The New York Stock Exchange is advancing its presence in blockchain-based market infrastructure, with President Lynn Martin confirming development of a new platform for on-chain settlement of tokenized securities.

NYSE partners with DTCC for on-chain settlement pilot
This initiative aligns with increased interest from traditional financial service providers, who are actively exploring blockchain’s potential to manage elements of trading infrastructure while maintaining established investor protections.

In July, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC)—a leading post-trade financial services company and the largest securities depository in the United States—processed live production trades using tokenized securities involving several major financial institutions. This pilot program comes ahead of DTCC’s plan to launch a commercial tokenization service in October. The NYSE has submitted rule filings that would enable eligible stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to be traded in tokenized form as part of the DTCC pilot project.

What distinguishes this project is the scale and established infrastructure behind it. The Depository Trust Company (DTC), DTCC’s settlement subsidiary, safeguards more than $114 trillion in securities. The new tokenization service aims to represent assets already held within the DTC’s system, further embedding blockchain technology into Wall Street’s core operations.

The pilot program initially targets highly liquid securities, including constituents of the Russell 1000 Index, large index ETFs, and US government securities. If these pilot operations achieve scale, the integration of tokenization could eventually shift from a niche use case toward forming a backbone for mainstream securities markets.

Mini dictionary: DTCC (Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation) is a central clearing and settlement organization in the US, processing the majority of equity, bond, and ETF trades and reducing settlement risk for financial institutions.

Tokenization and cost efficiency in traditional markets
A key driver behind Wall Street’s push toward tokenization is the potential for broad cost reductions across the financial system. In a 2024 study, the Bank for International Settlements estimated that blockchain-based asset tokenization can lower costs in trading, settlement, and collateral management—especially where multiple intermediaries are involved in a single transaction.

These efficiencies might allow institutions to free up capital and significantly cut administrative requirements between trade execution and final settlement. This could lead to faster collateral reuse and lower expenses ultimately passed onto investors.

Faster settlement and reduced intermediaries can allow capital to move more freely and cheaply across the system, making mainstream securities trading more adaptable to investors’ needs.

Wall Street and crypto infrastructure draw closer
In 2025, the World Economic Forum projected that total tokenized assets could reach $2 trillion by 2030 under a conservative outlook, and potentially $4 trillion in more bullish scenarios. This forecast accounts for tokenized versions of bonds, loans, funds, and other complex financial instruments alongside stocks.

With these projections, NYSE’s blockchain initiative highlights a broader push to digitize traditional assets at scale. As tokenized securities become more widespread, blockchains, stablecoins, and digital wallets are likely to see increased integration into legacy capital markets—often without investors actively engaging with the crypto sector.

In another development, NYSE Arca and NYSE American have lifted the traditional 25,000-contract position and exercise limit on options linked to certain spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs. This regulatory change allows for larger and more flexible trades on crypto-related ETF options.

The removal of these position limits signals growing institutional comfort with crypto products and paves the way for expanded market participation in regulated ETF options tied to digital assets.

Bank of America and J.P. Morgan have become early adopters of SWIFT’s latest initiative to enhance international consumer money transfers. The move highlights the evolving role of major financial institutions in global payments infrastructure and their broader integration with advanced treasury management technologies.

Bank of America and J.P. Morgan join new SWIFT program
Both banks have begun operating live on SWIFT’s new service, aiming to streamline the process for consumers sending and receiving cross-border payments. The program, announced through a BusinessWire release on August 5, 2026, identifies Bank of America and J.P. Morgan as initial participants, supporting the network’s objective of delivering faster and more user-friendly international transfers.

While this initiative addresses global transfers, it remains distinct from other blockchain-based solutions. Notably, there is no direct confirmation that either institution is leveraging XRP or Ripple’s digital asset infrastructure within these SWIFT transactions.
August 2026 marks the moment when Bank of America and J.P. Morgan, as Ripple Treasury clients, activated live SWIFT international transfers, according to industry researcher SMQKE, who described the step as “documented.”

Ripple Treasury strengthens bank connectivity
Recent documentation cited by SMQKE emphasizes that both Bank of America and J.P. Morgan are integrated into Ripple Treasury’s broader ecosystem. Ripple Treasury, which operates in partnership with GTreasury, provides the ClearConnect Gateway, enabling treasury departments and financial officers to access comprehensive transaction and balance data from a wide array of global banks.

