Emirates Launches Crypto com Pay for UAE Flight Bookings
Emirates has officially integrated Crypto com Pay, allowing eligible UAE customers to book flights using cryptocurrency through the airline's website and mobile app.
The rollout follows a partnership announced in 2025 and is powered by Crypto com's Dubai entity, the first Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE to operate under the country's Stored Value Facilities framework.
The integration supports the Dubai Cashless Strategy, which aims for 90% of all financial transactions across the public and private sectors to be digital by the end of 2026, further strengthening the UAE's position as a global fintech and digital asset hub.
👉 x.com/emirates/status/2082081933064901027?s=20
Emirates has officially integrated Crypto com Pay, allowing eligible UAE customers to book flights using cryptocurrency through the airline's website and mobile app.
Users can now select Crypto com Pay at checkout, approve the transaction via the Crypto com app or by scanning a QR code, with payments securely settled in UAE Dirhams (AED) in compliance with local regulations.
The rollout follows a partnership announced in 2025 and is powered by Crypto com's Dubai entity, the first Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE to operate under the country's Stored Value Facilities framework.
The integration supports the Dubai Cashless Strategy, which aims for 90% of all financial transactions across the public and private sectors to be digital by the end of 2026, further strengthening the UAE's position as a global fintech and digital asset hub.
👉 x.com/emirates/status/2082081933064901027?s=20
Tokenized Stocks on CEXs: The Cost You Don't See
CryptoRank tested Bitget, Binance and Gate on the same names. Top-of-book spreads were close. But on a $50K order the cost split wide open: Bitget's rTokens averaged 11.8 bps of slippage versus 23 to 31 for the others, up to 58% lower.
Bitget also lists the most (568 tokenized stocks and ETFs vs 45 and 65), names its custodian (Alpaca, FINRA and SIPC), and is the only one publishing daily independent proof of reserves.
CryptoRank tested Bitget, Binance and Gate on the same names. Top-of-book spreads were close. But on a $50K order the cost split wide open: Bitget's rTokens averaged 11.8 bps of slippage versus 23 to 31 for the others, up to 58% lower.
Bitget also lists the most (568 tokenized stocks and ETFs vs 45 and 65), names its custodian (Alpaca, FINRA and SIPC), and is the only one publishing daily independent proof of reserves.
Morgan Stanley Launches Staked ETH and SOL ETFs
Morgan Stanley Investment Management has debuted spot Ethereum (MSSE) and Solana (MSOL) exchange-traded funds on NYSE Arca, each charging a market-low 0.14% expense ratio.
That undercuts rivals such as Grayscale's Mini Ether Trust at 0.15% and Franklin Templeton's Solana fund at 0.19%, making them the cheapest ETH and SOL funds on the market.
👉 theblock.co/post/409898/morgan-stanley-debuts-ethereum-solana-etfs-markets-lowest-fee-staking-rewards
Morgan Stanley Investment Management has debuted spot Ethereum (MSSE) and Solana (MSOL) exchange-traded funds on NYSE Arca, each charging a market-low 0.14% expense ratio.
That undercuts rivals such as Grayscale's Mini Ether Trust at 0.15% and Franklin Templeton's Solana fund at 0.19%, making them the cheapest ETH and SOL funds on the market.
Both funds also stake a portion of their holdings and pass all of the staking rewards through to investors, with Morgan Stanley keeping none of the yield. The launch follows the bank's Bitcoin trust (MSBT), which gathered about $381M in roughly four months.
👉 theblock.co/post/409898/morgan-stanley-debuts-ethereum-solana-etfs-markets-lowest-fee-staking-rewards
Musk Says Grok 4.6 Arrives Around August 7
Elon Musk says xAI will release Grok 4.6, a 1.5-trillion-parameter model with significantly improved supervised fine-tuning and reinforcement learning, around August 7.
A larger 2.1-trillion-parameter Grok 4.7 is set to follow a few weeks later. Musk says it will be better than 4.6 in every way and more token-efficient, though slightly slower to serve.
👉 x.com/elonmusk/status/2082123925283041545
Elon Musk says xAI will release Grok 4.6, a 1.5-trillion-parameter model with significantly improved supervised fine-tuning and reinforcement learning, around August 7.
A larger 2.1-trillion-parameter Grok 4.7 is set to follow a few weeks later. Musk says it will be better than 4.6 in every way and more token-efficient, though slightly slower to serve.
