World Liberty Financial, the crypto project behind the USD1 stablecoin, has announced a partnership with Spacecoin, a blockchain-native satellite internet company, to bring crypto payments directly into satellite connectivity networks. The goal is simple in theory but ambitious in execution, combine decentralized finance with decentralized internet access, starting in regions where both are limited or nonexistent.

 

The partnership signals a growing shift in crypto away from purely digital experiments and toward physical infrastructure, particularly in space.

 

 

What the Partnership Actually Does

At the core of the deal is the integration of WLFI’s USD1 stablecoin into Spacecoin’s satellite network. The two projects completed a strategic token swap, tying their ecosystems together and aligning incentives long term.

 

USD1 is intended to act as the settlement layer for payments and services across Spacecoin’s network. In practice, that means users who connect to Spacecoin’s satellite internet could also transact financially using a dollar-pegged digital asset, without relying on traditional banks or local payment rails.

 

This is not just about paying for internet access. The broader vision is to enable commerce, remittances, and digital services in areas where stable connectivity and reliable currencies are both hard to come by.

 

Who Is Spacecoin

Spacecoin is part of a growing wave of DePIN projects, or decentralized physical infrastructure networks. Instead of building centralized telecom systems, Spacecoin is deploying low-Earth orbit satellites that interact with blockchain infrastructure on the ground. The company recently launched three satellites into orbit as part of the company's place to exand global internet access.

 

According to Spacecoin, satellite-based connectivity requires an integrated financial layer. The company sees USD1 as a way to allow new users to transact digitally as soon as they gain internet access. While it remains early stage compared to incumbents like Starlink, Spacecoin is positioning itself as a permissionless alternative, one that treats connectivity as an open network rather than a closed service.

 

Why WLFI Is Betting on Satellites

World Liberty Financial has drawn attention in part due to its political associations, but strategically the project is trying to do something familiar in crypto, expand the reach of a stablecoin beyond exchanges and trading desks.

 

USD1 is designed to be a transactional stablecoin, not just a store of value. WLFI has been exploring debit cards, points programs, and onchain incentives. Plugging USD1 into a satellite network takes that logic further, pushing the asset into environments where traditional finance struggles to operate.

 

For WLFI, satellites offer a way to bypass fragile local infrastructure and leap directly into global usage.

 

The Bigger Picture

This deal sits at the intersection of several fast-moving trends.

 

Satellite internet is expanding rapidly as launch costs fall and demand for global connectivity rises. At the same time, stablecoins are quietly becoming one of crypto’s most widely used tools, especially in emerging markets where currency volatility is a daily concern.

 

By combining the two, WLFI and Spacecoin are effectively testing whether crypto can function as a default financial layer in places that skipped earlier generations of banking and broadband.

 

It is a bold idea, but also a risky one.

 

The Challenges Ahead

Satellite-based payments are not trivial. Latency, reliability, and security all become more complex when transactions are routed through orbit. Regulatory uncertainty is another major factor, especially when stablecoins cross borders without clear oversight.

 

There is also competition. Spacecoin is entering a crowded satellite market dominated by well-funded players with existing user bases and proven performance. Convincing users, developers, and governments to adopt a decentralized alternative will take time.

 

And then there is execution. Many crypto-infrastructure partnerships sound compelling on paper but struggle to move from announcement to real-world usage.

 

Why This Still Matters

Even with those risks, the partnership stands out because it points toward a version of crypto that is less abstract and more physical.

 

Instead of arguing about narratives and token prices, this model asks a practical question. What happens when internet access and money are delivered together, from space, without intermediaries?

 

If WLFI and Spacecoin can make even a fraction of that vision work, it could reshape how people think about both connectivity and finance in the most underserved parts of the world.

 

Crypto has always promised to be global. This time, it is trying to prove it literally.

 

 

 

BitGo’s first day on the New York Stock Exchange was not just another IPO. It was a signal that Wall Street is once again willing to place real bets on crypto, provided the business is grounded in infrastructure, regulation, and steady revenue rather than hype.

 

The digital asset custody firm began trading under the ticker BTGO after pricing its IPO at $18 per share, above its expected range. That pricing put BitGo’s valuation at roughly $2 billion, with early trading pushing the figure even higher as shares jumped shortly after the opening bell.

 

For an industry that has spent the past two years navigating regulatory pressure, market volatility, and investor fatigue, BitGo’s reception felt like a turning point.

 

A Different Kind of Crypto Company

Founded in 2013 by Mike Belshe, BitGo is not a trading platform or a token issuer. Its business sits deeper in the crypto stack. The company provides custody, wallet infrastructure, staking services, and institutional trading tools for hedge funds, asset managers, exchanges, and other large crypto holders.

 

At the time of its public debut, BitGo was safeguarding close to $100 billion in digital assets. That scale matters. Custody is one of the few crypto businesses that can grow regardless of whether bitcoin is rising or falling, as long as institutions remain involved.

 

This infrastructure-first model has increasingly appealed to traditional investors who want exposure to digital assets without directly touching price risk.

 

Strong Demand at the Open

BitGo sold roughly 11.8 million Class A shares, raising just over $200 million in gross proceeds. Demand was strong enough that the deal priced above its initial range, a notable outcome given the cautious tone that has defined much of the IPO market over the past year.

 

Once trading began, shares quickly moved higher, at one point climbing more than 20 percent. That early momentum pushed BitGo’s market capitalization closer to $2.5 billion, at least on paper, reinforcing the view that institutional investors see value in crypto plumbing even when token prices are under pressure.

 

Regulation as a Selling Point

Part of BitGo’s appeal comes from its long-running focus on compliance. The company has spent years positioning itself as a bridge between crypto markets and traditional finance.

 

Late last year, BitGo received conditional approval to operate as a federally regulated trust bank in the United States. That status allows it to offer custody services nationwide under a single regulatory framework, rather than navigating a patchwork of state licenses.

 

In an industry often criticized for moving faster than regulators can respond, BitGo’s willingness to work within existing rules has become a competitive advantage.

