DeFi & Markets
DeFi and crypto market structure is where most innovation is happening — and where most readers actually need help separating signal from noise. LeoDex News covers DEX volume rotations (which venues are eating CEX market share, which perps platform owns the long-tail), stablecoin flow data, lending/borrowing rates, real-world asset tokenization, and the cross-chain bridge economics that quietly underpin everything.
Our angle is structural: we explain WHY a DEX is winning rather than just reporting the volume number. We name the actual mechanism behind a yield rate spike. We surface the silent risks (concentrator dominance, oracle dependencies, smart-contract exposure) that headline pieces tend to skip. Trade DeFi assets non-custodially on LeoDex — aggregates 100+ DEXes across 60+ chains.
Latest in DeFi & Markets
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Chainalysis sues DHS over sole-source TRM Labs contract
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis filed suit in the US Court of Federal Claims, alleging the Department of Homeland Security and ICE bypassed competitive bidding to award a sole-source contract to rival TRM Labs. The lawsuit could reshape federal procurement standards for blockchain analytics tools.
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Crypto Investors Shift to Fundamentals, Abandon Market-Cap Rankings
Industry executives say crypto investors are increasingly judging tokens on revenue, usage and value capture rather than market-cap rank, marking the end of the "CoinMarketCap leaderboard era."
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Ripple's $50M RLUSD Mint on Ethereum Narrows XRP Ledger Gap
Ripple issued 50 million RLUSD tokens on Ethereum, pushing the stablecoin's total circulating supply to $1.63 billion and narrowing the supply gap with XRP Ledger to just $5.7 million. Capital is flowing from Ripple's native network to Ethereum as corporate clients prefer the latter's infrastructure.
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Nebius stock surges on 454% revenue growth; BofA raises target to $310
Bank of America hiked its Nebius price target from $280 to $310 following the company's Q2 earnings, which showed $582.3 million in revenue—a 454% year-over-year jump. The stock closed at $259.20, leaving room to the new target, but contrarian investor Michael Burry has increased his short position, highlighting divergent market views on the AI infrastructure play.
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Crypto valuations could double as protocols adopt token buybacks
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said crypto valuations could at least double as protocols increasingly use revenue to fund token buybacks and burns, with revenue-capture mechanisms expected to spread across DeFi and layer-1 networks over the next 12 to 24 months.
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Rumble's Bitcoin Holdings Surge to 293 BTC Amid AI Expansion
RUM Group, parent of video platform Rumble, increased its Bitcoin treasury by 82.32 BTC in Q2 2026, reaching 293.14 BTC worth $17.2 million. The accumulation coincides with the company's acquisition of Northern Data and 61% revenue growth.
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Goldman Sachs acquires NEOS Investments for $2.3 billion
Goldman Sachs is acquiring NEOS Investments, a specialist in options-based income ETFs, in a deal valued at up to $2.3 billion. The transaction will add $30 billion in assets to Goldman Sachs Asset Management's ETF business and position the combined entity as the eighth-largest active ETF manager.
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Bitcoin miner rejects BIP-110 despite Ocean pool backing
Simple Mining, operating through Ocean pool, used the DATUM protocol to independently reject BIP-110, a proposal to block non-financial data storage in Bitcoin transactions. The miner's block 961,634 continued the main chain while BIP-110 supporters' minority fork stalled after just two blocks.
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Ethereum Exchange Reserves Drain $25.6M Weekly as Smart Contracts Surge
Ethereum's exchange reserves are draining at $25.6 million per week while smart contract deployments surged 50% above the three-month average, signaling a structural shift from trading to on-chain utility and potential price volatility.
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Binance Bitcoin futures hit $57.8B daily volume, dwarfing spot trading
Bitcoin futures trading on Binance reached approximately $57.8 billion in daily volume, nearly eight times larger than spot activity. The surge underscores growing reliance on leveraged derivatives and raises concerns about volatility and liquidation risk.