Both are steps up from xAI's current flagship, Grok 4.5, released in early July. As with any Musk timeline, the dates and specs are stated targets and could still slip. Note that xAI has no crypto token, and any "$GROK" or "xAI" presale is a scam.
👉 x.com/elonmusk/status/2082123925283041545
Base Launches Onchain Anti-Sybil Identity
Base, Coinbase's Ethereum L2, has launched Base Verify Onchain: a way for smart contracts to enforce one-person-one-claim and shut out bot farming and duplicate airdrop claims.
Instead of judging a wallet's history, contracts check a per-app "identity hash" drawn from a user's verified credentials, such as a linked X account or a Coinbase One membership. The same human gets the same hash across wallets, so they cannot claim twice.
👉 x.com/buildonbase/status/2082128781406306558
Base, Coinbase's Ethereum L2, has launched Base Verify Onchain: a way for smart contracts to enforce one-person-one-claim and shut out bot farming and duplicate airdrop claims.
Instead of judging a wallet's history, contracts check a per-app "identity hash" drawn from a user's verified credentials, such as a linked X account or a Coinbase One membership. The same human gets the same hash across wallets, so they cannot claim twice.
It is built on Coinbase-backed onchain attestations, not zero-knowledge proofs, and is live on testnet for developers, with early users like the Bracket mini app gating its airdrop. Base itself still has no live token, though a network token is under exploration.
👉 x.com/buildonbase/status/2082128781406306558
Hungary Eases Crypto Rules, Licenses CoinCash
Hungary's parliament has voted to repeal the strict national crypto rules it added in 2025, including a transaction-validation regime and criminal penalties that had pushed most exchanges out of the country. Officials called the framework excessive and incompatible with EU law, and the EU had opened an investigation into it.
Just days earlier, the National Bank of Hungary granted CoinCash the country's first MiCA license, covering custody, exchange, transfers, advice and portfolio management.
👉 financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/regulation/hungary-set-to-drop-tough-national-crypto-rules-after-near-total-industry-exodus
Hungary's parliament has voted to repeal the strict national crypto rules it added in 2025, including a transaction-validation regime and criminal penalties that had pushed most exchanges out of the country. Officials called the framework excessive and incompatible with EU law, and the EU had opened an investigation into it.
Just days earlier, the National Bank of Hungary granted CoinCash the country's first MiCA license, covering custody, exchange, transfers, advice and portfolio management.
CoinCash, founded in Budapest in 2017, is Hungary's largest crypto broker and runs its biggest Bitcoin ATM network. It suspended service last December under the old rules and is now restarting. Neither CoinCash nor Hungary has a token, so this is purely a regulatory reset.
👉 financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/regulation/hungary-set-to-drop-tough-national-crypto-rules-after-near-total-industry-exodus
Uniswap flipped the fee switch. After years of governance-only debate, LP fees now route to buy and burn UNI
The headline number: a 100M UNI retroactive burn, about 16% of circulating supply (~$320M), as if the switch had run since day one. Fee run-rate is $2 to 5M a day, among the highest in crypto outside stablecoins.
But the honest part: fees are live on only some pools so far, so today's recurring burn is thin, roughly 0.4% of supply a year. The whole thesis rides on volume. If throughput scales the way Robinhood Chain could push it, the burn runs $280 to 700M a year.
The headline number: a 100M UNI retroactive burn, about 16% of circulating supply (~$320M), as if the switch had run since day one. Fee run-rate is $2 to 5M a day, among the highest in crypto outside stablecoins.
But the honest part: fees are live on only some pools so far, so today's recurring burn is thin, roughly 0.4% of supply a year. The whole thesis rides on volume. If throughput scales the way Robinhood Chain could push it, the burn runs $280 to 700M a year.
Vitalik Reviews a Big Leap in Hiding Program Code
Vitalik Buterin broke down Diamond iO, a new way to scramble a program so nobody can read its secret logic, while it still runs and returns the right answers.
The idea, called obfuscation, is often described as a holy grail of cryptography. It could power truly private apps, like secret onchain voting or programs that safely hold private keys, with no middleman to trust.
👉 https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2082132765886108082?s=20
Vitalik Buterin broke down Diamond iO, a new way to scramble a program so nobody can read its secret logic, while it still runs and returns the right answers.
The idea, called obfuscation, is often described as a holy grail of cryptography. It could power truly private apps, like secret onchain voting or programs that safely hold private keys, with no middleman to trust.