 

A Test Case for Crypto IPOs

BitGo is widely viewed as the first major crypto IPO of 2026, and its performance is already being watched closely by other companies considering public listings.

 

Over the past year, several crypto firms have quietly prepared for IPOs, waiting for a moment when investor sentiment improved. BitGo’s debut suggests that moment may be arriving, at least for firms with mature business models and predictable revenue streams.

 

Market analysts have also pointed to a broader reopening of the IPO window across technology, fintech, and artificial intelligence. Crypto may not lead that wave, but BitGo’s success shows it is no longer sidelined either.

 

Financial Momentum Behind the Story

Behind the market excitement is a company that has quietly improved its financial position. BitGo reported strong revenue growth heading into its IPO, with custody, staking, and institutional services driving recurring income. The company also posted periods of profitability in recent years, a rarity among crypto-native firms.

 

That financial discipline likely helped reassure investors who remain wary after previous cycles of overleveraged crypto startups and sudden collapses.

 

What It Means for the Industry

BitGo’s NYSE debut sends a clear message. Crypto infrastructure, when paired with regulation and institutional demand, can still command investor confidence.

 

The listing does not mean the industry’s challenges are over. Regulatory clarity remains incomplete, and market volatility is never far away. But BitGo’s reception suggests that public markets are willing to reward companies building the backbone of digital finance, even if they remain cautious about the assets themselves.

 

For now, BitGo has become a benchmark. Its performance in the months ahead may determine whether other crypto firms follow it onto Wall Street or return to waiting on the sidelines.

 

When Michael Selig stepped into the role of CFTC chair late last year, the crypto industry was already expecting a change in tone. This week, it got confirmation.

 

On January 20, Selig announced the launch of the CFTC’s new “Future-Proof” initiative, a program designed to rethink how U.S. markets regulate crypto, digital assets, and other fast-moving financial technologies. The message was clear. The old approach is no longer enough.

 

Rather than relying on enforcement actions and retroactive interpretations of decades-old rules, the CFTC wants to build regulatory frameworks that actually reflect how these markets function today.

 

For an industry that has spent years navigating uncertainty, that alone is a notable shift.

 

A Chair With Deep Crypto Roots

Selig is not new to crypto regulation. Before taking the top job at the CFTC, he worked closely with digital asset policy at the SEC and spent time in private practice advising both traditional financial firms and crypto companies. He also previously clerked at the CFTC, giving him an unusually well-rounded view of how regulators and markets interact.

 

That background shows up in his public comments. Since taking office, Selig has repeatedly emphasized predictability, clarity, and rules that market participants can actually follow without guessing how an agency might interpret them years later.

 

The Future-Proof initiative is the clearest expression of that philosophy so far.

 

What “Future-Proof” Really Means

At its core, Future-Proof is about moving away from improvisation. The CFTC wants to stop forcing novel digital products into regulatory boxes built for traditional derivatives and commodities.

 

Instead, the agency plans to pursue purpose-built rules through formal notice-and-comment processes. That means more upfront guidance and fewer surprises delivered through enforcement actions.

 

Selig has described the goal as applying the minimum effective level of regulation. Enough oversight to protect markets and participants, but not so much that innovation is choked off before it has a chance to mature.

 

For crypto firms, that approach could offer something they have long asked for but rarely received, which is regulatory certainty.

 

Why the Industry Is Paying Attention

The timing matters. Crypto markets are more institutional than they were even a few years ago. Large asset managers, trading firms, and infrastructure providers want clearer rules before committing serious capital. Uncertainty around jurisdiction and compliance has been one of the biggest obstacles.

 

If the CFTC follows through, Future-Proof could help define how derivatives, spot markets, and emerging products like prediction markets are treated under U.S. law. That would make it easier for firms to build, invest, and operate without constantly second-guessing regulators.

 

At the same time, clarity cuts both ways. More defined rules could also raise the bar for compliance, especially for smaller startups and decentralized platforms that have operated in legal gray zones.

 

 

Tennessee Attempts to Block Prediction Markets

 

 

A Broader Political Shift

Selig’s initiative does not exist in isolation. It comes as lawmakers in Washington continue debating how to split crypto oversight between the CFTC and the SEC. Several proposed bills aim to draw clearer lines around digital commodities and spot market regulation, potentially expanding the CFTC’s role.

 

Future-Proof appears designed to fit neatly into that broader push. If Congress hands the agency more authority, the CFTC wants to be ready with frameworks that can scale.

 

Still, challenges remain. The commission currently lacks a full slate of confirmed commissioners, raising questions about how durable these policy shifts will be. Coordination with the SEC is another open issue, especially where token classifications blur the line between securities and commodities.

 

What Does The Future Hold?

For now, Future-Proof is more direction than destination. The real test will be how quickly the CFTC turns principles into actual rules, and whether those rules survive political change and legal scrutiny.

 

But the tone alone represents a meaningful break from the past. After years of regulation by enforcement and ambiguity, the agency is signaling that crypto markets are not a temporary problem to be contained, but a permanent part of the financial system that deserves thoughtful governance.

 

Whether that vision becomes reality will shape the next phase of U.S. crypto regulation, and potentially determine whether innovation stays onshore or continues looking elsewhere.

 

 

 

 

Solayer is making a very deliberate move into the next phase of its life.

 

The Solana-native project has launched the alpha version of its InfiniSVM mainnet and announced a $35 million ecosystem fund to bring builders, capital, and activity onto the network. Taken together, the message is clear. Solayer is no longer just experimenting on the edges of Solana, it is aiming to become a serious piece of high performance financial infrastructure.

 

For a project that started out focused on restaking, this is a notable pivot. And so far, it looks like a well-timed one.

 

From Restaking Experiment to Infrastructure Play

Solayer first entered the picture as a restaking protocol on Solana, offering users a way to put staked SOL to work securing additional services. The idea resonated quickly, especially in a market hungry for capital efficiency.

