next phase around assets and trading-related infrastructure.

Leadership transition for the Base App

Beyond strategy, Pollak also addressed internal ownership. He said he will return leadership of the Base App to Coinbase, specifically under Jordan Fish (“Cobie”). At the same time, he said he will focus on the Base blockchain itself rather than the consumer-facing application layer.

That split highlights a common tension in L2 ecosystems: whether growth is best driven by consumer app ecosystems or by strengthening on-chain markets and standards that attract liquidity. By stepping back from the Base App, Pollak appears to be aligning resources more heavily toward the underlying chain and the financial primitives that developers can build on top of.

Coinbase’s earlier acknowledgment of “content coins”

Pollak’s post landed just days after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said content coins “didn’t work.” Armstrong described it as a mistake that needed to be corrected, urging a shift in direction.

That acknowledgement aligns with Base’s earlier operational pivot. In February, Base sunset its Creator Rewards program and Farcaster-powered social feed as part of a move toward more tradable assets. Pollak had also previously characterized the Base App as an “imperfect Farcaster client,” underscoring that even when social-oriented features existed, they were not yet meeting the scale demanded by the market.

The Creator Rewards effort, launched in July 2025, was intended to turn engagement into rewards—making the network’s social activity economically meaningful. Pollak’s latest comments suggest that the rewards model did not overcome the broader competitive advantages held by chains and apps with more established financial depth.

What Base is building now: stablecoins, AI agents, and token standards

While Pollak criticized the earlier social emphasis, Base’s recent technical direction remains focused on tokenization and AI tooling—areas that can support both DeFi and new forms of user interaction.

Last week, Base activated its B20 token standard on mainnet, according to coverage earlier this month. The B20 framework introduces a native approach designed to support stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), and other fungible tokens.

In May, Base launched Base MCP (Model Context Protocol). The tool is intended to let users manage crypto directly from an AI model’s chat interface, and to interact with crypto protocols through the same interface, including Morpho, Moonwell, Uniswap, Aerodrome, Avantis, Bankr, and Virtuals. The practical implication is that AI agents may become a more natural interface layer over existing DeFi functionality, lowering the friction between user intent and on-chain execution.

Base has also said it is upgrading core systems ahead of an “AI agent economy” as part of a 2026 roadmap. In that context, Base highlighted RWA tokenization, stablecoins, and prediction markets as key growth areas—precisely the categories Pollak now says Base must compete in more effectively.

In his Wednesday post, Pollak said the goal is to position Base as a blockchain for global finance, aiming to be the place where the world’s money settles over the next century. While that statement is aspirational, it clarifies the narrative shift: the network is attempting to anchor itself in financial infrastructure rather than primarily in creator-led engagement.

In parallel with the emphasis on trading and markets, the article noted that Limitless Exchange’s monthly notional volume is only a fraction of larger competitors, citing Dune Analytics. That kind of gap helps explain why Pollak pointed to derivatives and prediction markets as areas requiring faster scaling: if volume and notional activity remain comparatively small, users and liquidity providers have less incentive to route activity through the L2.

Why the pivot could matter next

Base’s latest moves may be best understood as a reallocation of attention toward where DeFi demand is already proven—liquidity, tradability, and execution. What remains uncertain is how quickly Base can close the scale gap in prediction markets and perpetual futures, and whether the B20 token standard and AI agent tooling will translate into measurable user activity rather than just product launches. Readers should watch for evidence of rising volume, broader adoption of stablecoin and RWA tooling, and whether Base App product changes under Cobie translate into renewed momentum.

Pump.fun has completed its first major team and investor token distribution after a one-year lockup ended.

On-chain tracking showed 57.279 billion PUMP tokens, valued at about $86.49 million at the time of the transfers, moving to 121 wallets on July 15.

Wu Blockchain reported that the transfers marked the start of a three-year vesting period for team and investor allocations. The event makes a large amount of previously locked PUMP transferable, although wallet distributions alone do not show whether recipients intend to sell.

Source: EmberCN

Pump.fun distributes 57.279 billion PUMP

On-chain analyst Yu Jin tracked two large sources behind the distribution. One address released 52.039 billion PUMP worth about $78.58 million, while another released 5.24 billion tokens valued at approximately $7.91 million. The tokens then moved across 121 wallets.