The catch has always been speed. Older designs were so slow they were basically theoretical. Diamond iO, built by the Machina iO team, combines two encryption techniques into a simpler design and cuts the runtime from what Vitalik calls "galactic" to "planetary" scale. It is still too slow for real use today, but he says it may be only a few optimizations away.
👉 https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2082132765886108082?s=20
BNY Is Moving Its $8.6T Transfer Agency Onchain
BNY, the world's largest custodian bank, is putting the recordkeeping behind its $8.6 trillion transfer-agency business onto a blockchain, a business that spans 7.6 million fund accounts.
A transfer agent keeps the official record of who owns a fund's shares and handles issuance, transfers and redemptions. BNY is moving those books and records onchain to create one shared ledger and strip out layers of reconciliation between parties.
👉 coindesk.com/business/2026/07/29/bny-targets-usd8-6-trillion-transfer-agency-market-on-blockchain-rails
BNY, the world's largest custodian bank, is putting the recordkeeping behind its $8.6 trillion transfer-agency business onto a blockchain, a business that spans 7.6 million fund accounts.
A transfer agent keeps the official record of who owns a fund's shares and handles issuance, transfers and redemptions. BNY is moving those books and records onchain to create one shared ledger and strip out layers of reconciliation between parties.
Early tokenized funds on the platform come from Baillie Gifford, BlackRock and BNY's own Dreyfus unit. BNY says it will keep its legacy systems running alongside the chain for years, given cyber and smart-contract risk. Note that the $8.6T figure is BNY's own book of business, not the whole market, and BNY has no token.
👉 coindesk.com/business/2026/07/29/bny-targets-usd8-6-trillion-transfer-agency-market-on-blockchain-rails
MoonPay Launches PayBox, an AI Shopping Wallet
MoonPay launched PayBox, a self-custodial wallet that lets an AI assistant like ChatGPT or Claude pay for real goods and services on your behalf.
You add PayBox to the assistant, fund it from a bank or with crypto, then just ask it in plain English to buy something or book a table. The agent pays from your own wallet, staying inside limits you set, such as capping purchases or requiring your approval first.
👉 fortune.com/2026/07/23/moonpay-launches-universal-ai-shopping-wallet-for-non-technical-claude-and-chatgpt-consumers
MoonPay launched PayBox, a self-custodial wallet that lets an AI assistant like ChatGPT or Claude pay for real goods and services on your behalf.
You add PayBox to the assistant, fund it from a bank or with crypto, then just ask it in plain English to buy something or book a table. The agent pays from your own wallet, staying inside limits you set, such as capping purchases or requiring your approval first.
PayBox runs on the open x402 payment standard, so it is not locked to MoonPay or any single merchant. Early uses include Amazon orders, Resy reservations and Brij flight bookings. MoonPay pitches it as an open-rails alternative to the walled AI-payment tools from Robinhood, Coinbase and Visa. MoonPay itself has no token.
👉 fortune.com/2026/07/23/moonpay-launches-universal-ai-shopping-wallet-for-non-technical-claude-and-chatgpt-consumers
Top DeFi Protocols by TVL Launched this Summer
Robinhood's canonical bridge leads with $231M, the clearest sign that Robinhood Chain is becoming a real ecosystem, not a side project. Behind it, the new wave splits two ways: DEXs & derivatives (RocketSwap $196M, plus BULK and Arcus from dYdX team) and real-world assets (Valos $112M, tokenized gold, tokenized yield).
The rest is still small, most under $50M. But summer's builders are all betting on the same two themes: trading infrastructure and RWAs. The question is which of these is still here by winter.
Robinhood's canonical bridge leads with $231M, the clearest sign that Robinhood Chain is becoming a real ecosystem, not a side project. Behind it, the new wave splits two ways: DEXs & derivatives (RocketSwap $196M, plus BULK and Arcus from dYdX team) and real-world assets (Valos $112M, tokenized gold, tokenized yield).
The rest is still small, most under $50M. But summer's builders are all betting on the same two themes: trading infrastructure and RWAs. The question is which of these is still here by winter.
Ethereum Institutional Closes Its Funding Round
It is backed by BitMine and SharpLink, the two large ETH treasury firms, plus Ethereum co-founders Joseph Lubin and Mihai Alisie.