ClearConnect Gateway currently offers access to banks such as DBS, OCBC, ICBC, Barclays, and BNP Paribas, as well as integrations with Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citibank, and Wells Fargo, among others. These integrations focus on enhancing treasury management through direct bank connectivity, rather than deploying XRP for payments.

In line with the trend toward efficient portfolio management and streamlined processes, platforms such as 1stepSwap illustrate how technical innovation is bridging traditional finance and digital assets. By bringing real-world assets onto the blockchain, 1stepSwap enables users to hold shares in U.S. companies and commodities—such as gold and silver—directly in their wallets, providing fast access and optimal pricing across global assets with no intermediaries required.

Clarifying the relationship: Treasury client versus partner
Jacob Marquez, an active user on X, emphasized the importance of accurate terminology, noting that Bank of America and J.P. Morgan should be described as “treasury clients” rather than “partners” of Ripple. He observed that the connection represents a software integration rather than a direct link to XRP usage for payments.

Marquez highlighted that GTreasury users with SWIFT integration are engaging in a technology-based relationship, not one that involves XRP transactions or blockchain-based transfers.

This distinction is critical, as SWIFT’s international transfer platform and Ripple Treasury’s bank connectivity represent separate technologies and serve different purposes. There is no indication that Bank of America or J.P. Morgan are utilizing XRP, either in their SWIFT operations or through their integration with Ripple Treasury.

For observers in the $XRP community, the developments reinforce Ripple Treasury’s presence across top-tier banks, yet the link to SWIFT activity should be regarded as part of broader financial technology integration rather than a proxy for digital asset adoption.

Bitcoin traded in a tight range on Wednesday, with the top cryptocurrency holding above a key support area while facing persistent resistance just below $65,000. Markets are watching closely as price action signals that a significant move could follow a breakout from this consolidation zone.

BTC price maintains narrow channel
Bitcoin (BTC) was priced at $64,828, posting a 0.83% gain over the past 24 hours. The 24-hour trading volume reached $51.17 billion, and Bitcoin’s market capitalization stands at $1.30 trillion, securing a dominance rate of 58.98% across the cryptocurrency sector.

Recent price action shows Bitcoin trading within a defined range, repeatedly retesting resistance near $65,000. The $64,400 area has emerged as essential short-term support according to analysis by Crypto With Gopal, who highlighted the significance of this level in curbing deeper declines.

Chart patterns and technical outlook
Crypto With Gopal pointed out the formation of a potential double top pattern at the resistance level of $65,000, marking multiple failed attempts by buyers to surpass that barrier. He emphasized that maintaining the $64,400 support level is critical; if lost, the next likely target would be $63,800, increasing the risk of a further pullback.

Bitcoin’s recent movement continues to reflect a descending channel structure, with a sequence of lower highs and lower lows constraining upward progress. This technical formation suggests prevailing caution among market participants.

Earlier in the week, Bitcoin tested an important demand zone between $62,346 and $62,907, where buyers stepped in to stabilize the price. This area served as the bottom boundary of the descending channel, and the rebound here demonstrated reduced selling pressure and a willingness among buyers to defend key levels.

Technical analysts interpreted the subsequent bounce as a sign that short-term sellers have lost momentum, opening the possibility for a short-lived recovery.

Resistance and support: key levels to watch
Momentum accelerated after Bitcoin reclaimed a minor resistance area between $63,213 and $63,389, in what chart analysts call a Break of Structure (BOS). This move enabled BTC to push toward $64,488, aligning with the top of the descending channel.

Maintaining a price above $64,488 could potentially pave the way for an advance toward the next significant resistance between $66,800 and $66,947. However, further upside will likely be contingent upon Bitcoin breaking through the psychologically important $65,000 level that has capped recent upwards attempts.

If Bitcoin loses momentum and falls below the $62,346 mark, analysts caution that this would invalidate the current bullish pattern and reinforce the broader downtrend channel.

For now, Bitcoin remains bounded between strong resistance at $65,000 and sturdy support above $62,300. As long as the price stays within this area, the lack of a decisive trend could lead to continued short-term volatility.

The upcoming directional move will likely depend on whether Bitcoin decisively breaks above resistance or falls through key support, as traders look for clear indications of the next major trend.

A convincing move outside these boundaries could set the stage for a significant shift in momentum—either toward the $66,800 to $66,947 resistance zone or toward lower support levels below $62,346.

