Crypto Industry News & Market Trends

XRP Ledger Adds Mastercard Verifiable Intent for AI Payments

AI Agent Payments on XRP Ledger Gain Enterprise-Grade Trust With Mastercard 　　The XRP Ledger is advancing its push into enterprise-grade AI payments. According to t54, the company behind the XRPL x402 Facilitator, AI agent payments on XRPL now support Mastercards Verifiable Intent (VI) standard, introducing cryptographic authorization and pre-settlement risk checks for autonomous blockchain transactions.　　The integration enables developers to attach verifiable proof of authorization to AI-initiated payments. Beyond a standard wallet signature, each transaction can now prove who approved it, the spending limits attached to it, and the exact purchase it is authorized to complete.　　These credentials are processed through the x402 Facilitator, which routes them to Trustlines risk engine before settlement. Payments are evaluated against predefined authorization rules, adding an extra layer of security before funds move on-chain.　　The system is built on Mastercards Verifiable Intent framework, part of its Agentic Commerce initiative. It uses a three-tier chain of Selective Disclosure JSON Web Token (SD-JWT) credentials, L1, L2, and L3, to verify three critical elements: who authorized the payment, what limits or conditions apply, and which transaction is being approved. This gives AI agents machine-verifiable authorization instead of relying solely on wallet ownership.　　Mastercards Verifiable Intent Adds Trust Layer to XRPL AI

07-25Industry

Bitcoin Faces $7B Liquidity Trap: Will $62K or $65K Break First？

Bitcoin sits between $62K support and $65K resistance zones as traders brace for Mondays Senate vote on the CLARITY Act outcomes.　　Bitcoin dropped from $66,300 to $64,077 in a single session, according to Smart Money Crypto on X. Eighty-four percent of liquidated futures positions in the following 24 hours were longs.　　The pullback pushed price into a tight range between two liquidation clusters. One sits below the market, one sits above it. Traders are now watching which zone breaks first.　　Bitcoin Liquidation Map Shows Two Key Price Zones　　The heavier cluster sits between $61,400 and $62,600, according to data shared by Smart Money Crypto.　　More than seven billion dollars in leveraged positions sit stacked in that range. It marks the densest liquidity pocket on the entire chart. The zone thins out sharply once price drops another thousand dollars below it.　　#Bitcoin ist gestern von $66.300 auf $64.077 durchgereicht worden. In den 24 Stunden danach entfielen 84 Prozent aller liquidierten Futures-Positionen auf Longs.　　Rechnen wir die Karte durch, die um diesen Kurs herum liegt. Liquidität verteilt sich nicht gleichmäßig über die…　　A lighter cluster sits above current price, between $65,000 and $65,400. About five billion dollars in leveraged exposure sits there.　　Bitcoin was trading inside that zone before yesterdays drop.

07-25Industry

Two Ethereum bridges lose $31.7M within hours as third protocol halts staking

AFX and the Verus-Ethereum bridge suffered about $31.69 million in combined losses within hours of each other, while B² Network separately suspended token staking after unauthorized access to a contract upgrade authority.　　Blockaid said it detected the AFX exploit at about 21:30 UTC on July 22. An Arbitrum transaction recorded 24.15 million USDC leaving the bridge operated by AFX, a decentralized trading protocol on Arbitrum.　　AFX suspended its USDC custody bridge and said the incident was isolated from its trading infrastructure, mainnet, and the Arbitrum network. The affected component was a third-party bridge, not Arbitrums native bridge.　　In preliminary findings published July 24, AFX attributed the incident to coordinated social engineering and infrastructure compromise. The protocol said access appeared to begin in a development environment before escalating into internal build infrastructure and validator systems.　　AFX said it was verifying balances, pursuing fund recovery and preparing remediation. As of July 24, it had not announced a completed return of funds or a finalized compensation plan.　　Hours after the AFX incident, an Ethereum transaction showed the Verus bridge releasing 1,137.4528 ETH and seven token transfers. Blockaid valued the unbacked payouts at about $7.54 million.　　SlowMists analysis said the bridge approved eight withdrawals without proving that matching assets backed

