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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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.
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XRP Holders Can Borrow RLUSD on Ethereum Without Selling
Flare's FXRP has been approved as collateral in a Morpho lending vault, allowing XRP holders to tap Ethereum's DeFi markets and borrow Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin against their holdings without selling.
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Senate races to pass CLARITY Act before August recess amid GOP opposition
The CLARITY Act, which would regulate stablecoins and digital asset platforms, enters its final week before the Senate's August recess with a 30% passage probability. Republican and Democratic objections threaten to derail the bill by Friday.
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PowerCompute's $18M Bitcoin bridge loan deadline passes with no disclosure
PowerCompute's US Digital subsidiary borrowed $18.07 million from Arch Lending on a 4-day bridge note due August 1, representing 97% of its Bitcoin treasury. As of press time, no SEC filing or statement confirmed whether the loan was repaid, extended, or defaulted.
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Trump Media's Bitcoin Holdings Near Collateral Level After $165M Transfer
Trump Media moved 2,628 bitcoin worth $165 million to Crypto.com, leaving holdings that roughly match the amount pledged as loan collateral. The company's next quarterly filing will reveal whether transfers were custody moves or sales.
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Solana bot cluster shows 3x profit edge via HumidiFi protocol, ASE study finds
An ASE 2026-accepted paper examining 200 addresses from two Solana bot services found that a 12-address cluster routed through HumidiFi with a 62.3% positive return rate versus 21.01% for other transactions in the group—but researchers stressed correlation, not causation.
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Spark Pivots to DeFi Backend for PayPal, Robinhood Stablecoin Rails
Spark, the lending unit of Sky (formerly MakerDAO), abandoned its consumer-facing app to focus on supplying liquidity and yield infrastructure to major fintech platforms. The shift targets $1 billion in OTC lending by year-end, with Robinhood and PayPal already live on its stablecoin rails.
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Coldcard firmware exploit drives bitcoin holders back to exchanges
A firmware vulnerability in Coldcard hardware wallets triggered $70–$90 million in losses and prompted retail bitcoin holders to move smaller balances onto centralized exchanges for safety, marking a sharp reversal from the self-custody migration that followed the FTX collapse.
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Trump's Gaza peace deal revives stablecoin infrastructure debate
Trump's July 31 disarmament agreement with Hamas includes discussions of a dollar-pegged stablecoin for Gaza reconstruction, raising regulatory questions about US oversight of crypto deployed in geopolitical contexts.
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Bitcoin dominance surges to 58.5% as institutions retreat from altcoins
Bitcoin's market share climbed to a new high of 63% in June 2026 before settling at 58.5%, driven by sustained institutional ETF inflows. The surge reflects a structural shift in how large allocators view cryptocurrency exposure, concentrating capital in BTC at the expense of smaller tokens.
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Former BNB Chain Employee Deploys ASTEROID Token, Exits With $638K
A former BNB Chain employee deployed the ASTEROID token, acquired 79.67% of the supply for $10,000, and sold 718.8 million tokens for $628,000–$638,000 before the token crashed 50% in 20 minutes. BNB Chain initiated legal action and denied any affiliation.