Topic: #defi
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KOR Protocol raises $7.5M Series A from 1kx, Blockchain Capital
KOR Protocol, an onchain creative asset clearinghouse built on Coinbase's Layer 2, raised $7.5 million in Series A funding from 1kx and Blockchain Capital. The platform has surpassed $2 million in gross revenue and counts over 1,000 partners including Black Mirror and Beatport.
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Summer.fi pauses Lazy Summer vaults after $6M flash loan exploit
DeFi protocol Summer.fi halted its Lazy Summer yield vaults after a flash loan attack drained approximately $6 million from the Ethereum platform. The protocol's SUMR token fell over 18% following the exploit.
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Banks Race to Become Stablecoin Gateways as Volumes Surge
Standard Chartered and BNY Mellon have announced direct institutional access to stablecoin minting and redemption, signaling a fundamental shift in how global systemically important banks view digital assets. Chainalysis projects stablecoin settlement volumes could reach a quadrillion dollars annually by 2030.
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Crypto hacks hit record 207 in H1 2026, but smart contracts aren't the main target
The first half of 2026 saw 207 separate crypto hacks—the most in any six-month period—yet total losses fell to $972 million, less than half of H1 2025's $2.3 billion, as attackers increasingly target infrastructure and operational systems rather than smart-contract code.
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Stablecoin Winners Will Be Decided by Collateral, Not Yield
Yield-bearing stablecoins are racing toward a $50 billion market, but collateral acceptance—not returns—will ultimately determine which projects succeed, argues Artem Tolkachev, Chief RWA Officer at Falcon Finance.
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Solana Network Hits All-Time High Usage as SOL Crosses $80
Solana's network processed a record 3.77 billion transactions in June 2026 as daily active addresses retested yearly highs, even as SOL trades 72% below its January peak. The surge in usage reflects growing institutional interest in the blockchain's low fees and high throughput for decentralized finance applications.
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Trump Defends $1.4B Crypto Earnings as Congress Debates Regulation
US President Donald Trump defended earning roughly $1.4 billion from crypto ventures while in office, saying nothing was wrong with the profits. His latest financial disclosure reignited conflict-of-interest concerns as Congress debates major crypto legislation including the CLARITY Act.
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A7A5 Russian stablecoin claims $34.4B volume, but analysts say it's inflated
A7A5, a sanctioned Russian ruble stablecoin, claims $34.4 billion in processing volume since January, but blockchain analysts say the token's actual activity is far lower and falling sharply, with circular transactions artificially inflating the figures.
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Rocket Pool cuts validator bond to 4 ETH with Saturn 1 upgrade
Rocket Pool's Saturn 1 upgrade launched February 18, cutting the minimum validator bond from 8 ETH to 4 ETH and introducing megapools, but raising concerns about operator reliability as barriers to entry fall.
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Tech Profit-Taking Hits Nasdaq, Semiconductors; Meta Surges on AI Cloud Service
US equity markets declined on July 1 as investors trimmed technology positions, with the Nasdaq falling 0.66% and semiconductors hit hardest. Meta Platforms bucked the trend, surging 9% after announcing plans to monetize excess AI computing capacity through a new cloud service.
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Mohalla Tech seeks $400M IPO in 2027 after achieving profitability
Mohalla Tech, the company behind India's ShareChat and Moj social platforms, plans to raise up to $400 million through a public listing in 2027 after achieving operational profitability in Q1 FY2027. The move signals a shift toward investor confidence based on unit economics rather than growth-at-any-cost narratives.
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Robinhood Chain launches on Arbitrum for tokenized assets and DeFi
Robinhood officially launched the public mainnet for Robinhood Chain, a layer-2 blockchain built on Arbitrum, and rolled out new crypto products including decentralized lending and AI-powered trading tools.
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World launches Solana prediction market in Phantom wallet
World, a fully onchain prediction market platform, launched on Solana through Phantom wallet, letting users trade contracts on crypto prices and the 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup using Chainlink oracles and Phantom's CASH stablecoin.
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MetaMask Launches Yield-Paying Money Accounts on Monad
MetaMask rolled out Money Accounts on Tuesday, a self-custody feature combining stablecoin yield, payments, and trading built on Monad. The product uses mUSD and deploys deposits into DeFi lending protocols including Morpho.
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XRP Ledger Lending Protocol enters validator voting phase
The XRP Ledger is moving toward a new phase focused on financing value, with a native Lending Protocol entering the validator voting phase to provide yield to crypto holders and capital access to institutions.
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Japan's prediction markets use loyalty points to sidestep gambling laws
Japanese startups are building prediction markets using redeemable points instead of cryptocurrency to comply with local gambling laws, positioning themselves as alternatives to Polymarket while Polymarket itself targets government authorization by 2030.
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Framework Ventures launches $400M fund for AI, robotics financing via blockchain
Framework Ventures, a crypto venture firm, announced a $400 million fund targeting blockchain-based financing for capital-intensive industries like AI and robotics, signaling a shift from crypto-native speculation toward real-world infrastructure funding.
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Ethereum's oldest wallets dump $52.5M ETH at $1,560 demand line
Four dormant Ethereum wallets sold 33,623 ETH worth $52.5 million near $1,560, testing whether fresh demand can absorb supply from long-term holders exiting after eight years of silence.
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Kevin Warsh Navigates Fed Chair Tenure Amid Inflation Surge
Kevin Warsh, who took office as Federal Reserve Chair on June 17, 2026, faces mounting pressures including three-year-high inflation and a Supreme Court case questioning presidential authority over Fed governors. He'll address these challenges at the ECB Forum in Portugal this week.
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U.S. IPO market rebounds to $120B in 2026, but lacks dot-com excess
U.S. IPO issuance has rebounded sharply in 2026, with roughly 50 companies going public and $120 billion in deal value by midyear, but Goldman Sachs says the current surge lacks the speculative excess of the dot-com era. Crypto companies including Kraken parent Payward and Consensys have paused listings.
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Dangote Refinery seeks $40B valuation in Nigeria's largest IPO
Aliko Dangote is pursuing a public listing for his Lagos-based petroleum refinery at a $39 billion valuation, the largest in Nigerian history. The SEC halted IPO marketing in June due to a missing formal application, potentially delaying the September 2026 target date.
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Solana Foundation launches Frontier Traders with tiered rebates for pro traders
Solana Foundation introduced Frontier Traders on June 17, a program that aggregates trading activity across venues and offers tiered rebates and priority infrastructure to high-volume traders, targeting market makers and prop firms.
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Aztec Connect smart contract exploited for $2.1M after protocol shutdown
A dormant smart contract from the deprecated Aztec Connect protocol was drained of approximately $2.1 million on June 14 after an attacker exploited a verification logic flaw, highlighting risks inherent in immutable DeFi infrastructure.
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Ronaldo brings Binance NFT deal and Portugal fan token to 2026 World Cup
Cristiano Ronaldo, 41, has landed in the US with Portugal for his sixth World Cup, bringing his multi-year Binance NFT collaboration and exposure to the official POR fan token—a volatile asset that could spike or crater depending on the team's tournament performance.