institution

According to CoinDesk, Silicon Valley Bank has released a report stating that Bitcoin lending has entered a new institutional era after experiencing the 2022 crypto credit crisis, with stronger risk control, increased institutional participation, and declining borrowing costs. Bitcoin is being viewed as a collateral asset with immediate global liquidity, fast settlement, and interchangeability. Currently, several major banks in the United States have offered Bitcoin-backed credit services, with the total amount of crypto mortgages increasing by 49% year-on-year to $67 billion. Bitcoin lending platform Ledn estimates that the current consumer BTC mortgage market is about $3 billion, which could expand to $1 trillion over the next decade.The report points out that the collapses of Celsius, BlockFi, and Genesis from 2022 to 2023 exposed issues such as maturity mismatches and excessive leverage, making conservative underwriting and transparent risk management the foundation of the industry. Currently, Bitcoin mortgage interest rates range from 7.5% to 16%, and Silicon Valley Bank expects that participation from banks and private credit funds will gradually narrow the spread.

XRPLRipple is actively promoting the addition of a layer of lending infrastructure on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), enabling institutions to use on-chain tokenized assets as collateral for financing, while the loan terms are automatically executed by the protocol, with credit assessments and lending decisions still made by off-chain institutions.According to reports, the proposal is named the XRPL Lending Protocol (corresponding to the XLS-65 and XLS-66 standards), which is currently still in the technical draft stage and must be approved through validator voting before it can go live on the mainnet, but it is already available for developer testing on the test network.The design of the protocol splits the lending process into two parts: on-chain mechanisms responsible for fund pool management, interest calculation, repayment execution, and default handling; while borrower credit assessments and loan term settings remain with traditional financial institutions to meet compliance requirements in different jurisdictions.Ripple states that this mechanism is primarily aimed at institutional short-term liquidity needs, such as in cross-border payment scenarios, where temporary financing is obtained through stablecoins or collateralized assets before settlement, to enhance capital efficiency.Analysts believe that this solution attempts to introduce a "rule-based lending infrastructure" similar to traditional finance while maintaining the open network attributes of XRPL, but it still faces competition from established on-chain lending protocols like Aave, Compound, and Maple.

According to official news, the BNB Chain ecological autonomous AI economic infrastructure Astarter announced strategic support from institutions such as Vega Ventures, UZ Capital, Go2Mars, and BitBT Ventures, further strengthening the AI ecological layout. Astarter had previously received investment led by EMURGO, with strategic support from other institutions including MH Ventures, Avstar Capital, 316VC, CRT Labs, and Megala Ventures.It is reported that Astarter aims to build a full-stack infrastructure for AI intelligences on the BNB Chain, providing proprietary computing power, runtime execution, on-chain settlement, and identity capabilities for on-chain AI intelligences. The products include AI computing power nodes ABox, a decentralized exchange (DEX), Launchpad, and CORE intelligence layer, with the native token being AST. The Astarter mainnet and TGE are planned to launch in the third quarter of 2026. This strategic cooperation will further promote Astarter's development in computing power networks, products, and ecological aspects.

According to Cointelegraph, the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) has granted the 50th Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license to the tokenized asset platform Tribe Tokenisation FZE. VARA stated that licensed enterprises must undergo a controlled operation phase before officially providing services. By the end of 2025, 39 licensed VASPs will be fully operational, and the latest data for 2026 is still being verified. In comparison, Singapore currently has 37 licensed digital payment token service providers, while Hong Kong has only 13 licensed virtual asset trading platforms.

According to The Block, Kraken has partnered with the on-chain institutional lending platform Maple to launch an on-chain storage facility for digital asset collateralized loans. This facility will provide USDC liquidity to Kraken's over-the-counter lending clients, allowing borrowers to use crypto assets such as BTC and ETH as collateral.

