Crypto World
Optimism forecasts 343M more OP in circulation
Optimism published its Year 4 budget update and Year 5 outlook on Aug. 6, forecasting that circulating supply will reach 2.504 billion OP by April 2027.
Summary
- Optimism forecasts circulating supply reaching 2.504 billion OP, or 58.3% of total, by April 2027.
- Year 5 forecasts include 200 million ecosystem tokens and 47.6 million contributor tokens entering circulation.
- Optimism committed roughly 150 million OP during Year 4, one third below the previous year.
- No airdrops or Retro Funding releases are forecast in Year 5 under the current outlook.
- OP Mainnet monthly transactions grew over 60%, while buybacks acquired more than nine million tokens.
That would equal 58.3% of the project’s reported 4.295 billion total supply.
The Foundation’s stated figures imply that approximately 343 million OP could enter circulation from May 2026 through April 2027. Optimism said in the official update that it had not requested a new token allocation and would continue working within the original distribution framework.
Optimism budget directs 200M OP toward its ecosystem
The Ecosystem Fund represents the largest listed Year 5 category, with 200 million OP forecast to enter circulation. Optimism also expects releases of 47.6 million OP for early core contributors, 15.3 million for investors and 10 million from the Governance Fund.
No OP circulation is forecast from airdrops or Retro Funding during the period. However, the figures are not final.
The Foundation described them as “directional estimates” that are “subject to adjustment” based on program performance and governance input.
The listed Year 5 categories total 272.9 million OP. Yet the increase from the reported 2.161 billion starting supply to the 2.504 billion target equals roughly 343 million. The post does not identify the remaining 70.1 million OP or reconcile that difference.
A second discrepancy also requires clarification. The budget post lists 2,160,975,703 circulating OP as of Aug. 6, while Optimism’s linked public tracker displayed 2,286,467,356 OP when accessed the same day. The post does not explain the difference of approximately 125.5 million OP.
Year 4 spending fell as broad incentives paused
Optimism said it made about 150 million OP in new commitments during Year 4, around one third below the 229.92 million committed in Year 3. Governance Fund tokens entering circulation fell 53% to 13.4 million, while Retro Funding releases declined 30% to 14.2 million.
No user airdrops occurred during the period. Retro Funding also paused after the final Season 7 mission payments. The Foundation said 777.6 million OP, or 90.5% of the program’s original allocation, remains available for possible future rewards.
Ecosystem Fund circulation rose 53% to 208.5 million OP. However, the Foundation said the increase did not represent equivalent new spending. It attributed most releases to previously approved partner grants reaching vesting dates or completing required milestones.
As previously reported in OP token unlock coverage, tokens entering circulation can increase available supply. However, an unlock does not establish that recipients will sell their tokens.
OP Enterprise becomes the main spending strategy
The Foundation said future deployment would concentrate on growing OP Mainnet and acquiring OP Enterprise customers. The institutional service launched in January with Fully Managed, Self Managed and OP Mainnet tiers for exchanges, payment businesses and financial institutions.
The strategy has produced agreements involving Bitpanda’s Vision Chain, Kraken-backed Ink and Dunamu’s GIWA Chain. Bitpanda plans to launch Vision Chain through the Fully Managed service, while Ink is scheduled to complete its Fully Managed transition in August.
As crypto.news reported in related GIWA Chain coverage, Upbit operator Dunamu selected the Self Managed tier. The structure allows Dunamu to operate the network while receiving support from Optimism.
Optimism also cited ether.fi’s deployment on OP Mainnet, reporting more than 70,000 active cards and $220 million in total value locked. Those figures come from the Foundation and should be treated as company-reported metrics.
Buybacks remain smaller than projected circulation
Optimism governance approved a 12-month program that directs 50% of eligible Superchain revenue toward monthly OP purchases. The budget update said the program had acquired more than nine million OP by Aug. 6.
As crypto.news reported in its OP buyback approval, governance approved the program in January. The first disclosed purchase used 95.8 ETH to acquire approximately 1.57 million OP.
The purchased tokens are held in the Collective treasury rather than permanently destroyed. The proposal leaves future governance to decide whether repurchased OP will be burned, used for ecosystem funding or assigned another function.
More than nine million OP in buybacks remains well below the 343 million circulation increase implied by the budget’s starting and ending figures. The comparison does not establish future price performance, because circulation, treasury holdings and market sales measure different token flows.