Until a breakout occurs, Bitcoin’s ability to defend its support and challenge overhead resistance will remain the focus for traders and investors assessing short-term prospects in the cryptocurrency market.

Circle reported $701 million revenue and $143 million adjusted EBITDA.

USDC circulation reached $73.3 billion during the second quarter.
Arc mainnet launch targets institutional blockchain adoption.

Circle Q2 earnings showed continued expansion in USDC adoption as the stablecoin issuer reported $701 million in revenue and reserve income. USDC circulation reached $73.3 billion by the end of June, while onchain transaction volume climbed to $14.8 trillion. Shares moved higher as investors focused on Arc and banking developments.

Circle Q2 Earnings Highlight USDC Supply Expansion
The Circle Q2 earnings report showed USDC circulation increased 19% year-over-year despite a weaker stablecoin market environment. The company said USDC market share surpassed 60% during the quarter.

However, quarterly growth slowed compared with the previous period. Revenue and reserve income rose 7% to $701 million, while adjusted EBITDA declined from $151 million in Q1 to $143 million.

Circle’s Q2 2026 Revenue and Reserve Income Reach $701 Million as USDC Circulation Rises 19% YoY

The company also reported that USDC transaction activity reached $14.8 trillion during the quarter. That figure remained below the previous quarter’s $21.5 trillion volume.
Circle Q2 Earnings Focus on Arc Blockchain Launch
The Circle Q2 earnings update placed strong attention on Arc, the company’s blockchain network designed for stablecoin payments and tokenized assets.

Circle confirmed Arc’s public mainnet launch is scheduled for September 16. More than 100 institutional and ecosystem builders are already involved, including major financial companies such as BlackRock, Visa and Mastercard.

Circle also highlighted its recent federal trust bank approval and New York trust charter. The developments support its broader expansion into regulated digital finance.

Meanwhile, investors continue watching CRCL performance as analysts evaluate future growth. USDC circulation remains a key metric, while new products such as Arc must generate additional activity.

Circle faces competition from emerging stablecoin networks and changing market conditions. The company reported that distribution costs reached $407 million against $653 million in reserve income during the quarter.

Amazon crossed the 3 trillion dollar market capitalization mark for the first time on Monday, August 3, driven by strong results and the rise of artificial intelligence. The group’s cloud propels the stock to a record high, as Wall Street once again distinguishes the winners of AI.

Amazon joins the very exclusive 3 trillion club
Only a few companies have ever planted their flag above 3 trillion dollars. Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Nvidia paved the way. Amazon has just joined, becoming the fifth to cross this threshold, nearly two years after surpassing 2 trillion in June 2024. The jump of an additional 1 trillion in just over two years speaks to the scale of the revaluation.
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This same appetite for artificial intelligence also drives AI tokens on crypto markets, whose speculative momentum was recently analyzed by the media. AMZN stock closed Monday up 5% at 285.01 dollars, a historic high, after already increasing more than 23% since January 1.
The previous week, the stock recorded its strongest daily gain since April 2012, following the release of the strongest growth in its cloud business in over four years.

Amazon’s cloud, the silent driver of the rise
The Amazon Web Services division fuels the group’s profits and captures demand from AI giants. AWS has expanded its partnerships around cloud infrastructure and chip supply, with deals notably concluded with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta. This support reassures investors, as fears of a decline in AI spending weighed on the sector ahead of earnings season.

Reuters agency, which published this data, notes that Microsoft confirmed last week it will continue generating cash flow through 2027, with investments below Wall Street expectations.
Other hyperscalers followed the movement on Monday: Microsoft gained 4%, Meta 6%, Alphabet 3.6%, and Oracle 5%. Microsoft even recorded its strongest daily gain since 2008.

Wall Street finally sorts out the AI giants
Earnings season has separated those who know how to monetize AI from those who finance it at a loss. Tesla and Alphabet posted negative cash flows last quarter, a first for Alphabet, while Meta saw its free cash flow collapse by 91%. The stock market now rewards capital discipline rather than the sole promise of growth.

“Amazon is probably the most emblematic company of the current economy. It is both a success in the field of consumption and a success in AI“, said Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide.
Mark Hackett notes a fragmentation of the “Mag 7”: long treated as a block, these stocks now trade separately. Nvidia still dominates the ranking with a capitalization close to 5 trillion dollars, far ahead of its pursuers.

