QUID will officially launch on August 4 at 13:00 UTC, with trading set to go live on Binance Alpha, Bitget, Kraken, PancakeSwap, and other supported platforms.

Squid is a cross-chain interoperability protocol that enables seamless swaps, bridging, and smart contract calls across 100+ blockchains through a single integration.

TGE highlights include a pre-market price of approximately ~$0.069 ( FDV ~$69.4M). The public sale FDV is set at $45M, and the token will launch on the Base network.

Staking will be available immediately at TGE, while on-chain liquidity will launch on PancakeSwap Infinity on Base. The team also confirmed that the official QUID token exists only on Base and warned users to beware of fake tokens and scam airdrops.

Digital asset brokerage FalconX has laid off 10% of its global workforce as it prepares for an extended downturn in the cryptocurrency market.

The company is also reshaping its operations in Singapore, where it plans to focus on crypto derivatives trading and withdraw its license application with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), according to reports.

Despite the workforce reduction, FalconX said it will continue expanding its regulated business in Europe while maintaining its presence across the Asia-Pacific region. The move follows a series of acquisitions over the past 18 months, including Arbelos Markets, 21Shares, and bloXroute.

The layoffs come as several major crypto firms continue cutting costs amid a prolonged bear market, increasing operational pressure, and the rapid adoption of AI across the industry.

Mastercard has officially completed its acquisition of BVNK, strengthening its strategy to bridge traditional finance with digital assets and expand global stablecoin payment capabilities.

By combining Mastercard's global payments network with BVNK's stablecoin-native infrastructure, the company aims to enable financial institutions, fintechs, and enterprises to seamlessly move, manage, and convert value across fiat currencies, stablecoins, and tokenized assets.

The integration is expected to accelerate real-world stablecoin use cases, including cross-border B2B payments, remittances, payouts, settlement, and treasury operations, while providing secure, compliant, and interoperable payment infrastructure.

Mastercard said the acquisition reflects its vision of a multi-money future, where fiat currencies, stablecoins, and tokenized deposits operate together across a connected global payments ecosystem.

Cybersecurity startup Horizon3 has raised a $250 million Series E funding round at a $2 billion valuation, more than tripling its valuation in just 14 months. The round was led by returning investors NightDragon and NEA.

The funding comes as enterprises accelerate investments in cybersecurity amid the rise of AI-driven threats. Horizon3's NodeZero platform performs fully autonomous penetration testing, continuously scanning live production environments without disrupting operations, enabling organizations to identify vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them.

The company said it has conducted more than 310,000 production security tests with zero operational disruptions, while approaching $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) with 120% year-over-year growth.

With the new capital, Horizon3 plans to expand globally through new offices in Amsterdam, Australia, and Singapore, strengthen its partner ecosystem, and continue investing heavily in AI research and development. The company currently serves approximately 7,300 customers, ranging from managed service providers to Fortune 10 enterprises.

Cybersecurity startup Horizon3 has raised a $250 million Series E funding round at a $2 billion valuation, more than tripling its valuation in just 14 months. The round was led by returning investors NightDragon and NEA.

The funding comes as enterprises accelerate investments in cybersecurity amid the rise of AI-driven threats. Horizon3's NodeZero platform performs fully autonomous penetration testing, continuously scanning live production environments without disrupting operations, enabling organizations to identify vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them.

The company said it has conducted more than 310,000 production security tests with zero operational disruptions, while approaching $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) with 120% year-over-year growth.

With the new capital, Horizon3 plans to expand globally through new offices in Amsterdam, Australia, and Singapore, strengthen its partner ecosystem, and continue investing heavily in AI research and development. The company currently serves approximately 7,300 customers, ranging from managed service providers to Fortune 10 enterprises.

Some are already registered with the SEC. Others are shaping the rules from the inside.

We mapped the RWA players doing both — including Lumia, advised by two former US Congressmen, one from each side of the aisle 👇

Institutional activity stayed fairly quiet, with only a few notable corporate treasury moves, while ETF flows remained relatively light across both Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Corporate Treasuries

- BitMine acquired 10,399 ETH (~$19.2M), increasing its holdings to 5.8M ETH.

- Strategy sold 1,638 BTC to boost its USD reserve to $4B and repurchase $81M of STRC, reducing its Bitcoin holdings to 842,138 BTC.

Outside of these moves, public companies made no other major Bitcoin or Ethereum purchases during the week.

ETF Flows

Bitcoin ETFs recorded $61.5M in net outflows.

Ethereum ETFs posted mild net inflows of $10M.

A firmware build-error made Coldcard seeds reproducible from public data, letting an attacker drain ~$88,6M (1,367 BTC) remotely, without ever touching a device.

Zoom out and the pattern is clear: every earlier "hack" either needed physical access (Trezor) or was just a data leak (Ledger). Coldcard is the first to break cold storage remotely, at scale.

Reuters says Shelbit, an unlicensed Dubai exchange with Iran links, funneled at least $676M to Binance wallets, part of an alleged sanctions-evasion and gambling money network.

About $540M of that reportedly moved after Dubai regulators fined Shelbit in early 2025 for operating without a license. Binance says Shelbit never held an account with it, and that linked user accounts were investigated, frozen and reported to law enforcement.

Shelbit allegedly processed around $4B since May 2024, acting as a hub linking a Farsi-language gambling network, Iranian exchange Nobitex and suspected IRGC-linked wallets, per blockchain analysts cited by Reuters. This is an allegation built on third-party analysis, not a proven finding. Binance itself is not accused of wrongdoing, Reuters could not confirm direct IRGC control, and no token is involved.

The stablecoin issuer is quietly becoming a conglomerate. Behind USDT sit $115B in US Treasuries, 146 tons of gold and ~99K BTC, plus a growing portfolio of stakes: media (Rumble), data centers (Northern Data), agriculture (Adecoagro, 70%), Bitcoin mining (Bitdeer), royalties (Elemental Altus) and even football (Juventus).

One company. ~200 people. An empire in the making.