Spun out of the Ethereum Foundation's institutional team, the group acts as a neutral point of contact for banks and asset managers exploring tokenization, stablecoins and onchain markets. It says more than 100 ecosystem organizations, from Circle and Fireblocks to Uniswap Labs and Securitize, stand behind it.
👉 crypto.news/ethereum-institutional-leads-adoption-push-with-bitmine-sharplink-and-lubin-backing
It is backed by BitMine and SharpLink, the two large ETH treasury firms, plus Ethereum co-founders Joseph Lubin and Mihai Alisie.
Spun out of the Ethereum Foundation's institutional team, the group acts as a neutral point of contact for banks and asset managers exploring tokenization, stablecoins and onchain markets. It says more than 100 ecosystem organizations, from Circle and Fireblocks to Uniswap Labs and Securitize, stand behind it.
Run day to day by executive director David Walsh, with Tom Lee and SharpLink's Joseph Chalom on its board, the nonprofit will spend the funds on institutional education, market intelligence, standards and events. Ethereum Institutional has no token.
👉 crypto.news/ethereum-institutional-leads-adoption-push-with-bitmine-sharplink-and-lubin-backing
Binance US Plans a CFTC Bid for Prediction Markets
Binance US plans to apply next month to become a CFTC-regulated exchange, a Designated Contract Market (DCM), so it can legally offer prediction markets to US users. CEO Steve Gregory unveiled the plan onstage this week.
A DCM is a federal license to run a regulated venue for futures and event contracts. It would let Binance US list prediction markets itself, instead of leaning on an outside partner the way some rivals do.
👉 theblock.co/post/410110/binance-us-cftc-license
Binance US plans to apply next month to become a CFTC-regulated exchange, a Designated Contract Market (DCM), so it can legally offer prediction markets to US users. CEO Steve Gregory unveiled the plan onstage this week.
A DCM is a federal license to run a regulated venue for futures and event contracts. It would let Binance US list prediction markets itself, instead of leaning on an outside partner the way some rivals do.
The move extends the exchange's comeback after the SEC dropped its long-running lawsuit against Binance. It steps into a fast-growing race with Kalshi, Polymarket and Coinbase for US traders. The filing is still planned, not yet submitted, and Binance.US has no token.
👉 theblock.co/post/410110/binance-us-cftc-license
Kamino launched AUTO, the first permissionless onchain RWA backed by near-prime U.S. auto loan yield
The whole stack is built from specialists: Agora Data originates the loans, Figure structures them, Hastra issues. Three things you can do with the token: lend it (deposit and earn), borrow against it, or loop it to amplify the yield.
👉 x.com/kamino/status/2082524895838343342?s=20
The whole stack is built from specialists: Agora Data originates the loans, Figure structures them, Hastra issues. Three things you can do with the token: lend it (deposit and earn), borrow against it, or loop it to amplify the yield.
Why it matters: treasury RWAs are crowded and pay right around the Fed rate. Consumer credit is the next frontier — higher yield, different risk. Auto loans are the first to go onchain in a permissionless format.
👉 x.com/kamino/status/2082524895838343342?s=20
SEC Ready to Write Crypto Rules If Congress Fails the CLARITY Vote
SEC Chair Paul Atkins says the agency is ready, willing and able to write its own crypto market rules if Congress fails to pass the CLARITY Act, the comments coming in a CNBC interview this week.
The CLARITY Act would move most spot-token oversight to the CFTC and away from the SEC. It passed the House and cleared a Senate committee, but still awaits a full Senate floor vote that has slipped as the chamber turns to other priorities before recess.
👉 decrypt.co/374643/sec-ready-to-provide-crypto-rules-if-clarity-act-flounders-chair-atkins
SEC Chair Paul Atkins says the agency is ready, willing and able to write its own crypto market rules if Congress fails to pass the CLARITY Act, the comments coming in a CNBC interview this week.
The CLARITY Act would move most spot-token oversight to the CFTC and away from the SEC. It passed the House and cleared a Senate committee, but still awaits a full Senate floor vote that has slipped as the chamber turns to other priorities before recess.
Atkins stressed he still prefers a law, calling a statute the only way to make the rules durable across administrations so they do not shift with each new one. For now the SEC is only signaling readiness, not opening any formal rulemaking of its own. It is a notable backstop posture from a pro-crypto chair, and no company or token is being targeted.