The latest report from Binance Research shows that the on-chain tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) has grown by 589% since the beginning of 2025, now exceeding $31.4 billion, further expanding from $21.5 billion at the beginning of 2026, and growing approximately fivefold since the beginning of 2025. The main drivers of growth come from bonds and money market funds, which together added about $6.5 billion, an increase of 83%. Tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds, money market funds, gold-backed assets, and tokenized listed stocks are the main driving forces behind this round of growth. Although the base for tokenized stocks is relatively small, the growth rate is particularly remarkable, indicating that issuing institutions are testing whether blockchain tracks can support the circulation of a broader range of traditional securities.Analysts point out that this round of RWA growth differs from the previous narrative of the crypto market dominated by speculative trading or DeFi yields, and is more closely linked to traditional financial infrastructure, focusing on institutional needs such as settlement efficiency, collateral liquidity, and programmable asset services. However, compared to the global bond, money fund, and stock markets, which are worth tens of trillions of dollars, $31.4 billion is still a drop in the bucket. The report indicates that the key to the next phase of growth lies not in the issuance of tokens themselves, but in the improvement of liquidity depth, legal enforceability, custody standards, and access to secondary markets. The regulatory framework remains the core bottleneck restricting further expansion of scale.

The Ethereum community is debating the proposal to tax staking rewards. The newly established EthLabs has received support from institutions such as BitMine, providing off-chain funding alternatives for ecological development.

In two proof-of-concept projects completed by the Ethereum infrastructure team Nethermind and UBS, both parties demonstrated that regulated banks and asset management institutions can achieve strong compliance control on public, permissionless networks without modifying the Ethereum protocol itself.In this project on the Ethereum Sepolia testnet, the team built and validated a node that can impose custom compliance rules on external transactions, as well as a component that routes approved transaction bundles to specific block builders, without involving real fund transactions throughout the process.

Galaxy Research stated that Bitcoin miners are entering a "Miner Capitulation" phase, with the current network mining difficulty having decreased by more than 20% from its historical peak, marking the largest drawdown since the comprehensive crackdown on Bitcoin mining in China in 2021.The organization pointed out that this is the most significant decline in Bitcoin network difficulty from its peak in the past five years, reflecting that some miners are continuously exiting the network or shutting down their equipment amid a sluggish market and pressured profitability.

Last week, the cryptocurrency market was under pressure due to higher-than-expected CPI data and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. However, as the market completed risk pricing, BTC, ETH, and the overall cryptocurrency market experienced a rebound after an initial decline. BTC rose approximately 4.2% for the week, while ETH increased about 2.1%. The ETF capital flows and derivatives market also showed signs of recovery.Gate TradFi Perp's daily trading volume repeatedly exceeded $500 million, peaking close to $700 million, reflecting a continued warming of institutional risk appetite and demand for multi-asset allocation. In terms of institutional business, Gate's institutional trading volume share increased by 7.5% month-on-month, with BTC and ETH spot market shares growing by 9.62%.

According to the Federal Reserve's official website, the Federal Reserve Board is seeking public comments on a proposal that would require certain payment stablecoin issuers to establish and maintain effective Customer Identification Programs (CIP). This proposal was jointly issued by the Federal Reserve and four other agencies.According to the proposal, the relevant stablecoin issuers must comply with Customer Identification Program standards similar to those for banks and credit unions. The comment period is 60 days after the proposal is published in the Federal Register.

Bitget announced the integration of the AI trading platform MATRIX[ON] under ClaudeTrader™. Users can access a professional trading environment that integrates AI analysis, risk management, and market intelligence with one click, without the need to manually configure APIs or migrate data across platforms, achieving a seamless connection from market access to intelligent decision-making.MATRIX[ON] consolidates tools that were previously scattered across multiple platforms or limited to professional institutions into a single interface, covering whale tracking, clearing monitoring, hedge execution, account health analysis, and AI-driven market intelligence, providing traders with a complete view of market conditions and risk assessment.MATRIX[ON] CEO Kyriacos Adamantos stated that true trading analysis tools have long been limited by high costs or institutional barriers, and through this collaboration, every trader worldwide can gain equal access to top-tier tools.