07-25Industry

Russias largest bank Sberbank plans crypto trading infrastructure by December

Russias largest bank, Sberbank, plans to build cryptocurrency trading infrastructure and launch a digital depository by Dec. 1 as Russia moves to bring crypto trading, custody and settlement into its regulated financial system.　　The depository, according to Interfax, will record clients ownership of cryptocurrency and process most transactions outside the underlying blockchain. Sberbank will operate active wallets for client-initiated deposits, withdrawals and transfers.　　The plan follows the Federation Councils approval of a law regulating cryptocurrency trading through licensed brokers, exchanges, asset managers and depositories.　　The framework is set to take effect Sept. 1, though rules requiring transactions to pass through licensed intermediaries will apply from July 2027.　　Public exchange trading will be limited to cryptocurrencies that meet Bank of Russia liquidity thresholds, including an average market capitalization above 5 trillion rubles ($64 billion) and an average daily volume above 1 trillion rubles ($12.8 billion) over 2 years.　　Qualified investors will be able to access a broader range of assets. Crypto payments for goods and services inside Russia remain prohibited.　　Sberbank started offering qualified investors structured bonds tied to bitcoin last year, and completed a bitcoin-backed lending pilot with miner Intelion Data in December.

07-25Industry

CLARITY Act faces Senate vote despite 60-vote gap

Senate Majority Leader John Thune plans to push the CLARITY Act toward a floor vote before the August recess, potentially forcing senators to publicly declare their positions even if the crypto market structure bill cannot overcome a filibuster.　　Thune wants senators on record over CLARITY Act　　Thune wants the Senate to begin considering the legislation before lawmakers leave Washington for their summer break, according to Punchbowl News.　　“I would like to at least get Clarity started. Well see where the votes are,” Thune said.　　A floor vote would test whether months of negotiations have produced enough bipartisan support for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, formally known as H.R. 3633. It would also identify the senators responsible if the bill fails to advance.　　The House passed the CLARITY Act in July 2025 with bipartisan support. The Senate Banking Committee later advanced its section of the legislation in a 15-9 vote in May 2026.　　Senator Cynthia Lummis released an updated version on July 22 that combines proposals previously approved by the Senate Banking and Agriculture committees. The Senate is scheduled to remain in Washington until Aug. 7, leaving lawmakers with a narrow period to debate amendments and hold procedural votes. Lummis‘ office confirmed that the new text

07-25Industry

Ethereum ETFs close week in red, end 5-day inflow streak

US-listed spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) logged $70.62 million in net outflows on Friday, ending a five-day inflow streak.　　Ethereum funds saw $211.25 million in net inflows over the previous five sessions from July 17 to Thursday, according to SoSoValue data. They still posted $103.9 million in net inflows for the week ended Friday.　　Despite the outflows, Ethereum ETFs extended their weekly inflow streak to three straight and have attracted $337.74 million in net inflows so far in July.　　Spot crypto ETF flows have become one of the markets most closely watched gauges of demand for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) through traditional investment products.　　Although other jurisdictions, including Hong Kong, have launched similar funds, US-listed ETFs account for the vast majority of assets and trading volumes.Daily spot Ethereum ETF net flows from July 17 to July 24. Source: SoSoValue　　Bitcoin ETFs also end week with outflows　　The reversal followed a similar pattern in Bitcoin ETFs, which ended a seven-day inflow streak on Thursday and recorded another $240.08 million in net outflows on Friday.　　Bitcoin ETFs also extended their net inflow streak to three consecutive weeks, adding $103.90 million during the week ended Friday and $233.96 million so far in July. They followed a record June, when

07-25Industry

SK Group Partners With NVIDIA To Advance AI Infrastructure Via $500B Investment

SK Group, a leading firm in semiconductors, telecommunications, and more, is driving its partnership with NVIDIA, a notable tech platform for GPUs and AI. The expansion of the partnership takes into account an investment of over $500B.　　As SK Group revealed in its official press release, the contract is set to fortify the worldwide artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure along with advancing cutting-edge AI memory technologies. Additionally, both platforms will merge their expertise for AI workloads.　　SK Group and NVIDIAs Partnership for Asia-Pacific Expansion with Over $500B Investment　　SK Group and NVIDIAs partnership is moving forward with a staggering $500B investment. The partnership also takes into account the development of wide-ranging AI factories driven by the next-gen computing technologies of NVIDIA. Together, both companies attempt to reaffirm the AI network within South Korea as well as the wider Asia-Pacific zone. The platforms formalized the inclusive contract by signing Letters of Intent.　　Thus, the partnership reflects the rising interest in high-performance computing functionalities to back large language models, agentic AI, physical AI mechanisms, and enterprise AI apps. A crucial feature of the development takes into account SK Telecom‘s endeavors to develop a 1-gigawatt AI Cloud within South Korea. The initiative will use the DSX AI Factory

