on-chain

According to the analysis by the crypto venture capital firm 1kx (@1kxnetwork), on-chain fees in the second quarter of this year decreased by 33% year-on-year, with DEX fees dropping by $625 million (-57%), mainly dragged down by Meteora, Raydium, and PancakeSwap, which together generated $1.5 billion in fees in the first half of last year; blockchain and MEV fees decreased by $362 million (-40%); launch platform fees fell by 57%, with Pump.fun contributing nearly half of the decline.Some sectors achieved counter-cyclical growth: perpetual contract and prediction market fees increased by 22% year-on-year, led by edgeX and Hyperliquid, with Polymarket contributing nearly $100 million in a single quarter; the lending and asset management sectors continued to grow, with Morpho, USDai, and Maple Finance each increasing by $9 million to $19 million; Canton Network added $179 million in L1 fees, but most of this was driven by incentives. Despite the overall decline in industry fees, token holder distribution returns remained stable, with Binance burn still accounting for a significant share, and protocols like Hyperliquid have incorporated buybacks and burns into their regular policies.

The AI Agent infrastructure project NeoSoul has announced the latest network data, with a total of 3.5 million agents on the platform, over 10 million on-chain interactions, and a total consumption of over 66 billion tokens for large models.NeoSoul, based on BNB Chain and 0G, is committed to building an AI Agent economy, focusing on the autonomous decision-making and autonomous trading of AI agents. It has now become the largest AI Agent cluster infrastructure in the two major ecosystems.

The decentralized AI intelligent network DGrid announced that its decentralized AI model marketplace (DGrid Model Marketplace) is officially online.The marketplace is open to three types of model providers: model developers, model fine-tuners, and model deployers with computing infrastructure capabilities. They can freely list models on the platform, set their own prices, and earn real-time settlement revenue when models are called. For developers, the marketplace provides a unified entry point to discover, compare, and directly call various models through a unified API, without the need to switch between different platforms or connect to multiple interfaces.DGrid stated that the model marketplace is the "supply side" of its network, working in coordination with the AI Gateway (access side) responsible for calls, connecting AI creators and users. Currently, DGrid has aggregated over 200 mainstream models, including Claude, GPT, Gemini, MiniMax, GLM, Kimi, and has more than 15,000 paid users.In terms of quality assurance, the marketplace is supported by DGrid's self-developed Proof of Quality (PoQ) mechanism. PoQ conducts independent, random sampling of model providers through the platform's own benchmark test set and records the verification results on-chain to ensure service quality and pricing transparency—this mechanism does not touch user call data. The core members of the DGrid team have doctoral backgrounds from institutions such as Stony Brook University and have published 4 academic papers related to PoQ.Currently, the DGrid Model Marketplace is officially online. Model providers can apply to join, and developers can also experience one-stop AI model discovery and access services through the platform.

Pendle co-founder TN and Head of Growth Dan reviewed the developments in the first half of 2026 during the latest community meeting and announced the roadmap for the second half of the year. The team stated that in the first half, Pendle's ecosystem focused on building fixed income infrastructure, with Pendle V2 continuing to solidify its position as an on-chain fixed income protocol, while Boros made initial progress in the on-chain interest rate derivatives market.Data shows that Pendle V2 had an average daily TVL of approximately $1.3 billion in the first half of the year, with 9 out of the 11 major markets on the platform adopting real-world assets (RWA) as collateral, reflecting that institutional funds are continuously flowing into the RWA sector. Additionally, Pendle has launched on the Monad network and within less than a month became one of the top five protocols by TVL on that network, with a locked amount of approximately $150 million. In terms of protocol upgrades, Pendle has completed the migration from vePENDLE to sPENDLE, with about 36% of PENDLE currently staked, of which 93% of stakers have not yet unstaked. The protocol has also utilized revenue to repurchase approximately 2 million PENDLE and significantly reduced weekly liquidity incentives from about 90,000 to 21,000, further enhancing capital efficiency.At the same time, Pendle launched an in-app one-click Loop feature to simplify the operational process of leveraged yield strategies. Another core product, Boros, has surpassed $14 billion in cumulative trading volume within less than a year since its launch, with the number of users increasing by 50% since the beginning of the year. It has also introduced four-legged arbitrage strategies, acceptance of block trades, and a funding rate data dashboard to meet professional trading needs. Looking ahead to the second half of 2026, Pendle will focus on advancing curation infrastructure, allowing external teams to create PT/YT markets, and promoting PT assets as collateral for lending protocols; at the same time, it will collaborate with partners like Morpho to launch Pendle-branded yield vaults, expanding distribution channels for fixed income products. In terms of institutional business, the team is working with several RWA issuers in New York, planning to introduce tokenized ETFs, single bonds, and other on-chain yield products to Pendle, creating a platform for institutional RWA yield discovery and distribution. Boros will shift its strategic focus to cross-exchange funding rate arbitrage, prioritizing services for institutional arbitrageurs, and plans to launch a peer-to-peer acceptance market, funding rate visualization tools, and one-click strategy products for ordinary users, further improving the on-chain interest rate derivatives ecosystem.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan published an analysis, stating that the crypto market is showing signs of a bottom ------ since July 1, Bitcoin has risen by 9% while the Nasdaq has fallen by 6%, ETF fund flows have turned positive, and market sentiment has improved. Hougan believes that the next bull market will be driven by the integration of on-chain finance and traditional finance, with the core sectors being stablecoins, tokenization, 24/7 trading, instant settlement, and institutional DeFi.He suggests focusing on two types of opportunities: one type is crypto-native applications represented by Hyperliquid (HYPE) ------ which have real revenue and a strong token economic model (99% of revenue is used for buybacks and burns of HYPE), which has risen 146% this year; the other type is traditional financial institutions represented by Robinhood (HOOD) ------ whose Layer2 blockchain Robinhood Chain attracted over $300 million in deposits within two weeks of launch, processing an average of 3.6 million transactions daily, supporting 24/7 trading of tokenized stocks for users in 120 countries. Hougan is optimistic about mainstream assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, as well as crypto stocks, while also paying attention to institutions like Coinbase, Figure, BlackRock, Visa, Stripe, and JPMorgan that are scaling up in the crypto space.