What happens next for OP supply
The Foundation will continue assessing spending against OP Mainnet growth and enterprise customer acquisition. It plans to publish its next annual budget update and Year 6 outlook by June 2027.
Before then, investors will need a reconciled supply schedule. The category forecasts, stated starting supply and live tracker currently produce different totals. Until Optimism provides further clarification, the 2.504 billion endpoint should be treated as a directional Foundation forecast rather than a fully reconciled unlock schedule.
Crypto World
Safe Logs 130M Transactions in Q2, a Quarterly Record

Safe smart accounts processed nearly 130 million transactions in the second quarter, the highest quarterly total in the protocol's history and a 5.7% increase from Q1, the Safe Ecosystem Foundation said in its Q2 2026 report published Wednesday. The record quarter came against a weaker market, a… Read the full story at The Defiant
Crypto World
Japan FSA Seeks New Crypto Exchange Safeguards Against Fraud
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Crypto World
CLARITY Ethics Proposal May Give Trump Tax Benefit: Bloomberg
A bipartisan ethics proposal pitched to US President Donald Trump to secure passage of the crypto market structure bill in Congress could create a significant tax benefit for the president, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
The ethics addendum, which has not been made public, includes a provision requiring the president to divest from crypto-related businesses, according to people familiar with the matter. The proposal would reportedly allow Trump to defer capital gains taxes on any required divestitures, potentially leading to tax savings in the millions.
Democratic concerns over Trump’s crypto conflicts have been a central obstacle to passing the market-structure bill. Senators have been working on an ethics addendum meant to break that impasse, though the reported tax-deferral benefit could become another point of contention for Democrats to question whether the president’s financial interests are genuinely curbed.
Cointelegraph reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
Related: US Senate pushes CLARITY Act vote to September: Report
Trump’s annual financial disclosure report for 2025, released at the end of June, revealed the US president saw $1.4 billion in income from crypto-related ventures last year.
According to the 927-page disclosure, the licensing and sale of memecoins such as Official Trump (TRUMP) generated the most income for Trump, with about $635 million coming from “royalties” in a “license agreement with Celebration Coins.”
Meanwhile, the Trump family’s DeFi platform, World Liberty Financial, was the second-biggest earner, generating about $588 million from “proceeds from token sales.”
The disclosure also revealed that Trump earned $197 from the sale of an equity interest in a stablecoin venture.
Meanwhile, disclosures on World Liberty’s website show that DT Marks DEFI LLC, an entity affiliated with Trump and certain family members, owns “approximately 38% of the equity interests” in World Liberty’s parent company.
Magazine: CLARITY hopes fade, BitMEX shuts as lawsuit looms: Hodler’s Digest, July 26
Crypto World
KOSPI, Nikkei Reverse Gains as SoftBank, SK Hynix Both Drop
Japanese and South Korean equities reversed early gains on Friday. The KOSPI fell over 1%, while the Nikkei 225 dropped slightly as well, as memory chip stocks extended a multi-week selloff.
SoftBank Group slid 3.69% and SK Hynix sank 4.82%, pressuring both benchmarks. Weak overnight trading on Wall Street compounded the pullback across Asian markets.
Asian Indexes Give Back Early Gains
The KOSPI opened 1.1% higher at 6,365.07 points. It rose as high as 6,415.60 before sellers took control. The index then fell to 6,221.60, down 74.79 points, or 1.19%, from Thursday’s close of 6,296.39.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 followed a similar pattern. It opened higher at 65,746.13, above Thursday’s close of 65,683.04, then reversed to 65,193.16, down 489.88 points, or 0.75%. The session ranged between 64,651.49 and 65,990.72.
SoftBank Group, a top Nikkei 225 constituent, slid 3.69% to 5,485 yen. SK Hynix led KOSPI decliners, sinking 4.82% to 1,423,000 won. Samsung Electronics bucked the trend, adding 0.43% to 231,500 won.
Memory Chip Selloff Weighs on Sentiment
The declines extended a broader repricing that has driven a sharp SanDisk stock selloff over the past month. Kioxia, a Japanese flash-memory maker, dropped 2.03% to 47,750 yen earlier in Friday’s session.
Citigroup and Jefferies cut price targets on memory stocks this week. The move followed conservative guidance from SanDisk, whose quarterly results beat estimates but failed to lift its outlook.