The first distribution represents about 14% of PUMP’s current circulating supply of roughly 400 billion tokens. CoinGecko showed PUMP trading around $0.0016 after the unlock, with the token still recording a double-digit 24-hour gain when checked. The price action shows that an unlock does not automatically result in immediate selling.

Three-year vesting period begins after one-year lockup

The distribution comes one year after Pump.fun launched PUMP through a major token sale.  As previously reported, the project’s original token allocation reserved 20% of supply for the team and 13% for existing investors.

The latest on-chain data indicates that those allocations have now entered their three-year release period after the initial one-year lockup. The full amount will not necessarily enter circulation at once. Vesting schedules typically release tokens in stages, while the recipients decide whether to hold, transfer or sell their unlocked assets.

Actual distribution follows closely watched PUMP unlock

The event had been on traders’ calendars before the first transfers appeared. As previously reported, scheduled data had pointed to an 82.5 billion PUMP unlock worth about $130 million around the end of the initial cliff. The first observed team and investor distribution instead moved 57.279 billion tokens across 121 wallets.

The difference shows why scheduled unlock figures and on-chain token movements may not always match on a specific day. Unlock calendars track when tokens become eligible for release, while blockchain transfers show when assets actually move between addresses. Further distributions may therefore remain possible during the wider vesting cycle.

PUMP supply pressure meets strong market activity

The unlock adds new potential supply at a time when PUMP continues to see active trading. CoinGecko recorded more than $100 million in 24-hour volume when checked, with the token’s market capitalization near $650 million and around 400 billion tokens listed as circulating.

Pump.fun has also used token buybacks to reduce available supply. Earlier crypto.news coverage tracked the program after it began buying PUMP from the market in 2025. The latest unlock creates the opposite supply force by making previously restricted team and investor allocations transferable.

The key question for the market is how recipients handle the newly available tokens. Distribution to 121 wallets does not prove that 57.279 billion PUMP has entered exchanges or been sold. Further wallet movements and exchange deposits would provide clearer evidence of whether the unlock is creating direct selling pressure.

With the one-year lockup now over, PUMP has entered a longer period of scheduled team and investor vesting. Traders will now watch subsequent distributions, exchange inflows and trading volume as more allocated tokens become available over the next three years.

TeraWulf shares have dropped more than 7% after New York ordered a one-year pause on new environmental permits for large-scale data centers.

According to an executive order signed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Tuesday, the state will temporarily stop issuing new environmental permits for certain large data center projects while regulators prepare a statewide framework to assess their environmental impact.

The order gives the Department of Public Service up to one year to complete a Generic Environmental Impact Statement, which will establish standards for future data center developments. The governor’s office said the review will examine electricity demand, water use and quality, and air quality before the moratorium is lifted.

Alongside the executive order, Hochul said she is also pursuing legislation to remove sales tax exemptions currently available to large data centers across New York.

Investors reacted quickly to the announcement. TeraWulf’s Nasdaq-listed shares closed down 7.08% at $19.41 on Tuesday.

Despite the market reaction, TeraWulf said the order does not affect its existing operations or development timeline in the state.

Paul Prager, TeraWulf’s founder and chief executive officer, echoed that view in a post on X, saying the company is evaluating on-site power generation for the Lake Hawkeye project, which he said aligns with the governor’s priorities for new electricity generation.

AI business continues to expand

While its New York projects remain unchanged, TeraWulf continues to grow its artificial intelligence and high-performance computing business.

Last week, the company signed a 20-year lease agreement with Anthropic for its Justified Data campus in Hawesville, Kentucky. TeraWulf said the agreement is expected to generate about $19 billion in contracted revenue over its full term.

As crypto.news previously reported, the company is also preparing to raise about $3.5 billion through leveraged loans and high-yield bonds to finance construction of the Kentucky AI campus. Bloomberg reported that Morgan Stanley is expected to lead the financing, although final terms have not been announced.

According to TeraWulf, the Kentucky facility will support about 401 megawatts of critical computing capacity, with initial operations expected in the second half of 2027 and full deployment planned for early 2028.

The company’s latest financial results also show how its revenue mix is changing. During the first quarter of 2026, TeraWulf reported $21 million in high-performance computing lease revenue, exceeding digital asset mining revenue of just under $13 million for the first time. Total quarterly revenue stood at $34 million, compared with $34.4 million a year earlier.

TeraWulf has said its AI infrastructure business is designed to provide more predictable contracted income while continuing to use its existing power and data center assets developed during its bitcoin mining operations.