According to Jinshi, multiple institutions have significant disagreements regarding the future policy direction of the Federal Reserve. Goldman Sachs believes that if inflation does not cool down, the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates in September or in the fall, while Huatai Securities expects rates to remain unchanged in September, with the probability of a rate hike by the end of the year close to 50%. Regarding rate cuts, Nordea Bank believes that cuts may be delayed until 2027, while Citigroup expects cuts in 2026. Other institutions such as JPMorgan Chase and CITIC Securities tend to favor maintaining the current policy.

The development company behind zkSync, Matter Labs, announced layoffs on Tuesday and is fully transitioning the entire organization to the institutional-grade on-chain privacy infrastructure platform Prividium. CEO Alex Gluchowski defined this move on X as a skills restructuring rather than a cost-cutting measure, stating that the products built for regulated financial institutions since 2024 have evolved into Prividium, aiming to provide on-chain infrastructure that combines transaction confidentiality with compliance auditing capabilities for regulated entities such as banks and asset management companies.Gluchowski mentioned that this transformation is based on specific product feedback from institutional clients, but did not disclose the number of layoffs. According to CoinGecko data, the market capitalization of the zkSync token is approximately $115 million, having risen 4.3% in the past 24 hours. This transformation reflects a broader trend in the Layer 2 market, as ZK and L2 projects like Hyli and Botanix have shut down, and general-purpose horizontal platforms are facing pressure to find defenses in vertical fields. As of the time of publication, Matter Labs has not made any statements regarding the future of the zkSync network and ZK tokens.

According to CoinDesk, Fidelity Investments has officially launched the "Fidelity Reserves Digital Fund," which aims to provide reserve asset management services for stablecoin issuers and institutional investors, further tapping into the capital management needs brought about by the rapid expansion of stablecoins. The fund will primarily invest in highly liquid assets such as short-term U.S. Treasury securities, cash, and repurchase agreements to meet the regulatory requirements for reserve assets of payment stablecoins under the U.S. GENIUS Act.At the same time, State Street has also recently launched a similar product, marking that large asset management institutions on Wall Street are accelerating their entry into the stablecoin reserve management market, competing around the cash and Treasury asset backing stablecoins.

Limitless co-founder and CEO CJ Hetherington stated that he does not believe the prediction market will see a situation dominated by a single platform; rather, it is more likely to present a multi-platform coexistence pattern similar to the offshore perpetual contract market.He pointed out that professional market makers and high-frequency traders are the main contributors to transactions and fees in the derivatives market, as they typically trade on multiple platforms simultaneously for arbitrage, which disperses liquidity across various platforms instead of concentrating it on a single winner.Hetherington revealed that Limitless currently has a monthly trading volume close to $2 billion, with users primarily from the Asia-Pacific (about 60%) and Europe (about 30%), and it has not yet entered the U.S. market (still awaiting regulatory approval). He believes that the institutional and risk transfer opportunities in the prediction market are about 10 times that of the original, and the scale will far exceed that of the retail side.

According to Barron's, the prediction market platform Kalshi announced a partnership with compliance service provider StarCompliance to provide financial institutions with real-time monitoring of employee prediction market trading. Under the partnership arrangement, institutions using the StarCompliance system can require employees to link their Kalshi accounts to monitor trading behavior and identify suspicious activities.This move aims to address financial institutions' compliance concerns regarding employees potentially using material non-public information to participate in prediction market trading, while also enhancing Kalshi's credibility among institutional clients such as banks and hedge funds. Reports indicate that the two parties may also expand to stricter compliance measures such as pre-trade approval in the future.

Bitget integrates Fireblocks Off Exchange, allowing institutional users to trade through on-chain MPC shared wallets without transferring assets, while retaining full control over their assets and fully accessing Bitget's liquidity and execution environment.Bitget CEO Gracy Chen stated that for institutions, the way funds are deployed is equally important. This integration further enhances Bitget's institutional service capabilities under the UEX framework, bringing together trade execution, fund management, and risk control into a unified operational environment.Richard Astle, Vice President of the Fireblocks Network, pointed out that the separation of custody and execution is becoming the benchmark expectation for institutions participating in the digital asset market. This collaboration effectively reduces institutional clients' risk exposure by enhancing transparency, providing a more flexible and secure participation model for institutional-level funds.