In short, Amazon enters the 3 trillion court with a trajectory that owes everything to its cloud and AI. The reshuffling between hyperscalers confirms a more selective market, where only profitable models keep their promise. This technological tidal wave also strengthens the link between AI and bitcoin miners, whose cloud contracts are multiplying. Value is no longer read by promise, but by flow.

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has launched two tokenized money market products designed to serve as reserve assets for stablecoins, marking another step in bringing regulated financial products onto blockchain infrastructure.

The first product, BlackRock Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund OnChain Shares (BSTBL), is a tokenized share class of the asset manager’s existing Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund on Ethereum. Eligible investors can transfer tokenized fund shares between approved wallets while the fund continues investing in cash, short-term US Treasurys and Treasury-backed overnight repurchase agreements.

The second product, BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle (BRSRV), is a newly created tokenized money market fund available to institutional investors. The fund supports multiple blockchains, automatically reinvests daily dividends and is designed for digital asset use cases, including stablecoin reserve management.

BlackRock said both funds are structured to qualify as eligible reserve assets for permitted US payment stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act, the federal stablecoin law enacted in July 2025.

The launch expands BlackRock’s footprint in the tokenized Treasury market, where its USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) remains the largest tokenized Treasury fund with more than $2.6 billion in assets, according to industry data.

Tether reported $1.5B operating profit with record USDT circulation.

USDT supply reached $184.6B while reserves exceeded liabilities by $4.11B.
Treasury assets drove earnings as Tether's user base surpassed 650 million.

Tether released its Q2 2026 attestation on June 30, showing $1.5 billion in net operating profit, record USDT circulation, and higher reserve levels. According to Tether, BDO prepared the quarterly attestation, confirming the company's financial figures and reserve report. CEO Paolo Ardoino also said USDT users surpassed 650 million as adoption continued across emerging markets during the quarter.

Reserves Expand As USDT Supply Grows
According to Tether, USDT issuance reached approximately $184.6 billion by the end of the second quarter. That total stood about $446 million above the previous quarter despite a decline in the broader stablecoin market.

The company said USDT accounted for more than 60% of the stablecoin market during the period. Meanwhile, Tether reported total assets of $187.75 billion against total liabilities of $183.64 billion.
Digital tokens issued represented approximately $183.62 billion of those liabilities. As a result, assets exceeded liabilities by about $4.11 billion at the end of June.

Treasury Holdings Lead Quarterly Results
Tether said short-duration, high-quality liquid assets continued to form the core of its reserves. Moreover, U.S. Treasury holdings and repo operations generated most of the quarter's $1.5 billion operating profit.

The company also reduced secured lending exposure by approximately $2.38 billion, representing a 15% decline. In addition, Tether increased its physical gold holdings by 14 tons, bringing total holdings above 146 tons.

According to Paolo Ardoino, reserve assets faced significant market volatility during the quarter. However, he said USDT remained fully backed while reserves continued to exceed liabilities throughout the period.
User Base Climbs Above 650 Million
Paolo Ardoino said Tether's global user base exceeded 650 million, with strong growth across emerging markets. He also stated that more than 30 million users joined the network during the quarter.

According to Tether, the company remained among the world's largest buyers and holders of U.S. Treasuries. Meanwhile, it said the Big Four audit process continued alongside development of its broader financial and technology infrastructure.
The company added that its reserve structure remained focused on supporting redemptions under different market conditions while maintaining short-term liquidity.

OpenAI finance chief Sarah Friar told employees Wednesday that annualized recurring revenue in July alone topped the entire second quarter, as the company defends an $852 billion valuation.

OpenAI's CFO said July annualized recurring revenue exceeded the whole of the second quarter, without giving any dollar figure.
Executives credited the GPT-5.6 model series, the ChatGPT Work enterprise agent and rising Codex adoption.
The remarks land as Anthropic holds a $47 billion run rate and a larger valuation than OpenAI.

Friar Details OpenAI Revenue Momentum
Friar spoke at an internal all-hands meeting alongside board chair Bret Taylor, and the two used the session to reassure staff that the business remains healthy despite a crowded field. She added that the second quarter itself had been no slouch. Neither executive attached a dollar figure to July, to the second quarter, or to the company's current annualized run rate, and OpenAI does not report results publicly.