The UK plans to issue its first tokenized sovereign bond by early 2027, with the current key prerequisite being the resolution of on-chain cash settlement issues. This problem has limited the use of digital bonds by institutions for years.Industry experts indicate that the plan may have received sufficient support from the UK Treasury, the Bank of England, and regulators to continue advancing after recent political changes, and it could potentially increase the demand for UK debt. Current progress is constrained by the lack of standardized on-chain payment methods, mature pound stablecoins, and regulatory clarity.

According to the SEC official website, Commissioner Hester M. Peirce issued a statement highlighting the intersection of cryptocurrency vaults and on-chain lending strategies with federal securities laws. Peirce pointed out that migrating activities to the blockchain does not automatically exempt them from the regulatory scope of securities laws. Cryptocurrency vaults allocate user assets to yield activities such as staking and lending through smart contracts, and if the managers are involved in selecting yield strategies or reallocating assets, it may trigger compliance obligations under securities laws; some vault structures may be deemed joint enterprises or fall under the regulation of investment companies.Regarding on-chain lending strategies, management actions such as interest rate setting, asset admission, and liquidation thresholds may also involve securities laws, and related loans may be classified as securities under certain conditions. Peirce stated that the SEC welcomes proactive communication from market participants in the vault and on-chain lending space and seeks input from all parties to explore whether there is a need to revise rules to protect investors while allowing space for innovation.

According to The Block, the on-chain infrastructure layer SwarmBase, aimed at autonomous AI agents, has announced the completion of a $7 million financing round. This round was co-invested by Castrum Capital, M2M Capital, Notch Ventures, and Becker Ventures. Among them, Castrum Capital contributed an additional $4 million investment.It is reported that SwarmBase is a full-stack on-chain infrastructure protocol for autonomous AI agents. The platform provides core foundational modules such as identity, reputation, coordination, and transactions, enabling AI agents to operate independently through audited smart contracts.The funds raised in this round will primarily be used for the development of the SwarmBase protocol and ecological expansion, as well as preparations for the upcoming Token TGE. Castrum Capital stated that SwarmBase is well-positioned to lead the next wave of AI agents.

a16z crypto stated that the transfer activity of tokenized stocks is continuing to rise. In June 2024, the monthly transfer volume of tokenized stocks reached $9.22 billion, an increase of over 170 times compared to $53 million in the same period last year.This metric covers all on-chain circulation activities, including transactions, transfers between wallets, and operations deposited as collateral into decentralized finance protocols.

According to official news, Grayscale announced the appointment of Sebastian Pulido as the head of on-chain asset management, responsible for leading the company's on-chain product strategy.Sebastian has worked at Aave Labs, Goldman Sachs, and the Kinexys team at JPMorgan, possessing extensive experience in institutional finance and the digital asset sector.

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, a certain whale transferred 20 million USDC to Binance and purchased 10,500 ETH at a price of $1,904, then withdrew it back to an on-chain wallet.

According to the security agency Slow Fog, the malicious TRAE IDE extension juannegro.solidity disguises itself as a Solidity plugin and acts as a cross-platform malware delivery mechanism. This extension automatically executes and establishes persistence after the IDE starts, and it also uses Ethereum smart contracts to store and retrieve dynamic C2 configurations, allowing attackers to update C2 endpoints and payloads without needing to re-release the extension.Although the extension has been removed from Open VSX, it was still available through the TRAE marketplace as of July 18. Users who have installed it should immediately delete it and check their systems for compromise.