👉 decrypt.co/374643/sec-ready-to-provide-crypto-rules-if-clarity-act-flounders-chair-atkins
Cryptomarket Check-In. Major Events & Headlines
The market may have slowed down, but the pace of building hasn’t. This week brought another wave of infrastructure upgrades, regulatory progress and institutional expansion, showing that the industry’s long-term direction continues to strengthen even without major market moves.
🔎 Recent Updates & Developments
- BNY moves its $8.6T transfer-agency business onchain
- Morgan Stanley launches spot ETH & SOL ETFs with industry-low fees
- Samsung brings native stablecoins to Samsung Wallet
- SK Group & NVIDIA expand their $500B+ AI partnership
- Base launches Verify Onchain to stop Sybil attacks
- Securitize becomes a fully SEC-registered investment adviser
- World raises $52.5M to expand World ID adoption
- Binance US plans a CFTC license for prediction markets
The market may have slowed down, but the pace of building hasn’t. This week brought another wave of infrastructure upgrades, regulatory progress and institutional expansion, showing that the industry’s long-term direction continues to strengthen even without major market moves.
🔎 Recent Updates & Developments
- BNY moves its $8.6T transfer-agency business onchain
- Morgan Stanley launches spot ETH & SOL ETFs with industry-low fees
- Samsung brings native stablecoins to Samsung Wallet
- SK Group & NVIDIA expand their $500B+ AI partnership
- Base launches Verify Onchain to stop Sybil attacks
- Securitize becomes a fully SEC-registered investment adviser
- World raises $52.5M to expand World ID adoption
- Binance US plans a CFTC license for prediction markets
KuCoin Celebrates 9th Anniversary With $650K Trading Competition
KuCoin has launched its 9th Anniversary Trading Competition, "Beyond the Signal," featuring a reward pool of up to 650,000 USDT.
Rewards also include KCS tokens, plus limited-edition gifts like a KuCoin x Tomorrowland set and an Adam Scott KuCoin golf bag, adding a collectible, real-world dimension to the digital prizes on offer.
The initiative reflects KuCoin's evolution from a pure trading platform into a broader digital asset ecosystem, reinforcing its position as one of the world's leading crypto exchanges, serving over 45 million users across 200+ countries and regions.
👉 kucoin.com/news/flash/kucoin-launches-9th-anniversary-campaign-with-650-000-usdt-in-rewards
KuCoin has launched its 9th Anniversary Trading Competition, "Beyond the Signal," featuring a reward pool of up to 650,000 USDT.
The trading competition includes four tracks, Spot, Futures, VIP, and Earn, and extends across the wider KuCoin ecosystem through KuCoin Pay, KuMining, and KuCoin Web3 Wallet.
Rewards also include KCS tokens, plus limited-edition gifts like a KuCoin x Tomorrowland set and an Adam Scott KuCoin golf bag, adding a collectible, real-world dimension to the digital prizes on offer.
The initiative reflects KuCoin's evolution from a pure trading platform into a broader digital asset ecosystem, reinforcing its position as one of the world's leading crypto exchanges, serving over 45 million users across 200+ countries and regions.
👉 kucoin.com/news/flash/kucoin-launches-9th-anniversary-campaign-with-650-000-usdt-in-rewards
Simile Raises $200M at a $2B Valuation
Simile, an AI startup that simulates human behavior, has raised $200M in a Series B led by Greenoaks at a $2B valuation, just five months after its $100M Series A.
Simile builds a human-behavior foundation model: AI that simulates how people and consumers would react to a product, price or decision, so enterprises can test choices before any real-world rollout. It has already run tens of millions of simulations for Fortune 100 firms.
👉 techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/synthetic-user-startup-simile-raises-200m-at-2b-valuation-5-months-after-100m-series-a
Simile, an AI startup that simulates human behavior, has raised $200M in a Series B led by Greenoaks at a $2B valuation, just five months after its $100M Series A.
Simile builds a human-behavior foundation model: AI that simulates how people and consumers would react to a product, price or decision, so enterprises can test choices before any real-world rollout. It has already run tens of millions of simulations for Fortune 100 firms.
Returning investors Index Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures and CVS Health Ventures joined the round, alongside new backer Definition. Founder Joon Sung Park, whose Stanford research pioneered generative agents, says revenue has grown fivefold since launch. Note this is a private AI company, not a crypto project, and it has no token.
👉 techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/synthetic-user-startup-simile-raises-200m-at-2b-valuation-5-months-after-100m-series-a