Goldman Sachs said fully priced valuations leave chipmakers vulnerable to sharp drops. Even slightly conservative guidance can trigger a selloff despite strong headline results, the bank noted.
Wall Street closed lower across the board Thursday, weighing on Asian sentiment. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.06% and the S&P 500 fell 0.18%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average snapped a five-session winning streak with a 0.85% drop.
US jobless claims for the week ending August 1 came in at 199,000, slightly below forecasts. That points to continued labor market strength. Traders were also watching the Middle East. The United States and Iran have not yet finalized terms to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Whether the KOSPI and Nikkei stabilize may hinge on memory chip earnings and progress in the Hormuz talks.
The post KOSPI, Nikkei Reverse Gains as SoftBank, SK Hynix Both Drop appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
Morpho Signs First Hong Kong Partnership With HashKey's HSK Chain

Morpho, the DeFi lending protocol with about $7.6 billion in total value locked, will complete a full deployment on HashKey's HSK Chain and become the network's official onchain credit partner, HSK Chain said in a post on X on Tuesday. The deal gives Morpho its first anchor in Hong Kong, one of the… Read the full story at The Defiant
Crypto World
Upbit lists Block Street (BSB) across KRW, BTC, USDT
Upbit will add Block Street (BSB) to its Korean won, Bitcoin and USDT markets on Aug. 7, giving the token three new spot pairs in South Korea.
Summary
- Upbit will open Block Street trading across KRW, BTC and USDT markets on August 7.
- BSB deposits and withdrawals will use Ethereum, with other networks unsupported for Upbit transfers initially.
- Upbit will restrict buy orders for five minutes and non-limit orders for roughly two hours.
- Block Street says BSB supports governance, staking and incentives across its tokenized asset infrastructure ecosystem.
- Block Street documentation fixes BSB supply at one billion tokens across Ethereum and BNB Chain.
According to Upbit’s official listing notice, the exchange scheduled trading for 3:00 p.m. Korea Standard Time and said deposits and withdrawals would initially be supported only through Ethereum.
Upbit also warned that the trading start could be delayed if adequate liquidity is not secured. The exchange said users should verify the supported network before transferring BSB because deposits sent through unsupported networks may require a lengthy return process.
Upbit will impose temporary BSB trading limits
Upbit plans several restrictions during BSB’s opening period. Buy orders will be blocked for about five minutes after trading begins. During the same period, sell orders priced more than 10% below the previous day’s closing price will also be restricted.
In addition, Upbit will allow only limit orders for roughly two hours after trading support starts. The exchange cited a previous closing price of 211.09 KRW and a recent reference price of 222.34 KRW at 11:45 a.m. KST on Aug. 7. Those figures were published before Upbit trading opened and therefore do not represent a post-listing market reaction.
The listing notice identified BSB’s supported Ethereum contract as 0xdb6ba5d510f114f9b2ea08bea7d30e32eee33411. Users are expected to verify that contract before making deposits or withdrawals.
The structure resembles other recent Upbit additions. Upbit added Derive’s DRV token to KRW, BTC and USDT markets while also applying temporary trading controls around the launch.
Block Street targets tokenized asset liquidity
Block Street describes itself as infrastructure for on-chain capital markets focused on tokenized equities and real-world assets. According to the project’s official documentation, its architecture is intended to connect fragmented liquidity across issuers, blockchains and trading venues.
The protocol calls this infrastructure a “Unified Liquidity Layer.” Block Street says the system is designed to improve execution and capital efficiency for tokenized assets while supporting functions such as borrowing, margin, hedging and arbitrage.
BSB serves as the protocol’s utility and governance token. According to Block Street’s BSB documentation, holders can use the token for governance participation, staking and ecosystem incentives.
The project’s whitepaper fixes total BSB supply at 1 billion tokens. Block Street said 207.75 million BSB, equivalent to 20.775% of supply, were expected to circulate around the token generation event.
The project has also raised outside capital to build its infrastructure. Block Street announced an $11.5 million strategic funding round in October 2025, led by Hack VC with participation from Generative Venture, DWF Labs, StudioB and Bridge34.
Meanwhile, tokenized equities have become a broader market theme. In related coverage, tokenized equity activity increased as crypto companies and traditional market participants expanded blockchain-based stock infrastructure.