 

But behind the scenes, the team was already thinking bigger. Restaking was only the starting point. Over time, Solayer began layering in financial products, payments tooling, and quality-of-service concepts tied directly to stake. Each addition pointed in the same direction: building infrastructure, not just yield strategies.

 

InfiniSVM is the clearest expression of that shift.

 

Why InfiniSVM Matters

At a high level, InfiniSVM is Solayer’s take on pushing the Solana Virtual Machine beyond what typical software-only blockchain setups can handle. Instead of relying entirely on standard execution environments, Solayer leans heavily into hardware acceleration and high-speed networking.

 

The goal is not just higher throughput, although the numbers being discussed are eye-catching. The real focus is latency. Solayer wants transactions to feel immediate, finality to be near-instant, and on-chain systems to behave more like traditional financial infrastructure.

 

That matters if you believe the next wave of crypto adoption comes from things like real-time trading, payments, and institutional workflows. These are areas where delays are costly and reliability is non-negotiable.

 

Just as important, InfiniSVM stays fully compatible with the Solana Virtual Machine. Developers building for Solana do not need to rethink their stack to deploy on Solayer, which lowers friction and keeps Solayer tightly connected to Solana’s liquidity and tooling.

 

Mainnet Alpha, Now Live

The InfiniSVM mainnet alpha is live, giving developers a chance to test what this architecture can actually do in production. While alpha networks are, by definition, still evolving, Solayer is already supporting live applications and cross-network connectivity designed to move assets quickly across SVM environments.

 

The team has been careful not to oversell this stage. The alpha is a foundation, not a finish line. Performance tuning, validator expansion, and decentralization will all come over time. Still, getting a live network into the hands of builders is an important milestone, and one many projects never quite reach.

 

Backing the Ecosystem With $35 Million

Alongside the mainnet launch, Solayer introduced a $35 million ecosystem fund aimed squarely at builders. The fund is designed to support teams working across DeFi, payments, real-world assets, and emerging financial applications that need speed and scale.

 

What stands out is the hands-on approach. Solayer is pairing capital with engineering support and accelerator-style programs, signaling that it wants serious builders who plan to push the limits of the network, not just deploy quick forks.

 

The timing feels intentional. With the network live, the next challenge is usage. The fund is meant to shorten the gap between infrastructure and real economic activity.

 

A Crowded, But Promising Landscape

Solayer is entering a space that is getting more competitive by the month. Several teams are exploring new ways to extend the Solana Virtual Machine through app chains, execution layers, and modular designs.

 

Solayer’s angle is clear. It is betting on extreme performance and financial use cases first. That focus sets it apart and plays to Solana’s broader reputation for speed, while pushing the ceiling higher than most existing networks.

 

If real-time on-chain finance becomes a meaningful category, Solayer looks well positioned to benefit.

 

The Road Ahead

There is still plenty of work ahead. Solayer will need to prove that its performance claims hold up under sustained load, that developers stay engaged, and that decentralization keeps pace with growth.

 

But with a live mainnet, meaningful funding behind the ecosystem, and a clear technical vision, Solayer is starting this next chapter from a position of strength.

 

In a market crowded with half-built infrastructure and big promises, Solayer is doing something refreshingly straightforward. It shipped a network, backed it with capital, and invited builders to see what happens next.

 

 

The New York Stock Exchange is imagining a world without a closing bell.

 

NYSE, through its parent company Intercontinental Exchange, is building a blockchain-powered platform that would allow stocks and ETFs to trade 24/7 in tokenized form. If regulators sign off, it would be one of the clearest signals yet that traditional finance is no longer just experimenting with crypto infrastructure, it is actively rebuilding around it.

 

The pitch is straightforward but far-reaching. Take real stocks and ETFs, represent them as blockchain tokens, and let them trade continuously. No market open. No market close. No waiting a day for settlement to finish in the background.

 

For an institution that has defined how markets work for more than 200 years, this is a radical shift.

 

This Is Not a Side Project

This is not NYSE dipping a toe into crypto.

 

ICE is designing a separate trading platform that merges NYSE’s core matching technology with blockchain-based settlement, custody, and clearing. Orders still look familiar, bids and asks meet in an order book, but what happens after execution is where things change.

 

Instead of the standard T+1 settlement cycle, ownership could move almost instantly onchain. Stablecoins are expected to handle funding, allowing trades to clear at any hour without relying on traditional banking rails. Investors may also be able to place dollar-based orders instead of buying whole shares, making fractional ownership the default rather than an add-on.

 

Structurally, it starts to resemble how crypto markets already operate, just wrapped around regulated assets.

 

Why Tokenized Stocks Are a Big Deal

Tokenized stocks are not new, but they have mostly lived at the edges of the financial system.

 

What changes here is credibility. When the NYSE moves toward tokenization, blockchain stops looking like an alternative system and starts looking like core infrastructure.

 

Tokenization allows equities and ETFs to trade globally, settle instantly, and operate without the friction built into traditional market plumbing. It removes time zone barriers. It compresses settlement risk. It turns stocks into programmable financial objects.

 

For investors who already trade crypto around the clock, the idea that equities shut down every afternoon feels increasingly outdated.

 

Crypto Trained the Market to Expect 24/7

This move did not come out of nowhere.

 

Crypto markets have normalized nonstop trading. Platforms like Robinhood and Coinbase are already pushing toward tokenized equities and extended hours. Asset managers are testing onchain settlement in private markets and fund structures.

 

Meanwhile, traditional clearing and settlement remain slow, expensive, and operationally complex. Blockchain promises efficiency, but only if institutions are willing to rethink the system rather than patch it.

 

NYSE’s entry into this space suggests legacy exchanges see the risk clearly. If liquidity, trading volume, and investor attention move onchain elsewhere, exchanges that stay static risk being left behind.

 

Regulation Decides Everything

For now, all of this lives in proposal form.

 

Tokenized stocks are still securities. That means U.S. securities laws apply, even if the assets settle on a blockchain. Continuous trading raises hard questions around surveillance, volatility controls, investor protections, and systemic risk. Stablecoins add another regulatory layer.