Ark Invest has expanded its exposure to Circle and Block while cutting its Robinhood position, adding nearly $15.4 million worth of shares across the three companies.

According to Ark Invest’s latest daily trading disclosure, the investment firm purchased 220,012 shares of Circle Internet Group across its ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), and ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF). Based on Tuesday’s closing price of $63.22, the acquisition was worth about $13.9 million.

Ripple has burned another 10 million RLUSD tokens, extending a run of treasury operations that has reduced the circulating supply of its dollar-backed stablecoin. 

Blockchain data reported on July 14 showed the tokens moving from the RLUSD Treasury to a null address, permanently removing them from circulation.

The latest operation follows 10 million-token burns recorded on July 13, twice on July 10, and once each on July 9, July 8, July 7 and July 6. Ripple also minted 20 million RLUSD on July 6. The sequence shows active supply management as redemptions and new issuance change the amount available onchain.

RLUSD supply falls from its late-May peak

RLUSD’s market capitalization now stands near $1.52 billion. That is about $380 million below its late-May peak near $1.9 billion, representing a decline of roughly 20% in circulating value.

A lower stablecoin supply does not automatically show weaker adoption. Fiat-backed stablecoins expand when issuers create tokens against new dollar deposits and contract when holders redeem tokens for cash. Burns therefore record the removal of redeemed supply rather than directly measuring transaction demand or user growth.

Repeated burns follow active treasury management

The latest burn adds to several similar transactions within little more than one week. According to the reported Ripple Stablecoin Tracker data, at least 80 million RLUSD has been burned since July 6, while 20 million tokens were minted during the same period.

Those transactions show how quickly stablecoin supply can change when large holders redeem or issue tokens. The movements do not explain who redeemed the RLUSD or why. Ripple has not publicly tied the recent burns to one customer, market event or change in its wider stablecoin strategy.

Ripple expands RLUSD use beyond basic payments

The supply contraction comes as Ripple continues adding new uses for RLUSD. As per report, Ripple joined the x402 Foundation as a Premier Member as the Linux Foundation moved the open payment standard under formal governance.

The initiative focuses partly on machine-to-machine payments. XRP and RLUSD can support payments by AI agents through x402 on the XRP Ledger, giving autonomous software a way to settle transactions using blockchain-based assets.

Ripple also introduced new tools aimed at developers building AI payment applications. As previously reported, the company launched the XRPL AI Starter Kit in June, allowing developers to build software agents that can send and receive payments.

The company is positioning RLUSD as one settlement asset that developers can use for those transactions. The work adds another potential use case for the stablecoin beyond exchange trading and traditional cross-border transfers.

RLUSD remains active across the XRP Ledger

Recent supply reductions also follow a period of growing RLUSD activity on the XRP Ledger. Evernorth said RLUSD pairs had generated more than $2.5 billion in XRP Ledger trading volume since launch.

The figures included about $900 million in volume from the RLUSD/XRP pair over six months. Evernorth also reported that the XRP Ledger held slightly more than half of RLUSD’s circulating supply by late June.

That distribution can change as minting, burning and cross-chain transfers continue. However, the figures show that RLUSD remains active across trading and settlement markets even as its total circulating supply falls from its May peak.

Ripple has also continued expanding RLUSD through institutional and payment partnerships. A coverage showed that the company is increasingly connecting the stablecoin with automated payment infrastructure and emerging machine-to-machine transaction systems.

The latest 10 million RLUSD burn reflects another reduction in outstanding supply while Ripple continues building new payment and settlement uses. The market will now watch whether the current burn cycle continues or whether new minting resumes as demand changes.

At about $1.52 billion in market capitalization, RLUSD remains below its May peak. Future treasury movements could provide a clearer picture of whether the recent contraction represents a temporary redemption cycle or a longer period of lower circulating supply.

Base creator Jesse Pollak says he is stepping back from leading the Base App after admitting he made a “wrong bet” on social, leaving the chain to fall behind on prediction markets and perpetual futures. 

In a post to X on Wednesday, Pollak said he had bet that creator, content and messaging apps would drive adoption, but instead the market “disintegrated completely.” 

“We realized how our focus on social had meant that base had fallen behind in key areas that were now increasingly critical — we had perps (shoutout avantis!) and prediction markets (shoutout limitless!), but both were well behind scaled competitors.”