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Ether.fi splits weETH from restaking as Ethereum rewards debate heats up
Ether.fi removed restaking from weETH, its flagship staking token, forcing users into a separate token (weETHs) to access higher-risk yield. The move comes as Ethereum researchers propose capping validator rewards, sparking criticism from staking operators.
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Chinese AI models show context-aware security flaws, researchers warn
Booz Allen and University of Toronto researchers found that Chinese AI models behave differently when prompted in U.S. government contexts, and that open-weight AI can power adaptive worms. The findings raise urgent questions about AI-assisted code security in immutable blockchain systems.
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Circle Arc blockchain launches September 16 with BlackRock, Visa validators
Circle announced that BlackRock, SBI Group, Visa, Mastercard, and nine other major financial institutions will serve as founding validators for Arc, its blockchain network launching September 16.
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Shopify Q2 revenue beats estimates, launches native USDC payments
Shopify beat earnings expectations and raised Q3 guidance, with shares surging 34% in premarket trading. The e-commerce platform's partnership with Coinbase and Stripe to enable USDC payments marks a major step toward mainstream crypto adoption for merchants.
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IRS gains real-time crypto tax oversight with 1099-DA reporting mandate
Starting January 1, 2025, custodial exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken must report crypto transactions on Form 1099-DA. The IRS will receive this data during the 2026 filing season, enabling automated detection of misreported gains and losses.
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ELIZAOS token crashes 97%, founder declares project dead
Shaw Walters, founder of Eliza Labs, declared the ELIZAOS token finished and its foundation closing after a class action lawsuit. The token has crashed 97% from its peak, trading near $0.00031 with a $2.3 million market cap.
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Circle beats earnings as Arc blockchain gains BlackRock, DTCC backing
Circle Internet's stock rose 10% in premarket trading after beating earnings estimates, though revenue fell short. The stablecoin issuer's Arc blockchain network, launching Sept. 16, has secured backing from BlackRock, DTCC, ICE, Visa, and other financial giants planning to deploy tokenized assets.
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XRP ETFs Extend Four-Day Streak Without Outflows
U.S. spot XRP ETFs have maintained four consecutive trading days without outflows, though net inflows paused on August 4. The funds have accumulated $1.51 billion in cumulative inflows since launch, with total assets near $1 billion.
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Hashdex shuts down Bitcoin ETF after failing to gain traction
Hashdex is liquidating its U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF (ticker: DEFI) after the fund accumulated only $14.7 million in assets under management. Trading will end August 17, with cash distributions to shareholders expected by August 28.
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Coldcard Firmware Flaw Exposes $114M Bitcoin Theft, Accelerates ETF Shift
A firmware vulnerability in Coldcard hardware wallets, active since March 2021, enabled attackers to drain over $114 million from more than 5,200 users by early August 2026. The incident is driving institutional and retail investors toward spot Bitcoin ETFs and regulated custodians as safer alternatives to self-custody.
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BlackRock launches tokenized money market funds in 15 European markets
BlackRock unveiled 12 tokenized share classes based on six money market funds totaling $311 billion in assets across 15 European markets, one day after expanding its U.S. tokenized cash platform.
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XRP ETFs Post $15M Weekly Inflows as Bitcoin, Solana See Outflows
XRP spot ETFs attracted $15 million in net inflows last week, bucking broader crypto weakness. Bitcoin ETFs saw $0.6 million in outflows and Solana funds lost $17 million, signaling selective investor demand across digital assets.
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Bitcoin ETFs surge $170M inflows while Ethereum ETFs shed $11.4M
Spot Bitcoin ETFs logged $170 million in net inflows Monday while Ether ETF counterparts shed $11.4 million, underscoring institutional investors' diverging appetite for the two largest crypto assets amid market uncertainty.
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Banks shift to stablecoin payment rails, signaling structural change
Traditional banks are abandoning Bitcoin for stablecoin infrastructure to enable faster cross-border payments and lower transaction costs. Coinbase's partnerships and regulatory approvals position the exchange as a key infrastructure provider in this transition.