 

How regulators respond to an NYSE-backed tokenized market will likely shape how far and how fast tokenization spreads across public markets.

 

What Happens If This Actually Works

If this platform launches and gains traction, it could reshape how markets function.

 

Stocks that trade nonstop would change liquidity patterns and price discovery. Global participation would increase. Settlement could become faster, cheaper, and more transparent. Post-trade infrastructure might finally catch up with the digital age.

 

There are tradeoffs. Continuous markets can amplify volatility. Liquidity could fragment across venues. Retail investors may face more noise and fewer natural breaks.

 

Still, the direction feels unmistakable.

 

Crypto infrastructure is no longer sitting outside the financial system. It is being welded into it.

 

The NYSE is not turning stocks into memecoins. But it is signaling that the future of equities looks more onchain, more global, and far less dependent on a bell ringing at 4 p.m. Eastern.

 

The wall between crypto markets and traditional markets is thinning fast, and one of the oldest institutions in finance just acknowledged it.

 

Vitalik Buterin is not really talking about price right now. That alone makes his latest message stand out.

 

While much of the crypto market remains fixated on ETFs, flows, and whether this cycle has one more leg left, Ethereum’s co-founder is pointing somewhere else entirely. In his view, 2026 should be the year Ethereum starts actively reversing what he sees as a slow drift away from self-sovereignty and trustlessness.

 

It is not framed as a dramatic pivot or some shiny new roadmap. It is more like a reminder. Ethereum, according to Buterin, has spent years getting bigger, faster, and easier to use, and in the process it has quietly accepted compromises that would have felt uncomfortable in its earlier days.

 

Now he wants to unwind some of that.

 

Ethereum Got Easier, and That Was Not Free

There is no denying Ethereum’s growth. Rollups work. DeFi runs real money. Institutions are here. The network feels permanent in a way it did not a few years ago.

 

But ease comes with dependencies. Many users do not run nodes. Many apps rely on the same handful of infrastructure providers. Wallets often default to custodial or semi-custodial setups because it is simpler and users are afraid of losing seed phrases.

 

None of this is accidental. It happened because it worked. It brought users in. It made Ethereum usable.

 

But Buterin’s argument is that convenience has slowly started to crowd out something more important. If Ethereum depends too much on trusted intermediaries, even friendly ones, then it starts to look less like a trustless system and more like a decentralized brand layered on top of familiar structures.

 

That, in his view, is a problem worth addressing head-on.

 

Self-Sovereignty Is Not Just a Slogan

When Buterin talks about self-sovereignty, he is not being abstract. He is talking about very practical things, like how people actually control their assets.

 

Seed phrases remain one of crypto’s most unforgiving design choices. Lose it and your funds are gone. For many users, that risk pushes them straight into custodial solutions, which defeats the point.

 

Ethereum’s push around account abstraction and social recovery wallets is meant to change that dynamic. The idea is not to make users memorize better passwords. It is to give them safer ways to stay in control without handing the keys to someone else.

 

This is where Buterin tends to sound almost stubborn. He does not accept that usability and self-custody have to be opposites. He sees bad wallet UX as a solvable design problem, not a reason to abandon the principle.

 

Running a Node Should Not Feel Like a Hobby Project

Another issue that keeps coming up is verification. Ethereum is designed so anyone can independently verify the network’s state. In practice, most people do not.

 

Instead, users and apps lean on centralized RPC providers, cloud services, and hosted endpoints. It works. Until it does not.

 

Buterin has been blunt about this. If Ethereum becomes a network where only a small group of actors can realistically verify what is happening, then decentralization starts to thin out where it matters most.

 

This is why there is so much emphasis on lighter nodes, better data availability, and zero-knowledge tech. The goal is not academic elegance. It is making verification cheap and accessible enough that it becomes normal again.

 

In other words, Ethereum should be something you can check for yourself, not something you take on faith.

 

Privacy Is Still Missing From the Default Experience

Despite years of progress, privacy on Ethereum remains optional and often awkward. Many transactions leak more information than users realize, simply because they rely on centralized relayers or analytics-heavy infrastructure.

 

Buterin has been pushing the idea that privacy should feel boring. Not exotic. Not advanced. Just there.

 

If private transactions require special effort or deep technical knowledge, most users will skip them. That creates a network where surveillance becomes the default state, which cuts directly against the idea of permissionless participation.

 

The renewed focus here is about making privacy part of the base layer experience, not something bolted on later for power users.

 

Thinking Past the Current Cycle

One of the more interesting parts of Buterin’s recent comments is how long-term they are. He talks openly about quantum resistance and cryptographic upgrades that may not matter for years.

 

That is not the kind of thing that drives usage next quarter. It is the kind of thing you worry about if you think Ethereum should still be around in 20 or 30 years.

 

The same mindset shows up in his thoughts on stablecoins and financial infrastructure. Relying entirely on centralized issuers and traditional banking rails might be convenient now, but it introduces fragility over time.

 

The message is subtle but consistent. Ethereum should not optimize only for what works today. It should optimize for what survives stress.

 

Less Hype, More Backbone

There is also something missing from this conversation, and it feels intentional. Buterin is not talking about memecoins, viral apps, or chasing narratives to pump activity.

 

Instead, he keeps circling back to resilience. Can Ethereum keep working if major providers go offline. Can users still transact if key companies disappear. Can the system hold up under pressure.

 

That focus might feel boring to parts of the market. It is also probably why it matters.

 

Why This Year Matters

Ethereum is no longer trying to prove that it works. It already does. The question now is what kind of system it wants to be as it becomes harder to change.

 

By framing 2026 as a year of recommitment, Buterin is effectively asking the ecosystem to slow down just enough to check its foundations. Not to undo progress, but to make sure that progress did not quietly hollow out the original mission.

 

Whether developers and users fully follow that lead is an open question. Ethereum is too big to move in one direction all at once.