On July 18, 2026, at 21:44:51 UTC, Cardano activated the Van Rossem hard fork, upgrading the network to protocol version 11, with no reported downtime. This upgrade is part of the changes within the Conway ledger era, aimed at reducing the operating costs of Plutus smart contracts, enhancing ledger security, and introducing new cryptographic tools.Van Rossem includes 5 Cardano Improvement Proposals, involving BLS12-381 multi-scalar multiplication, on-chain array types, optimization of multi-asset value processing, acceleration of list operations, and built-in modular exponentiation. Staking pools are now prohibited from reusing the same verifiable random function key across the entire network; each pool must hold a unique key bound to its identity.This upgrade was completed through the Cardano on-chain governance process, with the proposal to activation advanced by on-chain voting. Delegated representatives passed the proposal with a support rate of 77.63%, while the support rate among staking pool operators was 52.7%, and the constitutional committee's voting result was 6-0-0-1. Wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million ADA saw their total balance rise to the highest level since 2023, currently controlling over a quarter of the circulating supply of ADA. Cardano will subsequently advance Ouroboros Leios and plans to achieve a target of over 1,000 transactions per second during the testing period in 2026.

According to a report by The Defiant, data from Token Terminal shows that the on-chain trading activity of tokenized stocks and their use in lending and collateralization are both on the rise, but they still account for a small proportion of the overall DeFi market. Specifically, the on-chain spot DEX for tokenized stocks has reached a cumulative trading volume of $1.8 billion over the past 90 days, while the lending market has a deposit scale of approximately $23 million.In detail, on-chain trading volume is mainly concentrated on BNB Chain and Solana, accounting for 47.3% and 45.5% of the trading volume over the past 90 days, respectively; by asset classification, tokens tracking QQQ and SPY account for 40.5% and 40.4% of the total trading volume. In terms of lending collateral, xStocks accounts for 86.5% of the issuer's share, Solana accounts for 85.5% of the on-chain share, and Kamino accounts for 82.6% of the protocol share.The report also points out that compared to Uniswap's monthly trading volume of approximately $45 billion and xStocks' TVL of about $330 million, the current scale of tokenized stocks in terms of both trading and collateral usage is still at a low base.

According to The Block, Uniswap governance will conduct two key on-chain votes from July 19 to 26. The first proposal aims to enable protocol fees for the v4 version liquidity pools for the first time, covering seven chains: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, BNB Chain, Polygon, Optimism, and Robinhood Chain, targeting three types of pools: static fee pools, pools initiated through continuous liquidation auctions, and aggregator hooks pools; proposals for the remaining five chains will be submitted later.The second proposal, submitted by Uniswap founder Hayden Adams, aims to extend the fee mechanism of v2 and v3 to Robinhood Chain. The fees generated from both proposals will enter the UNIfication burn mechanism. Last month, the Uniswap protocol set a record by burning 186,000 UNI in a single day.

In response to the recent community controversy surrounding Base, crypto KOL Rune questioned on the X platform, stating that Cobie's goal in taking over the Base App is to promote on-chain transactions, but the current management of Base is continuously undermining user trust, leading users to believe that "trusting anything related to Base for more than 24 hours is a mistake." Under this culture, it is difficult to attract new users.In response, Cobie stated that he took over the Base App and related Coinbase trading products a few days ago, but he is not responsible for the Base chain. He acknowledged that Coinbase has long had a distance from users, especially native crypto users, and that Base and Coinbase have overdrawn a lot of user trust due to some avoidable mistakes. He hopes to listen more to the voices of on-chain users in the future and create products that users truly want to use.Subsequently, Rune responded again, stating that Coinbase's biggest problem is not just the alienation from users, but the long-term neglect and even harm to its own users. He indicated that currently over 10,000 Base users have suffered about 99% asset loss due to trusting the Base/Coinbase management, and the management's attitude towards related events has further exacerbated community dissatisfaction.Rune believes that Base has the infrastructure to become the best Layer2 in the crypto industry, but what is truly lacking is a leadership willing to take responsibility for users. He expressed hope that Cobie could change this situation, but emphasized that the current issues with Base are not just about damaged trust, but that community trust has almost completely eroded.

Gate DEX announced full integration with Robinhood Chain, becoming one of the first mainstream exchanges to support this ecosystem's on-chain entry, further expanding the platform's multi-chain ecological layout and Web3 infrastructure capabilities. This integration covers core scenarios such as asset discovery, wallet management, on-chain trading, cross-chain exchanges, market tracking, and DApp interactions, providing users with a more complete and efficient on-chain experience.Leveraging this upgrade, Gate's main site Alpha has added support for the display and trading of Robinhood Chain ecosystem assets and has integrated with ecological launch platforms such as Noxa.fun and Bankr; Gate Wallet supports asset management and DApp interactions for Robinhood Chain; Gate DEX Swap supports single-chain and cross-chain exchanges for Robinhood Chain and achieves asset interoperability with mainstream public chains like BSC, Ethereum, and Base through Across and LayerZero, further enhancing the efficiency of multi-chain asset circulation.With the rapid development of emerging public chain ecosystems like Robinhood Chain, Gate DEX continues to improve its one-stop on-chain service capabilities covering asset discovery, trading, cross-chain connectivity, and ecological applications. In the future, Gate will continue to deepen multi-chain ecological construction, connect more high-quality public chains and innovative applications, and continuously enhance Web3 product capabilities to create a more open, efficient, and convenient on-chain experience for global users.