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Today's News Recap
Federal Fines - Crypto exchange OKX fined $2.6M in Netherlands for failing to register with Dutch National Bank.
Collaborative Clarity - U.S. SEC, CFTC combine forces to clear registered firms' trading of spot crypto.
Arbitrum Incentives - Arbitrum launches ‘Season One’ of $40 million DeFi incentive program.
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In Messari News
New Research Podcast
On Fully Diluted, Framework’s Brandon Potts argues crypto venture is still early—but the game has changed. Hype-driven “token first” launches are giving way to teams proving demand, distribution, and revenue. Potts outlines why winners will build application-specific infrastructure, leverage stablecoins (post-policy clarity) for lower cost of capital and global distribution, and use on-chain finance to power energy/DePIN and even AI data centers. He’s skeptical of generic GPU marketplaces but bullish on everything adjacent to AI and energy financing. The takeaway: this cycle favors prepared founders solving concrete problems—and the power-law will accrue to those who execute, not just narrate.
Top Assets
Messari Protocol Reporting
Messari's protocol reports give you a deep dive on the foundation and state of top crypto protocols, including key metrics and notable events. See the complete list of protocol reports here and get a preview of our latest report below.
Layer-3 blockchain built on Arbitrum Orbit, purpose-built for education apps, finance, and credentials
Token price rose 15.8% QoQ to $0.13, with a market cap increase to $34.7M
$10M grant to Pencil Finance to launch onchain student lending
Validator Program grew to 35+ university blockchain clubs globally
Decentralized storage marketplace built on IPFS.
Network utilization hit 32% in Q2 2025 as storage demand held up while overall capacity declined from provider churn
Daily new storage deals rose 25% QoQ (3.5 PiB/day), signaling sustained demand for enterprise and research workloads.
Focus is moving from raw capacity toward high-value datasets (864 >1,000 TiB in size, +7.5% QoQ)
XRP futures listed on Coinbase and CME, fulfilling SEC requirements for potential U.S. spot ETF approval this fall
Ripple’s RLUSD hit $65.9M (+49% QoQ), XRPL’s largest stablecoin; new stablecoins (USDC, EURØP, etc.) launched on XRPL
Tokenized treasuries, commercial paper, and real estate pushed XRPL’s RWA market cap to an all-time high of $131.6M.
XRP remains the 4th largest crypto asset ($132B market cap, +8.5% QoQ)
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