The two attributed that momentum to three products, namely the GPT-5.6 model series, a new enterprise agent called ChatGPT Work, and wider adoption of the coding tool Codex. Each of the three arrived or expanded this month.

Anthropic And Kimi K3 Squeeze OpenAI
Anthropic has set the pace for much of 2026, and its strongest position happens to sit in the coding market that Taylor singled out for staff.
The rival disclosed in May that its revenue run rate had reached $47 billion, up from roughly $10 billion across all of 2025, with its Claude Code tool driving much of that jump. Its valuation overtook OpenAI's in the same week.
Taylor conceded the coding gap without much hedging. He said Anthropic had opened the year strongly, and that developers who leaned hard on Claude Code eventually ran up large bills and started shopping for alternatives.

China's Moonshot AI added to the squeeze this month with Kimi K3, a model the lab says beats the most capable American systems on some benchmarks. Cheaper open-weight releases from Chinese developers, along with competition from Google, now sit beside Anthropic on the list of threats to OpenAI's growth in the enterprise market. No absolute revenue figure surfaced from the meeting, which limits outside scrutiny.

OpenAI Spending And IPO Stakes
Spending explains why a single month of revenue carries this much weight. OpenAI is negotiating with Nvidia over a backstop worth up to $250 billion, money that would let it lease a 10-gigawatt data center campus in southern Ohio.

The July claim caps a year in which OpenAI has released selective milestones rather than full accounts of what it earns and spends. A March report placed annualized revenue above $25 billion, and the company has published no fresh figure in the four months since then.
OpenAI and Anthropic both filed confidentially for public listings in June, and neither has named a date for a debut.

MoonPay has launched a new product that lets AI assistants like Claude and ChatGPT actually spend money on a person's behalf, without ever taking custody of that money themselves.

The product, called PayBox, went live July 29, 2026, and connects to Claude or ChatGPT through a custom connector. Once set up, a user can type instructions in plain language, things like buying a stablecoin, swapping tokens, booking a flight, or making a dinner reservation, and the AI prepares the transaction for the user to approve with a passkey before any money actually moves.

From handing off tasks to acting in the same chat
Until now, an AI assistant could answer questions, write code, and help plan tasks, but actually spending money required handing things off to a separate app, a developer tool, or a third-party custodian. PayBox is designed to remove that handoff entirely, letting the AI operate directly within the same conversation.

The system works through x402, an open standard that lets AI agents pay for services built to accept that kind of payment. At launch, PayBox already supports restaurant reservations, travel bookings, and shopping through several major online retailers, with more integrations expected weekly.

It also supports transactions across Solana and several Ethereum-compatible networks, including Hyperliquid, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Robinhood Chain.
"The card hid the cash. The phone hid the card. This is the era where money disappears into conversation," said Ivan Soto-Wright, CEO and Founder of MoonPay.
"Billions of AI agents are coming online, and every one of them will need to hold, move, and spend money safely. Someone had to build the trust layer for that world. We just did."

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How MoonPay keeps users in control
The core design problem PayBox tries to solve is trust. Giving an AI agent the ability to transact autonomously has typically meant trusting a single party, whether that's the platform, the AI itself, or a hosted wallet, to hold and move funds safely on your behalf.

PayBox avoids that by splitting control cryptographically between the user and the system itself, so no single party, including MoonPay or the AI, can ever access funds or credentials alone. Payment cards are stored so the AI can use them without ever actually seeing the card details, while wallet keys are protected using a method called threshold cryptography, or MPC, meaning the private key needed to authorize a transaction is never assembled in one place.

That technology comes from Sodot, a key management company MoonPay acquired earlier this year.

Users set their own permission level for how much autonomy the AI actually has: an "Always Ask" mode where every transaction needs individual passkey approval, or an "Autonomous" mode where the AI can act within spending limits the user defines upfront. Any change to those permissions requires a fresh passkey approval, and access can be revoked at any time.

What's next
MoonPay says support for additional AI platforms beyond Claude and ChatGPT is coming soon, along with deeper integration into decentralized finance, including letting AI route token swaps, trade perpetual futures, and manage liquidity positions, all still governed by the same user-defined permission rules.
MoonPay, founded in 2019, serves more than 30 million customers across 180 countries and works with more than 1,200 enterprise clients spanning crypto and fintech.

The company holds a New York BitLicense, a New York Limited Purpose Trust Charter, money transmitter licenses across the US, and MiCA authorization in the EU.