The SUI/USDT trading pair closed at $0.67 on August 6, 2026, remaining below its 200-day exponential moving average of $1.01, while the crypto market Fear & Greed Index registered 25, indicating extreme fear among investors.
Sam Blackshear, cofounder and chief technology officer of Mysten Labs, announced on August 6 that he is departing the Sui blockchain developer to join AI company Anthropic, where he will focus on defensive security research.
Circle announced 11 founding validators for its Arc blockchain public mainnet launching September 16, including BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, DTCC, and SBI Group. The company reported Q2 revenue of $701 million with USDC circulation reaching $73.3 billion.
Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, has proposed creating a protocol sovereign fund seeded with approximately 30 million NEAR tokens (valued between $57-450 million) to generate yield for network operations and potentially reduce token inflation. The fund would consolidate treasury assets and use protocol revenue to support validators, security, and public goods.
Law firm Linklaters has advised fintech company SWIAT on establishing a European cooperative structure for the Regulated Layer One (RL1) blockchain initiative, with the new entity now incorporated.
Pi Network has begun deploying Protocol 26, the ninth and penultimate upgrade to its Mainnet, with node operators required to complete the update by August 11, 2026. The upgrade is part of a two-step process leading to the final Protocol 27.
Pi Network has begun deploying Protocol 26, the ninth and penultimate upgrade to its Mainnet, with node operators required to complete the update by August 11, 2026. The upgrade is part of a two-step process leading to the final Protocol 27.
Zilliqa has halted all native ZIL transactions after uncovering a critical security flaw in its Ledger hardware wallet application that has existed since 2019, allowing attackers to reconstruct private keys from transaction signatures. The vulnerability affects all versions of the Zilliqa Ledger app released between 2019 and 2026.
MVMT Labs, the developer behind the Movement blockchain, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on July 15. The filing follows months of upheaval including a controversial market-making agreement, internal investigation into its MOVE token launch, and a Binance ban.
Cardano successfully activated its Van Rossem hard fork on July 18, 2026, upgrading to Protocol Version 11 in what marks the blockchain's first upgrade approved entirely through on-chain governance without Input Output (IOHK) control. The upgrade reduces smart contract execution costs and adds Plutus enhancements.
Japan's dominant security token platform completed migration of ¥452 billion ($3 billion) in regulated assets from Corda 5 to a dedicated Avalanche L1, achieving 3–5x faster transfers. Concurrently, BlackRock's BUIDL fund on Avalanche surged 105% in seven days to surpass $900 million.
Security researchers from Hexens identified and reported a significant security flaw in the Aptos blockchain using a $3,000 server. The vulnerability has since been patched, preventing potential risk to approximately $70 billion in cryptocurrency.
The Solana ecosystem experienced multiple infrastructure developments in early June 2026, with the Solana Foundation deploying a native recurring payments program, Phoenix Trade launching mobile trading access, and Solayer rolling out its Margin Trade perpetuals platform mainnet.
Echo Protocol suffered a bridge exploit where an attacker minted 1,000 eBTC (worth approximately $76.64 million) on Monad using a compromised admin key, then used the fake eBTC to borrow real crypto assets. The protocol suspended all cross-chain transactions.
Solana has activated its Alpenglow upgrade for live validator testing, with co-founder confirmation that near-speed-of-light finality could arrive as early as next quarter. The upgrade aims to dramatically reduce transaction confirmation times.
NEAR Protocol plans to launch a post-quantum-safe signing testnet in Q2 2026 using FIPS-204 standard, allowing users to rotate keys to quantum-resistant alternatives. The announcement comes as Project Eleven warns quantum computing threatens blockchains, banking systems, and digital infrastructure, with concerns that Bitcoin may face challenges in quantum migration.
Ethereum's share of total value locked in DeFi has declined from 63.5% at the start of 2025 to approximately 54% as of May 2026, marking the lowest level since May 2025 as competing Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks capture market share.
Pi Network announced May 11 as the activation date for Protocol 23, which introduces full smart contract functionality to the Pi blockchain, transitioning the network from mobile mining to programmable DeFi infrastructure.
Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta now offers USDC stablecoin payouts to content creators in select countries (initially Colombia and Philippines) through integration with Stripe's payment infrastructure on Solana and Polygon blockchains.
Sui-based liquid staking platform Volo Protocol was exploited for approximately $3.5 million from its WBTC, XAUm, and USDC vaults. The team has pledged to absorb losses and frozen affected assets while conducting an investigation.
Circle has unveiled plans to make its Arc layer-1 blockchain quantum-resistant from day one, allowing users to create wallets that can withstand future quantum computer attacks. The move comes amid growing concerns that 'Q-Day' may arrive sooner than anticipated.