 

Still, when its most influential voice says the next phase is about trustlessness, self-sovereignty, and resilience, it is worth paying attention. Not because it promises a price move, but because it says something about where Ethereum thinks its long-term value really comes from.

 

Stay Connected

You can stay up to date on all News, Events, and Marketing of Rare Network, including Rare Evo: America’s Premier Blockchain Conference, happening  July 28th-31st, 2026 at The ARIA Resort & Casino, by following our socials on X, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Eric Adams NYC Token Crash Fuels Rugging Claims 

 

 

For a brief window, Eric Adams’ “NYC Token” looked like it might be the next Solana rocket. The price ripped higher almost immediately after launch, pushing the token to a paper valuation north of half a billion dollars.

Then it collapsed. Fast.

Within roughly 30 minutes of peaking, the token had lost more than 80 percent of its value. What looked like a breakout turned into a straight-down chart, and by the time most traders realized what was happening, liquidity was already disappearing.

This was not just volatility. The on-chain data tells a much messier story.

 

The Numbers Behind the Crash

At its peak, NYC Token briefly reached an estimated market capitalization of around $540 million. That number didn’t last long. As selling pressure hit, the price unraveled almost immediately, wiping out roughly $500 million in value in under an hour.

The speed matters. This was not a slow bleed or a multi-day unwind. It was a vertical move up followed by an even faster move down.

And the data shows why.

 

The Liquidity Move That Changed Everything

According to on-chain analysis highlighted in the original report, a wallet linked to the token’s deployer pulled roughly $2.5 million worth of USDC liquidity from the main trading pool right around the price peak.

That single action dramatically reduced the pool’s depth.

When liquidity is pulled like that, every sell becomes more painful. Slippage increases, prices gap lower, and panic compounds itself. That’s exactly what happened next.

Later, about $1.5 million in USDC was added back into the pool. But that still leaves roughly $900,000 that was never returned, at least not publicly accounted for.

To traders watching in real time, that sequence looked brutal. Liquidity out near the top, partial liquidity back after the damage was done, and silence on where the rest went.

 

 

 

 

 

The Supply Was Never Really Free

Then there’s the ownership data.

This was not a broadly distributed token. The top five wallets controlled roughly 92 percent of the total supply. The top ten held close to 99 percent. One wallet alone reportedly held about 70 percent.

Put simply, almost no one outside a very small group actually controlled meaningful supply.

That means price discovery was never organic. It also means that liquidity removal hit a market that was already artificially thin. Retail traders weren’t trading against thousands of independent holders. They were trading inside a structure dominated by a handful of wallets.

Once those wallets moved, the market had no choice but to follow.

 

Retail Traders Paid the Price

The data includes some ugly examples.

One wallet tracked on Solana bought the token five separate times, spending a total of about $745,000. Less than 20 minutes later, that same wallet sold everything for roughly $272,000.

That’s a loss of nearly $475,000 in minutes.

That pattern wasn’t unique. Many late buyers entered during the final leg of the pump, assuming liquidity would hold and momentum would continue. Instead, they became exit liquidity as soon as the pool thinned out.

This is how these collapses always look after the fact. Clean on-chain evidence, messy human behavior.

 

The Narrative Problem

Eric Adams positioned NYC Token as something more than a meme. The messaging leaned heavily on civic themes, education, and fighting antisemitism. It sounded closer to a mission than a gamble.

But the mechanics told a different story.

No clear public breakdown of wallet ownership. No transparent explanation of liquidity controls before launch. No smart-contract enforced locks that traders could independently verify in real time.

When the crash happened, explanations focused on market dynamics and demand rather than addressing the core issue. Liquidity was moved. Concentration was extreme. Retail traders were exposed.

In crypto, narratives don’t survive contact with block explorers.

 

Was It Rugged?

That depends on definitions, but the structure is hard to defend.

A token that crashes more than 80 percent within 30 minutes, after millions in liquidity are removed by a deployer-linked wallet, while one address holds the majority of supply, is going to be viewed as a rug pool by the market. Fair or not, that perception sticks.

You don’t need a hidden backdoor or malicious code. Control alone is enough.

 

The Bigger Takeaway

NYC Token will probably be forgotten in a few weeks. The losses won’t be.

This episode is another reminder that in crypto, structure matters more than slogans. Liquidity locks matter. Distribution matters. Transparency matters.

When those things are missing, hype fills the gap. And hype is fragile.

The data here wasn’t subtle. It was loud, fast, and unforgiving. Traders who ignored it paid the price. And the next memecoin with a famous name attached will almost certainly test the same limits again.

 

Because in this market, the charts always tell the truth eventually.

 

Stay Connected

You can stay up to date on all News, Events, and Marketing of Rare Network, including Rare Evo: America’s Premier Blockchain Conference, happening  July 28th-31st, 2026 at The ARIA Resort & Casino, by following our socials on X, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Polymarket To Bring Prediction Market Data To The Wall Street Journal In Dow Jones Deal

 

Dow Jones is bringing prediction market data into the center of mainstream financial news, and the move says a lot about how institutions now think about expectations.

Through a new partnership, Polymarket’s real-time probabilities will begin appearing across Dow Jones properties, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and MarketWatch. These are not experimental sidebars or crypto-only sections. They are some of the most influential platforms in global finance. Placing prediction market data alongside prices, earnings estimates, and economic indicators reflects a belief that expectations themselves are now core financial information.

This is not about betting for entertainment. It is about who defines what the market thinks, and how fast that belief can be measured.

 

From curiosity to core signal

Prediction markets spent years on the margins, popular with political traders and information obsessives who wanted a cleaner read on future outcomes. What changed was not the concept, but the credibility and distribution.

Dow Jones is not treating Polymarket as a novelty widget. The company plans to integrate its data directly into consumer-facing products, including prominent digital placements and market-focused pages. One early example is an earnings calendar built around market-implied expectations rather than analyst consensus or corporate guidance alone.