07-25Industry

Galaxy Research: Strategy must find ways to monetize its Bitcoin after digital credit framework stopgap

Alex Thorn, the head of firmwide research at Galaxy Research, shared Galaxy‘s analysis on X, adding his voice to the debate regarding Strategy’s newly announced Digital Credit Capital Framework.　　The new rules have sparked a debate about whether or not they will solve the companys capital-structure problems or simply delay them.　　How does Strategys new capital framework operate？　　Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) recently disclosed a new “Digital Credit Capital Framework” in a 8-K regulatory filing.　　Cryptopolitan reported that the framework grants the company formal permission to sell up to $1.25 billion worth of Bitcoin. Notably, the firm is facing a massive unrealized loss of roughly $14 billion on its holdings of 847,363 BTC.　　The framework creates a formal USD reserve policy that introduces revised dividend terms for its STRC preferred shares, and authorizes separate repurchase programs for both preferred stock and MSTR common shares at $1 billion each.　　The board has kept aside the companys $2.55 billion cash reserve, restricting its use to preferred dividends and debt interest.　　If the current spending rates of roughly $1.76 billion annually are retained, this reserve is expected to last for about 17 months. If the full authorized sale of Bitcoin were to be executed, total liquidity would stretch to approximately $3.8

07-25Industry

Triple-A hot wallets lose $9.7M in suspected exploit

Triple-As hot wallets appear to have lost more than $9.7 million across several blockchains, with the suspected attacker swapping the assets and consolidating the proceeds on Ethereum.　　What happened to Triple-As hot wallets　　On-chain analyst Specter first identified suspicious transactions involving hot wallets linked to Triple-A, a Singapore-based provider of stablecoin payment infrastructure.　　Specter initially estimated that more than $9.3 million had been removed, swapped, and transferred across chains to Ethereum. Blockchain security firm PeckShield later amplified the alert, while subsequent estimates placed the suspected loss above $9.7 million.　　The activity reportedly affected Triple-A wallets operating on Ethereum, Solana, TRON and TON. Some reports also identified transactions involving Polygon and Arbitrum, potentially expanding the incident to six networks.　　Triple-A had not publicly confirmed the exploit at the time of writing. The company has also not disclosed when the suspicious activity began, how its wallets were accessed, or whether the affected assets belonged to Triple-A, its business customers, or payment recipients.　　Without a company statement or technical investigation, the incident remains a suspected hot-wallet compromise rather than a confirmed protocol exploit.　　Stolen assets were consolidated into Ethereum　　On-chain data cited by security researchers showed that the transferred assets were exchanged and bridged to Ethereum after leaving the affected wallets.　　The

07-25Industry

Across Protocol relayer loses under $4M in Solana attack

Across Protocols Risk Labs-operated relayer lost less than $4 million after an attacker fabricated $41.7 million in Solana deposit events, according to a post-incident report released by the cross-chain protocol.　　Across attacker forged 1,627 Solana deposits　　The attack occurred between 05:07 and 06:14 UTC on July 17, according to the Across Protocol post-mortem. The attacker used 1,627 single-use Solana wallets to create the same number of fake deposit events.　　Those deposits carried a combined face value of approximately $41.7 million and requested payments across 18 destination chains. Across reported that the funds were directed toward one recipient address on an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible network.　　Risk Labs relayer filled 581 requests before Across stopped Solana operations. Those payments represented about 35.7% of the fraudulent requests but only 10.8% of their stated value.　　The relayer advanced approximately $4.5 million of its own capital. Across invalidated the remaining 1,046 requests, preventing about $37 million in additional payouts.　　Approximately $500,000 belonging to the attacker remained trapped within the protocol. Across deducted that amount from the gross payout to place its net loss below $4 million.　　Why Across users avoided the relayer loss　　Across attributed the breach to a flaw in Risk Labs off-chain event-reading software rather than a vulnerability in its smart

07-25Industry

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