Quick Take

• Tokenized real-world asset (RWA) total value locked (TVL) in DeFi reached a new all-time high of US$3.9 billion.
• U.S. spot BTC ETFs saw $865 million in net inflows last week, the largest inflow since mid-April. U.S. spot ETH ETFs recorded $244 million in net inflows, up from $104 million the previous week.
• U.S. equities staged a strong tech-led rebound. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones posted their best weekly performances since April, while the Nasdaq logged its strongest gain since May. Robust AI and tech earnings and an unexpected contraction in July payrolls eased Federal Reserve rate-hike fears, sparking broad buying across risk assets.
• • Nasdaq Composite increased 5.19%, S&P 500 grew 3.58%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.96%.
  • Key Market Drivers: 
  • • Dovish Payroll Data: July nonfarm payrolls unexpectedly fell by 23,000 (forecasted 83,000 gain), reducing Fed rate-hike expectations and dragging the 10-Year Treasury Yield down 10 basis points to 4.65%.
    • Tech & AI Earnings Rebound: Strong quarterly results and raised guidance from enterprise software, semiconductor, and cloud computing firms (such as Atlassian, Cloudflare, and Microchip) restored investor confidence in tech spending. 86% of reporting S&P 500 companies beat quarterly earnings estimates. 
    • Falling Energy Prices: WTI crude oil dropped to $78 per barrel as Middle East geopolitical tensions cooled, easing inflation concerns.
  • Sector and Style Dynamics: Technology jumped +7.30%, followed by Basic Materials at +6.33%. Conversely, Energy fell -3.44% on sliding oil prices, while defensive Utilities declined -1.33%.

Research Dashboard

According to our research dashboard, the price index increased +3.18%, while the volume and volatility indices declined -17.10% and -86.02% respectively, last week.

Index tokens had mixed performances. BTC and ETH prices increased by +2.19% and +1.45%, respectively. Zcash (ZEC) and Bittensor (TAO) led price gains, while BTC and Polygon (POL) led the volatility plunge.

U.S. spot BTC ETFs recorded $865 million weekly inflows, marking the largest inflow since mid-April.  Onchain metrics reveal rapid user migration following the recent Zcash network upgrade: Ironwood became Zcash’s largest shielded pool, holding approximately 1.9 million ZEC (nearly $955 million). 

Chart of the Week

Tokenized real-world asset (RWA) total value locked (TVL) in DeFi hit a new all-time high. While the total market value of tokenized RWAs stands at roughly $373 billion, $3.96 billion is currently deployed in DeFi protocols — representing under 1% of the market. Within this space, Public Equities, Reinsurance, and Precious Metals led growth, posting year-to-date TVL gains of 987%, 105%, and 60%, respectively.

Weekly Performance

Top-cap tokens delivered mixed performance. ATOM gained 8.5%, reversing previous losses, while GRAM (-7.7%) and NEAR (-7.0%) led the drop.

DeFi categories all declined, with RWA (-3.5%) and Liquid Staking (-3.4%) leading the drop.

News Highlights

Company News

• Dubai Duty Free became the first airport retailer in the Middle East to integrate Crypto.com Pay™ as a regulated digital payment option. Launched on August 5, the initiative enables eligible UAE residents to make purchases at Dubai International Airport (DXB), Al Maktoum International Airport (AMIA), and on Dubai Duty Free’s online store via the Crypto.com App.
• REAL Jet, a REAL SLX subsidiary, became the first private aviation company to accept Crypto.com Pay™ for private charter flight bookings. The integration allows eligible U.S. residents to settle bookings in U.S. dollars using Crypto.com’s digital payment solution.

Regulation

• The Japan Financial Services Agency (FSA) requested crypto exchanges to impose withdrawal delays and stricter safeguards to combat digital asset fraud. Proposed measures include mandatory pre-registration of withdrawal addresses and holding periods to prevent victims from rapidly transferring funds to scammers.
• The Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) ordered cryptocurrency exchanges to delay large crypto transfers and self-custody wallet transactions for up to 24 hours to counter money laundering and fraud. Effective January 2027, the rule mandates holds on transactions over $10,000 or those flagged as risky, placing greater screening responsibility on exchanges.

Adoption

• BlackRock launched two tokenized money market funds, BSTBL and BRSRV, to back stablecoin reserves. Designed for institutional investors, the funds invest exclusively in cash, short-term U.S. treasuries, and overnight repo agreements across multiple blockchains to preserve liquidity and principal stability.
• Wells Fargo announced plans to offer tokenized deposits for its corporate clients. Scheduled for a fall rollout, the initiative leverages blockchain technology to facilitate real-time, 24/7 cross-border and B2B settlements.

Investment Vehicles

• BlackRock debuted tokenized access to $311 billion of its money market funds for European investors, expanding its digitally native investment offerings amid growing institutional demand for blockchain-based fund structures in Europe.
• Hashdex is shutting down its spot Bitcoin ETF (DEFI) after failing to gain significant market traction over its two years of operation. The issuer will liquidate the fund's roughly 225 BTC holdings and distribute the remaining cash to shareholders, highlighting intense competition in the Bitcoin ETF market.

Others

• The contentious Bitcoin BIP-110 soft fork failed during its mandatory signaling phase after securing support from only around 2.5% of miners. Enforcing nodes rejected non-signaling blocks and created a minority chain that quickly fell behind the mainnet. Designed to realign priorities toward enhancing Bitcoin as a form of money, BIP-110 introduced temporary consensus-level restrictions on data field sizes to rectify skewed incentives from arbitrary data storage. Ultimately, the network’s rejection underscored the ecosystem’s overarching opposition to the proposed limits.

Catalyst Calendar

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