Markets move on belief before they move on fact. Earnings surprises, regulatory decisions, court rulings, and central bank signals all trade on anticipation. Prediction markets make that anticipation visible in a single number that updates continuously.

For readers, the value is immediate. Instead of asking what already happened, the data answers a more urgent question: what does the market think is about to happen right now?

 

Why institutions are choosing markets over polls

For decades, polling was the default way media organizations measured expectations. Ask a group what they think will happen, average the answers, and publish the result. That model worked when belief changed slowly and news cycles moved in days rather than minutes.

That is no longer the case.

Prediction markets like Polymarket offer a live, self-correcting signal that polling cannot match. Participants are not just stating opinions, they are committing capital. When new information appears, prices adjust immediately. There is no waiting for another survey, no methodological lag, and no static snapshot that begins aging the moment it is published.

For Dow Jones, this matters because speed and credibility are now inseparable. Polls depend on sampling assumptions, response honesty, and weighting choices that are easy to question after the fact. Prediction markets push that weighting into the market itself. Influence emerges through price, not editorial judgment.

Markets also surface uncertainty more honestly. A poll can show a stable percentage while masking deep disagreement. A prediction market exposes that tension directly through volatility and rapid probability swings. For financial coverage built around anticipation rather than confirmation, that visibility is valuable.

In that sense, Polymarket data is not replacing journalism. It is replacing an aging expectations tool.

 

Built for modern financial media

Financial news has steadily moved toward modular data. Futures boxes, rate probability tables, volatility gauges, and dashboards now sit alongside traditional reporting. Prediction market probabilities fit naturally into that structure.

They are compact, intuitive, and fast. A 64 percent probability communicates instantly, without requiring paragraphs of caveats. For audiences already trained to think in odds and ranges, the format feels native.

Dow Jones executives have described prediction market data as a way to show collective belief in real time. The wording is careful for a reason. These numbers are not forecasts handed down as truth. They are signals of sentiment, continuously updated, sometimes wrong, often revealing.

 

Part of a broader shift, not a one-off

The Dow Jones partnership is not happening in isolation. CNBC recently announced a multi-year deal with Kalshi to integrate prediction data across its television and digital platforms. Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has made a strategic investment in Polymarket and positioned its data as a product for institutional clients.

The pattern is clear. Prediction markets are trying to move from destination platforms to infrastructure. Less about attracting users to trade, more about embedding probabilities wherever decisions are made.

For publishers, that creates a new class of data product. For prediction platforms, distribution is the growth strategy.

 

How prediction data reshapes coverage

The most important change will be editorial, not technical.

Sudden shifts in probability can become story drivers. Why did expectations flip overnight? What information entered the market? Who acted first? The probability move becomes the signal, and the reporting explains it.

Earnings coverage is an obvious fit, but so are regulatory deadlines, major lawsuits, macro announcements, and elections. Anywhere the market is waiting, prediction data creates a visible tension line that journalism can follow.

Used well, these markets do not replace analysis. They sharpen it.

 

The risks are still there

Prediction markets are not neutral truth engines.

Thin liquidity can create false confidence. Small groups of traders can push prices, especially in niche markets. Numbers that look authoritative can mislead if they are presented without context.

There are also real issues around contract definitions and resolution. Ambiguity can turn into public disputes, and those disputes matter more when probabilities are embedded in major media brands.

Regulatory uncertainty remains part of the backdrop as well. As prediction data reaches broader retail audiences through mainstream publishers, scrutiny is likely to increase.

For Dow Jones, the challenge is framing. These probabilities must be treated like market data, not predictions carved in stone.

 

Why this matters long term

This partnership points to a larger shift in how financial information is consumed.

Markets increasingly trade on narratives, second-order beliefs, and collective anticipation. Prediction markets make those forces legible. Media companies want tools that help readers understand not just what happened, but what everyone thinks is about to happen.

For Polymarket, the strategy is clear. Becoming embedded in the workflows of investors, analysts, and journalists is more powerful than being another destination site.

For financial media, this is a bet that probabilities will become as standard as price charts.

 

And for readers, it suggests the future of market news will focus less on confident forecasts and more on watching belief itself move, in real time.

 

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You can stay up to date on all News, Events, and Marketing of Rare Network, including Rare Evo: America’s Premier Blockchain Conference, happening  July 28th-31st, 2026 at The ARIA Resort & Casino, by following our socials on X, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Stablecoins May Be Crypto’s Most Important Success Story

 

Stablecoins are not exciting.

They do not spike overnight. They do not crash and wipe out portfolios. They are not the thing people argue about on social media at two in the morning. Most days, they are barely mentioned at all.

And yet, when you look past the noise and actually follow where money moves in crypto, stablecoins are everywhere. They sit in the background of trades, payments, payouts, and transfers. They are the part of crypto people rely on without thinking about it.

That is usually how real adoption starts.

 

The Boring Part of Crypto Is Doing the Heavy Lifting

Stablecoins exist to do one job: move money without drama.

They are designed to stay pegged to a currency, usually the US dollar. One token equals one dollar. No guessing. No watching charts. No hoping the price holds long enough to send a payment.

That might not sound revolutionary, but in crypto, it is a big deal.

For years, using crypto for anything practical meant dealing with volatility. Stablecoins remove that problem. They let people move value on-chain without turning every transaction into a speculative bet.

That is why traders use them. That is why businesses are paying attention. And that is why stablecoins quietly became the default currency of crypto.

 

Why Stablecoins Keep Growing Even When Markets Cool Off

When markets slow down, most crypto activity drops with them. Stablecoin usage usually does not.

The reason is simple. Stablecoins are not about price. They are about function.

Traditional financial systems are slow and expensive in ways people have mostly just accepted. Transfers take days. Cross-border payments get complicated fast. Fees show up in places no one asked for.

Stablecoins cut through a lot of that. They settle quickly. They move globally. They do not care what day it is or which country you are in.

For individuals, that means easier access to dollar-denominated money. For companies, it means faster settlement and fewer moving parts. None of that depends on whether the market is up or down. Daily users of stablecoins has grown tremendously in the last few years and people should expect to see that continue to skyrocket as more payment rails and use-cases come on board.

