Stablecoin issuer Tether has abandoned its plan to freeze USDT smart contracts on five chains, saying the tokens will remain transferable but no longer be issued or redeemed. The revised plan impacts users on Omni Layer, Bitcoin Cash SLP, Kusama, EOS, and Algorand, Tether said on Friday after receiving feedback from members of these ecosystems. “Following the…

Tokenized institutional alternative funds (IAF) surged 47% in the last 30 days, reaching a total value of $1.74 billion, according to data from real-world asset (RWA) tokenization tracker RWA.xyz. The data showed that all protocols except Libre Capital had percentage increases in the last 30 days. Centrifuge led the growth, expanding its market cap by 252% to $704…

After funding hundreds of projects with millions of dollars, the Ethereum Foundation is temporarily pausing the Ecosystem Support Program’s (ESP) open grant application process to refocus on a more proactive funding model that is better aligned with the ecosystem’s strategic needs. The transition comes as the foundation faces challenges reviewing the high volume of inbound…

Decentralized exchange dYdX has updated its 2025 roadmap, outlining plans to launch a Telegram trading integration as the platform faces declining earnings. According to the roadmap, dYdX plans to roll out a series of software upgrades that include a partner fee share, scale and TWAP orders and designated proposers, targeting the reduction of end-to-end trading latency. In…

The US government has tapped Chainlink and Pyth, two blockchain oracle providers, to publish economic data onchain. Chainlink was selected to provide data feeds from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), and will publish additional data feeds in response to consumer demand or at the behest of the US government, a Chainlink spokesperson told Cointelegraph….

Crypto projects are set to unlock about $4.5 billion in vested tokens in September, according to data tracker Tokenomist. Tokenomist data shows that about $1.17 billion will come from cliff unlocks, while $3.36 billion will be released through linear unlocks. About $4.5 billion in tokens will become available to investors, project teams and other stakeholders as vesting agreements expire….

Circle has unveiled two partnerships to embed stablecoins settlement into mainstream finance. New deals with Mastercard and Finastra aim to expand USD Coin’s role to merchants and banks worldwide. Mastercard said on Wednesday that it will enable acquirers and merchants in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EEMEA) to settle transactions in USDC and Euro…

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a US financial regulator, is integrating a financial surveillance tool developed by stock exchange company Nasdaq in a bid to overhaul its 1990s infrastructure. Nasdaq’s software is focused on detecting market abuse, including insider trading activity and market manipulation in equities and crypto markets, Tony Sio, head of regulatory strategy and innovation at…

Google Cloud’s head of Web3 strategy used a LinkedIn post to share new details on the company’s in-development layer-1 blockchain, the Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL). Rich Widmann described the blockchain as the result of “years of R&D at Google,” designed to be credibly neutral and compatible with Python-based smart contracts. According to Widmann, GCUL is meant…

Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 is building four new Bitcoin mining sites in Texas, Louisiana and Illinois, adding 1.5 gigawatts of capacity as US miners tighten their grip on the global hashrate. According to a Tuesday announcement, the expansion is aimed at broadening the company’s geographic footprint and target markets where “energy demand [is] rising most…