Pollak’s comments give further insight into the reversal of Base’s growth strategy earlier this year. While Base initially focused on social products such as Farcaster, Zora and miniapps to bring crypto to “a billion people,” Pollak said financial applications are the way forward for the network, with a focus on trading, payments and AI agents. 

Limitless Exchange’s monthly notional volume is only a fraction of its larger competitors. Source: Dune Analytics

Pollak added he will be returning leadership of the Base App to Coinbase, under Jordan Fish, known on X as “Cobie,” while he focuses on the Base blockchain. 

Coinbase CEO: “We messed up” on content coins

Pollak’s post came just days after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong acknowledged content coins “didn’t work,” prompting the company to pivot earlier this year. 

“We messed up, time to turn the page,” Armstrong said on Monday. 

In February, Base sunset its Creator Rewards program and Farcaster-powered social feed as part of a strategic shift to tradable assets. 

Related: Moonbeam to pivot from Polkadot to Base, unveils AI agent framework

The Creator Rewards program launched in July 2025 and was intended to make the Ethereum layer-2 Base a more social ecosystem, where activity and engagement translate into earnings. Meanwhile, Pollak admitted the Base App was an “imperfect Farcaster client.” 

Base’s work on stablecoins, AI agents 

Last week, Base activated its B20 token standard on the mainnet, introducing a native framework for stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) and other fungible tokens.  

In May, Base launched Base MCP (Model Context Protocol), a tool that lets users manage their crypto directly from an AI model’s chat interface and interact with crypto protocols such as Morpho, Moonwell, Uniswap, Aerodrome, Avantis, Bankr and Virtuals.

In April, Base said it was upgrading key systems in preparation for an AI agent economy as part of its 2026 roadmap. It highlighted real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, stablecoins, and prediction markets as being key growth areas in 2026.  

“We’re going to build base into the blockchain for global finance and do everything we can to be the place that the world’s money settles over the next century,” Pollak said on Wednesday.  

Magazine: Is Robinhood Chain’s success bullish or bearish for ETH the asset?

Ethereum-backed EthSystems has launched with support from Bitmine, SharpLink and Consensys CEO Joe Lubin, adding another independent organization to Ethereum’s institutional development network after the Foundation cut 54 roles.

According to an announcement from EthSystems on Tuesday, the for-profit company will build confidential infrastructure for banks, asset managers, and other regulated institutions using Ethereum.

Bitmine and SharpLink, two major Ethereum treasury companies, have backed the venture alongside Lubin, who co-founded Ethereum and later founded Consensys.

EthSystems was spun out of the Ethereum Foundation and was established by former Foundation employees Mo Jalil, Oskar Thorén, and Aaryamann Challani. The three founders previously worked on the Foundation’s Institutional Privacy Task Force.

EthSystems targets confidential institutional finance

The company said it will help financial institutions use public Ethereum without exposing sensitive information such as trading positions, transaction details, or client identities to the full network.

Its work is expected to include privacy systems based on zero-knowledge cryptography, which can verify transactions without revealing the underlying data.

“The business model is simple: bespoke consulting, focused on solving the hardest blockers for institutional adoption,” the team wrote.

“In practice, this means continuing a lot of the work we have been doing, only charging money for it,” it added. “Commercial engagements often require a commercial counterparty.”

Alongside paid consulting, EthSystems said it will continue publishing protocol specifications and contributing to open-source projects.

While working within the Institutional Privacy Task Force, the founders held hundreds of discussions with central banks, regulators, and financial institutions, according to the company.

Their previous work included private bonds using zero-knowledge proofs, confidential stablecoin transfers, private cross-chain settlements and the Ethereum Privacy Map.

“Our mission: help institutions build confidential systems on public Ethereum without giving up what makes Ethereum worth using,” the team wrote.

EthSystems has emerged during a major reorganization of the Ethereum Foundation and its technical teams.

On June 23, the Foundation cut 54 jobs, equal to about 20% of its workforce, after a months-long review of its spending, staffing and long-term responsibilities.

The organization reorganized its work into five divisions covering protocol, access, users, community, and institutional activity. Separate groups continue to manage operations and administration.

The Foundation said the restructuring would allow it to direct staff and resources towards responsibilities that it believes only the organization can perform.

“These decisions were hard, but they are necessary,” the Foundation said in June. “We must be resourced and organized in a way that allows us to focus on the critical work that only EF can, and therefore must, do in the coming years.”