 

 

A Lot of Stablecoin Usage Is Invisible on Purpose

One reason stablecoins feel easy to ignore is because they are often hidden.

In many cases, users never touch them directly. A payment looks normal. A balance looks normal. Behind the scenes, stablecoins handle settlement because they are simply better at it.

This is not crypto trying to replace everything at once. It is crypto quietly fixing specific parts of the system that were not working very well to begin with.

And when something works smoothly, no one talks about it.

 

The Real Power Is in Controlling the Flow

The companies that benefit most from stablecoins are often not the ones issuing them.

They are the ones sitting in the middle of payments, wallets, and settlement. They already control how money moves. Stablecoins just make that movement cheaper and faster.

From that position, it does not really matter which stablecoin wins. Volume is what matters. Flow is what matters. Stablescoins are used in a wide variety of settlements and those are growing everyday.

 

 

What Mass Adoption Actually Looks Like

Crypto mass adoption was never going to look like everyone trading tokens or using complex on-chain tools.

It was always going to look boring.

It looks like people getting paid faster. It looks like cheaper transfers. It looks like money moving globally without anyone thinking twice about it.

Stablecoins fit that picture better than almost anything else crypto has produced. They lower the barrier instead of raising it. They work with existing habits instead of fighting them.

For many people, stablecoins are the first time crypto feels practical.

 

Why Stablecoins Matter, Even If They Never Trend

Stablecoins change how money moves.

That turns out to be a much more useful problem to solve.

They support trading. They power on-chain finance. They help businesses operate across borders. They give people access to stable value when local systems fall short.

They do all of this quietly, without asking for attention.

And that is probably why they are working.

Stablecoins are not the loudest part of crypto. They might never be.

But they are becoming the part that actually touches real economic activity at scale. Not in theory. In practice.

By the time stablecoins feel obvious, they will already be everywhere.

 

That is usually how infrastructure wins.

 

Stay Connected

You can stay up to date on all News, Events, and Marketing of Rare Network, including Rare Evo: America’s Premier Blockchain Conference, happening  July 28th-31st, 2026 at The ARIA Resort & Casino, by following our socials on X, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Trust Wallet Chrome Extension Hack Turns a Quiet Holiday Into a $7 Million Crypto Mess

Crypto has a way of ruining the calendar. Just when things slow down, markets calm, and people log off for the holidays, something breaks. This time it was Trust Wallet, and for some users, it broke badly.

More than $7 million in cryptocurrency was stolen after a compromised version of Trust Wallet’s Chrome browser extension made its way into circulation late last week. The losses came fast, right around December 24, when many users were updating software, traveling, or simply not paying close attention. By the time some noticed something was wrong, their wallets had already been drained.

The issue centered on a specific update to the Trust Wallet Chrome extension. On the surface, it looked like a normal release. No flashing red flags, no obvious warnings. Users installed it the same way they always do, clicking update and moving on. Somewhere along the line, though, malicious code ended up inside that release. Once active, it gave attackers a way to move funds out of users’ wallets quietly and efficiently.

What followed was a familiar pattern for anyone who has watched crypto hacks play out. Wallets that had been untouched for weeks suddenly sent out large transactions. Bitcoin, ether, BNB, and stablecoins flowed into unfamiliar addresses. Analysts tracking the blockchain could see the money moving, hopping between wallets, splitting up, recombining. It was all very visible and completely irreversible.

Trust Wallet confirmed that the breach was limited to one version of the Chrome extension. According to the company, mobile users were not affected, and neither were users who had not installed the compromised update. The company urged anyone using that version to disable it immediately and install the patched release from the official store.

That response helped contain the damage, but it did not undo what had already happened. In crypto, there is no undo button. Once assets leave your wallet, they are gone unless the attacker decides to give them back, which is not something people tend to count on.

Adding to the response, Changpeng Zhao, the Binance co-founder whose company owns Trust Wallet, said affected users would be reimbursed while an internal investigation continues. That promise brought some relief, especially for users who lost significant sums. Still, reimbursement does not erase the bigger concern. People want to know how a malicious update made it through in the first place.

Security researchers were already digging in by the time official statements came out. Some noticed odd wallet activity tied to recent extension updates. Others began pulling apart the extension code, looking for scripts that could leak private data or trigger unauthorized transactions. Warnings spread quickly across social platforms, security channels, and group chats. In crypto, news like this moves faster than press releases.

The episode once again highlighted a long standing weakness in crypto infrastructure. Browser wallet extensions are incredibly popular because they are easy. They connect seamlessly to decentralized exchanges, NFT platforms, and Web3 apps. For many users, they are the default way to interact with crypto on a daily basis. But that convenience comes with risk. Extensions live inside browsers that were never designed to protect private keys holding real money.

A single compromised update can affect thousands of users at once. Unlike phishing attacks that rely on tricking individuals one by one, an extension issue scales instantly. If the update is trusted, users trust it too.

This is why security experts keep repeating the same advice, even if it sounds boring. Large balances should not live in hot wallets. Browser wallets are tools for interaction, not vaults. Hardware wallets and cold storage are slower and less convenient, but they dramatically reduce the risk of exactly this kind of event.

In the aftermath, users have been urged to take several steps. Disable the affected extension. Review transaction histories carefully. Revoke token approvals that might still be active. In some cases, move remaining funds to an entirely new wallet with a fresh seed phrase that was never exposed to the compromised environment. None of this is fun, but waiting is usually worse.

There is also a broader reputational cost. Trust Wallet is one of the most widely used non-custodial wallets in the world. Incidents like this shake confidence, even if the company responds quickly and makes users whole. For newer users especially, it reinforces the idea that crypto is complicated, risky, and unforgiving.

The investigation into how the compromised extension was approved and distributed is still ongoing. Questions remain about whether this was a supply chain issue, a submission process failure, or something else entirely. Those answers will matter, not just for Trust Wallet, but for the wider ecosystem that relies heavily on browser extensions.