What happens when BSB trading opens
The immediate event to watch is Upbit’s planned 3:00 p.m. KST trading start on Aug. 7. Because the exchange made the launch conditional on sufficient liquidity, the announced time remains subject to change.
Once trading begins, Upbit’s initial restrictions will expire in stages. The five-minute controls on buy orders and low-priced sell orders will end first, while the exchange plans to maintain its limit-order-only restriction for roughly two hours.
At the time covered by the announcement, there was no verified Upbit market reaction because trading had not yet begun. As a result, price movements on other exchanges before the scheduled launch should not be described as an Upbit listing reaction without time-matched market data.
For deposits, users must continue using the Ethereum network and verify the contract address specified in the Upbit announcement. Although Block Street’s whitepaper describes BSB deployments across Ethereum and BNB Chain, Upbit’s listing notice supports Ethereum only.
That distinction will remain important once deposits, withdrawals and trading are active because transfers made through unsupported networks may not be automatically credited.
Crypto World
Early bitcoin wallet wakes after 15 years with $3.2 million transfer
A bitcoin wallet that had been dormant since 2011 moved nearly 50 BTC worth about $3.2 million on Thursday, shifting the coins to an address with a history of sending bitcoin to institutional crypto brokerage FalconX.
The wallet received the coins on July 16, 2011, when bitcoin traded around $10, and had not spent them since, according to Galaxy Research. The 49.97 BTC position is now worth roughly $3.2 million after surviving more than a decade of bitcoin booms, crashes and exchange failures.
The transaction, included in block 961331 at 20:14 UTC on Aug. 6, combined four inputs from the dormant address totaling 49.97 BTC with two smaller inputs from other addresses. Exactly 50 BTC was sent to a SegWit address, while a second output received about 0.00116 BTC after fees.
SegWit is a newer Bitcoin address format that makes transactions more space-efficient and generally cheaper to send. Addresses beginning with bc1 use it.
The destination is not a fresh wallet, however. Arkham data show the address has been active for several years and previously sent 6.336 BTC and 16.131 BTC to addresses the analytics platform labels as FalconX deposits.
Crypto World
SoFi Says SoFiUSD Settlement Now Live on Q2 Earnings Call

SoFi Technologies, the digital bank with 15.8 million members, said commercial clients have begun settling transactions in real time through its SoFiUSD stablecoin, according to the company's second-quarter results published Wednesday. The milestone moves SoFiUSD from launch announcement to… Read the full story at The Defiant
Crypto World
Bitcoin stuck near $64,000 as Clarity Act vote slips to September
Trump disclosed more than $1 billion in income from his crypto ventures in 2025. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said a vote would come in September, when lawmakers return on Sept. 14 with three weeks to work through a backlog that also includes government funding and a Russia sanctions bill.
Spot bitcoin funds took in about $626 million between Aug. 3 and Aug. 5, enough to defend the $63,000 to $64,000 area but not enough to push through resistance between $66,000 and $66,600.
Next week brings the U.S. employment report and July inflation data. The Federal Reserve held rates at 3.50% to 3.75% in July, though three officials voted to raise them. A strong jobs number or sticky inflation would strengthen the case for tighter policy, which typically weighs on bitcoin.
Bitcoin has not managed to break $66,000 even with money coming in all week. Next week’s jobs and inflation reports decide whether it gets another try or slips back toward $63,000.
Crypto World
$76,000. That’s the potential target hiding inside bitcoin’s boring price action
Bitcoin’s recent price action has been unremarkable and boring, the kind that sends traders looking for excitement elsewhere.
But look closer, through a technical analyst’s lens, and the token appears to be hammering out a bullish pattern, which, if confirmed, could suggest a rally to $76,000.
That pattern is the popular inverse head-and-shoulders (H&S) setup, typically seen at the end of a downtrend rather than in the middle of one. It involves three troughs separated by temporary price recoveries. The middle trough is the deepest, marking peak bearishness or selling, while the shallower trough that follows is the first sign of seller, or downtrend, exhaustion.
A completed pattern, marked by prices rising through a line connecting the interim recoveries, called the neckline, is said to confirm a bullish trend revival.
The pattern is visible on bitcoin’s daily chart: a low near $60,000 in early June formed the left shoulder, a deeper trough near $57,700 in late June or early July marked the head, and the recent bounce from around $62,500 formed the right shoulder. Each trough was followed by a rebound toward a similar resistance zone.
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