In July, the Foundation also dissolved its Protocol Support team, which had coordinated All Core Developers meetings, network upgrade tracking, Ethereum Improvement Proposal support, Forkcast, and the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship.

Mario Havel, who worked with Protocol Support for more than five years, said he remained at the Foundation but confirmed that the rest of the team had been dissolved.

“I am still part of EF, continuing my work and figuring out what’s most needed in the future,” Havel wrote on X. “However, all of my team, Protocol Support, that I have been part of for 5+ years, has been dissolved.”

Independent Ethereum groups take on new roles

EthSystems joins Ethereum Institutional and EthLabs, two other independent organizations backed by Bitmine, SharpLink, and Lubin.

EthLabs is expected to take on major Ethereum protocol research and development work, while Ethereum Institutional has been positioned as a neutral contact point for financial companies building on the network.

Lubin previously told The Block that he expected at least three organizations to emerge from the Foundation as it concentrated on censorship resistance, open-source development, privacy, and security under its CROPS framework.

“As EF continues doubling down on cypherpunk fundamentals, especially with a focus on individuals, there’s room for an independent for-profit entity that can make different choices in the trade-off space,” EthSystems wrote.

Despite the restructuring, the Foundation’s protocol division remains responsible for Ethereum’s core technology, including privacy, security, decentralization and censorship resistance.

Ethereum developers are also continuing work on the Glamsterdam upgrade, which includes proposed changes to block construction, data access, and network performance.

CFTC has ordered Kalshi to keep operating in Michigan despite the platform already unwinding sports event trades to comply with a state court order, deepening the dispute over who regulates prediction markets in the U.S.

According to a July 14 order from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Kalshi must not comply with Michigan’s directive to stop offering sports event contracts and should continue operating, even after the company said it had already reversed trades to satisfy the state court’s requirements.

The conflicting instructions have left the CFTC-regulated prediction market platform caught between state and federal authorities. In a statement posted on X, Kalshi’s head of enforcement and legal counsel, Robert DeNault, said the company had already unwound the affected trades because the Michigan court required it to do so.

“We are disappointed by this decision and believe it is unfair to Kalshi,” DeNault said. 

“We already acted and unwound the trades, as the Michigan court order required us to do. We are being put in an impossible position, looking to follow state court orders that may contradict our federal regulatory obligations. We did not have a choice.”

A Kalshi spokesperson told Reuters the company is reviewing the CFTC’s order and weighing its next steps.

The regulator said Michigan became the first state to attempt to interfere with derivatives contracts after they had already been executed, describing the move as a challenge to the federal framework governing designated contract markets.

CFTC Chair Michael Selig said canceling completed trades could create uncertainty across financial markets.

“Canceling trades that have already been executed is an unprecedented step that risks a cascading effect on the entire marketplace and undermines the certainty in contracting that is a necessary component of a functioning market,” Selig said.

“The Commission will not allow states or state courts to bully registered entities into violating the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations,” he added.

Speaking on Fox Business last week, Selig also said it was “critical” that the CFTC preserve its authority over prediction markets.

He added that the agency had already sued nine states and would continue taking legal action against any state seeking to impose civil or criminal penalties on CFTC-registered exchanges.

Michigan case adds to national legal fight

The latest order follows a June 29 ruling by Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, who temporarily barred Kalshi from offering sports event contracts to Michigan residents while the state’s lawsuit proceeds. The court warned the company it could face fines of up to $120,000 per day if it failed to meet geolocation requirements.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has argued that Kalshi’s sports event contracts operate as unlicensed gambling products under the state’s Lawful Sports Betting Act. Kalshi has maintained that its event contracts fall under the Commodity Exchange Act and therefore remain subject to the CFTC rather than state gaming regulators.

Michigan is one of several states challenging Kalshi’s sports contracts. Massachusetts has secured a preliminary injunction blocking the platform from offering similar products while litigation continues, and a court recently allowed state authorities to expand their complaint with new allegations, including claims that Kalshi targets users under 21.

New York has also handed Kalshi an early setback. Earlier this month, Judge Analisa Torres denied the company’s request for a preliminary injunction, allowing the state’s lawsuit to continue after finding Kalshi had not shown it was likely to succeed on its argument that federal commodities law preempts New York’s gambling laws.

As the legal disputes expand, the CFTC continues to argue that Congress granted it exclusive authority over federally regulated prediction markets, while several states maintain that sports event contracts function as sports betting and should remain subject to state gaming laws.