 

For now, the lesson is an old one, repeated yet again. In crypto, trust is fragile. Convenience is expensive. And even during the quietest week of the year, something can go wrong fast.

 

Stay Connected

You can stay up to date on all News, Events, and Marketing of Rare Network, including Rare Evo: America’s Premier Blockchain Conference, happening  July 28th-31st, 2026 at The ARIA Resort & Casino, by following our socials on X, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Tickets are available here.

Crypto CEOs Join CFTC’s Innovation Council as Market Structure Overhaul Picks Up Speed

Caroline Pham is heading into her final stretch as acting chair of the CFTC, but she is not easing her way out. Instead, she has pulled together a new CEO Innovation Council, bringing in a mix of crypto founders and leaders from major financial institutions. The timing feels intentional. Markets are shifting fast, the technology is shifting even faster, and she clearly wanted this group in place before she hands off the job.

The council itself is an unusual gathering. On one side are Tyler Winklevoss from Gemini, Arjun Sethi from Kraken and Shayne Coplan from Polymarket. On the other, executives from CME Group, Nasdaq, ICE and Cboe. It is not often you see these people sitting on the same advisory panel, let alone one created this quickly. According to the commission, the entire list came together in about two weeks, which says a lot about how much urgency Pham applied.

She thanked the group for agreeing to join so quickly, noting that the commission needs their experience as it tries to prepare for what comes next. The council will focus on the areas where the rulebook is changing as fast as the products themselves. Tokenization. Prediction markets. Perpetual contracts. Crypto collateral. Around the clock trading. Blockchain market plumbing. Basically all the things that traditional derivatives systems were never built to handle.

 

Here is the full list of names:

Shayne Coplan, Polymarket
Craig Donohue, Cboe
Terry Duffy, CME Group
Tom Farley, Bullish
Adena Friedman, Nasdaq
Luke Hoersten, Bitnomial
Tarek Mansour, Kalshi
Kris Marszalek, Crypto.com
David Schwimmer, LSEG
Arjun Sethi, Kraken
Jeff Sprecher, Intercontinental Exchange
Tyler Winklevoss, Gemini

 

All of this is happening as the agency prepares for new leadership. President Trump’s nominee, Mike Selig, is expected to be confirmed soon. When he steps in, he will inherit an agency already deep into crypto policy work that accelerated under Pham. Just this week, the CFTC launched a pilot for using crypto collateral inside derivatives markets. A few days before that, Bitnomial began offering leverage spot crypto trading with her support.

Pham has only been in the acting role for a short time, but she treated crypto as a top priority, pushing several initiatives that line up with the administration’s goal of positioning the United States as a leading hub for digital assets. Over at the SEC, Chairman Paul Atkins has been doing something similar through Project Crypto, which has been absorbing much of the agency’s energy.

 

What comes next will land in Selig’s lap. But with this council now in place, he will walk into a job where the industry and the regulators are already in the middle of a much bigger conversation about what the future of market structure should look like.

Hong Kong Approves Solana Spot ETF, Beating U.S. to the Milestone

 

Hong Kong’s financial regulator has given the go-ahead to the region’s first spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) that directly holds Solana (SOL) tokens. This approval puts Hong Kong ahead of the U.S. in offering a spot Solana ETF and signals a major shift in crypto investment products in Asia.

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Key Details of the Approval

The ETF is being launched by ChinaAMC (Hong Kong) (China Asset Management’s Hong Kong arm) and is expected to begin trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) around October 27, 2025. Each unit of the fund will consist of 100 shares and investors can enter with a minimum investment near US$100 (or the equivalent in HKD). The fund will trade in HKD, USD and RMB. It carries a total expense ratio of approximately 1.99 % per annum.

With this product, Solana becomes the third major crypto token — after Bitcoin and Ethereum — to obtain a regulated spot-ETF listing in Hong Kong.

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Why This Matters

Regulatory Leadership & Timing

By approving this Solana spot product before a U.S. market listing, Hong Kong reinforces its ambition to be a leading global digital-asset hub. The approval comes in the context of Hong Kong already having launched spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs and opening spot crypto trading for retail investors on licensed platforms.

Institutional Access to a Leading Blockchain

Solana stands out as a high-performance blockchain platform known for speed and scalability. The launch of a regulated fund tied to SOL gives institutional and retail investors a direct, regulated route into the ecosystem without holding tokens themselves. That improves accessibility and reduces custody risk.

Potential Market Impact

Analysts believe this listing could enhance liquidity and visibility for SOL. Some price-targets for SOL are being raised in light of improved capital-markets access. That said, some banks and analysts caution that the initial inflows may be modest compared with Bitcoin or Ethereum ETF products.

Pressure on U.S. Regulators

The move underscores a growing gap between Asia and the U.S. in crypto product innovation. While multiple firms in the U.S. have filed for spot Solana ETFs, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has not yet approved one, according to regulatory filings.

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What to Watch Going Forward

• Listing performance: How the Solana ETF trades once it starts on HKEX, including premium/discount behaviour, liquidity and volume.

• Inflow trends: Whether institutional capital engages meaningfully, and whether retail investors drive sustained demand.

• Competitive launches: Spot Solana ETF applications in the U.S. and Europe may gain renewed momentum now that Hong Kong has led the way.

• Ecosystem effects: Whether the listing accelerates Solana-based product launches (staking, DeFi, tokenization) or encourages institutional exposure to Solana infrastructure.

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Final Thoughts

The approval of a spot Solana ETF in Hong Kong marks a landmark moment for crypto investment. For Solana, this legitimises the network’s role in the institutional-grade financial toolkit. For Hong Kong, it signals a clear intention to lead on digital-asset innovation in Asia.

 

While the real test will lie in how the market responds and how large institutional commitments become, the milestone itself sends a ripple across global crypto and capital markets. Solana’s new listing path suggests that the token is stepping firmly into mainstream finance.